Hi Connie!  Sorry, I just saw this question from you today.  I'll check and let you know.

cheers, Steve

Very interesting.  I'd never heard such frank quotes from Dan Curtis about how desperate he was to wind up Dark Shadows during the final year.  It really seems to support the theory I've promoted for years that Dan himself was being DS's cancellation.

The reviewer doesn't say so, but in my opinion John Llewelyn Moxey was a very gifted, highly imaginative director.  He also directed The House that would not die--an unusual vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck, based on the Barbara Michaels novel Ammie come home-- for the ABC Movie of the Week series, among several other films.  Horror hotel is one of my desert island films; it's so stylish, and has fabulous, idiosyncratic performances.

G.

Thanks, MB!

Apart from that episode, she was pretty much invariably called Josette Collins in the '66/'67 shows.  I don't think we found out she was originally Josette du Pres until the 1795 storyline.

G.

It was episode 70.  Her maiden name was not du Pres originally--I've been wanting to look this up for you. It was something like Franiere, I think?

Patti, vampires were big business in 1902.  I believe the first stage dramatization of Dracula was around this time; Melies made some vampire themed films, and of course, the novel Dracula, originally published in 1897, continued to sell briskly.  Vampires figured in the early 19th century paintings of Henry Fuseli, and a big bestseller during the "penny dreadful" craze of the 1840s was the very long thriller, Varney the Vampire (which includes some themes familiar to DS viewers, such as a mysterious old portrait to which the vampire bears a curious resemblance).  Moving forward a bit, some readers feel that the best vampire tale of all remains the novella, Carmilla, by the Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu.  It has been filmed several times and was first published in 1871!

Arencha glad ya asked!

G.

Why should MPI "care" about anything other than selling DVDs?

As Grayson used to say, the thing about show business is, it's a BUSINESS.  (and she was a socialist!)

I wonder how good the sales on the old "Collectors Edition" VHS tapes were?  My guess is that among other things, they're hoping to generate some buzz for product that's viewed as not moving terribly well in the first place with the pre-Barn shows.

On with the motley!

G.

Oh I'm a bad fan and I don't have time to look up this character's name, but I REALLY wish we had seen the gent Liz wanted to come back to work for her in 1966.  He had been a beau of hers, but she wasn't interested... at the time.

I think it would have been cool if the stylish gentleman from Boston Sam mentions in his wrap-up of the storyline, who comes to Collinwood and eventually marries Liz, would have been this person.

It would have been fun to have had Mrs Johnson's daughter come for a visit.  Characters we only saw once but needed to see a lot more of--Portia Fitzsimmons tops the list!

G.

Thanks for the prompt report, Bette and all!

I read in an advertisement that the Iguana disc is supposed to include "archival commentary from John Huston."  Is that an audio track you access from a menu, or do they mean film footage included in the feature on him?

If you look carefully, you can catch glimpses of Grayson (no good shot of her and I don't think you really see her face clearly) in the "On the trail of the Iguana" featurette.

Steve