Speaking of The J. Butler Award for Most Obscure Hommage (given to REN AND STIMPY's "hommage" to THE SEARCHERS), I rise to the question, "Can anyone top that for obscurity?" I'm not sure about relative obscurity ratings, but in ENCHANTED APRIL, the arrival of Lottie and Rose at the castle is a series of shots that go in and out of visual quotations from Jonathan Harker's arrival at Castle Dracula in NOSFERATU. There is the train, the rain, the servant taking away their baggage without communcation, the wild ride in jerky shots through the woods, the encounter with another along the way, the pull-up in front of the castle, and finally the emergence of a lone, old, mysterious male figure from an obscure, high Gothic archway. But by then, of course, the fears of Dracula have been left behind and turned to amazement because the day is spectacular in San Salvatore (Nosferatu, the Undead, versus Salvatore, the Saviour, the Resurrected). Both are magical castles but with opposing moral values. (There are other Nosferatu/Dracula connections too, e.g., the attraction of the Londoners via an advertisement and an "agent" who surprisingly turns out to be an owner; the issue of whether or not "marriages" can be made; the odd London behavior of women toward their men; the focus on letters bringing people to the castle yet the letters not actually getting to do their intended work; etc. Some of this may be fortuitous, but the overall effect struck me as stunning, showing up in both films the degree to which atmosphere, eros, and compulsion are intertwined and have always both dark and light sides implicit in them. Maybe these observations are old-hat, but I enjoyed the heck out of that extended hommage, so I offer it for the pleasure of others.) Eric Eric Rabkin [log in to unmask] Department of English [log in to unmask] University of Michigan office : 313-764-2553 Ann Arbor MI 48109-1045 dept : 313-764-6330 voice msgs: 313-763-3130