Regarding John Shaft & Dark Shadows

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey, gang,

So, I'm watching the crime drama, "Shaft," which I haven't seen since I first saw it over 50 years ago in 1971. Richard Roundtree portrays John Shaft, a NYC private eye, who attempts to rescue the kidnapped daughter of friend, who was taken hostage by some gangsters.

In one scene, John Shaft, posing as a friendly bartender, talks with two hoods in a bar. When one of the gangsters realizes who the bartender really is, the mobster curses out John Shaft and spits on him, prompting John Shaft to crack the offending hood over the head with a bottle of scotch, creating a bloody mess. That surly gangster was portrayed by veteran character actor Geogre Struss, who also portrayed Buffie Harrington's sometime dockworker/boyfriend, Steve, who made John Yeager's "acquaintance" outside of the Eagle Tavern during the 1970 Parallel Time storyline on DS. (I think PT Steve suffered more physical damage from John Yeager than he did from John Shaft.)

Another gangster in the film is portrayed by actor Edmund Hashim, who, as Collinwood handyman Fred Block, received one, final, frozen and deadly embrace from the newly risen Angelique Collins, also during the 1970 Parallel Time storyline. In "Shaft," Mr. Hashim gets plugged by a tommy-gun totting John Shaft during the film's climax. (I think getting terminal hypothermia from Angelique rather than getting machine-gunned by an angry private detective, is a much better way to depart this mortal coil.) 

Oh yeah, in an accompanying dvd extra on the filming of "Shaft," you get to see noted film director Gordon Parks, giving instructions to a stuntman on how to fall down a flight of apartment stairs after he has been riddled with machine gun fire in the film. At first, I didn't recognize the stuntman, what with a large Afro wig on, but then I realized that it was veteran film stuntman Alex Stevens, who portrayed both Chris Jennings and Quentin Collins when they transformed into werewolves on DS.

Seeing Mr. Stevens falling down that flight of stairs in "Shaft," reminded me of when Mr. Stevens, attired as psychic Madame Janet Findlay, took a fatal fall down the Collinwood foyer stairs, much to Mrs. Stoddard's and Dr. Hoffman's absolute horror during the Quentin's ghost-haunting Collinwood storyline!

If you liked to see a film, which reflects the zeitgeist of the early 1970s (when DS was still on the air), I highly recommend the cool flick, "Shaft."

As the late, great Isaac Hayes sang during the film's opening credits:

"Who is the cat, who won't cop out,

When there's danger all about,

Shaft, right on, John Shaft!"

[Josette]

Amazing that something like that would have so many DS connections!!   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As the late, great Isaac Hayes sang during the film's opening credits:

"Who is the cat, who won't cop out,

When there's danger all about,

Shaft, right on, John Shaft!"

We can dig it.

And we can also dig that Grammy winning Theme from Shaft actually has a connection to a DS star, namely Marie Wallace. While she was portraying India Delaney on Somerset, the character of Chuck Whittingham (portrayed by Edward Winter) decided that she had to be disposed of because she was going to ruin his career. So, he went to her house, turned up the radio really loudly as it just so happened to be playing Theme from Shaft, and hit India over the head with a candlestick. The hysterical thing is that turn of events was a way to write Marie out of the show while she on vacation and within the show Chuck put India's body behind the couch in her living room, where it remained undiscovered for the entire time Marie was on vacation in real life. The audience would often get glimpses of India's legs behind the couch but, of course, no one else who entered the room ever saw her legs until such time that Marie came back and resumed portraying India. Typical soap suspense. 

My favorite moment that I remember as if it happened just yesterday and not over 50 years ago is that when India confronted Chuck with what she'd done, she said to him, "I haven't just pulled the rug out from under you, I've pulled the wall-to-wall carpeting, darling." 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Wow, that's a great story concerning Marie Wallace and the "Shaft" theme song on "Somerset"! Incidentally, I found Ms. Wallace to be one of the most gracious and friendly stars at the past DS Festivals in NYC. In addition, Ms. Wallace has many fascinating ("fascinating," Sebastian Shaw's "favorite" adjective) reminiscences concerning the many legendary actors she worked with during her very accomplished theatrical career on Broadway.

And, Edward Winter "knocked off" India Delaney on "Somerset"? Didn't Edward Winter also portray the multi-macho, albeit, exceedingly dim-witted Colonel Flagg on "M*A*S*H"? No doubt, the spy-catching Colonel Flagg would have thought that Barnabas Collins was a deep Soviet plant in Collinsport, much like Laurence Harvey's obsessive mother (portrayed by Angela Lansbury) in the film, "The Manchurian Candidate."

And, wouldn't it have been fun to see another Maine resident, Dr. Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce, taking a position at the Collinsport Hospital?  I'll bet that 'Hawkeye" Pierce would have had as "high" an opinion of the "slightly" loopy Dr. Eric Lang as Pierce did of Dr. Frank "Ferret-Face" Burns.

A "M*A*S*H"/"Dark Shadows" crossover would have been great fun to see.

Bob

PS I could just see the pompous and imperious Major Charles Emerson Winchester III (of nearby Boston, Mass.) and the toffee-nosed and supercilious Roger Collins having been the best of buddies, dating back to their time served as US Army officers during the Korean War.