Dark Shadows – The Beginning: Collection 5 (MPI DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C+
From
early 1967, Dark Shadows – The
Beginning: Collection 5 offers 35 more episodes (#s 144 – 178) of the
classic hit TV show before it went to color videotape and before the arrival of
the redefining character of the show, vampire Barnabas Collins. However, the show had plenty going for it
before then with it Fall Of The House Of Usher-inspired scenario of the haunted
house/haunted family and it is easy to underrated and underestimate this
one-of-a-kind (especially for its time) show.
It is
hard to pick up this far into the show and you should always start from the
beginning, but the house that is Collingwood (practically a character in
itself) has plenty of mysterious secrets and something supernatural is
afoot. Though the show is somewhat
dated, there is still some very good acting here and the writers knew how to
write the suspenseful, remaining effective enough here to give the series a
look. With séances, disappearing bodies,
family tree investigations, lies, hypnotism, murder and subdued melodrama, it
was both a great supernatural horror show for the time and one of the most
groundbreaking of soap operas, still being more than soapy enough to go a few
rounds with the best sudsters of the day.
What I
also like about these early shows is the last remnants of a polite society
slowly disappearing, which now feels as mysterious and distant as any spirit
world. John Bennett and Kathryn Leigh
Scott are two of the few known names, but like so many successful soap operas,
the rest of the cast is as good and has to be for a show like this to survive
and be constantly believable, a credit these kinds of shows never get (note
this is the only soap opera in video history to be issued on a normal basis
outside of a nighttime equivalent like Dynasty
or Dallas) because these shows are
still considered disposable despite the lame success of so-called “reality TV”
but if you like something suspenseful ands different, you might want to give
these early Dark Shadows shows a
look.
The 1.33
X 1 black and white image usually derives from analog NTSC 2” video reels and
shows their age, though we have seen cleaner with the (sadly out of print but
reviewed elsewhere on this site) Judy
Garland Show DVDs from Geneon/Pioneer, though this show was more stylized
being a dramatic program and not a variety show. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is good on the
majority of videotaped shows, but on an early one surviving only on an old
kinescope has awful audio. Extras include
new (separate) interviews with actress/star Diana Millay, author/horror expert
Leonard Wolf and writers Ron Sproat & Malcolm Marmorstein. Our DVD case came with a paper pullout
episode guide and trading card.
- Nicholas Sheffo
