Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

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Picking up where we left off, as the closed captioning indicates, Tracy begins to say -

- as well as in the subtitles -

- though, while the subtitles don't include the "you," they do jump ahead to Claire's scripted "Shh." - and speaking of the script it's interesting that Tracy doesn't get to actually say anything before Claire shushes her after she begins to listen more carefully - and after her shushing Tracy whispers an unscripted, "What's the matter?" - and that is reflected in both the subtitles -

- and the closed captioning -

- and after that is when today's scripted quote -

Page 94/Scene 197 - Claire: 'I heard something outside.'

- comes up in the scene.

More to come...

 

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Picking up where we left off, after Claire delivered yesterday's quote, she moves closer to the window and then moves behind her to the desk to get a gun, and then Tracy asks, "What are you gonna do?" - and the subtitles reflect that - however, once again the closed captioning -

- corrects the grammar - and what's interesting is what the closed captioning indicates Tracy says is what she's scripted to say - and after that is when today's scripted quote -

Page 94/Scene 197 - Claire: 'Alex told me to shoot anyone who came through that door.'

- comes up in the scene.

More to come...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Picking up where we left off, after Claire tells Tracy that Alex told her to shoot anyone who tries to come in, Tracy is scripted to ask today's quote -

Page 94/Scene 197 - Tracy: 'What did you hear?'

- but both the subtitles -

- and the closed captioning-

- have what Tracy actually says, which is adding an unscripted "Wait a minute. Claire," before she delivers the scripted line.

More to come...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And wrapping up Scene 197 and moving on to how Scene 198 plays in the film (more on that in a later post), after Claire delivers today's quote -

Page 94/Scene 197 - Claire: 'I know someone's out there.'

- she and Tracy go to the window where they pull back the curtain, see Gerard, and as things move to Scene 198, Claire screams and shoots the gun - and the screaming is acknowledged in the subtitles as -

- but the closed captioning acknowledges both the initial scream -

- and how the screams continue as Claire turns to Tracy for comfort -

End of Scene 198 in the film - but...

 

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how Scene 198 plays in the film (more on that in a later post)

Posts to revisit:

Scene 198 plays differently in the film from they way it's scripted, so first we're going to deal with it completely as scripted:

198    CLAIRE - TRACY                                     198        As they scream with shock, Claire suddenly raises the        pistol, fires point blank into Gerard's face.        GERARD - CLOSE-UP        Screaming with pain, he grabs his face and falls from        sight.                              CLAIRE                  Oh, God, I've killed him. 198    CONTD                                       CONTD  198                              TRACY                  We've...we've got to make sure.        They look at each other, both knowing that they don't        want to leave the comparative safety of the cottage.                              CLAIRE                  We can't...we can't.                              TRACY                  If he's just wounded...                              CLAIRE                       (pulling herself                        together)                  I know...all right...let's go.

End of scene. But as we'll see when we deal with today's quote/capture in the slideshow, and as is already apparent given today's slideshow, some of the lines were actually used in upcoming Scene 199. And as we'll also see, other's were dropped entirely...

When it comes to the dialogue as scripted for Scene 198, Claire's "Oh, God, I've killed him", "We can't...we can't", and "I know...all right...let's go" were all dropped and were not moved to upcoming Scene 199, mostly because, as we'll see, two out three of the lines wouldn't have made sense there. On the other hand, Tracy's "We've...we've got to make sure" and "If he's just wounded..." were moved to Scene 199, and we'll get into how they play there when we get into Scene 199.

...

Moving on to how the portion of Scene 199 is scripted before we reach today's quote:

199    EXT - GROUNDS OUTSIDE COTTAGE - NIGHT              199

Yup, that's all we can get into because the beginning of the scene is so different from the way it's scripted to begin.

So, when it comes to the differences in the dialogue, the description and the directions, in the film Scene 199 actually begins with what we saw in yesterday's installment of the slideshow, with Claire and Tracy exiting the cottage and Tracy saying -

"If he's just wounded..."

- which we've already pointed out came from Scene 198...

...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

More to revisit:

...

...and then in more dialogue taken from Scene 198, as Claire and Tracy make their way across the bridge from the cottage to the grounds, Tracy then actually says -

"We've gotta be sure."

...

And when it comes to the subtitles and closed captioning for Scene 199, believe it or not, once again the subtitles get everything right - however, when it comes to this instance the closed captioning, once again rather than what's actually said in the film, the closed captioning feels the need to correct the grammar -

 

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Picking up Scene 199 with the first line that was actually scripted for it, after Claire and Tracy reach the spot where Gerard should have been if Claire killed him but he's not there, Tracy says, "But I know we hit him." - however, what the closed captioning has is -

- with "And" instead of "But."

And that's the last bit of Scene 199 that the closed captioning gets wrong.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As scripted Scene 200 doesn't have any dialogue so it's another scene that doesn't appear in the slideshow -

Before we get to the scene that's come up in today's slideshow, we have one other scene to deal with first:

200    INT - COTTAGE - NIGHT                              200        as the two girls ENTER, Claire SLAMS and BOLTS the        door.  Suddenly, the CAMERA is BLOCKED OUT by someone        stepping between the girls and the LENS.        GERARD - EXTREME CLOSE-UP        Blood running down his face, he leers evilly at them.        They SCREAM as we                                                CUT TO:

End of scene as scripted - though it doesn't quite play out entirely that way.

...

- however, dialogue is featured in the film. After Tracy comes in the entryway and the sound of Claire bolting the door is heard, and it's interesting that neither the subtitles nor the closed captioning acknowledges that sound, and they begin to come into the cottage, the closed captioning shows that Tracy asks -

- and the subtitles also show that as well as Claire's response -

- which the closed captioning also then shows -

- and an interesting thing about that screen capture is that before I was picking something out to use for this post, I'm not sure I ever noticed that Gerard's shadow appears on the wall behind Claire before Gerard himself does - but then noticing such things is what happens when you go through a scene frame by frame...

More to come...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Picking up where we left off with Scene 200's unscripted dialogue, the subtitles then have Claire asking -

- but the closed captioning doesn't acknowledge that at all, and the funny thing is that whoever did the closed captioning isn't the only one to miss that line because I'm pretty sure I've missed it until I saw it come up in the subtitles - and after they see Gerard, they scream, which comes up in the closed captioning as -

- but the subtitles only acknowledge Claire's scream -

 

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Before we move on to Scene 201, several things to revisit about Scene 200:

As I've mentioned before, Claire and Tracy's screams last longer in the 97 and 129 minute versions of the film, and previously I'd posted a video with extended audio -

And speaking of those screams, here's how Scene 200 currently plays in the film -

- but in the 97 minute version (and the 129 minute version) as one can hear in the video below, Tracy's and Claire's screams last approximately 2 seconds longer and the camera stays on the bloodied Gerard (sadly, I don't have that footage) as he lunges toward them -

- (yes, I've changed my mind because contrary to what I wrote back in 2016 I now believe he does indeed lunge toward them because when one examines Gerard frame by frame one can see that at the end of what's currently in the film he does begin to move toward them...)

...

- and everyone knows the NoDS cover of Famous Monsters of Filmland -

...

...

- but do you realize that it's one of the few places where the correct term, "hanged," is used for Angelique's manner of execution? - it drives me nuts that the posters for NoDS all say that she was "hung" as a witch, which is wrong wrong wrong - one would have thought that the copywriter for the posters should have known better, but apparently not - it's also interesting that the still was flipped for the cover - the actual still never seemed to show up anywhere else other than as the cover of that issue -

...

(Click here for a 700X453 version)

...

 - and the Famous Monsters of Filmland article also includes a similarly rare and cropped/flipped version of a B&W still of Gerard -

...

(Click here for a 700X548 version)
Famous Monsters of Filmland caption: "James Storm as Gerard is caught red-faced. The red is blood."

...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Oops - I forgot that I also wanted to mention that B&W still appears on one of the Mexican lobby cards -

- and it seems to have in part inspired the Spanish NoDS poster -

- and what's interesting about that poster is that its copy correctly says Angelique was hanged:

In Spanish Ahorcada means "hanged person." In fact, the copy is quite similar to the US poster. Roughly translated (by Google - I took French in school) it says "HANGED AS A WITCH 200 YEARS AGO... THE RETURN FROM THE TOMB IS THE BEGINNING OF LUST." But rather than "Night of Dark Shadows," the film had the title "THE SINISTER CURSE" in many Spanish speaking countries...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Not until after I'd posted the Spanish poster yesterday did I realize that the design for the cover of the VHS release of NoDS -

(Click here for a 383X700 version)

- (and later the design for the laserdisc cover) rips off, er, borrows the Angelique/skeleton design from that poster. Sure, the design for the VHS box makes a composite using the actual stills rather than a drawing and Angelique isn't holding a candelabra, but it's unmistakably similar.

I wonder if whoever designed the VHS cover image got permission from whomever designed the poster? If the VHS designer was a certain someone, I doubt it because, well, as we know only too well, asking permission beforehand is not in his wheelhouse...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Moving on to Scene 201, as I indicated with this graphic in the slideshow -

- the scene as it plays in the film is not at all as it's scripted -

... the scripted version:

201    EXT - RAVINE - NIGHT                               201        as Quentin runs along the road toward CAMERA.  He        suddenly reacts at the sight of broken trees and ripped-        up turf.        RAVINE - QUENTIN'S P.O.V.        There, in the ravine, Alex' car, almost demolished,        lies on its side as Quentin ENTERS THE SHOT, climbing        down the ravine toward it.        EXT - CAR - NIGHT        as Quentin approaches the car, Alex can be seen in        fairly good shape, but trapped in the car.                              ALEX                  Quentin!        as Quentin grasps the door                                               CUT TO:

The scene does indeed begin with Quentin running along the road toward CAMERA - but what he suddenly reacts to is seeing Alex (though we don't see Alex quite yet) and in an unscripted moment Quentin calls out to him, as both the subtitles -

- and the closed captioning -

- acknowledge - and as Quentin gets closer to him we see Alex sitting on the ground up against a tree and smoking a cigarette, probably something that would never get into the film today, though it's debatable if Alex' unscripted explanation of his circumstances still would - and both the subtitles -

- and the closed captioning -

- acknowledge that explanation.

More to come...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Wrapping up the unscripted dialogue in Scene 201:

After Alex says he was almost killed, Quentin asks him if it was Gerard - and both the subtitles -

- and the closed captioning -

- acknowledge that - and Alex confirms Quentin's assessment - and both the subtitles -

- and the closed captioning -

- acknowledge that.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Something to revisit regarding Scene 201:

A still associated with Scene 201 -

(Click here for a 700X1126 version)

- which has been shared on page 198 of the 35 Anniversary DS Memories book.

...

As far as I'm aware, the 35 Anniversary DS Memories book is the only place that still has been officially shared...