I always find this such an odd episode in terms of how Julia's character is written.  She's such a cold, bitter rhymes-with-stitch, especially to Willie, for whose care she had been technically responsible.

In her next episode, she's back to the more caring Julia we've come to know in the 1968 episodes.  I find this one an odd blip to say the least.

No one else has commented on this so I guess I'm in a small minority in finding the writing to be very discontinuous here.

G.

A very reliable source has confirmed that the voice on this track is indeed Grayson Hall.

I just love this...

G.

Her eyes are incredible.  Dominic West is excellent too.

G.

I saw the movie on a videotape from the library about ten years ago.  I'm surprised it's never been released on DVD but there are so many excellent films from the past that have been neglected in that regard.

This four and a half minute clip gives you a good taste for the film and its foreshadowings of DS:  sealed rooms, unattended for years, thrown open to reveal barrages of brightly burning candles; long sinister soliloquies from a troubled protagonist; a flawlessly gowned and coiffed Joan Bennett, eyes widening in mute horror; and one of the rooms even has a set design reminiscent of the Collinwood basement.  Natalie Schafer can be seen but only has one or two lines:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvJRjPPQhhI

Best,

G.

*wonders whether we get to see everything, and I MEAN everything, on that incendiary lead actor* (the MALE one, to be perfectly clear, since people are now using actor to refer to women thespians--actress is such a lovely word, derived from French, and perfectly respectable English, but now due to be consigned to the rubbish heap?)

DS content... I always thought it would be interesting if a Banshee had appeared at Collinwood.  The closest they ever got, I suppose, was the plot point of Melanie's "episodes" in PT 1841 whenever a certain event occurred.

I have a book in my library printed in Dublin that includes eyewitness accounts of actual Banshee phenomena and it's extraordinary.  The "screaming" often manifests as a huge rippling sonic wave that can beat down bushes, make the earth rumble, break windows, etc.

G.

Patti--you might be interested to learn that Fritz Lang became very fond of Joan Bennett when they were working together in the 1940s (although I think there were days when they practically detested one another).  I don't know if it was Lang who coined the nickname "Lazy-legs" because Joan did not like standing for very long, but that was how he would often address her on set.

They made, I think, three films together, the best of which is usually considered to be Scarlet Street.  The third one, called I think "The Secret Behind the Door," also stars Natalie Schafer (future alumna of Gilligan's Island) and has a plot that could have been a storyline on DS (and has a very moody DS like atmosphere).

Presumably because he wanted to see Joan, Fritz Lang came to visit the DS set one day.  It is said that he made some lighting suggestions which were immediately utilized.

There's a lot more to say about Fritz Lang.  Some would say that he invented the modern science fiction film with Metropolis.  A couple of years ago I was able to see a 1963 French New Wave film in which Lang appeared playing himself.  Jack Palance was in it too.  Of course Jack Palance went on to become involved in other Dan Curtis projects.

In summary, there are a lot of connections between Fritz Lang and the world of Dark Shadows.

Best,

Steve

Today 47 years ago, at 3:30 in the afternoon, viewers on the Eastern Seaboard (and elsewhere in the US in other time zones) first heard Alexandra Moltke's melancholy, poetically charged voice recite these fateful words:
My name is Victoria Winters. My journey is just beginning. A journey that I hope will open the doors of life to me, and link my past with my future... A journey that will bring me to a strange and dark place, to the edge of the sea, high atop Widows' Hill, to a house called Collinwood... A world I've never known, with people I've never met. People who are still only shadows in my mind, but who will soon fill the days and nights of my tomorrows...

Amazingly, by some kind of television miracle, 47 years later we're still hear talking about Vicki and the surprising places her journey took her... and far, far beyond Vicki's own journeys ... to the shadow of a tall dark man with tragic eyes named Barnabas Collins.

Happy Birthday DS!

G.

Black Sunday is an exquisite film.  And there are some elements that could well have inspired some themes in DS, particularly the Angelique/Alexis storyline in Parallel Time 1970, but there are other elements too.

G.