DARK SHADOWS Star Kathryn Leigh Scott Dishes On MASTER OF DARK SHADOWS

Actress, author and activist Kathryn Leigh Scott is fondly remembered by millions of Dark Shadows fans as Maggie Evans and Josette DuPrés, doomed fiancée of Barnabas Collins, played by the late Jonathan Frid. In its heyday, the original Dark Shadows daytime series (ABC-TV, 1966-1971), created by Dan Curtis, attracted 20 million viewers. The spooky, literate and sometimes campy romance and horror driven show had a universal appeal—and came to be known as the program “kids ran home from school to see.” You don’t have to talk to Scott long to realize she’s intelligent, cultured and sophisticated. She’s also refreshingly down-to-earth with a disarming sense of humor, and has vivid recollections of her time on the groundbreaking series that made her a pop culture icon. She was still a student when she was cast:

“We did Dark Shadows in New York City in our own studio on West 54^th Street, and I began auditioning for the series while still a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts—and I was also studying with Uta Hagen and working the Berghoff Playwrights Foundation. I did a camera test with Mitch Ryan and we both got cast. I was in the very first episode of the series. It was exhilarating, and a bit scary. Television was new to me, and we were live!”

A live, daily TV drama of course offered opportunities for things to go wrong, a facet of Dark Shadows that the new documentary Master of Dark Shadows is not shy about demonstrating. Scott remembers those stresses well:

“There were times when we walked out of the studio dazed and shell-shocked by all the things that had gone wrong, but Dan would tell us, ‘Forget it, a bunch of kids and housewives will see it once and that’ll be the end of it.’ So years later we have to watch ourselves struggling with missed cues, botched lines, missing pages, doors that won’t close, dead bodies that blink and every other sort of mishap. Yes, I had my share of bloopers—we all did. But that’s what live TV was all about.”

Scott has seen Master of Dark Shadows, the new feature documentary about the Dark Shadows phenomenon and its creator, Dan Curtis. What are her impressions?

Master of Dark Shadows

“I think that this production offers insight into Dan’s personality and his creative process,” she says. He was a mercurial, volatile highly creative person. And he was a workhorse.  I don’t know that there are many other directors with the stamina to do Winds of War and War and Remembrance and achieve the quality that he did. On every level, they were first class productions. It was heartening to see that he recognized just how important Dark Shadows was. His masterpiece may be the Herman Wouk books on the screen but he will forever and ever be remembered as the man who brought us Dark Shadows. And the reason is that we were in people’s living rooms and we influenced an entire generation or two of young people who ran home from school to watch it. I think that pretty much covers everything I would have to say about it.”

Enduring Appeal of a Cult Classic

Dark Shadows fans have eagerly attended conventions and personal appearances by members of the cast, and there was a great deal of excitement among fans about the release of Master of Dark Shadows. Scott attended a premier event in New York City the weekend of April 16^th to celebrate the release of the documentary:

“It was jammed—there was an overflow crowd.  We did two Q & As, and there was a party afterward.  It was just a wonderful afternoon and evening for Dark Shadows fans to get together, and I think that they enjoy each other as much as they enjoy seeing the actors. These are friendships born of thirty some years of festivals, and we’ve gone through those years together. So I think it was very successful and I think it was very welcome because Dark Shadows fans have been asking for another event.”

Although other original Dark Shadows cast members, including Marie Wallace, Lara Parker and Sharon Smith were also present, Jonathan Frid, who passed away in 2012, was a palpable absence. Frid, who will be forever remembered as Barnabas Collins, was a serious actor who had studied at the Royal Academy in London and earned a master’s degree in directing (1957) from Yale University before spending several years performing in regional theater, with one Broadway appearance in 1960 in Henry IV, Part II, before being cast in Dark Shadows. The documentary mentions a detail which hadn’t been publicly mentioned before, that Frid struggled with dyslexia and found learning lines at the rate necessary stressful.

“I knew nothing about it,” Scott says.

House of Dark Shadows – Best of the old school vampire movies

As the documentary presents, Curtis made his feature film directorial debut with the movie House of Dark Shadows, shot while the original series was still on the air. For this writer’s money, it remains one of the best old school vampire movies ever made.

“I agree,” she says. “And Leonard Maltin would agree with you. I’m proud to have done it and I am glad that it was my first feature film. I learned a lot from it and Dan was – I mean I’ve worked with a lot of amazing directors, Louis Malle, Woody Allen, you know, I’ve really worked with some iconic directors, and I have to say, Peter Hunt should be on that list as well, but I must say Dan was magical.”

Jonathan Frid was offered a chance to do a direct sequel to House of Dark Shadows but…

“We both were,” she says. “And I had made it clear that I was leaving and Jonathan made it clear that he didn’t want to do another one with that degree of violence. Dan was left to kind of reshuffle the deck.  Let’s put it that way.”

Which, as Master of Dark Shadows points out, led to Night of Dark Shadows, which starred original series cast members David Selby, Kate Jackson and Lara Parker, who had not appeared in House of Dark Shadows, and Grayson Hall, John Karlen, Nancy Barrett and Thayer David who had, but now played different characters. Night of Dark Shadows featured the vengeful spirit of a witch, but no vampires. It was a slick and polished product, but failed to enjoy either the critical or commercial success of House of Dark Shadows. And this is an area where she doesn’t feel Master of Dark Shadows quite gets the whole story:

“I also think that the falling out between Dan and Jonathan was far more profound and I’m sure that it stemmed from Jonathan’s very real desire to protect the character he had created and Dan’s feeling that ‘I created you’ so to have an actor say, ‘I’m sorry I’m not going to do this again because you’ve gone in a direction that I’m not in favor of…’ I think it was a more profound parting of the ways than we realized this time.”

There is really no question that House of Dark Shadows was in fact pretty bloody for a PG rated movie.

She measures her words carefully here. “Yes, it was and but it was the thriller aspects that I think won the reviews, because there were other films that were more insidious, you know with much more blood and gore. But Dan always had class, and that came through in everything that he did. Yes, there was violence but there was also a taste factor. I think that’s what elevated it, but nevertheless it was still too much blood for Jonathan.”

The documentary gives the sense that the actors loved him and the writers were terrified of him.

Getting Along With Dan Curtis

“I got along terribly well with him,” she says. “I like complicated difficult people, I had a really good, warm relationship with Dan to the point that he met my boyfriends, and no, he didn’t like any of them by the way. No, I wasn’t in the least intimidated.”

The documentary also features still photographs taken by Scott’s boyfriend at the time, and eventually her first husband, the late Time magazine photographer, Ben Martin.

“Yes,” she acknowledges.

Martin presumably had more access to the set than a lot of photographers would have, and his photographs make a nice addition to the movie.

“Yeah, I mean that’s really all I have to say about it, frankly,” she says.

The writer mentions that she’s been working quite a bit lately, with a Woody Allen movie pending release later this year.

Four Upcoming Movies Awaiting Distribution

“I actually have four films that are awaiting distribution,” she says, “There is one in which I play Mamie Eisenhower called The 11th Green, I have one called Three Christs with Richard Gere and then Ansel Faraj’s film Loon Lake. So that plus the Woody Allen film, that’s four films.”

“That’s a great output and your fans are going to be delighted to see that much of her on the big screen,” I tell her.

“Thank you much let’s hope they all get distribution and good reviews.”

Film Inquiry thanks Kathryn Leigh Scott for her time.

Master of Dark Shadows is now available across digital HD platforms and on DVD.