(1971)
Dir - John Badham
Overall: MEH
The four-part opener to Night Gallery's second season kicks-off with "The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes", featuring a young Clint Howard and his father Rance in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as a cameraman. An adaptation of Margaret St. Clair's 1950 short story of the same name, Howard shows up on a television program to display his rare talent of premonition, irking Michael Constantine's sleazy producer until said premonitions end up being accurate of course, at which point he vows to sign him to a twenty-five year contract. Unfortunately, Howard ends up being able to predict more than just a manageable earthquake, giving people a false and all too brief glimmer of hope as a parting gesture for mankind's unavoidable doom. The story has some of Rod Serling's patented philosophical undercurrents, but it seems rushed and ill-suited for the program.
(1971)
Dir - Gene Kearney
Overall: MEH
Beginning in season two, Night Gallery producer Jack Laird unfortunately insisted on inserting blackout sketches, a moronic decision that in turn would doom the program and infuriate creator/host Rod Serling whose creative control was always challenged along the way. Director Gene Kearney was given the thankless task of shooting the two goofy vignettes "Miss Lovecraft Sent Me" and "Phantom of What Opera?" for the this episode, both of which jive horribly with the usual tone of the show that would still dip its toes into tongue in cheek comedy here or there, but never so deliberately. Worse yet, these quick sketches are more groan-worthy than funny, coming off as rushed on top of inappropriate for the better written and tonally exclusive material surrounding them. On paper it might be nice to see Leslie Nielsen play the Phantom and Joseph Campanella play a blue-skinned Béla Lugosi stand-in, but sadly the results are harebrained.
(1971)
Dir - John M. Lucas
Overall: MEH
This adaptation of George Langelaan's 1961 short story "The Other Hand" offers a merely serviceable addition to the killer hand motif found in many a horror tale. George Maharis portrays the hapless sap whose right hand becomes possessed by outside forces, forces which eventually take over more of his mind and body until he finds a way to get said malevolent appendage permanently removed. Of course that is hardly the end of the scenario as the finale overtly dictates, but Alvin Sapinsley's treatment of the material, (which is partially told in flashback), fails to grip, (pun intended). Ray Milland was no stranger to genre works nor television properties, and he at least does his usual acceptable work here as Maharis' doctor who struggles to believe the uncanny story that he is told until it is too late of course.
(1971)
Dir - Jeannot Szwarc
Overall: MEH
E.G. Marshall and Desi Arnaz Jr. team up in Night Gallery's "Death in the Family", which is an adaptation of Miriam Allen deFord's short story of the same name. It tells the tale of a quirky undertaker who has nothing but compassion for both the dead and the downtrodden, going out of his way to procure the body of a recently passed elderly gentleman with no family or friends whose corpse arrives at his facility with little fanfare. Arnaz then shows up as an escaped convict seeking sanctuary, and the macabre twist proves that he would rather take his chances with the authorities than continue to partake of Marshall's unique form of hospitality. The finale is ghoulish and goofy, but the material is played straight, presenting Marshall as a man with his heart in the right place yet his means squarely on the deranged side of things.
(1971)
Dir - Jeannot Szwarc
Overall: MEH
The blackout sketch "The Merciful" is one of the less egregious ones that the second season of Night Gallery was regrettably equipped with, getting in and out as quickly as the lot of them, yet still providing an unnecessary addition to a program that was already firing on all cylinders without such goofy filler material. Written by producer Jack Laird, it takes the often used walled-up alive motif from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" and spins it on its heals, featuring a prattling-on elderly woman who is finishing up such a wall as her husband looks both annoyed and distressed on the other side of it while rocking in chair. As usual, the twist is a groaner, but forgiving viewers may find it harmless enough.
(1971)
Dir - Jeannot Szwarc
Overall: GOOD
An ominous bit of potent sci-fi from the mind of Rod Serling, (as he was wont to deliver), "Class of '99" is double memorable for being the first of two Night Gallery installments to feature Vincent Price. As always, the horror icon is fantastic here, delivering a stern performance that is void of camp, conducting a final exam with a room full of potential graduates who are arbitrarily asked different questions on history and ethics. The scenario gradually grows disturbing as students are instructed to perform more and more eyebrow-raising deeds in order to reach a passing grade and not irk the temperament of their instructor. It leads to a clever twist that still leaves enough loose ends to ponder, where society has collapses and gotten to a point that mankind's capacity for empathy and compassion has been replaced by cold logic and the strict adherence to prejudices in a misguided attempt to prolong survival.
(1971)
Dir - Jerrold Freedman
Overall: WOOF
Arguably the biggest wart on the entire Night Gallery repertoire, "Witches' Feast" is an abysmal blackout sketch that works even more poorly than most. Written by Gene Kearney, it is nothing more than Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Buzzi, Allison McKay, and Fran Ryan cackling away in comedic old crone makeup while stirring a cauldron and waiting for one of them to return from a warlock with something of value. The twist is even more stupid than the obnoxious presentation, and it is no wonder that the segment was pulled from future broadcasts and replaced by the later shot "Satisfaction Guaranteed", which was still goofy but at least was nowhere near as grating.
No comments:
Post a Comment