Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Continuing with the subtitles and closed captioning for Scene 254:

Tracy doesn't finish her previous question because Quentin starts to get up, but afterward he simply stands in front of the window, at which point Tracy asks an unscripted -

- which as you can see both the subtiles and the closed captioning acknowledge - and after we see Quentin come limping toward her, we hear Tracy say an unscripted -

- and you can see both the subtitles and the closed captioning acknowledge that as well - and then we see an extremely confused Tracy complete her thought by asking an unscripted -

- and the subtitles and the closed captioning also acknowledge that.

More to come...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Continuing with the subtitles and closed captioning for Scene 254:

After the camera has begun to move in close on Tracy's face as she shows an expression of shock and concern, she asks an unscripted -

- which as you can see both the subtiles and the closed captioning acknowledge - and then as the camera moves up Quentin's body as he moves closer to Tracy, she begins to ask an unscripted -

- and you can see both the subtitles and the closed captioning acknowledge that as well - (though, obvious by the screen capture from the VHS, we've only seen Quentin's face in silhouette) - and then Tracy senses another presence as she turns to see Angelique entering and she gasps

- and the subtitles and the closed captioning also acknowledge that.

More to come...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Wrapping up the subtitles and closed captioning for Scene 254:

After Tracy then crys the first part ("Oh no...") of her scripted reaction to seeing Angelique, with a look of sheer terror on her face, she begins to back up against the wall and screams out the remainder ("...oh, God, no!") of her scripted reaction - and both the subtitles and the closed captioning gets all that right - and she follows with unscripted screams of -

- which as you can see both the subtitles and the closed captioning acknowledge, though the subtitles have two too few, whereas the closed captioning has the correct amount - followed by an unscripted -

- and then yet more unscripted -

- and the subtitles and the closed captioning also acknowledge that as Tracy's voice trails off - and after the screen frezes on an image of Quentin, an unscripted UPI news bulletin prints out -

 - the full text of which as -

- as it fades off the screen for the closing credits.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

A post to revisit:

Two rare stills associated with Scene 254:

First:

(Click here for a 700X476 version)

And:

(Click here for a 620X810 version)

And to my knowledge, neither of these have been officially published. Although, on the Internet I have come across this cropped B&W version of the first -

(Click here for a 1054X773 version)

- which certainly looks like it was scanned from a book or magazine - but because, as usual, a source is not cited, I have no idea what to say about it...

...

When it comes to the still of Angelique, I never noticed until today that the ceiling light in it is turned on, whereas in the film it isn't. But then, what do I keep saying about how sometimes you can see something a thousand times before some detail finally leaps out at you...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

When it comes to the UPI dateline about the Jenkins' fatal accident many have lamented that they were killed off. But to me they needed to go. And the reason why I think that is because, with the triumph of the Charles/Angelique love story over the one of Quentin/Tracy, the Jenkins would have continued to totally interfere and would have never given Charles/Angelique a moment's peace to enjoy their triumph. The demise of the Jenkins assures that Charles/Angelique would go on to have the "life" they were denied in the 19th century, whatever it may have turned out to be. Not the ending those routing for Quentin/Tracy would have liked, but certainly a fitting ending for Charles/Angelique. Plus, killing off practically everyone in NODS' present day is in keeping with the how the daytime DS operated with nearly every one of its storylines - with few exceptions, the only characters that survived were the ones who were necessary for the Collins line to survive.

As for the idea that the Jenkins could have survived so that there could have been the possibility of a NoDS sequel, chances are if there had been a third film, Sam Hall and DC never intended that it would be a sequel to NoDS, otherwise they wouldn't have strongly implied that Tracy wasn't going to survive long beyond the end of the film. It's not like the Jenkins could have saved Tracy from her fate. And no matter how much Quentin denied it, if he really was Charles' reincarnation, any attempt by the Jenkins to reassert Quentin's personality would have most probably been doomed to failure...

 

[dom]

I totally forgot the ending. Creepy.

[Uncle Roger]

The demise of Claire and Alex always bothered me. An onscreen demise for them would have probably muted the focus on Tracy's fate and probably would have been more expensive to shoot than the budget would permit.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Just because the slideshow reached the end of the film for the second time, once again that doesn't mean that nothing new will be posted to this topic. Again it's a case that over the course of the past year there were several times when I forgot about materials I have as well as discovered new materials. There are also several candid stills that I have yet to post. And I want to share a few different articles about the release of the film. So a lot of that sort of stuff will be posted at the appropriate time now that the slideshow has started from the beginning for a third time. Plus, I need to replace the closed captioning screen caps from the VHS that were taken from the video I shot with my phone off of a TV. And remember that if something comes up in the slideshow that you may be seeing for the first time and are not sure about, you can always go back in the topic to the posts that provided explanations for them - or if you can't find explanations, you can always post questions...

Actually, I'm hoping to post some new stuff later today. But I need to format it for posting before I can do that...

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, I only finished about half of what I wanted to do today. But that's okay because the rest will get posted tomorrow...

But what I'm sharing today is my least favorite NoDS trailer. Though that being said I do like the voiceover because it gets into things that no other NoDS trailer (to my knowledge, anyway) gets into, like: "A man is buried alive in a basement tomb, then reincarnated to take his revenge." (So, can we say that because the trailer says that, it's canon, and Quentin really is Charles' reincarnation despite, as I said yesterday, whatever protests Quentin might make?):

The trailer really wouldn't be half bad if it wasn't for the sound effects, which ruin things for me (that gurgling choking sound - please! ). Well, that, and the use of hoDS footage rather than footage from NoDS itself. Sure, maybe at the time they put the trailer together they'd yet to have access to any NoDS footage. But still, what was the rush? 

And speaking of the footage, yes, the timing of the figure coming into frame at the same time the voiceover talks about the man being reincarnated to take his revenge does works well. But what about the shot of Collinwood being so jittery before that? I never remembered the shot of the house being so jittery in hoDS and that's because it isn't. In fact, most of the footage that's in the NoDS trailer isn't even in hoDS, as one can see here with the following video of hoDS Scene 81:

All in all, that NoDS trailer might have been enough to keep people away from NoDS showings rather than teasing them into wanting to see them. Or maybe not. Things were different in the '70s - maybe I'm forgetting that sort of approach really might have appealed to a potential audience. I find that hard to imagine looking back with a 2023 perspective. But who knows...

 

[Uncle Roger]

Those screams in the first trailer don't really sound like they came from any version of DS, past or present.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Another NoDS rarity: a radio spot. It was posted back in the 90's to AOL's DSO's Image Gallery. Sure, it's not an image, it's a sound file. But no one complained - and it was hardly the only sound file that was posted there.

The original file was posted as a WAV, however, I've created a video file with it, similar to the ones for the various pieces of soundtrack music I've posted. WAV files don't play well with the forum's system, whereas MP4 video files do. So it's a no brainer to go this route.

And unlike the trailer I posted yesterday, the sound effects in the radio spot are kept to practically a bare minimum -

- and at least in the radio spot's case, it might have actually appealed a potential audience...

Also, it's interesting how the tag line, "Collinwood, that house of dark shadows, where life and death go on as usual," gets used in so many of the promos.

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Those screams in the first trailer don't really sound like they came from any version of DS, past or present.

Just for the fun of it I listened to the two hoDS radio spots that are on the 30th Anniversary CD. But listebing turned out to be very informative because some of the exact same sound effects were used for them. And once again I've created video files because MP4 video files play well with the forum's system:

So, apparently whoever did that weird NoDS trailer also did the radio spots for the films. And I'm guessing they just used generic stock sound effects.

As a side note, back when I was working on the hoDS slideshow topic I got so sick of seeing so many photos and stills from the Barnabas walks with Maggie scene that I swore that I might actually go insane if I ever saw another one or even the scene itself. (I swear MGM and Ben Martin must have shot reams of film just for the one scene!!) So imagine my horror when that first radio spot started playing and it featured dialogue from the scene!!    (Though thankfully I was able to cope by quickly posting the caption that I did on the "Caption This! - house of Dark Shadows" board in the "house of Dark Shadows Scene 201" topic.)

(And speaking of how I named that topic, I made a big mistake when I posted the screen caps on the four hoDS and NoDS game boards by not including scene numbers because it's next to impossible to figure out what scenes are posted in which topics. So as I get the chance I plan to go through them all and add scene numbers to the topic titles.)

 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting how the scenes that actually open the film were scripted to play -

...

21     EXT - RIVER ROAD - DAY - HIGH WIDE ANGLE          21        as a convertible with the top down ENTERS THE        SHOT.  Driving the car is QUENTIN COLLINS and        seated next to him is his pretty bride, TRACY.        This is the same section of road where we first        saw the Hippy.  CAMERA STARTS A LONG SLOW ZOOM IN        as the dialogue begins to play over the shot. 21     CONTD                                    CONTD    21                              QUENTIN                       (indicating the house)                  Look!                              TRACY                  Wow!  What a garret.                              QUENTIN                  I keep telling you, no one can                  afford to paint unless he is                  an heir.        TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT

And that's when yesterday's quote -

Page 6/Scene 21 - Tracy (snuggling up to him): 'It's incredible to think you were around for all those years and I didn't even know you.'

- comes up, followed by today's quote -

Page 6/Scene 21 - Quentin: 'You wouldn't have liked me poor. I was mean and surly.'

- coming up, followed by the script continuing with:

She laughs, shaking her head.        EXT - TREE-SHROUDED ROAD        as the car ENTERS THE SHOT and comes TOWARD CAMERA.                              TRACY                       (clearly impressed)                  I still can't believe it's                  Collinwood.                              QUENTIN                  Well, if I got the directions                  right, it is.        TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT        Tracy gets to her feet, holding onto the windshield,        and tries to look through the trees.                              TRACY                  You know, you can't even see it                  now.  How much land is there? 22     EXT - COLLINWOOD FRONT DRIVE - DAY - WIDE ANGLE   22        as the car APPROACHES CAMERA. 22     CONTD                                    CONTD    22                              QUENTIN                  Oh...only about 200 acres.  There...                  look at it now.        As the car passes by CAMERA, we PAN WITH IT,        revealing the impressive front view of the huge        mansion.                                 TRACY                  Oh...Quentin!

End of scene.

And so far there are still no differences between the way DC's and Grayson Hall's scripts are written. However, in DC's script he has added additional material to both hood-mount shots. The first says:

       TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT - PROFILE - 2 SHOT

And the second says:

       TRACY - QUENTIN - HOOD-MOUNT SHOT - BACKSEAT

- as opposed to how they actually play - but as we get into the subtitles and the close captioning (yes, there's still a lot more of that to come because there was quite a bit of the beginning of the film that I didn't do last time around), we'll see quite a bit more unscripted additions...

 

[Uncle Roger]

I just wonder exactly how mean and surly young Quentin was.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   This thought never occurred to me before, but I wonder if that remark by Quentin was supposed to be a hint that perhaps Charles had tried to assert himself in Quentin before Quentin actually even got to Collinwood and it wasn't Quentin's arrival at Collinwood that was the first kickoff of that? Whenever Charles "took over" Quentin in the film one could definitely say he acted "mean and surly." I mean, look no further than how he treated Tracy after she found him in the tower and especially when he molested her. Perhaps Quentin's personality won the first battle and was able to keep Charles at bay, but, well, living at Collinwood and actually being exposed to Angelique was an entirely different story.

Some food for thought - or possibly even inspiration for fan fiction...