At the end of Friday’s episode, we saw reclusive matriarch Liz start to fall down the stairs, then saw her sprawled on the floor below. Today begins with a recreation of that scene, but instead of merely starting to fall, actress Joan Bennett tumbles far enough forward that she must really have gone down. It’s an impressive stunt.
Dark Shadows first stunt performer: Joan Bennett
Most of the episode is taken up with Liz’ demented condition and the reactions of the members of the household to it. The audience knows that Liz’ troubles are the result of a spell cast on her by blonde fire witch Laura. At moments Liz is almost able to figure that out herself, but no one else has a clue what is going on. The whole episode is full of standout moments for Liz. If there had been Daytime Emmy Awards in 1967, this would have been the episode Dan Curtis Productions would have sent to the voters to get Joan Bennett her Best Actress award.
At one point, Liz begins to recover her memory and is about to take action against Laura. Before she can reach anyone, a ghostly figure appears in her room. Afterward, she has a mad scene, indicating that she has been rendered powerless.
The ghostly sighting raises some questions about Laura. Is it Laura’s ghost she sees? Or another ghost allied with Laura? Or has her abuse of Liz’ brain led it to produce this hallucination on its own? The show is very indefinite about what exactly Laura is and how she operates, giving us the chance to have a lot of fun speculating about her.
This episode is replete with notable firsts. In addition to the first real stunt of the series, it features the first scene in which Bob O’Connell, as the bartender in The Blue Whale, has lines to deliver.
In that same scene at The Blue Whale, we hear music coming out of the jukebox that we haven’t heard before. It is a medley of Lennon-McCartney tunes rendered in “smooth jazz” style by Bud Shank.
It’s also the first time a conversation on the landing at the top of the stairs leading up from the foyer is photographed straight-on. Several times, we had seen characters talking to each other up there, but always before the camera had been angled up from the floor below. That had created the sense that the conversation was removed from the main course of the action. Today, it’s just another part of the set.
It is the first time we see Liz’ room. Two notable firsts take place there. A favorite prop of Dark Shadows fandom, the so-called “Ralston-Purina lamp,”* has been seen several times in the Collinsport Inn. In Liz’ room today, it makes the first of many appearances in the great house of Collinwood.
The Ralston-Purina lamp
The ghostly figure in Liz’ room is played by Susan Sullivan, who has been acting in primetime on network television more or less continuously for the last 55 years. During the other hours, she writes plays and performs in Dark Shadows audio dramas.
A play she wrote under the title “What Friends Do” was produced by Smartphone Theater and posted on Youtube. The cast is made up of Dark Shadows alums Susan Sullivan, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Mitch Ryan, and David Selby. It’s about four friends in a retirement community during the Covid pandemic, and it’s terrific. The Q & A after includes a lot of stuff that Dark Shadows fans will find irresistible, including a little bit about today’s episode.
The voice that says “Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis production” at the end of the closing credits does not sound like ABC staff announcer Bob Lloyd. It’s higher-pitched and faster than his delivery, and the vowels are flatter than he articulates them. Perhaps it’s a tape fault distorting Lloyd’s voice, or perhaps he had a cold that day. If it was someone else, it’s another first. The Dark Shadows wiki doesn’t say anything about it, so I assume the surviving records and the published books that use them don’t say it was someone else.
*So-called because its red-and-white checked pattern looks like the logo of the Ralston-Purina animal food company.
A deluxe episode today- multiple location inserts, three sets, six credited actors, several extras, music we haven’t heard before, and a special effect. By Dark Shadows standards, that’s a spectacular.
At the end of yesterday’s episode, high-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins had sneaked up on well-meaning governess Vicki from behind, seized her, covered her mouth with his hands, and ordered her to be silent. Since Vicki is convinced Roger is a murderer and is afraid he will murder her to protect his secrets, that was quite a cliffhanger.
As we open today, Roger makes Vicki promise she won’t scream if he lets her go. He explains that when he decided to forcibly silence her, Maggie, keeper of the Collinsport restaurant and The Nicest Girl in Town, might still have been within earshot of a scream. So he “had to do that.” Otherwise, Maggie, to whom he contemptuously refers as “that little countergirl,” might have intruded on their private conversation. Now, they are all alone in the house.
Vicki does not find Roger’s explanation of his assault on her any more satisfactory than we might expect. She moves about the room keeping her eyes on him, her weight on her toes, and a clear line between her and the exit. Roger asks if she thinks he killed beloved local man Bill Malloy. She answers “I don’t think anything.” He asks her to listen to the whole story. She hears him out, but doesn’t let her guard down for a second.
Roger admits that he did see Bill the night he died. That involves admitting that he tricked Vicki into thinking he left home later than he in fact did, and thereby into giving him a false alibi in a statement to the sheriff. Roger ignores Vicki’s shocked reaction to this, and goes on to explain that Bill was already dead when he saw him. They had arranged to meet atop Lookout Point, but when Roger arrived he saw a body face-down on the beach below. He hurried down, and saw that it was Bill. Vicki asks if he looked like he’d been dead long. Not long, Roger says; he must have fallen off the cliff, been knocked unconscious, and drowned in the two or three feet of water on the beach just moments before.
Roger says he left Bill without calling for help or reporting the accident because he was afraid people would think he murdered him. “After all, I had motive, as they say.” Roger’s motive would be that Bill was trying to prove that he, not dashing action hero Burke Devlin, was responsible for a fatal hit-and-run accident ten years before. “Even you don’t believe me, do you?” he asks Vicki. Vicki says she doesn’t know what to believe, and edges closer to the door.
Returning viewers know that Roger is Dark Shadows’ most clearly defined villain, and have seen him frantically trying to conceal or destroy evidence relating to Bill’s death. Any story the makers of the show want us to consider accepting will have to give him some share of guilt. In this story, he is admitting to leaving the scene of a fatal accident. That is the very crime Bill was trying to prove that he, not Burke, committed ten years before. Since Roger is not a doctor, he is not competent to make a determination as to whether an unresponsive person is dead. For all he knows, Bill might have been saved had he gone for help. If we’ve been paying attention to the “Revenge of Burke Devlin” story, we should be wondering whether the account Roger has given Vicki will itself be enough to send him to prison. If so, we will wonder what Roger has up his sleeve to keep her quiet.
At the long-abandoned Old House, Roger’s son, strange and troubled boy David Collins, is talking to the portrait of his ancestor Josette. He asks Josette why she won’t “come down like you usually do” and talk to him. We don’t hear an answer, but David says “Well, I suppose you know what’s best.”
David tells the portrait that his governess Vicki knows that his father murdered Bill Malloy. He asks Josette if Bill’s ghost is with her and the other ghosts. Apparently she doesn’t answer him. He says that if his father finds out what Vicki knows, he will murder her, and then probably go on to murder him as well. David hears sounds outside the Old House. He puts out his candle and hides behind a chair.
Gruff caretaker Matthew enters. He announces to the dark room that he saw a light through the window, so there’s no point hiding. David comes out from behind the chair. He tells Matthew that he is visiting his friends- the ghost of Josette, of another woman similar to her, and of a younger woman, one about Vicki’s age. Matthew dismisses the topic of ghosts. David tells him that Vicki knows who killed Bill Malloy. As he has done each time Bill’s death has been mentioned, Matthew becomes agitated.
This time, Matthew’s agitation takes the form of a solicitous curiosity. David declares that his father is the murderer. “Did Miss Winters say that?” Matthew asks. No, David allows, but that’s what she meant. He asks Matthew to help him protect Vicki from Roger. Matthew mutters that he wouldn’t want any harm to come to Vicki.
Matthew’s agitation redirects our attention to the opening voiceover. Each episode starts with a brief monologue. For the first 55 weeks, all of these are delivered by Alexandra Moltke Isles in character as Vicki. Usually, they are not very informative. They are more about setting a vaguely anxious mood than about giving us specific facts about what’s going on in the story. Usually, whatever factual claims they do make are true. The only clear exception we’ve seen to that pattern so far came in #15, when Vicki says in the opening voiceover that she has made friends with David, a claim utterly belied by all the events that follow. Today, Vicki says in the opening that Roger is “the one person I have reason to fear.” That may also be false. Early on, reclusive matriarch Liz warned her that Matthew is a “strange and violent man,” and his unease about the death of Bill suggests that she might do well to keep an eye on him.
After David and Matthew have left the house, we see a replay of a bit of video from episode 70. The portrait of Josette glows, and her transparent figure walks down invisible stairs from the mantelpiece to the floor, then turns and looks back at the portrait. When David asked Josette to “come down like you usually do,” evidently he was referring to this manifestation.
Josette’s apparition has a different resonance for viewers today than it would have had for most viewers in 1966. The devices on which we see the show now have bigger screens and far clearer pictures than almost anyone would have had in those days. So it is easy for us to recognize a fact of which almost no members of the original audience would have been aware- the ghost of Josette is played by Kathryn Leigh Scott, the same actress who plays the Maggie whom Roger disdained as “that little countergirl.” Social class is a major concern of the show in the first 42 weeks, and the contrast between high-status and low-status characters is especially vivid today. That a character whose station is so lowly Roger cannot even bring himself to mention her name is played by the same person who plays a personage so lofty that she has a mansion to herself more than a century after her death gives a special punch to that contrast.
Meanwhile, flighty heiress Carolyn is on a date with Burke in the local tavern, The Blue Whale. Carolyn and Burke are well-dressed, as are the several extras at the other tables. They have china plates in front of them, and there is a more upscale type of background music playing than we usually hear at The Blue Whale. The show is at pains to establish that the tavern is a place for a nice date, rather than the waterfront dive it often appears to be. If that isn’t enough to set up an expectation that Burke and Carolyn’s date will be an important one, he says he plans to take her to another, even nicer, place later on for dancing and drinks.
Carolyn tells Burke she thinks that Vicki and Roger are becoming a couple. He is surprised. As she is explaining what has led her to this theory, she mentions that she told Roger something which Burke knows will reveal that Vicki suspects him of killing Bill. Burke excuses himself, saying that he is supposed to telephone his lawyer. He calls Vicki, and tells her he’s sending a taxi to take her away from Roger. She agrees to meet it.
Back at the table, Burke abruptly terminates the date. He explains to Carolyn that he has an urgent business meeting in ten minutes. She takes the news with uncharacteristically good humor.
Vicki slips out the back door of the house. The episode closes with a new location insert, a shot of her outdoors in the dark.
This may sound like a lot of talk, much of it recapping, but when you watch it the whole thing feels like it’s packed with high-stakes action. The actors are all in good form today, and, as usual, Francis Swann’s script gives them the opportunity to show what they can do. It is strong from beginning to end, well worth the extra expenditures they devoted to it.
High-born ne’er-do-well Roger Collins talks on the phone with his sometime partner in crime, drunken artist Sam Evans. They agree to meet in Collinsport’s tavern, The Blue Whale. After Roger gets off the phone, well-meaning governess Vicki passes by. He invites her to come with him to the tavern. Up to this point Roger has often been quite unpleasant to Vicki and she has been wary of him. Also, he is a married man, and she has reason to suspect that he is her uncle. On the other hand, he is no longer a suspect in an active homicide investigation, and she hasn’t had a date in months. So she accepts.
Most of the episode takes place in the Blue Whale. Sam is there with his daughter, Maggie, The Nicest Girl in Town. Hardworking young fisherman Joe joins them, and they invent a drinking game. Every time someone mentions the name “Collins,” the table must drink a toast to “Collins of Collinsport!” Getting into a situation where you have to take a drink every time Sam wants one isn’t a particularly prudent thing to do, but Maggie and Joe are in a daring mood.
Maggie has clearly set her cap for Joe. She gives him a frankly aggressive look that is startling to see in the face of The Nicest Girl in Town. Startling, but most welcome- Joe is still trapped in a useless storyline where he is boyfriend to flighty heiress Carolyn. But when we see him having a good time with Maggie, we can finally see the light at the end of that tunnel.
Roger and Vicki show up. Roger and Sam go off and talk about something or other having to do with their dark doings. This conversation is meaningful only to the two of them. At this point, even the sheriff has lost interest in Roger and Sam’s little conspiracy. The actors are fun to watch- Louis Edmonds and David Ford always enjoyed playing off each other- but the audience certainly can’t be expected to keep track of whatever they’re talking about.
Vicki joins Maggie and Joe for some pleasant chatter about a couple of plot points the audience might want to keep in mind. Roger, frustrated by his talk with Sam, comes to the young people’s table and insults them. Joe, though he is an employee of the Collins family business, offers to fight Roger in defense of Maggie’s honor. Vicki and Sam break the fight up before Joe can throw his first punch. Roger announces that he has a headache and takes Vicki home.
Once there, Vicki thanks Roger for the evening, with no apparent sarcasm in her voice. He apologizes, and promises to take her out again. She sounds genuinely excited by the idea of another such outing. Who knows, next time maybe she will get something to eat, or a drink, or more than three minutes of conversation before she has to stop a fistfight and go home.
If Roger really is Vicki’s uncle- that is, if his sister, reclusive matriarch Liz, is secretly Vicki’s mother, as the show has been hinting pretty heavily- then a romance between Vicki and Roger would seem to be a soap opera cliche. Liz has struggled to keep Vicki from finding out anything about her origins. If Liz sees Vicki about to enter into an incestuous marriage, she might feel forced to stand up at the wedding when the minister asks if anyone present knows why these two may not be joined in lawful matrimony and to expose the secret.
The jukebox at the Blue Whale plays some music we haven’t heard before. The Dark Shadows wiki identifies it as a series of tracks from Les and Larry Elgart’s album “The New Elgart Touch.” It’s a step down from the tracks by Robert Cobert the jukebox has played so far, but it is a fitting accompaniment to the dancing of this guy. In most places he would be thought awkward, but by the standards of Collinsport he is indistinguishable from Fred Astaire:
Last Friday, the sheriff called the home of drunken artist Sam Evans. He warned Sam that dashing action hero Burke Devlin might be coming to his house, and urged him to call back if he did. Burke did go to Sam’s house, but Sam didn’t call the sheriff. After a brief confrontation with Burke, Sam ran away and left Burke alone with his daughter Maggie and their house-guest, well-meaning governess Vicki.
Yesterday, the sheriff called reclusive matriarch Liz at her home, the great house of Collinwood. He warned Liz that Burke might be coming to her house, and urged her to call back if he did so. Burke showed up at the house at the end of the episode.
Liz doesn’t call the sheriff either. After Burke refuses her commands to get out of her house, she decides to confuse him with a display of hospitality. It turns out to be quite an effective tactic. When Vicki walks in and asks Burke what he’s doing at Collinwood, he replies in bewilderment “I think I’m having tea.”
Burke takes the tea tray from Liz
Burke had gone to Collinwood looking for Liz’ brother, ne’er-do-well Roger. Roger is with Sam at the tavern in town. Yesterday we heard some new music at the tavern, a funky tune that sounds like it was cut from a Booker T and the MGs album. It played then as grizzled caretaker Matthew sat by himself waiting for Burke to come in so he could threaten him. It was so obviously not something Matthew would listen to that it served to emphasize his isolation. It plays again today as Roger and Sam reach the end of a strange conversation, with Roger first refusing Sam’s offer to leave town for money, then Sam refusing Roger’s offer to give him money to leave town. As Roger and Sam, Louis Edmonds and David Ford have so much fun with this exchange that it feels like an Abbott and Costello routine. The music is different enough from what we’ve heard on the show so far that it highlights Roger and Sam’s silliness.
I should also mention that in the opening voiceover, Vicki says the phrase “Dark Shadows.” This is the second time we’ve heard a character say the title of the series. The first was in episode 46, when Roger had said that a drawing by his son, problem child David, had captured “Collinwood, with all its dark shadows.”
In which I wonder how Bruno could have expected to use Alexis’ piano technique to test her identity, since all the piano playing in this part of the series is represented by the same recording.
Dark Shadows Commentary 