[narrating]
- My name is Victoria Winters.
There are two great houses at Collinwood.
One, alive with the present,
and the other, slowly decaying,
filled with the dead memories of the past.
♪♪
David?
David?
David, answer me if you're in here.
Come on, David, it's getting dark outside.
[slamming]
David, is that you?
David, I know it's you.
Sometimes, you're the most exasperating boy in the world.
David, open the door!
David!
- Miss Winters.
- Oh, Mr. Collins.
- I'm afraid I startled you, I'm terribly sorry.
I didn't think anyone would be here.
- It's all right.
- I, uh, was revisiting my ancestral past.
You seem to be having difficulty with the door.
- Oh, the wind blew it shut.
- The wind.
Yes, the wind can do things like that.
There you are.
- But, that door was shut tight.
How did you open it?
- It requires a technique and a little practice.
- You sound as though you've spent a lot of time here.
- Do I?
♪♪
♪♪
- The door has a tendency to stick.
- Now, how could you know that
if you've never been here until this visit?
- I haven't, actually.
But, I know every inch of it.
- But, how?
- Oh, from old letters and family journals.
From y
-
- my youth spent listening to my elders
speak of the past.
- This house has a great many stories to tell.
- Yes, and I know all of them, in detail.
- It must have been a very beautiful house.
- Yes, it was.
And it's now more beautiful than ever.
- But, it's all falling apart.
- Oh, it will be a long time before this house falls apart.
It was made to last forever.
- But, nothing lasts forever.
- Ooh, well, let's see about that.
What about the pyramids of Egypt?
- You've got me there.
But, you can't compare the pyramids to this house.
- Why can't I?
- Because they were built to last indefinitely.
- And, how long is indefinitely?
- Well, some of them have lasted for , years.
- Some, longer than that. But, tell me the difference
between forever and indefinitely.
- Well...
Forever is
-
- is something that never ends,
and indefinitely is something that will end at some time.
- Very good.
You're a bright girl, Miss Winters.
- Thank you.
- In a way, you can compare the pyramids to this house.
Both were built to support an ego and perpetuate a memory,
with both merely survived as architectural feats.
- Oh, but
-
- but to me, this house has always been
a reminder of the enterprise of the people who settled here.
- Yes, in a way, you're right.
The design and construction of this house
represented a marriage of the elegance of Europe
and the vigor and enterprise of the New World.
The foundations were made from rocks
left behind by glaciers thousands of years ago.
The beams and supports
were cut from ancient local forests.
The plaster walls were made from crushed clam shells
and horse hair.
Bricks were imported from Holland.
That dusty chandelier, brought over from France,
gleamed with hypnotic brilliance.
That
-
- that faded wallpaper was especially designed
by a Belgian artist.
The parquet floors were
-
- were installed
by an Italian craftsman.
Cornices and moldings
were the effort of a Spanish craftsman.
It was a house to be envied by a prince.
But, in spite of all this, the total efforts
was an agony to man.
Men were driven to their limits.
What should have been an act and labor of love
became a hateful thing.
There were the crippled and the dead.
Like the pyramids, one could ask, "Was it worth it?"
- You paint a very dismal picture.
- Well, it is
-
- it is the only true one.
[wind whistling, dog barking]
The beautiful exterior belied the hatred and distrust
that lived beneath this roof.
Nothing was ever real here.
The love and happiness that one would expect
was never lived in the lives of those who lived here.
- Was it really that bad?
- Yes.
This room saw much hatred.
Saw families divide and devour each other.
On these stairs, a father and son
hurled words at each other.
Words that would lead to the death of the son.
[chuckles] The death.
[laughing]
Oh, forgive me.
Nothing that ever happened here was funny.
- Well, you
-
- you've made your point
in comparing this house to the pyramids.
But, there is one difference between them.
The pyramids were designed to be tombs.
- You're right.
This house was not designed
to be a tomb.
♪♪
♪♪
- [sighs]
- Hi, Uncle Roger.
- Well, hello, kitten. How's my favorite niece?
- Your only niece.
- [chuckles]
- How was your trip?
- Well, business.
But, it was good to get away from here for a while.
- And, how was Boston?
- Oh, same old town.
All New England chowder and Indian pudding.
I brought a recipe for the pudding back to Mrs. Johnson,
but I really don't think it'll do any good.
- You just reminded me of something.
- What of?
- When I was a little girl, you always used to bring me
something from your trips.
- Well, that's right, so I did.
- Oh, I used to look forward to your coming home.
I guess you were the only father I knew.
- And now, I'm reduced to bringing back recipes
for Indian pudding to Mrs. Johnson.
- [laughs]
- I don't suppose you think
that she doesn't think that I'll be a father image
to her, do you?
Well, now, how's your mother feeling?
- Oh, physically, she's improved tremendously.
Back to her old energetic self.
- Oh, that's good news.
- But, there is something bothering her,
and it has to do with Jason McGuire.
- Well, that's bad news.
All right, kitten, I'll get out my score pad
and you catch me up on the number of guests
we have now ensconced here.
- Well, Jason is still here.
- Mmm, check.
- But, uh, Willie Loomis has gone.
- Oh, bravo.
You can't keep the jet set down, can you?
Did he accept an invitation
from the Prince and Princess of Monaco?
Or could he simply not stand
another one of Mrs. Johnson's famous boiled dinners?
- [laughing] I don't know the real reason.
I'm only thankful that he's gone.
No one seems to know where.
- Well, I fully expected guests to be swinging from the rafters
when I returned.
- That was very nearly the case.
- What do you mean?
- Well, there's another Collins in town.
- Which one?
- Barnabas Collins.
- Barnabas Collins?
The only Barnabas Collins I know is the one
in the portrait out there.
- Well, evidently, this one is descended from that one.
- Well, I thought I knew all of the Collins'.
- This is the part of the family that went to England.
I haven't met him yet.
- Hmm.
I wonder
-
- I wonder what he wants.
- It's nice of you to invite me up.
- Well, I thought you'd wanna meet Carolyn.
- I want to meet everyone.
- Thank you. I'll see if she's in there.
Carolyn?
Oh, Roger, I'm glad you're back.
- Oh, why?
- Barnabas Collins is here and wants to meet you.
- Oh, well, I'd like to meet him, too.
- So would I.
- [clearing throat]
- Mr. Collins? This is Carolyn Stoddard.
Carolyn, this is Barnabas Collins.
- How do you do?
- I'm very happy to meet you.
You're every bit as beautiful as you've been described.
- Thank you.
- And this is Roger Collins.
- Roger, very pleased to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.
- Well, I've been looking forward to this for a long time.
- Have you?
- Yes, it's reassuring to know that the
-
-
that there's still part of the
-
- the family still alive.
In England, they, uh, no longer exist.
- Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that.
Yes, we're very much in existence here.
We are very much alive here.
- It's that aliveness that interests me.
- Well, now that you've finally met him,
what do you think of him?
- I like him very much.
- But, don't you think there's something
a little bit strange about him?
- Oh, of course, he's European.
Has that old world charm.
- No, it
-
- it's something else.
The way he talks, the
-
- the words he chooses,
it's as though they have some other meaning to him.
- I don't follow you.
- Well, it
-
- it's as though he's talking to himself,
commenting, making notes to himself.
- Vicki, whatever are you talking about?
- I don't know
-
- nothing.
I guess I'm just imagining things.
It's probably because Barnabas Collins
has such a strong imagination.
- What do you know about his imagination?
- Well, he was letting it run pretty loose
when I met him down at the old house.
- In what way?
- Oh, in the way he was talking about the house.
He
-
- he seemed to know all about the construction of it.
Everything, right down to the size of the
-
- the beams,
and the boards, and the nails,
and the bricks, and the rafters.
And he knew stories about the foundations of it and
-
-
and even the names of some of the people who built the house.
- That's amazing.
- He also knew all sorts of incidents that occurred,
actual arguments that took place in the house.
- You mean, he has all the dirt on the Collins ancestors.
- It seems that way to me.
- Well, maybe he's a history buff.
- Well, he said that he got his information from journals
and letters and stories that were told to him.
- Oh, Vicki, if he's done that much research on it,
then the things he said must be facts, not imagination.
- There's something more to it than that.
He has a feeling about that house that's just uncanny.
- What do you mean?
- You know how the front door to the old house
sometimes sticks?
- Mm
-hmm?
- Well, I couldn't get it unstuck.
And, he just walked over to it,
and with the slightest flick of his wrist, opened the door.
[wind whistling]
- That's a talented man.
- But, whether it's talent or imagination,
he made me believe that he had opened that door , times.
It was as though he'd actually lived there.
♪♪
- We keep most of the family records and journals in here.
- I would like to look through them sometime.
- Oh, please, feel free to do so.
- This is a very nice room.
- Yes, I understand it's the one that Jeremiah Collins
used for his business purposes.
- That's possible.
Jeremiah would have liked this kind of room.
- Hmm, you're very intimate
with our ancestral line, aren't you?
- Call it a hobby.
- Oh, care for a drink?
- Thank you.
Sherry, please.
- Well, I believe you're in luck.
- Amontillado.
- Yes, how did you know?
- Oh, a family favorite.
Jeremiah drank it frequently.
I merely assume that his descendants
would follow in his particular taste.
- Yes, I believe that Jeremiah owned
part of a vineyard in Spain.
- Yes, near Málaga, I believe.
- I don't know where it was, but I know that, um,
shipments arrived long after he was dead.
And then, I think, uh, just before World w*r II,
the family disposed of the interest in the vineyard.
But, we have several bottles left.
Well, here we are.
I'll put that there.
Now, shall we drink to your visit?
- Uh, I'd rather drink to eternal health.
- Eternal health? Eternal life?
- To the Collins family.
- Well, that's rather a long time,
but I'll drink to it.
- Excellent.
- Oh, uh, may I see that ring?
- Certainly.
- This ring...
I've seen it before.
- Have you?
- It's unforgettable.
The
-
- the painting of Barnabas Collins.
It's on his finger.
♪♪
- It's a most unusual ring.
All my life, I remember seeing it in the painting.
I used to look at it frequently when I was young.
It's just as I remember it.
The artist did a remarkable job in...
- Yes, the artist took great pains to be accurate.
Joshua Collins took great pride in his jewelry.
It was almost part of his personality.
- Yes.
It was handed down to you, was it?
- Yes, handed down.
- Huh, it's certainly very handsome.
- Thank you.
- May I ask why you came here?
- Well, Europe was a lonely place for me.
There was no family.
And when one has the wealth that I have,
there are seldom true friends.
So, I came to the place
where I would find family, affection.
To the place where my family originated.
- Oh, you are seeking a closer relationship from this family?
- Well, that is if they will open their arms to me.
- Well, I'm sure it will.
- Oh, I don't mean to suggest
that I'm going to be a permanent guest.
Rather, if the situation permits,
I want to go into business.
- Oh, here in Collinsport?
- Yes.
I would like to spend some time talking to you about it.
I was hoping that perhaps you might offer some suggestions
as to where to invest in the area.
- Why, yes, I should be happy to, though I'm not
the best investment counselor in the vicinity.
But, I will be able to at least point you out
in the right direction.
- Well, I couldn't ask
for more than that.
Is there a small shipyard in the town?
- Yes, there is, as a matter of fact.
They haven't been building many ships though in several years.
- Well, I might be interested in looking into that.
- Oh, that's your line?
- Yes.
Just as it was with the previous Barnabas Collins.
♪♪
- It's so good to see someone friendly show up here
after the last few that arrived.
- Yes, he seems awfully nice, and so interesting.
You know, I thought it might be a good idea
if he give David some history lessons.
He has such a
-
- a strange way of bringing the past to life.
- Vicki, I wish you'd get it out of your head
that everyone is strange.
He's merely from the European branch.
[door opening and closing]
- Barnabas is leaving now.
- Oh, must you go so soon?
- I have a call to make.
- But, you'll visit us again?
- Absolutely.
- And soon.
- The old Collins family were not of the friendliest,
but the present family is very warm indeed.
- Well, that's nice of you to say so.
- Good night, Carolyn.
Good night, Miss Winters. Good night, Roger.
- Good night, Barnabas.
- Good night, Mr. Collins.
- Good night, Barnabas. I'll be talking to you shortly.
- I'll contact you.
- Well, Uncle Roger, you spent most of the time with him.
What do you think of him?
- I think he's a marvelous man.
And he's extremely wealthy.
[women laughing]
- Well, that's good to hear
that you like someone.
- Did you notice it?
- Notice what?
- The ring.
- What ring?
- This ring.
- What do you mean?
- He was wearing the very same ring.
[Carolyn]
- No, I didn't notice it.
[Roger]
- It's an heirloom.
I wish it had been handed down to me.
- There's something else very strange.
- What's that?
- This painting.
Have you noticed how much he resembles it?
- Yes.
It's more than a resemblance.
It's almost as if it were exactly a portrait of him.
♪♪
[dog howling, wind whistling]
♪♪
[announcer]
- "Dark Shadows" is a Dan Curtis production.
214 - April 21, 1967
Watch/Buy Amazon Merchandise
The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, where a number of supernatural occurrences take place.
The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, where a number of supernatural occurrences take place.