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460 Gallery
460
Number

454

Timeline

1796

Narrator

Alexandra Moltke

Writer

Ron Sproat

Director

Dan Curtis

Broadcast

March 29, 1968
(Friday)

Recorded

March 25, 1968
(Monday)

Video

Complete: Disc 49
Collection 7: Disc 1

460 Gallery
We have 17 images of Dark Shadows 460

Joshua has Barnabas chained up in his coffin. Meanwhile, Victoria is hanged for witchcraft.

Synopsis[]

Teaser

A séance has been held in the great house at Collinwood, a séance which has suspended time and space and sent one girl on an uncertain and frightening journey into the past, back to the year 1795. There, in the village of Collinsport, Victoria Winters has been unjustly accused of witchcraft. And on this day she will be hanged by the neck until dead. And another she has known, Barnabas Collins, faces a final and ultimate destruction.

Barnabas enters Collinwood and goes to the study to confront Nathan Forbes. As he opens the study door, Nathan shoots a wooden arrow into Barnabas. He screams in pain but manages to pull the arrow out, telling Forbes the arrow did not hit his heart. Nathan screams out as Barnabas approaches.

Act I

Barnabas has killed Nathan, and Joshua Collins has Ben Stokes bury the body. Joshua tells Barnabas in the study what must be done: People will be told that Nathan simply left Collinsport abandoning Millicent when she became penniless. The marriage between Nathan and Millicent will be annulled as if it never happened. Millicent herself only barely remembers having a suitor named Nathan Forbes whom she rejected and sent away. Barnabas begs Joshua to shoot him with the silver bullets immediately to end the curse forever. Joshua begs off saying that he will do so later at sunrise while Barnabas is asleep. Joshua also reveals other plans: to adopt Daniel and be a better father for him. Joshua plans to tell others Naomi died a natural death instead of suicide just as he will have history say that Angelique and Barnabas were never married. Barnabas asks his father for two last requests. He would like Ben to be freed for being such a loyal servant and for something to be done to save Victoria. Barnabas asks Joshua to forget he ever existed, but Joshua says he can't do that. Dawn approaches, and Barnabas leaves the study to go to his coffin in the mausoleum. Joshua gets out his pistol and the silver bullets.

Act II

In the secret room of the mausoleum, Joshua finds that he cannot shoot Barnabas. He tells Ben to affix a silver cross to the inside of the coffin facing Barnabas, then chain the coffin securely shut. Ben binds the coffin with chains and locks and says good-bye to Barnabas.

Act III

Back in the study, Ben confirms that Barnabas is trapped. Joshua reveals to Ben that Barnabas requested his freedom. Joshua gives Ben $100 and tells him that he may go wherever he chooses. Riggs arrives with a letter from the governor. The request to stay Victoria's execution was denied. In the Collinsport Jail, Victoria and Peter are allowed five minutes together before her jailers take her to the gallows.

Act IV

Victoria and Peter declare their love for each other. Peter vows to Victoria that somehow, some way, he will find her in another time and place, and she must remember that. She promises to remember as she is led away. At the gallows she is asked if she wants a mask, to which she nods. She recalls Peter's vow to find her, and then she is hanged.

Memorable quotes[]

Dramatis personae[]

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

  • No cast or crew members are credited.

Story[]

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

  • After Barnabas pulls the arrow from his chest, Jonathan Frid tells Nathan, "It didn't hit me, Forbes! It didn't hit me!", which is obviously incorrect. Consequently, an additional line appears to have been dubbed in post-production by Frid to clarify things a bit: "You didn't hit my heart!"
  • Louis Edmonds flubs a line in Act I when Joshua says, "As far as history concerned" rather than "is concerned."
  • The casket in the Collins mausoleum where they chain up Barnabas is facing the opposite way, opening to the left, and is further to the right as compared to when Willie freed Barnabas in 1967.
  • Joshua is very concerned about the possibility, however remote, of someone finding the mausoleum secret room and freeing Barnabas, yet it seems strange he never once thought of bricking up the entrance to the room or in some other way disabling the mechanism that opens the door.
  • In the scene where Ben chains the coffin, the door to the secret room should have been open. But the scene starts with the door mostly closed. The door then mysteriously opens of its own accord.
  • In 1796, it is unlikely that Joshua would have received a response from the governor on the same day he sent his request about Victoria to the governor, who was likely down in Boston.
  • As Vicki waits in her jail cell to be taken to the gallows, Peter tells her that, just as she traveled through time and found him, he will find her. The problem: this only makes sense if Peter somehow knows in advance that Vicki will survive the hanging and return to her own time.
  • As the hangman is testing the rope, the camera angle flips upward to reveal stage lights above the scaffold.
  • As the hangman completes his testing of the rope, a crew member can be seen before the camera ducking past to the left.
  • With the camera moving in as the hangman loosens the weighted sack from the rope, another stage light becomes visible.

External Links []

Dark Shadows - Episode 460 on the IMDb

Dark Shadows Every Day - Episode 460 - Eats, Shoots and Leaves

The Dark Shadows Daybook - Episode 460

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