Starring Olive Sturgess, David Frankham, Jennifer Raine.
Written by Jess Carneol and Kay Lenard.
Directed by Ida Lupino.
Lady Beatrice Mervyn (Patricia Manning) murders her husband and then kills herself, invoking yet another one of those puzzling family curses. 300 years later, Evie Bishop (Sturgess) comes to visit her beau at his brother's mansion (the same mansion wherein the murders occurred), only to be visited by the ghost of Lady Beatrice. Is Evie going batty or is she really seeing Beatrice?
PE: Cut from the same cloth (or rather the same old moldy hunk of shag carpeting) as "God Grante That She Lye Stille." I wonder if Lupino pulled a Roger Corman and had a script written quickly to make use of the sets from the earlier episode? It sure has the whiff of a quickie script.
JS: Yes, it shared some of the same Dark Shadows-esque moments of that episode, including another great (recycled?) Goldsmith score. I imagine there's a great mash up to be made with Sturgess as our living damsel and Sarah Marshall as our ghostly visitor. Lupino really takes advantage of the sets at her disposal here. This episode is literally dripping with atmosphere...
PE: God Grante This Be The Laste Gothic Ghoste Story Aye Ever Have To Watche.
OUR RATING:
OUR RATING:
Why is it in all films about curses and witchy vexations, the malediction always has to RHYME, like some moonstruck sixth-grader's love poetry scribbled on the back of a spiral notebook and stained with questionable organic fluids? Stupid then, stupid now, stupid always.
ReplyDeleteHaving just discovered the corpse of her wastrel son (murdered by Lady Beatrice), Dame Alice, for no apparent reason, pronounces one of the dumbest curses in the history of dumb curses. She arbitrarily sticks all subsequent generations with a death curse based on a riddle that ... isn't. "An end there shall be," says this dotty old loon, "but it will be beyond the limit of man to discover it." Okay, that usually means a woman will unravel it ("Aha! Smartly done! This battle of semantics is over!"), which means Evie. Except Evie accidentally cuts herself and subsequently discovers another idiotic rhyme: 'Pure blood stained by the bloodstained knife / Ends Mervyn shame, heals Mervyn strife." When was this rule added? Okay ... so, then, WHY HIDE THE FRIGGIN' KNIFE? Hell, the goddamned MAID in the prologue could've grabbed the blade, gave herself a quick jab, and voila— no curse. That the Mervyns lasted three hundred years, THIS DUMB, is some kind of miracle of persistent genetics. If Dame Alice had bothered to throw in a bit about the blood of an innocent Mervyn wannabe-spouse cleansing the crimes of a murderous Mervyn spouse, then it might have tracked better. But from the little intel we are given, obliquely, it appears that old Hugh Meryyn was a dick anyway, so the whole curse business seems to be a fatally mis-aimed spasm of mother-love.
Jennifer Raine might not have been much of an actress, but she was a dynamic and attractive lady in person. She was Whit Bissell's third wife, and I met them both in 1977 and got an opportunity to spend time with them. Her Grandfather was Alan Napier. Her Great-Grandfather was ... CHARLES DICKENS. Whit and Jennifer were married in 1967 (nearly a decade after the death of Whit's previous wife, Dilys Mary Shan Jukes), and he was widowed when she died in 1993. He finished out his days in the Motion Picture Home (the last place I saw him) and died in 1996.
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for this info, so interesting. While not a beauty, I thought she was very charming, expressive and vivid (more than the leading lady), and having her play the harp at the beginning of one scene was typical of the terrific sense of detail director Ida Lupino brought to this episode.
DeleteJennifer Raine appeared in this episode with her then-husband, Peter Forster, who played her character's husband. They were the parents of Brian Forster, Chris #2 on THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY. I thought she was a lot better-looking in this episode than her previous episode.
Delete<< Her Grandfather was Alan Napier. <<
ReplyDeleteWelllll ... her STEPfather was Alan Napier ... but Jennifer always shortened it to "He was my father." The real daughter of Alan Napier --
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0629608/
-- is married to Robert Nichols of THE THING ("You won't be able to shoo our captain south with his heart wrapped around the North Pole").
Whit Bissell, one of those great, reliable actors who invested a lot of authority to their roles as scientists, lawyers, shopkeepers... who surprisingly, never made a Thriller! Even tho he has quite the sci-fi and some horror track record. Any interesting reflections on meeting Mr and Mrs Bissell?
ReplyDeleteIt'll help cover up what was a fairly dull, tho nicely photographed, non-Thriller -- which had only the babe factor going for it. At least Ms. Sturgess is a fellow BCer...
Another show that relies on "atmoshpere" as a crutch to drag itself over the finish-line. In many ways, I'd prefer a nice little, ingeniously-plotted Brit Who-Done-It to "Closed Cabinet", which depends entirely on its physical production to hold our interest.
ReplyDeleteI was SURE that our hosts would point out the over-the-top, Gidget-like silliness of Olive Sturgess' performance; I kept expecting her and Jennifer Raine to pop their bubble-gum and giggle as they chatted about the creepy castle, and was SURE that Sturgess, in her best wide-eyed Debbie Reynolds-like manner, would say "Ooh, I just hate these icky spider webs" (or words to that effect) as she prowled through the dungeon. But, alas...t'was not to be.
Seriously, though...the episode looks great, and Lupino and crew pulled out all the stops in the dungeon scene. The sets were all impressive, and the storm scenes in the accursed bedroom were effective. I especially liked the final sequence, as the ghostly apparition directed the entranced Olive to the cabinet, with the storm and wind raging about, but in TOTAL SILENCE (except for Goldsmith's music); a very effective, dream-like moment.
Yes, the score was almost entirely a "God Grante.." retread, with those ominous, wailing french horns. Incidentally, as brilliant and ingenious as Goldsmith's scores are, he still owes a LOT to Bernard Hermann; those "wailing" horns, which Jerry first used for Thriller in "Hayfork..", as effective and chilling as they are, were essentially a borrowing from Herrmann's commerical-break-bumper cue from TZ's first season. Of the two composers, I think Goldsmith's music was more technically advanced, more varied, and more "legit" (for lack of a better term)--but no one could match Herrmann's sheer sense of EFFECT and what sort of sound "played" well to the ear, eye, and mind while experiencing his films.
FIVE-out-of-10 Beach-Blanket-Bingo-Bye-Bye-Birdie-BORIS HEADS for this tale of the squeaky clean, air-headed Olive Sturgess' big adventure in the spooky old castle.
(PS-- Why couldn't David Frankham have changed into a skeleton again and scared the
jeeper-creepers out of Olive? Now THAT, my friends, would have been a "Thriller"!)
LR
With Maggie Pierce and Suzan Farmer, Olive Sturgess IS one of the more Gidget-y leading ladies of Gothic horror. Olive was also the female lead in the AIP THE RAVEN with Karloff, Price and Lorre.
ReplyDelete"Female lead" if you don't count the late, great Hazel Court...which I most assuredly do.
ReplyDeleteLarry-
ReplyDeleteI was going to point out the goofy look on Jennifer Raine's face throughout the episode and, believe it or not, how much like Debbie Reynolds Olive Sturgess looked (albeit a somewhat short and dumpy Reynolds :>), but I really believe that if John and I mentioned everything, what would you guys talk about?
God Grante That This is Virtually a Retread of "God Grante ..."
ReplyDelete... nice spooky ambience, ghosts, and a lot of stiff upper lips, which at its maxim is still miles better than another teacup-murder-misadventure on that blasted backlot suburbia. Now imagine a weekly "Ghost Tales" series where every episode is more or less inside this corset ...
... which brings up an interesting sidelight: that THRILLER, far from being bifurcated between crime and horror, is actually a wild potpourri of period ghost stories, police procedurals, faux-Hitchcocks, straight suspensers, and yes, outright horror tales. Literally, it is akin to a book anthology, which might contain any or all under the umbrella of "thriller." (It would be instructive to break down the shows and see how many fit in each category.)
David--
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting a positive spin on all of this, which makes it a bit easier to take.
Here we are, TEN episodes into Season 2, and only ONE of them (Bloch's "Weird Tailor") is really worthy to stand alongside the great string of hits from the last months of Season 1. You would have thought that, having found their groove and a formula that really worked, the THRILLER folks would have stayed with it more consistently. If, as Warren's book suggests, the Horror shows got the best ratings, why in the world would Bill Frye adopt the "umbrella" approach which you (correctly, I think) describe? Why would he not have instinctively gone with more "Weird Tales" scripts, instead of this alternating comedy, Who-Done-It, Victorian horror "Lite", etc approach?
And so we sit, 5o years later, lamenting his decision. And to make it worse, when we DO get to the real horror shows in Season 2, many of them do not measure up to the great 1st Season stuff; the magic seems to have faded.
Larry
I read the original story of this, and it was even more dull, confusing and silly! Painful to plod through. Why they picked this for Thriller when there were so many other good stories in Weird Tales magazine is beyond me!
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Thriller gives us a good prologue that promises much, but delivers a rather mundane episode.
DeleteThe sets on The Closed Cabinet are made up in an extravagant manner for a 60 TV series. The Thriller folks certainly captured the historical mood. Now only if they would have given us a story worthy of the sets.
The Closed Cabinet wasn't bad at all. I found it more enjoyable and much less dull than the similarly cursed God Grant That She Lye Stille. The players were servicable and Olive Sturgess successfully filled out her role a Thriller babe. Olive also did a nice job of conveying the dream like horror lite atmosphere on the grounds of the cursed Mervyn estate. Incidently, it was fun seeing the entrance of Graves house from The Grim Reaper making a reappearance. I kept waiting for Shat to pull up in his wheels.
As with many a Thriller, the Closed Case limped home with cheesy olde tyme curse dialog and I can't believe that in 300 years no one thought to turn the knight to open the drawer.
I'll give two and a half Karloffs (half for the sets) for The Closed Case.
Utterly with Hynek on this one - why the hell DID noone give that cabinet drawer a wiggle in 3 centuries? "They were too afraid" we are told. Maybe they should have died out...
ReplyDeleteStill it is Lupino doing great stuff and gothic and not another lame crime show so a reluctant two Karloffs.
My biggest question with this episode was also...why did Lady Alice curse her own family? Why not Lady B's family?
ReplyDeleteAnd these are the hardest captchas I have ever seen. I am just guessing at the test ones.
The outside of the house reminded me most of the village sets from "Guillotine," which I liked much better than most of you. Did no one notice there were few windows at the lower level, making it seem like a medieval fortress, which was just right for this episode.
ReplyDeleteSo this was just a silly ghost-possession story with a happy, anti-climactic conclusion. I guess the THRILLER producers wanted to be all things to as many people as possible, hence an episode that looked almost as good as a Hammer period thriller, but with gauzy historical romance intentions. Since I am watching these episodes as they unfold on Me-TV, has anything been said about the budgets of the episodes? When a couple in a row came in cheaply, did they splurge on the third? Because that's what seems to have happened here. Did they just decide to give the expensive ones to Lupino because they know she was a skilled director who would bring a sense of detail to her shows? She seems to me by far the best director of the series.
I enjoyed this despite the let-down at the end. Surprised that tres bland Olive Sturgess is considered "hot" babe material here You straight guys are an easy audience. David Frankham was the best this episode could do for gay male fans, and this series as a whole is lacking male pulchritude, the only exceptions being The Larrys: Blyden's gams in "Choose a Victim" and Pennell in toto in the excellent "Late Date."
I'm a friend of David Frankham, who appeared in this episode, and have some stories I can share: He LOVED working under Ida Lupino, who was very protective of her actors. He says they would have all jumped off the roof if she asked them to.
ReplyDeleteThere were indeed script problems, and Ms. Lupino and the actors had to spend a lot of time re-writing the script on the set to make it work. That set back the production, and when the "suits" from the Black Tower at Universal came down to see what the problem was, she angrily told them, "This script should never have gone into production!" When the suits tried to approach the actors, Ms. Lupino stood in front of them with her arms spread and said, "You stay away from my actors!"
David was good friends with the great Doris Lloyd, who played the mother at the beginning, and felt bad for her that she was starting to have trouble remembering her lines. He remembers loving Ms. Lupino for being very gentle and supportive with Ms. Lloyd in getting that scene out of her, sometimes one line at a time.
In the episode Olive Sturgess' character talks about meeting an old woman on the train. In reality David filmed that scene! In another sign of Ida Lupino's kindness, she asked David to do a short scene in a train car set with the actress Isobel Elsom. She explained that the scene wouldn't appear in the episode, but if they filmed it the day's work would give Ms. Elsom enough work hours (or something like that -- I'm not sure of the details) to qualify for a medical treatment she needed through the Screen Actor's Guild health plan!
David liked Jennifer Raine and Peter Forster, who were actually married at the time, saying they were both very nice, friendly people.
David was excited that some of his THRILLERS were filmed on the "Phantom of the Opera" stage at Universal, and he could see the "opera house" boxes and things covered up. I think this may have been one of those episodes.
Those are fantastic stories about Ida Lupino (and about David Frankham, whom I'm sure is a great guy, but whom I had never heard of before I started watching this show and reading this blog around Labor Day)!! Thanks for posting these stories. By the way, I thought Mr. Frankham's performance in his first scene in "The Prisoner in the Mirror" was terrific; I was wondering while I watched it if Mr. Frankham, who didn't have much to do in this episode or in "The Poisoner", was trying to play the scene in the way he thought Henry Daniell would play it if Mr. Daniell could have actually stolen his body. If so, he did a nice job. If not, he showed that he had a lot more range than the show gave him in his male ingenue roles.
DeleteSince I've started writing, and since this comment prompted me to weigh in on a four year-old blog for the first time since "Fingers of Fear", I would like to add that I was really disappointed in the way that the two guys who wrote this blog -- contemporaries of mine -- spoke about the lovely Ann Todd in their blog about "Letter to a Lover". When "The Closed Cabinet" came out in 1961, Olive Sturgess was a very beautiful, very young woman (and I was a one year-old who didn't watch television). It makes perfect sense that the callow Mr. Frankham is torn up about not being able to propose to her, and I thought he did a very good job of conveying frustrated physical desire. As a father of children in their twenties, I could appreciate the (somewhat dim) protagonists' plight. But "Letter to a Lover" is an episode about childless people in their fifties. "Letter to a Lover" came out in 1961, Ann Todd -- a women who was as beautiful in her youth as anyone could possibly want to be -- was an extremely attractive fifty-something year-old actress. Murray Matheson was way too old for Sarah Marshall (who was, in my opinion, as beautiful as Ms. Sturgess at the time they made these things, but was also very, very young), but I felt a little bit of empathy for Mr. Matheson in "Letter to a Lover" as a result of his crazy longing for Ms. Todd.
In fairness, I admit that I love "Scream of Fear". When I try to come up with a Mount Rushmore of horror films from the era, I always have trouble adding anything to 1960's "Psycho", "Peeping Tom", and "Black Sunday". "Scream of Fear" is the 1961 movie that I feel most comfortable adding to the group as the Teddy Roosevelt, so maybe I'm just the last fellow standing from the Ann Todd fan club.
I've been reading this blog off & on since I discovered Thriller on Me-TV, but this is my first time posting here, as I'm watching this episode, which I recorded last week, now. Jennifer Raine & Peter Forster are also the parents of Brian Forster, Chris Partridge #2, though they divorced when he was fairly young. In the opening I thought Boris K pronounced the last name like "Foster" and was wondering if it's an alternate British pronunciation of the name "Forster". I've always heard it pronounced "Forster" when Brian's been on various PF reunions though. This does resemble "God Grante That She Lye Stille" to me too.
DeleteJust watched this last night. Yep, was waiting throughout for it to click, but it just sort of petered out at the end. I am glad that this was an actual supernatural ghost story and not a "Let's-Scare-Olive-To-Death" story, and yet the ghost part doesn't make sense. Just WHY are the men so afraid, if the ghost only showed herself to Olive? If nobody ever stays in the room, then what's scary about the rest of the mansion? The husband and wife pretty much disappear half way through and contribute nothing to the climax.
ReplyDeleteI noticed a little gaffe in the beginning: when Karloff is making his speech in front of the candelabra and billowing curtains, for a moment the curtain gets caught on the candle and looks about ready to burn before some unseen hand yanks it away. However, Karloff just kept on going.
Based (in name only) on one of the most interminable Victorian stories ever printed.
ReplyDeletePeople on this site are awfully kind to Ida Lupino, who directed nine Thrillers (I think) and whose episodes are smooth and elegant, with decent performances.
ReplyDeleteThey are that--and they are BORING. "Thriller" is supposed to be a show with suspense, and horror, and chills. Lupino had no clue when it came to those things. If she had directed PSYCHO, she would have shown Janet Leigh getting into the shower, then she would have cut to Anthony Perkins carefully dressing up as mother, and then she would have followed him down the hallway for thirty seconds. By the time he got to the shower, we would have been bored.
This should have been a classic episode, and a scary one. It could have been like THE HAUNTING, or at least THE UNINVITED. But instead, we get a heroine who has no fear, who doesn't care when she sees a ghost, who treats a mysteriously and suddenly available dungeon as a walk into a grocery store. She's cute, but she doesn't have a brain in her head. Then, we get a ghost who is so far away when she shows up, and so unthreatening, that she might as well be the cleaning lady.
It's not the script that's to blame, though the script could have been better. It's Ida. She's never been considered a great director. And in particular, she's not a good director of this kind of material, though apparently she enjoyed doing it.
"The Closed Cabinet" is certainly beautiful to look at. That was more than enough to keep me watching. The cameraman was Benjamin H. Kline, who shot twenty-nine "Thrillers." Fifteen years before, he shot the B-noir classic DETOUR (1945) for Edgar G. Ulmer. His work on Thriller looks much better than his work for Ulmer.
The writing and directing on "Thriller" was uneven, but the music and the cinematography were first-rate all the way through. The acting was generally good too. It's just too bad that great camerawork, good music, and good acting were wasted in episodes like "The Closed Cabinet."