(1971)
Dir - Steven Spielberg
Overall: GOOD
The second and last Night Gallery installment to be directed by Steven Spielberg, "Make Me Laugh" utilizes the ole "be careful what you wish for premise", literally as it concerns a D-rent comedian who hits up a genie to grant him the power to leave people in stitches, even when he is not trying to. Some of the rules established in Rod Serling's script are loosey-goosey and the outcome is easily foreseeable, but Spielberg keeps the tone campless, presenting it as something that is not so much cautionary as it is simply tragic. Things are helped by the cast, namely Godfrey Cambridge in the lead; an actual comedian who was far from the no talent schlub that he portrays here, yet also a skilled enough actor to convey how sincere and downtrodden his character is. Tom Bosley and Al Lewis also show up in supporting roles, as does Jackie Vernon who plays, (of all things), the turban-wearing miracle worker that is himself low on the totem pole as far as his profession is concerned.
(1971)
Dir - Walter Doniger
Overall: GOOD
What begins as something that may just be another reworking of Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game" instead offers a singular and in effect more simple critique on mankind's self-aggrandizing when it comes to our place in the food chain. "Clean Kills and Other Trophies" does not present its big game hunter blowhard as someone who needs to consistently challenge himself with tougher prey, but instead as a curmudgeon father who cannot comprehend any other viewpoint than his own and is therefor disgusted that his adult son has none of his pompous blood-lust. Raymond Massey turns in an ideal performance as such an odious millionaire, carrying his weight around as he limps on a cane and insists that he proves his offspring right by forcing him to kill an animal lest he receive none of his amassed fortune. The audience's sympathies are meant to align with everyone but Massey's, making the final reveal a fitting one where poetic justice is served, be it in a mystical and silly fashion.
(1971)
Dir - Richard Benedict
Overall: GOOD
Short and sweet, "Pamela's Voice" is one of the more humorous early Night Gallery installments, kicking off a first season three-parter. Authored as many were by host Rod Serling, it takes place in a single room where John Astin, (in front of the screen this time after directing the previously aired "The House"), comes down the stairs looking exhausted, enters a parlor, and hears the disembodied shrill voice of a perfectly cast Phyllis Diller as his recently deceased, (and murdered by him), wife. What follows is an amusing discourse from beyond the grave, with a delightful twist that proves that both Diller's demise was not so recent and that Astin will hardly be rid of her as easily as he presumed. Astin would befall an almost identical fate in the following season's also comedic "Hell's Bells", proving that the actor had a knack for portraying doomed saps in the afterlife.
(1971)
Dir - Gene Levitt
Overall: MEH
John Colicos portrays a living embodiment of the Flying Dutchman in "Lone Survivor", a sufficient if unremarkable Night Gallery installment. Something curious is afoot as soon as Colicos arrives on the RMS Lusitania since he claims to have been adrift from the Titanic after it went under a full three years prior. History buffs will recognize the fate of the RMS Lusitania as well before Rod Serling's script spells it out and ergo should be able to piece together what is going to transpire, also before Colicos' melodramatic and traumatized harbinger of doom spells it out. In this regard, the story packs few surprises, but it still has an unsettling charm that fits the sincere tone that the program often strove for in its early days.
(1971)
Dir - Rudi Dorn
Overall: GOOD
You gotta have a creep doll episode somewhere. The fittingly titled Algernon Blackwood adaptation "The Doll" is Rod Serling's take on such a textbook motif, and it is a well-executed one that maintains a macabre tone with its tongue in cheek. As unsettling as dolls are, it is naturally difficult to take the threat of a pint-sized form of evil seriously, and the various shots of the title monster are comically grotesque, instantly recalling Mario Bava's "The Drop of Water" segment from his seminal 1963 anthology film Black Sabbath. The always versatile character actor Henry Silva shows up as a mysterious Indian man who is out for revenge, which makes as much sense as him portraying a Korean in The Manchurian Candidate. Besides the eerie mood and how wonderfully ridiculous little Jewel Blanch's malevolent new toy looks, we also get a fitting twist in the finale that turns such wicked mysticism back on its initial culprit.
(1971)
Dir - Don Taylor
Overall: GOOD
A personal favorite of host/screenwriter Rod Serling, "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" is one of several Night Gallery segments that would have fit better on The Twilight Zone if one was to compare. While it does not overtly fall into the conventional horror camp, it does present a harrowing depiction of a man's psychological downfall due to his life delivering him one blow after the other. William Windom's washed-up salesman has lost his wife, is in the process of being usurped at his job by a young upstart, and has recently also had to part with his favorite stomping ground, Tim Riley's Bar and Grille of the title. That final blow proves to be one too many, setting our downtrodden protagonist on a devastating spiral into his own memories which overcome him when he is at his lowest. Windom's performance is exceptional, and the finale has an enigmatic air to it whose seeming cheerfulness could just represent one last desperate foray into bygone fantasy.
(1971)
Dir - Daryl Duke
Overall: MEH
For its closer, Night Gallery tagged on "The Last Laurel" after the paramount "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" from the same episode, a less substantial if still serviceable yarn with an otherworldly component. Based on David Grubb's "The Horsehair Trunk", it features Jack Cassidy as a crippled athlete who somehow manages to exert his will in order to astral project, something that he is primarily motivated to due in order to spy on and ultimately murder a doctor that he thinks is engaging in hanky-panky with the wife. Said spouse is portrayed by Hammer scream queen/Bond girl Martine Beswick, though she is only granted a single scene in such a brief segment to begin with. While the concept is enough to hinge a horror tale on, the twist is more silly than satisfying, simply showcasing that for all of his arrogance and paranoia, Cassidy is ultimately just a klutz.
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