Everything You Wanted to Know About Dan Curtis (But Were Afraid to Ask)

[Gerard]

Last night, here in my assisted living community, after one of the sessions where we're forced to make ashtrays and candy dishes out of popsicle sticks, as I rested in my apartment watching TV, the cable (Comcast - horrible stuff) went down all throughout this region.  Most residents here have to use Comcast for their viewing pleasure, unless they're streaming (something technologically over most of their heads) because there is no other cable alternative.

So while there were some anxious moments amongst my neighbors, I just plugged my computer into the TV and called up Pluto, on which I once again enjoy watching Dark Shadows.  I noticed something in the results for DS that I had either missed or was new - either way, I never saw it before.  It's an MPI documentary made, I believe, in 2019 about Dan Curtis and his life and times from the moment he entered the world all the way until his passing.  Of course, most of it was focused on DS and had scores of our favorite DS alumni offering commentary on what it was like working for him (which, all stated, could be very difficult - Barbara Steele even quit and walked off the set of DS-'91, but returned the following day).  It was a thoroughly enjoyable documentary to watch and I learned quite a few things I didn't know before.  It was long, but that's partially because Pluto has commercials which is what makes it a free streaming service (but the ads, other than during the first break, were rather few and would consist of only one).  The cable service was rather quickly restored (two hours ahead of the predicted repair time - that's shocking, considering it's Comcast) but I continued to watch the presentation until the end (and then, since I had it all plugged in and turned on, I grabbed some of my usual DS reruns). 

So, if you haven't seen this enjoyable and informative documentary, now you can, totally free, on Pluto.  You don't have to register unless you want to in order to have your own favorites library.  Just type "Dark Shadows" into the search and voila. 

Gerard

[Josette]

That sounds very interesting, Gerard!  It's likely to be a long time until I get around to it, a bunch of other things to get caught up on!  But, I'll certainly keep it in mind.

[Annie]

Hi Gerard, thank you for sharing this and a very good point you brought up.
Hope you’re doing well my friend .
God Bless you.
Love, Anne 😊

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Gerard,

Thanks for the information regarding that Dan Curtis documentary on “Pluto” which is a tremendous streaming service. I love all of the classic tv shows on that service, including “Hawaii Five-O,” “Mission Impossible” and “The Fugitive.” I tell you, watching all of those legendary shows, I feel like I’m back during the halcyon 1960s, when at 4:00 PM on weekdays meant it was time to tune-in to ABC and watch the eerie goings-on in Collinsport, Maine! 

“Pluto” also has all of the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s and 1940s on its service. The other day, they aired all of the Universal mummy films, with Lon “Larry Talbot” Chaney, Jr. as Kharis, the lumbering, foot-dragging monster. If DS had continued beyond April of 1971, it would have been interesting to have seen just how Dan Curtis incorporated (or plagiarized?) the concept of the vengeful mummy on his own show.

It’s too bad that Barnabas and Willie did not have “Pluto” available to them at the Old House. Maybe they wouldn’t have been so God-d@mned bored and irritable in that old dump every night with so many great shows to watch? 

[Uncle Roger]

It's on Tubi as well. You don't need the application to watch it. Just Google Dan Curtis documentary.

[Gerard]

I also watch the "monster channels," as I call them on Pluto, Bob!  It really does have tons of stuff unavailable on many other streaming services that are beginning to charge the equivilent of a downpayment for an oceanview house in Santa Monica. 

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I also watch the "monster channels," as I call them on Pluto, Bob!  It really does have tons of stuff unavailable on many other streaming services that are beginning to charge the equivilent of a downpayment for an oceanview house in Santa Monica.

Gerard,

I enjoy watching the late Evelyn Ankers in all of those classic Universal horror films; she appeared in “The Wolf Man,” “The Ghost of Frankenstein” and “The Son of Dracula,” among several other Universal horror flicks. In fact, Ms. Ankers was known as one of Hollywood’s great “scream queens.” Ms. Ankers also appeared in several
of the wonderful Universal Studio Sherlock Holmes films with the legendary Basil Rathbone  as the world’s
greatest consulting detective and the beloved Nigel Bruce as Holmes’s faithful sidekick, Dr. John Watson.

Ms. Ankers later lived in Hawaii with her husband actor Richard Denning (who was a familiar sci-fi film leading man during the 1950s), when Mr. Denning appeared regularly as the governor of Hawaii on “Hawaii Five-O.”

I’ve often wondered if Ms. Ankers was a possible inspiration and a role model to the actresses on DS? No doubt, KLS, Nancy Barrett and Alexandra Moltke and several other DS actresses could have picked up more than a few pointers by watching Evelyn Ankers scream her way through all of those terrific Universal horror films.

I’ve related this same anecdote here years before about Evelyn Ankers, but I think that it’s worth repeating:

Apparently, Evelyn Ankers was toiling in one of her innumerable 1940s horror films, and the director supposedly said to her, “Okay, Evelyn, in this scene the Frankenstein monster has just your killed father, the werewolf has just eviscerated your brother and Dracula has just put the ‘bite’ on your younger sister. When I pan the camera on you for an extreme closeup, I want you to facially convey all of the understandably turbulent and horrific emotions you are experiencing at that very moment.”

To which Ms. Ankers allegedly replied: “Are you f#cking kidding me!?!”