Well, Cassandra Blair, I haven't seen most of the Kolchak shows since their initial airing, back in the Seventies.  I do have this one on tape and I'm actually rather fond of it.

Lara has some great moments, and it's fun to see her onscreen with the great Nina Foch, who some might describe as the 1940's answer to Lara Parker.

Foch's performance always seems to me to echo that of Susan Hayward in Valley of the Dolls, another personal favorite.

I actually find the effect with the mannequins to be rather eerie.  YMMV.

Gothick

Just blame that bizarre archduchess's jewellery-chest known as my mind, Cassandra darling.  One of my favorite pieces of writing is "The Perfect Filmic Apotheosis of Maria Montez," by the late Jack Smith.  He regarded a bit of dialogue from Cobra Woman, "Give me that cobra jewel" (which comes out sound more like "GEEF me that copa-rah chewel") as the most perfect line in American cinema, perhaps even world cinema.  I think that Jack Smith's ideas about movies and culture were the source for the opinions Myra expressed in her classes in Gore Vidal's "classic" Sixties novel, Myra Breckinridge (I'm sure Liz and Julia were reading it behind closed doors at Collinwood in 1968).

I still think it's mega-weird that it looks as if Josette's dress is torn.  And, those colors!  bizarro.  The red chosen for the artist's sig is particularly excruciating.  Mary, turn off those sirens!

Gothick having a difficult Friday

Darling Mysterioso, thanks for these great photos!  Love Grayson's smiles.  Mikey don't look bad, I must say.  A graduate from the Roger Davis school of squinting thespianism (tm).

IIRC, Dana Elcar has this great scene where he's talking about the movie, the Graduate, and complains that it just doesn't add up to a hill of beans.

I would love to hear Mikey's stories about working with Grayson.

Steve

Have been meaning to note that Grayson got a one month vacation during this period of DS (I gather that she told them that if Jonathan was getting one, she needed one as well!)  Part of the time was spent working on a little known feature film, Adam at 6 A. M.  Below I've pasted in the review of the movie I wrote for IMDB. Even though Grayson's scenes are few and far between, it's worth seeing her in action here.

Gothick

The hard life of Mikey Douglas--an early chapter

This is a very early Michael (or as he was popularly known then, Mikey) Douglas vehicle. He plays a disillusioned college professor of the late Sixties (there seem to have been so many of them scurrying about in those days!) who drops out of his successful, stressful life in the big city to go in a search for his roots in a not-so-idyllic midwestern small town. The story plods along, showing his courtship of a rather status-proud Junior Miss type whose Mom (wonderfully etched by Louise Latham) is the town hairdresser, and his adventures in serious male bonding with Joe Don Baker and other flannel clad logger types. Grayson Hall has an excellent cameo role as his aunt, and gets to administer a deft put-down of Douglas' masculine vanity towards the end. In some ways the last 30 seconds is the best part of the movie. Overall not at all a bad effort. To quote Maggie Smith in a movie that is much more suitable to this writer's temperament, "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing that they like." I did make liberal use of the fast forward button in viewing "Adam at Six A. M."

Well, he and Nancy do have wonderful chemistry together as Desmond and Leticia, and, to some degree, in the 1841 PT segment as Kendrick and Melanie.

It's just that in my twisted mind, that pales before the scenario I've concocted that takes place in between the acts with Desmond and Quentin!

Happy Ostara to you and yours, btw.  I pray that a few daffodils will grow, somehow, somewhere, in a quiet green field where no bombs ever fall.

Steve

So, Jennifer, don't you wish Tim would take his shirt off some time???

I just mourn that we don't get to see more of Don Briscoe's hot body during the remainder of his time on DS!  There used to be some gorgeous snaps of him from the house of DS film on Michael Miozza's lovely website devoted to the films.

Gothick

Jennifer thanks for noting this.  I watched Night Gallery religiously back in the original b'cast.  There are a lot of them I haven't seen since.  One of my top faves is "Since Aunt Ada came to stay."  When I was living in Taiwan, at some point I was walking down a street.  I happened to pass a TV store and they were running NG (with Chinese subtitles, of course!) and it was Aunt Ada.  I remember I stood there and watched the entire show standing in front of that shop.  Nobody bothered me, of course, I was just the crazy foreigner watching telly on the street.

"Certain Shadows on the Wall" with the fabulous Grayson Hall in an incredible cast (Agnes Moorehead, Louis Heyward, and Rachel Roberts) is another top fave, and so is Return of the Sorceror with Bill Bixby, Vincent Price, and this witch-chick whose name eludes me at present.  I'll never forget Vinny's line "that woman is insatiable!"

There are a lot of great ones.  Oh and the Big Surprise, with darling John Carradine--probably the best piece of film he ever did!

I'll have to try and figure out just when Sci Fi runs the series.

Gothick