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- Richard W
MPI Home Video released two new DARK SHADOWS DVDs on September 15.
THE VAMPIRE CURSE re-edits DARK SHADOWS mostly fondly remembered episodes, the 1895 flashback, into a streamlined narrative. Entire episodes and huge parts of the story are omitted to focus on the main conflict between Barnabas and Angelique. That storyline lasts three wonderful hours. Think of it as the DARK SHADOWS epic you always wanted. We get to see Angelique cast spells over the Collins family as she practices her witchcraft, the romance between Barnabas and Josette go wrong, and how Barnabas is turned into a vampire. The streamlined narrative is surprisingly coherent and thoughtfully put together into a traditional three-act structure with the third act being the strongest and most horrific. Pure Colonial Gothic. True there is some choppiness as major characters from the daily episodes drop out abruptly, but all the high spots are hit, including all the cool stuff everyone wants to see. There is an opening title and a credit crawl at the end. All the individual openings and closings are cut.
One comes away with an even greater appreciation for the acting chops of Lara Parker (who is sensational), Thayer David, Louis Edmonds, and the great, great Jonathan Frid. Edmonds consistently surprises me with his range. He has some brilliant moments, especially when he realizes the horror. He achieves genuine pathos in the end when he realizes what is happening to his family and what he must do to stop it. Jonathan Frid invests Barnabas Collins with all the gravitas of Shakespearean tragedy. He's playing a hundred different levels at once in a meticulously modulated performance. He finds layers and nuances in the character that aren't on the page. The way Frid lingers on his s's and lowers his voice at the end of a sentence after Barnabas dies is pure theater. He's got some creepy hand gestures, too, proving he was a Lugosi-watcher. Watch the interaction between Frid and Lara Parker when she, as Angelique, tries to blackmail him into marrying her. They play off each other so well they're a pleasure to watch. Parker should have become a major star. This edit favors all the actor's best moments and much of Sam Hall's, Gordon Russell's, and Ron Sproat's best writing. Yes, there was some damn fine writing in this old soap.
The uninterrupted 210-minute edit begins with episode 370 (November 24, 1967) hops, skips and jumps all the way to episode 460 (March 29,1968) with a monochrome epilog edited from episodes 211 and 212 (April 18 and 19, 1967).
That brings us from DARK SHADOWS Volume 4, disc 4 all the way to volume 8, disc 1.
The bonus episode is 221 (May 2, 1967) in which the resurrected Barnabas meets Maggie Evans for the first time.
The epilog and the bonus episode are from volume 1.
The interview with Jonathan Frid is most welcome, but too brief and too stingy.
I mean really.
Fans want to hear more from Frid, but after all these years a definitive interview seems unlikely.
No mention of when it was recorded, I'd say probably this year.
Is it my imagination, or has the transfer been upgraded since the box-sets were released in 2003?
The image looks sharper, cleaner, better defined and more stable to me than the transfer on the box-sets.
There is some gamma boosting and edge-enhancement, however, but given the state of analog video from that era this is only to be expected.
Years ago MPI edited together the storyline of Barnabas being freed from his coffin into a tight 100-minute feature in DARK SHADOWS VOLUME 1: THE RESURRECTION OF BARNABAS COLLINS. Essential viewing and a neat follow-up to THE VAMPIRE CURSE. It was released only on VHS. MPI ought to take another look at that and do it up better for DVD. Although the VHS is long out of print it can still be found cheap at amazon marketplace.
Incidentally, the cover art on amazon and elsewhere has THE CURSE OF THE VAMPIRE for a title, but the actual title on the DVD and on the box is THE VAMPIRE CURSE.
If anyone gets one with the THE CURSE OF THE VAMPIRE I want to know.
I understand some retailers sell the DVD in a slipcase but my copies from amazon didn't come in a slipcase.
Next up: Quentin the werewolf re-edited into a streamlined narrative in THE HAUNTING OF COLLINWOOD.
I will try to post links to amazon if this new system lets me.
Richard
THE VAMPIRE CURSE re-edits DARK SHADOWS mostly fondly remembered episodes, the 1895 flashback, into a streamlined narrative. Entire episodes and huge parts of the story are omitted to focus on the main conflict between Barnabas and Angelique. That storyline lasts three wonderful hours. Think of it as the DARK SHADOWS epic you always wanted. We get to see Angelique cast spells over the Collins family as she practices her witchcraft, the romance between Barnabas and Josette go wrong, and how Barnabas is turned into a vampire. The streamlined narrative is surprisingly coherent and thoughtfully put together into a traditional three-act structure with the third act being the strongest and most horrific. Pure Colonial Gothic. True there is some choppiness as major characters from the daily episodes drop out abruptly, but all the high spots are hit, including all the cool stuff everyone wants to see. There is an opening title and a credit crawl at the end. All the individual openings and closings are cut.
One comes away with an even greater appreciation for the acting chops of Lara Parker (who is sensational), Thayer David, Louis Edmonds, and the great, great Jonathan Frid. Edmonds consistently surprises me with his range. He has some brilliant moments, especially when he realizes the horror. He achieves genuine pathos in the end when he realizes what is happening to his family and what he must do to stop it. Jonathan Frid invests Barnabas Collins with all the gravitas of Shakespearean tragedy. He's playing a hundred different levels at once in a meticulously modulated performance. He finds layers and nuances in the character that aren't on the page. The way Frid lingers on his s's and lowers his voice at the end of a sentence after Barnabas dies is pure theater. He's got some creepy hand gestures, too, proving he was a Lugosi-watcher. Watch the interaction between Frid and Lara Parker when she, as Angelique, tries to blackmail him into marrying her. They play off each other so well they're a pleasure to watch. Parker should have become a major star. This edit favors all the actor's best moments and much of Sam Hall's, Gordon Russell's, and Ron Sproat's best writing. Yes, there was some damn fine writing in this old soap.
The uninterrupted 210-minute edit begins with episode 370 (November 24, 1967) hops, skips and jumps all the way to episode 460 (March 29,1968) with a monochrome epilog edited from episodes 211 and 212 (April 18 and 19, 1967).
That brings us from DARK SHADOWS Volume 4, disc 4 all the way to volume 8, disc 1.
The bonus episode is 221 (May 2, 1967) in which the resurrected Barnabas meets Maggie Evans for the first time.
The epilog and the bonus episode are from volume 1.
The interview with Jonathan Frid is most welcome, but too brief and too stingy.
I mean really.
Fans want to hear more from Frid, but after all these years a definitive interview seems unlikely.
No mention of when it was recorded, I'd say probably this year.
Is it my imagination, or has the transfer been upgraded since the box-sets were released in 2003?
The image looks sharper, cleaner, better defined and more stable to me than the transfer on the box-sets.
There is some gamma boosting and edge-enhancement, however, but given the state of analog video from that era this is only to be expected.
Years ago MPI edited together the storyline of Barnabas being freed from his coffin into a tight 100-minute feature in DARK SHADOWS VOLUME 1: THE RESURRECTION OF BARNABAS COLLINS. Essential viewing and a neat follow-up to THE VAMPIRE CURSE. It was released only on VHS. MPI ought to take another look at that and do it up better for DVD. Although the VHS is long out of print it can still be found cheap at amazon marketplace.
Incidentally, the cover art on amazon and elsewhere has THE CURSE OF THE VAMPIRE for a title, but the actual title on the DVD and on the box is THE VAMPIRE CURSE.
If anyone gets one with the THE CURSE OF THE VAMPIRE I want to know.
I understand some retailers sell the DVD in a slipcase but my copies from amazon didn't come in a slipcase.
Next up: Quentin the werewolf re-edited into a streamlined narrative in THE HAUNTING OF COLLINWOOD.
I will try to post links to amazon if this new system lets me.
Richard
