40 Years Ago Tonight!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

40 years ago at this very moment I was watching NoDS for the very first time. The movie had opened in 130 New England theaters and drive-ins on Wednesday, August 4, 1971 but I didn't, get to see it until Friday, August 6th when my mom (who was also a DS fan) took me and a friend to see it at a RI drive-in (along with hoDS as the first feature and Vincent Price's Cry of the Banshee as the bonus third feature). And I was lucky enough to see the longer by about 4 minutes R rated print, which wasn't even supposed to have been in distribution and would eventually be pulled - though not until after I'd seen it several more times, most of which were between August 25th and 31st, while it was playing in a theater in my city (along with hoDS).

Among other things, that longer print included the far more graphic trampling of Strak:

the entire hanging of Angelique:

and the bloody aftermath of Gerard's death:

All of which can be glimpsed in a few of the NoDS trailers, as well as the far more explicit molestings of Tracy by Gerard and a possessed Quentin, which cannot.

It's interesting to watch the version of NoDS that's available on Amazon and iTunes and to see not only the widescreen print but to also hear bits of dialogue and music cues from some of the cut scenes, and even dialogue from existing scenes that is no longer there (like when Quentin stares at the unfinished painting of Angelique after his vision of what took place in the tower when Angelique was taken and he recalls that Angelique told Charles to bring the painting to life). And I absolutely cannot wait until the day comes when we finally get the restored version of NoDS on DVD/Blu-ray.

[Gothick]

Great post, MB.  I never got to see NoDS at all during its theatrical release because we were out of town in a trip (to Florida, I think) the week that it played in our local theatre.  I guess it must have been sometime in August.

Was any of the wild scene where Charles and Angelique are making love in the swimming pool which had been turned into a torchlit, phantasmagoric realm of hell by the production crew for the occasion, still in the print you saw?  There's a snippet of it in the trailers, I think.  I remember that you posted images from it in the NoDS slideshow thread here.

Best, G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I never got to see NoDS at all during its theatrical release because we were out of town in a trip (to Florida, I think) the week that it played in our local theatre.  I guess it must have been sometime in August.

People who weren't around in the '70s have no idea what it was like trying to catch a movie back then. Movies didn't open all across the country on the same day and in thousands of theaters, like they do today - they opened regionally over a period of months. If you lived around a major city, you usually didn't have to wait too long for something to get around to your area - but other parts of the country could wait months to see something that the rest of the country had seen long before. And no matter where you lived, you had no idea when anything was going to open until you either saw the trailer in a local theater or you saw an ad in the newspaper (most Sunday editions would print big ads for that week's upcoming openings). And even then, more often than not, movies only played for a week, so if you didn't have the chance to go to see them that week, you may have never again gotten the opportunity to see them in a theater. I was lucky with NoDS because my local theater didn't open the film until three weeks after the initial New England opening, so I was able to see NoDS several more times after I'd seen it at the RI drive-in.

Was any of the wild scene where Charles and Angelique are making love in the swimming pool which had been turned into a torchlit, phantasmagoric realm of hell by the production crew for the occasion, still in the print you saw?

As far as what I've read, DC never included the dream sequence in any version of the film, which is a pity because from pictures and snippets in the trailers it looks like it would have been quite interesting. But getting back to some of the things that are included in the Amazon/iTunes version, have you ever watched it? If not, you might want to because there's a point where you get to hear the beginning of one of Carlotta's lines that isn't in the current version of NoDS and also wasn't in the version that I'd seen back in '71:

Near the end of the scene in which Carlotta shows Quentin and Tracy the Gallery, after Quentin has had his vision of Angelique's body hanging in the tree, Tracy has questioned him as to what's wrong, and he replies that he guesses he was just daydreaming, as the camera holds on Quentin's close up, we hear Carlotta return to the room (recall that she had left to get a salad that she had prepared) and she says, "I brought some..." before her line gets cut off by the transition to the bedroom scene later that night.

It'll be interesting to see if the entire continuation of the Gallery scene is in the restored version when it comes out on DVD/Blu-ray or if that snippet of Carlotta's line solely exists in the Amazon/iTunes version. I believe it will be restored because it's listed in the DS Movie Book as one of the currently missing sequences that did appear in the original 131 minute print. So, for Graysonholics, that bit in the Amazon/iTunes version is like getting a brief preview of one of the things to come.  

[KMR]

Wow, 40 years!!  I still think it's weird that the theater in my small town in north central Michigan was one of the theaters showing NODS (in the slightly longer version that did not get approved for GP rating) on the very first day of its run.  I sat through both showings that opening night!  I first thought it was going to be HODS, because the previews they showed the week before, and the posters, and the title on the marquee were all for HODS.  When the picture started out in silence, with the word "Night" appearing on a black background, followed by "of Dark Shadows", my first thought was:  Why did they rerelease this with a different title?  Then the dissolve into a shot of trees moving by overhead threw me.  It wasn't long before I was giddy with excitement, realizing THIS IS THE NEW MOVIE!!  When I left the theater, they were changing "House" to "Night" on the marquee.  I still don't know why they had the advertising confusion, though.

[Gerard]

I know I saw it during the summer of '71 because I was grateful for an air-conditioned theater.  It ran as a double-bill with HoDS.  

And MB recaptured the "nostalgia" of what it was like back then seeing movies.  There were no mega-plexes back then, at least not in small (or probably even most medium-sized) communities, so it could take weeks for a movie to finally arrive, especially in a small town like mine.  When it did, it played for a week (here, starting on Wednesday with nightly shows, along with matinees on Saturday and Sunday, and ending on Tuesday).  That was it.  We had only two movie theaters, each with one screen, while I was growing up (a third opened in the mid-seventies; actually re-opened after being closed and empty for more than a decade).  You only got a chance to see four movies (remember, back then, a double-bill, starting with a "B" flic first, followed by the "A" one, along with a documentary, a cartoon and previews).  Oh, wait, I forgot to say:  we also had a drive-in that also showed double-bills, but it was open only seasonally.  By the mid-seventies, double-bills had vanished, as did the documentaries and cartoons.  If a movie was really popular, it would stay an extra week - "held over by popular demand," as it would say.  The first movie in my small town that was "held over by popular demand" was The Poseidon Adventure.  It stayed for three weeks.  The theater that showed it tried to use its own "special effect."  When the credits started, it closed the curtains over the screen and projected the images of the Poseidon rolling in the storm while fans blew the curtains around, trying to give a "wavy" effect.  As the credits ended, the curtains opened.

Gerard

[David]

I saw it at the Mayfair Theatre in Brooklyn, which became a McDonald's in 1980.
I remember expecting DS to simply continue as movies: I thought there'd be several original cast films.

Other films I saw at the Mayfair:
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
The Deadly Bees
Asylum

Ah, the memories.......

[Gerard]

Those were great movies, David!  I never got to see any of the Hammer films as they were only shown at the outdoor (and my parents certainly weren't going to take me), so I had to wait for them to appear on the CBS Friday Late Show a few years later on TV (I was allowed by my parents, as a consolation prize, to stay up late, provided I kept the sound down).

I did see Asylum at the Capitol Theater (the same one that showed HoDS and NoDS).  I and a friend went on a Wednesday evening, playing hooky from the junior-high catechism class (the timing was perfect, and we didn't get caught).  Shortly afterwards, at a local bookstore, I purchased the paperback novelization of the film - I still have it.  And I saw The Deadly Bees also at the Capitol.  Back then, on the Saturday before Halloween, the theater presented two horror/sci-fi films for us kiddies and yung-uns.  One was almost always a Godzilla flick.  At one of the Halloween celebration "film festivals" one of the movies was TDB.  When the middle-aged woman was attacked and her dead body, her face swollen from the myriad of stings, was carried out, everyone was screaming.

Gerard

[David]

The Deadly Bees, in Spring 1967, was the first horror film I ever saw in a theatre: it predated my discovery of DS by six months.
It scared the HELL out of me: that scene still creeps me out!

I later found out that the actress who played the bee stung Mrs Hargrove, Catherine Finn, was married to iconic Hammer character actor Michael Ripper--I met Ripper, director Freddie Francis and star Suzana Leigh at a Fanex con in Virginia, they all signed my Deadly Bees poster!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Less other films, more NoDS please. 

[David]

 
I'm in the I Like NODS camp. Very different from HODS, to be sure, but beautifully shot & very eerie. Even with the cuts, the story still makes sense.

Though I greatly look forward to seeing the full, restored version.

[Robot_Quentin]

Yes and yes! 'Night' is my favorite of the two for sure!

[Nicky]

I just watched it again the other night -- I put it onto a DVD, transferring it from my old, 1991-taped version (my VHS copy wouldn't transfer, and we don't have a VHS player any longer!).  TBS played both HODS and NODS around the time the '91 series debuted, and I got up early on a Sunday morning in January or February to tape them both.  I had seen most of HODS (except for the ending), and I was shocked at Barnabas' death!  I was further shocked while watching NODS to discover that it was "just" a ghost story, and that there was no werewolf prowling around.  I remember being exceptionally bored; now, however, twenty years later I prefer NODS in certain ways.  Of course I'm an enormous Angelique fan, and I love her in almost all her incarnations, but beyond that, I think that the potential of the story (pre-cuts) and that the gorgeous cinematography come together to create something truly creepy and beautiful at the same time.  Although my fiance and I did have a good laugh while watching Alex attempt to administer CPR to a nearly-drowned Tracy.  I guess maybe that's one of the many reasons why Collinsport has such a high death rate ...

[Taeylor Collins]

On a side note have they found a Grayson double for the release of NODS?????  

[B.Collins]

the 1st horor film i ever saw in the theatre was the 6th "Nightmare On Elm Street" sorry 'MB" but i actually don't get to see many horror films in a theatre. since nobody wants to see them with me. anyways. are they going to put out the film on dvd or blu-ray this year? i haven' really heard anything in a long time.

[Taeylor Collins]

I adore NODS.  The movie is an amazing, beautiful, still, solemn, piece of work.  I love Carlotta of course.  I think in NODS one was truly able to see (much like Night of the Iguana) what Grayson could do with a film. She was extraordinary! 

The whole cast was exceptional.  David Selby and Kate Jackson were quite wonderful in their roles.  Fresh off a hot TV series and out of acting school both Selby and Jackson gave it their all. 

One also can see the work of budding producer/director Dan Curtis with his low angles, Moody sets, and beautiful camera work this movie had it all. We finally were able to see Dan could accomplish with a great (well for that time) budget and great script.  I think people have elected NODS as their favorite of the two because of all the elements of good script, good cast, great director. 

I am also very excited to see the movie restored and especially on BLU RAY as well!