(1960)
Dir - Arthur Hiller
Overall: MEH
Fitting for the title which initially focused more on melodramatic thriller material as opposed to supernatural horror, NBC's Thriller kicks off with the William O'Farrell adaptation "The Twisted Image". Small screen heavyweight Leslie Nielsen plays an upper class business man who gets targeted by two mentally unstable peons who work for the same company as he does, though both of these unfortunate individuals have their own singular agenda against Nielsen and do not meet until the final, tragic act. While Nielsen is his usual level-headed straight man and Natalie Trundy gets the less sympathetic role as the bright-eyed woman who becomes cluelessly and dangerously infatuated with him, George Grizzard steals the show as a disturbed and traumatized young man who perpetually lies, steals, and covets what he seems unable to earn on his own, laying on a type of villainous charm that is simultaneously pathetic
(1960)
Dir - Arthur Hiller
Overall: MEH
It is often difficult in fiction to have a child protagonist that is up to no good and make them not annoying. "Child's Play" opens with youngster Tom Nolan pointing a loaded riffle at a confused stranger out by a pond, insisting that the man is Black Bart and that he needs to think good and hard about what he is going to do with him. Interestingly though, the proceeding story does not merely sink into some kind of Dennis the Menace/The Bad Seed hybrid and instead respectfully explores how an outward dysfunctional marriage can have severe effects on the children who are stuck being raised in such an environment. Most of the episode involves Frank Overton and Bethel Leslie engaged in detailed and nuanced conversation about how their marriage went wrong and what if anything can be done about it, all the while we continue to cut back to Nolan during his mentally unstable hold-up. Director Arthur Hill pulls off an intense finale, but as sincere as the material is presented, it still leans on simple-minded melodrama as television programs from the era often did.
(1960)
Dir - Mitchell Leisen
Overall: MEH
Based off of an Evelyn Berckman story, "Worse Than Murder" is one of the more forgettable early Thriller installments, despite it being well-performed and adequately scripted by Mel Goldberg. It has more to do with noir than any other genre, focusing on a bitter woman who feels gypped out of a family inheritance that should have went to her dead husband, meaning her. Constance Ford is well-cast in such a thankless role, being a determined villainess who smirks her way through a calculated blackmail attempt that of course goes awry in the end, mostly due to her own arrogance and unlikeability which both her enemies and fate manage to bypass. There are some nuances to the plotting and the loose ends are tidied up, but it never gains enough momentum with its multitude of characters and a premise that is more serviceable instead of intriguing.
(1960)
Dir - Paul Henreid
Overall: MEH
A whodunit where the person left holding the smoking gun refuses to utter a word, "The Mark of the Hand" has a sufficient crime premise to work with, even if the melodramatic details do not deliver much on the "thriller" promise of the show's title. Based on the novel of the same name by Charlotte Armstrong, (a novel that in fact did not come out until three years later), Terry Burnham is the pistol-toting child in question who is shown holding the murder weapon as her family stands around looking aghast. What follows are several false explanations of what happened, none of which satisfy Judson Pratt's police inspector who shows up Agatha Christie style to interview and lead-on all of the suspects until he gets his woman or man. Naturally, the finger points to several possible culprits until the list is narrowed down and also naturally, it involves a poorly though-out scheme to get some hands on some dead relative money. One of the more pulpy and sensationalized episodes of the program, it suffices as means of killing some couch potato time.
(1960)
Dir - Arthur Hiller
Overall: MEH
A more convoluted variation on Billy Wilder's seminal Sunset Boulevard, "Rose's Last Summer" ends up having a midway plot reveal that borders on implausible nonsense, but viewers may nevertheless be bamboozled as was intended. Like Gloria Swanson who was a silent era star, Mary Astor also began her career in the pre-talkie days, and she makes for an ideal member of Hollywood's now washed-up former elite who has fallen on hard times here. Astor's title character is a lush with three ex husbands on her resume who has not worked in her craft in years, prompting her to take a mysterious caretaker job when offered. An adaptation of Margaret Millar's 1952 novel of the same name, it has some unintended camp appeal despite Astor's mostly straight performance, but once the rug-pull occurs, the story merely lumbers towards its humdrum conclusion.
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