NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS (1971)
Haunted by the Past *****
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
As has been pointed out over the years, the 2nd DS feature, "NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS", starts out as a loose variation of the show's "1970 Parallel Time" story. In that, Quentin & his new bride Maggie arrive at Collinwood, where everyone is obsessed with Quentin's late wife Angelique, and are convinced she will return from the dead. That story itself was a variation on "REBECCA"-- right down to a "Mrs. Danvers" character (mentioned in NODS), though with a supernatural twist, in that Quentin's dead wife actually does come back, murders her twin sister and takes her place. On the show, it was one of the best-structured and paced story lines they ever did... until its rather ABRUPT ending, which left me unsatisfied and frustrated.
As for this movie... while elements of "REBECCA" and "1970 Parallel Time" definitely find their way in here, I find this is much more of a remake of the Roger Corman classic, "THE HAUNTED PALACE" with Vincent Price & Debra Paget as the married couple who inherit a mansion with a spooky housekeeper (Lon Chaney Jr.). Price's character, Charles Dexter Ward (the film was a very loose adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story) sees a portrait of an ancestor who he is a dead ringer of-- and the spirit of his ancestor spends most of the film trying to POSSESS his descendant. (There is a difference between reincarnation and possession, which sometimes got blurred on the DARK SHADOWS TV series.) The scene where David Selby roughly embraces his wife Tracy, leaving her in tears, then says, "I'll touch you ANY way I like, WHENEVER I like, and if you don't like it, you can always LEAVE!", is straight out of the Corman flick, when Price-- POSSESSED-- tells Debra Paget he wishes "to exercise my husbandly prerogative"-- and then almost RAPES her!! (I'm surprised no one else has brought up this blatant comparison before.)
Another Corman POE film that found its way into this one is "THE TOMB OF LIGEIA", where Verden Fell (Price again) marries Rowena (Elisabeth Sheppard), but is haunted by the memory of his late wife Ligeia (also Sheppard). The multiple camera shots of the tower where Quentin is drawn by Angelique are almost IDENTICAL to the shots of the tower of the abbey where, each night, without his own knowledge, Fell goes to tend to his DEAD wife-- who placed him under hypnotism before she died.
I've always thought "HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS" was too short, and should have been at least 2 hours long, to allow for better pacing and character development of its huge, complex cast. By comparison, the first time I saw "NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS", I thought it was painfully slow, dull and too long for its own good. When I discovered that a full 35 MINUTES had been cut from it before release, I could hardly believe what I was reading. But on further investigation, it appears this film would have been MUCH better if the story as originally written had been allowed to see release without being butchered.
Even so, from reading in detail about what was missing, something tells me that EVEN the uncut version of this film is actually missing its "3rd act". If even the uncut version still ends with Angelique coming back, Quentin fully possessed, and everyone else DEAD, what's the point?
Try watching this-- then "THE HAUNTED PALACE" back-to-back. The moment Price is about the leave the house-- but then stays for "one last thing"-- and becomes FULLY possessed-- is where that film REALLY starts to get interesting! "NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS", in either form, ends TOO SOON for its own good.
