The April 6th Episodes

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Have I ever mentioned that I love Roger when he's in sarcastic disdain mode?    And I love, Love, LOVE the scene in Ep #204 in which Roger first meets Willie:

1967: Ep #204 - Upon learning Willie is now Jason's guest at
Collinwood, Roger sarcastically remarks that perhaps they should
put a revolving door in the foyer for Jason's 'other' guests.

In fact, Roger is in rare form in his exchanges with Willie in both of the scenes they share in this episode. If you've never had the pleasure of seeing this episode for yourself, give yourself a treat and check out the Robservations for it because Robin most definitely captured Roger in all his glorious sarcastic disdain. 

...

Drawing room - Roger looks through the mail. Willie enters and introduces himself...

And then there's PT Quentin in Ep #986. What can one say about the man? That's he's ever the understanding and sympathetic husband/father/cousin? Well, not exactly. Faced with the situation of Amy's terror at presuming Alexis is actually Angelique come back from the dead, is his first instinct to rush to her side to try to reassure/comfort her? Hell no! Instead he barks, "Amy, stop that! ... Amy, stop that. ... Now, stop that screaming and come down here."

Exactly the reaction we would all hope for from a loving relative if we were to ever find ourselves confronted by such terror, right? 

[Gothick]

I love watching Roger's scenes with both Willie and Jason in the early part of the Jason/Liz storyline.  Truly classic stuff.  I have only seen this particular episode once; definitely time to get it out and have a look!  In a perverted way I quite enjoyed James Hall's performances in these shows.  There's something really unwholesome and nasty about him that I never got with Karlen.  Hall's Willie seems as if performing vile acts upon little girls and/or their dolls would be his idea of a barnstormin' time.  SQUICK!

As for PT Quentin and Maggie... I loved the PT 1970 story overall, but those two characters really tried my nerves.  PT Quentin is a ham-fisted boor; PT Maggie is a quivering nebbish who seems to have had "doormat" tattooed on her behind at birth.  Bleah!

G.

[BuzzH]

I too enjoyed Roger when he was at his most pompous.     A FAVORITE scene is when [spoiler]he comes back from a business trip and Carolyn greets him.  He sarcastically asks if their 'houseguests' are still at Collinwood and when she says that Jason is but Willie is not, he repllies, "Oh, bravo!  Tell me, did he accept an invitation from the Prince & Princess of Monacco or could he simply not stand another one of Mrs. Johnson's famous boiled dinners?!"[/spoiler]

I also like when he's [spoiler]arguing w/Liz about whether or not they should invite Barnabas to stay at the Great House and she comments that they can't because of Jason and Willie.  He replies, again, voice DRIPPING w/sarcasm, "Barnabas is a blood cousin and I think he should be given more consideration than those two sea tramps!"[/spoiler]

Good stuff!!   

[arashi]

In a perverted way I quite enjoyed James Hall's performances in these shows.  There's something really unwholesome and nasty about him that I never got with Karlen.  Hall's Willie seems as if performing vile acts upon little girls and/or their dolls would be his idea of a barnstormin' time.  SQUICK!

Don't I agree with you there. He is so incredibly creepy in his scenes in the drawing room with Carolyn. It makes your skin crawl. I think he pulls off the sexual predator vibe very well, he's dangerous. But John Karlen pulls off the cheap white trash vibe that much more, and he is absolutely fantastic in his fear of Barnabas in the early episodes.

[Raineypark]

James Hall was still playing Willie the day I yelled at the television: "Somebody PLEASE toss him off Widow's Hill!!!"  But it was John Karlen's Willie who payed the price for his transgressions.  I simply can't picture James Hall making the transformation from lecherous creep to soul-destroyed victim the way  Karlen did.

[BuzzH]

I simply can't picture James Hall making the transformation from lecherous creep to soul-destroyed victim the way  Karlen did.

Neither can I.

[Gothick]

I watched the episode from which the capture with Roger and James Hall's Willie is taken above.  Although Hall wasn't a very competent actor, there was a creepiness to his vibe that still made me very jumpy when he was onscreen.  Of course, I agree that there's no comparison between Hall and the textured performance, the emotional plausibility, and the sheer depth of craft that John Karlen brought to the role.  No comparison at all!  The producers were very fortunate that Karlen was available and that they found him.  The casting on the series sometimes seems to have had its hit-or-miss aspect.

I did think it was EXTREMELY caddish of Roger to leave Vicki and Carolyn alone in the dining room with Willie.  Honestly, what was he thinking?

G.

[MagnusTrask]

The change in Willie's personality.... did it happen as soon as Karlen appeared?  If not, how soon after?   was it very gradual?   Did JK make a convincing Hall-type Willie when he first came on the show, then gradually change?    I'd hate to think it was just an abrupt personality change.

[Raineypark]

Karlens' Willie Loomis was less loathesome, and more manic, I think.  He always had that wild look in his eyes like he was capable of going off like a roman candle.

Yeah......not evil......just crazy....

[BuzzH]

The change in Willie's personality.... did it happen as soon as Karlen appeared?  If not, how soon after?   was it very gradual?   Did JK make a convincing Hall-type Willie when he first came on the show, then gradually change?    I'd hate to think it was just an abrupt personality change.

JH's Willie was creepy and you felt like you needed 10 showers after his scenes.   JK's was just thuggish and dangerous, like a biker dude or something.  But not creepy and gross.  JH's Willie would rape the women w/his eyes, I didn't get that sense w/JK.

[MagnusTrask]

Buzz... so the character changed immediately after the recasting, I guess....

[Raineypark]

Buzz... so the character changed immediately after the recasting, I guess....

If you mean that John Karlen's Willie began life as the terrifired slave of Barnabas, no.  I'm not sure how much time passed before his Encounter with the Vampire, but Karlen was still a thug when he took the role over from James Hall.  The real character change came after Willie was bitten.

[IluvBarnabas]

Just think how much better the scene where Roger first meets Willie would have been if John Karlen had been playing him then....

Yeah Willie was still a thug by the time John Karlen took over the role, but he was a damn convincing one!

And I've said all along, while James Hall made a convincing, vile creep, I doubt he would have been all that believable as the vampire's slave. They really needed someone who could be a creep and then become a broken, more redeemable character. And John pulled that off beautifully.

[Alondra]

The change in Willie's personality.... did it happen as soon as Karlen appeared?  If not, how soon after?   was it very gradual?   Did JK make a convincing Hall-type Willie when he first came on the show, then gradually change?    I'd hate to think it was just an abrupt personality change.

I agree with all that's been said regarding the difference between James Hall as Willie and John Karlen. James Hall played Willie for 5 episodes between episode #199 and episode #205. John Karlen took over the role in episode #206 (so we see that James Hall was abruptly gone between two episodes in a row!) JK played Willie for 5 episodes in a row from episode #206 through episode #210 which is the episode in which [spoiler]he meets his destiny at the mausoleum[/spoiler] So there were some episodes with him as the nasty Willie.

IMO he was quite convincing as the creep Willie, Hall was more of a big bully type and JK was more sinister sounding. For example when [spoiler]he and Burke had that knife fight at the Blue Whale which Willie lost when Burke forced the knife from his hand and slapped him around, outside later on Willie told Jason that he was going to kill Devlin.[/spoiler] He spoke low and mean and you knew he meant it. Hall would have been hollering, and sometimes that low mean sinister voice is more effective than the big booming voice.

I wonder if there is a DS fan anywhere who actually preferred Hall to Karlen. I remember many years ago that for a brief time DS was shown at midnight, one episode only. It was during the summer and this only lasted a few weeks. I had never seen this part of the show and when I saw James Hall as Willie I was shocked. I had no idea there had ever been another Willie.

Alondra

[IluvBarnabas]

I looked through a lot of the old posts on some of the threads regarding James Hall and John Karlen and I only found ONE poster who said they liked Hall better than John Karlen (can't remember the name of the poster or the thread off-hand). They didn't go into the reasons though, just said they liked Willie number 1 better than Willie number two, plain and simple.