Night has come to Collinwood ahead of schedule.
Restlessness is expected. As Dark Shadows days are concerned, this one breezed by. Last episode it was around maybe late morning or early afternoon, having only gotten to morning in the episode before, and now just like that, it’s nighttime. This will eventually be the norm for Dark Shadows, especially when that vampire shows up and they spend lots of time at night for logistical reasons.
This increased pacing is yet another facet of Dark Shadows’s evolving tone, as we drift more and more into the ethereal, the realm of suspense and intrigue that this show should have had going for it (and did have going for it, for a little while) before it decided to concern itself with suppositories and pederasty.
A part of this return, is a look again, for the first time since the first week, at Widows’ Hill, the cliff that overlooks the stormy sound, with the whistling wind that invokes the memory of those benighted widows, who cried for their husbands to return from the sea.
It’s weird that, for all the hill gets namedropped, especially in the opening monologues, it hasn’t appeared very often. Seeing it now, shrouded in darkness, it is both a welcome and alienating sight, one that evokes the suggestion of something big and mysterious about to happen.
Carolyn and Vicky have both been drawn to the clifftop, amidst the wild wind, looking out over the sea as those widows must have so long ago.
The script for this episode is especially layered in ghostly, evocative language, of the kind that was ever-present in the first three or four weeks or so before it got supplanted with diet police drama, rationed business talk, and starved attempts at love speak.
This will be Art Wallace’s last turn before handing things to Francis Swann for another week, and it seems he determines to make me miss him, the bastard.
That could very well be a tagline. It’s dark and moody but also kind of romantic, in a poetic way.
Victoria, as usual, is immune to such flights of fancy and can only remark that the ocean is rough.
I suppose it would be, yes.
Victoria wonders if Carolyn often does this, like this is some weird kink or something.
Such as…?
I’ve missed those things.
As ever, Vicky remains the Skeptic, even after twice hearing the mysterious lady crying in the basement and, the most recent time, getting confirmation from two people in the house, including the girl she’s talking to right now, that there does not appear to be any kind of logical explanation for it.
Oh well.
Carolyn notes that Vicky remains stubbornly immune to superstition, which would be a little more offensive if more supernatural stuff had happened by this point but, I remind you, that was part of the plan and (allegedly, but…well, we’ll talk about that) there were never any plans to introduce explicit supernatural overtones into a narrative based heavily off 19th century Gothic literature.
Speaking of 19th century Gothic literature, such stories often used the supernatural as a metaphor for real world anxieties. The earlier-discussed Fall of the Hose of Usher, referenced by Carolyn as early as the third episode, was Poe’s allegory for anxiety, depression and suicide.
Victoria seems to recognize this.
This seems to be the case, but Carolyn doesn’t outright confirm it. Instead, she pivots to her mother.
Victoria continues (at least attempting) being “Miss Pollyanna in a world of pain”, but her assurances that Malloy will soon return have little effect.
Well, they seem to tell David things. Not that anyone’s ever investigated this or asked him what he means when he says that.
The Wikipedia page for Elves (shut up and let me finish), before it was edited by some puritan, had this lovely line that I think about often when I am in a philosophical mood.
The line was to the effect that, while there may not be significant evidence to prove elves are real, many cultures believe they are, which has affected how they live their lives anyway. I guess the line was edited out because they compared this to the true value of the dollar bill and “the patriotism of the national anthem”, which I guess was a little too radical.
But I guess that’s the same way Carolyn feels about ghosts.
Victoria points out that this weird mood seems to have descended on Carolyn quite quickly.
Kinky.
Look, an acknowledgment that, at 17, Carolyn is still, in fact, a kid. Why hasn’t Burke been arrested yet?
Carolyn Stoddard just in: Prayer is dead.
There’s a funny thing about the witching hour. Carolyn used the same term last night/a few episodes ago and seemed also to be referring to midnight.
That’s not when the witching hour is.
Traditionally, the witching hour (the period of the night when Black Magic is most potent) is between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. The association with midnight has next to no evidence in folklore of any culture, but is predominant in media anyway, presumably because “midnight” sounds more dramatic.
Well, it’s not sterling silver or filigreed, so I’m gonna say it wasn’t Burke Devlin.
The same birthday for which, you’ll recall, Roger gave her that ring she used to give Burke an excuse to see her again. Boyfriend shown up by uncle is a weird relationship story, but that’s what you get when you throw in with the Collinses.
Carolyn, perhaps thinking of her moment of intimacy with Joe earlier in the day, expresses her own frustration with her…er…constantly shifting feelings on the subject of her man.
Hopefully not at this cliff.
The keening of the wind seems to rise in response to Carolyn’s question, a chilling sound effect.
Shit.
Victoria, practically, offers one of those dollops of good advice she is still capable of giving, noting that Carolyn will only have that dreary fate if she accepts it. She can always take action and choose.
Which is valid, I guess, but not as fun sounding as the ghosts.
Okay, so I won’t completely miss Art Wallace.
This is less of a “plot” episode and more an “atmosphere” one. We have the girls on Widows’ Hill talking about ghosts and loss and lingering feelings of despair, etc. while inside the house, we have David unable to sleep because…
Has Matthew been neglecting the dusting?
Your electric bill sure as hell won’t.
Elizabeth is far too tired to deal with this bullshit. David interprets this as her “not caring” about him, which is something because she’s the only reason his ass isn’t in an institution, and then he runs upstairs.
She’s been eager to speak to Roger since she learned he lied about seeing Malloy last night. When Liz hears the door open, she gets excited this might finally be her wayward brother (unseen, even by us, on this very short day), but it’s just the ladies.
Liz heads up to see David. Vicky wonders if her charge is alright.
Other pleasant Dark Shadows moments: Carolyn playing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ as Vicky brews tea.
Self-awareness? How refreshing.
The phone rings. Carolyn gets all excited that this is Malloy at last and rushes to answer.
Always second place.
Joe seems to ask about Malloy, but of course nobody knows anything and Carolyn hastily gets rid of him and this is just the kind of relationship they have, so why am I even surprised.
Well, as long as you can say it to someone.
Liz returns and you know what that means.
Liz has been to check on David who is fine and “just wanted some attention, that’s all”, which is both funny and depressing, like much of this show at its best.
Liz’s mind is now, if possible, more on Roger than it is on Malloy.
Carolyn, however, is full of platitudes.
I’m not sure how that can be a “bright” solution given what happened the last time his car broke down, but I digress.
Just like last night, though, Carolyn is full of attempts to get her mother to relax and calm down, but Liz just can’t be stilled.
Fair point. She handled Roger almost dying with a true stiff upper lip. Perhaps whatever feelings Malloy had for Liz were, indeed, on some level, reciprocated.
As my personal deity Joni Mitchell once said: you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone.
The girls team up to convince poor, weary Mrs. Stoddard to take a load off.
I’m not sure that ghost stories are the right way to alleviate this woman’s crushing anxiety, but this is a strange household.
In point of fact, very few people know that Cats is about the Russian Revolution.
Carolyn is suitably chastened and takes off, leaving Victoria to deal with her boss and maybe her aunt or maybe her mother or maybe her half-sister or a custodian of some kind or whoever this woman is supposed to be to her.
Consistently, if there’s anyone in this family who doesn’t believe these things, it would appear to be Elizabeth. That doesn’t mean we can’t get a Lesson.
This might sound familiar. Carolyn actually told Vicky this story back in Episode 9, only in that telling there were already three women who’d thrown themselves from the ledge: Josette Collins (“wife of the madman who built this place”) and two governesses.
This would appear to be Art Wallace revising his own material, with a twist that makes it considerably more interesting. The number “3”, after all, is a number of folkloric significance and the air of prophecy just as much, also reinforced via the new dramatic device of David’s crystal ball.
We also get the little “hook”…who will the third person be?
It is into this charming, domestic scene, that Roger returns at last from who knows where.
This guy.
Roger’s attitude is, again, too lackadaisical for comfort. He may as well be skipping into the house with a parasol and a sunhat because he has confidence in sunshine, rain and the surety that spring will come again.
As Victoria excuses herself (escapes) for bed, Roger insists he will speak to Liz, but only after he’s had a sandwich.
I’m frightened.
The air of pervasive unease continues as we follow Victoria back to her room, where a shocking surprise is waiting for her.
I understand this is supposed to be scary, but all I can think is that the letters are made with careful, distinct lines like somebody was using busted plastic stencils.
In horror fiction, it is common for people to pin supernatural events on innocent, vulnerable parties. In this case, the wily child.
In Victoria’s defense, Dave has repeatedly broken into her room to vandalize, steal and plant incriminating evidence, so she has every reason to suspect him.
Victoria commands David to tell her what the graffiti says.
Very good. He’s learning. Vicky’s work hasn’t been in vain.
But David claims not to be responsible. This is also not surprising. Aside from all those times he basically admitted to the oblivious adults that he tried to kill his Dad, he’s been quite insistent about lying to cover his ass.
It’s just that, usually, they’ve been bad lies.
Vicky, honey, the widows are ghosts. There aren’t some random matrons in mourning wandering around the house praying the rosary.
Vicky insists David wipe the word off the mirror with those Kleenex that were certainly not part of the set before they were needed for the story but David has enough self-respect not to accept a punishment for a crime he has not committed.
Yeah. Bitch.
This argument would hit better if Victoria hadn’t already suggested he would use it as an excuse.
Carolyn is lured in by all the commotion and arrives just in time to hear David describe how the voices of dead women keep him awake at night.
I wonder…might it have been more than guilt that brought David to his window the night he tried to kill his father? We recall it was only by Elizabeth’s intercession that he was kept from taking his own life. Going with the earlier attestation that ghosts are often metaphors for deeper psychological truths, I wonder.
Mind, probably not intentional. It may have only climaxed 20 episodes ago, but the suppository was 1,000 years past in soap opera time.
In another zinger that I can’t screencap because the camera isn’t on her, Vicky notes that “That’s strange, because [the Widows] seem to have exactly the same handwriting as you”.
Carolyn offers a wry observation.
We have a nice time at Collinwood.
When faced with the prospect of Aunt Elizabeth, David hastily recollects his shit and gets to wiping.
And, always one to have the last word…
Well, we have no way of checking his alibi, so I guess we’ll never know. So far lots of what passes for the supernatural (the opening doors, the moving letter) have just been David fucking around. The only exception is the Weeping Woman.
And yet…
Carolyn wonders how Victoria deals with David.
It’s unacknowledged, but Vicky seems to be finally adhering to Roger’s advice to her from their very first meeting. Interesting how that works out.
Carolyn points out that she may well have reason to head back to that benighted peak. That wristwatch she loudly drew attention to has gone missing.
This, you’ll note, is the third of Carolyn’s accessories (ring, sterling silver filigreed fountain pen, wristwatch) to mysteriously vanish. The ring was deliberate, of course. As for the pen…wouldn’t you like to know?
That squeal you hear is a delighted Roger listening at the door.
Victoria points out that it’s hardly feasible for Carolyn to go out to a windy clifftop in the middle of the night, but Carolyn doesn’t care about that.
Again, if Victoria were from New York, the only answer would be “no bitch” and a goodnight. But Vicky is nice and easily swindled, so there goes that.
In the drawing room, Liz watches intently as Roger eats what must be a real bitchin’ sandwich.
They had no better coldcuts than chicken in the house? These people are rich? They weren’t joking when they said flavor was absent from the White American diet. Roger probably thinks ketchup is a spice.
Liz wonders where Roger has been and Roger points out he doesn’t have to ask her that because she never leaves the house.
Liz mentions Malloy’s disappearance and Roger insists he is very concerned. So much so, in fact, that he “had a feeling” he could find him and, after work, drove to the aforementioned Malloy cousin, only to learn they hadn’t seen the guy for weeks.
This, finally, seems to crack Roger’s shit-eating façade.
Liz is also smart enough not to tell out ol’ girl Victoria Winters, so she doesn’t tell Roger how she learned this, but he figures it out pretty fast.
So, cornered with the inescapable reality of his deception, Roger straightens up very importantly.
Roger seems gratified to know that Victoria heard little else besides the fact of the “meeting”, which gives him considerable room for bullshitting.
Not that this makes him very creative.
Roger spins a facile story about how he and Malloy quarreled over the handling of “some of our accounts”. What does that mean for a fish canning company? Which accounts do they have? Grocery stories? Fisheries? How does any of this extraordinarily boring business work?
Liz asks which accounts were being discussed.
Carolyn has decided to search the drawing room for her watch before braving the elements. Her presence defangs the adults’ discussion considerably, which I’m sure Roger is glad about.
Roger decides they old duffers ought to get to bed while the young ladies go out to the cliff in the middle of the night.
They head out and Liz heads up.
David expresses concern about Vicky’s departure, which is uncharacteristic and therefore worthy of scrutiny.
He explains.
You know…
This Day in History- Friday, September 2, 1966
Notorious trashfire and also Governor of Alabama George C. Wallace (notable for making Nina Simone lose her rest) signs a bill into law refusing to accent government aid to the state’s education program, proving that he wasn’t just bad at Civil Rights but all rights. The law would pass anyway, but by the end of the year, it was true that only 2.4% of Black students in the state were attending formerly all-white schools.
The U.S. expels Soviet diplomat Valentin A. Revin, after accusing him of trying to steal American missile secrets. Twelve days later, the Soviet Union would expel an American diplomat on accusations of espionage because Cold War stuff.
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek is born today, and I just had a shock realizing she’s well over 50.
It’s This Guy From That Thing!
Technically speaking, Frank Schofield’s last proper episode was Monday’s, but in the interest of preserving surprise, I waited until this cliffhanger.
There’s very little about Schofield’s personal life online, but he does have a full filmography, though not as extensive as some of the “bit” parts we’ve covered here.
The first Dark Shadows regular to drop off the canvas (not counting our recasts), got his start on the anthology series Robert Montgomery Presents, where he appeared in five episodes between 1955 and 1956.
Also in ’56, he had a supporting role in a single episode of The Alcoa Hour, which was a sort of proto Masterpiece Classic, adapting works of drama and literature, mostly musicals.
Schofield’s first recurring role came later that year in Modern Romances, which anthologized love stories in multi-episode arcs. Schofield featured prominently in a five episode arc called The Transfusion, which is…ironic.
A few more small parts followed throughout the late ‘50s into the early ‘60s, including one episode each on crime dramas Deadline and The Naked City in 1959 and 1962 respectively.
Like many other actors we’ve covered here, Schofield also did a few episodes of The Armstrong Circle Theatre between 1958 and 1960.
His first soap role was as John Austin a single episode of The Search for Tomorrow in 1963. He would then have another single-episode appearance on NBC’s The Doctors, one of the biggest soaps of the period.
Schofield played President James Madison (weird casting choice, but okay) in the 1963 television movie The Patriots. Madison was short and kind of stout, which I don’t think of when I imagined Schofield, but he seemed pretty method, so I’m sure he did fine. Later medical soap The Nurses (then called The Doctors and the Nurses) also saw him briefly as the Italian (?) Dr. Torelli in 1964.
In 1965, Schofield played the first Craig Reynolds on little remembered soap A Flame in the Wind.
All these soap credits meant that, by the time Schofield was cast on Dark Shadows, he was the most “soaped” actor in the regular cast. Mind you, with two fresh-faced ingenues (Alexandra Moltke and KLS), three theater queens (Mitch Ryan, Louis Edmonds and Nancy Barrett) and a Golden Age movie star (Joan Bennett), Dark Shadows had a fairly irregular cast makeup as it was. Mark Allen was a respected character actor, but he didn’t have soap experience. It was really just Schofield.
Dark Shadows from the Beginning relates that Schofield apparently feared the ruination of his career after Malloy was killed off on this show. There is evidence of his resume drying out in the late ‘60s. shortly after Dark Shadows, Schofield landed the role of the third Arthur Rysdale on The Secret Storm, another popular soap, though he left the show in 1967.
From 1972 to ’73, Schofield ended up on the…interesting soap Somerset which was another conventional soap that attempted to ape off Edge of Night with wild crime stories fairly early into its run.
Schofield’s last credit is on none other than Days of Our Lives where he played the second Frank Evans (heh) from 1979 to 1980.
Consistently one of the strongest actors in the pre-Barnabas era, Schofield never had a bad episode and, when he was utilized, proved the force of his dramatic power. It’s a shame Bill Malloy had to be killed for the sake of the story, but…
Well, you have seen this story, right?
Kooks of Collinwood 