Liz couldn't have been carrying on a dual identity as Betty H.  Betty was the daughter of "Hanscomb," the butler.  I'm probably the only person who ever longed for a flashback to the 1940s so we could see Hanscomb in all his glory (I'm thinking something along the lines of Gosford Park here) presiding over a bevy of parlormaids and valets.  And a proper kitchen staff with a stout red-faced cook and a team of staff to assist.

I thought they seemed to be leading up to having Vicki be the illegitimate child of Betty, possibly by an affair with Roger.  But the affair could have been between Liz and Hanscomb.  It's true that Joan Bennett stated at a number of fan events in the 1980s that she had been told, or understood, that Vicki was meant to be Liz's natural daughter.  The way a number of scenes between the two were written and played definitely implies that to me.

G.

It's available on Amazon and one of their "vendors" is selling it new for $12.48 plus shipping.

I am afraid with material of this nature, you sometimes have to just buy the thing if you want to see it.  Unless you live in a city like Boston or San Francisco where you may be able to find it in some of the few some independent rental stores left out there (a dying breed, sadly).

FYI, I think the DVD release of this movie may be from a public domain print and thus not very good quality.  Something was posted here about it last y ear when it came out.  Check Seizure in the search engine on the site.

cheers, G.

Hi Lydia,

I certainly remember The Forsyte Saga, although I don't remember actually seeing any episodes.  A friend of mine sent me the entire series on VHS a couple of years ago, and I had time to watch the first two parts, then put it away for a long winter night that has yet to materialize.  Stellar work all round, though.  And the cast was incredible.

G.

Wow, how exciting.  Like MB I also saw some of this when it was originally on Masterpiece Theatre, and was also wowed by Tyzack.  I think she'd been in The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R, as well. 

Now, when will the BBC release Notorious Woman, a six part serial about the life of novelist George Sand, with similar 1840s vibes and costumes?  I've never forgotten Rosemary Harris' luminous thesping in the title role.

G.

Have a wonderful day filled with joy, sweet Claude!  I miss you.

cheers, Steve

Doug, check Good Will and Salvation Army stores or consignment shops (we used to call these "junk shops') in your area for the DS paperbacks.  You should be able to find them for a buck or two each.  They're really only worth collecting for the covers, IMNSHO.  There was a website somewhere that had a gallery of the covers, I believe.

As for issue one of the DS Gold Key comic, it's only worth that kind of money if the poster is still in it.  I would say it's still not worth more than say ten dollars, but people will pay these crazy sums to complete their collections.

You really have to see the panel in which some creature labelled as Cassandra Collins appears. Between that and the artist evidently believing that Julia was a drag queen afflicted with acromegaly and Quentin was portrayed by Engelbert Humperdinck (the Tasmanian pop singer), well, the less said the better!  And then, there are the actual scripts for those books--oo la la.

G.

Re Tarantino:  I checked on the IMDB and he currently has a film in production.  So, no, he's not washed up; just a laughingstock among hipsters in Cambridge, Mass.  (a fate he shares with many among the great and good).

I'm sure that Fritz Lang only stopped by the DS set because Joan Bennett was a friend of his (he called her "lazy legs" and apparently the nickname stuck to the point where they used it in, I think, Scarlet Street).  KLS in her first book which is now long out of print said that when Lang was visiting the set, he "made a few lighting suggestions" which were instantly used.  I thought THAT was very cool.

G.