Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

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A still associated with Scene 240 -

- that was shared as part of the Herald featured in the NoDS Pressbook.

And here are two behind the scenes stills - first this one of John Karlen, DC and crew members -

(Click here for a 700X532 version)

- a cropped version of which appears on page 141 of the DS Almanac 30 Anniversary Tribute - and there's this one of DC directing -

(Click here for a 962X600 version)

 - Grayson Hall, which so far as I can recall has never been officially published anywhere...

I hope none of these people, especially Grayson, were afraid of heights. But then as we know a lot of the production of NoDS forced people to face their fears...

 

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If you want to learn about or refresh your memory concerning the background of yesterday's first quote -

Page 110/Scene 241 - Tracy: 'Thank God, Quentin, thank God.'

- and/or yesterday's second quote -

Page 110/Scene 241 - Quentin: 'It's over, Tracy. It's over!'

- check out -

Dealing with the current scene:

- this post and to learn about the differences in the dialogue, the descriptions and the directions, including how in the film dialogue was switched between characters, but more on that later ...

 

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The first time I made graphics for the above quotes they were -

Page 110/Scene 241 - Tracy: 'Thank God, Quentin,
thank God.'


Page 110/Scene 241 - Quentin: 'It's over, Tracy. It's over!'

- those two, with the top graphic using a screen capture from this -

- which appear in one of the NoDS TV spots.

And here's a version of the clip slowed down to 25% of the speed -

- to get a better look at it...

(It's quite odd that the frame from the shot of the railroad bridge shows up at the beginning of the slowed down version yet it doesn't display at the start of the same clip at its normal speed or when I run the clip frame by frame through my video editing software. And because it doesn't show up in the software, I can't remove it. But hey, not everything can be perfect.  )

 

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And last time around I said that if I'd known about the dialogue change, I would have used different graphics, namely these -

Page 110/Scene 241 - Tracy: 'Thank God, Quentin,
thank God.'


Page 110/Scene 241 - Quentin: 'It's over, Tracy. It's over!'

- with the second one using a crop of this still -

(Click here for a 700X664 version)
Movie Soundtracks booklet caption: "Nancy Barrett as Claire Jenkins, David Selby as Quentin Collins
and Kate Jackson as Tracy Collins in the deleted seance scene."

- which also happens to appear on page 16 of the Movie Soundtracks booklet...

 

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But this time around, with knowledge that Quentin's "It's over, Tracy. It's over!" was actually given to Claire on the day of shooting (minus the reference to Tracy), I decided to change the graphics again.

The first stayed nearly the same, but I updated it with a better scan -

- by using a crop of this version of the still -

(Click here for a 906X685 version)
Daytime TV caption: "Tracy (Kate Jackson) cradles husband
Quentin (David Selby) during seance to
rid him of the spirit of Angelique."
TV Radio Show caption: "David Selby and Kate Jackson had the lead
roles in Night of Dark Shadows as newlyweds."

- versions of which, as indicated by the captions, were published in Daytime TV and TV Radio Show, and also as the back inside cover of the 30th Anniversary '96 LA Fest.

However, the second got a whole new image -

- by using a crop of this still -

(Click here for a 897X700 version)
TV Dawn to Dusk's caption: "Quentin
collapses in the presence of Angelique's spirit as
Claire (Nancy Barrett) and Tracey (Kate Jackson) sup-
port him."
Famous Monsters of Filmland caption: "Three Creepy People
looking for a light in NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS."
DS Movie Book caption: "Night of Dark Shadows: Nancy Barrett, David Selby and Kate Jackson in the deleted seance scene."

- versions of which, as indicated by the captions, were published in TV Dawn to Dusk and an issue different from the issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland that published the full NoDS article, and also happens to appear on page 12 as part of Kate Jackson's essay in the DS Movie Book...

 

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Oops - I forgot that with regard to that second still, I'd wanted to quote this portion of this post from 2016 about the NoDS slideshow based on the Fest's 1999 Movie Calendar:

...

I also forgot to mention that for the original NoDS slideshow, I used a different graphic for the following lines:

NoDS: Scene #234 - Alex: 'Let go of her, Carlotta! You have no right
to hold her back.'

I figured it was just as valid to show Claire and Tracy reacting to Alex and Carlotta as it was showing Alex because at least in part it's that way in the film as well. Plus, as I said, I don't have any stills of Alex...

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And two more from the seance:

First up an alternate shot of Quentin and Tracy -

- that I've only seen as part of Flip's Curse of Dark Shadows article.

And a shot of Claire that Darren had shared on his Restoration Web site -

 

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As I have with other GIFs, I've made videos of the GIFs I'd originally made so as to give some idea of how the seance and surrounding scenes were intended to play and how they do play in the 129 minute version of the film.

Part 1:

Part 2:

I thought about redoing them so that they had sound, which wasn't possible with GIFs, but the zoom in clip of Quentin waking has part of a voiceover on it, so that wouldn't have worked very well...

 

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Revisiting how the dropping/rearranging of scenes definitely gives some wrong impressions in both shorter versions of the film;

I've been dancing around the subject for days, but thanks to James Aubrey's insanity, much of what we've been dealing with lately is either jumbled around in the film as it currently stands, or it's completely missing.

Case in point, the only part of Scene 227 that currently appears in the film is Tracy on the floor after the white mist has disappeared, which is then followed by an obvious cut to Quentin kneeling down to revive Tracy and cradle her as she sobs. And what's worse is those two bits of Scene 227 appear after Scenes 237 through 240, which are currently cut to right after Quentin begs Tracy to answer him in Scene 225. And all that means that in the timeline of the current version of the film:

• Scene 225: Quentin begs Tracy to answer him because he can hear her screams as Angelique attacks her in the basement room that Angelique has trapped her.
• Scene 237: Alex searches the tower, sees the parapet door is open.
• Scenes 238-240: Alex finds Carlotta, but she jumps to her death at Angelique's urging.
• Scene 227: Quentin reaches Tracy.

And the problems with that rearrangement is that:

• It causes the audience to presume Carlotta's death allows Quentin to reach Tracy because, apparently, Angelique is no longer being kept alive by Carlotta.
• And quite possibly Angelique could be in two places at once: attacking Tracy AND urging Carlotta to jump. Though because we never do see Angelique's actual attack on Tracy like we do with her attack on Alex, one could at least presume that Angelique doesn't go to Carlotta until after she feels she's dispatched Tracy.
• But the truth is that all of those presumptions are wrong given what was actually scripted. Similar to her attack on Alex, Angelique's attack on Tracy is actually ended by light flooding the room (once the door to the room is finally opened) - and that happens before the seance and before Alex even encounters Carlotta.
• And something that's also quite interesting is that the zooming shot down to Carlotta's dead body on the ground -
  
  
  
  
  - (that currently appears after the bits of Scene 227 - further reinforcing that it's Carlotta's death that saved Tracy) is unscripted. We can presume it might appear in the 129 minute version of the film after Scene 241 (Quentin revives/everything is declared as being over), but who knows...
  

And something that I think I didn't discover until today - or at least I didn't remember it until today when I watched the DVD/Blu-ray version of the sequence.

(I've edited out most of the Alex/Carlotta/Angelique sequence.)

First, the VHS version:

Then the Blu-Ray version:

Though I shouldn't be surprised that each version has something that the other doesn't, particularly because Darren has complained about how the DVD/Blu-ray version is missing much of its foley (the VHS has sounds of Quentin's movement as he enters the room, the DVD/Blu-ray doesn't).

And while others have complained that the holdover music cues at the beginnings of some scenes shouldn't be there in the DVD/Blu-ray version, and I supposed technically they shouldn't, I enjoy the fact that they are because it lets us know how things play in the 129 minute version. But truthfully, who knows if there will ever be a version of NoDS in which everything that should be in place is in place regardless of which length of the film it is? As it is there are already three different versions out there (the VHS, the DVD/Blu-ray and the Amazon Prime/iTunes) none of which is completely correct...

 

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If you want to learn about or refresh your memory concerning the background of Sunday's quote -

Page 110/Scene 242 - Quentin: 'O.K. Everything's taken care of. As of now, all this grandeur is for sale.'

- check out -

Setting up the current scene:

- this post and to learn about the differences in the dialogue, the descriptions and the directions...

 

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If you want to learn about or refresh your memory concerning the background of Monday's first quote -

Page 111/Scene 242 - Claire: 'Don't look so sad. Look at all the money you'll have.'

- and/or Monday's second quote -

Page 111/Scene 242 - Quentin: 'I'm not going to count on it.'

- check out -

Not too much to say about today's quotes, the first one being -

- this post and to learn about the differences in the dialogue...

 

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Not completely day-for-night - more like day-for-pre-sunrise:

Scenes 238 through 240 - part 1:

(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version

 

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Scenes 238 through 240 - part 2:

(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version

 

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Scenes 238 through 240 - part 3:

(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version
(Click here for a 620X465 version)	(Click here for a 620X349 version

Hmmm - should the shadow of the tower be that pronounced when it's not quite dawn yet? I have to confess I'm not up at that hour, much less checking shadows. But then, I suppose we're not supposed to even ask that question. 

 

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If you want to learn about or refresh your memory concerning the background of Tuesday's quote -

Page 111/Scene 242 - Alex: 'The reservations at the Cape are all set. I told them we'd be there at seven.'

- check out -

Moving along with Scene 242:

- this post and to learn about the differences in the dialogue...