A Thriller a Day...

Your Quick Reference Guide to A Thriller A Day

2010-11-16T21:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome to A Thriller A Day! While we've finished our 67-day marathon viewing and reviewing an episode of Thriller a day, we hope you'll come along for the ride after the fact and post your comments on the episodes as you make your way through the series. While you can access all of the entries in the Blog Archive in the sidebar, we thought it would be helpful to provide this index with links to each of the episode reviews, season and series wrap-ups, all of the interviews we conducted, and the image galleries posted.

Some key members of the A Thriller A Day Team met up in Hollywood in March, 2011 (L-R): Peter Enfantino, Steve Mitchell, Gary Gerani, John Scoleri, David J. Schow

A Thriller A Day Introduction

Season 1 Wrap Up
Season 2 Wrap Up
The Pro's Top Ten Lists
A Thriller A Day Awards

Season 1 Episode Reviews

Season 2 Episode Reviews

Interviews

Larry Blamire, Commentator
Alan Brennert, Commentator
Ernest Dickerson, Commentator
Stefan Dziemanowicz, Weird Tales Expert
Peter Enfantino, A Thriller A Day Co-Host
Gary Gerani , DVD Special Features Producer
Tim Lucas, Commentator
Steve Mitchell, DVD Special Features Producer
Larry Rapchak, Thriller Enthusiast
David J. Schow, Commentator
John Scoleri, A Thriller A Day Co-Host
Tom Weaver, Special Ops
Lucy Chase Williams, Commentator

Image Galleries

And please be sure to bookmark our next blog, We Are Controlling Transmission, in which we turn our attention to The Outer Limits.

A Thriller A Day Awards

2010-11-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

Peter and John's Picks

Thriller's Best Actress

Jeanette Nolan - "La Strega" (Peter & John)

Thriller's Best Actor

Harry Townes- "Dark Legacy" (Peter)

Guy Rolfe- "Terror in Teakwood" (John)

Thriller's Best Director
Ida Lupino (Peter)
Herschel Daugherty (John)

Thriller's Best Writer
Donald S. Sanford (Peter & John)

Thriller's Best Score
Jerry Goldsmith- "Well of Doom" (Peter)
Jerry Goldsmith, "God Grante That She Lye Stille" (John)

Best Thriller Audio Commentary
Larry Blamire, Gary Gerani & David J. Schow "The Hollow Watcher" (Peter)
Gary Gerani and David J. Schow "Well of Doom" (John)

Best A Thriller A Day Review
"The Fatal Impulse" (Peter) what else could it be?
"The Grim Reaper" (John) the one day we were all in harmony

Favorite Thriller Babe

Elizabeth Montgomery (Peter)

Olive Sturgess (John)

Favorite Thriller Stud
Larry Rapchak (and his fabulous videos) (Peter)
John Williams (John) For his soothing voice under the melody of Stranger in Paradise.

Favorite A Thriller A Day Fan Reviewers (that's you guys!)
Larry Rapchak (Peter & John) with special thanks to everyone who took the time to post.

The most popular Thriller reviews (based on web traffic):

Pigeons From Hell
The Grim Reaper
Dark Legacy
The Hollow Watcher
The Purple Room
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper
The Watcher
The Incredible Doctor Markesan
Parasite Mansion
The Weird Tailor

Your votes for the best of Thriller:

Top Ten Thrillers

Incredible Doctor Markesan
The Grim Reaper
Pigeons From Hell
The Cheaters
The Hungry Glass
Terror in Teakwood
La Strega
The Weird Tailor
Well of Doom
The Devil's Ticket

Favorite Thriller Actress
Jeanette Nolan ("La Strega"

Favorite Thriller Actor
Boris Karloff ("The Incrdible Doctor Markesan")

Favorite Thriller Director
Herschel Daugherty ("The Grim Reaper")

Favorite Thriller Writer
Robert Bloch

Favorite Thriller Score
Jerry Goldsmith ("The Grim Reaper")

Favorite Thriller Commentary
Gary Gerani ("Pigeons From Hell")

Favorite A Thriller A Day Review
Pigeons From Hell (The Review you loved to hate!)

Favorite Thriller Interview
Stefan Dziemianowicz

Favorite Thriller Babe
Ursula Andress ("La Strega")

Favorite Thriller Stud
Alejandro Rey ("La Strega" and "Guillotine")

Favorite Thriller Pro Reviewer
David J. Schow

Favorite Thriller Fan Reviewer
Larry Rapchak

Most requested next blog:
The Outer Limits

Honorable Mentions: One Step Beyond, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery.

As we've already mentioned, you'll be able to follow us as we delve into The Outer Limits beginning on 1/1/11. What a great way to start the new year. Bookmark the new blog URL, as We Are Controlling Transmission.

Thriller Visions: Publicity and Promotional Materials

2010-11-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

While Thriller was not the first show to bring Boris Karloff to the small screen, it was responsible for bringing him to the comic spinner racks in the early 60s. What launched as Boris Karloff's Thriller in 1962 was renamed Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery after two issues. The comic ran through 1980 (you can check out almost all of the beautiful Gold Key covers here, and several of George Wilson's original cover paintings over at Monster Brains).

What follows is a selection of Thriller publicity stills.

Robert Arthur

"The Big Blackout"

"Child's Play"

"The Devil's Ticket"

"A Good Imagination"

"The Guilty Men"

"Man in a Cage"

"Man in the Middle"

"Mark of the Hand"

"The Incredible Dr. Markesan"

"The Merriweather File"

"The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell"

"Papa Benjamin"

"Parasite Mansion"

"The Poisoner"

"Trio For Terror"

"The Twisted Image"

Sorry you missed our Live Chat!

2010-11-13T12:34:00.000-08:00

UPDATE:

For those of you who missed it, check back tomorrow for the results of our A Thriller A Day voting. And our apologies to anyone unable to get in once the chat room reached capacity!

Thriller Three-Way: Peter and John, Your Hosts

2010-11-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

Conducted by David J. Schow

Our royally-qualified and faithful TAD participants might not know from whence Pete and John cameth. They may not know that John used to be, once upon a time, a champion of late-80s/early 90s horror at an actual bookstore (he even did a genre newsletter), or that John and Pete make what amounts to a religious hegira to LA every year to troll dwindling brick-and-mortar emporia to seek-and-find pulpish treasures. They may only have seen hints of Pete’s deep expertise in the musty stacks of paperbacks—Pete READS like a demon. They may not know of the illustrious history of your magazine THE SCREAM FACTORY, even though its spinoff, bare•bones, is cited here. They may not know of the various small press endeavors in which you guys have managed no end of grunt work on behalf of the obscure. They may not know of all the hard work you poured into the Ralph McQuarrie mega-book (THE ART OF RALPH McQUARRIE), a gigantic tome dwarfed only by THRILLER correspondent Tim Lucas’ even more massive Mario Bava book.

DJS: So what I mean is... explain yourselves. Why you, to take up this mantle, and why now?

PE: Well, first of all, let me say I am one of the least qualified to take on a project like this. I can barely spell blog. I was in London and John was constantly sending me e-mails about how cheap Amazon was selling Thriller (though if I'd waited a couple months I'd'a saved a bundle more!). It finally got down to a reasonable sum and I bit the hook. Now, I've got hundreds of TV boxed sets in my office that have yet to be opened and I realized this would probably join them. It suddenly came to me (like Richard Carlson with a nylon in his hands) that this could be a chance to do something unique. So I proposed the idea of watching a Thriller a day to Scooter and he set aside his Star Wars toys long enough to listen.

JS: I've maintained a number of blogs through the years, some for the simple purpose of sharing a particular adventure with friends and family. This past summer, I had one to document a trip to a Star Wars convention in Florida where we were presenting a gallery of original Ralph McQuarrie art. Peter was following that from his remote headquarters in London, and that obviously sparked the idea. What's funny is that he suggested doing this in an email on August 31st, and in my darn near immediate response, I sent him the URL with the site already up and running. As you can see by the date of our first post, this all came together very quickly.

DJS: Were you long-distance, third-hand Thriller fans energized by the DVD release?

PE: I'd bought the six vhs tapes and later the laserdiscs and liked a bit of what I saw but I'd heard so much about this show, I thought there must be something better, something maybe a bit frightening? Then Sci-Fi started running them and I taped a good portion of them on vhs but never got around to watching most of them (do you see a pattern emerging?). When the box set was announced, the price was too freakin' high. It took a major price slashing before I considered it.

JS: I knew of the show via Danse Macabre, but had never seen an episode until I blind-bought the LaserDisc set, which was relatively cheap compared to the Japanese imports I used to buy. I thought it was a great selection of episodes, and I was always disappointed they didn't offer more (not knowing they were any better or worse than the rest). In later years, my folks got Direct TV and I had my dad record them off of the Sci-Fi channel, six to a VHS tape. I think I also got a late generation copy of "Pigeons From Hell" from Peter (which I only recall watching the first ten minutes of). While I never did get around to watching the few dozen episodes on VHS, when I was able to pick up the entire series on DVD-R, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, I've got thousands of titles in my DVD library, and I hadn't gotten around to watching Thriller before we heard—from you of all people—a complete series DVD release was in the works, with plenty of commentaries in the works.

DJS: Did Thriller tie into your various loves for writers or genres? Or did you come to it fairly fresh (I can’t bring myself to say “naked,” but you know what I mean).

PE: Oh yeah, I've had a major jones for Robert Bloch's stuff since grade school. The fact that he wrote several episodes had a lot to do with my willingness to sit in front of a TV screen for 67 hours (and a computer screen for an additional 67 at least). And I've loved horror since watching The Revenge of the Creature with my dad late one Saturday night in '66. Scared the crap out of me. I bought my first issue of Famous Monsters soon after.

JS: I've been a horror fan as long as I can remember. While I'm about ten years younger than the average Monster Kid, I grew up with a brother four years older, which benefited me in a number of ways. I was able to get introduced to and ride the coat-tails of Creature Features through him. He had several of the original Aurora models (I caught the tail end of the craze with my Monsters of the Movies Creature from the Black Lagoon kit). And as I mentioned in one of our prefatory posts, I also caught the Famous Monsters bug before the mag died its first death. So I knew Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney (Sr. & Jr.) despite the fact that none of my friends in school did. With all those prerequisites in place, I'd say I was destined to be a Thriller fan.

DJS: Further, having done the spadework and maintained the blog at a miraculous remove from the usual chat-board idiocy, you have accomplished an all-too-rare kind of salon for the Thriller faithful, one where those who comment often provide sparkling asides and intriguing extra info (rather than taking snarky potshots at each other or punning themselves into boring oblivion). What is your greatest pleasure at having founded TAD?

PE: Well, you just said it for me. I never imagined, when we took up what I thought at times might just evolve into a circle jerk between me and John, that this blog would transform itself into a community. I really do picture all of us joining together for a beer (or soda) and talking stock market, Afghanistan, the economy, and maybe Ursula and Boris. You hit a bullseye when you mentioned the snarkyness. Not once did we have to caution anyone or delete any messages. Amazing since so many of us had differing views (on one episode in particular) and these things can get heated. It's only a TV show at the end of the day but a lot of people have memories tied up in this thing and no one wants to be told that their nostalgia is misspent. I trust that Walker Martin, Ultimate Tactical Warrior, Larry Rapchak, and all our other new friends, will keep in touch as we go forward. These guys are what made this blog worth coming to, not me and John.

JS: I agree with all of what Peter says, but for me, that was all icing on the cake. I've known Pete for half of my life, and it's surprising for me to think about it, but he's been living in Arizona for the larger part of that timeframe. We do manage to get together to hang out at least once a year, but this has given us an excuse to be in regular contact—quite often several times a day and God knows at all hours—every single day for the past few months. My wife can attest to the number of times I'd be working on an entry and laughing out loud at what Peter had written, and doing my best to entertain him as well. It was like the early days of The Scream Factory, when it was all about the energy and excitement of doing something that people were responding favorably to. I hope some of that came across in our reviews. I went into this prepared for it to be something that Pete and I did on a lark, and that maybe a few of our close friends and family would find amusing.

DJS: Conversely, what’s the biggest downside?

PE: Well, it's a bit pissy but I would have liked more participation in the comments section from that large percentage of visitors who never commented. I know how many people visited a day. It astounds me we had those numbers. I'd've liked some of those people to put down their thoughts. But I guess the quality of the comments section more than makes up for the quantity.

JS: The downside for me was constantly fighting the clock to get the episodes watched on time. We started off with a bit of a buffer, but the blog really did live up to its namesake. I don't care to recall how many episodes I watched after midnight, or at 5am, in order to get a review up for the day. Or the one morning that our entire post just disappeared moments before posting. I know my schedule drove Peter crazy, but he's too nice to say it (or more likely he just forgot).

DJS: Most frequently, either PE or JS notes that an episode “drags” … that pacing might be somnambulant … that it … just … “zzzzz.” Given the pre-knowledge that many of the more conventional crime shows were deadly (by reputation if not by actual experience, before viewing them for the first time), what did you expect?

PE: But, remember, I didn't know the crime shows were deadly dull until Tom Weaver shouted out a warning. Either Sci-Fi downplayed those episodes or I never got around to watching them. And a couple of the crime shows, to be fair, were pretty good. I believe I had one of them on my Top Ten for the first season and a couple from the second season made it on.

JS: I honestly wasn't too concerned about it. I knew they weren't all horror, and realized they weren't all going to be classics. There's something about 60s television that is just fun to watch. I think the excitement about launching into the blog, and the fact that a couple key folks jumped on board early on, really helped. But I will admit the road to the first 3-Karloffer ("The Guilty Men") was a long one!

DJS: Were some aspects of Thriller not what you idealized or remembered them to be, or were you recalling the show’s “classic” status as something it never was — or was intended to be, given the limitations of 1960s TV?

PE: My memory had them being quite a bit better than reality. "Pigeons from Hell" and"Masquerade" in particular just didn't hold up. Having said that, I can appreciate the atmosphere of the show more now than on the first viewing.

JS: For me, having only seen the original half dozen, I had been longing to sit down and watch them, and just hadn't made the time. Which honestly, was the real reason for doing the blog in the first place. I do think that coming in with an open mind served me well, despite that resulting in a mob of angry villagers coming after us once or twice when our review was counter to popular opinion.

DJS: Nostalgia for 1960s-era TV usually falls into the abyss of “here are some actors from other shows I liked.” That is, it’s generally not very scholarly, and more pop-cultural. Apart from seeing familiar faces, what other aspects of Thriller came to light for you by sitting and watching each and every episode?

PE: Well, it is what it is. I'm more pop-culturally oriented than scholarly. All you have to do is read my stuff to know that. I didn't fall into that "this is a classic because of the camera angles and the lighting and the deep hidden meanings of the animal door knockers" crap. At the end of the episode, was I entertained by a good story? Did it hold up? Did it make sense? How was the acting? Then, after that checklist, I could allow for the atmosphere and shadows. Gotta tell you, directors and art designers may think they're being clever but sometimes I just see shadows on the wall that shouldn't be there. Take, for instance, the opening scene of "Man of Mystery" when the writer is calling the publisher from the phone in the hallway. My mind is thinking "What the hell could make such shadows? A wrought iron gate? A stained glass window?" It's just distracting at times. I can understand why some people dig that stuff all the time but not me. So, to make my answer even longer, I did fall into that "Check out Elizabeth Montgomery. What a babe. Who knew she'd be the most popular woman on TV just a few years later?" trap now and then. One of the negative aspects of Thriller that came through was that there was a paucity, if not total absence, of monsters in this show. I don't count the cutesy-pie vampires of "Masquerade" or the old hag from "Pigeons." How about a werewolf or a tentacled demon (even if in the shadows) now and then rather than the same old white plantation estate on the edge of the same old bayou with the same old weary travelers terrorized by the same old...(fill in the blank). I know that special effects and make-up were limited back then but how about bringing in Dick Smith for a few killer episodes?

JS: I think I was most surprised by how often the show bounced around tonally and thematically. A number of episodes—and I'm not just talking about the bad ones—I could never have picked out of a lineup as a Thriller had I seen them out of context. But oddly enough, some of the ones called out as decidedly non-Thriller ("The Guilty Men," the Edward Andrews black comedies) were episodes that I enjoyed, so it didn't bother me. I think if I had sat down with the specific goal of writing about a horror series, I would have been disappointed how often horror wasn't on the menu. But I was open to accepting each and every episode as a Thriller, and rate it based on whether I enjoyed it, and not whether it lived up to some pre-conceived notion of what the show was supposed to be.

The only other thing that surprised me in retrospect was the overall quality of the transfers. I did try to clarify early on that our focus was reviewing the show itself, and not so much the specific DVD presentation, so we didn't belabor the point. The deltas between some of the nicer transfers and some of the lesser transfers was quite significant, and unfortunately, as one of our regulars pointed out, sometimes the worst transfers were on the most popular episodes. I don't know if that's a problem that could be easily (or feasibly) fixed (through use of different source material or through restoration), but I would see that as the greatest hindrance to a Blu Ray release. I'll assume the best available materials were used, and remain thankful that a) the entire series survived in any condition, and b) that we're not in limbo waiting for the release of the remainder of the episodes (Night Gallery, anyone?).

DJS: What perceived value do you hold as a result of doing TAD? At its best, it is like a free-form, ever-evolving “companion” to others who commit to watching the episodes. To you, was it a lark, a mere diversion or entertainment, or do you see it taking a more lasting, archival form? This is important, since informational websites vanish every minute, taking their data with them.

PE: Well, this won't vanish. We're looking into a few things to keep it from doing so. As I said earlier, I think the values I'll take away from this experience is working with you, David, having you there behind John and I, gently nudging, hauling us back from the pit we may have jumped into; making new friends like the Larry brothers; and maybe, just maybe, creating something that gave people a reason to get excited, every morning, about putting on their computer. It began as a lark but grew into something more...surreal, at times.

JS: What I always hoped, and what we've actually seen over the past few weeks of the original run of postings, was that as new folks stumbled across it, they too could step through it as they work their way through the series. So while we're putting a period on A Thriller A Day for now, it will continue to live on as long as new folks find it and feed the discussion with their own thoughts and opinions. I honestly believe that, despite the novelty aspect of following us as each new review was released daily, the material herein doesn't have a shelf-life. It will remain valid as long as there are viewers discovering the show, and that's pretty cool—not only for Peter and I, but for everyone who lent their voice to the cause. And as new viewers add their comments, that gives all of us another opportunity to revisit and discuss the show.

DJS: A “big miss” on the Thriller boxed set is the complete absence of Alan Warren, the only person ever to do an entire book on Thriller. A perfect capper to TAD would be to hear from the man himself. Have you made any attempt to find or contact him?

PE: No, that's my mistake. When we decided to do this, we just jumped in feet first. If I had to do it all again, I'd contact Warren. I never read his book but a lot of people had complimentary things to say about it.

JS: I've got Warren's book, and at least at the time it was written, he lived not too far from me. While I made a point to not keep it handy early on in the process, so as not to color my perspective along the way, I have enjoyed reading his comments after we had posted our own. I do hope that in time we'll be able to correct that oversight and at a very minimum, get a Thriller Three-Way interview with Warren added to the site.

DJS: No doubt by now you are holding your bellies and slapping your thighs, rolling with mirth (between cocaine hits and shots of Jack) at my apparent seriousness, so …

PE: Are you wearing your black pajamas right now or nothing at all?

JS: Those are Creature from the Black Lagoon pj's, Peter.

DJS: Describe the conditions under which you review these episodes.

PE: Wow! Good question with a hundred different answers. We never started out with a guideline. Things just fell into place. Usually, since I have a lot more time on my hands because my job allows me to get home early in the afternoon, I'll watch the Thriller at about six pm. Afterwards I'd spend about an hour working from my notes to craft it into something readable (no cracks from the peanut gallery). Several times, I'd bounce ideas off my girlfriend on the phone and get a completely different angle on some aspect of the show and go back and do a re-write. I'm usually done with the "first draft" at 8. John then comes in and adds his comments, riffing off mine, and then lays down the graphics (I stay away from that end of the conveyor belt). The next morning at about 5, I then go in and do a "final riff" off what John added. The post usually would go up at 6am.

JS: While most episodes were watched on a 42" plasma screen, we did watch a few special episodes ("The Purple Room," "Pigeons From Hell," and "The Grim Reaper") in our home theater on the 104" screen. I had originally planned to watch some episodes during my commute on a portable DVD player, but didn't feel that would be a truly fair way to assess them. Although if I wanted the real Thriller experience, I probably should have found an old black and white console television to watch them on... Fortunately, my wife was on board for the lion's share of episodes. She somehow managed to miss the first really good episode ("The Cheaters") due to another commitment the day I screened that (she has since seen the opening and closing segments a few times, but never the middle!). I have to give her credit for becoming quite the Thriller aficionado as well, contributing some photos to the Lovely Ladies posts (Cloris Leachman can thank her for being included), as well as yesterday's Handsome Gents post.

I also think it's worth mentioning the one time Peter and I actually watched an episode in sync, simultaneously in California and Arizona, while recording our commentary track for "The Fatal Impulse" (so there's no excuse for your not having been involved in commentaries, Weaver!). That was an interesting experiment that probably wasn't worth all the effort, but we had fun doing it, and at least two people (aside from Peter and my wife) listened to it. Well, one was my sister... but our other listener had no vested interest and actually won a prize for doing so. And everyone else missed out!

DJS: Surely watching the episodes, annotating them, commenting, and whipping it all into website form takes time. Don’t you have a life?

PE: Define life.

JS: There were times in the past few months where that was called into question. As happy as I was that the Giants made it to the World Series, it became one more thing I had to fit in around my Thriller schedule.

DJS: Why does JS like Matheson so much?

PE: Childhood trauma? I'm not sure, but you haven't lived until you've seen the "Matheson shrine" in his living room. I once had a similar thing going for Stevie Nicks. A little more normal for a young boy, I think.

JS: You want the honest answer? I wouldn't be here if not for Richard Matheson. Let me spell it out for you:

Saw Night of the Living Dead at a very young age.
Heard it was inspired by I Am Legend when my brother brought the book home from the library.
Read I Am Legend as an 11 or 12 year old kid, in a single sitting.
Fell in love with reading for pleasure.
Got a job at a bookstore during my senior year in high school.
As a result, met my wife, Peter, and DJS (three different people, just so we're clear).
Voila! A Thriller A Day.

Any questions?

DJS: How did such as JS & PE ever become friends, since they grouse at each other like an old married couple?

PE: We met like most couples. In a book store. He's my oldest and dearest friend and, though we're 800 miles apart and don't see each other too often, we talk nearly every day (especially lately). Having said that...

JS: "...I shant work with him again." I think of it as community service, you know? Help an old fella across the street—that sort of thing. All kidding aside, the fact that we have similar interests and yet different tastes (thank God—or our trips through the used bookstores and video stores in LA would end up in fits of hair-pulling [to which he would have an unfair advantage] as we fought over the same treasures) allows us to always have a good time together, whether it's just hanging out or working on a project like ATAD. I'd go so far as to say we compliment each other. Here's where Peter steps in and says, "You complete me." Or perhaps more likely, "You had me at, 'Do you want this March 1954 Manhunt?'"

DJS: Do you really expect to win a Rondo for all this?

PE: I'm not expecting even to be nominated. The support from that group was nil, which surprised me. But should it have surprised me? I was one of the original members way back in the mid-90s when it was over at AOL but the site as it stands now isn't a lot of fun to visit. Some members piss and moan about dvd commentaries and their commentators (yep, I mean you), aspect ratios (aspect ratio for a flick about a giant moth?), cover variants for $13 monster magazines (yet another revival of a long-dead and smelly corpse), and other important issues of the day. One very well-known and respected (by me, for one) writer cruises the board, like a hall monitor, looking for slip-ups so that he can let the poster (especially newbies) know they've made a deadly blunder. Members snipe at each other over the most idiotic of things. Who was Lugosi's stunt double in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man? Was Alucard really The Son of Dracula? Discussion about these topics is one thing but when it degenerates into name-calling, all participants should be taken off the computer and sent to their room by the mother they still live with (if they're not sharing a room, that is). So, no Rondo, but I expect a Golden Karloff somewhere down the road.

JS: When we set out to do this blog, it was all about having fun. I know that Peter and I have succeeded at that. And based on the comments of our readers, I'd like to believe that others have had fun, too. I learned a long time ago not to choose projects in search of success or reward. Whether it's publishing a book on the art of Ralph McQuarrie, producing a Caroline Munro DVD, or editing a Night of the Living Dead tribute magazine, I always try to choose projects that I really want to do—that I have some passion for. If I'm enjoying it while I'm working on it, anything else that comes of it when it's done is an added bonus. Back to your question—would it be cool to be nominated for a Rondo? Sure it would. But the fact that people for whom we have great respect have already praised what we've managed to do with A Thriller A Day is pretty nice recognition in and of itself.

DJS: And when the final episode is buried alive, do you just … stop?

PE: Nope, thanks to the prodding of several of our new friends, John and I have decided to tackle another icon. John?

JS: Despite all the work involved, I think neither Peter or I were looking forward to this experience ending. We feel like we've gotten to know a lot of the folks reading every day, and wanted to be able to continue in a similar forum. While we had already resurrected our bare•bones blog, and have seen a lot of crossover traffic there, it's not quite the same as getting together with everyone on a regular basis to talk shop about one thing in particular. So after much deliberation, and after polling the peanut gallery to gauge their interest, all signs pointed in the same direction. We're making a few changes to the process based on what we've learned doing ATAD, for our sanity (and my marriage's sake), moving from daily reviews to 5 days a week (M-F). We also knew we needed to take a bit of a breather before launching right into the next program, both to recuperate a bit during the holidays, and also in order to get some content queued up.

So without further adieu, we're pleased to officially announce that beginning on 1/1/11, We Are Controlling Transmission, as Peter and I take on The Outer Limits. And we're thrilled to have DJS along for the ride as our official Outer Limits Companion.

DJS: What are the realities of preserving TAD for viewers yet-to-come? Is there a plan or does it vanish into the ether? Perspiring minds want to know …

JS: We expect the site to continue to be available for years to come (long life of Google permitting). As to whether there's an opportunity to preserve it in some other form... we'd love to be able to do that if there was a sufficient audience to warrant it.

Thriller Their Way: Our Celebrity Panel's Picks

2010-11-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

We contacted each of our interview subjects and invited them to send in their "Top Ten" Thriller lists. In addition to using those in our A Thriller A Day Awards balloting, we thought you might be interested in how they ranked the episodes. For your convenience, we've also added links back to their Thriller Three-Way interviews.

David J. Schow

The Incredible Doktor Markesan (Top 'O the Heap)
The Grim Reaper (Best overall Bloch)
Well of Doom (Personal favorite)
The Weird Tailor (Next best Bloch; creepiest "monster")
Late Date (Best nail-biter; a perfect expression of Woolrich)
The Terror in Teakwood (it resonates like a feature film)
The Hollow Watcher (an actual "monster movie" ending in madness and death)
La Strega
Prisoner in the Mirror
A Wig For Miss Devore (Perfect example of Thriller as EC Comics)

Gary Gerani

Pigeons from Hell
The Cheaters
The Incredible Doctor Markesan
The Grim Reaper
The Terror in Teakwood
The Weird Tailor
La Strega
The Hungry Glass
Well of Doom
The Return of Andrew Bentley

Tom Weaver

The Grim Reaper
The Incredible Doktor Markesan
A Wig for Miss Devore
The Devil's Ticket
The Hungry Glass
Well of Doom
The Cheaters
Pigeons from Hell
The Terror in Teakwood
The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk

Larry Rapchak

Pigeons from Hell (Yeah!!)
Weird Tailor
Devil's Ticket
The Grim Reaper
Waxworks
Terror in Teakwood
Prisoner in the Mirror
Well of Doom
Incredible Dr Markesan
Purple Room

Steve Mitchell

Late Date
Pigeons from Hell
The Grim Reaper
The Hungry Glass
Parasite Mansion
The Purple Room
La Strega
The Poisoner
Terror in Teakwood
The Cheaters

Larry Blamire

Pigeons From Hell (say it loud, say it proud)
Late Date
The Storm
The Incredible Dr. Markeson
The Hollow Watcher
The Hungry Glass
The Purple Room
Parasite Mansion
The Return of Andrew Bentley
The Grim Reaper

Lucy Chase Williams

The Grim Reaper
The Incredible Doktor Markesan
A Wig for Miss Devore
The Devil's Ticket
The Hungry Glass
Well of Doom
The Cheaters
Mr. George
The Terror in Teakwood
The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk

Thriller Season 2 Wrap-Up

2010-11-12T06:01:00.000-08:00

It's not over yet! Over the next two days, we still have a few more things to share. Be on the lookout for one last Thriller Three-Way interview that we'll be posting. And before we share the results of your Thriller favorites votes, we're going to host a little online soirée during which we'll announce those results live.

We hope you can join us this Saturday, 11/13, between 1pm-2pm PST (4pm-5pm EST) when we will be hosting a live, online chat to celebrate the completion of A Thriller A Day. We look forward to the chance to talk some more Thriller, as well as getting your feedback on our future plans. A link will be posted on the blog shortly before the start time.

Now to the matter at hand. Before we get to our Season 2 (and all-time) Thriller picks, we thought we should refresh everyone on our picks from Season 1.

Top Ten First Season Shows

Peter

The Grim Reaper
The Well of Doom
The Cheaters
Late Date
The Terror in Teakwood
Dark Legacy
The Devil's Ticket
Parasite Mansion
The Guilty Men
A Good Imagination

John

The Grim Reaper
Terror in Teakwood
The Cheaters
The Hungry Glass
Well of Doom
Devil's Ticket
Purple Room
Parasite Mansion
Dark Legacy
Late Date

Top Ten Second Season Shows

Peter

La Strega
The Incredible Doctor Markesan
Guillotine
The Storm
The Weird Tailor
The Lethal Ladies
The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk
The Last of the Sommervilles
Til Death Do Us Part
The Bride Who Died Twice

John

The Incredible Doctor Markesan
La Strega
The Weird Tailor
A Wig for Miss Devore
God Grante That She Lye Stille
Portrait Without A Face
The Closed Cabinet
A Third for Pinochle
Cousin Tundifer
The Return of Andrew Bentley

Best Actor: Boris Karloff in "The Incredible Doctor Markesan" (Peter and John)

Best Actress: Jeanette Nolan in "La Strega" (Peter and John)

Thriller Complete Series Top Ten

Peter

The Grim Reaper
La Strega
The Incredible Doctor Markesan
Well of Doom
The Cheaters
Guillotine
The Storm
Late Date
The Weird Tailor
Dark Legacy

John

The Grim Reaper
The Incredible Doctor Markesan
Terror in Teakwood
La Strega
The Weird Tailor
The Cheaters
The Hungry Glass
A Wig for Miss Devore
God Grante That She Lye Stille
Well of Doom

Bring on your comments! Let us know how your top ten differed from ours, both here and in our get-together tomorrow. Remember to watch the blog for the link to our live chat!

The Good-Looking Gents of Thriller

2010-11-11T14:02:00.000-08:00

As a companion piece to the Lovely Ladies of Thriller, John's wife Vonna felt it was only fair that the men have their day in the sun as well. So she put together the following selection of the Good-Looking Gents of Thriller.

Your Host, Boris Karloff

Henry Daniell starred in 5 episodes of Thriller including

"The Grim Reaper", "The Cheaters" and "Well of Doom"

David Frankham "The Prisoner in the Mirror" was just one of his 4 episodes

Kevin Hagen from "Flowers of Evil" and "Fingers of Fear"

Alexander Davion from "The Prediction"

Alan Napier (before the days of Batman) appeared in 3 episodes of Thriller -

"Dark Legacy", "The Purple Room", and "Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook"

George Grizzard as Merle Jenkins in "The Twisted Image"

and also from "The Twisted Image", Leslie Nielsen

Richard Chamberlain "The Watcher"

Ron Ely "Waxworks"

Larry Pennell "Late Date"

Alejandro Rey "Guillotine" & "La Strega"

William Shatner "The Hungry Glass" & "The Grim Reaper"

The Specialists: Season 2 Episode 30

2010-11-11T06:17:00.000-08:00

Originally aired 4/30/62
Starring Lin McCarthy, Suzanne Lloyd, Ronald Howard.
Written by John Kneubuhl, based on a novel by Gordon Ash (sic).
Directed by Ted Post.

Someone wants Ray Coleman dead before he can talk to the cops. A group are on their way to see him when the car of the driver sent to get them blows up. Ray Coleman is shot and a forged suicide note is left behind. This looks like a job for Peter Duncan (McCarthy) & The Specialists.

JS: This is the way Thriller ends... not with a bang but a whimper. Well, I guess to be fair, I have to acknowledge the BANG! in the pre-credits sequence (and quite a bang it is...it knocks our hero clear across Main Street. -PE). While there are elements that make the episode visually interesting, once again the unmemorable story leaves much to be desired.

PE: Well, John, I'd disagree. This show is not a bang, it's not a whimper, it's a loud snore. Obviously the studio brass noticed there was this little show over at ABC that was quite a hit and thought, "Hmmmm, let's see... The Professionals... no... The Laborers... no... The Deliverers... no... The Specialists... that's it!" Then they had a casting call for any respected character actor (read: cheap) who looked like Robert Stack. Never mind whether the guy could act or possessed charisma.

JS: Ladies and gentlemen, Suzanne Lloyd, bathing beauty. Unfortunately, our last example of a Thriller babe is as, as with the rest of the episode, forgettable.

PE: I thought the after-dip ballet session was quite erotic. Probably some form of 1962 aerobics. Though no Liz Montgomery (or even Olive Sturgess), Lloyd's ogling material. Which makes it all the more head-scratching that she's with Ron Howard. According to the IMDB, Ron was only 8 years old at the time.

JS: I couldn't figure out why we weren't always given a clear view of Mr. Swinburne (Robert Douglas). If we never got a look at him, that would have been one thing. But considering we see him plainly in one scene and then only as a mustache with no eyes in the next, you start to wonder what the point was.

PE: So with all the nonsense going on (or not going on) in this episode, that's what was bothering you the most? It's Ted Post's way of creating Hitchcockian atmosphere. I like how all the bad guys shop at the same tailor ("Uh, yes, I'm looking for something suitably Underworld").

JS: This episode features a bomb toss, a very unique brawl and tumble (halfway) down the stairs. But I have to say my favorite scene is when Swinburne meets with Gresham (Howard) to discuss a robbery while the cops attempt to eavesdrop unsuccessfully.

PE: No, that stairway scene was the show's highlight. It brings to mind the phrase "One step up and two steps back." A perfect analogy for Thriller, actually. The puzzler for me was the "here's how you assemble a Dalek bomb." Most bad guys just get the big black acme ball with the fuse or a big duct-taped mound of dynamite with an alarm clock attached. Our chief villain crafts some goofy looking thing that shoots bullets or blows up or something (I might not have been in the room for the explanation, apologies). And because this is an intricate explosive device, he chooses to work in a dark room under one small light (and where the hell are those exotic shadows coming from?).

JS: Ted Post (Magnum Force) does a fine job with the direction of "The Specialists," providing quite a few interesting and effective shots. There was also some impressive location footage that leads me to believe it was lifted from other sources.

PE: Oh yeah, I forgot about the impressive location footage of cars parked outside of buildings. Once each season, Ted Post directed a dog on Thriller. But in a long, storied career, a mere blip. This was the man, remember, who directed the second best Planet of the Apes flick, the second best Dirty Harry, and tons of great Rawhides and Combats.

JS: Gordon Ashe (not Ash as credited) was one of the many pseudonyms of British author John Creasey. "The Specialists" was based on one of his Patrick Dawish series novels, The Crime-Haters.

PE: Couldn't we toy with history a bit and watch an Alfred Hitchcock Hour (any one of them would be better than this) so that we can go out on a positive note, John? Seriously, you and I are the only ones watching these last few episodes, right?

JS: Possibly. And while yes, this is the 67th and final episode of Thriller, I wanted to let folks know that we've still got a few more posts coming over the next few days, including a surprise guest post this afternoon, our Season 2 wrap up tomorrow, the announcement of the A Thriller A Day Award Winners (based on your votes), and our final Thriller Three-Way. So it's not quite over yet!

OUR RATING:

The Lethal Ladies: Season 2 Episode 29

2010-11-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

Originally aired 4/16/62
Starring Howard Morris, Rosemary Murphy, Pamela Curran.
Written by Boris Sobelman, based on short stories by Joseph Payne Brennan.
Directed by Ida Lupino.

Two stories concerning the fragile and troubled relationships that men and women endure each and every day in Thrillerville. In the first, screw-up Myron Sills (Morris) thinks he's finally gotten rid of his wife, rock climber and naturalist Lavinia (Murphy), when he pushes her over a steep cliff into a deep pool. But in reality, she's harder than, well, a rock. In story #2, librarian Alice Quimby (Morris again) is passed over for a promotion in favor of Dr. Wilfred Bliss (Murphy). After enduring harassment from Bliss for far too long, Ms. Quimby gets her own little sweet revenge.

PE: I knew there would be trouble when I saw the same mountain view where the "Attractive Family" offed one of their victims. For gosh sake, isn't it time for rails on that cliff?

JS: The day they put safety rails in Thrillville, it's time to pull the plug on... Oh. I guess this is just about it. In that case, leave nature as you found it, I say.

PE: This is an interesting experiment in that director Lupino has the same lead actor and actress in two separate short dramas. We're always complaining that these damn things are padded. Here I think Lupino does a good job (for the most part) keeping our interest and adding an unexpected twist or two. As far as Howard Morris goes, it's a tale of two actors in one body. In "Murder on the Rocks," I found him to be annoying and hammy, way over the top, whereas in "Mr. Bliss," I found him to be restrained and intriguing. Sure, his character is an extreme, a nasty piece of work who revels in treating others like servants, but he keeps it on an even keel and doesn't resort to the sort of Shatner-esque emoting he displays in the first story.

JS: If the goal was just to show off the acting range of her two leads, then sure, Lupino succeeds. But I find it harder to get excited about the stories, which aren't on par with Thrillers best.

PE: Rosemary Murphy is top-notch in both her roles. A strong, almost manly (I hesitate to use that word that rhymes with "pike") woman in control of the situation who suddenly finds she may be mistaken about her loving husband and his dinner trips. When she makes her return trip from the pool (in a brilliant fade-out from Myron celebrating with a drink, believing he's murdered his wife to a close-up of the worm tied and bound, a ghoulish Lavinia hovering over him), she's more than a bit unhinged and genuinely terrifying. Miss Quimby is the other end of the scale, mousy and matronly, pushed to the limits but keeping her cool, even in the act of murder. If it wasn't for Jeanette Nolan's performance in "La Strega," Rosemary Murphy would have my vote for "Best Actress" of the second season.

JS: Again, Murphy's performance is impressive (though no "La Strega"), and yes, I was very thankful for the brevity of the first segment (nice that they cut the reel out where she come back, captures him, and tapes him up). But seriously, you're going to put this up with ""La Strega," "Markesan," and "The Weird Tailor"? And the second segment, while quite the jilted librarian's wish-fulfillment fantasy, was nothing to write home about. Did you notice that in pretty much every scene, Morris had to find something to keep himself occupied while going through his lines?

PE: I know John is upset that Lupino couldn't find a place for a skeleton in Lavinia's trophy room or Miss Quimby's library. It wouldn't have taken much, true.

JS: That's okay. It's not the first time Ida let me down.

PE: Lupino plops a big red cherry on top of a Thriller career. There's a fabulous scene in the library vault when Dr. Bliss is bouncing from wall to wall, realizing he's trapped. It's shot from above and perfectly illustrates the claustrophobia and terror the man feels. We feel.

JS: You want claustrophobia, I'll loan you The Descent. A high angle shot alone does not a best director make. Lupino has done far better than this.

PE: We've had many disagreements on this blog between you and I and the audience but I think we're all united in saying this is the worst Thriller epilogue in the series' history. It takes the Hitchcock "...but she didn't get away with it..." sigh that Hitch was saddled with to a new low in stupidity.

JS: No argument there. In past episodes, you would have docked an entire Karloff for such a mis-step. It would appear your review here is predicated on switching channels before Boris returns.

PE: "The Lethal Ladies" is based on the stories, "The Pool" and "Goodbye, Dr. Bliss" by Joseph Payne Brennan. It's a shame that the Thriller powers-that-be didn't discover Brennan's work earlier. Like Robert Bloch and August Derleth, Brennan's stories (a mixture of mystery and horror) would have made an easy transition to the small screen. Two paperback collections of Brennan's horror stories are readily available on the net: Nine Horrors and a Dream (Ballantine, 1958) and The Shapes of Midnight (Berkley, 1980), the latter with an introduction by Brennan fan Stephen King. I'd love to see someone collect Joseph Payne Brennan's scarce small press magazine, Macabre, which he edited and published for 23 issues from 1957 -1986.

OUR RATING:

The Innocent Bystanders: Season 2 Episode 28

2010-11-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

Originally aired 4/9/62
Starring John Anderson, George Kennedy, Janet Lake.
Written by Robert Hardy Andrews.
Directed by John English.

Jacob Grant (Anderson) and John Paterson (Kennedy) have a good thing going: they've just elevated their grave robbing business to incorporate murder. Things look even brighter when Jacob's sister-in-law (Gale Robbins) and her newlywed friends (Janet Lake and Steven Terrell) need a place to stay. As Jacob says: "Nothing gives a businessman more satisfaction than the knowledge he has ample merchandise set aside in stock."

JS: As our own Larry Rapchak will be quick to point out, once each season a crime episode of Thriller was 'based on a true story'? Well, this take on Burke and Hare is no "The Poisoner," that's for sure.

PE: Was Robert Hardy Andrews a lobbyist for the AMA? Seriously, any kind of suspense this show may have built up comes to a dead halt everytime Dr. Marcus Graham (Carl Benton Reid) delivers a speech.

JS: Apparently he talked his assistant to death. It's a sad day in Thrillerville when even a gratuitous skeleton shot like this can't bring life to a scene.

PE: I very much enjoyed the well-choreographed fight scene between Paterson and Bruce. Every time Bruce ducks the big man, he runs over to his wife, Elsie, as if to tag her hand so she can jump into the ring with them.

JS: And yet she never does. For me, that scene was second only to the body snatchers union revoking Grant's membership.

PE: About the only positive I take away from this episode is the acting of John Anderson. He's frequently creepy in a John Carradine/stately gentleman way.

JS: I agree. I still can't believe he was "California Charlie" in Psycho! Whenever Anderson was onscreen, I was at least interested in paying attention to what was going on. Something about that beard/hat combination worked wonders.

PE: On the flipside, who in wardrobe thought a Christmas stocking cap (complete with snowflake tail) would be the ideal headwear for a hunchbacked murderer? And where was the long sliver of drool?

JS: You'll have to wait for Blu Ray to spot that, but I'm sure it's there...

PE: It goes without saying that George Kennedy never listed this credit on his C.V. when trying out for The Dirty Dozen, Cool Hand Luke, or Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Had Mel Brooks not used Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein though...

JS: Is it just me, or did the young couple (Steve Terrell and Janet Lake) seem to have wandered into the wrong episode? They came across as a bit too sixties modern for this period piece. At least the presence of Lake affords us the opportunity to up the Babe quotient of this review.

PE: Frequently, I had the distinct impression Image had accidentally packaged onto disc 14 the rare, unaired episode of Marcus Welby, M. D. wherein Marcus (Robert Young) relates to Dr. Kiley (James Brolin) and Consuelo (Elena Verdugo), during a rare open air picnic of fried chicken and biscuits, the stories his grandfather told him as a bespectacled lad about his early days as a practicing doctor. In particular the moving speech at the climax when the good doctor, who's been accepting fresh corpses and keeping mum about them (thereby insuring more deliveries), is given a slap on the wrist and shown the door. As he's leaving, he faces the surviving innocent bystanders and says something along the lines of "Out of this evil comes some good (well, something like that. Clocking in at 12 minutes, it was very deep)." He then invites them all to live with him in his big lonely house and the four of them leave the courthouse arm in arm. Only thing missing is a Mort Stevens "shlop-boom."

JS: And then there were two. Any chances for redemption before we're through?

OUR RATING:

Man of Mystery: Season 2 Episode 27

2010-11-08T05:46:00.000-08:00

Originally aired 4/2/1962
Starring Mary Tyler Moore, Jon Van Dreelen, Walter Burke.
Written by Robert Bloch, from his story.
Directed by John Newland.

Everyone who's trying to spill the beans about tycoon Joel Stone (Van Dreelen), Man of Mystery, is turning up dead. Sherry (Mary Tyler Moore), a nightclub singer and object of Stone's affection, should realize something's up when he invites her to a dinner party full of dummies. Literally.

JS: You can't go wrong when you populate a dinner table with manikins. And who wouldn't want to date a gal who was cool with that? Talk about freaky! That one scene certainly gives this the feel of a horror episode.

PE: Yeah, it's a creepy scene but it makes no sense whatsoever. Why the hell would she stay? She's intrigued? She's with a goof who dines with dummies and wont go anywhere without the little guy who'd love to look up her skirt. This is bad Bloch. The whole thing leads to a very unsatisfying and ridiculous climax and I'll tell you why in a few minutes...

JS: This episode has its share of twists and turns, and I was pleasantly surprised how it all worked out. How many episodes of Thriller have we watched where we knew exactly where the episode was going after the first reel?

PE: You mean counting this one?! I knew the horse jockey was behind the whole thing from the get go. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. I know 'cuz I figured it out!

JS: Nice to see Stone has his own Thriller Babe scrapbook. I did have to wonder if all the gals in that were residing in the where-are-they-now file. The fact that Jill (Mercedes Shirley) was still around until she met with Sherry's other would-be paramour, Lou (William Windom), would seem to indicate misfortune only falls upon the squealers.

PE: SPOILER ALERT!! So, you're buying that Windom (who's uncharacteristically awful in this), who's so in love with Mary T.M., takes the cash and shoves her out the window so that he can be the next ventriloquist dummy for Stone? I ain't buying it. Even with all his dopey Jerry Lewis mannerisms, Lou seems like a good guy and is, at the least, genuinely in lust with Sherry. To continue with the Jerry Lewis comparison, Windom is a geeky, hyper schlub until he takes his new job and suddenly (ala Lewis in The Nutty Professor) he's Buddy Love, suave and debonair.

JS: Newland does a fine job with this, and does us the added favor of staying behind the camera this time out.

PE: I can picture Newland behind the camera with his quellazaire (look it up) and his Robertson Moffat bathrobe, sighing "Cut...yes, beautiful!"

JS: While we can argue whether Mary Tyler Moore looks like a million bucks, I think we can all agree she's an easy ten grand (and she can carry a tune! Let's see Jeanette Nolan sing a torch song -PE), as Boris points out in the opening. Walter Burke also makes for a great, creepy deaf-mute (or is he? -PE).

PE: Boris makes a rare Hitchcockian after-show appearance.

JS: Somehow I knew that was going to get under your skin.

THE COMMENTARY:

JS: Another winner from Blamire and Schow. There's plenty here to learn about regular Thriller scribe Bob Bloch, and where else can you find out which cast member went on to star in ReAnimator! (And it's the last commentary in the set—that can't be good news, can it? -PE)

OUR RATING:

The Lovely Ladies of Thriller: Part Five

2010-11-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the last in our continuing series of posts focusing on the lovely ladies of Thriller. We hope you enjoy this mega-post. For those who have been with us since our first installment, one of the photos was incorrectly identified as Audrey Dalton. We want to thank Tom Weaver for pointing out our error. Needless to say, the persons responsible have been appropriately chastised. We have also made it absolutely clear that no such inaccuracies will be tolerated in the future. Enjoy the gallery!

Albie Copage "Papa Benjamin"

Elizabeth Allen "The Hungry Glass" & "The Grim Reaper"

Jeanne Bal "Papa Benjamin"

Barbara Eiler "The Cheaters"

Beverly Garland "Knock Three-One-Two"

Whitney Blake "The Fatal Impulse"

Gloria Blondell "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper"

Iris Bristol "The Prediction," "Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook" & "Trio for Terror"

Terry Burnham "Mark of the Hand" & "The Fingers of Fear"

Jean Carroll "The Storm"

Jeannie Cooper "The Big Blackout"

Hazel Court "The Terror in Teakwood"

Pamela Curran "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," "The Prisoner in the Mirror" & "The Lethal Ladies"

The real Audrey Dalton "The Prediction," "Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook" & "The Hollow Watcher"

Danielle De Metz "Guillotine"

Fifi D'Orsay "The Grim Reaper"

Donna Douglas "The Hungry Glass"

Judith Evelyn "What Beckoning Ghost?"

Jody Fair "Late Date"

Virginia Gregg "Mr. George"

Martita Hunt "The Last of the Sommervilles"

Sondra Kerr "The Weird Tailor"

Sue Ane Langdon "Cousin Tundifer"

Cloris Leachman - "Girl With A Secret"

Doris Lloyd "Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook," "Dark Legacy" & "The Closed Cabinet" & "The Specialists"

Adele Mara "What Beckoning Ghost?"

Sarah Marshall "The Poisoner" & "God Grante That She Lye Stille"

Patricia Medina "The Devil's Ticket" & "The Premature Burial"

Diana Millay "Man in a Cage"

Mary Tyler Moore "The Fatal Impulse" & "Man of Mystery"

Ottola Nesmith "The Hungry Glass," "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" & "Pigeons From Hell"

Dorothy Neumann "Masquerade"

Jeanette Nolan "Parasite Mansion" & "La Strega"

Susan Oliver "Choose A Victim"

Luciana Paluzzi "Flowers of Evil"

Barbara Perry "A Third for Pinochle"

Erika Peters "The Prisoner in the Mirror"

Beverly Powers aka Miss Beverly Hills "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper"

Mala Powers "The Bride Who Died Twice"

Sue Randall - "Man in the Middle"

Marion Ross "The Prisoner in the Mirror"

Natalie Schaefer "The Grim Reaper"

Pippa Scott "Parasite Mansion"

Dianne Stanley "Planet of the Apes"

K.T. Stevens "The Merriweather File" & "Kill My Love"

Joan Tetzel "The Devil's Ticket" & "An Attractive Family"

Phyllis Thaxter "The Last of the Sommervilles"

Marlo Thomas "The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell"

Ann Todd "Letter To A Lover"

Nancy Valentine "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper"

Beverly Washburn "Parasite Mansion"

Linda Watkins "The Cheaters," "The Terror in Teakwood" & "A Wig For Miss Devore"

Ilka Windish "Dark Legacy"

And how could we close out the Lovely Ladies of Thriller without a few more shots of Ida Lupino?

We hope you've enjoyed these galleries!

Your Host, Boris Karloff

Kill My Love: Season 2 Episode 26

2010-11-07T07:34:00.000-08:00

Originally aired 3/26/62
Starring Richard Carlson, K. T. Stevens, David Kent.
Written by Donald S. Sanford, based on the novel by Kyle Hunt.
Directed by Herschel Daugherty.

Guy Guthrie (Carlson) is given an ultimatum by his mistress, Anthea (Kasey Rogers): own up to his wife or she will. Evidently, Guy is not a guy to be given ultimatums to as he very quickly dispatches the girl with her best nylon. When he arrives home to his cold wife, Olive (Stevens) and loving son, Julian (Kent), he tries very hard to keep everything under wraps but the best laid plans of mice and men...

PE: A better title for this episode would have been "Slap My Love Then Kill My Love."

JS: Much to my surprise, this one actually grew on me as it progressed. I thought Daugherty did a nice job keeping things visually interesting for the most part.

PE: Richard Carlson used to be a good actor as far as I can recall. You'd never know it from this swill. Carlson's idea of showing any kind of emotion is to swivel his eyes or grin. When he's given his choice by Anthea, he becomes so angry he wraps her nylon around his knuckles and then hesitates. You can almost see the slot machine rolling above his head... cherry.... cherry.... cherry.... then he looks down at his hands and the light bulb turns on. Which is ironic considering what happens later.

JS: Not only does the murder occur off screen, the shot lingers on the hall and there's no sound—no screams, no sounds of a struggle, nothing. I thought Thriller had gone soft on us.

PE: The murder weighs on Guy so much that he leaves all kinds of incriminating evidence in his car for his son to find. What, no nylon on the antenna?

JS: Is it the old man's fault his kid was a regular Sherlock Holmes? Clearly Carlson is just a bad cheater. Of course forgetting that he's got a photo with his mistress right in his wallet, can someone tell me what the hell he's doing in that picture?

PE: Guy fixes a bulb in the basement to spark off an opened water heater gas valve. The explosion is something horrendous. A screen full of smoke and falling bits of rubble. Cut to the next scene (after the funeral) and Guy and little Guy come into the kitchen where there seems to be no structural damage whatsoever, not even a big "Do Not Enter" sign across the basement door. How is there a basement door? I really thought at that moment, his wife Olive would open the basement door, a bit scorched much like Wiley Coyote would look after the Acme bomb, exclaiming "Wow, that was close! What can I get you boys for dinner?"

JS: That was a classic bit—although it would have been even better had they shown the mushroom cloud. Obviously the insurance company rebuilt the house between the accident and the funeral. Times were different in the 60s.

PE: What's the story with Dinah (Patricia Breslin)? For some reason she finds Carlson attractive and thinks of no good reason to hide that fact. When Olive has her "accident" and lands somewhere in the next town, Dinah feels so bad for Guy she sends him a card with the cryptic message "If I can help, call me." She then seems surprised that Guy is hitting on her while the wife is newly planted, but agrees to a date! Julian shows up to interrupt the party and dad slaps him around a bit. When Dinah suggests they take the boy to a doctor, Guy snaps and tells her to mind her own business. The skeazy piano player says "All right, I will. You're a terrible father" then leaves, obviously not that worried about the beaten boy.

JS: When he calls Dinah after the funeral, she says, "You sound low." Really? On the day he buried his wife? Of course, the funny thing is he didn't actually sound low to me. I thought the episode took a particularly dark twist when it comes to Guy's dealing with his son Julian. While killing wives and mistresses was Thriller's stock-in-trade, filicide hadn't previously entered the picture (now who's using the Google search? -PE). I'll be the first to admit that I've been against abrupt endings, but in this particular episode, I actually think we were better served by it. Rather than knowing for sure that Carlson will get his due when his boy wakes up, I'd much prefer to imagine from the look in his eyes that he now has to take care of Grandma and Grandpa in addition to ensuring Julian shuffles off this mortal coil.

PE: Richard Carlson starred in several science fiction and horror flicks in the mid-1950s: The Magnetic Monster, It Came From Outer Space, The Maze (all 1953), Riders to the Stars, and The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). He made two more genre films before his death in 1977 (Tormented (1960) and Ray Harryhausen's The Valley of Gwangi (1969)), but appeared more on the little screen than the big (he was the titular Colonel on Mackenzie's Raiders for a season in 1958-59). Kasey Rogers went on to success on Peyton Place and then as Larry Tate's wife, Louise on Bewitched.

JS: "Kill My Love" was based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Kyle Hunt. It was published as part of the "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" series.

OUR RATING:

The Bride Who Died Twice: Season 2 Episode 25

2010-11-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 3/19/62
Starring Mala Powers, Eduardo Ciannelli, Robert Colbert.
Written by Robert Hardy Andrews.
Directed by Ida Lupino.

The evil Colonel Sangriento (Joe De Santis) uses his army to exert force on his superior, General De La Verra (Ciannelli) in order to steal away the General's daughter, Consuelo (Powers). To achieve his ends, he has the General send Consuelo's fiance, Antonio (Colbert) off to battle. When Consuelo gets the news that her beloved has died in an ambush, she dies of a broken heart(?)

PE: An interesting choice for a title, wouldn't you say? Ranks right up there with the original titles of The Crying Game (She's Gotta Penis), The Sixth Sense (Dead — the ad campaign would be "Bruce Willis is... Dead"), and Planet of the Apes (Statue of Liberty on the Planet of the Apes).

JS: Sounds like a Cornell Woolrich story to me. As we've seen before, it's a long time getting to the payoff. There are interesting bits along the way, and had it been told in half the time I think it would have been twice as effective.

PE: I want to know who started the rumor that there was nothing but a wasteland post-"Markesan" 'cuz we haven't gotten there yet. I find myself in a strange situation defending these "lesser episodes" after being disappointed by several of the "established classics." Don't get me wrong, "The Bride Who Died Twice" probably wouldn't make many Top Ten Thriller lists (although it might, considering what a dog this season was) but it's got its share of moments. Well-acted by all the principals (De Santis is Snidely Whiplash evil and that's a compliment) and a good story that chugs along at a decent pace. Sure, it's a bit long but how many Thrillers were a perfect running time? Director Lupino does another good job of reining in all those noirish shadows and torture dungeons.

JS: While it does have torture, a funeral, murder and multiple deaths... it seems like there was a missing opportunity to play out a supernatural element. This is a Thriller, after all, and we've got folks thought to be dead walking around.

PE: SPOILER WARNING!! As has been apparent in the past, I'm a sucker for a downbeat ending and this one sports one reminiscent of "Prisoner in the Mirror." After being reunited with his bride, the Colonel has Antonio executed right before her eyes. As he's dying, Antonio passes a vial of poison to Consuelo, who expires in the arms of the befuddled Colonel. A nice touch is the tad of blood on the bride's dress as she rises from her dead lover.

JS: I agree the final moments are easily the show's best, but I think it's too little too late by the time the evil Sangriento gets his due. Performances were fine throughout, and Lupino works in some nice shots, but the overlong and somewhat pedestrian story makes this one just okay for me. Though Powers was a welcome return of the Babe element to Thriller.

PE: Genre fans will recognize Mala Powers from The Unkown Terror and The Colossus of New York. Colbert went on to star as Dr. Doug Phillips on the cult TV favorite Time Tunnel. Natividad Vacio, the Cantina owner who is tortured by the Colonel's thugs, was the leader of the Mexican village that rebelled against Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven.

JS: And just another friendly reminder - please don't forget to vote in our A Thriller A Day poll!

OUR RATING:

'Til Death Do Us Part: Season 2 Episode 24

2010-11-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 3/12/62
Starring Henry Jones, Reta Shaw, Edgar Buchanan.
Written by Robert Bloch, based on his short story.
Directed by Herschel Daugherty.

In 1884, undertaker Carl Somers (Jones) kills his wife and heads for the Old West where he's to meet up with a beautiful woman he's become engaged with through the mail. When he gets there and sets up shop, he discovers that Celia (played by Ernest Borgnine) is skilled at photoshopping. Having no choice and smelling the family fortune, Carl marries Celia, only to find out that she's been disowned by her brother (Philip Ober), leaving her penniless. After six months, Carl realizes he's in the same situation he was in with his first wife and decides to handle it the same way.

PE: Well, we'd heard that there was going to be a massive drop off the cliff of quality after "Markesan," but this is a big surprise. (There's something to be said for having low expectations. -JS) The initial premise had been milked to death (even by 1962) and the prologue certainly seems to be sending us on a fast train to Yawnsville. But something delightful happens once Carl hits the Old West: the ol' Bloch magic reappears. This is the kind of material that made Bloch famous in the first place, that skewed look at the funny side of death.

JS: I was pleasantly surprised it worked as well as it did with the old west trappings. Twangy music and all.

PE: Could this be a first? No Thriller babe to drool over. Unless you consider Celia (played by Lou Costello) the prime example of womanhood in this episode.

JS: Hey, enough abuse of Reta Shaw—she was just what this role called for. Besides, she was great (alongside Philip Ober) in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. I guess they couldn't afford Don Knotts for Carl the Undertaker...

PE: There are several snappy dialogue exchanges throughout the show and Bloch is having a great time sending up the Western cliches that were being shown nightly on network TV (when this show was aired, the top three TV series were Wagon Train, Bonanza and Gunsmoke—Westerns ruled the boob tube). A gunfight breaks out in front of the town saloon, a man comes staggering in the swinging doors, and falls to the floor, ostensibly shot dead. The marshall (Jim Davis) walks in and helps lift the man onto the bar, calling for the town doctor. The marshall is asked what happened.

Marshall: Caught this galoot just as he was fixin' to leave town.
Carl: Leave town? What's wrong with that?
Marshall (grimaces): He was ridin' my horse.

When the doc (Edgar Buchanan) shows up, he looks the patient over.

Doc: Just what I thought. I've got the wrong patient.
Marshall: Wrong patient—?
Doc (nods): You're the one I should be treating, Marshall. (chuckles) No bullet wounds in this man. Missed him every shot. You need glasses, Marshall.

Now I'll admit on paper (or on your computer screen) that's not the funniest dialogue you've ever read, but when performed with the comic timing of Jim Davis and Edgar Buchanan, it hits a bullseye.

JS: You can thank Edgar Buchanan for that. I enjoyed the way he crosses over into this episode. You can almost picture there being a separate episode about the Doc being on the run featuring an appearance by Carl the Undertaker. And I love that the prop guys were able to drag in one of the skeletons from the last episode to decorate the Doc's office.

PE: Edgar Buchanan became a TV icon the following year as the slightly daft Uncle Joe on Petticoat Junction (running 222 episodes over seven seasons and doing crossover duty on Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies as well). Jim Davis went on to star as Jock Ewing on Dallas.

JS: I liked the way the second murder was staged in a single shot. I don't think it worked quite as well as they had hoped, but I appreciated the effort.

PE: "'Til Death Do Us Part" first appeared in the January 1960 issue of Bestseller Mystery Magazine.

JS: Again, nice to be pleasantly surprised by an episode in the home stretch.

PE: Proof that there may be yet another lap to run around the Thriller track.

JS: Don't go getting your hopes up... And to our faithful readers - please don't forget to vote in our A Thriller A Day poll!

OUR RATING:

Thriller Your-Way: It's Time to Vote

2010-11-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

We wanted to give everyone a chance to get through the elections before asking you to vote once more, as we didn't want to get lost in the mudslinging between Republicans and Democrats. We already anticipate turmoil between the Crime fans (aka The Guilty Men) and the Horror fans (aka The Pigeons from Hell).

Now that we've gotten past what is all but universally agreed upon as Thriller's last class act, we thought it was a safe time to ask you all to vote for your top ten favorite Thrillers (and order is important). If you have a different list of the best, or most important Thrillers, tuck that away for a rainy day. We're looking for your favorites to compile the results of the Thriller community's votes for the best of the best.

In addition to your top ten, we're interested in hearing your opinions on:

Thriller's Best Actress

Thriller's Best Actor

Thriller's Best Director

Thriller's Best Writer

Thriller's Best Score

Best Thriller Audio Commentary

Best A Thriller A Day Review

Best A Thriller A Day Interview

Favorite Thriller Babe

Favorite Thriller Stud

Favorite A Thriller A Day Pro Reviewer (any of the folks involved with the DVD release)

Favorite A Thriller A Day Fan Reviewer (that's you guys!)

Any suggestions for other shows you'd like to see given similar treatment as A Thriller A Day

Email your responses to our own Peter (who will type them up on his manual Smith-Corona, snail mail them to me for OCR scanning, importing into a spreadsheet and tabulation). Please send us your responses by next Monday, 11/8, in order for them to be counted. We'll post the results after we've run our review of the last episode.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with us. After more than two months of A Thriller A Day, it's hard to believe we're nearly finished with our little experiment...

Flowers of Evil: Season 2 Episode 23

2010-11-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 3/5/62
Starring Luciana Paluzzi, Kevin Hagen, Jack Weston.
Written by Barre Lyndon, based on a story by Hugh Walpole.
Directed by John Brahm.

Skeletons run amok! When Madalena (Paluzzi) believes the skeleton seated in her office is her late husband laughing at her, she beats him into a pile of bones. Fortunately, her lover (Hagen) is able to put the bones back together so they can be resold. But what if there's more to the story than just her imagination?

JS: Okay. We're going to get through the last of these episodes with no casualties if we all stick together. Everyone grab the hand of their Thriller buddy? Okay, let's go...

PE: I've got a bad feeling about this.

JS: Am I crazy to think that the laughing skeleton pre-credits sequence is one of the best yet?

PE: On these two points we agree: it's absolutely the best pre-credits "laughing skeleton" sequence Thriller ever did. And you're crazy.

JS: Why wasn't this episode titled "Case of the Cursed Skeletons." Oh, that's right, it's not a Hardy Boys mystery...

PE: Jack Weston (who will probably be forever remembered as George Stickel in The Incredible Mr. Limpet) is wearing the worst skullcap in the history of cinema. Seriously, his forehead looks like the embossed lines on one of those topographic maps we used to study in Kindergarten. But the skullcap is art compared to the skeleton that Weston examines. How is it he recognizes it as his old friend and not the cheap plastic it clearly is?

JS: Boris said it best, "To some, the skeleton is a valuable scientific tool. To others, perhaps to you, it is a classic symbol of death." Or did he say plastic symbol of death?

PE: Do you think the weekly Thriller meeting went something like this: "Hey guys, we've been producing some solid horror fare, scaring the wits out of our viewers and getting decent ratings, but I'm not satisfied. No more Weird Tales. Let's get back to the glory days of "Mark of the Hand!"

JS: I'm not up on Miss Manners Book of Etiquette circa 1962, but hasn't it always been considered a faux pas to leave a pile of human bones scattered about the floor when you're serving tea?

PE: Never mind that. What about that dreadful checkered table cloth? Right then I knew this couple was up to no good!

JS: You've got to give Brahm credit, he worked hard to keep that darn skeleton onscreen as often as possible. And what's the only thing more interesting than having one skeleton onscreen? You guessed it—having two skeletons on screen! If only the rest of the cast gave such memorable performances.

PE: You mean you didn't appreciate Kevin Hagen's four minute death scene? I was disappointed when he didn't reach for Reynard's skull and launch into some Hamlet. Just die already!

JS: While this episode was clearly not intended to be a comedy, I think I was able to enjoy it more by viewing it as one. I kept looking forward to where our skeletal pals would turn up next, as if it were titled, "The Skeletons Keep Coming Back."

PE: Do you think anyone would have noticed if Image had accidentally left off the last eight episodes of Thriller? We're going to find out but I'm pretty sure we won't have to pay the Karloff estate for the rent on those three extra Boris noggins this week.

JS: Luciana is perhaps most famous for her role as Fiona Volpe in Thunderball. It was also interesting to see Doc Baker (Hagen) from Little House on the Prairie playing a not very nice guy.

OUR RATING:

Thriller Three-Way: Tom Weaver, Special Ops Unit

2010-11-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Tom Weaver has interviewed pert near everyone who ever made a horror flick (or a Thriller) and he's been kind enough to share the chats with us in 20 books with titles such as I Talked With a Zombie, Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers, and Double Feature Creature Attack. He is also co-author, with Michael Brunas and John Brunas, of Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films 1931-1946, a book that should be on every genre fan's shelf. Tom has also lent his voice and knowledge to the audio commentaries for several genre films including The Wolf Man, It Came From Outer Space, Fiend Without a Face, and our personal favorite, The Creature From the Black Lagoon. In his spare time Tom is our fact checker. Tom is currently working on five books for release in 2011, which puts a lot of pressure on John and I. Now we'll have to learn the difference between John Carradine and Keith Carradine.

PE: Based on your comments online, it seems that you have probably seen all of the Thriller episodes prior to the official DVD release.

TW: Yes, and—to be brutally honest—I'm very surprised to find myself in what looks like a very small minority. Thriller has been written about in glowing terms in the genre books and mags for decades now, and so until lately I had to ass-u-me that everyone was as familiar with the series as I was. Then this Image set gets announced, and the reaction from many (most?) fans seemed to be, "Great, I've never seen one!" WTF? How have you managed not to see Thriller? It was on in reruns for years, it was on the Sci-Fi Channel for years, good-quality bootleg box sets were around, it's got Karloff, the show is praised to the skies every time it's written about—and you've never caught up with it? This isn’t London After Midnight! Meanwhile, these are guys who somehow find time to watch Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man twice a month and four times every October!

My first exposure to it was through New York's WOR Channel 9, which had a program director who at some point in his life must have been warned by a gypsy fortuneteller that Channel 9 had to run monster movies morning, noon and night or he'd die. All through my teenage years, Channel 9 showed two, three, four monster movies a day, at least six days a week. And when they got their hooks into Thriller, they started running two a night, one at 7 and another at 11. Channel 9 might even have played it on the weekends too—they were just obsessed with Thriller, for a year or more I bet. They had to have shown every one of them eight times in that year. Needless to say, they were showing two a night so usually I was watching two a night. Sure, I got turned off by all the crime ones, but I'd sit through 'em anyway; in fact, when they'd come around again, I'd watch 'em again, hoping they'd be better the second time. Pffffft!

But at that age, I just ate up the horror ones—the good, the bad and the indifferent. "The Grim Reaper" I found so scary, it was almost unpleasant watching .. and yet I loved it, if that makes any sense. Most of "The Incredible Doktor Markesan," and especially the ending, the same. I was already headed down the dark road to horror nerd-dom, so I read the on-screen credits out loud, quick as I could, into a little tape recorder and then wrote 'em all out on 3x5 file cards, because I liked the idea of having that info, and none of the books had full credits for them. (Well, this was the '70s—practically all the books on horror movies and TV series were still so shallow, they were worthless except for the pictures.) When I got older, and got a job at a 16mm rental company and bought my own projector, I started collecting the horror Thrillers on 16mm, and I ran them to death. The film pirates were asking a couple hundred dollars per horror episode, and gettin' it, but for the crime ones they were asking $35. And NOT gettin' it. Well, not from me, anyway.

JS: You have a reputation of being a Thriller-Killer... someone not afraid to buck the trend of praising the show as the greatest thing ever.

TW: Welllll... it's not. I think everybody's finding that out now. Some of the individual episodes are among the all-time greats, but overall batting-average-wise... not too good.

PE: You went so far as to suggest that in lieu of a complete series, only the horror episodes should have been released on DVD.

TW: For years I used to do a lot of freelance writing for Universal, for their lasers and DVDs, and the folks at Universal used to ask me what they should release next, old-horror-wise. They'd never take my suggestions, but that didn’t stop 'em from continually asking! I didn’t want to give them bum advice, because I thought that'd be the end of our love affair, so I just couldn’t bring myself to tell them to put out the entire Thriller series, because in those days it would have cost a fortune. They once released six episodes on laser for about a hundred bucks, so at that rate, the whole series on laser would have been a thousand bucks! So I pushed and pushed for a "Best of Thriller" set, or sets. As you're watching "The Merriweather File" or "The Bride Who Died Twice" or any one of about 30 others, tell me I wasn’t trying to do the right thing.

JS: You would seem to be a natural participant in the Thriller DVD set - and yet you're only represented by way of an interview transcript. How come?

TW: 2500 miles between me and the recording booth. Image was doing the commentaries out in California as fast as they could, and working with no money, so unless I wanted to reach in my own wallet and reserve a New York City recording studio on my own and start doing 'em out of L-O-V-E, I was out of the picture. So I contented myself with helping a couple of the commentators as much as I could, info-wise, and urging Image to "recreate" my text interview with Thriller's associate producer Douglas Benton, which they did. Well, part of it. It was quite long, and could have been longer. I was getting ready to get back to Benton with an all-new list of Thriller questions about ten years ago, when suddenly he had health problems and I backed off. Which I shouldn't have. He really liked talking about the old days; he'd have done it and enjoyed doing it, sick or no. He died not too long afterwards.

PE: Is there anything you wish had made it onto the DVD set?

TW: Yes, a disclaimer saying that Universal's regularly scheduled vault fires had polished off nearly all the crime episodes, and so we bring you "The Best of Thriller"! Seriously, I did ask Image if Universal-NBC had the rights to the TV version of Arsenic and Old Lace with Karloff, that aired on NBC in 1962; I thought that'd be a great extra on one of the Thriller DVDs, maybe the one with the Arsenic and Old Lace-y "A Third for Pinochle." I also encouraged Image to have as an extra a whole bunch of Karloff TV commercials, which they thought was a great idea; I sent them two on 16mm, to get the ball rolling. But like Universal, Image would never take my suggestions, just ask for 'em!

JS: Why do you think there has been such an infatuation with such a little-seen show?

TW: Wellll, again, it was only "little-seen" because practically no one seemed to want to take the time to watch the reruns or the bootleg box sets. I'm still trying to "get" why that happened. Maybe somebody can explain it to me!

PE: Has the build-up made it impossible for new viewers to watch the show objectively?

TW: It seems like just about everybody is "a new viewer"—and so far, the reaction that I've seen, on your blog, on the Classic Horror Film Board and elsewhere is about what I expected. A lot of rhapsodizing about the great and near-great episodes... of which there are about six or eight... and a lot of faint praise for most of the rest of the horrors. Except for me and youse guys here at "A Thriller a Day," I bet no one plows through all the crime ones. Your site is great, by the way—you ought to get a Rondo for keeping Thriller "in the news" every day for months, the way you’ve been doing, with some neat insights and humor and feedback and contributor interviews and the whole nine yards.

JS: What's your favorite Thriller?

TW: "The Grim Reaper." It so "got" to me the first couple times I saw it (and kinda still does) that if somebody offered me that painting to hang in my house, I'd think twice, and might even have to turn it down.

JS: What aspect of Thriller turns you on?

TW: The fact that it was made at Universal, where Hollywood screen horror was born. Seeing European Street and the Phantom Stage and the Psycho house and other locations in the episodes, knowing that a lot of the props and costumes had probably already shown up in their vintage horror flicks—for a horror nerd, there's something a little magical about its connection to the classics of yore.

JS: What aspect of Thriller turns you off?

TW: Ummmm... the fact that only a small handful, out of 67 episodes, are really top-notch. The fact that about 35 out of 67 are practically bottom-notch. And... sue me... Karloff's intros could be a lot less hammy. There are a number of good ones, but for the most part, watching him host Thriller increases my appreciation for John Newland and Hitchcock. Heck, even Roald Dahl!

JS: What word best describes Thriller for you?

TW: Wonderfulmemory. Yes, that's one word. Check the dictionary, you'll see they've changed it. It was really exciting seeing it twice a night as a teenager on good old Channel 9, never knowing what to expect from any particular episode because they couldn't be looked up anywhere. To put it in "Mystery Date" terms, there were a lot less "Dreams" than "Duds" but I wouldn't let that deter me.

JS: If Hell exists, what episode of Thriller would you expect to see shown on a continuous loop to people who arrive at the fiery gates?

TW: I don't think I could sit through "The Specialists" even once more, so an eternal continuous loop WOULD get to be a pain in the ass.

P.S. I got so burned-out on Thriller via Channel 9 and then my 16mm prints and bootleg videos... I've had this new Image set for months now and haven’t yet watched a single one. I've listened to several of the commentaries and loved them, especially Lucy Chase Williams' "Mr. George," but as for watching the episodes themselves... all the episodes I like, I know by heart, so there's no point. After "pushing" for a legit home video release for Thriller for all these years, I might be the one set owner to now never watch one... Well, me and Sara.

The Incredible Doctor Markesan: Season 2 Episode 22

2010-11-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 2/26/62
Starring Boris Karloff, Dick York, Carolyn Kearney.
Written by Donald S. Sanford, based on the short story by August Derleth and Mark Schorer.
Directed by Robert Florey.

Fred Bancroft (York) and his wife, Molly (Kearney) visit the old Blassenville Plantation, err Oakmoor estate belonging to Fred's uncle Konrad Markesan (Karloff), hoping for a place to stay while they search for work. Meeting up with the professor, they're at first put off by his bad manners (and deadly dandruff) but agree to the man's rules for boarding: they must stay locked in their bedroom at night and not stray through the house. This being a Thriller, we all know how long that lasts.

PE: Speaking for both John and I, we had our feelings molested by the insults, harsh criticisms, death threats and, yes, nude reader photos hurled at us when we dared not lay down before the Pigeon King. I had a feeling that might happen again with the buzz I was hearing about "The Incredible Doctor Markesan." Well, praise Cthulhu, there won't be any bruised knuckles this time around. "The Really Incredibly Excellent Doctor Markesan!"

JS: I think this episode has a well deserved reputation for so many reasons. Great atmosphere, creepy imagery, effective music, and perhaps Karloff's finest performance in a Thriller.

PE: Karloff's final starring performance in Thriller is a gem, eclipsing even his fine work as Shemp in "Sommervilles" (that's the problem with watching these things and reviewing them in order—I'm constantly saying "Karloff's strongest work in Thriller"). Note that slow-moving half-smile he gets early on in the show. Reminded me so much of his Frankenstein monster.

JS: Forget the smile - what had me thinking of Frankenstein was the following shot in which we see Karloff's shadow as he leaves the room. Tell me that's not the shadow of Jack Pierce's Frankenstein Monster!

PE: Professor Holden (Henry Hunter) explains to Fred that his uncle was shoved from the University for experimenting with mold from corpses to raise the dead. Do you think he tried bread mold first? There must have been a whole bakery in that cupboard.

JS: Sure, in the days before he was Incredible.

PE: The hallway that the couple continually travel was right out of a Steve Ditko horror comic. Creepy shadows and Eerie angles.

JS: Definitely. As old dark house stories go, this episode is packed to the gills with great shots along those lines, such as this one of the spying eyes of Markesan. While not a perfect episode, obviously the big payoff comes in the form of the living dead shambling about.

PE: Yeah, we do have to talk a bit about the fact that there's a slow buildup. And it's another estate on the edge of a swamp. And it's another bickering couple (do you think if Dick York and Carolyn Kearney kept driving on that road they'd eventually run into Elizabeth Montgomery and Tom Poston?). If it all added up to nothing, so would our score. "Markesan" pays off in spades. There are several classic moments in this Thriller. When Fred spies on his uncle's meeting with his three colleagues, we get our first glimpse at the shamblers. Not just white make-up, dust and that ever-present dandruff, these guys look "George Romero dead" six years before Romero made it hip. Karloff's at his most menacing when he's commanding Latimore (Richard Hale) to repeat his testimony over and over again. I'm guessing this is Markesan's idea of purgatory for the three men. I'm amazed that the ultra-conservative censors at the network didn't pull the plug on the "feeding" scene. Markesan's three ghoulies hooked up to his formula while resting in their coffins is a truly grisly scene, even by today's standards, though nothing compared to the final fate of the resurrected bodies when denied their nourishment.

JS: Again, if you're watching Thriller for the horror episodes, you'd be hard pressed to find many better than "Markesan."

PE: And top it all off with a great twist ending. Director Robert Florey must have had a ball revisiting the same kind of chills he gave moviegoers with Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) and The Beast with Five Fingers (1946). Pity this was the only Thriller he directed, but I'm interested now in queuing up his Outer Limits show "Moonstone."

JS: I only wish we had a stronger couple for our protagonists. York and Kearney are okay, but not remarkable in this episode. For me, that's what kept this from being a 4-Karloffer.

PE: "The Incredible Doctor Markesan" originally appeared in the June 1934 issue of Weird Tales as "Colonel Markesan." It was later reprinted in the Arkham House collection, "Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People" (1966).

THE COMMENTARY:
Yet another fantastic Schow/Gerani collaboration. More Creature From the Black Lagoon trivia, interesting cast and crew background info as well as original story details. And yes, we're not the only ones to see a little of Karloff's Frankenstein in this episode.

OUR RATING:

Cousin Tundifer: Season 2 Episode 21

2010-11-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 2/19/62
Starring Edward Andrews, Sue Ann Langdon, Vaughn Taylor.
Written by Boris Sobelman.
Directed by John Brahm.

Miles Tundifer (Andrews) has had it up to here with his batty Uncle Pontifex (Taylor) spending Miles' inheritance fixing up dusty old mansions. Fortunately for Miles, there's something different about the latest fix-me-upper—it's a doorway to another time period. 1890 to be exact. This gives Miles the idea to off Pontifex and dump his body in the past. Unfortunately for Miles, the house's inhabitants have other plans.

PE: Right off the bat, the return of Morton Stevens' gawdawful "dum-da-dum-da-dum-plop-boom" sit-com score lets me know I'm in for a long show. And that's just what I got. A tired storyline peppered with semi-interesting ideas that go nowhere (what would happen if the Keystone Kops actually did go out the front door with Miles?). Another nail in the coffin of the Thriller comedy. A show so dull I can find hardly anything interesting to say about it other than to point out the blacked out sections of the covers at the used book stand Miles patronizes. Isn't that interesting?

JS: How can you not get excited by another Edward Andrews episode? Frankly, his presence calls for the playful percussion of Morton Stevens. To me it's a pairing as perfect as Don Knotts and Vic Mizzy. And Vaughn Taylor gets to chew the scenery as Uncle Pontifax; I almost didn't recognize him from his role as Lowry, Janet Leigh's boss from Psycho. Sue Ane Langdon (Queenie), on the other hand, portrayed a caricature that I was not impressed with. And based on the look of her, that's not Miss Devore's wig she's wearing.

PE: Miles Tundifer enters the old house through the front door on Beaver Lane (aka Back Lot City, USA) and exits the back door onto Andrew Bentley's estate! Although the view changes constantly during the episode.

JS: I thought this was fun. While you knew things weren't going to go as planned for Miles, it has a nice little twist at the end that I thought was fitting for this episode. I think it's fair to say if you haven't enjoyed Edward Andrews' episodes of Thriller up to this point, you won't start with "Cousin Tundifer." But if you have enjoyed his other Thriller excursions into the land of black comedy, this one is good for some more of the same (you are 100% right. -PE).

PE: Howard McNear is instantly recognizable to those of us who grew up on a steady diet of The Andy Griffith Show as Floyd the barber.

JS: Next up, "Markesan." Will Season 2 finally get its 4-Karloffer?

OUR RATING:

The Hollow Watcher: Season 2 Episode 20

2010-11-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 2/12/62
Starring Audrey Dalton, Sean McClory, Warren Oates.
Written by Jay Simms.
Directed by William F. Claxton.

Meg O'Danagh Wheeler (Dalton), the new bride of Hugo Wheeler (Oates), doesn't make a good first impression on her father-in-law (Denver Pyle) when she bashes his skull in after the old man beats Hugo senseless. Meg hides the body in the family's scarecrow and convinces Hugo that his father has flown the coop.

PE: It's a long ride to the Boogie Man. When we get there, we realize he was scarier in the shadows. Unlike its direct descendant, Dark Night of the Scarecrow (one of those rarities, a TV movie that actually delivers on its supernatural promise in an unnerving final scene), which kept its menace hidden until the final frames, we get a really good look at "The Hollow Watcher." And while he's fairly effective in his early scenes, it's not until the finale that he becomes a full blown menace. Two words make the ride worth it: Audrey Dalton. My vote for Ms. Thriller seems to change all the time. Catch that smile that crosses her lips when she does in the old man. She's sexy and bad all rolled up into one fine package. She's a complicated lady.

JS: I just watched her again in Mr. Sardonicus, and have also grown to appreciate her Thriller appearances more. Thankfully, she gets a fair amount of screen time.

PE: Meg and Sean are Irish cousins of Dick and Marian, the homicidal couple from "An Attractive Family." Sean McClory even looks like a stocky Richard Long. Audrey Dalton, pleasantly, does not resemble Joan Tetzel.

JS: While the audience can pretty much figure out what's going on, I still think the first scene in which she kisses her 'brother' is pretty creepy. And the only thing creepier than that is her fixation with that doll of hers, which is a bizarre plot thread that ultimately goes nowhere. I thought for a second that we might see her set upon in the last act by the Hollow Watcher and her doll. No such luck.

PE: The last ten minutes are a hoot. First, Warren Oates is dispatched by his Straw Daddy off screen and we're left to wonder how he met his fate. Then Sean (McClory) dies a very bloody death (I saw the raking of the face but what else gets done there?). Finally, Meg comes face to bale with the Watcher, dispatches him with fire, and goes off the deep end. Ironically, Meg, the only one to commit murder, is the only one to survive (Or does she? With that impromptu torch burning on the ground right next to her, I think the episode ends a few moments before the whole house goes up in flames... -JS).

JS: I had to laugh when the scarecrow is outside the door. The handle rattles a bit before he gets in, but you immediately notice he's got no hand on the left side where the doorknob was, and his right hand doing a heil-Hitler salute. If you look closely you can see the hand of the production assistant who opened the door. As H-dub's hay filled head sack burned away, I thought it might be cool if it left a burning, headless scarecrow. It might have played a bit more effectively than the skull on a stick routine. And speaking momentarily about the titular star of the show. How hard would it have been to give him a creepier face? Seriously, he's scarier in his present day Jack in the Box commercials...

PE: "The Hollow Watcher" is very reminiscent of a comic story that appeared in Shock SuspenStories #17 (Oct-Nov 1954). Titled "4-Sided Triangle," written by Carl Wessler and illustrated by Jack Kamen, the 8-pager tells the tale of Annie, simple-minded farm girl in love with a scarecrow. The story is shot through with the same kind of sexual undertones as "The Hollow Watcher."

THE COMMENTARY

I've read complaints on another website about rambling commentaries, commentators that don't keep to the subject at hand, commentaries about make-up and music but not the episode, blah blah blah. You can't please anyone ever. I'm just glad that Image bigwigs can't be bothered by these internet dweebs. I'd hate to think that future releases might skimp on the quality extras we got this time around. We've had several enjoyable commentaries throughout this run but I think this was my favorite. I don't mean to shove Gary Gerani and David J. Schow to the side (I have said nice things about their commentaries in the past), but this is Larry Blamire's show. Much like his knowledgeable talk during "The Storm," and "Late Date," Larry doesn't just comment on what's happening on the screen (after all, we can see that) or what horror film Mary Tyler Moore appeared in, he requires us to put pen to paper (I was ready this time) to jot down all these suggestions for viewing ("Cimarron Strip," "Rawhide," "Have Gun Will Travel," the list goes on and on). I've got a suggestion for Larry - why not wrote a book on all these weird western TV shows?

OUR RATING:

A Wig For Miss Devore: Season 2 Episode 19

2010-10-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 1/29/62
Starring Patricia Barry, John Baragrey, John Fiedler.
Written by Donald S. Sanford, based on the short story by August Derleth.
Directed by John Brahm.

About to be executed for witchcraft, Meg Peyton (Pamela Searle) requests that the hangmen leave her wig on. After she hangs, it becomes evident why: the wig has magical powers that keep the wearer young as long as it's donned. Washed up Hollywood star Sheila DeVore (Barry) has decided to make her comeback in a big budget bio of Meg Peyton and is determined to wear the famed wig to get her into the role. The cursed rug does the job.

PE: Never mind the wig, it's the hats that gossip columnist Arabella Foote (Linda Watkins) wears that are dangerous.

JS: No kidding—I was particularly scared of the wicker trash basket she wore.

PE: Patricia Barry is perfectly over the top for the Marilyn-esque role. And this is not an easy episode to rate. I appreciated its tongue-in-cheek storyline (at least I hope that's what they were aiming for) but it's a bit slow.

JS: I do think the episode is intentionally tongue in cheek, as there are several moments where they rely on the good old sitcom music. And the casting of Herbert Rudley as Max Qunke seems to support that as well. I must also point out that Patricia Barry is looking fantastic this time out (once she dons that magical wig).

PE: The dopey flailing monster gloves (leftovers from The Leech Woman?) ruin every atmospheric shot they're stuck in.

JS: I'm betting the original Thriller-boys will comment on how effective said gloves were on that cold January night back in 1962. I didn't mind them myself when they were used in a scene, but agree they were far less effective when shot as disembodied arms against a black background clutching at the camera. Perhaps the interpretive dancers from "La Strega" were on the Universal payroll, as those shots look suspiciously like their handiwork (no pun intended).

PE: For the biggest star in Hollywood, her party (where the partygoers are twisting the night away) is a pretty cheap affair. It appears to be held in someone's living room and attended by Brigham Young students.

JS: I kept thinking that had this only been shot a few years later, Ann-Margret would have been perfect in the role of Sheila... particularly for the dance sequence at the party. Nobody could shake the fringe quite like A-M could.

PE: Remember the next time you're running through the streets of Los Angeles to beware of falling Roman columns.

JS: That is actually a valid concern when running through any studio backlot, Peter, and not one you should make light of.

PE: Devore's monster visage in the reveal is a very effective combination of Harry Townes' make-up for "The Cheaters," and a coral reef. It reminded me a bit of the human end of The Fly as well (the finale in the spider's web, that is).

JS: "The Cheaters" was the first thing I thought of, too. Now this is what I would call a satisfying climax. You must have been disappointed that it didn't end when she ran out of the party after losing her wig. (now that you mention it... -PE)

PE: Pay attention and you'll notice that Devore's maid, who inherits the wig after Miss Devore is squished, has a mustache to make her homelier, I guess. When she dons the wig and escapes out the back door (after changing into nicer clothes in faster time than it takes to paint masterpieces around these parts), she's Meg Peyton, gorgeous and clean shaven.

JS: Um, isn't that the whole point? This is a supernatural episode, and not one of your crime dramas, mind you.

PE: "A Wig for Miss Devore" appeared in the May 1943 issue of Weird Tales. Derleth's story is quite different from the Thriller. In the original story, the prologue is dispatched (the murderess is more contemporary), there are rules cited for the wearing of the wig (the wig should not be worn more than a few minutes at a time, it should be kept out of sight, and that it had "certain properties not subject to reasonable explanation"). Miss Devore also becomes hungry for raw meat, in particular human hearts. When she chows down on her publicity manager's ticker, she's carted away to the asylum. End of story.

THE COMMENTARY

PE: Steve Mitchell gets a fabulous commentary out of Patricia Barry, who dishes out lots of behind-the-scenes info and gossip about Thriller and Hollywood. Barry lets us in on her relationship with her husband, writer Philip Barry, Marilyn Monroe, old Hollywood, and the dynamics of making the episode. Neither Mitchell nor Barry gloss over the cheesier aspects of the show.

OUR RATING

The Storm: Season 2 Episode 18

2010-10-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 1/22/62
Starring Nancy Kelly, David McLean, James Griffith.
Written by William D. Gordon, based on the short story by McKnight Malmar.
Directed by Herschel Daugherty.

Miles from civilization, Janet Willsom (Kelly) is stuck in her house in a vicious storm. Adding to her bad night is the female body she finds stuffed in a trunk in her cellar and the mysterious figure prowling outside her window.

JS: If you were wondering what happened to that black cat from "La Strega," he hopped on a boat from Italy to the good old U.S. of A. just in time to witness an effectively staged murder in the pre-credit sequence to this episode.

PE: Almost like a play, "The Storm" is essentially one woman subjected to every cliche in the horror film book: thunder, lightning, and pouring rain, loose shutters, broken windows, hissing black cat, creepy noises, missing husband, suspicions about said husband, etc. Having said that, Nancy Kelly is brilliant carrying the weight of the show on her shoulders for most of its running time. For quite a bit of that running time, I thought I might have been a bit hasty handing over the Golden Karloff to Jeanette Nolan. "The Storm" seemed, to me, to be a solid little mid-1950s noir B-movie.

JS: It helps that the majority of the episode takes place after the power goes out. For me, the episode is a little long getting to the halfway point, when Janet finds the body in the cellar. From that point on, it takes on an effective "Sorry, Wrong Number" vibe.

PE: I'll agree with you there. It's overlong by about 15 minutes. In his commentary, David J. Schow mentions that this episode could be edited down to a half hour and it would be a good representation of the short story. We've hit a good patch of Thriller. Two strong climaxes in a row.

JS: Would you prefer a little more time between them? (That depends on what's up around the corner! -PE) I don't think it rates alongside "The Strega." (nor do I -PE) In fact, it harkens back to those early Thriller episodes that just end abruptly. (But, be fair John, those abrupt endings were lame while this is a riveting jolt. -PE) While David McLean's performance is effective, I do think that after investing an hour with Janet, and anticipating the eventual final-reel reveal, I wanted to see someone get their just (or unjust) desserts. Instead, all we get is confirmation of our suspicions, and nothing more. It was ultimately lacking the "Sorry, Wrong Number" punch I thought it was building towards.

PE: I thought the climax very effective. It could go two ways: either Janet will make it to the cops and hubby will spend the rest of his days behind bars (or, more likely based on his last minute performance, a loony bin) or he'll get his wits about him and go hunting. Regardless, I loved his breakdown from "loving husband" to screaming animal in a matter of minutes. Were you hoping for the kind of expository we just loved in "The Big Blackout?" I thought the final scene in "The Storm" ranked with "Prisoner in the Mirror." I can't get it out of my mind.

JS: Loving husband? Patronizing husband, perhaps. This isn't a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, Pete. I'm glad you found crazy hubby's tirade so incredible it satiated any need for a conclusion. I don't need everything spelled out—I wasn't looking for the old "he/she kills the other, was caught, tried for the murder and got the electric chair" ending, but I would have liked to have them lean one way or the other; that he was going to get her, or she was going to get him. It's exactly like those earlier episodes I referenced, where you return from the final commercial break and have wonder if you missed the final reel somehow. In discussing it further, you made me realize I was being too generous in my original assessment.

Illustration by Barry Anderson

PE: "The Storm" by McKnight Malmar was adapted several times in addition to its Thriller incarnation. Twice it was dramatized on Studio One, in 1949 starring Marsha Hunt, and again in 1953, starring Betty Furness. A decade after the Thriller episode, Elizabeth Montgomery starred as the terrified woman in the TV movie, The Victim, directed by Herschel Daugherty! The story first appeared in the February 1944 issue of Good Housekeeping. You can read it online here.

THE COMMENTARY

PE: David J. Schow and Larry Blamire discuss the many incarnations of "The Storm" on TV (including the info that Yul Brynner may have directed a 1948 version for Studio One). Make sure you have a pen and paper handy. You'll want to jot down the titles of the creepy shows that Larry hurls forth at one point. Good catch on that "An Unlocked Window" visual, Larry. You won't believe it, but it's in my notes. Damn these commentators. Taking all my best bits.

OUR RATING:

The Lovely Ladies of Thriller: Part Four - Ursula Andress

2010-10-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

In honor of today's episode, "La Strega," we bring you a Lovely Ladies of Thriller special, all-blonde-bombshell Ursula Andress edition! Enjoy!

La Strega: Season 2 Episode 17

2010-10-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 1/15/62
Starring Ursula Andress, Alejandro Rey, Jeanette Nolan.
Written by Alan Caillou.
Directed by Ida Lupino.

After being attacked by a group of men and left for drowned, Luana (Andress) is rescued by Tonio de la Vega (Rey). The young man is smitten by the beauty and agrees to shelter her from her grandmother, the witch known to the villagers as La Strega (Nolan). After the old woman curses Tonio, he begins to wonder if letting Luana shack up with him was a good idea after all.

PE: And there they are in the very first scene—Ursula Andress!

JS: And what a lovely pair of eyes she has! Lupino sure has a way of capturing the majesty of the rolling hills of Italy. Of course, her talents aside, fortunately as Luana she doesn't require the acting chops of La Strega, Jeanette Nolan.

PE: From start to finish (with only one minor stumble along the way), this is among the best and most atmospheric of the horror episodes. There's a sense of creeping dread in every scene following the arrival of her majesty, La Strega. And how about that Jeanette Nolan? I'm ready to give her the Golden Karloff for this season's best actress without even seeing the rest of the shows. I thought she was mildly creepy in "Parasite Mansion," but here she's the real deal. Not a cackling old biddy or one of Samantha Stevens' kooky relatives, there's nothing remotely human about the old gal. Had to be influenced by The Old Witch from The Haunt of Fear!

JS: When I saw her in the cast intros, I thought, here we go again, but you're absolutely right. This time there's no kidding around. She's a creepy scene stealer every time she's on screen. When she's able to provide some of the scariest moments of the series without speaking a word— that's saying something.

PE: That aforementioned stumble is my Thrillah-Moment: the trio of Luana, Tonio, and his mentor, Maestro Giuliano (Ramon Novarro) go looking for a Sabbat and stumble onto the kids of Glee, rehearsing next week's show in black leotards. The scene is so incongruous with the rest of the episode, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my desire to see some very scary figures writhing around a boiling pot rather than the Denny Terrio Dance Fever squad. It didn't ruin the episode but it was damn distracting.

JS: Welcome to witchcraft through interpretive dance. It definitely does break the tone of the rest of the show, but not irreparably. What I want to know is how come you don't mind Tonio's speed sketching abilities (Italians are known for their speed. -PE)?

PE: Great downbeat climax (and no Karloff epilogue to let us know that the old witch was later arrested and put on trial for her crimes), solid supporting performances, and a teleplay that doesn't drag, compliments of Allan Caillou (who would, years later, star as "The Brain" on the wacky SF TV show Quark).

JS: When you look at this episode, from the introduction of 'La Strega' in the prologue, to her discovery by Antonio, his taking her in, their seeing the old woman, right up through the climax—the pacing is just right, with an excellent payoff. Again, if not for Dark Night of the Black Leotards, I think we'd be looking at a 4-Karloffer. Instead, we have to settle for 37-22-35 Karloffs.

PE: Ursula Andress was just a year away from her star-making role as Honey Ryder in Dr. No.

JS: I prefer her young beauty in this episode over her look later in her career—watch for a special installment of The Lovely Ladies of Thriller later this afternoon.

OUR RATING:

Waxworks: Season 2 Episode 16

2010-10-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 1/8/62
Starring Oscar Homolka, Martin Kosleck, Antoinette Bower.
Written by Robert Bloch, based on his short story.
Directed by Herschel Daugherty.

When a young lady is murdered under peculiar circumstances, the police are drawn to the wax museum of Pierre Jacquelin (Homolka). Could the killer be a wax figure brought to life by sorcery or just a jealous suitor?

JS: I'm a sucker for wax museum movies, so I was anticipating a slam-dunk Thriller classic in "Waxworks." I wish I could say my disappointment was merely from having set my expectations too high, but aside from a few excellent visual bits, this episode was more lifeless than most of Jacquelin's figures.

PE: Nice opening, slow middle, great final shot. I think that sums it up.

JS: Well said. On the bright side, or I guess I should say on the moody, shadowy side, the shots in the waxworks are beautifully lit, creepy, and effective. Unfortunately we then cut to brightly lit, boring morgue and police station stages, where it feels like we spend the bulk of the episode.

PE: So let me get this straight (SPOILER ALERT): Homolka dresses up like his wax dummies when he needs to kill. Why does he bother disguising himself? To fool the victim? Illogical. And if he can bring his wax wife to life, why not the rest of the dummies? Let them do his killing for him.

JS: Funny how in "The Weird Tailor" the manikin looked too fake, and here, certain wax figures looked too real. When the Sergeant is interrogating Annette (which was a pretty amusing banter leading up to their 'date'), don't you think he'd investigate the figure that looked a little too real more closely? It's been awhile since they've made an appearance in an episode, so I had forgotten about the investigatory techniques of Thriller Police Squad.

PE: On the plus side, Kosleck, Homolka, and Bower are all solid. Bower's a beauty to contend with in the final voting of Miss Thriller.

JS: Sorry Pete, Bower won't even make the preliminary ballot (unless we take into consideration the final shot - and note that in the menu screen they flip the image, so as not to ruin any surprises in the episode). The girl who gets the hatchet (June Kenney) stands a better chance of making the Thriller babe list.

PE: Not one of the better Bloch adaptations. Surprising too, as it's got all the elements: the creepy waxworks, some gen-u-wine genre stars (Homolka, Kosleck, and Ron Ely), and the requisite Thriller shadows. But then there's a deadly snail's pace, the constant return to police headquarters, and that "I know it wasn't you, Jaquelin, for there is the bench with all your disguises" reveal, complete with... the bench with all the disguises shot. Jaquelin can dress up like a wax dummy, murder a cop, and change back into a mild-mannered curator in the time it takes to forge a Robertson Moffat masterpiece.

JS: On top of all that, what should have been a straight-up crime show filled with horrific imagery has a supernatural twist shoehorned in that frankly makes no sense whatsoever.

PE: The police in this episode have a high tolerance for their colleagues' murders. Lt. Bailey (Booth Colman, who has a certain way with the beautiful women) is cold on a slab and his partners, Sgt. Dane (Alan Baxter) and Lt. Hudson (a wooden Ely), don't seem to notice. There was a full house in the morgue so maybe they hadn't gotten the memo yet. Hudson is more intent on chatting up Annette (Bower) than finding the killer. Then, at the climax, when Hudson buys the farm, Dane shows very little interest.

JS: I did laugh when Detective Tarzan (Ely) busts down the door, saying, "It's been ten years since I played football, but let's see what I remember." And I still remember Booth Colman from the Planet of the Apes TV show. Hey, how about it - are you up for An Ape A Day blog when we're done here? (I'm selling the TV when we're done here. -PE)

PE: "Waxworks" originally appeared in the January 1939 issue of Weird Tales. When Bloch wrote his teleplay for Thriller, he jettisoned most of the elements of the original story, save the waxworks itself and the fiery climax. In the WT version, a Frenchman named Bertrand becomes obsessed with the wax figure of Salome in a Chamber of Horrors. He notices that the head of John the Baptist on Salome's silver tray is constantly changing. When he confronts the proprietor, he learns that Salome is actually the man's wife, an executed murderess, and the crazed waxman is offing his lovestruck customers (not much future for his business, I'm afraid). The two men have a tussle and Salome is burned to a bubbling puddle, revealing the skeleton underneath. When Bloch incorporated "Waxworks" into his screenplay for The House That Dripped Blood in 1971, he returned to the original storyline. Just as in "The Weird Tailor," his main protagonist is played by Peter Cushing.

OUR RATING:

Thriller Three-Way: Stefan Dziemianowicz, New Jersey's #1 Weird Tales Expert

2010-10-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Stefan Dziemianowicz may well be the most knowledgeable pulp collector on the planet. He's edited huge volumes of the things, lives in a pulp mausoleum, and managed to set David J. Schow up with the Thriller pulp stories he needed. He also happens to give great interview and this one turned out so massive we split it into two parts. Part One (with emphasis on Thriller) follows, and Part Two (focusing on pulps in general) can be found over on our sister blog, the bare•bones e-zine.

PE: “Well of Doom” seems like it would be the best realization of a shudder pulp ever filmed. Have I missed a better one?

SD: Like all fans of the pulps, I imagine an alternate universe where enough shudder pulp stories have been filmed and televised that we can actually rate them, do comparative studies of their adaptations, and compile a top-100 essential shudder pulp film list whose #1 is the shudder pulp equivalent of "Citizen Kane." (I've always thought that stories such as "The Mole Men Want Your Eyes" and "Revelery in Hell" were unfairly overlooked by Masterpiece Theatre screenwriters.) Maybe in that universe we could even sponsor the World Weird Menace convention, and give out an award—The Shuddie—cast in bronze from a holographic image of Rose Magowan being menaced by a whip-wielding anencephalic mutant.

The fact is, so few genuine shudder pulp stories have been adapted for the big or small screen that it's pretty easy to say that "Well of Doom" is at least one of the best, if not THE best. Which should come as no surprise given that the story which it was adapted from, by John Clemons (whom I believe was an actual writer, and not just a pulpsmith working under a house name), actually was published in the second-tier shudder pulp Thrilling Mystery. Believe it or don't, if you're a fan of Boris Karloff's Thriller, you have the unique opportunity to compare this story's treatment to another genuine shudder pulp extravaganza: Cornell Woolrich's "Papa Benjamin," which appeared in a 1935 issue of Dime Mystery Magazine, the grandaddy of ALL shudder pulps. It was also filmed for Thriller.

Two shudder pulp adaptations for Thriller? I think that might make the program the leading exponent of shudder pulp television!

Now, here is where I really make a stretch. If you're familiar with Thriller, then you'll certainly be familiar with "Masquerade," the adaptation of Henry Kuttner's hilarious story from Weird Tales. (I'm willing to bet that Kuttner wrote it originally for the exemplary modern fantasy pulp Unknown, which had folded by the time it was published in Weird Tales. A bunch of stories intended for Unknown made it to Weird Tales that way.) Henry Kuttner placed more than a few stories in the shudder pulps, among them Horror Stories, Thrilling Mystery (a HUGE market for him) and Strange Detective Mysteries. It doesn't take too much analysis to see that "Masquerade" is a comic riff on the old shudder pulp formula: a couple stranded overnight at a creepy old house whose creepy old residents have a menacing aura of the supernatural about them. I'll leave it to fellow Thriller aficionados to decide whether "Masquerade" deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as "Well of Doom," or even "Papa Benjamin."

And lets stretch even a little further. Your question was whether the Thriller adaptation of "Well of Doom" was the best realization of a shudder pulp ever filmed. If we expand to include film as well as television, you open the door to a host of latter-day splatter films that are clearly struck from the classic shudder pulp template. But rather than look ahead, lets look back over our shoulders. One of the best shudder pulp realizations that ever made it to the screen was the 1931 Universal film The Old Dark House, adapted from the J.B. Priestley novel of the same name. It has all the standard elements of a shudder pulp story, and it appeared two years before the shudder pulp formula reared its perverted little head in Dime Mystery Magazine. In fact, it shares similar shudder pulp inflections with The Black Cat, Universal's 1934 riff on Poe (though of course the film has nothing to do with Poe's story). These popular movies may well have shaped readers' tastes for shudder pulp fiction at a time when film was clearly reaching a wider audience than magazine fiction was. What do these two films have in common? That's right--both featured Boris Karloff. Who knows, maybe Boris so remembered the dynamics of these movies that he wanted to do miniatures like them for Thriller.

PE: If there was another pulp even better suited to the Thriller “Style” what was it?

SD: I really don't think there was a magazine better suited to the Thriller style than Weird Tales, but I suspect that's because the style of Thriller as we know and love it derived from its intimate association with the magazine and its writers. I was discussing this with the estimable David J. Schow, one of the primo movers and shakers on the new DVD reissue of the complete Thriller, and we agreed that Thriller is the closest any television show came to being the TV version of Weird Tales.

As I mentioned in answer to an earlier question, Weird Tales had a huge archive of stories to choose from--bigger than any other pulp magazine could offer. The sheer size of that archive ensured the sort of variety that a show like Thriller thrived on. Thriller did stories that were straight mystery/suspense, weird menace, supernatural, and comic Gothic. About the only type it didn't do was science fiction. Weird Tales published all of those story types and then some. It published a lot of compact stories that lent themselves well to a half-hour or hour-long adaptation. It published some genuinely cinematic stories, and some stories that, if they weren't cinematic, had a theme or idea that smart screenwriters knew they could work into an exciting teleplay. Any writer for Thriller who went digging through the Weird Tales archive for inspiration would have found the right story for what he wanted pretty quickly.

I could see some magazines yielding a story or two that would have fit well with the Thriller style. For example, Unknown/Unknown Worlds. Robert Bloch's "The Cloak" would have made a bang-up Thriller episode a la "Masquerade." Likewise from the same magazine Nelson Bond's "Prescience," a really great horror story about a psychiatrist who hypnotizes a patient and doesn't realize until midway through the patient's nightmarish recital of what he's experiencing that he died shortly after going under. (There, now, I've totally spoiled that story for any reader who isn't familiar with it.) Fantastic Adventures had a few good stories that might have worked well, as did its digest successor (sort of) Fantastic. But these magazines often tried consciously to distinguish themselves from Weird Tales, or to appeal to a younger, more fannish demographic. Weird Tales was, from the get go, a magazine that published the sort of modern Gothic tale that seemed to work best on Thriller.

If anyone else might have given Weird Tales a run for its money in terms of stories that merited adapting for Thriller, it wasn't another magazine--it was the publisher, Arkham House. But that comes as no surprise, since Arkham House published a lot of short fiction collections by writers for Weird Tales, including quite a few that featured stories adapted for the show. Robert Bloch was an Arkham House author, and given his involvement with Thriller, both as a screenwriter an an author whose works were adapted, I'm betting he put in a good word for Weird Tales stories. Likewise August Derleth, publisher of Arkham House, who had a number of his stories adapted. In the late 1940s, Derleth was publishing in Weird Tales and advising the magazine on its contents. If Thriller was as close as television came to producing a TV version of Weird Tales, Arkham House was the closest Weird Tales came to having a book-selling arm.

PE: Were there any other WT stories off the top of your head that would have made great Thriller episodes?

SD: Would, coulda shoulda. There are some stories that I think could have made bang-up Thriller episodes that were never adapted. The caveat, of course, is that it all depends on who wrote the script, who directed the episode, and who starred in it. Some great stories were turned into lackluster presentations; at the same time, I never could have guessed that an otherwise unremarkable story like "The Black Madonna" by Harold Lawlor would have made such an outstandingly creepy episode ("The Grim Reaper"), thanks in no small part to the powerful acting of William Shatner.

Stories I would have liked to see televised? There's Fredric Brown's "Come and Go Mad," about an investigative newspaper reporter who infiltrates an insane asylum to get the inside scoop and then gets increasingly paranoid that there is a conspiracy to drive him mad while he's there. I always thought Fritz Leiber's "In the X-ray" would lend itself well to television. In this story, a doctor discovers skeletal remnants of an unborn twin in one of his patients, and with each successive x-ray he takes, he finds that a skeletal hand is inching closer and closer to the patient's throat (you can guess how this one ends). Robert Bloch's "The Man Who Cried Wolf" is one of his best stories with an O'Henry twist; it wouldn't have needed a big budget and could have been a suspense masterpiece. Mary Elizabeth Counselman's "Three Marked Pennies," which was one of the most popular stories ever published in Weird Tales, would have made a dandy Thriller episode, though it might not have seemed scary enough. Counselman (whose "Parasite Mansion" was a Thriller episode), like Robert Bloch, published a lot of stories in Weird Tales that would have made good Thriller episodes. Likewise August Derleth, who had a number of stories ("Mr. George," "The Return of Andrew Bentley," "Colonel Markesan," etc.) adapted. His comic ghost story "Pacific 421," and more serious ghost stories such as "The Shuttered House," "Mrs. Manifold," and "Kingsridge 214" (the latter is very similar to Richard Matheson's classic "Night Call," which was adapted for The Twilight Zone) would have adapted well.

I'm crazy enough to say that I think Thriller could have done a great treatment of Henry Kuttner's "The Graveyard Rats." Thriller was really good at atmosphere and moody horror. You could have suggested a lot of what goes on in Kuttner's story with a claustrophobic setting and sound effects. Thriller could have provided nicely.

I recently remarked to someone that I was glad none of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories were ever adapted for television because I don't think they would have worked, but Lovecraft had other stories that would have worked magnificently--for instance, "The Outsider" and especially "In the Vault."

I'm astonished that none of Ray Bradbury's sales to Weird Tales ever were filmed. Can you imagine what Thriller could have done with "The Wind," "The Crowd," or "The Jar"?

PE: As the biggest pulp nerd in the world, what is your estimation of the WT Thrillers?

SD: I don't know that I'm the biggest pulp nerd (that's pronounced "nuuured," like the guy in American Splendor pronounced it) in the world, but I'll gladly take the title as a compliment. I strongly doubt that anyone out there is going to claim to be a bigger nerd than I am. It would require a somewhat perverted sense of self-esteem, no?

What do I think of the Thriller adaptations of Weird Tales stories? By and large, I thought they were very well done, some better and some worse than others. The Thriller version of "Pigeons from Hell" remains one of my favorite episodes ever of "horror television." The Robert E. Howard story it's based on is a tour de force of gruesome horror. The Thriller version mixed atmosphere with just the right amount of physical horror to make it a very effective Gothic shocker. I've already waxed effusively about Thriller's take on Henry Kuttner's "Masquerade." I have a special fondness for Thriller's version of "The Cheaters" because I saw it some years before I ever got to read Robert Bloch's original story. One of the first Thriller episodes I ever saw (when it was in rerun) was the adaptation of August Derleth and Mark Schorer's"Colonel Markesan"; but for the let-down ending, the Thriller episode was genuinely creepy, and a vast improvement over the otherwise lukewarm story. The Thriller version of Robert Bloch's "The Weird Tailor" was the closest the show ever came to turning out a Cthulhu Mythos story, and I can still remember being creeped out, watching the jerky, inhuman movements of the tailor's dummy in that episode as it came to life.

Not all of the Weird Tales adaptations on Thriller were great, but none is, in my estimation, among the episodes that I would say failed to succeed. Again, Thriller was the closest we ever came to having Weird Tales on television. To me, the sense that the show captured the spirit of the magazine, even in those episodes not adapted from Weird Tales stories, is proof that the Weird Tales/Thriller link was strong and key to the show's success.

PE: How do they compare to the handful of WTs filmed for Night Gallery?

SD: I greatly enjoyed Rod Serling's Night Gallery for its brief run, but I thought the few Weird Tales stories they filmed weren't as good as Thriller's. If memory serves, you're really talking only 5 stories, or about half as many as Thriller filmed, and the kitschy approach Night Gallery took to horror and the supernatural in a lot of episodes just wasn't in the Weird Tales spirit. "The Dear Departed" (from the Mary Alice Schnirring story) and "Brenda" (from the Margaret St. Clair story) were not bad, but not terribly memorable. "Cool Air," tacked a love interest and a hokey ending onto the plot germ of the Lovecraft original. "Pickman's Model," also from Lovecraft, was good. Bradford Dillman's scenery-chewing performance made up for the man in the monster suit who shows up at the end.

There was one absolutely superior adaptation of a Weird Tales story on Night Gallery that, to my mind, was as good as if not better than any Weird Tales story done for Thriller. In fact, to my tastes, it is one of the best horror episodes I've ever seen on television. That was the adaptation of Fritz Leiber's "The Dead Man," which was done for one of the show's first six episodes in the truncated first season. It was a remarkably scrupulous adaptation of Leiber's story, and it's ending is one of the most frightening I can remember. In fact, it was the most frightening television episode I'd seen up to that point (and by then, I'd seen all of The Outer Limits, all of The Twilight Zone, and probably about half of all the episodes on Alfred Hitchcock Presents). I mentioned buying my first issue of Weird Tales, (Stefan's referring to an answer he gave that appears in the second part of this interview-PE) and it was to get my hands on that story. After seeing that episode of Night Gallery, I knew I had to track Leiber's original down, and I was very pleased to find how faithful the Night Gallery treatment was to it. If anything, it set the bar so high for other Weird Tales episodes that it was a little disappointing none of the others measured up to it.

An Attractive Family: Season 2 Episode 15

2010-10-27T06:32:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 1/1/62
Starring Richard Long, Leo G. Carroll, and Joyce Bulifant.
Written by Robert Arthur from his story.
Directed by John Brahm.

The Farringtons have made a practice of offing new additions to the family, inheriting the wealth of their dearly departed along the way. Their latest plan goes awry when they find they need to rid themselves of a new sister-in-law (Bulifant), or risk losing the part of the family fortune they haven't already spent.

JS: Hold on a second—it's not Halloween. What the heck are we doing back at the Psycho house? What's funny is that growing up, I always recognized The Munsters house when that showed up in other TV shows and movies (The Ghost and Mr. Chicken!) I was watching. I guess the Psycho house wasn't available for sitcoms...

PE: The Psycho house is an icon to us, of course, but I always wonder (when it pops up every other episode) if the folks back in the early 60's noticed that all the creepy goings-on in this show happen in the same old house.

JS: Once again, we've got a very nice looking episode. The pre-credits sequence is particularly creepy, with all the nice statuary dressed around the otherwise familiar house exterior. And then leading into Jinny's nightmare scenario, with the tall shadows and disembodied voices, things were looking pretty cool. It's some time before the episode gets that interesting again (visually or otherwise).

PE: I liked the long run down the hill for Bulifant. When she starts hearing voices, I thought we were seeing the return of Mr. George (with some new friends). Bulifant's got an annoying voice and I couldn't stop thinking of Georgette on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Ironically, Bulifant went on to have a recurring guest role on that show.

The 'vultures'

JS: While I also found Bulifant's high pitched whine annoying, by the end of the episode my only issue with it was the fact that I couldn't help but picture Frenchie from Grease every time she spoke. As for the rest of the cast, the members of the family Farrington all turn in fine performances, as does Leo G. Carroll, a few years after his great turn in North by Northwest.

PE: Agreed. I did appreciate its mean streak. The two kills are handled with a large dose of sadism. Dick and Marian (Joan Tetzel) almost seem to enjoy the murder aspect of their game more than the profit. Both smile after their handiwork.

JS: Yeah, I thought it was going to be one of the better black comedies, but I didn't feel that it lived up to that early promise. The last line/shot was nice, but by then it was too little, too late.

PE: This one's about as right down the average-o-meter as they get. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. Richard Long went on to have a major career in television, first in a supporting role on 77 Sunset Strip and then on to fame with The Big Valley and Nanny and the Professor, before dying too young (4 days after turning 47 years old). Joan Tetzel makes her second and final Thriller appearance. She was previously seen as Marie Vane in "The Devil's Ticket." According to the IMDB, Bulifant was originally to play Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch but was jettisoned for Florence Henderson. Small miracle there. The Brady Bunch was annoying enough without Bulifant's vocal chords. She was married for nine years to James MacArthur ("Book 'em, Dano!"), which makes her the ex-daughter-in-law of Helen Hayes and a perfect climax to our trivia section.

JS: "An Attractive Family" by Robert Arthur first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, November 1957.

PE: No wonder Hitch was pissed. Thriller was not only using most of his TV talent, now it was mining his pages for gold.

JS: Something tells me he wasn't too upset with this particular Thriller...

OUR RATING:

Portrait Without a Face: Season 2 Episode 14

2010-10-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 12/25/61
Starring Jane Greer, Robert Webber, George Mitchell.
Written by Jason Wingreen.
Directed by John Newland.

Artist Robertson Moffat (director Newland) is about to start work on his masterpiece "The Angel of Death" when he's shot through the head with a crossbow by a masked figure from the skylight in his studio (not by Professor Plum with a plunger in the loo). Six months later, Arthur Henshaw (Webber) is sent by his gallery to catalog Moffat's work for an exhibit, only to discover that Moffat's final blank canvass is painting itself a picture... of the artist's murder.

PE: What in the name of Gianni Versace is Robertson Moffat wearing? If it's not a bathrobe, it's a bath mat with buttons.

JS: I was too busy appreciating his fine art. Did anyone else notice that it wasn't a particularly good likeness? And here I thought the model wanted it because she was embarrassed by it, not because she was worried it might tank her nude modeling career...

PE: Perfect picture of an episode gone all wrong. The concept is very cool (and was done much better, in a way, years later on Night Gallery) and it ropes you in with lots of false promises before settling for Inner Sanctum territory. By the climax, we're buried with ludicrous expositions.

JS: Once again, Season 2 has you and I on opposite ends of the spectrum. My wife had it all figured out the moment the first drop of paint was on the 'blank' canvas, but we still enjoyed it start to finish. I no sooner commented how much more I was enjoying Newland's performance in this than in "Andrew Bentley," and WHAP! Crossbow bolt in the head.

PE: SPOILER ALERT: I actually tried to recreate in my living room how fast a Robertson Moffat forgery could be painted that would fool a renowned expert (Professor Martin Vander Hoven aka Sergeant Shultz). It took me 2 hours to paint the arrow through his head. I fail to see how Arthur Henshaw did it any faster. Stencils? I did add one quarter of a Karloff head for the final reveal on the portrait. It made no sense but so what?

JS: Did you have to use your 64-color assortment of crayons? Let me get this straight—turning men into pigs, no problemo. An artist painting faster than you—complete inability to suspend disbelief. Got it. (Apples and oranges, Scooter. Mrs. Hawk is an ancient goddess; Arthur Henshaw is not a cosmic painting deity. -PE; Or IS he? -JS) You don't even give Big K any love for killing his cameraman?

The real killer revealed?

PE: By the time we finally get to see the finished "final masterpiece of Robertson Moffat," we're convinced of one thing: this guy was painting for girlie magazines and EC Comics.

JS: I actually thought the crossbow-bolt-in-the-head was more effective than the axe-wound-in-the-head shot from "Pigeons from Hell." If there's one thing about this episode I didn't like, it's Katherine 'The Cackler' Squire, whose performance was so annoying I had to create a montage of screenshots.

PE: The first time Agatha Moffatt lets out one of her banshee cackles, it's funny and outre. By the 40th time, I was convinced that Ed Wood had taken over for the director while Newland was readying the infamous flop One Step Beyond: The Musical. There's no rhyme or reason to Agatha. We're not told whether she's mentally ill, senile, or just a happy camper. She's just a tool to make noise now and then and add "atmosphere," John Newland style.

JS: Perhaps Newland was using her to prevent the audience from dozing off. (oh, so we do agree about this mess. -PE).

PE: The two leads, Jane Greer and Robert Webber (who reminds me of a less world-weary Gig Young), do what they can with what they're given. Greer became famous playing dames in such noir classics as Out of the Past, The Big Steal, and They Won't Believe Me. Seeing her publicity pics from those flicks, I'm reminded of Paul Newman's classic line in The Verdict: "My God, you are some beautiful woman." She was. In 1957, she played Lon Chaney's second wife, Hazel, in the biopic Man of a Thousand Faces. Webber became a fixture on television through hundreds of guest star roles on shows like Police Woman, McMillan & Wife, Cannon and Ironside. Greer and Webber co-starred over at Hitch's place in "A True Account," during the 4th season in 1959.

OUR RATING:

The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk: Season 2 Episode 13

2010-10-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 12/18/61
Starring Jo Van Fleet, John Carradine, Paul Newlan.
Written by Donald S. Sanford, based on the short story by Margaret St. Clair.
Directed by John Brahm.

What is the secret behind Mrs. Hawk's remarkable pig farm? It can't be the hired hands as they seem to disappear shortly after they arrive. Three hobos (Carradine, Bruce Dern, Hal Baylor) think there may be money to be made from her through extortion, but it turns out Mrs. Hawk (Van Fleet) is always one step ahead of the men.

PE: What have we here? Proof that a Thriller comedy can be good. Yes, it's a bit overlong (but aren't they all?) but "Mrs. Hawk" pushes all the right buttons. There were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. Thriller veteran Paul Newlan ("The Cheaters," "The Grim Reaper," and "The Big Blackout") is as solid as always, here doing a turn as Sheriff Tom "Ulysses" Willetts and convincing me he's the real-life incarnation of a Basil Wolverton cartoon. Even John Carradine turns in a good performance. Hell, where's The Shat?

JS: Wow. Considering how you've rallied against several preceding episodes with a comedic slant, never in a million years would I expect you to stand up for this one. I actually think it's fair to call this episode overlong, particularly once it's clear what's going on. Despite a great performance by Van Fleet, this one-note story doesn't require (or deserve) an hour for the telling.

Van Fleet looking ever the Greek goddess...

PE: Jo Van Fleet is perfectly cast as Mrs. Hawk. She's got the look of an innocent, matronly woman most of the time but she can turn that into evil with just a shift of her eyes. Blink and you'll miss a very young Bruce Dern (ya gotta love that pierced heart tattoo on his scrawny tricep!).

JS: Again, if this had been a short segment in a multi-story episode, I might have been able to appreciate the cute bits that pay off at the end (my favorite being the sheriff's star). But an hour is a long row to hoe to arrive at frankly a rather silly 'twist' ending, in my opinion. I imagine there must have been any number of alternate paths the story could have taken along a crime route that would have bested this supernatural twist!

PE: SPOILER ALERT!! How about that perfectly nasty ending? Imagine if Samantha Stevens decided to turn Mrs. Kravitz into a hog and have her slaughtered. How long would Bewitched have remained America's #1 show?

JS: I don't think the audience would know any better—as long as Morty Stevens played the comedic music at the right time that tells them it's all fun and games. And one more thing I'm getting tired of—enough of the actors walking directly into the camera already!

PE: "The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk" turned up in the July 1950 issue of Weird Tales (along with the already-discussed "The Weird Tailor" by Robert Bloch) as "Mrs. Hawk." Margaret St. Clair also saw two of her better known short stories adapted for Night Gallery: "The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes," and "Brenda," about a young girl who falls in love with a corpse.

OUR RATING:

Thriller Three-Way: Larry Rapchak, #1 Thriller Fan

2010-10-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

Larry Rapchak is a professional conductor who works in the Chicago area with his orchestra, The Northbrook Symphony. He's also a composer and has had works commissioned and performed by the Chicago Symphony, and the major orchestras of Detroit, Cincinnati, Helsinki, and Omaha, among others. Larry has an intense interest in a limited number of popular-culture things—and "Thriller" happens to be one of them. He also has made two very funny Christmas videos:

PE: How did you get sucked into the Thriller vortex?

LR: I first encountered Thriller on Tuesday, April 18, 1961, when my late brother and I stumbled across "The Devil's Ticket"; what an introduction to the series, which was just entering its "golden period"!

We were rather sheltered in my home; during all of 1960, our parents had regularly bought us fantasy/sci-fi comics (the watered-down Comics Code stuff), granting us their somewhat-grudging approval to "lose ourselves" in the fantasy genre. We had also got a late start on Twilight Zone, which we first discovered in January, 1960. That meant that I saw the network premiere of "Long Live Walter Jameson", TZ's major horror offering that year; scared the crap out of me (a tender, impressionable 9-year old at the time). In the fall of '60 we caught both TZ's "Howling Man" and "Eye of the Beholder", both of which excited and frightened us. But that was about it, since there was very little on TV at the time that resembled real horror programming; true, you could catch theatrical horror films that had been sold to TV, but most of it aired at night (permission was rarely granted for us to stay up and watch), and those which ran in the late afternoon were often heavily edited. Our family went out to the movies fairly often, but we were generally "shielded" from the really scary, grotesque stuff.

JS: Tell us what it was like to discover the show when it was new.

LR: Discovering Thriller was indeed thrilling—here was a show that a) often featured truly horrific content and b) was presented in a legitimate, prime-time viewing slot on a major network! It immediately became standard viewing in our home. I clearly remember watching "Pigeons from Hell" with my mother and brother in the kitchen on June 6, '61; luckily it was a nice sunny evening outside, and still light enough to offer some sense of protection from what we saw on the screen. We had seen the promo the week before, which had ended with the shot of David Whorf walking out of the dark with his head split open; ("Hey—looks like a good one next week!)" I still remember the almost unbearable tension as Brandon deWilde makes his final ascent up the staircase near the end—holy crap, what a scene! Next week, it was the "Grim Reaper", and the week after, the summer rerun of "The Purple Room". What was amazing was how, within a few weeks' time, Thriller managed to build up our resistance to this sort of barely-tolerable terror. It was a unique experience and, after 50 years, I am stunned to find that the best episodes of the series still have that unique "something" that bores deep into the human psyche, quite unlike most anything else that I've seen.

JS: What's your favorite Thriller?

LR: I have no single favorite episode; I have five that all share a hallowed place in my humble opinion: "Pigeons from Hell," "Grim Reaper," "Waxworks," "The Weird Tailor," and "The Devil's Ticket". Interesting that four are Bloch stories and three were directed by Herschel Daugherty.

JS: What aspect of Thriller turns you on?

LR: The aspect of the show that turns me on is somewhat complex; it is deeply rooted in the time during which the show was created and aired—the "way the world was"—and the fact that those of us who were alive and aware of things in 1960 have a perspective on the show that youse' younger dudes could never have. The whole feeling of the 1950's, so closely tied to the immediate post-war period, was vastly different than the cultural millieu of the past 40 years. This was the era when horror pulps were still around but, perhaps more importantly for young people, the pre-code horror comics of the 50's, which had definitely embodied the spirit of these simpler, more "primal" times, and were still fresh in the public's mind. Check the cover of the 1948 Issue #1 of the ACG comic Adventures into the Unknown; to me, that's exactly the feel of that spooky, exciting, 1950's Halloween-type zeitgeist that I experienced as a kid (and which Thriller captured beautifully).

Also, the "Classic Monster Craze" was in full swing in the late '50's; Universal had released its seminal monster films to TV for late-night, local "Shock Theater" showings, Hammer Films was producing its new horror series for the theaters, William Castle was doing his nutty thing, and Famous Monsters of Filmland was flying off the magazine racks; these were the simple but deliriously delightful, horrific pleasures of the era. Then Hitchock's Psycho exploded on the scene in 1960 ; keep in mind it was made at Universal, in black and white, with a creepy haunted house, string-only score, Saul Bass titles with jagged lines that disappear at the end of the credits, etc, etc... it had a profound effect on the public and its capacity to endure screen horror.

In the fall of '59, The Untouchables debuted on tv and ignited a firestorm of controversy over its sensationalism, violence, cruelty, darkness, etc... thus really pushing the envelope for network tv as the 1960's dawned. Thriller was an outgrowth of all of these powerful influences; it's not only the incredible atmosphere and feel of the best Thrillers which is so great (anyone, no matter what age, can appreciate that), but the unique way in which it captures and embodies the "spirit of the times" in which it was created—and to experience that, you had to be alive and functioning back then.

The other great thing about the series is the incredible array of talent that worked on the show, both in front of and behind the camera: that once-in-a-lifetime stable of great character actors, most of whom had come from the New York stage, and the design and camera folks, most of whom had worked in the major studios and could produce amazingly good quality on a tiny budget in an impossibly short time span; true pros, all of them, whose work will hopefully endure.

JS: What word best describes Thriller for you?

LR: Unique.

JS: If Hell exists, what episode of Thriller would you expect to see shown on a continuous loop to people who arrive at the fiery gates?

LR: A loop of Mort Sahl endlessly repeating "Get in the World, will ya?" (looking straight into the camera.... in such an extreme close up that you could count his nose-hairs).

The Return of Andrew Bentley: Season 2 Episode 12

2010-10-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 12/11/61
Starring John Newland, Antoinette Bower, Philip Bourneuf.
Written by Richard Matheson, based on the short story by August Derleth and Mark Schorer.
Directed by John Newland.

Amos Wilder (Terence de Marney) is prepared to leave all his worldly possessions (including his massive estate) to his nephew, Ellis (Newland), but only after the man agrees to several restrictions. The one about staying in the house 24 hours a day understandably riles Ellis' wife, Sheila (Bower), since she's finding it a bit more than creepy keeping up their end of the bargain. Maybe things would go smoother if Amos wasn't buried in the basement?

JS: So here we are—the great Richard Matheson's sole contribution to Thriller. If only we were treated to an episode of his own creation, as opposed to this Derleth adaptation. That is not to say this episode is without merit, but given his pedigree, one would have to assume that there was a 4-Karloff episode of Thriller left unwritten by the Grandmaster of Horror.

PE: I know this is one of the episodes that has a great rep (Matheson script, dripping with atmosphere, John "One Step Beyond" Newland, yadda yadda yadda) but it didn't do much for me. I think the script is serviceable "for this kind of thing" but Matheson has obviously been much better (two of his five classic Corman flicks had already been released). One could lay blame at the feet of the original story, I suppose. I haven't read the story but I've nodded off to enough Derleth to know it can be a chore. I can just imagine Matheson at his typewriter, trying to find a new angle on a Weird Tales cliche.

JS: But look at some of the things Matheson does with the material. There's one particularly long stretch with no dialogue whatsoever. Not a word is spoken from Uncle Amos' death at the organ all the way through his interment and nephew Ellis' preparation of the vault door according to exact specifications. One would imagine in the hands of lesser writers these sequences would have been filled with dialogue merely to give the actors more to do. And Newland does a great job with his direction—the episode looks fantastic. But I find him a better director than actor.

PE: John Newland, the actor, is a mixed bag: at times, he's very good at projecting Ellis' sincerity (one thing I have to credit Matheson with is not turning this into another "greedy relative will do anything for the money" Thriller), he's agreed to his uncle's wishes and, despite the fact that Amos is dead and ostensibly wouldn't know whether his demands were met, Ellis is determined to follow those demands to the letter. Other times, Newland is wide-eyed and vacant. He almost seems nervous (I caught him twiddling his fingers in some scenes, resembling a Variety show host standing off to the side of a stage before introducing an act), perhaps wearing too many caps at one time. John Newland, the director, certainly knows how to frame his leading man, John Newland, the actor. His face always seems to be well lit and highlighted.

JS: I think the standout performance for me was Uncle Amos (de Marney). His eccentric behavior and sudden outbursts really set the tone of the episode right from the start.

PE: I hate to admit you may be right but for a different reason. de Mornay's outbursts ("EXXXXACCCTTTLLLYYY AS AYE DEMAND!!") and idiosyncrasies (check out Uncle Amos leaning on the fireplace while talking to his nephew) provided me with comic relief from the dull goings-on.

JS: Watch how he eats the food he tried and failed to get the bird to eat! And the way Newland responds to him also establishes the nature of their relationship, as a less familiar relative would not respond to such behavior so calmly. On the other end of the scale, my biggest disappointment, based on such high expectations, was Reggie Nalder's Bentley.

PE: He is not used to the effect he was back in "The Terror in Teakwood."

JS: In that he's not for a moment scary—you're absolutely right. I felt that his scenes were heavy handed and ham-fisted, as if Newland felt that since Nalder already looks kinda creepy, why put any effort into shooting him in such a way as to frighten the audience. Every time he was onscreen, it was matter of fact. Standing around waving his arms did not come across as menacing. (Very 1920s "silent movie" -PE)

JS: As for his 'Familiar,' I'm of mixed emotions about that, too. When you've got a less than satisfying 'creature,' it's not in your best interests to let the audience get a good look at it. By the end of the episode, we're given so many chances to examine it I felt it lost whatever mystique it had in our first brief glimpse of it.

PE: I kinda liked that you got to see the actor's chin through the mouth hole. I thought perhaps a recent meal for the wraith?

JS: When it comes to being scary, this episode gets it right with the music, from our old pal Morton Stevens. Not only is the organ music very effective, they also went to great lengths to unsettle the audience by sustaining the piercing tones well past the expected point leading into the commercial breaks.

PE: "The Return of Andrew Bentley" first appeared in the September, 1933 issue of Weird Tales. It was later reprinted in the Derleth/Schorer collection, Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People (Arkham House, 1966). Perhaps Derleth's greatest contribution to weird fiction was co-founding (with Donald Wandrei) Arkham House, a small press publisher that initially survived by reprinting H. P. Lovecraft. On the opposite end of the quality-meter, he created Solar Pons, a second (or perhaps third?) rate Sherlock Holmes, star of 70 interminably dull "adventures" (no, I have not read them all and, if I eat all my vegetables, will you please not make me?).

THE COMMENTARY:
JS: Our pals Gerani and Schow are back for more, and fill in plenty of interesting details (including the link between the 'Familiar' and The Creature from the Black Lagoon!). They also offer their opinions why this episode was not an ideal vehicle for either Matheson or Newland. As always, worth a listen.

OUR RATING:

Dialogues with Death: Season 2 Episode 11

2010-10-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 12/4/61
Starring Boris Karloff, Estelle Winwood, Ed Nelson.
Written by Robert Arthur, based on his short stories "When the Dead Talk" and "Calling All Corpses."
Directed by Herschel Daugherty.

Boris treats us to two stories dealing with communicating with the dead: the first concerns a morgue attendant (Karloff) who claims he can talk to his tenants. Then a wanted murderer (Nelson) and his wife come back to the old family estate to collect their inheritance.

JS: The first tale starts down a false path that might have made an interesting hour-long episode. It's unfortunate that the setup of kindly William Schallert as Dirty Harry gets set aside on the road to this episode's twist climax. This segment also contains what are probably the two best condition corpses to come out of a car accident. And who was that man in the middle of the road? (Well, Boris knew! -PE)

PE: We get both ends of the Karloff spectrum this episode: first, the tender side, in an understated performance as Pop Jenkins, the kindly old man who speaks to and consoles the newly dead, then as the slightly-more-than-daft Colonel Jackson Beauregard Finchess. I don't know about you, but the second Karloff showed in that get-up, I couldn't stop thinking of Christopher Walken as Colonel Angus on Saturday Night Live ("All the girls love Colonel Angus!").

JS: The second segment fortunately had a little more meat on its bones to enjoy. The southern plantation and mausoleum were much more interesting to look at than the drab interior of Karloff's morgue.

PE: Karloff steals the show as usual, but Ed Nelson puts in a good five days work in two equally disparate roles. He's the cocky and unfeeling reporter who takes advantage of old Pop Jenkins and then he really gets cooking as Daniel le Jean, the murderer on the run, looking to get rich quick no matter whose tomb he has to raid.

JS: I think the real scene stealer was Estelle Winwood as Aunt Emily Jenkins (I thought it was Shelley Duvall. Thanks for clearing that up! -PE). She gives a great performance, and right away you find yourself asking, I wonder who's already dead. Of course, I also felt the segment included the low point as well, Norma Crane as Danny's wife Nell. Sure, she was playing a fish out of water, but her hip-chick shtick fell flat in my book, daddy-o (Easy on the eyes though. -PE).

PE: Was it my imagination or was I hearing jungle noises ala Tarzan (ooo-ooo aaaa-aaa) in the scene where Daniel and his wife are heading for the mausoleum? It may have been my neighbors.

JS: You're crazy. Though I did keep listening for Voodoo Rhapsody to kick in...

PE: “Dialogues with Death” is based on two short stories by Robert Arthur: “Friend of the Dead” first appeared as by Arthur’s pseudonym Andrew Fell under the original title “When the Dead Talk” in Dime Mystery, June 1949; and “Welcome Home” originally appeared under the title “Calling All Corpses” in Dime Mystery, October 1948.

OUR RATING:

The Closed Cabinet: Season 2 Episode 10

2010-10-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

Originally aired 11/27/61
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?

JS: The return of the original Thriller Babe of the Week! And this time around, Olive Sturgess was given a little bit more to work with than "The Watcher."

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: Do we really need to bring up the word "atmosphere?" Sure, this thing has it, most of them do. Set your story in a dark castle or the abandoned plantation and you can't miss. Is it asking too much, though, for a decent storyline rather than this Barbara Cartland/Edwina Noone claptrap? At least we get some decent Thriller babes this go-round to ogle.

JS: Would you rather another dull crime episode? If you're not a fan of ghost stories, clearly you're not going to like this or "God Grante," but I think it's beautifully shot, with great production values. And I'm not just talking about Olive Sturgess.

PE: God Grante This Be The Laste Gothic Ghoste Story Aye Ever Have To Watche.

OUR RATING: