(1961)
Dir - Ida Lupino
Overall: GOOD
Kicking things off with the good ole "gaslighting a rich hysterical woman into death in order to gain her inheritance and share it with another woman who you are having an affair with that is putting on an benevolent act" gag, the Thriller second season opener "What Beckoning Ghost?" delivers another memorable supernaturally-charged ending, something that the program was becoming increasingly adept at. This one adapts the Harold Lawlor short story, sticking to the outright horror formula that producer William Frye fancied from his tenure on the previous season onward. It benefits from a small cast and a single location, with a story that is predictable to a point yet pleasantly ups the creepiness where it counts, bypassing just being one of many tales where an asshole spouse wants to get a lot of money.
(1961)
Dir - Ida Lupino
Overall: GOOD
This adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's short story "Guillotine" was the third and last such retelling of the author's work that Thriller would do, and it is one of the series' episodes that is more akin to the concurrently running Alfred Hitchcock Presents. This is to say that the final act is one elongated set piece that seemingly plays out in real time as a convicted man tries to avoid his execution by means of a particular loophole in 19th century French law. Director Ida Lupino, (in her only work from behind the lens on the program), expertly stages such a white-knuckled set piece, made more impressive since the outcome is preordained yet still keeps the viewer's eyes glued to the small screen as far as how it will precisely go down. The story even manages to make the executioner the most benevolent character, helped by the sympathetic performance of Robert Middleton, a character actor who usually played one-note villains.
(1961)
Dir - Doughlas Heyes
Overall: GOOD
Predating the Roger Corman American International Pictures adaptation by one year, "The Premature Burial" is the only work by Edgar Allan Poe which made it onto NBC's Thriller program. This was also the second story to feature Boris Karloff beyond just his steady role as the show's host, here playing the doctor who uncovers the scheming and adulterous deeds of his close friend's wife Patricia Medina. Sidney Blackmer portrays said buddy, a capitalistic millionaire with an intense fear of being buried alive which proves unfortunate for him, to say the least. The tale follows a familiar pattern, (plus the motif of greedy spouses trying to do away with their significant other in order to get their money was growing tired), but Karloff is naturally wonderful and the ending is another creepy showstopper.
(1961)
Dir - Herschel Daugherty
Overall: GOOD
The Robert Bloch-authored "The Weird Tailor" would get a revamp eleven years later in Amicus' stellar Asylum anthology film, but its initial presentation here differentiates itself enough, as well as being another memorable supernatural installment to the Thriller program. Just as it was in the Amicus version, the title is misleading since the tailor himself is not the "weird" one, but the otherworldly situation that he finds himself in sure as hell is. Said tailor is portrayed by character actor Henry Jones as an odious curmudgeon who is needlessly cruel to his wife; a woman who is so crippled by loneliness and abuse that her only solace is in tenderly conversing to herself with a life-sized dummy. The occult plays into things right from the opening scene, and even if one can guess where things are headed, (especially if any viewer's have seen the aforementioned Asylum), it is tightly scripted and leads to a finale that is equally absurd and creepy.
(1961)
Dir - Herschel Daugherty
Overall: MEH
One of many Thriller episodes to be directed by Herschel Daugherty, (as well as the final one that Henry Daniell appeared in), "God Grante That She Lye Stille" hits many of the supernatural Gothic ghost/witch motifs, if not uniquely. An adaptation of Lady Cynthia Asquith's short story of the same name, it features Sarah Marshall in a dual role as a woman who is plagued by her black arts-practicing, condemned 17th century ancestor and as said ancestor herself. As the latter, Marshall is a dead ringer for Barbara Steele in certain scenes, her ethereal form threatening to reap her vengeance until she is granted a physical body once more, presumably to reap more vengeance with. The narrative unfortunately never picks up steam and most of the plotting revolves around us being told that Marshall acts in an aggressive fashion without showing us that she does, only for Ronald Howard to show back up as her doctor and act concerned.
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