House of Dark Shadows (1970) / Night of Dark Shadows (1971)

[hagios]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

Terrific trailer. I haven't seen that trailer in decades. A lot of that footage was cut out of
the film.

For what it's worth, I've always thought Dan Curtis made a mistake in how he cut the final
release print. James Aubrey -- the predatory head of MGM who slashed and burned so many
director's cuts -- told Curtis that if he didn't shorten the film then Aubrey would do it himself.
So Curtis cut much of the supernatural story. Instead he emphasized the car chase and the
fist fight on the bridge etc in the final third, because he thought action would sell the film
better to audiences. I wish he'd done the opposite, kept in as much as possible of Angelique
and the supernatural story and trimmed the action. The published script makes the
supernatural story very clear, although Curtis may not have shot it precisely as written.

I saw Night of Dark Shadows the day after it opened in the New York City area. I went in
the morning and stayed all day until my parents picked me up late at night. I saw the film
five times in a row. It had the scenes where the guard dog frightens Tracy, where Quentin
gives Tracy a breast massage, more cleavage from Angelique, and other bits and pieces.
By the following weekend Aubrey had shortened it. Those scenes were missing when I went
back to see the film. Today that version would be rated a hard R.

I've been wanting to see the full-length version for forty years.

Yeah, I hope one day will be able to get those scenes cut by the late, great Dan Curtis!