(1972)
Dir - Leslie H. Martinson
Overall: GOOD
Authored by prolific small screen writer Henry Slesar, "Half a Death" suffers from a lackluster ending and some obvious ADRed dialog during its opening scene, but it is otherwise a better Ghost Story installment than many from the first season. This is helped by scream queen Pamela Franklin in the lead, technically playing a set of twins even though one of them is dead from the onset and only shows up in ethereal flashes as a see-through specter in a white robe. Franklin was getting as much work in horror-tinged projects as anything else at this point in her career, and she hides her British accent better than she hides her initial annoyance at her mother for keeping her and her identical sibling apart for the entirely of the latter's life. As a twist to the gaslighting formula, Franklin is not the only character who sees visions of her deceased sibling, and her, her mom, and her new potential love interest even bring in a phony mother/son psychic team to conduct a seance that actually proves successful.
(1972)
Dir - Daryl Duke
Overall: GOOD
Heavyweight screenwriter Robert Bloch is on board for "House of Evil", one of the highlights in Ghost Story's first season that also features a young Jodie Foster playing Melvyn Douglas' deaf and mute granddaughter. Douglas makes a sinister presence as an old geezer with a vendetta against the man whom he blames for his own daughter's death, that man happening to be Foster's father. How he goes about exacting his revenge by way of a doll house and some "family members" made out of cookies is the quirky and unsettling part. The audience can guess what Douglas is up to before he spells it all out, and the specifics of his voodoo-esque powers and how he obtained them are never explained. Yet the moments between he and Foster telepathically communicating with each other remind one of Scatman Crothers and Danny Lloyd's exchanges in The Shining, plus director Daryl Duke maintains a steady and humorless tone of dread throughout. Douglas is the highlight here though, turning in a cold performance that only hints at his sinister intentions, intentions which are only detectable to the few people who merely sense them.
(1972)
Dir - Arnold Laven
Overall: MEH
Deadly felines and rodeo shenanigans, together at last. "Cry of the Cat" follows the Ghost Story/Circle of Fear trajectory of exclusively Caucasian actors working with prolific television directors and stories by prolific television writers. The cast should be recognizable enough to anyone familiar with small screen programing from the time, and this would be Arnold Laven's only work from behind the lens for the show. The same goes for screenwriter William Bast who pens a tale about a wild cougar that terrorizes a local ranch, or so they believe. The horror angle i.e. culprit is broadcasted early, and thankfully we do not spend the entirely of the episode just waiting for every character to catch up. Unfortunately, this also lead to a meandering watch. Not that every story needs a compelling mystery to keep one invested, but the lack of one here leaves little for everyone on the screen to do besides act concerned or miserable at their Cat People scenario. The tragic finale is easily foreseeable as well since these werewolf-adjacent yarns always end badly for all involved.
(1972)
Dir - Don McDougall
Overall: MEH
Ghost Story/Circle of Fear finally gets around to the undead in the apply titled "Elegy for a Vampire". Two years away from landing the title role in Barney Miller, Hal Linden portrays a college professor who succumbs to vamprism through means which are never explained and worse yet, never shown. Linden writes in his journal about the torments that he is facing by being unable to control his spontaneous blood lust, becoming a serial murderer in the process that everyone chips in to track down, including him. The only evidence that we get of his unholy exploits are a couple of shots of his bulging eyes while his female victims scream at him. Screenwriter Mark Weingart, (working from a story by Elizabeth Walter, who would have three more of her tales adapted for the program), does his best, as does director Don McDougall who still manages to stage some menace during the night time campus scenes Yet the television presentation is simply too neutered for the material. See the same year's The Night Stalker for evidence of how to do small screen blood-suckers right.
(1972)
Dir - Robert Day
Overall: MEH
A partially successful spookshow excursion for Ghost Story, "Touch of Madness" once again ventures into a haunted abode where a woman's sanity is questioned by the gaslighting people around her, as had several episodes previously. The good part is that some of these moments prove memorable where specters from the past play out their death, making a wide-eyed Lynn Loring pull out her hair in frustration as to their validity. It does not help that her eccentric aunt and uncle, (Geraldine Page and Rip Torn, the later in some unconvincing old man makeup), dismiss Loring's terrified pleas as sleepwalking, gently insisting that she drink her tonic as to not cause so much fuss. The house in question also changes appearance here or there, but this ultimately follows a type of arbitrary logic that is wrapped up unsuccessfully, as if several scenes are still missing. Screenwriter Halsted Welles would also pen six Night Gallery episodes around the same time, but his work here merely shows promise while coming off as half-baked in such a setting.
(1972)
Dir - Walter Doniger
Overall: MEH
The least interesting entry in the first season of Ghost Story, (soon to change titles to Circle of Fear), "Creatures of the Canyon" finds Angie Dickinson fending off the supernatural advances of her recently deceased husband's cherished Dobermann. Either that or a small statue of two K9s engaging in battle has somehow come to life. Either that or Dickinson's other dog is possessed by the aggressive one. Maybe all of these things are happening at once. The lack of clear specifics is usually not a problem in ghostly tales so long as the set pieces are creepy and/or there is enough of an emotional hook to keep the viewer invested in the our struggling protagonist's ordeal. Yet the formula of "aggressive barking = Dickinson looks scared" done on repeat causes more of a yawn than any unease, plus it is hard not to laugh when a stuffed Poodle lurches at her while she screams. John Ireland also shows up as a crotchety neighbor who takes care of the Dobermann due to Dickinson's dog not getting along with it, but he gets little to do besides behaving in an anti-social and scowling manner. It is lackluster enough that even dog owners will be bored.
(1972)
Dir - Robert Day
Overall: GOOD
The first season of Ghost Story ends on a high note with "Time of Terror", the first episode to take a Twilight Zone approach to its otherworldly subject matter. Scripted by Jimmy Sangster, (Hammer's premier screenwriter during their golden era), it takes us to a different hotel besides the Mansfield House where host Sebastian Cabot introduces each tale, a hotel where its occupants seem to pass the time gambling until their lottery numbers are called, at which point they are taken to a separate room and occasionally leave their better halves bewildered and behind. Patricia Neal finds herself here under increasingly hazy recollections after her husband inexplicably checks out solo, and eventually both her and the audience are able to put together what form of unsettling business is in fact going on. The viewer will get it before Neal does, making for a premise that overstays its welcome in its roughly fifty minute format, but it is still a creepy enough concept that is handled in a beguiling manner for as long as possible. This would also mark Cabot's final appearance on the program, as his presenter character was retired when the show came back the following year as Circle of Fear.
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