Description

With its alluring tales of Gothic mystery and supernatural intrigue, Dark Shadows became one of the most popular daytime series of all time. Since first airing on ABC-TV from 1966-71, Dark Shadows has earned the reputation as being one of the most unusual and enduring programs in television history. The character of Barnabas Collins, a guilt-ridden 175 year-old vampire, brought the show tremendous success.

Barnabas' secret is threatened by David Collins' curiosity. Anxious to become human again, Barnabas orders Dr. Julia Hoffman to accelerate her treatments to cure him, but the experiment backfires, causing Barnabas to age rapidly and assume the appearance of a 200-year-old man. During a seance at Collinwood to contact the spirit of Barnabas' young sister Sarah, Victoria Winters mysteriously disappears and finds that she has traveled back in time to the year 1795.

Bonuses: Exclusive interviews with series producer Robert Costello, writer Sam Hall, special make-up artist Dick Smith and actress Lara Parker.

Starring:Joan Bennett, Jonathan Frid, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Louis Edmonds, Nancy Barrett, David Henesy, Clarice Blackburn, Anthony George, Grayson Hall, Joel Crothers, David Ford, Robert Gerringer, Jerry Lacy, Lara Parker, Sharon Smyth, Peter Turgeon, Vince O' Brien, Angus Cairns, Peter Murphy, William Shust, Dorrie Kavanaugh and Alexandra Moltke ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Counting down to 1795
Dark Shadows continues with DVD Collection 4 (VHS Volumes 21-28)! The storylines really pick up the pace in these episodes as young David Collins continues to have nightmares about vampire Barnabas Collins. As Barnabas wants to become human again he orders Dr. Julia Hoffman to accelerate her experiments to cure him. However, the treatments backfire, causing Barnabas to age rapidly to look like a 200-year-old man. Barnabas attacks and takes control of Carolyn Stoddard in order to become "young" again. Later on in this Collection, the Collins family begin to believe that David's claims may be true, and they hold a seance to contact the spirit of Barnabas' younger sister Sarah. During the seance, Victora Winters mysteriously disappears and discovers that she has travelled back in time to the year 1795.

Bonuses for this disc include interviews with producer Robert Costello, writer Sam Hall, make-up artist Dick Smith (probably the best interview I've seen on a DS set) and actress Lara Parker, who plays the role of the evil witch Angelique when the series shifts to 1795.

Another great collection of the Dark Shadows series.

A must own collection !
I can probably count on one hand tv series that I would buy on DVD...and Dark Shadows is one of them ! Yes...they borrowed storylines from classics including "Frankenstein"..."Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde"...and "The Wolfman"....they left in flubbed lines...had on camera miscues...many of the individual scenes dragged out way too long...and the cast probably earned plenty of frequent flyer miles with all of their trips back and forth into the past and future...but these things give Dark Shadows it's charm ! The sets were absolutely awesome...professionally designed and built by architects and craftsmen...the music soundtrack is very beautiful... the quality is great on DVD...and the interviews with cast members and others involved at the end of each disc are excellent additions! It was also the start for sucessful actors like David Selby (Quentin Collins)...Kate Jackson(Daphne Harridge)...John Karlen(Willie Loomis)...and Roger Davis(Peter Bradford)...it featured familiar faces like Joan Bennett(Elizabeth Collins Stoddard) and Dennis Patrick(Jason Mc Guire)...and actors who came out of nowhere to steal the show...like Lara Parker(Angelique the witch) Louis Edmonds(Roger Collins)....Thayer David (Ben Stokes)Jerry Lacy (Reverend Trask)...and Nancy Barrett(Carolyn Stoddard) ! Buy all of the sets...but I'm reviewing here because Victoria Winters' accidental trip to 1795 via seance' is the most well written and best acted segment of the entire series...as good as most of them were ! Enjoy...Dark Shadows truly is a classic...and my order is up to date through Collection 9 ! Start right now with Collection 1...the first appearance of last but not least...Barnabas Collins...played with all of his heart and soul by Johnathan Frid....a must own DVD collection that won't take too big of a bite out of your budget !

SINKING YOUR TEETH INTO A CULT CLASSIC
There are grand operas, horse operas and soap operas. But we're not horsing
around when we say that there's only one grand, gothic soap opera --- the
indestructible Dark Shadows.
Premiering on ABC in 1966, it ran for five years, chalking up 1,225
episodes. And now it's time, once again, to sink our teeth into one of TV's more
quixotic offerings. Pass the garlic, please.
And pass the DVD sets issued by MPI Home Video, dedicated folk who
have worked tirelessly to bring the series out of its forgotten shadows and into
an era of rediscovery. Each of the 5 DVD sets contain 4 discs, a chronicle of
Dark Shadows episodes --- approximately 75 hours of our favorite fanged ghoul,
Barnabas Collins, and the dark doings set in the small fictional fishing village of
Collinsport, Maine. Be forewarned, however, that as much as we have a stake in
the revival of the series, we question why MPI only included episodes #211 to
#412. (We asked the question, but they never answered. Talk about being kept
in dark shadows.)
The late '60s were an odd time in our cultural history, a kind of a
maturation into reality after the bland '50s and a precursor for the entitlement
and permissiveness of the '70s. Violence permeated our society and its
entertainment ... and escape was the order of the day. Dark Shadows brought us
to a strange set of performers playing even a stranger set of characters.
Grayson Hall and Joan Bennett came from the movies, Jonathan Frid and David
Selby came from the stage, and they were supported by actors and actresses
who had spent literally decades gracing some of the most popular soap operas
from radio and television.
Adding to the escapism was the time element. You were never quite sure
what century you were in while visiting the New England branch of Transylvania.
It could be modern-day Collinsport, or it could be the late 18th century.
Performers could be playing the present-day characters, or their great
grandparents. Still, one thing was sure: High on Windows Hill stood the family
manse, Collinswood (the name most likely came from Wilkie Collins, the author
whose gothic gems graced book stalls in late Victorian times), and, regardless of
the century, it was here that the haunted Collinses plied their depraved trade.
Dark Shadows had a narrative link in a way, but the performers never
seem to know exactly where they are, were they've been, or, most importantly,
where they were going. To be sure, there were the normal and accepted gaffs of
daytime television, such as a boom mike boinking a performer on the head or
people tripping over cables. But, there was the added zest of poor Joan Bennett
looking confused, calling performers by their real names, and trying to cover
rising panic with a look of sheer exotic boredom. Bennett made her first film well
before the talky revolution, but she hadn't seen or heard everything yet, until she
sojourned into daytime television.
As a matter of fact, the growth and development of the television show
parallels to a greater or lesser extent the growth and development of theater of
the absurd in America. The players and the set remained basically the same, but
the period and action varied wildly. And, ultimately it didn't matter where you
were, or where you thought you were, or where you thought you were going,
because you were under the spell of the Collinses, in Collinsport, and they were
in control. If the reality seemed fractured, hallucinatory and vaguely scary, well,
then, wasn't life exactly like that?
Dan Curtis, who also brought us War and Remembrance, The Winds of
War, The Night Stalker, Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both with Jack
Palance) and the cult film Burnt Offerings, spawned the series. But the greatest
success of this veritable one-man cottage industry is undoubtedly Dark
Shadows. The brooding gothic setting, the sprawling, elephantine plot twists and
the idiosyncratic, not to say colliding, acting styles come together to create
something unique and strangely satisfying.
For the last 20 years, there has been an annual Dark Shadows Festival,
held either in the Los Angeles or New York area. This year, it will be held in
Brooklyn at the end of August. An ominous press release informs us that this
year marks the final full fledged festival, the last of its line.
Knowing the denizens of Dark Shadows, we don't believe it for a moment!

Dark Shadows continues
Each box set continues to get better and better. There is no reason why any dark shadow fans will not be satisfied with these dvd collections. The dvds provide great picture and sound, including the classic episodes that continue to entertain fans. The storylines and characters continually improve in each box set, and will continue to do so with each release.

Dark Shadows, just as I remembered it.
If you're a Dark Shadows fan, get used to the idea that sooner or later, you'll own every release in the Dark Shadows collection. The best way to get them is probably to preorder each set. If you miss a few, it will get more expensive to keep up.

I must have been eight years old when I watched Dark Shadows, and it's great to see it again after all these years. Things really start rolling in collection 4 of the set as more and more supernatural elements are involved: vampires, ghosts, witches, voodoo, seances, transference through time.

I already have collections 1 through 3 and am viewing them on a European DVD player switched code free. There have been no problems viewing any of the discs. ... Read more

Description

In 1897, Quentin Collins and Magda the gypsy discover the mysterious urn which contains the flames of life for Laura Collins, an immortal Phoenix. Jenny Collins, Quentin's insane wife, escapes from her basement cell at Collinwood and attempts to kill Quentin. Magda, Jenny's sister, places a curse on Quentin which causes him to turn into a werewolf during a full moon. Jamison Collins finds Barnabas' coffin in the Old House basement and reveals the discovery to his father Edward. Carl Collins returns from Atlantic City with a showgirl and mentalist named Pansy Faye. She uses her psychic abilities during a seance to help determine the fate of servant Dirk Wilkins, who rises as a vampire after being attacked by Barnabas. Bonuses: Includes exclusive interviews with actors David Selby, John Karlen, Kathryn Leigh Scott and Terry Crawford. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Back Into The Past
Barnabus finds the I-Ching Wands which he uses to go back into the past where he manages to get out of the coffin which imprisoned him the first time. He then uses Magda and her husband as slaves, and changes history so the Quentin does not get killed. Count Petoffi enters the picture and is indirectly responsible for making Quentin Immortal. Dirk gets used as a scape goat and turned into a vampire. Eventually Julia will also come into the past after Angelique also comes into the past. This section of the past is filled with new action and many events that keep the person interested. Oh yes, remember to keep an eye out for The second reverend Trask who is a hypocrite that discovers Barnabus' secret and kills himself in the end. Josette Dupris also comes back in a recarnation. Any one who liked Dark Shadows will certainly enjoy this chain of events and the one that will be released in September ... Read more

Reviews (6)

A powerful and provocative film from the young De Palma
I saw both "Greetings" and "Hi, Mom!" back in the early 1970s at a college art theater, which was well before director Brian De Palma and actor Robert De Niro became big names. "Greetings" was De Palma's 1968 anti-war movie and "Hi, Mom!" was sort of intended as a sequel of sorts. In this 1970 film De Niro plays John Rubin, a Vietnam vet who returns from the war to settle in Greenwich Village. His big idea is to film the people in the apartment across the street and to sell Pepping Tom type films (where you even have to look through a the little windows in a little brick front to get the correct experience). Eventually John's obsession with making films gets him involved with a radical "Black Power" group. This results in two unforgettable sequences, the first involving what we would not call a Yuppie audience being subjected to urban guerrilla theater in the play "Be Black, Baby," and the second an act of urban terrorism that gives Jon a chance to say the film's title while smiling into a camera.

De Palma is clearly exploring the idea of breaking the barrier between actors and audience in the act of performance. I can appreciate this idea because every time I see theater in the round I keep watching the audience watching the play instead of just watching the play. Pay attention to De Palma's use of the split screen to explore the dual perspectives and get the audience watching the movie involved more involved in the equation as well. Repeatedly, it all comes down to point of view, meaning the point of view of the camera. This idea is reinforced by Jon, for whom life is not real unless it is on camera, a point most notably made in his sexual encounter with Judy (Jennifer Salt).

However, the most powerful part of this film is the "Be Black, Baby" sequences, and this is where you either find this film totally brilliant or grossly offensive. Throughout "Hi, Mom!" De Palma and De Niro have made the viewers party to Jon's voyeurism, albeit in more subtle ways than splatter flicks that let the audience see through the killer's eyes. Having persuaded (coerced?) us into this perspective, De Palma makes us pay for it in a most brutal manner. If you cannot appreciate the payoff of this sequence, and that could well be most of the people who bother to watch this film, then you are not going to be able to appreciate this film. But at the very least you should be able to understand not only what De Palma is doing, but why.

After that point the film section of the film seems quite anticlimactic. De Palma is trying to take his argument to the next level, but having been blown away by "Be Black, Baby," there is no way for the director and actor to top that moment. "Hi, Mom!" is a provocative film that provided me with one of the most memorable experiences in a movie theater that I have ever had. Watching this film again, this time knowing where De Palma and De Niro were taking me, really made me appreciate the purpose behind that powerful moment. Of course from the vantage point of today it is rather startling to compare this rather raw film with the slick Hollywood productions for which De Palma is best known, but this film is so powerful it is hard not to consider it his best work.

a trip out film
I was just gonna watch the film because I think RObert De Niro is one of the Greatest Actors Ever, but then the film takes on a behind the scenes of Being Black&that truly adds another factor to this film.it's a trip out film.

Hi, Bomb!
The most overlooked movie of the 1970's. Probably one of DePalma's best efforts. Also, a great example of DeNiro's early acting range. Funny, terrifying, brilliant. A great dissection of race issues, voyeurism, war, random violence, the family, and gender relations as well as a terrific homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window...

Strange Movie
Robert De Niro has played many odd ball characters in his day and perhaps none more so than Jon Rubin, in Brian De Palma's Hi,Mom! The movie begins with De Niro renting a run down apartment in the city where he can begin his new career. This career, he has decided, will be in the adult film industy. He tries to convinces a smut producer to give him a budget to film his neighbors in the buiding across from him. Eventually, he agrees so using a telephotolens De Niro begins recording their every move. Unfortunatly his targets(who have no idea they are being watched) are not very interesting. So De Niro begins to date a girl in the building he has noticed is lonely in an attempt to spice up his video. However, this does not pan out and De Niro's porn career is over. He turns his camera in for a television. This leads him to take a role in a play called Be Black Baby playing a police officer. It is being put on by some black radicals to illustrate to white people what it would be like to be black in contemperary America. The play is shocking and probably the most interesting part of the film. After the play is over De Niro returns to the girl from the building across from him and the movie ends in a melodramatic and bizarre fasion. This movie is definatly worth watching. This film put Brian De Palma on the map, and De Niro shows flashes of the brilliance that in years to come would create so many classic characters.

AWESOME
I loved it! This film is not only funny but also describes a serious issue like racism in a realistic way. And of course De Niro's performance! Incredibly powerful, especially when he played the police officer. This is definitely worth watching. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

You can see why Jack Lemmon won the Oscar
Few people remember that this was the movie that Jack Lemmon won his Oscar in but it was well deserved. Dated in that obviously reeks of the late 60's and early 70's but a story line that would hold up today. Any business owner with a high rent, high life style and lots of people depending on you to produce understand the pressure that Harry Stoner was going through.

Great Actor in an interesting part. Movie gets low ratings by some critics as they think it is impossible for a business owner to be a sympatethic figure. Lemmon makes the part work and is an incredibly performance in a movie that is a true insight into how the world can get ugly at times.

Don McNay...

I Cant get started.........
A Wonderful Lemmon performance can only save the tiger!

This is a meloncholy look at a business that is no longer just a business. It crosses all lines and invents some new sinister ones.

Jack Gilford and Lemmon are owners of a dress forum in a garment district type setting. As with all cynical narratives the line between outrage and remembrances of what used to be are violated to great effect.

Harry Stoner needs to "torch" his business to get out of hock. Gilford preaches and the arsonist asks Harry to " Keep watching the film" at their meeting place in a dark theater showing skin flicks.(with or without togas) A one of a kind film experience !

How 20 Years Can Change A Man
Watching "Save the tiger" is an immensely rewarding experience for intelligent people. Simple minds won't even understand it.

The first scene is apt to shock the MTV-generation. For 15 minutes the camera follows Harry Stoner(Jack Lemmon) during his morning ritual. He awakes screaming from a nightmare, hears the latest news about Vietnam on tv, takes a shower, breakfasts, dresses.
He, a war-veteran of Anzio (1944; The scars on his back are not skin-cancer as one might suspect, but a souvenir from WWII), is obsessed by the years of his young manhood where America was a shining example for the world.
But Roosevelt's America is gone, and so is Glenn Miller and base-ball without trickery.
His wife thinks he's insane.
He spends $200 a day (Today's viewers: double the sum): Beverly Hills home, his daughter's swiss school, hispanic maid, swimming-pool-service, tree-surgeon.

As he drives along Sunset-Strip in his shiny Lincoln Continental he stops for Myra,20, a young hitch-hiker. He is surprised how quickly she offers him sex, but declines nonetheless.

In his garment-factory his cutter, Meyer, an old holocaust-survivor and Rico, his ambitious,young, gay protege are on each other's throats. There's an upcomíng fashion-show this evening and Harry has to talk business with his associate, Phil (Jack Gilford).

His firm is on the brink of collapse. He cannot risk bankruptcy (including balance-review), and won't give himself in the hands of the maffia. Arson in one of his factories in order to get the insurance seems the lesser evil.

A client, Fred Mirrell, is calling. He buys for $80.000 a year, but wants a call-girl as extra bonus. The following scene is brilliant in its insidiousness: Harry knows what Freddie wants, but politeness (and calculation) require him to play ignorant. He forces himself to listen to Freddie's lamentation: Sick wife, good wife, but after 15 years...

Finally, Margo, the lady in question arrives. In her handbag: baby-oil, camphor, lolly-pops...
Soon, bad news reach Harry: Freddie has suffered a coronary. Harry is outraged: Why hasn't he closed the deal first?!

This evening, while he presents his collection at the fashion-show, he sees the faces of his dead wartime-comrades. He realizes that he and Margo sell the same product: Imagination.

First meeting with the arsonist. While a commentator in a porn-cinema describes the events on screen in the tone of a newscaster, Harry and Charlie fix the details. Charlie is a real pro. 15 industrial plants set on fire . Just two fire-fighters in hospital.

Harry decides to give life a chance. He suggests telephone-sex to his wife; She is ice-cold in her rejection.

This night he spends with Myra, the hippie-girl. Ecstatic from dope he plays a name-a-famous-person-game with her. She doesn't know Glenn Miller or that there ever was a war with Italy. Their play reveals two worlds apart, that only a brief moment of tenderness can reunite.

Next morning, Harry signs a petition to "save the siberian tiger from extinction". He, himself will return to the zoo...

It won't be love at first sight between you and this film. It was a low-budget production. Yet- this is a stylish film if you take a closer look.

This film is not outdated the least. It's the story of an honest man whose America has changed beyond his wildest dreams. Think of what the Kennedy generation must have felt when the yuppies took over. Or, if you're 20, look at the 10-year olds. Ten years from now, THEY're going to be the new opinion-leaders and dictate their values on you.

"Save the tiger" is also the best film about the generation-gap that I have ever seen. Play the name-a-famous-person-game with your parents/children. See?

Lemmon played for scale, totally convinced by his role. He is of such a human truth in this difficult role, that he transcends his filmic character.

"Save the tiger" ís a masterpiece. To be seen again and again.

"Don't sell me America!"
Businessman Harry Stoner seems to have it all, or does he. A wife, who wishes he would turn down the Jazz music. A daughter, but she is away at a Swiss school. A home in the hills, that requires everything from a housekeeper to a tree surgeon. A successful business, that he now is forced to decide to burn down for the insurance money or go to the mob for a loan. Jack Lemmon portrays someone we do not see too often - a shell shocked World WarII veteran, post-traumatic stress disorder being more associated in the movies with Vietnam. Harry's youth as a nightclub Jazz drummer and sandlot baseball player is long gone, and so it seems is his America. Jack and Bobby, Martin and Medgar are all in their grave. Will our hero be next or will he go on living because its a habit he finds hard to break. Lemmon in the film tries to get through a day and half in Los Angeles while unwittingly doing battle with car parking attendents, out of town buyers, cab drivers, and dress cutters. A real American gem of a movie with a memorable performance by the late Thayer David in a small role as an industrial arsonist.

Lemmon In One Of His Most Profound Roles
Even though Save The Tiger May not of been a commercial sucsess
it still shows how great filmaking was once made. Basically
the story is about a day & a half in the Life of Harry Stoner
owner of a garment manufactuing company who's going through a
midlife crisis is in debt considers arson to his warehouse as a way of his troubles and manages to commit adultry. Jack Lemmon's
amazing performce which earned him a well deserved oscar plays
with sheer brillance and belivablity that he is pratcally in every scene of this film. One great scene was when Harry litterly
breaks emotinally thinking back to his army days seeing his friends wounded & killed when giving a speech at a fashion show.
No Matter how dated or strange this film may be today it's still
a great film it's defintely not a film for visual & special
effcts nuts but a film with certain amount of intelligence
and should be held as a clasic film. ... Read more