I think it's Danish. Nice that they are hosting the film.

G.

Ah yes, the little known fact that thanks to technological advances, the Collins family in the 1980s pioneered the commercial growth of date palms in Collinsport... Maine residents found it all baffling, but everybody pretended not to notice.

G.

OH! and Christopher Pennock as Gabriel was marvelous--finally, Pennock was given a role worthy of his talents. His scenes were great fun.

G.

What about Count Petofi? I'm not sure if "opportunist" is the right word to describe the Count--it does not seem sufficiently grandiose for that magnificent schemer and manipulator.

He did say "I have but one God, and his name is Petofi," and I don't think he was joking.

It's been over a decade since I last watched 1840. My memory is that when Gerard comes on, he is a charming rogue with some minor psychic powers (healing Flora of her headaches... that was such a trippy scene) who has spun a yarn to the family about his travels with Quentin. He definitely had his own personality, one which I would describe as deceitful and devious but not full-on malevolent. Wasn't Gerard initially a friend of Letitia's? I remember a couple of scenes between them that showed more of himself than he wanted to reveal to the family.

I thought James Storm did a good job, all things considered, in the role. I know people who live for Storm's unique enunciation of that fateful name... MIRRRRRAAAAANDAAAAHHH!

G.

The painting of Quentin's portrait is a significant element in the second half of 1897, the part where Count Petofi is the main villain.

MB I definitely agree that omitting Jason and those incredible episodes with those great scenes between him and Liz (which gives the lie to folks who say that Joan Bennett wasn't any good on DS) is unforgivable. I barely glanced at the article so did not really think very much about what they were suggesting.

G.

The 1840 storyline played out somewhat similarly to the 1897 one in terms of foreshadowing in "the present" that did not play out once everyone was back in 19th century times. In 1897, the discontinuity wasn't quite so blatant, in part because they spent eight months (or was it nine) moving through what they wound up with. Those in charge of the show simply presumed that the viewers at home wouldn't recall what had been shown during the lead-up in Dec. 1968-March 1969. In all fairness, they did try to explain some of the disparities, but at one point either Barnabas or Julia told one bewildered character "We can't answer ALL the questions now." And as usual when they told Professor Stokes or Maggie that they would "explain later"... they never did.

With 1840 it was a more compacted timeline that was complicated by some real life developments. David Henesy left the show, so the Tad character went off to boarding school or a relative's home (I can't recall which). Jonathan Frid ALMOST left. Grayson had to leave because of an in-law's death and I think she had minor plastic surgery at one point. But she did come back.

Fans were following all of it really closely and it was glaringly obvious to those of us watching that the various "clues" about the Java Queen, Rose Cottage, Gerard and Daphne's shipboard romance, etc. formed a trail that led to precisely nothing once everyone had arrived in 1840.

G.

I apologize to the moderators for how many times variations on the word "eye" appeared in my post.

G.