631 — darkshadows

← 631 →

Number	624
Timeline	1968
Narrator	Betsy Durkin
Writer	Gordon Russell
Director	Sean Dhu Sullivan
Broadcast	November 25, 1968 (Monday)
Recorded	November 18, 1968 (Monday)
Video	Complete: Disc 66 Collection 11: Disc 2

We have 29 images of Dark Shadows 631

Nicholas removes the stake from Tom and sends him to kill Victoria. Nicholas and Harry dig up Eve's body from her grave. Barnabas destroys Tom.

Synopsis

Teaser

Under a turbulent sky, Collinwood sleeps. None within its great walls can know the terror this night will bring. Not far away in a house by the sea, there is another who sleeps, the sleep of the living dead. In a moment, this condemned soul will be unleashed by a man who is waging a desperate battle against time.

Nicholas removes the stake from Tom Jennings and proclaims himself as Tom's new master. Tom enters Victoria's bedroom through the window and advances on her, fangs bared...

Act I

Victoria screams and faints. Barnabas arrives just in time to save her. Chris Jennings arrives at Nicholas Blair's house. Nicholas is obviously surprised, but manages to control himself. Chris starts asking about Tom's death and tells Nicholas he believes Tom was murdered. Nicholas sees Tom outside the window and is preoccupied, but manages to tell Chris that he knows nothing. Chris looks to the window in time to see something, but it leaves before he can see it is his brother. Nicholas escorts Chris to the door and offers his hand, which Chris does not shake.

Victoria wakes up and tells Barnabas what she thought she saw, and Barnabas confirms that it was, indeed, Tom Jennings, who has become a vampire. Victoria surmises that since Tom worked for Nicholas, it must have been he who made Tom a vampire, and sent him to kill her because of what she knows, and because she tried to stop him from marrying Maggie Evans. Barnabas promises that he will deal with Nicholas and both she and Maggie will be safe.

Act II

Harry Johnson arrives at Nicholas' house, having watched Eve's corpse being buried. There is a knock on the door and Nicholas sends Harry to the cellar to retrieve a shovel while he answers the door. It is Barnabas who accuses Nicholas of sending Tom to harm Victoria. Nicholas denies it. Barnabas demands that Victoria remain unharmed, or he will not carry on with the experiment. Nicholas acquiesces and guarantees Victoria's safety. Barnabas also demands that Nicholas leave Maggie alone and destroy Tom. Nicholas reluctantly agrees. Barnabas leaves and Harry returns from the cellar. Nicholas decides to dig up Eve first, then deal with Tom.

Act III

Harry balks at the idea of exhuming a grave, but Nicholas persuades him. As they leave, Barnabas watches from the woods, with Tom following him closely. Nicholas and Harry arrive at the graveyard and Nicholas orders Harry to start digging. Back at the house, Barnabas goes back inside Nicholas' and starts to head to the cellar, unaware that Tom is behind him. At the graveyard, Nicholas has Harry open the coffin to confirm it is Eve, then tells him they are going to carry it to the Old House. In the cellar, Barnabas finds Tom's coffin then heads upstairs. In the drawing room he is attacked by Tom. Barnabas grabs two candlesticks and uses them as a makeshift crucifix to hold Tom at bay. Tom begs for his life as the sun is starting to rise. Tom continues to scream as he fades and disappears.

Memorable quotes

Nicholas: (to Harry) This is the last request I shall ever make of you. After tonight, you will never see me again.

Barnabas (holding crossed candlesticks up to Tom Jennings): I know what you're going through. I feel sorry for you.

Tom: Then don't do this to me!

Barnabas (to Victoria, regarding Tom Jennings): There are very few such people in the world. They exist under a terrible curse, the curse of the living dead. They cannot live in the light of day. By the dark of night, they cannot die. They feed on the blood of other human beings, and they are called...vampires.

Dramatis personae

← Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins →
← Humbert Allen Astredo as Nicholas Blair →
← Don Briscoe as Tom Jennings
Don Briscoe as Chris Jennings →
← Betsy Durkin as Victoria Winters →
← Craig Slocum as Harry Johnson →

Background information and notes

Production

This episode was recorded out of broadcast sequence. The previous episode to be recorded was 632.
As with the previous episode, an announcement by Humbert Allen Astredo states that Betsy Durkin is now playing the part of Victoria Winters.
Don Briscoe receives double credits as both Tom and Chris Jennings. Previously, people have received only single credits for playing two roles.
This is the sixth episode with no pre-Barnabas cast members.
New music is heard after Tom Jennings disappears in the sun.
The Dark Shadows Almanac: Millennium Edition contains a summary of the preliminary script for an unproduced version of this episode, parts of which were instead used in the version of 627 as broadcast. The original scheduled writer was Ron Sproat:
- Cast: Jeff, Eve, Angelique, Adam, Sheriff
- Sets: Jeff's room, Angelique's crypt
- Voiceover: The night covers Collinsport in a darkness of seeming peace. But beneath that cover of darkness, the night has brought terror. One who would escape this terror returns for what he believes will be the last time to his room in a small boarding house... He does not know that the only true escape, death, waits to make him her prisoner. Nor does he know that before this horrifying night will end, the elements themselves will clash... and the fire of the greatest evil of all will flare.
  - Jeff panics but decides to report Eve's murder to the sheriff. (A similar scene appears in 627; Victoria is also present.)
  - Angelique continues to turn Adam against Nicholas. (Omitted.)
  - The sheriff arrives and suspects Jeff murdered Eve and decides to detain him. (Omitted.)
  - Angelique summons her master, with the intention of getting him to get rid of Nicholas; flames burst forth from her coffin. (A similar scene appears in 627.)

Story

INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Barnabas: I was right.

Bloopers and continuity errors

In the reprise from 630, Tom is wearing a dark multicolored shirt with large checks when Nicholas opens his coffin; when staked by Barnabas in 571, he had been wearing a dark green shirt.
When Chris Jennings arrives at Nicholas' house, it appears that he is wearing nothing under his coat. Perhaps Don Briscoe removed the shirt he wore in the last scene but didn't have time to put on a different one.
In the previous episode (630), Tom Jennings had dark eye makeup on when he was revived by Nicholas and when he entered Victoria's room to attack her. In the reprise of that scene in this episode, reshooting was done; Tom is no longer wearing eye makeup, no doubt because he quickly needed to play Chris Jennings shortly afterward. (Tom has eye makeup on again when he reappears at the end of the episode.)
Jonathan Frid nearly flubs a line when Barnabas is talking to Nicholas. Barnabas says, "I don't know what diabolical plan you have for Maggie [here his lips appear as if they're forming a "W," probably to say "Winters"; he hesitates and then finishes correctly] Evans."
When Barnabas and Tom Jennings after him (who is behind Barnabas without his knowing) sneak back into Nicholas's house after he and Harry have left, the camera focuses on the floor. On the rug in the hallway, you can see a yellow stage marking.
A crewman can be seen putting a lantern down in the graveyard as Nicholas and Harry arrive.
Tom's shirt has a hole in it and appears dark and wet from where Nicholas removed the stake, but by the end of the episode, the shirt has no hole and is clean.
When Barnabas enters Nicholas' house, he is wearing his cape and holding his cane, but both are gone when he returns to the front room after inspecting the coffin in the basement.
Barnabas looks out the window at Nicholas' house by the sea, and we see the exact same view as from the Old House. [Addendum: Also, presuming this is the front of the house near the shore, Barnabas should be looking out onto the beach and the ocean. This view is of woods.]
As Tom is backing away from Barnabas holding the crossed candlesticks, Don Briscoe looks behind him and down twice, looking for his marks.
When Tom Jennings pleads with Barnabas to spare his life as the sun rises, his speech is inhibited because of the fangs in his mouth. At one point, the shot is on Barnabas, and Tom says something off-camera that is much more clearly enunciated, so Don Briscoe must have taken out his fangs. In the chroma key image of Tom that follows, when he is dissipated by the sun, he has his fangs in again, and his speech is inhibited again. [Jonathan Frid had had and would have multiple lines while wearing his own fangs that he pre-recorded to prevent this issue. (Addendum: Not sure this is accurate. Can you provide specific episode numbers as examples?) So why doesn't Don Briscoe get to do this as well?]