Fans,

Ever wonder what DS might have looked like had Agnes Moorehead and Jonathan Harris been cast in lead roles?  A hint of what might have been is offered in this 1960 hour long adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's HOUSE OF THE 7 GABLES, originally presented on the anthology series, THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE SHOW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XLlqBHr3vo

The cast also includes Shirley Temple in the ingenue role (born around 1928, she would have been around 32 at the time), with Martin Landau, Robert Culp, and John Abbott.

Vincent Price also appeared in an adaptation of the Hawthorne novel in the film TWICE TOLD TALES in the early 1960s--this one wandered even further afield from the Hawthorne source novel, and had an even more explicit horror atmosphere.

G.

When I started watching the pilot the other day, the thought crossed my mind that this was something that had been prepared for the new DVD which another fan says has now been delayed.

If it was something that sanctioned work was done on, that would explain the differences, which, as you say, can only be accounted for if the person had access to materials never before seen by the public.

Looking forward to any other thoughts you have about this or differences revealed from your notes.

G.

I still remember you-know-who commenting at the 2005 Festival before the screening, a propos of the pilot, "It shoulda been a slam dunk."  I do not think you-know-who was at liberty to discuss the full circumstances of why WB rejected the series.

It was an odd turn of phrase to hear at a DS fan event and it has stuck with me over the years.

Wasn't there talk last year of another DS disc release which was going to have some new material on it including a new documentary?  Of course, the only thing I am really interested in is Grayson's Playtex commercial... yes, as a card carrying member of HALLOHOLICS ANON, I would buy it for that...

G.

The complete pilot is on Youtube now, but I don't expect it to be up for long:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0gLTmrsltU

It was interesting to see it again.  It was a little better than I had remembered from my previous single viewing.  Alec Newman is a standout as Barnabas.

Best, G.

Kronos (as it is commonly known in Hammer fandom) has acquired quite the cult following over the years.  I first saw it on the CBS Late Movies sometime in the mid 1970s.  I think it's a pretty cool film--not entirely successful, perhaps, but much more interesting than a lot of the more polished, glossy, compact productions.

I presume this is happening because Brian Clemens died last year (I think it was last year?) and perhaps someone approached his sons for the rights to the Kronos project.  It had originally been meant to be a sequel but the release and distribution of the original film was so badly botched that the movie had only a spotty and intermittent appearance in theaters--plus, of course, Hammer studios was in a state of collapse by the time the movie played here, around 1974 I think.  Horst Janson, who was I think German (perhaps Austrian?) plays Kronos and does have a presence that might make you think of Michael York.  The last I heard, Horst was still alive and active as an actor.

An intriguing facet of the original movie was the use of some very offbeat folklore that sets it apart from the usual Hammer vampire film.  I've never known if that folklore was something Clemens invented, or found in Montague Summers.

G.

The 1953 classic Queen Bee gives an idea of what JC would have been like as Liz.  A very different kind of matriarch but one full of imperious grandeur and in full possession of her personal authority over her beleaguered family.  I would say that Joan C's performance in that film illustrates just why she would not have been good casting for Liz.  Casting is not so much about ability as it is about nuance, personality and something imponderable we call "fit" for lack of any more articulate way of expressing it.

A major difference between our Joan and Joan C is that our Joan did have a background in theater and occasionally went on what she called "buck and truss" tours (I would guess in the 1950s and early 1960s when work had dried up due to the negative impact of the Walter Wanger scandal on her career).  She came from a theatrical family with a solid history in the craft.  I would say that that was what gave Joan the wherewithal to sail through her scenes with such quietly grounded focus even when her lines weren't perfect on DS.  As I've shared before, Nancy Barrett did tell me once how terrified Joan would look at moments when they were standing next to one another in the middle of a scene and Joan had suddenly dried.  But somehow, the camera never caught that.  I always felt that Joan, like Jonathan, made her difficulty with lines work in how she expressed the character of Liz.  The words not always being exact became, somehow, an expression of the iron will of an indomitable woman.  And we loved her for that.

G.

That's a sweet memory, MB. 

G.