Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

[Mysterious Benefactor]

50 years ago today Night of Dark Shadows opened in 130 New England theaters and drive-ins.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

In my area NoDS only opened that first week in a drive-in in RI and it didn't begin showing until 10 pm (which is why I've waited until now to post this topic):

That was too late during the week for my mom to take me and my best friend at the time because she had to go to work. So I had to wait until Friday night (August 6th). (And you might wonder if that was a burden for my mom to take two 15-year-olds to see horror movies at the drive-in - but it actually wasn't because, as I've mentioned before, my mom was also a DS fan, so she was looking forward to seeing the film.)

I didn't get to see NoDS at an indoor theater until the week of August 25-31 when it came directly to my city in MA. And you'd better believe I saw it multiple times that week. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I've decided to share the montages' original versions before I downsized them for posting:

Click NoDS-1.jpg for a 1296X2430 version.
Click NoDS-2.jpg for a 1296X2187 version.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As you may have noticed, I've returned the NoDS slideshow to the top of the "Current Talk '21 I" board. (Fear not fans of the '04 pilot, that slideshow is still on the second page of the "Current Talk '21 I" board and all subsequent pages, so you can still follow along.) It took a bit of doing to get the slideshow back because I was quite surprised that I'd never saved a backup of the database file that stores all the NoDS quotes, plus it originally began on January 1st and I want this rendition of the slideshow to begin on August 4th. So, the database file had to be completely recreated, new routines had to be written for the system, and the screen captures have to be renamed. But so far as the database file and renaming goes, that can be done as needed.

We missed the August 4th entry and that would have been:

Page 1/Scene 3 - Hippy: 'Hey, you dirty ... I'm lost, man!
I'm lost!'

And as you can see, the quotes are taken from the NoDS script, not simply the film. And if you want to learn about or refresh your memory concerning the background of that entry, check out -

Setting up the first few scenes, none of which were actually shot:

- this post. And if you want to do the same with today's quote -

Page 2/Scene 10 - Hippy (in affected manner of speech): 'Poole! We'll have brandy in the drawing room and do prepare bedrooms for the week end's guests.'

- check out -

And the next several scenes in the unshot sequence:

- this post.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 4/Scene 16 - Hippy (again calling): 'Hey, who's there? Where's that light coming from?'

- check out -

And yet more scenes in the unshot sequence:

- this post.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

When I saw in the newspaper ads for NoDS that they would be giving out free DS souvenirs, I was definitely intrigued. Many know one of the things given out were Angelique figures -  but it's mentioned far less frequently that what was also given out was "Beware of The Night Of Dark Shadows" bumper stickers. The figure has definitely become a rare collectors item among NoDS fans. The bumper sticker probably not so much because it's barely related to the film. Though on rare occasions I have seen both for sale online - and sometimes even together.

Now, the advantage of going to see the film with your mom is she's likely to hand you the better souvenir. And that was the case when after my mom paid for us to get into the drive-in, she handed me the Angelique figure and my friend the bumper sticker. To say he was less than thrilled to get the bumper sticker might be putting it mildly, but when we asked if there was any way he could also get a figure, we were told that there was no way, it was one figure and one sticker per car. Oh well... And I didn't find out until more than 20 years later that my friend actually cut out the part that said "Night Of Dark Shadows" and threw the rest of the sticker away. Probably not the smartest of things to have done because, well, who knows because I've honestly not paid attention what they go for, but they may actually be worth something nowadays. I don't know...

One thing I do know, though, is I'm still thrilled that I have the Angelique figure. And despite being offered a whole lot of money for it on more than one occasion, I'll never part with it. In fact, I have it displayed in one of the bookcases in my home office, behind glass on a shelf with some of my other NoDS possessions (no pun intended).

And now it's been in my possession for 50 years because I must have gotten it right around this time of night on August 6, 1971...

[The Doctor and K9]

Here's a link to my novelization of the script for NODS. The second link is a general one to the rest of my archive.

I was living in Newport but had no idea that NODS existed until I saw it listed in TV Guide in June '77 on the CBS Late Night Movie. I don't remember my friends mentioning the film either. Several of them watched DS, but I was not allowed to. I was 8 when NODS came out.

I was not allowed to stay up for the late showing of NODS, but a friend told me all about it and managed to record the last hour or so. He thought the first part was recording but the machine wasn't running. He turned it on when he thought he needed to change tapes.  We wondered for years if there was a third film.

I looked for the novelization for years also. We wrote to Warner Paperback Library about it. We were told it, along with several of the Ross novels we were seeking was "out of print."

https://archive.org/details/NightOfDarkShadowsByJoeEscobar

https://archive.org/details/@the_doctor_and_k9

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I love what you did with your novelization, The Doctor and K9. And not just NoDS fans should check out that link to your archive because all DS fans are likely to find more than a few surprises if they've never checked the archive out before...

As for the CBS showing of NoDS, count yourself lucky that you didn't see it because worse than how DC was forced to trim the film was what CBS cut from it! (And they made similarly terrible cuts when they ran hoDS!) At this point I forget what all the cuts they made were, but they were ridiculous! I actually have an audio cassette recording of CBS' showing but I no longer have a cassette player, so I'm unable to refresh my memory as to what was cut... (Although, at the time I blamed CBS for trimming a lot of stuff that they didn't actually cut because back in 1977 I had yet to realize that in 1971 I'd actually seen the R-rated version of NoDS - it wasn't until 1990 after NoDS came out on VHS that I realized most other parts of the country had seen a different version.)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 4/Scene 17 - Hippy (muttering to himself): 'There it is again! What the hell is going on?'

- check out -

And continuing with yet more of the unshot sequence:

- this post.

[The Doctor and K9]

Thanks for the compliment, Mysterious Benefactor.

If you listened to Carolyn Fox on 94 WHJY you might enjoy hearing some of her shows on the archive. When I moved to Texas, we lost our rock station there. So when I came home to Portsmouth, I rigged up a VHS recorder to tape off of the radio. At SLP, I got up to 6 hours and change of rock radio. It's mostly Carolyn Fox and her cohort Rudy Cheeks (memorable for his writings in The New Paper, The Phoenix and other local papers. I also have some parts of Amy Hagen's shows. She tended to be on vacation when I was home, so there are a lot of appearances by her substitute .

Carolyn Fox was infamous for an  April Fool's prank in the 80's. She announced that the City of Providence was shut down for the day. She told people to call a number if they had questions. The number was to rival station 92 PRO-FM.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks for the compliment, Mysterious Benefactor.

They are well deserved. 

Like you, I kept hoping there would be a NoDS novelization from Paperback Library - and when there never was I was very disappointed. As with the hoDS novelization, it would have been great to have learned about the scenes in the script that never made it into the film - not to mention we would have learned about them long before something like Grayson Hall's script began circulating in fandom. And one can only imagine whether the Paperback Library version would have been based on that script or DC's latter version, which has some major revisions, like the piano scene.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Considering that the newspaper ad didn't exactly scan perfectly (but then newspaper print/photos are hardly perfect to begin with), I decided to put together a composite of the NoDS ad and the hoDS ad, each taken from their respective PressBooks:

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Last night I attempted to recreate my first viewing of NoDS as closely as I could. Though, of course, it wasn't particularly closely because not only wasn't I in a car, I was sitting on a couch in my living room with my feet up on a cushy ottoman, my mom and friend weren't with me, and I wasn't surrounded by a bunch of other people in cars. But I microwaved a bag of popcorn and put together a hot dog in a toasted bun, both of which were my snack of choice that night. And precisely at 10pm I popped my Blu-ray copy of NoDS into the Blu-ray player and pressed "play." And those weren't even all the things that couldn't be duplicated because I didn't have a copy of the R-rated version of the film. But hey, I did my best. 

I hadn't actually watched the film in years, so it was definitely fun to watch it, especially so because it was the first time I'd watched it on a 60in TV. And one would think that having seen the film so many times there couldn't possibly be anything that I would notice that I'm not sure if I ever noticed before - but one would be wrong in that assumption. For quite possibly the first time I noticed that rain is running down the tower room windows in the scene in which Angelique and Charles make out and Gabriel and Strack come to get her.

Of course, timewise it should have been raining because the scene takes place soon after the scene in the Gallery in which Sarah watches Strack, Laura and Gabriel plot and Carlotta's voiceover specifically points out how it's raining. But, well, this is DS, which isn't well known for its continuity, especially considering that in the timeline of events of that day the tower scene takes place after the Gallery scene but it shows up in the film before the Gallery scene. Quite obviously whoever they hired to handle continuity for the film was much better than anyone who might have worked on the daytime show!

And we may never know for sure, but I might have honestly noticed the rain because it was the first time I'd  watched the film on a 4K TV and not on a dinky old-fashioned TV with a typical screen size...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 5/Scene 20 - Hippy (screaming): 'Help me, man! Help me! Help me!'

- check out -

And continuing with even more of the unshot sequence, picking up with the Hippy's next reaction to the glow:

- this post.

[The Doctor and K9]

Last night I attempted to recreate my first viewing of NoDS as closely as I could....things that couldn't be duplicated because I didn't have a copy of the R-rated version of the film. But hey, I did my best. 

The current version of the film has an interesting variation from the previous versions. In the scene where Quentin is flashing back to the tryst with Angelique and Gabriel confronting them, you have dialogue from the R version culminating with Angelique laughing. It's awkward because the film is not synced with the dialogue and in places the characters are speaking but their lips aren't moving. Still it's an interesting change.

I will never understand or forgive them for not including deleted scenes in the special features. I don't agree with the refusal to restore the film, but I understand it. They were unwilling to risk the money  and went with the safe bet, putting out the theatrical cut. OK, but why not at least include the scenes from the original master that already have dialogue as well as the ones that Darren Gross restored? That made absolutely no sense to me.