Dear fans,

This notice was posted on the Collinsport Historical Society site today:

Turner Classic Movies will be airing HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS at 3:30 a.m. EST, Saturday, Oct. 3. The film is part of a late-night horror movie package, and will air immediately 1974's HOUSE OF THE SEVEN CORPSES and the 1963 classic, THE HAUNTING.

Note: TCM's schedule can be a little confusing. HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS falls onto the channels "primetime" schedule, which begins at 8 p.m. and extends to 6 a.m. the following day. While it's slated to be broadcast "Oct. 2," the film technically airs on the morning of Oct. 3.

Best,  G.

Sounds wonderful.  Carol used to make me laugh so hard I would literally roll around on the floor.  I'll never forget my first viewing of "Sunnyset boulevard."  grand stuff!

G.

In PT 1970, it's hinted a few times that the house itself was cursed.  But that got dropped in favor of other developments in the final phases of the storyline.

G.

Sept. 18 was the late Grayson Hall's birthday.  She would have been 93 or 94, most likely (she practically made a separate career out of keeping her age a secret).

Besides her fab work on our show, Grayson is remembered for her Academy Award (tm) nominated role in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA.  Fans also fondly cherish her work in SATAN IN HIGH HEELS, the TV movie GARGOYLES, a recurring role as Euphemia Ralston on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, and roles in the two DS feature films.

Quiet please, there's a lady onstage.

G.

A complaint I have about PT 1970 (a storyline I really love, btw), is that PT Liz was originally given outdated sweaters and off the rack skirts to wear.  Very mousy and dowdy. When she "came back" from her "rest," she was back to the standard issue "Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Lady of the Manor" wardrobe.  And the dialogue about her anxieties when Quentin was late with her monthly check also disappeared.

G.

1966 Roger in the original series was intended by Art Wallace to be the villain in the story, but his sinister nature was supposed to unfold gradually.  One thing 1966 Roger wasn't, was a womanizer.    I thought the 2012 Roger was like a caricature of the 1966 character, but I think there were a number of Roger scenes and moments that went into the cutting room bin due to the studio directives about the re-cutting of the picture.

Sarah wasn't a character in the 2012 redaction.  Barnabas had been born in England in that version.  Maybe Burton's attempt at a sly nod at the whole "cousin from England" business.

Are you thinking of Judah Zachary from the 1840/1692 storyline in your mention of Judah Macabee?  Judah was part of the revised Angelique origin story and her original name having been Miranda. (Even though the Countess told Vicki in 1795 that she had known Angelique as a child.)

 I'm really surprised Eva Green (whose PENNY DREADFUL series you really should check out) has reportedly signed to work with Burton again on a new project.  I thought she was given dreadful makeup and horribly mis-directed in Depp Shadows.  But, evidently, she was sincerely in saying in interviews that she loved working with Burton.  I hope this doesn't tank her career, which has had some speed bumps already.

G.

Another memory of Thayer concerning his Down East accent in his Matthew Morgan role:

"A point-- he "wore," a mid-Atlantic accent, in real life and on screen. It sounds to an American like an English accent, but it's more theater than anything. Like a trained broadcaster's voice. However, when he was playing a native Mainer, his Maine accent was real. Although he was born outside of Boston, he spent a great deal of his young life in northern Maine, at his father's farm."

G.

The Depp/Burton Shadows film was mentioned in a paragraph in a surprising context in a very short book I read sections of last week.  The book is a monograph on the Mario Bava classic BLACK SUNDAY from 1960 with Barbara Steele.  I think the author's name is Martyn Conterio but I don't really feel like looking it up on Amazon.  The book is in a series called Devil's Advocates, published in London by Auteur press; the series is supposed to be dedicated to re-examinations of classic horror films. 

In a penultimate chapter, the author discusses what he calls the "legacy" of the Bava film.  He mentions a couple of scenes in the Burton/Depp film as instances of Tim Burton's adulation of this movie and use of imagery from it in various films of his oeuvre.  SLEEPY HOLLOW (the Burton film) is also cited.  I remember he mentions the secret passage through the fireplace as one instance of influence or homage, and something about the scene where Elizabeth and Barnabas are together down in the catacombs as another. 

His discussion of the film and the sequences was done in a very flat, objective tone.  Nothing about how awful or scandalously bad it all was or any of the other rhetoric we've seen in various fannish discussion threads.  I'm not sure that the author is familiar with other avatars of Shadows.

Best,  G.