(1961)
Dir - John Brahm
Overall: MEH
This Lionel White adaptation of his 1959 novel of the same name focuses on a man who is accused of murder and vehemently pleads his innocence, even though one detail after the other more directly implicates him. "The Merriweather File" unveils more pieces to the puzzle at a satisfactory rate while a dashingly-mushtached James Gregory does everything in his power to save his buddy Ross Elliott from execution, meanwhile infidelity plays an increasing role of motivation for almost everyone involved. Unfortunately, the final scene is a lengthy expository dialog dump set some time after the events of the main narrative, an expository dialog dump that clears up every last loose end and begs the question of how the police detective delivering it has such information at his disposal in the first place, not to mention why is it coming out now when it could have saved a somewhat "innocent" man.
(1961)
Dir - Jules Bricken
Overall: MEH
When all signs point to a heavy-set, schlubby, social awkward outcast as the culprit to a slew of grisly child murders and the police nab their man halfway through the story, one is bound to guess that the real killer is still at large. This is confirmed quickly enough in "The Fingers of Fear", based on Philip MacDonald's short story of the same name where we meet a man who fits a different description than a bulbous fellow lurking in the bushes, yet is clearly up to no good as he spends an entire afternoon with a child that he lures with a laughing Italian doll. The narrative never explicitly states what traumatic series of events have led Thayer Roberts to murder children and treat said doll as if it was his own daughter, but the unsettling premise is handled in a user friendly manner that is fitting for small screen entertainment of the era, meaning that there is a reason for exploitative details to be left out of the equation.
(1961)
Dir - John Brahm
Overall: GOOD
Henry Daniell returns in "Well of Doom", his second of five appearances in a Thriller episode. He is given a good amount of screen time here in some ghastly makeup, presenting himself as some variant of the Devil who is able to miraculously light fires and has the towering future James Bond henchman Richard Kiel at his beck and call. An adaptation of a John Clemons story, it leans into the horror tropes with Daniell's seemingly supernatural powers, ghoulish look, and copious amounts of fog poured over the English moors. It also has some suspenseful moments as Ronald Howard tries to flee his captors and rescue his fiance, leading to a finale that takes some laughable liberties as far as logic is concerned. Still, it is a fun and macabre installment to the series, convoluted plot and all.
(1961)
Dir - Laslo Benedek
Overall: MEH
The first Thriller episode to have a sci-fi angle, "The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell" opens with a chemical experiment gone awry where Robert Vaughan collapses due to some dangerous vapors and wakes up with a crippling sensitivity to ringing bells that causes him to black out werewolf style and go into murderous rages. These killing outbursts are never shown to the audience, which is fitting since Vaughan's doomed protagonist wakes up with no recollection of having committed them, leaving both he and the viewer in the dark as to the violent specifies. It is a sufficient way for a television program to work around the content's more ghastly ingredients, but Donald S. Sanford's script offers no other surprises outside of its premise.
(1961)
Dir - Ida Lupino
Overall: GOOD
NBC's Thriller attempts a different formula for the season one installment "Trio of Terror". Though the program was an anthology one by nature where each week presented a different stand-alone story, this one features three of them within a single episode time frame. Boris Karloff introduces them all as he is wont to do, and they are all unrelated besides the fact that they each fit snugly into the horror genre. The first concerns a man who murders his warlock uncle, (the warlock part being unbeknownst to him), the second has a man who wins an obscene amount of money at a castle casino and then stays for the night where his bed has other ideas for him, and the last and best features a criminal on the run who holds up in a wax museum where the sculptures are anything but wax.
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