A lot of action in this one. Rakish Quentin Collins bluffs sorcerer Count Petofi with a threat that his nemesis, Rroma chieftain/ New England crime boss King Johnny Romana, will be coming. At the last moment, Petofi gives in and releases Quentin’s distant cousin, time traveling vampire Barnabas Collins, whom he has been holding prisoner.
Back in the great house of Collinwood, broad ethnic stereotype Magda Rákóczi discovers maidservant Beth Chavez lying unconscious on the floor. Magda takes her pulse. She then picks up the snifter from which Beth had been drinking, holds it to her nose, and gives a look of discovery. All of a sudden, Grayson Hall looks very much like her first character on Dark Shadows, Julia Hoffman, MD.
Somehow Magda gets Beth back to her room and saves her life. Beth tells her that she was poisoned by a woman called Charity. Magda leaves the room to look for Charity. Before she gets more than a few feet into the hall, King Johnny’s henchman Istvan springs out from the Shadows’ and grabs her.
Quentin comes into the foyer of the great house. Beth is there. He sees that she is upset and weak and asks what is wrong, but she will not explain. He asks if Barnabas can sneak to her bedroom without being observed. She leads the way to make sure no one who is involved in the vampire hunt sees him.
After Beth, Barnabas, and Quentin do some recapping, we see Magda in the woods with Istvan. She tries to talk him into running away with her, but he ignores her. He is supposed to bind and gag her. As we have seen many times on Dark Shadows, Magda has to hold the gag in her teeth. At the very end, an unseen figure approaches with a lantern, and Magda reacts with terror.
Dark Shadows Commentary 
Petofi could have been the perfect villain for the show had it remained in current times, post-1897. He did evil, displayed his kryptonite in the form of gypsies, and owned a sense of humor. It would have been fun to watch the Leviathans try to assimilate him, fail, and then have him form uneasy alliances with Barnabas & Co.
Playing around internetting this morning to discover an interview with the Halls from 1971; let’s hope the link works. Oakland Tribune 11 August 1971 — California Digital Newspaper Collection
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I can’t get the link to work, but I absolutely agree about Petofi- he was exactly what the Leviathans story needed.
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August 11, 1971 held “Stage and Screen” columnist Robert Taylor’s interview with the Halls touting the “Night of Dark Shadows” film opening in 2 weeks in the SF Bay Area. But that wasn’t the only part of the interview that was interesting because it contained basically the whole genesis of Dan Curtis “girl on a train” story giving rise to the show. Grayson told how Dan insisted they emphasize seriousness in all their work onscreen. I tried publishing the link on my twitter account, but that doesn’t seem to have worked either. Ho hum.
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As to “somehow Magda gets Beth back to her room and saves her life,” it goes by in a flash, but Magda gave her “gypsy herbs.” When Beth says she would kill herself if anything happened to Quentin, Magda says, “Ah, I don’t give you gypsy herbs for THAT,” implying that’s what she gave Beth to counteract the poison.
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