Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

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Two of several stills to revisit that are associated with Scene 238:

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The Lobby Card that I shared back in Reply #78:

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(Click here for a 930X738 version)

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And an alternate B&W version -

(Click here for a 700X540 version)

More to come...

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Two more stills to revisit that are associated with Scene 238:

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(Click here for a 700X462 version)

And another version -

Daytime TV caption: "Beliving that Angelique's spirit has been
exorcised, Carlotta prepares to take her own life."
(Though that's not entirely true because, as we know, Carlotta sees a beckoning Angelique on the ground below the tower.)

 - which was published as part of the Daytime TV article I've been sharing several rare shots from, and which is the only place I've ever seen that shot of Carlotta. Also note, as I mentioned previously, the material from that article is credited to MGM, New York. It's quite interesting how so much of what they shared with Daytime TV doesn't seem to have been shared anywhere else...

More to come...

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Wrapping up Scene 238 with its final bit of scripted dialogue and then moving beyond:

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Page 110/Scene 238 - Carlotta (as she looks over the side): 'She needs me.'

coming up, followed in the script by:

239    THE GROUND BELOW - CARLOTTA'S P.O.V.              239        On the ground far below stands the ghost-like figure        of Angelique. her arms outstretched as she beckons        Carlotta to her death. 240    EXT - PARAPET - NIGHT                             240        as Alex takes another step toward Carlotta, she turns        and plummets from the tower.  The only SOUND is that        of the MOANING WIND.        FAST ZOOM to Angelique on the ground below.

End of scripted tower sequence - though in the film that isn't the last we see of Carlotta. But more on that in an upcoming post.

And as far as the descriptions and directions go, everything plays pretty much exactly as scripted with the only difference being that there's a zoom to Angelique both times we see her.

And as far as the dialogue goes, Carlotta's quote doesn't appear in the film as it currently stands.

And Grayson has a note in her script that as Cartlotta decides to jump, she trusts in her love for Angelique.

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Revisiting a still associated with Scene 240 -

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- 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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in the 129 minute version of the film Scene 225 continues to play out with Alex and Claire showing up outside the room and Alex helping Quentin to open the door, and we know that Angelique's Assault continues to play over that part of Scene 225 because later on the Blu-ray we get evidence of it (and we'll be revisiting that evidence in the not too distant future)...

And that time has arrived.

As we know, as the film currently stands (as well as in the 97 minute version), the beginning of Scene 225 switches to Scenes 237 through 240, and then switches to Scene 227 (and we'll deal more with those jumps in a future post). So next up I want to revisit the following post that shows that in the 129 minute version of the film Angelique's Assaut continues to play as the background music into Scene 227 (minus any blending with The Possession of Quentin):

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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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And speaking of that podcast, Darren also revealed something about the restoration that I found quite intriguing. But I'm going to hold off getting into it for a few days because in a way it relates to something I'm going to revisit then.

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And what's so intriguing is that as part of the restoration process of the 129 minute version of the film Darren and Bob Cobert went through the film and Cobert suggested adding music in some places in the film where there wasn't any. Hopefully one day we'll get to see those changes and how they affect the film...

 

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Moving on to Scene 241:

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241    INT - GALLERY - NIGHT - HIGH WIDE ANGLE           241        Quentin lies on the floor cradled in Tracy's arms.        Claire kneels next to him.  HOLD FOR ONE BEAT and        then FAST ZOOM IN TO QUENTIN'S CLOSE-UP as, taking        a deep breath, he opens his eyes.  SLOWLY WIDEN TO        INCLUDE Claire and Tracy, as Quentin and Tracy        embrace.

And that's when today's first quote -

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

comes up, followed in the script by:

Claire rises as we continue to PULL BACK as dawn   can be seen through the gallery windows.

And that's when today's second quote -

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

comes up.

End of the seance sequence.

And as far as the descriptions and directions go, we do know that there's a zoom in to Quentin as he wakes because that is in one of the TV spots, but beyond that who knows because Scene 241 doesn't appear in the film as it currently stands...

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The first time I made graphics for Scene 241 they were -

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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:

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And as far as the dialogue goes, presumably in the 129 minute version of the film Tracy still delivers some version of her line, but interestingly enough, in a document that I just recently rediscovered and had forgotten all about, Darren indicates that Quentin's quote was given to Claire (minus the reference to Tracy). So, if I had done graphics closer to what the scene is apparently actually like, these would have probably been more appropriate:

Tracy: 'Thank God, Quentin, thank God.'


Claire: 'It's over. It's over!'

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- 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:

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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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And two more from the seance:

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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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With regard to Scene 241, Darren Gross posted on his Restoration Web site -

A selection of scenes cut from the 129-minute version that have been recovered:

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After Carlotta leaps to her death, Quentin wakes in Tracy's arms. As the day breaks through the gallery windows, Quentin says that the nightmare is over.

And that was written before he realized that Quentin's line has been given to Claire. It's also the last entry in the list. But then, all the scenes following Scene 241 are in all the various versions of the film...

 

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Two posts to revisit:

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...
  

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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It seems like forever since we've gotten into the differences in the subtitles and the closed captioning. But now that we've dealt with the rearrangement of scenes in the shorter versions of the film and various other matters we can get back:

When it comes to Scene 227 we do know that at least some version of Claire's scripted "Oh, my God, it was the same thing!" after she's seen Angelique's attack on Tracy is in the 129 minute version of the film, but given what's still in the film, it may be doubtful that Tracy's scripted "It was so horrible...she was here!...she was here!" is - but regardless of all that, what does appear in the current version of the film is all unscripted - after Quentin has entered the room he kneels down to Tracy and calls her name twice - and that is acknowledged in both the subtitles -

- and the closed captioning -

- but when it comes to the sounds that Tracy makes as she revives, neither the subtitles nor the closed captioning references them - and when Quentin reassures Tracy, the subtitles correctly have -

- but as per usual the closed captioning insists on correcting the grammar -

- and the deep sighs that Tracy lets out after that are also ignored by both the subtitles and the closed captioning.

 

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Finally catching back up to the beginning of the current scene in the slideshow:

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242    EXT - COTTAGE - DAY                               242        Claire and Tracy are at their car as Quentin drives        up.

And that's when today's quote -

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

comes up.

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

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

- followed by today's second quote-

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

- coming up.

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Moving along with Scene 242:

Alex ENTERS THE SHOT from the house, crossing to them.

And that's when today's quote -

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

- comes up.

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And moving along with more of Scene 242, beginning with today's first quote -

Page 111/Scene 242 - Quentin: 'Come on, Alex, it's going to take more than three hours.'

- coming up, followed by today's second quote -

Page 111/Scene 242 - Alex: 'Not with me leading the way --'

- coming up, followed in the script by:

TRACY                (laughing)           You're right -- not with you.           We'll meet you there -- I           don't need anymore excitement --

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More to come...

 

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When it comes to Scene 242, after Quentin says that all the arrangements to sell the grandeur of Collinwood are taken care of and Claire tells him not to look so sad and that he should think of all the money he'll have, the subtitles correctly show his response as -

- but the closed captioning doesn't even acknowledge Quentin's response - and as you can see the subtitles also jump up to Alex' line about reservations, but for some reason they drop him saying "Alright now" at the start of the line - and the closed captioning also drops it -

- and after that Alex adds, "I told them we'd be there at 7." - and the subtitles have that correctly, but the closed captioning has -

- and to that Quentin replies, "Hey, that's only three hours from now," and the subtitles also get that correctly, but the closed captioning has -

- and both the subtitles and the closed captioning don't acknowledge that Tracy laughs - and and after Alex remarks not with him driving and after everyone begins moving toward the cars, Tracy says, "With you leading us, you may be right, I'll tell you that." - but the subtitles only have -

- and quite oddly the closed captioning only has -

 - and Tracy also says, "I've had enough excitement. We'll meet you there." - and the subtitles acknowledge that fully - but the closed captioning only has -

More to come...