Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 87/Scene 188 - Claire (O.S.) (screaming): 'It's Tracy!'

- check out -

Moving on to the next three scenes:

- this post and to learn about the differences in the dialogue, including more unscripted lines, the differences in the descriptions and directions, and a scene that is dropped...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Cut from The CBS Late Movie showing:

• ...
• The entire scene outside the pool house with the Jenkins driving to Collinwood, Claire asking what Alex will do if Quentin won't leave and Alex threatening to drag him out, Claire spotting Quentin and Alex immediately stopping the car, Claire moving to get out but Alex stopping her and telling her to wait, Quentin moving away from the pool house, and the Jenkins getting out of their car and running toward the pool house

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Briefly referring back to Reply #580, a few people have asked why, now that I have new video capturing  hardware/software, I used screen captures in that post from the video I'd shot off of a TV screen rather than capturing new video? Well, sadly the answer is simple: as hard as I tried, I couldn't come across any sort of video player software that seems to display closed captions embedded in a VHS tape or video capturing software that records closed captioning embedded in a VHS tape along with recording the video. If my failure to find any of that is any indication, apparently closed captioning on VHS tapes only displays on TVs that support closed captioning...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There's stuff to deal with in this post -

Before we get to today's new scene, we need to wrap up Scene 188, starting with the end as scripted:

- though the way things are scripted aren't quite the way they play in the film as you'll see when it comes to added unscripted dialogue and the differences in the descriptions and directions...

And this post -

Also before we get to the new scene, if you've never seen/read the NoDS Pressbook, you might find this article interesting because it relates to scenes that we've recently covered:

- shares an article entitled A Swimming Pool, Without Glamour...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And here's a still from Scene 188:

(Click here for a 803X620 version)

Somehow I feel this still isn't as rare as it actually is because I've seen it in several places on the Internet and it's featured in the Italian Lobby Cards, but so far as I can recall, it's never been officially published anywhere...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Cut from The CBS Late Movie showing:

• ...
• After Tracy expels the water in her lungs, things cut away before Claire leans down to embrace Tracy, cry out Tracy's name and hug her

Anyone who had never seen NoDS before certainly had to have been asking themselves how in the world the Jenkins knew Quentin had been at the pool house, not to mention what the Jenkins were even doing there considering the last time they were seen Claire had saved Alex from Angelique's attack. It had to be more than obvious that something important had been cut, which indeed it had...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Has anyone ever wondered if somehow Nancy Barrett's part in NoDS was cursed? I mean, first DC decides not to even shoot what might have been Claire's more interesting material: the shopping excursion with Tracy. Then when it comes to his director's cut DC edits out the Gallery scene where the two portraits of Angelique are discussed, the aftermath of Angelique's attack on Alex, the aftermath of Gerard's (unseen) attack on Tracy and Claire, and Quentin, Tracy, Alex and Claire returning to Collinwood after Gerard's death. Then when it comes to the MGM forced edits DC eliminates Claire helping to rescue Tracy from Angelique, and the entire seance. But then as if all that wasn't bad enough, when CBS shows NoDS, they edit out Claire greeting Quentin at the cemetery, the entire Dining Room sequence, Tracy calling the Jenkins, the Jenkins spotting Quentin outside the pool house and waiting for him to move away before running to go inside, and the most recently covered with Claire desperately hugging Tracy. By the time things get to the CBS version, Claire's part is practically a cameo in which all she's good for is making ham and tuna sandwiches for lunch and making coffee and sandwiches for a late night snack...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Before we get to the actual quotes from Scene 190, I want to share that once again I've created a video to replace a GIF that I'd created back in 2016:

The way Carlotta chases after Alex is such a hoot! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 88/Scene 190 - Alex: 'I'm going to see him!'

- and/or yesterday's second quote -

Page 88/Scene 190 - Carlotta: 'Mr. Jenkins! They're all asleep!'

- and/or today's quote -

Page 88/Scene 190 - Quentin: 'Leave him alone!'

- check out -

Moving on to the next two scenes as scripted:

- this post and to learn that there are quite a few things different when it comes to the dialogue, including more unscripted lines, and differences with the descriptions and directions...

[Uncle Roger]

Poor Claire is certainly short sided, with the least to do of the four principle characters. She's Alex's wife and collaborator, Tracy's BFF and not really much else. The character, I'm sorry to say, could be removed entirely from the scenario without changing things drastically. It does make me appreciate a remark from Nancy Barrett, when she compared the two films. I'm paraphrasing but she basically stated that having less to do made the work harder

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Plus, Carolyn was such a significant hoDS character and Nancy milked every second of it for all it was worth. That's why even publications like Variety, which wasn't known to give many horror films much love, gave Nancy spectacular notices for hoDS.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Cut from The CBS Late Movie showing:

• ...
• Picking up exactly where the previous entry ended, Alex' car drives down the road and comes to a screeching stop under Collinwood's porte cochere, Alex jumps out and rushes into the vestibule, and after discovering the doors to the foyer are locked, he frantically and repeatedly pushes the doorbell

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Something I'm definitely noticing this time around now that they're starting to appear is that the day-for-night shots look so much better in the Blu-ray release than they do in the VHS:

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

[Mysterious Benefactor]

BTW, according to that call sheet that I came across, the foyer portion of Scene 190 was shot on April 5th...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

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

Page 88/Scene 190 - Carlotta: 'He forced his way in here. We told him you were sleeping.'

- check out -

Continuing with Scene 190 as scripted, beginning with Gerard's response to Quentin's order with regard to Alex:

- this post and to learn about the differences in the dialogue, including more unscripted material, and the differences in the descriptions and directions...