The announcer mentioned that the original recording of the DS theme was accomplished on "a Yamaha keyboard with a string attached" because they couldn't find a theremin player in NYC.  Fascinating!  I had never heard that.

Is "House of Despair" a title given to one of the DS cues, Midnite?  I really need to pick up that big box set...

xo G.

I just love Maggie's line to Vicki about that lovely hair of yours turning "one glorious shade of grey" after her stay at the Great House.

What a wonderful start to the series!  And if asked why we're still watching forty-five years later, we can all quote the Mistress of Collinwood:  "Because I *choose* to do so!"

cheers, G.

Happy 45, DS.  Here's looking at you, kid.

*raising glass*

Gothique

Love the photo.  Looks as if her Angelique (or dare one hope, Cassandra?) will have an edge of Morticia Addams...

G.

That's uncanny--that we're repeating the same days of the week as in 1966--

Glad to see the Watching Project will continue!

G.

A distraught, slightly drunken Roger confronts Elizabeth in the drawing room:

"But why turn to WEED, Liz?  Why???"

An arched eyebrow, a disdainful moue of the heavily lacquered lips, a pouting grimace as she turns, gives him a freezing look, and says:  "Because I *choose* to do so."

Actually, Cousin B, I think your comments about Liz and her pain are very astute and on the mark.  Which is why, when the pain went beyond even her power to bear, Liz seriously contemplated taking a certain step during that harrowing month of June 1967.... 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

G.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't actually know whether there will or won't be use of the Old House in the new movie's story.  All we know is that it was not mentioned in the press release synopsis.  I'd be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that there were some MAJOR ellipses in that synopsis... knowing what I do of the oeuvre and m. o. of Mr. Tim Burton.

Also, it's not clear that the "ruined" Collinwood will stimulate Barnabas to make a trip in time to change family history and restore the manor to its former grandeur.  We really know very little how things are set to play out in this redaction once Barnabas is released from his coffin.

Forgive me if I'm being too flippant, but I actually had a really strong image in my mind when the green friend was mentioned of a weary, heartbroken Liz alone in her boudoir, wearing that gorgeous deep blue dressing-gown, taking some long slow tokes on a doob at the end of an elegant holder.

In the psychiatric profession today, they refer to this sort of thing as "self-medicating," I believe.

G.

Every time I see a shot like this one, MB, I thank the gods somebody made DC hire Arthur Ornitz as the cinematographer on this movie.  I think it is thanks to Ornitz that there are a few classic moments of style, atmosphere, and subtly evocative terror--not to mention some gorgeous use of color and shadow--in the movie.

G.