The Dark Shadows Daybook: October 4

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this day in 1968: Episode 600

Barnabas learns that the unknown tastes of garlic and ennui when he allows a dead Frenchman to enter his body. Eve: Marie Wallace. (Repeat; 30 min.)

Eve grows restless, and her attempt to seduce Nicholas fails when he instructs her to stay with Adam or be destroyed. Meanwhile, Stokes deduces that the ghost haunting the area is Phillippe Cordier, a man who chronicled the French Revolution. Cordier confirms this by possessing Barnabas at a seance. He was the former lover of Marie Roget and intends to punish those who took him. Elsewhere, spectral hands choke Adam, and Barnabas suffers as well. 

The Gold Key comics are bizarre, European supernatural stories that have something vaguely to do with DARK SHADOWS. Episode 600 is the Gold Key comics version come to life. I keep looking for the mummy, the electricity dragon, and the Revolutionary soldier. And that fact that it’s episode 600 is a big deal. The writers are too busy, with too much story to tell, to get mired in sentiment. Still, episode 600 is no small accomplishment, and if it just so happens to have some extra trills and glissandos, well, it’s no surprise.

This is one of my fondest periods of the show, and 600 epitomizes why. Because the driving arcs and interconnected characters and storylines are what give DARK SHADOWS its dramatic heft, there’s something endearingly goofy about the latter part of the Adam/Nicholas/Eve/Angelique. It has no real relevance to the larger story, making it a  self-contained non-sequitur. Most of the other storylines connect with the past or future of Collinwood and reveal important elements of the family and key characters. But once Barnabas sits down at a seance to contact the destructive and departed French lover of the ghost of the woman whose life-force was used to spark the reconstructed body of a lady intended to be the mother of a new master race for the dark lord, the series is off the chain. This is a show where Barnabas solves new paranormal whodunnits every week. It’s no longer DARK SHADOWS, it’s Saturday morning’s THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BARNABAS & FRIENDS. I’m amazed that they don’t cut away to unrelated sequences where Barnabas, Julia, Stokes, and Willie have a rock band and sing songs about bike safety. 

They throw story continuity the occasional bone by referring to the fact that Nicholas must keep Barnabas alive to protect Adam, but that’s it. And the nutty part about that element is that it pretty thoroughly removes Barnabas from danger and nerfs a major element of the tension. Somehow, it’s a nerfing that happens in the best way. In monster-of-the-week shows, we want heroes to be inconvenienced more than threatened. And there are few things more inconvenient than being inhabited by a Frenchman’s ghost during a seance. 

Marie Wallace continues to let the DS universe know that she’s here to stay… at least for the next fifteen or sixteen months. Marie and Eve are both very different presences on DS. The idea of a physically imposing beauty is the most Dan Curtis idea that Uncle Dan had never deployed, and her grandly intense acting choices match his zesty sense of storytelling. Eve has every reason to be DS’ most openly sexy character. An alien from another dimension of life, she was literally created to mate. With Eve, DARK SHADOWS rationalized how to be openly erotic without apologies. Her most amusingly manipulative moment in 600 comes when she begins kvetching about women being the helpless puppets of men. Yeah, sure. But she believes it will work, and it’s a nice try. Eve may be one of DS’ most revolutionary character. The rest all follow vague molds; Eve is wholly original. There’s an agenda, and yet it’s a private one. Of course, she’s the Bride of Frankenstein, and she benefits from the fact that the Bride does nothing after coming to life but hissing, screaming and being blown up. And even a Gold Key comic would give the Bride a tad more to do… and probably black stockings to do it in.

This episode was broadcast Oct. 11, 1966.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: September 26

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this day in 1966: Episode 72

While Vicki is accused of corporate espionage, a mysterious stranger tests the freshness of Maggie’s roast beef. Agent Johnson: Clarice Blackburn. (Repeat; 30 min.)

Carolyn attacks Victoria over her date with Burke, causing Victoria to contemplate quitting. Meanwhile, Bill Malloy’s former housekeeper, Mrs. Johnson, weasels her way into Carolyn‘s heart, winning a job at Collinwood. Victoria threatens to quit over the suspiciousness at Collinwood, causing Liz to confront her motives. Later, we learn that Mrs. Johnson is a mole for Burke Devlin.

DARK SHADOWS is known for its wildly eccentric characters, and Mrs. Johnson is introduced with such a flourish that she may top even Count Petofi... in a tightly controlled, antiseptic fashion. Kathryn Leigh Scott is always very careful to praise actress Clarice Blackburn, and her characters are so dowdy or unpleasant that this catches me off guard. Actually, that’s a testament to her acting. I instinctively respond to her characters on a very visceral level, forgetting that there is an actress inventing them. If the art is in concealing the art, then this reaction is more telling and authentic and affectionate than a standing ovation. 

Meeting Sarah Johnson is like doing a keg stand where the keg is filled with a strange mixture of Moxie pop and life’s bitterest disappointments. Deliciously so. An eccentric stick in the mud, to say the least, it makes sense that she is Bill Malloy‘s former housekeeper. The implication is that, although they never shared a bed, they might very well have been lovers... or something even more intense. Her reminiscence about Malloy comes in a strange, focused monologue, and it’s a reverberation of just what an influential character Malloy continues to be.

I appreciate the effort of the show to root its action and flavor so firmly in the great state of Maine, with all of its forbidding, down east eclecticism. Malloy had that quality, and he and Mrs. Johnson seem like the only characters we have met who can be imagined putting up with the other in a domestic circumstance. Her idea of a greeting is demanding to know whether Maggie’s roast beef is fresh. With a brazen obstinance somewhere between Large Marge and Frau Blücher, she manages to make a simple restaurant inquiry sound both strangely filthy and definitely insulting. She then begins grinding away on the subject of old mayonnaise as if she’s discussing the filthy outlaw who shot her kid brother, and it’s clear that Mrs. Johnson is here to stay.

With a vaguely well-adjusted (in a homicidal way) household, planting a spy for Burke Devlin is just the touch of espionage intrigue that Collinwood needs. Finally, someone can actually be the spy that Vicki is suddenly accused of working as. (In the same episode no less, with the irony and subtlety of an anvil landing in your lap.) That kind of duality — especially among the backstairs staff — is a concession to the dramatic thinking that DARK SHADOWS kinda lost over the years. The show gained plot, but it lost those opportunities for characters to reflect one another. As it reached a supernatural frenzy, this earlier, authorial delicacy was a necessary casualty. However, it’s vital to know that a sculpted duality like Mrs. Johnson and Vicki is an instinct buried in the program’s DNA.

Just before we find out that Mrs. Johnson is a spy for Burke, the show treats us to a marvelous confrontation between Victoria and Elizabeth. Tired of the paranoia and old money gatekeeping, Vicky tells Liz that she’s more than happy to quit as opposed to putting up with it further. We rarely think Vicky is having this kind of backbone, but it’s intrinsic to who she is. Little moments like that sustain the dignity of the show in its early days, and the actors take marvelous advantage of the opportunity. No, there may be no cursed hands and body switching, but the red meat drama of those early months are more than a match.

And by the way, I think it’s pretty clear that Bill Malloy is a candidate to be Harry Johnson‘s real father. Watch the episode and get back to me.

This episode was broadcast Oct. 4, 1966.

The Dark Shadows Daybook: OCTOBER 4

By PATRICK McCRAY

Taped on this date in 1968: Episode 600

Adam sulks at Chez Nicholas. When his host asks him why, Adam reveals the concerns that Stokes had over Eve’s life force. He even recalls the supernatural blast of the doors. Nicholas seems worried, but writes it off with the party line of, “This was just Lang’s terminally-ill girlfriend.” Eve continues to be distant from Adam, and privately expresses her hate for him to Nicholas. He assures her that she needn’t love him, just give the illusion. And she should not get ideas about a romance with Nicholas, either. He would happily kill her if necessary. Meanwhile at the Old House, Barnabas, Stokes, and Julia discuss the danger of Danielle Roget. The doors blast open with a gust of wind, and a history of the French Revolution falls at their feet. It is by Phillippe Cordier from 1798. Stokes is convinced that he is trying to reach them. In a seance, Cordier inhabits Barnabas. He vows his love for Danielle, his lost flame, and swears to kill the loveless man who now has her. Across town, Eve senses such danger, proclaiming that someone at Blair House will die. On cue, Adam begins to choke.

Episode 600, only 66 away from the most auspicious number possible, is auspicious, anyway. And it’s funny. And fast. And exciting. And mythic. It just has everything. It begins with Nicholas asking why Adam is brooding alone after getting the ostensibly perfect woman. My answer, of course, would have been, “Yes.” Eve really shows her true colors as a royal pain, and we can very quickly anticipate the possibility that Adam may need to join forces with Barnabas & Co. And we have a seance… in my opinion, the single wackiest seance in all of DARK SHADOWS, which is saying a lot since they seanced only slightly less frequently than they quaffed brandy. Either Jonathan Frid was miserable or he was having a ball as he became possessed by the French Ghost! Never is Jonathan Frid Canadianier than when he becomes French… although I’m not how French Ontario is. Maybe a lot. Maybe I just insulted vast swaths of Hamiltonians. How can I appease them? (Without beer.) Wouldn’t it be cool if the hip-hop musical, HAMILTON, had been about Frid’s childhood rather than some dopey, Federalist, Secretary of the Treasury? I’d see that. Yay, Hamilton!

No one can escape love from the past on DARK SHADOWS. Of course, I really question the verisimilitude of any history written by someone with the poor judgment to hook up with the most evil woman in history (that I never dated). I’m sure it’s an entertaining read, though, and when it comes to casual,

Fashion note… Barnabas and Julia seem to be dressed exactly the same.

Fashion note 2… Stokes has a cool ring. Why don’t we know more about it? I bet it has a chunk of meteor in it. Or a compass. Or dragon’s blood.

Fashion note 3… I wonder what Adam’s sweater smells like. Not very good. Maybe he’d do better with Eve if he washed it.

Firsts? Marie Wallace. Your character has been with the show less than a day (in Collinsport Time), but you’ve got your first narration.

History note… It’s the birthday of Charlton Heston. Maligned for being out of step with the political vogue of Hollywood, Heston’s acting is of the size and style of DARK SHADOWS’ storytelling. Just as DARK SHADOWS is unjustly smeared with the label of camp, so was Heston’s acting. Heston was capable of bringing truth to characters of legend and bringing contemplative poetry to the bitter wisdom in his seminal, science fiction commentaries. In Shakespeare, it’s vital to be aware of the verse and to use it. Some modern actors would simply ignore it. Similarly, it’s vital for an actor to be aware of the intent and poignancy of the heightened commentary in a film like PLANET OF THE APES or SOYLENT GREEN. If we eviscerate these texts from the cultural baggage that late night comedy has saddled them with, we find razor sharp films of politics and human pain, and Heston lives up to both ends of that equation. He was a favorite actor of Olivier’s and Welles’, and they knew a thing or two. To write off the truth and cerebral surliness in a Heston performance is to suck the joy out of a marvelous swath of acting. Don’t be That Guy. You know, the same guy who doesn’t get Grayson Hall, and reduces her to a ludicrous, unfair, and shallow lampoon. You’re a DARK SHADOWS fan. You’re better than that.

Not that we can’t have fun! Did I mention the delight of Frid speaking in a wacky, French accent? Let me say it again. In fact, let me put it in the B-Man’s own words, from the Collins Chronicles -- Barnabas’ diary for the 600th episode.