Another fun one is "Dracula's Daughter" also produced by Joe Meek in 1964.  The vocalist on this gem is "Screaming Lord Sutch" who continued on to quite a career after Joe Meek's death in 1967:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvutGdUYGJw&feature=related

Enjoy!

G.

Fans,

here's a brilliant youtube clip (no video to speak of; just photo of the original 45) of the Joe Meek-produced instrumental, "Night of the Vampire," by "The Moon-trekkers" (I don't think the band had an existence outside of Meek's London studio), released in 1961:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oBFIwB5rA&feature=related

Apart from the vampire connection, the ending of this song reminds me of the ending of house of Dark Shadows--you'll hear flapping batwings and a strangulated shriek.  The screeching electric guitars are very Blue Whale-esque, too.

Fun stuff!

G.

Some of what derailed it had to do with other projects that cast members left to pursue.  Both Thayer David and Dennis Patrick left halfway through to do movie projects.  It was because Dennis Patrick was unavailable that Dan Curtis (or whoever was guiding the plot at the time) came up with that stupid thing with that other ghost. 

The other thing that seriously messed it up is that they changed track abruptly twice during the storyline--first, in response to hate mail from fans, they began to make Barnabas more sympathetic and resistant to the Leviathans much earlier than originally planned.  And then, again because of hate mail but also, I suspect, because of the shooting schedule for the first movie, the storyline was hastily wrapped up a month or two earlier than originally planned.

I still find Leviathans perhaps the most fascinating storyline just because they really tried to do something different.  For all its faults, after Leviathans the stories basically re-hashed what had worked before--the Angelique thing in PT 1970 (which I do love because it was so stylish and had such great scenery-chewing opportunities once they brought the regulars back), the ghosts and possession and Satanism, etc. in Summer of 1970 and 1840. 

Nevertheless, I mustn't forget the brief sojourn in 1995.  *That* was really bizarre, even by DS standaards!  Sy Tomashoff and the crew deserved Emmies for what they did with the sets for those two weeks!

G.

I wish I could attend, but I'm not going out for this year's event.

I still cherish my memories of getting to see the missing footage, particularly the seance sequence.  Glad to hear you have much such progress with the restoration!

cheers!  G.

I just have to say I have been relieved to see that classic and cult releases have continued to be in DVD format.  I actually haven't heard of any cult material being released in Blu Ray, though I think that Tim Lucas may have wrote a piece on his "Video Watchblog" a couple of months ago about a foreign Blue Ray (or digital high-definitiion DVD format?) release of Horror of Dracula that had mind-blowingly crisp definition.  I have to confess that I am on the fence about digital restoration since it seems to "restore" vivid color schemes that were never seen in ANY previous generation of a classic film.  On the other hand, they do look very pretty on the slightly more state-of-the-art playback equipment I acquired two years ago (mind you, I'm far from getting one of those giant rectangular gizmos suspended from the ceiling by designer kryptonite chains).

There was a report the other day about one of the big labels issuing the Cushing/Lee classic "The Gorgon" as part of a fourpack.  The Paul Massie "Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll" (which features what I personally regard as one of Christopher Lee's better performances of the period) is also going to be in this new set.
 
I don't know whether it would be worth upgrading to something more finely-defined than the existing DVDs.  Sometimes, the grain of the original video master gives the product a very raw look to my eyes, as it is.

G.

Goober, I am cackling wildly at the thought of your swinging Julia's medallion in front of your folks while murmuring "Find the center of the light!" and somebody shrieking "Dear God, that thing is Satan's own bauble!"

I watch WAY too many hyper-melodramatic old movies... (I have been watching the wonderful old Boris Karloff "Thriller" series--I highly recommend it to all fans of DS!)

G.

Last month, I received the DVD sets volumes 20 and 21.  Last night I finally had the chance to sit down and watch a little bit.  I was intrigued to see that Joe Caldwell was interviewed twice (as was Paula Laurence--her interview made me regret never having gotten to meet her, particularly since she was a friend of Grayson and Sam Hall's). 

It turns out that Joe Caldwell got the gig of writing for DS because he was at Yale and knew Ron Sproat.  When Ron started writing for the series, he wasn't always to get his assigned scripts done, so he would turn some of them over to Joe. Eventually Dan learned what was going on and liked Joe's work well enough to invite him to join the staff, which happened around the time of the first Laura Collins story.

Among the best writers for DS so far as I am concerned were Francis Swann (an author of Gothic novels, some of which you can buy cheaply enough on eBay or Amazon vendor), Malcolm Marmorstein, Joe Caldwell, and Violet Welles.  Violet also got her start ghost writing for a member of the regular staff--Gordon Russell.  I suspect that Violet wrote all of Gordon Russell's final batch of scripts for the series as well, because she mentions going back to the show at the very end and all those shows have Gordon's name on them.  I don't know whether Violet was interviewed for any of the DVDs.  Violet, according to a print interview that I believe was published by Dale Clark many moons ago, created the character of Count Petofi.

G.

Of course, I heartily agree.  Grayson was Goddess! 

Taeylor, if you've never seen it, please please please get hold of SATAN IN HIGH HEELS.  Every Grayson Hall fan deserves hir own personal copy of that movie!

Though released in 1962, it was filmed around Nov. of 1960.

G.