There are beautiful new DVD issues of both VotD and Beyond the VotD.  I enjoyed the latter for the songs and the completely way-out situations and characters.  It was fascinating to learn from the DVD that Roger Ebert is actually PROUD of having written Beyond the VotD--I'd always assumed that he had devoutly hoped that his connection to that movie would be buried in obscurity.  Beyond the VotD also features an appearance by the Strawberry Alarm Clock, whose anthemic song "Incense and Peppermints" was very much a part of the vaguely occult late Sixties groove in which DS became so widely celebrated back in the day.  (Although Beyond ... dates to the early 1970s, the band are seen performing "Incense," a top ten hint in 1967, at a party sequence.)

I guess we now have definitive documentation that the MB does NOT like camp, since he has gone on record dissing both Beyond... AND Myra Breckinridge--two of the campiest movies ever produced!

cheers, G.

Well.

Trying really really hard to be tactful here.... I think it is just as well that Dan Curtis never directed ANY version of VotD (it's interesting to note that Jean Simmons played Susan Hayward's role in the early 1980s telefilm remake--I commented to someone that Jean seemed to be stuck doing "remakes on behalf of other dead divas" when she got Joan Bennett's role on the Shadows remake).  I don't think Curtis' skill set (again, trying to be tactful) was in any way suited to the material of Jackie Susann's novel.  Mark Robson was considered a wretched director by those who worked with him on VotD, by the way.  According to Patty Duke's memoirs, Robson was brutal with the actors and had poor Sharon Tate constantly in tears because he treated her as  little more than a talking mannequin throughout the shoot.

I would cast Briscoe as Mel and Crothers as Tony.  I think Grayson would have been better as Tony's sister--the Lee Grant role.  I think it would have been more fun and shocking to have Joan Bennett as Helen Lawson, although Joan might not have wished to violate her gracious public image with a role that had such a "hard inner core."  (I keep my tape of Suspiria just for the dialogue where Joan rants "I want you to kill that American bitch, NOW!")  I think based on Karlen's performance as writer Will Loomis, he would have been great as Ted Casablanca although I would have wanted the role to get more screen time than was the case in the final cut of VotD.  Karlen could work a flamboyant edge.  And to Janet the Wicked, it doesn't impugn an actor's masculinity to say that he can play gay convincingly. Quite the reverse, I would say.  There's a reason why we call it acting, dear.  But I'll stay off my soapbox ... for now.

I've referred to the characters at Collinwood reading VotD the novel more than once in my own fan fiction.  I think it would have been a hoot to have shown the book on Liz's night table in one of her boudoir scenes.  In one of those scenes where Carolyn tries reading to her mother to calm her nerves when Cassandra has been giving her nightmares, it would have been great if she had picked up some thick tome and recited, "You'd have to climb Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the dolls."  I think Nancy would have been SPECTACULAR as Neely.

G.

Mistress Laura sounds like a kick.  I'd love to hear her show!

G.

Happy Birthday!

Many happy returns!

Steve

I absolutely agree, MB!  Thayer is the best Nero Wolfe ever.

My heartbreak whenever I watch the film is how healthy and vigorous he seems to be in it. Who knew he would be dead before another year had passed?

G.

Only the first twenty-one weeks were available on video.  It lasted a total of 39 weeks.  The last 13 weeks were by far the weakest.  Nearly all the shows were written by this one New York based writer (his name escapes me, but he later became quite big in New York soaps and I think became a protege of Agnes Nixon's) who just didn't have the right feel for the characters or the situations.

G.

MB, the woman who played Cal actually reminded me of Lisa Richards in Sabrina's more "out there" moments.  Since Richards obviously developed considerable chops (or at least became very widely employed after her work on DS), it's possible that this other actress also went on to better things.

Tudi Wiggins did indeed play Erica Desmond on SP.  In a subsequent storyline, she played another character, Helena Raleigh, and in true DS fashion, people kept mistaking Helena or actually ACCUSING her of really being Erica. It's a hoot!

We lost Tudi last year, as I think David posted.  I believe cancer was to blame.

G.