Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Continuing with Scene 190, which again has parts that are very different from how it was scripted:

Continuing Scene 190...

Quentin starts down the stairs toward him.

And that's when today's quote -

Page 89/Scene 190 - Quentin: 'I didn't do a damn thing. I've been painting all evening. Now, for the last time, what are you so hysterical about?'

- comes up.

...

Continuing Scene 190, beginning with yesterday's quote -

Page 89/Scene 190 - Alex: 'You tried to drown Tracy!'

- coming up, followed in the script by:

Quentin stares incredulously at him as Alex continues.

And that's when today's quote -

Page 89/Scene 190 - Alex: 'It wasn't you, Quentin. It was Charles Collins drowning his wife all over again.'

- comes up, followed in the script by:

CARLOTTA    Mr. Collins, you're not going    to listen to this, are you?

...

First off Quentin actually says, "I didn't do a damn thing. I've been painting all night." - though the subtitles have -

- with "damn" and "all night" missing - but both lines are entirely missing in the closed captioning - and then Quentin asks, "Now, what are you so upset about?" - and the subtitles completely reflect that - and at least in that instance the closed captioning has -

- with just the "Now" missing - and after Alex informs Quentin that he tried to drawn Tracy, and after some silence between them due to Quentin's shock at what Alex has said, Alex starts off with, "Quentin it wasn't you. It was Charles Collins drowning his wife--" before Quentin cuts him off with something that's unscripted rather than Carlotta having a line after Alex has completely finished his explanation of what really happened - and with that in mind the subtitles have -

- though the closed captioning has -

- so take your pick of what Quentin actually says because it's hard to decipher because they're talking over one another...

To be continued...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Wrapping up with the differences when it comes to the subtitles/closed captioning for Scene 190 - and yet again it has parts that are very different from how it was scripted:

Continuing Scene 190, beginning with today's first quote -

Page 89/Scene 190 - Alex: 'For God's sake, Quentin! Will you listen to me! She's at my place with Claire right now. Now you've got to get out of this house!'

- coming up, followed in the script by:

Quentin looks from Alex to Carlotta and then turns        away as if trying to clear his mind.  TRUCK IN ON HIS        CLOSE-UP as we see his total confusion.  HOLD FOR A 190    CONTD                                       CONTD  190        MOMENT as Alex ENTERS THE SHOT, putting his hand on        Quentin's shoulder.

And that's when today's second quote -

Page 90/Scene 190 - Alex (softly): 'All you have to do is come with me -- Tracy understands.'

- comes up.

...

And continuing with more of Scene 190, beginning with Quentin's reaction to Alex telling him that Tracy understands:

Quentin turns and looks at him hard.  Then he turns to        Carlotta.

And that's when today's first quote -

Page 90/Scene 190 - Quentin: 'Where is Mrs. Collins?'

- comes up, followed by today's second quote -

Page 90/Scene 190 - Carlotta: 'I'm sure she's in her room, sir.'

- comes up.

...

Wrapping up Scene 190 and moving on:

Quentin looks at Alex, then suddenly turns and starts        up the stairs, three at a time.                              QUENTIN                       (screaming)                  Tracy!  Tracy!        Alex starts up after him.

...

Picking up where we left off, after Quentin cuts off Alex, Alex continues with, "For chrissakes, Quentin, listen to me! Now she's at my place right now." - though the subtitles have -

- with "chrissake" rather than crissakes, and "Now" missing from the beginning of Alex' second line - however, the entire first line is missing in the closed captioning and all that appears is -

- also with the beginning "Now" missing - And after Alex basically tells Quentin as scripted, "Now you've got to get out of this house!" and "Quentin, all you have to do is come with me --" and "Tracy understands." - and after Quentin then asks Carlotta, "Where's Mrs. Collins?" - and after Carlotta replies, "Well, I'm sure she's in her room",  the closed captioning ackowledges a sound as -

- though the subtitles do not - and then Quentin goes running up the stairs calling to Tracy - though interestingly enough we do not see Alex start up after him...

And getting back to that sound that the closed captioning acknowledges as a door closing, it's interesting that a sort of snapping sound is heard after Alex says that Tracy understands - but that sound isn't acknowledged. And after Quentin whirls around and calls out to Tracy after the supposed door closing sound, are we to presume that sound is what makes Quentin whirl around? The script doesn't indicate that there was even supposed to be such a sound. And as I said, the subtitles don't even acknowledge it, though that may hardly be an indication of anything because, as I've said many times already, the subtitles are quite picky when it comes to which sounds are and are not acknowledged.

Perhaps it's up to audience members to make up their own minds:

 

[Uncle Roger]

If Tracy does indeed understand any of this, that makes her an absolute genius. By Dark Shadows standards, of course.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I do think Tracy understands at least in so far as Angelique exerts some sort of influence over Quentin. Not knowing who she was, Quentin had already tried to strangle Tracy on the night he'd attacked Gerard and earlier that night he'd suddenly become vicious with her when he'd molested her in their bed. What's unfortunate is that Scene 172A, the one that takes place soon after Quentin has molested Tracy and in which Tracy looks to the tower through the bedroom window and tells Angelique she won't let Angelique have Quentin and she'll never leave is only in the 129 minute version of the film because it goes a long way to showing that Tracy does indeed understand what's happening to Quentin. (It also explains why Tracy doesn't just hightail it out of Collinwood.)

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Before we move on to Scene 191A, just to get back to the supposed sound of a door closing, just who would have closed said door? All the people in the house are gathered there down at the stairs. Tracy isn't in the house. And why would Angelique be closing a door? What would be her motive? It's not like Quentin would have needed to be lured upstairs because, being so doubtful of Alex' story and with Carlotta saying she's sure Tracy is in her room, surely Quentin would have gone up to check the bedroom without hearing any sort of sound to get him there. That's always been the way I've interpreted his actions before I saw the closed captioning indicate the sound of a door closing. But who knows? I suppose we'll never really know, IF that actually is the sound of a door closing. When Quentin grabs the banister a similar sound is heard so perhaps all the sounds can simply be attributed to the stairs making noise because of the people being on them. But thanks to the closed captioning it's all just a head-scratcher. 

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Moving on to Scene 191A:

After Quentin has run to the bedroom, seen that it's empty, gone back out and seen Alex is standing at the far end of the corridor, and has gone down to him, Quentin says to him, "You're right. She's gone." - and that's reflected in both the subtitles and the closed capturing - but then Quentin says, "If that's the way she wants it, it's fine with me" - and that's reflected in the subtitles - but when it comes to the first part the closed captioning has -

- no "If" - and Alex replies to that with "Quentin, that's not you..." before Quentin cuts him off - and the subtitles reflect that - but the closed captioning has -

- no "Quentin" - and after Qeuntin cuts off Alex by saying his name, he then says, "Now, listen to me." - and in this case it's the closed captions that reflects it correctly - but the subtitles have -

- no "Now" - and for some reason, as we've seen recently, "now" seems to be a word that gets dropped...

To be continued...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

...

After Quentin has run to the bedroom, seen that it's empty, gone back out and seen Alex is standing at the far end of the corridor, and has gone down to him ...

And speaking of that going back out into the corridor and going down to Alex, it makes me wonder it's the type of scene Sam Hall was talking about in these excerpts from the 1983 interview he did for the DS Files book series?

It certainly seems like it could be in that sort of style -

- though in its case there is a point to the way it plays, which is probably why it survives in the film when other examples do not because they were removed to tighten the film. The way it's shot with backward trucking on Quentin and handheld moving in on Alex actually increases the drama.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Wrapping up Scene 191A and a bit of Scene 191B:

Picking up where we left off, Quentin tells Alex, "I've known you for a long time. I'm sick of your insane writer's mind." - and of that is completely reflected in both the subtitles and the closed captioning - then Quentin follows with, "I don't wanna to talk about it anymore." - though the closed capturing has -

- with the grammar corrected from "wanna" to "want to" because every so often they can't resist correcting grammar - on the other hand, the subtitles retain the "wanna," but -

- drop the "anymore" - the subtitles also jump ahead to Quentin saying, "I just want you to get out of here and take her with you --" - but the closed captioning only has -

- with the part about taking Tracy with him dropped, which is very strange because that's definitely an important part of what Quentin says.

And then after Alex simply nods his head, goes down the stairs and exits the stairwell, in Scene 191B when Quentin appears on the second floor landing, neither the subtitles nor the closed capturing acknowledge the sound of Alex' footsteps as unseen he makes his way to the door, but the closed captioning does have -

- whereas the subtitles do not.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

... And getting back to that sound that the closed captioning acknowledges as a door closing, it's interesting that a sort of snapping sound is heard after Alex says that Tracy understands ...

... I suppose we'll never really know, IF that actually is the sound of a door closing. When Quentin grabs the banister a similar sound is heard so perhaps all the sounds can simply be attributed to the stairs making noise because of the people being on them. ...

Something I'd completely forgotten about until I came across it while looking for something else might actually offer a totally different sort of explanation for the sounds during Scene 190:

A seance related article from the film's Press Packet, not to be confused with its Pressbook.

And that particular version was obviously released early on while the film was still Curse of Dark Shadows. And interestingly enough some of the articles for the film used passages from that article, particularly how unexplained raps ruined several takes (check out the NoDS article from Famous Monsters of Filmland attached in Reply #132)...

Unexplained raps explained as "psychic phenomena of a low order." Hmmm...

Perhaps everyone just got used to unexplained sounds and kept shooting in spite of them...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I forgot to mention that the call sheet that I've shared indicates that the foyer, 1st floor corridor & stairs portions of Scene 190 were also shot along with the many other scenes that were shot on April 5,1971. And I also forgot to mention that according to the Advance Schedule section of the call sheet, the portions of Scene 190 taking place on the 2nd floor corridor & stairs were shot on April 6, 1971.

Also shot on April 6, 1971 were the just featured Scenes 191A & 191B.

And something I don't think I've ever mentioned is that call sheet was an added bonus when someone sold a copy of John Karlen's NoDS script on eBay. Here's a photo of the cover page of the script:

(Click here for a 738X842 version)

There are some interesting things regarding that page and the script itself:

One is who knows who printed the actors' names on it but seemingly they didn't know Grayson Hall very well considering they printed her first name as "Gracine"!? You also have to wonder why those names are printed on it? But that's probably a story that's not likely to be explained at this point...

And the person who sold the script offered some interesting background information about it. It seems as if John Karlen had a crush on the seller's mom and gave the script to her. Apparently the seller's mom and dad worked at the Lyndhurst during the filming of NoDS. She was a tour guide for Lyndhurst. He worked security for the film and was also a part-time landscaper for Lyndhurst. And the seller wanted the script et al. to go to someone who would keep it safe, preserved and appreciated because it had just been sitting in a memory chest their entire life. I'm guessing the sale might have meant that their mom had passed away and they were cleaning out her stuff...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As you may have noticed, today's second quote in the slideshow was scripted to be -

...

... followed by today's second quote -

Page 92/Scene 192 - Carlotta: 'Doing what you know must be done.'

- coming up, ...

...

- yet in the film it's delivered as -

- which is sacrilege, I tell you! SACRILEGE!! How could Grayson, who delivered who knows how many "must" lines in the daytime show (we've already quoted her characters 82 times in the MUST Slideshow - one more is coming up tomorrow - and we already know of numerous others that we haven't used yet) have possibly ever decided to turn her back on a quintessential "must" line?! And one that was written by her own husband at that?!

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

When it comes to Scene 192, the subtitles get everything right. I've lost track when the last was when that happened. But not so much luck when it comes to the closed captioning. Although, the discrepancy doesn't pop up until the very last line in the scene:

After Quentin is confronted with evidence that he did indeed try to drown Tracy, Carlotta says he did for Angelique, he realizes Gerard is gone and asks where he is, and Carlotta says he's off doing what has to be done, Quentin tells Angelique's ghost, "I am not Charles Collins. And I'm not going to allow them to be hurt." - but when it comes to the second half of that, the closed captioning has -

- and what's a bit interesting about that is you may have noticed the line was scripted to be "I will not allow them to be hurt," and "won't" is the contraction version of "will not," so once again it's like the closed captioning and/or subtitles take and/or rework something from the script rather than what's actually said in the film...

Also, Scene 192 is another that the call sheet indicates was shot on April 5, 1971.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There is no scripted dialogue for Scenes 193 through 196, which is why they aren't a part of the slideshow, which will begin featuring Scene 197 tomorrow. But apparently John Karlen couldn't resist offering Alex' thought on Gerard's actions in Scene 195 - and both the subtitles and the closed captioning reflect it:

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Oops - I forgot that once again I wanted to share these rare stills associated with Scene 192:

Continuing with Angelique on the stairs shots, here's a rare version:

(Click here for a 532X700 version)

...

...

And I know for certain that I have a still of the following rare version, but for the life of me I couldn't find it today even though I had in in my hand just last week when I was searching through things. But for now I'll post this magazine version -

(Click here for a 1037X826 version)

- and then replace it after I actually do come across the still again...

I still have yet to come across it. Though since originally posting the magazine version, I was able to do a better scan and I've replaced the original scan with it. And speaking of the magazine, the scan is also part of the Daytime TV article that I've shared a few rare photos from - and something I didn't do originally is share the caption the magazine provided, so here it is:

And the Daytime TV caption reads: "Lara Parker, as the spirit of Angelique,
appears on the stairs to the tower of
the mansion of Collinwood, her home."

...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

At the beginning of Scene 197 Claire wonders out loud when Alex is coming back, and after that begins a string of unscripted dialogue that starts off with Claire asking Tracy, "How are you feeling?" - and both the closed captioning -

- and the subtitles -

- reflect that, though the subtitles also jump up to Tracy replying, "Oh, I'm better." - and the closed captioning -

- also reflects that - and then Tracy adds to that, "Still a little cold." - and that's reflected in the subtitles -

- though the closed captioning -

- prefaces it with an "I'm" which Tracy doesn't actually say - and it's interesting that the closed captioning adds something because normally things get dropped.

To be continued...