The Cutting Room Floor

Page Fourteen: Terror At The Cottage

[Bloodied Gerard] [Claire's Ordeal] [Page Bottom]

As Night of Dark Shadows now plays, some may wonder just what happened to Claire between the time she and Tracy were confronted at the Jenkins' cottage by the wounded Gerard and the time Claire shows up at the railroad footbridge following Gerard and Quentin's struggle. Well, once again, the orginal script does not leave the audience's questions unanswered:

Bloodied Gerard:

Another instance where a portion of a scene was subsequently trimmed from the August 1971 New England exhibition of Night of Dark Shadows was the shot of the bloodied Gerard waiting in the corner of the Jenkins' cottage as Tracy and Claire return inside from their search for him after Claire had shot him. Originally, the camera lingered more than twice as long as it now does on Gerard's bloodied face as he leered menacingly, while the audience heard Tracy and Claire's frenzied screams from off screen over the entire duration of the shot.

Shortened Scream (Wav 11KHz 13.7K)

Original Screams (Wav 11KHz 37K)

Claire's Ordeal:

Immediately following the scene in which Quentin discovers Alex smoking outside his wrecked car after Gerard had run him off the road, and just preceding the one of Gerard pulling his truck to the side of the road with the captive Tracy inside (See Page Six: Truck Stop Romance), the original script for Night of Dark Shadows intended a scene to take place where Quentin and Alex return to the cottage and learn what has happened from a distraught Claire:

Night of Dark Shadows

Script Excerpt

INT - COTTAGE - NIGHT

as Claire lies sobbing on the floor. Her face is bruised, her hair disheveled. The room shows signs of a struggle. Suddenly O.S., the SOUND of the front door opens. As Claire looks up in fear, Quentin and Alex, a little worse for wear, ENTER. Alex quickly crosses to her as Quentin looks for Tracy.

QUENTIN
Where's Tracy?

CLAIRE
(sobbing)
It's Gerard...he's got her. He tried to kill us...he tried to kill us...

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Special thanks to Steve Shutt for his assistance in locating the photo of Alex and Claire used on this page.