Well, I think that in hoDS as originally shot, the "human" dimensions of Barnabas' affection for Julia were present to a degree... The script excerpt for the scene in which Julia and Barnabas take a stroll together, in particular, makes one wish that that scene had wound up in the final edit of the film.  At least we have the stills and the script.

In the final edit, there is, to all intents and purposes, NO character development in the movie.  I'm afraid that DC took this aspect as the pattern for the dreadful episode of the 1991 series where Barnabas commits three murders in the space of about ten minutes, to an ultimately absurd effect.  I'll never forget poor Julianna McCarthy's hysterical mugging in her death scene opposite Ben Cross... both thesps deserved far better than this travesty.

The same can be said, IN SPADES, for Messrs Frid, Hall, Thayer David and the other principle plays in hoDS.

G.

This past weekend, I rented from an unusually well-stocked local store the vol. 6 DVD collection of the popular Patrick McGoohan series, Secret Agent (British title Danger Man), whose US theme song was such a huge hit on the charts back in 1965.

I was surprised in the third episode on the disc, "Have a glass of wine" (original US air date: August 28, 1965) to spot a strangely familiar looking hatchet-faced old lady yelling at McGoohan in one brief scene when he came bursting into her farmhouse.

A careful examination of the credits revealed that she was none other than our own Bathia Mapes, Anita Bolster, here credited as Anita Sharp Bolster.

I had no idea that Bolster worked in the UK.  Was she English by birth?

G.

I'm hearing sound fx of "shattering Glass."

G.

I personally prefer Marlowe.  And John Webster... the Duchess of Malfi is a fabulous play, perhaps one of the very greatest plays in the English language.

Not to say that Willie the Shake is chopped liver, of course.

G.

Hi Sandor!  welcome to the Madhouse.

Maybe we can feed the Mysterious Benefactor some Belgian chocolate and persuade him to put Don's *hot* 16 magazine spread up here.

It's always good to have another Briscoe fan here!

Steve

Luciaphil, I've said it before but I'll say it again--I *love* what you did with the character of Edith in your Education of Judith Collins series.  Would love to see more of the series at some point.  I found it a wonderfully subtle work of literature--psychologically very complex.

I haven't seen the episode in which Edith is inducted into the coven by Gerard in many years.  I remember it as being a lot more off-the-cuff than I would have liked.  It should have been shocking and blasphemous, but it felt like Edith going for a roll in the hay with snaggle-toothed, well-hung Mr. G., followed by an invitation to join his canasta club the following Wednesday.

Like I said, it's been years, but that's how I remember it.

I was disappointed that Edith seemed to fall in love with Gerard.  I thought she should have been shown to have been enjoyed the cheap thrills he afforded in the sack, but I inferred her real interest to have been in the powers to which he gave her access.  Seems to make better sense with what we saw of Edith in 1897, but the writers seem to have been going on their usual assumption that we all had amnesia about that.  After all, it had been two years before, and as Ronnie Reagan once sputtered (in a scene that presumably will be snipped out of that troublesome docudrama), "who can remember what they were doing two years ago?"  or two hours ago, Ronnie.

G.

Gerard, you have a fiercely ruling, gloriously twisted sense of humor!

thanks for the Thursday morning chuckle.  It was sorely needed.

Steve

There is a line of dialogue in Cassandra's very first episode in 1968 where she is talking to Barn's portrait and she informs him that she would never have found out that he had escaped her curse, if it had not been for Victoria Winters' time trip to 1795.

That's really all the info we are given.  It seems to be implied that Ange is working through a noncorporeal form, first through her portrait, then possessing Roger, until she (we presume from dialogue many weeks later between Cass and Nicky) she makes a "bargain" with Nicholas and Diabolos/Balberith and is able to return in flesh form as Cassandra.  I also recall a line or two about how much Cassandra is enjoying being in a body again--it may have been one of Nicholas' comments about why she is so obviously dragging her feet.

FWIW, I recall that at the time of the original b'cast, I simply accepted that the Angelique who appeared in 1840 was somehow the "original" Angelique who lacked knowledge of the future because for her, it simply had not happened yet.  I was never one of those who kept DS diaries, so a lot of the inconsistencies I notice watching it on VHS as an adult went right over my head at the time.

G.