Famous Monsters of Filmland #88 - January 1972
Imagine a great old decaying dark house, a survivor from the 19th century, where you might expect to be served a meal by a butler resembling Boris Karloff.
Walk down the dimly-lit gallery, where the ghost of Ann Radcliffe might materialize from behind a great grey curtain.
You are there: in the macabre mansion know as______
Collinwood
And to collinwood comes young artist Quentin Collins (David Selby), who has just inherited the vast estate. With him, his bride Tracy (Kate Jackson).
The young pair are awestruck by the hugeness of the house and the lavishness of it's furnishings.
On hand to aquaint the pair with their new home is Carlotta the housekeeper (Grayson Hall). Miss Drake has lived in Collinwood since childhood.
High in the upper reaches of the mansion is a tower room. The first night, Quentin is mesmerically drawn to the room. Inexplicably, the next morning he remembers nothing of his nocturnal adventure.
Tracy has her share of concern: at breakfast she is unnerved to observe a sinister man staring at her from the grounds. Two large fierce dogs accompany the mysterious man. Carlotta calms her fears by explaining,"He's Gerard (James Storm), my nephew. He's the caretaker of your estate."
Later, when Quentin goes to inspect the stables, he meets the man Gerard.
Gerard recommends a particular horse to Quentin as being a gentle beast but the recommendation turns out to be far from the truth: the animal proves to be quite wild.
While Quentin is mastering the horse, he suddenly has a vision of a strange funeral.
Stranger yet, the mourners are all dressed in the style of the early 19th century
Haunting Visions
As Quentin's queer vision fades, his horse bolts, almost galloping into a car driven by Clair Jenkins (Nancy Barret), a woman who lives with her husband Alex (John Karlen) in a cottage on the estate. They are old friends of the Collins family.
Quentin, undecided as to which room he should employ as his studio, asks the advice of Carlotta.
"Why not the tower?" she recommends.
"It's quiet, remote from activity, ideal for concentration."
Everything Carlotta says is true, and yet . . . somehow the suggestion fills Quentin with a sense of sinister foreboding.
That night, almost like the somnambulist from Dr. Caligari's cabinet, Quentin again ascends to the tower. It seems to exert some hypnotic influence on him. Yet the next morning he remembers nothing of his visit.
However, he has another vision. This time the hallucination takes the form of two brothers quarreling in the master bedroom of the estate: one brother is Charles who resembles Quentin to a remarkable degree; the other, Gabriel (Christopher Pennock) Angelique's husband.
As the days go by, Quentin is increasingly troubled by visions.
He discovers portraits of Angelique by Charles Collins and imagines---or is it imagination?---that he sees Angelique being dragged from the tower room by her angry husband.
When Daydreams Turn to Nightmares...
Quentin continues his nocturnal visits to the strange tower room, which now draws him more and more like a magnet, like a helpless fly to a spider's net. And something new has been added: someone awaits him there---the ghost of Angelique! And Angelique is very amourous.
Gerard becomes mad with jealousy and one night attacks Quentin while he is in his trance-like state in the tower. Tracy awakens and intervenes; her husband, still mentally in the past, tries to kill her!
Quentin later remembers nothing of his savage attack on his own wife. He becomes more and more preoccupied with what he calls his "daydreams".
Horror History of the House of Mystery
Carlotta claims to be a reincarnation of the daughter of the housekeeper who looked after Collinwood in a previous life. From knowledge remembered from her past existence she tells Quentin a terrible truth:
"Angelique Collins was hanged as a witch!"
And more: "And you, Quentin Collins, are the reincarnation of poor Angelique's lover, Charles!"
"No, no! I can't believe it! I won't!" cries Quentin.
But slowly, surely, insidiously, Charles' personality takes over Quentin.
Next Claire and Alex are attacked in their own cottage. Not by a human, a flesh and blood prowler but by---
"A ghostly phenomenon!" They warn the young couple: "A supernatural danger threatens us all !"
And that same night Quentin tries to drown his own beloved wife when, under the influence of Angelique the witch, he is drawn to the old ruined swimming pool of the estate.
Terrified Tracy flees to the Jenkins'.
As usual Quentin remembers nothing of what happened during his hypnotic trance and is horrified when Carlotta tells him. She tells him something even more shocking: "Gerard has gone to kill your wife!"
Quentin arrives on the scene in time to see sudden death: his beloved wife killing Gerard in self defense.
Humans against Haunts
Claire, Alex, Quentin and Tracy, return to Collinwood. "It is clear what we must do now: exorcise the ghost of Angelique."
But all evil spirits resist destruction and Tracy is trapped in a cellar room and attacked by the wicked witch Angelique.
In the nick of time, Quentin and Alex save Tracy.
Then Angelique appears to Quentin. "I renounce you, evil spirit!" he cries. "You and the spirit of Charles. Begone!"
The spirit seems to fade (seems) and Carlotta, hysterical, jumps from the tower to her death.
Quentin and his bride have had enough. They prepare to leave Collinwood with Claire and Alex Jenkins.
But---one last thing---Quentin returns to the tower room to get his paintings.
He should not have.
See the picture and find out why.
Behind the Dark House
There's a story behind this latest Dark Shadows and this (can you take it?) is it:
June 1966.
The first episode of the first Gothic soap opera appears on ABC/TV.
It is called Dark Shadows and no one then would have predicted how far these sinister shapes would creep.
The action (and there was plenty) took place in Collinwood , an ancient house in Maine.
After several months of a plot featuring sinister, but natural, menace, a new element was added that really caused the ratings to soar:
The supernatural.
A vampire entered the corridors of Collinwood in the darkly attractive form of Jonathan Frid.
And Dark Shadows settled into a supernatural groove that attracted a fantastically varied audience in the millions. Among the most faithful of the Dark Shadows fans (to this editor's certain knowledge): Fritz Lang, far famed director of M, Dr. Mabuse, The Weary Death, The Secret Beyond The Door and many other film classics.
Thru the Years, Increasing Fears
Character actress Grayson Hall became the familiar figure of the lady doctor who conracted a case of vampiritis---that is, she fell in love with Jonathan Frid.
Quentin Collins was a malevolent ghost from the past of the old house.
Lara Parker was the witch who brought men to their doom.
Chills and thrills were provided by the many plots of varying lengths, often (via "parallel time") taking place in other centuries, Worlds of If where even more variations of the familiar characters were introduced.
For awhile there was a Frankenstein element to the episodes; at another time, a wolfman was featured.
Last year Dan Curtis produced the first full-length film version of the TV series and HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS was one of the big horror hits of the year. The 82d issue of Famous Monsters featured a 10-page filmbook on the movie.
Early in '71, Dark Shadows, after 5 frightening years, finally went the way of all flesh (?) and "died". Not since the discontinuance of Star Trek did fans set up such a howl of protest.
To satisfy frustrated D.S. fans holding their breath for more of their favorite phantoms, MGM (Macabre Ghost Movies) has now produced the sequel to the original. Production, appropriately enough, began with a funeral and a mausoleum. The weatherman cooperated to produce a cold and drizzly day so the mourners had an authentic woebegone appearance.
The seance scene promises to be one of the most nearly authentic ever seen on the screen as it was supervised by a world-famous authority on psychic phenomena. When the mediumistic sequence was photographed in the dimly-lit gallery of Collinwood, several takes were spoiled by unexplained raps.
Ghosts rapping with one another?
Well that about wraps it up.
What next---BENEATH THE PLANET OF DARK SHADOWS?
THE END
