“Strange… It never occurred to me that being human would make me become the man I was.”
Man, talk about a senior moment. For the last three months, Julia’s been working on a revolutionary new medical treatment to cure Barnabas, and make him human again. It turns out he should have asked her to be more specific.
And, oh — just look at that. Who saw this one coming? The housewives of 1967 must have been knocked sideways.
Obviously, this is above and beyond the makeup department’s pay grade; they hired special effects makeup artist Dick Smith to design special appliances for Barnabas’ face. Smith is actually a legend in his field, and he’s especially well-known for his “old man” makeup — he aged Dustin Hoffman for the 1970 film Little Big Man, Marlon Brando in 1973’s The Godfather, and F. Murray Abraham for Amadeus in 1985.
So you have to hand it to Dan Curtis, the utterly bonkers executive producer of Dark Shadows. I want to say something like “Nobody else was doing this on daytime television,” but that’s not strong enough. Seriously, literally, it would never have occurred to any sane person to spend this much money and time on special effects makeup for two episodes of a daytime soap opera that were supposed to air once and then be forgotten.
Sometimes I think that when they invented the idea of “phoning it in,” Dan wasn’t paying attention, and he never quite grasped the concept.
Anyway — the elderly. Right? Dude’s been human for, like, ten seconds, and all he can do is complain.
Barnabas: You did this to me! YOU!
Julia: No!
Barnabas: You turned me into something so grotesque that anyone who looks at me would fear me and loathe me!
It’s a timeless image, really — an old man yelling about the quality of his medical care. Any minute now, he’s going to make a sign that says “Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare”.
But I guess he does have a legitimate grievance.
Barnabas: Why did it happen?
Julia: I warned you against taking the massive dosage. If you’d let me progress at my own rate of speed, with proper controls…
Barnabas: The same thing would have happened!
Julia: Not necessarily.
So this is clearly an off day for her. We expect more than a “not necessarily” from Dr. Julia Hoffman. Get it together.
Luckily, Barnabas is on point today. Julia says that she can counteract this, if he’ll give her time. That’s his cue to walk over to the candles, strike a pose, cock a droopy eye at the teleprompter, and make with the fancy dialogue.
Barnabas: Time… I have no time! The years have already pressed in upon me, and every passing moment brings me that one step closer to the moment of my death.
Now, technically, that’s true for everybody, but you get the idea.
Barnabas: Strange… It never occurred to me that being human would make me become the man I was… a man who would have been long dead by now.
You know, this actually sounds like Universal Monsters dialogue. You could imagine Boris Karloff tearing into these lines, or one of the Chaneys.
And then they do this amazing little bit of sleight-of-hand.
Barnabas: I must save myself.
Julia: What do you mean?
Barnabas: You know the answer to that!
Julia: You mean… revert?
Barnabas: Yes!
It’s fantastic. Julia does a little gasp before she says “revert,” like this is a well-known procedure that doesn’t need to be explained. What do you mean, “revert”? Is there an expiration date on whatever the hell this is supposed to be? Bless their hearts, they’re improvising new vampire rules on the spot.
And then they have another one of those breakneck shifts in tone. Barnabas tells Julia to go back to Collinwood, and tell Vicki that he can’t see her tonight. But Vicki happens to be just walking up to the door, and she hears his voice.
So Julia stalls Vicki at the door, while Barnabas moves a chair around.
Then he slumps in the chair, so Vicki won’t see him, and he says that he’s not feeling well. He tells her not to come too close — he might be contagious, and he doesn’t want to expose her.
So all of a sudden this is a farce sequence, with outrageous coincidences and fast-talking schemers. There’s an episode of Fawlty Towers which uses the exact same plot point.
As far as the tone is concerned, all bets are off. The audience gets no direction about how we’re supposed to feel about this. Is it sad? Funny? Tragic? A well-deserved comeuppance for the monster? Nobody ever bothered to make narrative rules for a situation like this. I think we always figured it wouldn’t come up.
When Vicki leaves, the scene takes another hairpin turn.
Barnabas: You gave me hope, Doctor — hope that I could live as a man among other men. I’ll never forgive you for this.
Julia: Vicki can still be yours.
Barnabas: What do you mean?
She’s got him now.
Julia: Well… you say that you must revert to what you were, in order to survive. Perhaps you’re right.
Barnabas: What do you mean?
Julia: Use Vicki as the instrument of your reverting.
Barnabas: Vicki?
Julia: Why not? Then she’d be under your power. That’s what you want, isn’t it?
Barnabas: I won’t have her that way. She must come to me willingly.
Julia: And if that never happens?
It’s unbelievable, just a really great scene. This is Julia the way I like her — smart, manipulative, and flat-out crazy. She’s being the Serpent again, offering Barnabas what he really wants.
Barnabas: You only say that so she will not come to me willingly. You don’t want her to be my Josette.
Julia: Not true, I’m thinking of you. You have a need. Use her to fulfill that need!
Barnabas: I couldn’t… not to her!
Julia: You say that, but you know you’re tempted… Very tempted.
And that’s gorgeous. This is what Dark Shadows is meant to be — just a careening roller-coaster of crazy.
Unfortunately, they can’t sustain it; the second half of the episode is filled up with recap scenes. The laziest one is Carolyn talking to Joe at the Blue Whale about her meeting with Sarah’s ghost yesterday. Even with a powerful opening, this is still a Ron Sproat script, and he loves his Blue Whale recaps.
But never mind all that. There’s so much sparkle in the Barnabas/Julia scenes that it’s not worth getting all judgemental about the recap. After all, every passing moment brings us one step closer, and so on.
Tomorrow: Grumpy Old Man.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
When Barnabas turns his chair around to hide from Vicki, the shot needs a camera angle that they don’t normally use. This seems to confuse some of the crew, as you can see below.
First, we’ve got the boom mic picking up Vicki and Julia’s dialogue at the front door, which is visible at the top of the frame during their entire conversation.
Cutting to the door, there’s a super clear boom shadow on the wall…
And when they approach the drawing room, we’re still seeing the boom mic, plus a camera on the left side. Both the mic and the camera hover in and out of the frame for the rest of the scene.
And that camera clearly isn’t where it’s supposed to be. They cut to it at the end of the scene, to show Julia ushering Vicki out of the house, and the shot begins with an unfocused look at Vicki’s left shoulder.
Here’s a tricky one: Julia’s lab coat is pale blue, because she first started wearing it when the show was in black-and-white, and a pale color shows up as white in a black-and-white picture. They haven’t changed it since they switched to color. So what we’re seeing here is a blooper — Vicki doesn’t know that Julia is a doctor, and Julia’s wearing her lab coat — but you don’t really notice it, because it’s pale blue anyway.
Finally, to be nitpicky: The copyright date in the end credits says 1966.
Behind the Scenes:
A couple little notes about props today. We see the Petofi box again, in the hall outside Vicki’s room. If you don’t know what that means, it’ll make sense in approximately two years.
Also: At the end of the show, Carolyn and Vicki see a squeaky bat outside the window. This isn’t the cool marionette “bat by Bil Baird” that menaced David; it’s the substitute bat signal shadow that they first used when Barnabas appeared in Woodard’s office a couple weeks ago.
Tomorrow: Grumpy Old Man.
Dark Shadows episode guide – 1967
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
Barnabas gets no sympathy from me here. He did this to himself. And he really doesn’t look that bad. If he looked like HODS Old Barnabas then he might have something to whine about. So, seriously, Barnabas, quit your bitchin’ lol
Yeah, I think the question of sympathy and audience loyalty is really interesting here. There have been parts of this storyline where it’s obvious that we’re supposed to be on Barnabas’ side, but I think the last couple weeks have pulled back from that. They make it pretty clear that Barnabas pushed Julia to go too fast with the treatment.
Valerie I agree. A hard head makes a soft ass and Barnabas learned this tonight. Life lesson number 567. And Julia, still brilliantly throwing it back on him and mind screwing him about how he can get Vicki if he thought about it. The method to her madness is wonderful and she is so smug about it!
Valerie, you’re right on about Barnabas’ old-man makeup here (where he actually looks pretty good for his real age) vs. that horrible old-man look in HoDS!!
After 1795 they reboot the entire character of Barnabas.
At least he doesn’t look as bad as the aged Doctor in the cage from the Master is Prime Minister storyline of Doctor Who.
I wonder if keeping the blue coat is deliberate. One of the 1st things most shows do after they go color is put lots of inappropriate color in to make full use. Maybe they’re leaving it blue to have some color.
Amazing work that makeup artist Dick Smith did to, in the blink of an episode, transform Jonathan Frid into Buddy Ebsen, where he just goes from Barnabas Collins to Barnaby Jones. The really funny thing is that during these episodes Frid’s voice seemed especially dry, grainy, and crackly so that it made his portrayal of the very old Barnabas all the more believable.
When Carolyn Meets Joe in the Blue Whale for the obligatory recap, Joel Crothers’ hair is more flat and greasy than at any other time before or since. Somewhere in the studio makeup room that day, a tube of Brylcreem or a whole bottle of Vitalis must have gone missing.
Agree, the makeup-aged Barnabas is AMAZING! Down to the fine veins on his forehead. No trace of the mask lines. I also wondered what the deal was with Joe and for a moment thought it might be another actor. Not one of Joe’s good days, apparently.
Buddy Ebsen I said that aloud at the same point while watching, Barnaby Collins, too funny .
I love what Frid did with his voice in this episode, as well. I didn’t know Dick Smith did the makeup, that’s just…so Dan Curtis!! LOL
Love the “Secret Aging Man” title, btw. 🙂
Does anyone know if Dick Smith also did Jonathan’s old-age makeup in House of Dark Shadows? Regardless, I like THIS much better than in the movie!
Yes, Dick Smith also did the HODS old Barnabas makeup.
that was some major awesome, flawless aging makeup work there! wowzers!!
Old Barnabas really creeped me out big time when I was teenager watching the reruns for the first time (circa 1978 or so). I’m less creeped out at 53, but still impressed.
This batch of shows is outstanding.
..lol William. He was spooky to me as well, but now 50 years later and I am 62, he is just a lonely man trying to fit somewhere.
Old Barnabas is one of the clearest memories I have of watching it in the 60’s. I was 10. It definitely creeped me out, but didn’t scare me. Now, I just admired the makeup work!
Also, Julia offering up Vicki so easily as Barnabas’ restoration victim was made my blood run cold. (In a good way).
What is that song that they keep playing in the Blue Whale? Was it a hit in the 60’s or just filler?
Robert Cobert wrote all the music on the show, including four Blue Whale jukebox tunes. The music cues are called “Slow Blue Whale”, “Fast Blue Whale”, “Med. Slow Blue Whale” and “Slow Juke Box”. They’re pretty forgettable, because they’re designed for characters to talk over.
There’s more soundtrack info on this post: https://darkshadowseveryday.com/2015/12/09/episode-786/
I disagree with the idea that this makes Barnabas less sympathetic. His reasoning behind speeding up the process was to get to Vicki quicker. He obviously cares about her and although the serpent tempts him with the idea of biting Vicki, you can see his heart is not in it. If anything Julia is the loser in all this. Now she just seems evil and willing to do anything to attain her goals.
It is as if Julia is the vindictive woman scorned mentality but not really doing anything about it.
Barnabas: “I don’t want anyone to see me like this!”
Julia: “Well, if they see you, they won’t recognize you”
Love Julia – her experient’s kaput & her life’s in danger but she still throws out zingers!
I thought that was funny too.
Over one hundred episodes ago, Barnabas said he would always call her Victoria, never Vicki. He must have called her Vicki many times by now, but I was struck by the fact that he called her by the nickname in this episode.
I don’t think he ever called her Victoria again after he told her that. So he did the exact opposite of what he said he was going to do.
Barnabas: All Vicki needs is time to forget Devlin, and then she will come to me and want to be my bride, my Josette.
Barnabas has a sudden, new approach to the problem of winning Vicki – waiting, which contrasts with his great hurry the past couple days to get turned into a human immediately because – I guess – he felt that Vicki needed him to comfort her in her loss, and he couldn’t do that unless he could stand beside her while the sun came up. Now there is no longer a hurry at all because that plan is kaput. Barnabas seems to believe his current theory without ever admitting his previous theory was wrong. Oh, yeah, it was all Dr. Hoffman’s fault. That’s the ticket.
Barnabas also does not believe that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Julia is admittedly doing something that has never been done before. It doesn’t work because of Barnabas’ hurry, so Barnabas isn’t going to give it another chance. Understandable that he doesn’t like being a guinea pig, but he did sign up for it.
Yeah, it looks like Joel’s got too much “greasy kid stuff” on his hair! Lol
I have to admit that this exchange of dialogue, whether Grayson Hall intended it to be or not, I found unbelievably hilarious:
Barnabas: “I don’t want anyone to see me like this!”
Julia: “Well, if they see you, they won’t recognize you”
Sometimes the truth hurts and can be cause for tremendous laughter at the same time.
I think Joel Crothers had about 10 days off or so because he’s back sporting a sharp new haircut with some slick back going on. He’s got kind of a young Tom Cruise thing going on here. I don’t know what it is but he seems to get better looking as the series evolves.
The business of Vicki being at the door of the Old House and stumbling into the proceedings between Julia and Barnabas comes off as French Farce. “Here, let me just slink down in this char that I’ve turned around so that the other characters can’t see me,” is straight out of Feydeau,. Vicki comes so far into the room that for a second I thought she was actually going to walk right up to the chair and turn it around.
Finally, THE RETURN OF THE BAT (not just a ride at Kings Island anymore): The noise that the bat makes, which the captioning reads as “squeaking,” has been driving me crazy for weeks but I finally determined that a more accurate word for the sounds emitting from the bat puppet are: the bat is CHITTERING. God, I’m glad I could resolve that. I can sleep much sounder tonight knowing I’ve got that piece of DS arcana off my mind.
Another great episode. The make-up design used here is somewhat less extreme than the one used in HODS and therefore, to me, more convincing.
The filler music selections at the Blue Whale all sound like variations of a piece called (appropriately) “# 1 At The Blue Whale” which is the flip side of my 45 RPM record of “Quentin’s Theme.”
Barnabas sabotages himself again. He shouldn’t have hung around in bat form at Vicki’s window. Now Vicki and Carolyn will know David wasn’t making up the giant bat story either.
Unfortunately, Barnabas has still got the silly spiky bangs, but now they’re white.
In this episode, Barnabas once again acknowledges Julia’s feeling for him. He accuses her of turning him old on purpose as “revenge… for refusing to let our relationship become all that you hoped it would be.”
Fans who claim Barnabas never acknowledges Julia’s romantic interest in him should be required to actually watch Dark Shadows.
If Barnabas is human now, how can he still turn into a bat?? I love your blog, by the way. I started watching DS on Amazon Prime during quarantine, starting at episode 1. I look forward to your posts after each episode!
You know, this actually sounds like Universal Monsters dialogue. You could imagine Boris Karloff tearing into these lines, or one of the Chaneys.
Definitely Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man. Even when I was a kid watching those movies, I thought Talbot was such a whiner, curse or no curse. Of course, I’m not a werewolf so what do I know.
Good grief, in these early episodes Barnabas is sulky, surly, impatient, petulant, and quick to blame others for his own missteps. Anything bad that happens to him is never his own fault, always someone else’s. It’s a good thing he’s a vampire and has interesting problems, or I’m not sure I’d care to spend time with him.
Sproat starts off well but then he…REVERTS to form. I have never understood Julia suggesting Barnabas bite Vicki. Unless it was a diversion to keep Barnabas from thinking about biting her. And, seriously, why wouldn’t he? She’s got blood. She’s right there! Biting her days ago would have assured him that she couldn’t do anything to purposely harm him during the experiment. He’s threatened her a lot–and will continue to–but he never does the one thing that would assure his control over her. And on her part, she never takes his threats seriously enough to stake him to protect herself.
And why is Vicki here and why does she defend Barnabas? Wasn’t she uneasy about him? Julia’s hypnosis doesn’t seem to be as effective on Vicki as it was on Maggie.
The great thing about Dick Smith’s work here is that he developed the old age articulated eyelid appliance on JF that he was able to bring to his makeup on Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man—awesome!
(Thayer David was also in Little Big Man—how cool is that?!)
I think it would’ve been really cool, in keeping with Barnabas becoming a very old white-haired man, if they had shown flappy bat and he was now an old, white-haired bat.