MB, I think an excellent example of what you were talking about with less-than-stellar performers sharing screen space with excellent ones who then make an amazing moment of what seems on the surface to be unpromising dross is the sequence where [spoiler]Jeff Clark goes to Professor Stokes to learn how to regress back through to the Eighteenth century.[/spoiler]

I've been meaning to track that scene down again for years--I've only viewed it a couple of times, but my memory is that Thayer brought real magic to that moment.  His invocation to the powers of the herbs is one of the rare instances where DS came close to an accurate reflection of a serious magickal practice.

G.

To Ian and others who have never seen house of DS--

be aware that it's much more like a late Sixties low budget vampire flick (with a gore quota comparable to, say, Hammer's Taste the blood of Dracula, but far less stylistic finesse) than it is the series we all know and love.  The movie is populated by people with names like "Barnabas Collins," "Julia Hoffman" and "Eliot Stokes" who exist as characters only because of the superb non-verbal acting ability of the artists portraying them.  Nearly every scene, dialogue sequence or set-piece that actually established the people in the movie as characters was axed in favor of a higher gore content (slo-mo stakings, close-ups of blood running, etc.)  I well remember that as I walked into the theatre back in the Summer of 1970, I heard one person ask his friend "So, what'd you think?" and the other man's reply:  "Lots of teeth, lots of blood."  I still think of this single sentence as the ideal review of house of Dark Shadows.  They could use it in the New York Times television section.

Grayson does look fabou throughout, of course.  Love the bed-head do!  And the costumes in the ball sequence, though we see everything far too briefly, are the most lavish and exquisite yet.  The one for Barnabas was used on the show subsequently, and I think one or two others as well.

G.

Hey, Julia, I hope you include the dialogue when Peggy tells the Keach character that their meeting was "veddy Noel Coward."

After you get past the shock value of the rest of it, in some ways it's a brilliant moment.  I also love the short scene where he finds her on the beach (I believe this was actually filmed in Great Barrington, Mass.).

Best, Steve

Connie dear, that's adorable!

Many thanks for all the good wishes! I surely do appreciate them.

G.

Another stellar element of the 1840 storyline is Chris Pennock's work as Gabriel Collins.  By far Pennock's most nuanced, emotionally plausible characterization on the series, I think.

I also enjoy John Karlen's work as Kendrick Young in PT 1841 because it is so unlike anything else he did on the series.  He gets to play the young romantic hero--more in the vein of Jane Austen than Bronte (that's Frid as Bramwell--even his name is Brontean), I think.  His courting scenes with Nancy Barrett are adorable, and of course I love watching him cross swords with Grayson's acid-tongued Aunt Julia.

G.

Thanks, again, to all of you for wishing me well!  I had a lovely day.

Jean-Claude, you know you're KIILLING me with that card!

cheers, G.

I just love the selection of snapshots from Episode 21 on today's slideshow.  It almost seems like the theme is "Dark Shadows Salutes the Bright Lights of Broadway"!  In the first one, it looks as if Burke and "friend" are singing "I Whistle a Happy Tune" from "The King and I."  The second one could be Vicki and Carolyn doing that big number from "West Side Story," "I have a love" (I'm probably getting the title wrong), while the third one has to be Collinwood's unique version of "How you solve a problem like Maria" from "The Sound of Music."  (Don't you think Liz would be a natural as a Mother Superior.)

I'm not sure which big B'way hits involve telephones so I am at a loss to come up something with the final shot of Burke on the phone.

G.

The original bat in 1795 is what in Ceremonial Magic is often called a Servitor.  It is a being fashioned out of the Sacred Elements in combination with the Will of the Magician and exists to perform specific tasks.  In Angelique's case, she created it to spy on Barnabas and be her eyes and ears where she was not present.  When you create one, you are supposed to be very specific and sensible craftsmen with solid training will usually give a specific date or circumstance for the dissolution or "death" of the creature so it doesn't run around wreaking havoc after it's done what you wanted.  They often take the form of mythological animals such as griffins or unicorns but such beasts as cats or bats are also popular. Somewhat confusingly, there is another tradition of a Witch creating a cat, a bat, a bird, a wolf or other animal as her "Fetch."  It is linked to her life essence and if it is harmed, the Witch can suffer harm as well.  There is a story about this in the Silver John stories written from Appalachian folklore by one of the old writers--Manly Wade Wellman, maybe?  And some folklore was collected in a recent volume on faery and werewolf legends by a French scholar that has been published in English.

When Jeb summoned the Bat from Hell during the Leviathan period, that bat was clearly of demonic nature.  I think that technically speaking, it was a critter of a very different kind from Ange's bat in 1795.  Of course both were played by the same Bil Baird puppet, and I'm sure I have written far more than anyone wanted to know on this subject.

cheers, Gothick