This old thread used to involve NoDS. So I'll just write a little note to say that last night, I finally watched the DVD issue of NoDS. It is actually the first time I have sat through the entire film in around three decades, I think. I used to fast forward through a lot of it when I'd get out the videotape (please don't take away my fan card).

I really felt as if I were watching it for the first time because the picture was so crisp and the color, outstandingly, was far superior to my old tape which was derived from a 1990s laserdisc. I thought the DVD aspect ratio was superior as well to the laserdisc version.  The movie was just stunningly beautiful to watch, even though the story about two thirds of the way through dissolved into an incomprehensible mess.

I found myself more baffled than ever by the state in which this was released to the public. The MGM suits bear full responsibility for their ridiculous demand that the Dan and Sam re-edit the movie over a weekend. If they'd been given more time to re-edit, it's possible that the result would have been more coherent. I think the movie starts to fall apart at the point when it gets to the titular "Night of Dark Shadows," when Claire and Alex have come back from NYC with the old portrait of Charles (I'd forgotten that was ever seen in the movie at all). There are some startlingly sloppy edits in the movie from that point on--looks as if the tech was re-cutting it with the end of a very blunt razor blade.

As the movie further unwound and the numerous narrative drop-outs accumulated, I became acutely aware that the average viewer must have had no idea at all what was going on. I don't have the energy to enumerate all the missing material that results in the whole point of the story simply being removed. Darren's done incredible work documenting all of it.

The most puzzling gaffe for me were a couple of really abrupt edits/shot switches in the sequence of the ghost Angelique's attack on Alex. I think those must have been the result of some technical difficulties in filming the sequence that Curtis ran out of time to resolve. But who knows? Maybe they removed something significant that happened in the sequence. And the result was those weirdly off-base edits. Hackwork.

Another odd note--I don't really have time or opportunity to check, but I'm sure a brief music cue was missing from the DVD print. I remember it occurring when Quentin and Tracy have arrived at Collinwood at the beginning, and the p.o.v. switches to somebody (presumably Angelique's ghost) looking down from an upper window. On that shot, there used to be a brief cue that was heard. The shot played in silence on my disc.

Thanks to the fact that I watched it from beginning to end for once, I saw many beautiful shots of Grayson I didn't recall from those long-ago sessions with it. That was maybe the best gift of all. I'm so sorry that the climactic moment of her performance in the movie is gone now.

But there's always the trailers...

cheers, G.

For fans of the 1991 series-- this message was sent to me from a friend who has been digitizing his MPI videotapes (I think he is mainly focusing on the "extended" material, but he may be doing all of it--not sure). He writes:

While I was tinkering with the MPI Home Video extended cut of the DS ’91 pilot, I noticed a small blooper I had never spotted before.  Was particularly amused, because it actually occurs while the opening credits are rolling.  The credits are displayed across several shots, including Juliana McCarthy’s first appearance on the show.  She walks down a hallway in Collinwood, then enters a room and speaks to Elizabeth.  Seconds before Juliana utters her first line in the entire series, a boom mike very clearly passes through the shot at the top of the screen.  Seems almost appropriate that a reboot of DS would include this sort of gaffe within its first 90 seconds!

Out of curiosity, I viewed the same sequence in the DVD release of the episode, and the gaffe is not there.  Even though I have the DVD set which presents the series in the correct aspect ratio, they cropped the image in that shot just slightly to excise the errant microphone.  And, honestly, I don’t blame them.  While I’m a big proponent of presenting programs exactly as they aired, one of the goals in preparing prints for DVD release is to give them the best presentation possible.  When possible, this would include removing any editing errors (provided doing so doesn’t substantially impact the presentation of the episode).  So, the folks behind this DVD release actually did a very good job.  Still, I wish they had left the gaffe in, as it’s almost an homage to the original DS (unintentional as it may have been).

G.

Article about Cal Beck and the Psycho connection:

http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2016/10/17/the-other-psycho-will-the-real-norman-bates-please-stand-up/

G.

Really, MB? As far as I was concerned, Monster Times was a huge improvement over FM. Even better was Castle of Frankenstein, but that was published very intermittently and was hard to find.

Here's a 1970 issue of CoF featuring a 1969 photo of Quentin on the cover:

https://www.zomboscloset.com/zombos_closet_of_horror_b/2015/03/castle-of-frankenstein-issue-15.html

G.

It says that after the initial load onto the on-demand network, it will eventually run on something called the Paramount Network. I have no idea what any of it is. Stuff you watch on your phone or computer but if you have the right parameters, you can screen it on the device that sits on that plinth in your living room.

I just put a bookcase where my TV used to be. Happiness!

G.

For various reasons, this truly obscure ultra-low budget exploitation film from 1972 kept making me think of DS. After about 15 minutes, I found myself wondering if the working title for the movie had been something like The Reincarnation of Leona Eltridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Q5TAAxMm0&t=6s

It says somewhere that at least one of the actors appeared in a Russ Meyers film, so it's not surprising that there is some female nudity involved. The script makes references to, or simply steals from, such earlier films as House of Wax, Psycho, and numerous "hot co-ed" features of the era.

Most of the performers seem to be reciting lines off cue-cards which in itself gives a certain familiar vibe, but "Miss Leslie'"s performance had moments of genuine pathos. Really insane, off-the-wall pathos. Again, let's call it the Collinwood effect.

cheers, G.

I remember back around 20 years ago two different people who were responsible adults being completely unaware that the old LPs of Donovan and the Beatles had been released on CD and had been available for years. They were quite surprised to learn about this when I told them.

I'm definitely out of the loop about a lot of current tech so I do feel sympathy for the woman. One of my recurrent nightmares is winding up having to stay somewhere where I have to talk to "Alexa" to get the lights to come on or to find my music for me. I know a lot of people like the convenience but the whole idea of this just seems like Hell on wheels to me.

cheers, G.

That's a really nice photo of Diana at the studio, presumably in 1967. Never saw that one.

The shot of Hugh Franklin with James Hall looks like a shot from a stage play. Very cool!

G.