Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

[Uncle Roger]

Jeff Thompson used the hippie sequence as the opening for one of his skits. Unfortunately, this was back in 1989 when most fans did not have access to complete NODS script. The majority of the audience assumed that it was something that Jeff had written and they were none too amused.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   I'm pretty sure I saw that but I don't really remember it. I don't recall not liking it, though. Though it was before I got my hands on a copy of Grayson's script, so the full extent of how it was all a sendup of actual scenes would have gone over my head. I didn't get a copy of Grayson's script until about six years later when a new friend I'd met online xeroxed me a copy of his...

When I get a chance I'm going to have to go through my fanzines from '89 to see if any of them summarized the skit...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting some posts about casting the hippy sequence:

I don't remember where I read this but I thought that it was Michael Stroka who was rumored to be cast as the hippie. 

I don't remember where I read this but I thought that it was Michael Stroka who was rumored to be cast as the hippie. 

The DS Movie Book is definitely one of the sources that says Micheal Stroka was "a candidate" to play the Hippy, which I suppose means there may have been others under consideration - but, unfortunately, if there were, it doesn't say who they were.

We had a discussion on the forum once where it was mentioned that Tom Happer (1840/41's Jeremy Grimes) or Ray Carlson (1970PT's Aldon Wicks) might have made good candidates. (And an interesting aside about Carlson is that both versions of the DS Almanac say he played a Blue Whale customer in a '67 ep. I've never tracked down which one and I don't think anyone on the forum has ever spotted him either.)

  And going back to that much older topic, which was called "Casting NoDS":

While working on the new Movies Quotes Slideshow today, an interesting question struck me: if the original opening sequences of NoDS had actually been shot, what DS actor might have been right for the part of the hippy? The character in the script is simply described as "a young man, dressed in hippy apparel."

Michael Stroka seems the most obvious to me.

Keith Prentice also comes to mind.  Pennock was already in the film, along with Storm and Karlen.  Roger Davis seemed to have been the antithesis of a hippie.  I suppose Briscoe could also have been considered.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere, maybe in the two movies' screenplay book, that it was, indeed, suppose to be Michael Stroka.  But then, don't be too sure I read that right.

I thought that Michael Stroka was going to play the flamboyant antiques dealer in the Village.  God, I wish that scene had been part of the finished film.

I don't know whether the hippy would have been cast from any of the regulars.  Prentice, IMNSHO, would NOT have been good as a hippy.  Too square-jawed and "straight" (in the Sixties sense, not the current sense).   Brian Sturdivant might have been interesting--at least he had beautiful bone structure and would have looked tasty in hippy garb!

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere, maybe in the two movies' screenplay book, that it was, indeed, suppose to be Michael Stroka.

The DS Movie Book says that Stroka was "a candidate" to play the hippie. I honestly think he was too old (hippies not trusting anyone over 30 and all that back in the day - until they themselves became over 30 ). I agree with Gothick that Brian Sturdivant could have been a good choice - especially considering the TPTB had already cast him in two roles on the daytime show. But I also think that Ray Carlson (PT's Aldon Wicks) or Tom Happer (1840/1841's Jeremy Grimes) might have been appropriate. Both were certainly in the right age range.

...

Ray Carlson was sooo adorable... I wish he had been brought back in some sort of supporting role.

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El Sturdivant also appears in Von Richthofen and Brown, which has been released on DVD and is available from Netflix.  According to IMDB.com, he plays a character named 'May'.

As for Ray Carlson, I have absolutely no recollection of him or his character, Aldon Wicks.  Anyone have a screen cap on hand?

I agree with MB that Tom Happer might have worked in the role.

As for Ray Carlson, I have absolutely no recollection of him or his character, Aldon Wicks.  Anyone have a screen cap on hand?

There's this from the Robservations Slideshow for June 3rd:

1970: Ep #1028 - While renting a house from Aldon Wicks,
Yaeger expresses particular interest with a basement room.

But I'd have to track down my caps from that ep to see if I have anything better, like a close-up...

This is probably the best close-up I have of him:

What a darling!  Teen idol '70! 

His career seems to have gone nowhere, alas.  He also seems to have been on the verge of cracking up in his second scene in the episode...

Hmmm...I have only the vaguest memory of him, although he is rather pretty.  Is it me, or does he look a little bit like Beck?

 

[Uncle Roger]

The Gregory scene was in the skit as well. Jeff Thompson played Gregory and he was quite flamboyant in the part. I was castvas Alex Jenkins in that one. The only good line I had is one that I adlibbed.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   And wasn't that the same skit where after they rescue Tracy from Angelique and Quentin remembers he dreamed about the sound of brick being laid, Claire asks who Brick is? 

[Uncle Roger]

That's the one!

The line that I adlibbed came during the seance sequence where Alex gets snarky with Quentin and tells him to ask the spirits. If they see an Emmy award in his future.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Before we move on from the Hippy sequence, one last thing:

I've often suspected that the actors wore some of their own clothes in NoDS. And given that, if Michael Stroka had indeed gotten to play the Hippy, I wonder if the Hippy might have dressed like this -

 - and as a side note, that was published in the October of 1970 issue of 16 Magazine - by that date Bruno was long dead and Stroka would shortly be playing Laszlo - though, of course, October was not the month the issue actually came out because it probably came out in August - but even then PT Bruno was dead because he was killed off in Ep #1040, which aired on June 19th - and even by August the storyline had already switched from 1970PT to the Summer of '70...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting how the film actually begins:

Kicking off the next sequence:

21     EXT - RIVER ROAD - DAY - HIGH WIDE ANGLE          21        as a convertible with the top down ENTERS THE        SHOT.  Driving the car is QUENTIN COLLINS and        seated next to him is his pretty bride, TRACY.        This is the same section of road where we first        saw the Hippy.  CAMERA STARTS A LONG SLOW ZOOM IN        as the dialogue begins to play over the shot. 21     CONTD                                    CONTD    21                              QUENTIN                       (indicating the house)                  Look!                              TRACY                  Wow!  What a garret.                              QUENTIN                  I keep telling you, no one can                  afford to paint unless he is                  an heir.        TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT

And that's when yesterday's quote -

Page 6/Scene 21 - Tracy (snuggling up to him): 'It's incredible to think you were around for all those years and I didn't even know you.'

- comes up, followed by today's quote -

Page 6/Scene 21 - Quentin: 'You wouldn't have liked me poor. I was mean and surly.'

- coming up, followed by the script continuing with:

She laughs, shaking her head.        EXT - TREE-SHROUDED ROAD        as the car ENTERS THE SHOT and comes TOWARD CAMERA.                              TRACY                       (clearly impressed)                  I still can't believe it's                  Collinwood.                              QUENTIN                  Well, if I got the directions                  right, it is.        TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT        Tracy gets to her feet, holding onto the windshield,        and tries to look through the trees.                              TRACY                  You know, you can't even see it                  now.  How much land is there? 22     EXT - COLLINWOOD FRONT DRIVE - DAY - WIDE ANGLE   22        as the car APPROACHES CAMERA. 22     CONTD                                    CONTD    22                              QUENTIN                  Oh...only about 200 acres.  There...                  look at it now.        As the car passes by CAMERA, we PAN WITH IT,        revealing the impressive front view of the huge        mansion.                                 TRACY                  Oh...Quentin!

End of scene.

And so far there are still no differences between the way DC's and Grayson Hall's scripts are written. However, in DC's script he has added additional material to both hood-mount shots. The first says:

       TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT - PROFILE - 2 SHOT

And the second says:

       TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT - BACKSEAT

And so far as any differences in the dialogue go, there are many in the film. First off, the first lines of the film are actually taken from the end of Scene 21 and the beginning of Scene 22 and delivered off screen - as all we see is a high angled shot of the tree shrouded road that slowly begins to pan down to the road, Tracy asks "How much land is there" and Quentin responds "Oh, only about 200 acres" - and Quentin actually says "Hey, look up there" in Scene 21, but more on that below - and Tracy's dialogue about the garret and Quentin's about being an heir are dropped in the film, though Quentin's was featured in the Nods section of the Movies Slideshow because it's the first NoDS quote featured in the Fest's 1999 Movie Calendar, on which the Movies Slideshow is based - and what Tracy actually says is "You know, it's really incredible that you were around for all those years and I didn't even know you' - and what Quentin actually replies is "You wouldn't have liked me then. I was mean and surly", with no reference to him being poor - and after that Tracy delivers an unscripted "It's gonna rain" to cover the fact that it began to rain on the day that parts of this sequence were shot - and while Tracy actually says "I still can't believe it's really Collinwood", Quentin's line about getting the directions right is dropped - and Tracy's last line for Scene 21 is actually delivered simply as "You can't even see the house from here" with the rest, as already pointed out, delivered earlier - and as sort of a replacement for the moving of Quentin's reference to the estate being 200 acres, Quentin stops the car and delivers an unscripted "Here it comes. I'm gonna put the top up" when it actually does begin to rain - and Tracy's reaction "Oh...Quentin!" at first seeing the front of Collinwood is also dropped in the film.

And so far as the directions and descriptions go, as already indicated above, what we actually see at the start of the film is -

- a high angled shot of the tree shrouded road that slowly begins to pan down to the road - and from the outset we see Tracy and Quentin shot using a hood-mount shot - and in the film when Quentin points out something to Tracy, he's not actually indicating Collinwood in the distance but -

- a totally different building on the estate (and as an aside to that, there are some publicity shots of Lara Parker as Angelique that are taken with the urn in the above capture) - and even though DC added the notation that the first hood-mounted shot would be a 2 shot in profile, as can bee seen in yesterday's capture -

- (and even today's) it was not shot in profile - and as can also be seen in that capture, Tracy doesn't so much snuggle up to Quentin as slightly caress his arm - and Tracy delivers her unscripted line about the approaching rain as well as her line about not really believing it's Collinwood as the car enters the shot and comes toward camera, but also, as can be seen in this entry from the original NoDS section of the Movies Slideshow -

NoDS: Scene #21 - Tracy: 'I still can't believe it's really
Collinwood.

 -as the car moves away from camera - and Tracy does not get to her feet, holding onto the windshield, as she tries to look through the trees to see Collinwood because, as can be seen in this capture -

- she simply leans up a bit.

   So far as "yesterday's quote" goes, it was August 9th this last time around, and so far as "today's quote," it was August 10th.

...

... as we get into the subtitles and the close captioning (yes, there's still a lot more of that to come because there was quite a bit of the beginning of the film that I didn't do last time around), we'll see quite a bit more unscripted additions...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting the unscripted dialogue from Scenes 21 & 22:

For some strange reason, when I wrote up this post in 2016 -

Kicking off the next sequence:

- unlike how I normally would in latter instances, I didn't associate unscripted dialogue with its moment on screen. So to correct that, here's an example of it from Scene 21 when Quentin says -

"Hey, look up there."

- and this is the building -

- he's indicating - and here's an example from Scene 22 when Tracy says -

"It's gonna rain."

- and another when Quentin says -

"Here it comes. I better put the top up."

...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting the comparison between the opening of Rebecca and the opening of NoDS:

I've mentioned before that I love how NoDS actually opens with what could easily be considered DC's tribute to the opening of Hitchcock's Rebecca which is mostly mixed with the arrival of the newly married de Winters to the Manderley mansion. But if you've never seen Rebecca, you may be unaware as to how some aspects of the opening of NoDS really do resemble Rebecca. So, here are some videos to illustrate the point:

Rebecca Opening	Rebecca Arrival

NoDS Arrival

I hadn't watched Rebecca in a long while and I'd completely forgotten that it also rains as the de Winters arrive at Manderley just as it does as the Collines arrive at Collinwood. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it was just serendipity that it really did rain as the opening of NoDS was being shot or if DC planned it with the help of the local fire department, as he did with the shooting of the funerals for hoDS and NoDS?

...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting the subtitles/closed captioning for Scene 21:

...

Before we even get into the dialogue, the closed captioning has this notice -

- and even though they're scripted to take place at the end of Scene 21 and at the beginning of Scene 22, the first two lines in Scene 21 are actually Tracy's "How much land is there" and Quentin's "Oh, only about 200 acres" - and both are acknowledge correctly by both the subtitles and the closed captioning - though while the closed captioning don't identify the characters by name, interestingly, the subtitles have -

- and while the subtitles don't acknowledge that Tracy laughs at Quentin's response, the closed captioning does -

- and then when it comes to the first bit of unscripted dialogue, both the subtitles and the closed captioning-

- acknowledge Quentin's line - and unlike the script, he's not indicating Collinwood but a boarded up building that they're about to pas by - also, Tracy's dialogue about the garret and Quentin's about being an heir are dropped in the film.

More to come...

...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting a post related to the previous post:

Speaking of the boarded up building that Quentin points out -

- I've always loved this publicity shot of Lara Parker as Angelique that's taken with the urn in front of that building:

And speaking of Quentin's dropped line about being an heir, it was featured in the Nods section of the original Movies Slideshow -

NoDS: Scene #21 - Quentin: 'No one can afford to paint
unless he is an heir.'

- because it's the third NoDS quote featured in the Fest's 1999 Movie Calendar, on which the Movies Slideshow was based.

...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Continuing to revisit the subtitles/closed captioning for Scene 21:

...

As they continue up the driveway, what Tracy actually says is "You know, it's really incredible that you were around for all those years and I didn't even know you" - though the subtitles drop -

- the "You know" part - and when it comes to the closed captioning, it has the first part as -

- and while the subtitles have the last part correctly, the closed captioning has -

- and Quentin explains "You wouldn't have liked me then. I was mean and surly" but with no reference to him being poor - and while the subtitles acknowledge what Quentin says perfectly, the closed captioning has -

- and while once again the subtitles don't acknowledge that Tracy laughs at a response from Quentin, the closed captioning does -

More to come...

...

 

[Uncle Roger]

Quentin is about to redefine the concept of mean and surly. With a little help, of course.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   Funny you should bring that up because I wanted to revisit some posts related to that topic:

I just wonder exactly how mean and surly young Quentin was.

  This thought never occurred to me before, but I wonder if that remark by Quentin was supposed to be a hint that perhaps Charles had tried to assert himself in Quentin before Quentin actually even got to Collinwood and it wasn't Quentin's arrival at Collinwood that was the first kickoff of that? Whenever Charles "took over" Quentin in the film one could definitely say he acted "mean and surly." I mean, look no further than how he treated Tracy after she found him in the tower and especially when he molested her. Perhaps Quentin's personality won the first battle and was able to keep Charles at bay, but, well, living at Collinwood and actually being exposed to Angelique was an entirely different story.

Some food for thought - or possibly even inspiration for fan fiction...

...

It's also quite telling that while Alex and Quentin connected almost immediately but Claire states that she spent quite a bit of time trying to figure Quentin out. She doesn't indicate that she ever did.

It's also quite telling that while Alex and Quentin connected almost immediately but Claire states that she spent quite a bit of time trying to figure Quentin out. She doesn't indicate that she ever did.

How very interesting, Uncle Roger! What you and MB said makes me want to watch the movie again sooner rather than later, with those things in mind.

I think I've mentioned this before, but it really is a shame that Claire's remark about Quentin is made in the never shot shopping excursion into town sequence. But as I definitely know I've said before, character scenes were hardly a priority with DC!    (And as I also definitely know I've said before, hoDS suffers because of it!!)