Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Before moving on to new things, I'd like to point out that NoDS played in several different areas of the country throughout August of '71. Obviously it played in my area both the weeks of August 4-10 and August 25-31. But thanks to our very own KMR we know that it also played in MI the week pf August 4-10. And thanks to a sample of newspapers once auctioned off on the Heritage Auctions Web site, it's known that NoDS played in Memphis, TN and surrounding areas the week of August 11-17. And thanks to a posting of a NoDS newspaper ad on Pinterest, it's known that it played in and around Philadelphia, PA as well as parts of NJ the week of August 18-24. And thanks to an interview with Grayson and Sam Hall that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner that was also posted to Pinterest (in two parts: part 1, part 2) it's known that NoDS played in the San Francisco, CA area the week of August 25-31. (And it does seem a bit odd that their interview was published two weeks before NoDS opened - but one presumes there was method to the madness.)

And the following photo may or may not have been published along with that article -

(Click here for a 960X788 version)

- but it does seem as if it was taken the same day as the photo featured with the article because Grayson and Sam appear to be -

- wearing the same clothes...

And it probably won't surprise anyone that all the newspaper ads I've seen from the various areas mentioned above all used some version of the B poster. Theaters did love those B poster ads in the NoDS Pressbook! 

[Uncle Roger]

I'm thinking that NODS got to the St. Louis area somewhat later. Mark Messina, who was the president of Grayson Hall's fan club at the time, wrote about visit with Sam and Grayson when they came through St. Louis as part of the publicity tour for the movie. Mark was also interviewed by the local paper. The interview is dated January 24, 1972. It's unlikely that MGM would have sent anyone out on a publicly tour for a movie that was no longer playing 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   I wonder why it took so long to get to St. Louis? Very interesting - especially when the reported profit NoDS brought in only covered its first three months in release...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 14/Scene 40 - Quentin: 'Are you going to be happy here?'

- and/or today's second quote -

Page 14/Scene 40 - Tracy: 'Yes, if you are ...'

- check out -

Continuing with Scene 40 with Quentin's reply to Tracy:

- this post...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Had I remembered this existed, I would have posted it yesterday as part of Reply #90 -

- but I didn't find it again until today while I was looking for something else. It's an excerpt from an interview Sam Hall did with Ed Gross back in 1983 and which appeared in one of the DS Files books.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

another review:

I've often wondered if they were disappointed there wasn't any grisly humor in NoDS. Personally, while I definitely enjoy that in some horror films, I think it would have definitely been out of place in NoDS.

But anyway, this review was accompanied by this small triangle of Charles (the same as the second featured in Reply #38) -

- that appeared on the bottom-right corner of the cover of the magazine (and for the life of me I can't remember what magazine it was, but it was a small magazine, similar in size to Video Watchdog, but obviously that wasn't the magazine because there wasn't a home video industry in '71) and the magazine focused on current films in release - and it was accompanied inside by a closely cropped version of the still of Tracy and Quentin in the vaults, the one which is featured in Reply #22. I won't share that here, however, after posting the versions in Reply #22, I came across the actual still of that photo, which I'd completely forgotten I owned, so here's a scan of that because it's the best version of the still:

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 14/Scene 40 - Quentin: 'I am. I don't know why ... or how ... I don't really understand it ... but I almost feel as if I had come home at last.'

- check out -

Concluding Scene 40 and moving through the sequence as it was scripted, shot, and how it originally played:

- this post...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 15/Scene 46 - Quentin: 'Hi...wake me in two hours. I'm beat.'

- check out -

Setting up the new scene:

- this post...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 15/Scene 46 - Tracy: 'Serves you right for wandering around last night without me.'

- and/or today's quote -

Page 16/Scene 46 - Tracy: 'We haven't been married that long. I know when you're not in my bed.'

- check out -

Picking up where we left off with Scene 46:

- this post...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Considering Grayson and Sam didn't comment about NoDS in their San Francisco Examiner interview, I figured I'd share some comments they'd made elsewhere. First up, what Sam had to say in a 1983 interview he did with Ed Gross for the DS Files books (the same interview the excerpt in Reply #94 came from):

And Grayson is quoted in The DS Companion as saying "If you could find the original script, it really was something quite wonderful."

Unfortunately, I've never come across whatever interview Grayson did where the quote was taken from. Obviously it's a remark that was made in hindsight so it could have even been said at one of the Grayson Gatherings of her fan club and possibly published in an account of that particular gathering in a Grayson or other fanzine.

As for Sam's remarks, well, we know the length of the version of NoDS that they showed MGM was 129 minutes and not 165. However, at one point there may have been a 165 minute version because it's common practice for a director to assemble a fairly long "rough cut" of a film and then to whittle it down to something much more manageable. And it is true that there is still at least one sequence in the film in which characters are seen while another character goes walking by them without any dialogue being spoken and that would be after Quentin tells Alex to leave the house and on his way to do so Alex is seen walking past Carlotta and Gerard on the stairs, and after we hear the front door close when Alex leaves, we then see Quentin descend the stairs past Carlotta and Gerard. However, that sequence is actually written in the script to take place that way so it's not simply due to any directorial style choices DC might have made. And speaking of Gerard, the subplot that made its way to the cutting room floor was many of the scenes involving Gerard and Tracy and his obsession with her (after he's replaced by Quentin in Angelique's, uh, affections). And the fact that MGM had so little time to come up with a final print for NoDS goes a long way in understanding how the R-rated print managed to slip out to theaters. And it's definitely true and confirmed elsewhere that MGM wanted to make a third film but DC didn't - but then, given the way he'd been treated by MGM with NoDS, can anyone blame him for not wanting to work with them again?

[Uncle Roger]

The "monster" was, of course, James Aubrey. He wasn't known as The Smiling Cobra for nothing. There was a lot of miscommunication going on here, to say the least. MGM was no longer the major studio that it once was. HODS was one of the few successful movies that MGM released in the early 1970's and they probably hoped that the follow-up would do the same. I expect that they probably wanted a Hammer/AIP/Vincent Price hybrid that could play drive in theaters for an extended period. Though I recall NODS as the third or fourth attraction on some drive in bills into the early 1980's, it really didn't have the necessary PG gore to make it a drive in staple.
Aubrey was not known for tact or diplomacy. DC probably wasn't either. But, as the head of the studio, Aubrey was going to get his way no matter what.
I don't remember where I first saw that quote from Grayson about the movie. Possibly in Soap Opera Digest, around the time that she joined OLTL.
I've heard rumors about a third DS movie for years. I don't know if there was ever anything that went past the talking stage. I am a bit surprised that Curtis turned the idea down. Ego aside, he seemed to fancy himself as a film director but his next vehicle didn't come along until Burnt Offerings, a good five years later. The rest of his work was strictly in television.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I remember that Burnt Offerings was released through United Artists. But I was a bit fuzzy on just when UA merged with MGM? It was either a few years before or a few years after. And I wondered if James Aubrey was still at MGM? But BO came out in '76, and after looking things up I see that the merger didn't take place until '81 and Aubrey left MGM in '73, so DC didn't have any association with Aubrey for BO...

One thing I found amusing but for all the wrong reasons is that one of the Web sites about Aubrey says "directors often charged him with philistine meddling, and he alienated many of them" - why do I suspect DC would have had much worse things to say than referring to what Aubrey did with regard to NoDS as "philistine meddling" and "alienating" DC?! 

(Something else that's interesting is that apparently Aubrey worked as a consultant for Brandon Tartikoff during the '80s and early '90s. I wonder what Aubrey thought when Tartikoff vigorously pursued DC to revive DS for NBC? Though by that time DC was a powerhouse in the industry thanks to The Winds of War and War and Rembrance and Aubrey was pretty much an afterthought. How circumstances can change...)

[Uncle Roger]

Aubrey was quite a character. In more ways than one. Robin Stone, the main character in Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine, is modeled after him.
Prior to MGM, he was president of CBS. He was responsible for some of the network's biggest successes such as Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies, but also locked horns with virtually everyone at CBS from talent to other executives. His downfall may have come when he greenlighted three series from his friend, a minor show business figure named Keefe Brasselle. The three series, The Baileys of Balboa, The Reporter and a Cara Williams sitcom were poorly received by critics and audiences and went way over budget. Brasselle was also alleged to have ties to organized crime. Details are vague about what happened next but Aubrey was soon gone from the network.
He landed at MGM about two years later. Where he basically repeated the pattern. Aubrey canceled two Julie Andrews projects because he felt that musicals were no longer box office material. He also tried to cancel Ryan's Daughter but the film was just about completed, though still over budget.
Aubrey also edited many of the completed films, including films from Blake Edwards and Sam Peckinpah. Wikipedia states that Aubrey made a point to cut scenes in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid that Sam specifically did not want cut. If Aubrey was able to do this with directors with a proven track record like Edwards and Peckinpah, it's not surprising that he would have pulled the same stunt with a neophyte director like Dan Curtis.
But Aubrey must have done something right somewhere because at one point he dated Raquel Welch.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Aubrey was quite a character. In more ways than one. Robin Stone, the main character in Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine, is modeled after him.

I had no idea about that. But with that in mind, one thing that's an interesting twist is that the film version of The Love Machine also came out the same week as NoDS in August of '71. Unlike NoDS, though, TLM was a box office disaster...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 16/Scene 46 - Quentin: 'Well, I was and all night, dreaming very strange dreams.'

- and/or today's quote -

Page 16/Scene 46 - Tracy: 'I won't fight with you. Ever. Now get up.'

- check out -

Wrapping up Scene 46, beginning with yesterday's quote, Quentin's reply to Tracy:

- this post...