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819 Gallery
819
Number

809

Timeline

1897

Narrator

Grayson Hall

Writer

Gordon Russell

Director

Lela Swift

Broadcast

August 15, 1969
(Friday)

Recorded

August 7, 1969
(Thursday)

Video

Complete: Disc 85
Collection 16: Disc 1

819 Gallery
We have 33 images of Dark Shadows 819

Count Petofi causes Charity to permanently believe she is Pansy Faye.

Synopsis[]

Collinwood before the turn of the century. For many months Quentin Collins has managed to keep his terrible secret from all but a handful of people. Now one of these, a young woman who has come to live at Collinwood, has become determined to expose Quentin to the world. But on this night a third party has intervened, the mysterious Count Petofi.

Charity tries to order Petofi from the house, but he touches her cheek with his hand, taking away her ability to speak. He causes her to see a vision of Magda predicting a violent end. In the vision, Aristede arrives and is quickly strangled by an unseen assailant. Unable to see the vision himself, he forces Charity to look again, and describe everything she sees. She sees the same man chop off Petofi's hand. Startled by her vision, Petofi tells her she shall soon begin a new life and tells her to enjoy it, before leaving.

Charity is being possessed by Pansy Faye again. Quentin wonders what Charity saw in her vision. Back at the Mill Petofi finds Aristede alive. They leave Barnabas unguarded. They go to the graveyard and dig up the grave of Abraham Howell.

Quentin says that whatever happened at Collinwood has scared Petofi and that this is their chance to free Barnabas. Quentin says he saw a face at the window, and when they open the door, they find a note attached with a knife. The note says, "between life and death there is not room for a flea to jump."

Memorable quotes[]

Count Petofi: One may play many tricks with fate, Mr. Collins, but one must not tempt it.

Count Petofi: Open the coffin.
Aristede: Open it?
Count Petofi: Do you think I had you dig it up to admire the woodwork?

Count Petofi (to Quentin): I suspect beneath that hard veneer of yours there lies a soft core of sentiment.

Count Petofi (after Aristede opens the coffin he has just dug up): Splendid, splendid. The stench of decomposition is perfectly advanced, wouldn't you say so, Aristede?

Dramatis personae[]

Background information and notes[]

Production[]

Story[]

  • Count Petofi mentions John Wilkins, whom he considers to have a feeble name but good character, and Alexander Markham, whom he considers to have a good name but thinks it a pity to have died so long ago.
  • The gravestone of Abraham Howell reads: Born 1846, Died 1897.

Bloopers and continuity errors[]

  • As Charity enters Collinwood's drawing room at the start of the teaser, the blue screen (used for the upcoming vision) is visible through the window (to the left of Petofi).
  • At the start of Charity's vision, the image of the sunset (before changing over to the Old House) is revealed to be a picture pinned to a grey background.
  • During the vision sequence, just before the candles go out, an object is seen on the left, presumably used by a stagehand to blow air.
  • Something out of camera range crashes to the floor making a metallic clatter as Charity sings. Nancy Barrett doesn't miss a beat.
  • After the coffin of Abraham Howell is opened, someone coughs off-camera when Count Petofi and Aristede are in the graveyard.

External Links []

Dark Shadows - Episode 819 on the IMDb

Dark Shadows Everyday - Episode 819 - War and Peace

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