Post by niecie on Jun 1, 2014 15:47:09 GMT -5
As you may know, there are two woman-less episodes of WWW. This is one of them (Surreal McCoy is the other) -- although in the case of this episode, it could be argued that the house itself is a woman, since we hear the sound of Day's mother weeping periodically all through the episode. (Whoever provides the sound of the weeping isn't credited that I saw.)
The first part of the teaser doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The telegraph key is missing from the fake books on the desk. Apparently it's a practical joke one of the guys is pulling on the other -- but which is the prankster and which is the pranked? Neither one exactly acts like he's the one who moved the key. Artie comes up with a perfectly sound method to track down the elusive key, but again, is he playing it straight, or is he the one who moved it? (And as someone once pointed out, taking up the carpet and laying it again just to get that wire under it is a bit of a length to go to in order to pull a prank!)
The only clue I see or hear as to which man hid the key is Artie's line of 'Nobody's perfect,' followed by just a touch of a smug smile.
And whichever did move the key, he thoughtfully provided a pencil and pad of paper right there with the key.
I like the fact that both men remain silent while Artie notes down the message. No longer time for clowning around.
I don't know who Simon Girty was. Benedict Arnold, on the other hand, sets the tone immediately: the escaped prisoner is a traitor.
And now we get a look at the prisoner, an aged man, along with the sheriff Our Heroes are to aid. Artie, we are told, is sound asleep, and it soon develops that he's dreaming as well, as he jumps and reacts to gunfire no one else hears. There's a little wavy transition to show us that we are now entering his dream...
The prisoner, escaping once more, runs into a graveyard. He falls before a marker that reads:
-- except that the next time we see the marker, that section is blank, and it stays blank for the rest of the graveyard scene. Strange, huh?
The prisoner begs the bust atop the marker for help, saying he's come home to her, asking her not to let them take him away again.
And end of teaser. And when I watched it for the first time in ages after I got the DVDs, and I'm pretty sure when I watched it back when I was a kid as well, I assumed the end of the teaser signaled as well the end of Artie's dream.
Boy, was I wrong!
Spooky house under the opening credits!
Wonder what swamp fever is. (Hmm, according to this dictionary, it's malaria.)
Jim is very stern with the prisoner. I don't think Jim has much sympathy for traitors.
Jim has to tell the sheriff to bring the lantern twice.
I wonder that they were bedded down for the night, then had that chase, then decided to move on even though it's still night. I suppose either we weren't supposed to notice, or that was a clue that the dream continued.
Artie mostly has the prisoner in his charge -- because Artie has a certain amount of medical skills, is my guess.
Lovely painting.
Oh, the crying starts! Because of Artie's dismal prognosis for the prisoner?
The door shuts while their backs are turned! Shuts and locks itself! And as soon as they head for a window, ALL the shutters close!
Jim's got a minigrenade in his belt buckle. And even that doesn't break through the shutters!
Then Artie's wild theory that hurting the house causes the weeping.
Ah, Artie, I think one poke with the knife was sufficient.
Ol' Man Day sure likes the irony of his captors being prisoners in this house!
As Act Two opens, we get a nice view of Our Heroes as seen through the blue chandelier. And then Artie just HAS to go stand under it! (Familiar foyer. I think it was in, oh, Puppeteer? Pistoleros? It shows up a LOT.)
The momentary youthifying of the prisoner. Nice.
The moonlight? What moonlight? All the windows are shuttered!
Artie with more of his theory, thinking the woman was the prisoner's wife.
So what's that little cobwebby light in the foyer about, anyway? And how come the sheriff ignores orders and fires anyway?
Ah! A lure to get someone under the chandelier again.
Yikes! Artie, get out from under that chandelier!
And, sheriff, stop firing!
Ok, what exactly happened to the sheriff?? Are we supposed to think of vampires? Especially with the fact that the prisoner is suddenly very young again.
Tears on the painting.
So Our Heroes go to bed in the side room despite the fact that their prisoner has bolted. The fact that they can't leave doesn't necessarily mean he can't!
Rusty weapons! And the men feel so old!
Now Jim has a theory that the house is striking at them.
Self-repairing window.
Artie's question and Jim's answer are great: treat the house like a friend and not an enemy.
Chandelier's back where it belongs. I love that Artie blocks Jim from walking under it!
If the house tidied up for the new day, why so many cobwebs still?
Funny that Jim's route up the stairs takes him through far fewer cobwebs than Artie's route! Planned? And then Jim's quip, asking did Artie get any on him. It sounds like an ad lib, and Artie's/Ross's quick glance at Jim/Bob seems (to me) to confirm it. And the spit in response!
Ooo, something's missing upstairs! And we never do get to find out what became of the sheriff!
Squeaky door leads them to a certain room.
The book hidden behind the painting!
Artie, as usual, does the reading aloud. Curious that Day's parents are named Charles and Caroline. (Because Caroline is a feminine version of the name Charles, I mean.)
Perhaps Artie should not be criticizing the lady's spelling!
Ah, the son was protecting the father!
Artie hits the bookmark at last.
And now the windows open, now that Our Heroes know the truth.
Oh, here's Day, and Our Heroes at last see that he's young again.
He wants the diary? Ok, Artie will give it to him -- the hard way.
As soon as Jim proposes taking Day away, the windows close again. Once he agrees to leave Day, the windows open. However, Day isn't done with Our Heroes.
A trap door in the hall?? Who builds a house with a trap door in the hall? And for that matter, they fell from the upper floor into the basement. No floor in between?
So... Our Heroes hear rats in the walls all around them, and they try to open the doors?? Why on earth would they want the doors open when they know rats are on the other side??
Now, this part is what I remembered from watching it as a kid! The rats in the walls to carry bubonic plague throughout Texas. This was the great work Day wanted his father to carry out, except his father died before he could finish.
Day's Spanish is very good!
Timing's a bit off; shouldn't it be more like 40 years since 1836?
Dancing insanity.
If the doors open automatically when the clock strikes twelve -- well, I suppose no one wound the clock for 30 years, yeah?
Can ants actually carry the bubonic plague? Fleas do, but ants?
And now we hear the whole plan. At least Caroline weeps when she hears it through!
Artie talking to the walls. Perhaps telling her she's wasted her love on a madman isn't exactly tactful!
Jim's plan is simple, but effective. It's just that, he gives Artie the opportunity to recite Shakespeare, and instead Artie laughs like a kook!
I like that Day/Dias orders Artie with both 'Silencio' (Be silent!) and 'Bastante' (Enough!).
Laughing Boy mocks Day's plan, infuriating him so much he apparently can't see Jim poised on that convenient shelf behind Artie.
Yay! They grab Day and get the keys.
For a 'rusty' knife, it sure stops the clock.
They get him upstairs, and Caroline still won't let them take him from the house!
And now Jim is tactless too, telling her Day isn't worth her love, to be rid of him. So how come that works??
Ok, they get him outside and lay him down -- he's young all the way out the door and until the camera cuts in to a closer shot -- and even as Artie's looking down at Day, blocking Day from our view, even then, we can see the gray hair is back. Yet everyone acts surprised half a minute later to see that he's old again.
The actor playing Day does a great job of falling to pieces one piece at a time. Funny how he says he should have killed them right at the start, yet he just keeps on monologuing, telling them he's going to kill them, right up until the moment he collapses entirely!
Artie is the one who checks for Day's pulse.
And behind them the door slowly squeaks shut.
Oh, now we get the wavy coming-out-of-the-dream effect! Stunned me on first viewing to realize the entire thing was supposed to be Artie's dream!
(You know, that green shirt Artie's wearing when he wakes up -- yeah, he's been wearing it the bulk of the episode, but he didn't have his jacket off -- that is one gorgeous shirt! Pity he didn't wear it more often.)
And now we get the Twilight Zone ending, with them coming up on the same house, Jim and the sheriff saying the same lines (although why they want to spend the night in the barn when it's full day, I don't know), and Artie doesn't say anything? Nope, let's just all walk inside the nightmare house without mentioned how the sheriff died in the dream!
The first part of the teaser doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The telegraph key is missing from the fake books on the desk. Apparently it's a practical joke one of the guys is pulling on the other -- but which is the prankster and which is the pranked? Neither one exactly acts like he's the one who moved the key. Artie comes up with a perfectly sound method to track down the elusive key, but again, is he playing it straight, or is he the one who moved it? (And as someone once pointed out, taking up the carpet and laying it again just to get that wire under it is a bit of a length to go to in order to pull a prank!)
The only clue I see or hear as to which man hid the key is Artie's line of 'Nobody's perfect,' followed by just a touch of a smug smile.
And whichever did move the key, he thoughtfully provided a pencil and pad of paper right there with the key.
I like the fact that both men remain silent while Artie notes down the message. No longer time for clowning around.
I don't know who Simon Girty was. Benedict Arnold, on the other hand, sets the tone immediately: the escaped prisoner is a traitor.
And now we get a look at the prisoner, an aged man, along with the sheriff Our Heroes are to aid. Artie, we are told, is sound asleep, and it soon develops that he's dreaming as well, as he jumps and reacts to gunfire no one else hears. There's a little wavy transition to show us that we are now entering his dream...
The prisoner, escaping once more, runs into a graveyard. He falls before a marker that reads:
Caroline L Day
Born Nov 8, 1775
Died May 6, 1840
Born Nov 8, 1775
Died May 6, 1840
-- except that the next time we see the marker, that section is blank, and it stays blank for the rest of the graveyard scene. Strange, huh?
The prisoner begs the bust atop the marker for help, saying he's come home to her, asking her not to let them take him away again.
And end of teaser. And when I watched it for the first time in ages after I got the DVDs, and I'm pretty sure when I watched it back when I was a kid as well, I assumed the end of the teaser signaled as well the end of Artie's dream.
Boy, was I wrong!
Spooky house under the opening credits!
Wonder what swamp fever is. (Hmm, according to this dictionary, it's malaria.)
Jim is very stern with the prisoner. I don't think Jim has much sympathy for traitors.
Jim has to tell the sheriff to bring the lantern twice.
I wonder that they were bedded down for the night, then had that chase, then decided to move on even though it's still night. I suppose either we weren't supposed to notice, or that was a clue that the dream continued.
Artie mostly has the prisoner in his charge -- because Artie has a certain amount of medical skills, is my guess.
Lovely painting.
Oh, the crying starts! Because of Artie's dismal prognosis for the prisoner?
The door shuts while their backs are turned! Shuts and locks itself! And as soon as they head for a window, ALL the shutters close!
Jim's got a minigrenade in his belt buckle. And even that doesn't break through the shutters!
Then Artie's wild theory that hurting the house causes the weeping.
Ah, Artie, I think one poke with the knife was sufficient.
Ol' Man Day sure likes the irony of his captors being prisoners in this house!
As Act Two opens, we get a nice view of Our Heroes as seen through the blue chandelier. And then Artie just HAS to go stand under it! (Familiar foyer. I think it was in, oh, Puppeteer? Pistoleros? It shows up a LOT.)
The momentary youthifying of the prisoner. Nice.
The moonlight? What moonlight? All the windows are shuttered!
Artie with more of his theory, thinking the woman was the prisoner's wife.
So what's that little cobwebby light in the foyer about, anyway? And how come the sheriff ignores orders and fires anyway?
Ah! A lure to get someone under the chandelier again.
Yikes! Artie, get out from under that chandelier!
And, sheriff, stop firing!
Ok, what exactly happened to the sheriff?? Are we supposed to think of vampires? Especially with the fact that the prisoner is suddenly very young again.
Tears on the painting.
So Our Heroes go to bed in the side room despite the fact that their prisoner has bolted. The fact that they can't leave doesn't necessarily mean he can't!
Rusty weapons! And the men feel so old!
Now Jim has a theory that the house is striking at them.
Self-repairing window.
Artie's question and Jim's answer are great: treat the house like a friend and not an enemy.
Chandelier's back where it belongs. I love that Artie blocks Jim from walking under it!
If the house tidied up for the new day, why so many cobwebs still?
Funny that Jim's route up the stairs takes him through far fewer cobwebs than Artie's route! Planned? And then Jim's quip, asking did Artie get any on him. It sounds like an ad lib, and Artie's/Ross's quick glance at Jim/Bob seems (to me) to confirm it. And the spit in response!
Ooo, something's missing upstairs! And we never do get to find out what became of the sheriff!
Squeaky door leads them to a certain room.
The book hidden behind the painting!
Artie, as usual, does the reading aloud. Curious that Day's parents are named Charles and Caroline. (Because Caroline is a feminine version of the name Charles, I mean.)
Perhaps Artie should not be criticizing the lady's spelling!
Ah, the son was protecting the father!
Artie hits the bookmark at last.
And now the windows open, now that Our Heroes know the truth.
Oh, here's Day, and Our Heroes at last see that he's young again.
He wants the diary? Ok, Artie will give it to him -- the hard way.
As soon as Jim proposes taking Day away, the windows close again. Once he agrees to leave Day, the windows open. However, Day isn't done with Our Heroes.
A trap door in the hall?? Who builds a house with a trap door in the hall? And for that matter, they fell from the upper floor into the basement. No floor in between?
So... Our Heroes hear rats in the walls all around them, and they try to open the doors?? Why on earth would they want the doors open when they know rats are on the other side??
Now, this part is what I remembered from watching it as a kid! The rats in the walls to carry bubonic plague throughout Texas. This was the great work Day wanted his father to carry out, except his father died before he could finish.
Day's Spanish is very good!
Timing's a bit off; shouldn't it be more like 40 years since 1836?
Dancing insanity.
If the doors open automatically when the clock strikes twelve -- well, I suppose no one wound the clock for 30 years, yeah?
Can ants actually carry the bubonic plague? Fleas do, but ants?
And now we hear the whole plan. At least Caroline weeps when she hears it through!
Artie talking to the walls. Perhaps telling her she's wasted her love on a madman isn't exactly tactful!
Jim's plan is simple, but effective. It's just that, he gives Artie the opportunity to recite Shakespeare, and instead Artie laughs like a kook!
I like that Day/Dias orders Artie with both 'Silencio' (Be silent!) and 'Bastante' (Enough!).
Laughing Boy mocks Day's plan, infuriating him so much he apparently can't see Jim poised on that convenient shelf behind Artie.
Yay! They grab Day and get the keys.
For a 'rusty' knife, it sure stops the clock.
They get him upstairs, and Caroline still won't let them take him from the house!
And now Jim is tactless too, telling her Day isn't worth her love, to be rid of him. So how come that works??
Ok, they get him outside and lay him down -- he's young all the way out the door and until the camera cuts in to a closer shot -- and even as Artie's looking down at Day, blocking Day from our view, even then, we can see the gray hair is back. Yet everyone acts surprised half a minute later to see that he's old again.
The actor playing Day does a great job of falling to pieces one piece at a time. Funny how he says he should have killed them right at the start, yet he just keeps on monologuing, telling them he's going to kill them, right up until the moment he collapses entirely!
Artie is the one who checks for Day's pulse.
And behind them the door slowly squeaks shut.
Oh, now we get the wavy coming-out-of-the-dream effect! Stunned me on first viewing to realize the entire thing was supposed to be Artie's dream!
(You know, that green shirt Artie's wearing when he wakes up -- yeah, he's been wearing it the bulk of the episode, but he didn't have his jacket off -- that is one gorgeous shirt! Pity he didn't wear it more often.)
And now we get the Twilight Zone ending, with them coming up on the same house, Jim and the sheriff saying the same lines (although why they want to spend the night in the barn when it's full day, I don't know), and Artie doesn't say anything? Nope, let's just all walk inside the nightmare house without mentioned how the sheriff died in the dream!