tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post5586105640660394299..comments2024-03-16T11:23:44.620-07:00Comments on A Thriller a Day...: Pigeons From Hell: Season 1 Episode 36John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-84301998979866322882023-10-08T03:22:04.838-07:002023-10-08T03:22:04.838-07:00This is Robert Garrick, a dozen years down the roa...This is Robert Garrick, a dozen years down the road. <br /><br />I always enjoy what Larry Rapchak has to say about the episodes. His comments are a highlight. It's an extra treat when Gary Gerani does the on-air commentary. Gerani's remarks here were stellar--personal, engaging, well-informed. <br /><br />A few people here have talked about the "awful," "annoying," "performances." The acting is usually pretty good on Thriller--it's the writing that's often lousy. Here, the writing was terrific, and so was the acting. De Wilde was fine, certainly more than adequate. Ken Renard and Crahan Denton couldn't possibly have been better, or better cast. Renard was used to provide exposition, and you couldn't take your eyes off his lined face, with every wrinkle accented by Lionel Lindon's lighting. Denton was a tough-as-nails, dead-serious, no-nonsense guy, and he gave the story absolute credibility. He was obviously scared, so we were too. <br /><br />Lindon's work was something. The camerawork on Thriller, even on the bad episodes, has never flagged. It's funny because Lindon did not have a particularly distinguished career. Mostly, he shot crappy, forgettable movies, and he did lots of television. Yes, he won an Oscar for AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, but that film was something of a freak and for years it was considered the worst film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar. I can't imagine he ever did anything better than "Pigeons From Hell." Ted Post said that Lindon was a genius and after seeing this and some of his other work on this show, I'm inclined to agree. <br /><br />Great score by Morton Stevens too. Everybody brought their A game to this one. <br /><br />It was Alan Warren, in his excellent book "This is a Thriller" (MacFarland Press, 2004) who said that "Pigeons From Hell" was not only the best episode of "Thriller," but probably the most frightening hour in television history. I don't have his book handy, but as I recall he said the other candidate was the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode "An Unlocked Window."<br /><br />I agree. I saw the Hitchcock when it was first broadcast and I've never fully recovered. It holds up. <br /> Luckily, I was a lot older when I watched "Pigeons" for the first time. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-84101560583329943002019-09-02T02:44:44.644-07:002019-09-02T02:44:44.644-07:00Yes, although Route 66 was just getting started ba...Yes, although Route 66 was just getting started back when Pigeons was made. The premiere episode was set in the Deep South, and as with Pigeons the dead hand of the past was alive in it (Black November, for those interested in that show). <br /><br />Pigeons is off the charts for me as to its quality. It never lets me down. Right from Karloff's droll opener it's a winner. The two young actors serve the material and are barely adequate. <br /><br />One of the many things that make this episode great (for me anyway) is its use of exposition as action. By that I mean as the facts behind what we see on screen are revealed the viewer gets a new perspective on what's going on. In this is plays sort if like a radio show, not to mention a short story (which it's based on).<br /><br />This is something akin to information as horror in addition to just seeing something as horror. The images that are most frightening are that way due to the context in which we see them. I find the painting of the Blassenville sister (Elizabeth, I believe) in the big room downstairs downright haunting in itself; also, beautiful, otherworldly.<br /><br />In this, darkly unsettling as it is, I find Pigeons From Hell a sort of gift that keeps on giving. I keep on noticing things I'd neglected before in earlier viewings. It never gets old or tiresome with me. This time I was keenly aware of the brilliant use of background music a a key factor in its effectiveness, john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-87532589199530879162019-09-02T00:17:50.311-07:002019-09-02T00:17:50.311-07:00Watching it again right now! Just noticed the simi...Watching it again right now! Just noticed the similarities in looks of the two brothers to Todd and Buzz from "Route 66" which was on at the same time as this episode. There are better Thriller episodes, but this is great! And it's one of the best (if not the only) adaption of a non-Connan-type story of Howard's.Jeff Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00316081079528920123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-32273379213405947332018-06-29T20:46:42.837-07:002018-06-29T20:46:42.837-07:00Yup. It's a powerful one, Pigeons. I love the ...Yup. It's a powerful one, Pigeons. I love the Robert Howard story, too, which is actually better than the episode; of its type, a classic. Best acting from Denton and Renard, the older guys, not so good from the young fellas, but WTF. This doesn't bother and never really has, as it's early Sixties television we're talkin' about here, and a fine example of what was,--weirdly, as I thin about it--on prime time back when JFK was running for president, then in the White House. Where's the wholesomeness of that era on Thriller? john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-38573795868567763762018-06-01T19:20:51.013-07:002018-06-01T19:20:51.013-07:00Was too young to see this as a child--Thriller was...Was too young to see this as a child--Thriller was the only show my mom actually said we could not watch for fear of nightmares. So, of course, I was looking forward to the DVD and especially "The Hungry Glass" and "Pigeons from Hell." After having read the short story many times, I thought this was an efficient retelling. There are some differences. The two introductory characters are not brothers in Robert Howard's short story, just friends. The creature upstairs whistles in the short story, she doesn't sing, and the main character does not follow his friend up the stairs. Instead, he watches him slowly walk down, and as his friend passes through a beam of moonlight, he sees the horrible head wound and upraised hatchet. I do believe the identity of the "zuvombie" is different, too. In the short story, it's actually Elizabeth Blassenfield who was turned into the creature by Eula Lee, who'd slipped the potion into her coffee. As for the Thriller episode itself, even with these changes, it manages to project a sense of just-out-of-sight horror, and I loved the mansion! Crahan Denton, who played "Mr. Cunningham" (who had an "entailment") in To Kill a Mockingbird, is effective, and though I like Brandon deWilde, I kept expecting him to shout, "come back, Shane!" All in all, a good effort, but not the scariest episode, in my opinion. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14373213925848992124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-32492955803902641492016-04-02T18:12:40.244-07:002016-04-02T18:12:40.244-07:00Occasionally I will revisit this blog and fondly r...Occasionally I will revisit this blog and fondly recall the fun we all had during it's "heyday". However, the July 21, 2013 comments re: Sheriff Buckner's use of the word "boy" in speaking to Jacob unfortunately remind me that we live in an age of feverish political correctness that seems obsessed in viewing the world as a cesspool of racial hatred and bigotry. C'mon, dudes, get a grip, lighten up and enjoy the show (and try using yer' damned brains)!<br /><br />"C'mon, boy" was (and is) a common EXPRESSION. I thoroughly doubt that any racial denigration was intended or implied here. Think about it: if Buckner had said: "'ATTA boy, get up", would our overly-sensitive friends have been offended? (Probably). "C'mon, boy" is the same sort of colloquial expression.<br /><br />And, before my comments propel anyone into a dead faint---follow me a little further: Buckner proceeds to treat Jacob seriously and respectfully as they talk, without condescension, right? <br /><br />Then, when the snake attacks, what does Buckner do?--- kick Jacob aside and say, "Aw, who cares; let the damn ______ die?" Uh....no, not exactly. He immediately attempts to save Jacob's life by making an incision on his arm so that he can use his WHITE, RACIST, Sheriff's lips to SUCK the poison out of the black man's arm!<br /><br />Thus, any calm, rational person would have understood that Buckner meant absolutely nothing offensive by saying "C,mon, boy" at the beginning of the scene.<br /><br />Upon discovering that Jacob is dead, what does Buckner do-- other than say that he'll return later to pick up the body, when he could have said "Aw, just leave the _____ here to rot". But, once again, he didn't.<br /><br />I bet our "Anonymous" guys would have preferred that he did, thus fulfilling their obsession in finding racial animus in every syllable of every word of every sentence that is uttered.<br /><br />Sorry if anyone finds my rant offensive, but I'm sick of this crap. Please, in the future--let's not have any more overwrought little droppings of this sort to mess up the blog. Our goal is to use the power or reason to analyze the onscreen fantasy---not to burden THRILLER and its creators with silly, irrelevant fantasies of our own. Larry Rapchaknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-8502662306230192942015-12-02T18:30:09.571-08:002015-12-02T18:30:09.571-08:00All great comments. I love the atmosphere, I love ...All great comments. I love the atmosphere, I love the hatchet. I think Brandon deWilde's performance is terrible, and that pretty much prevented me from entering the story as much as I would've liked. But I'd still rank this in the top ten of Thriller episodes. Even though I wouldn't call "The Guilty Men" horror (and usually I prefer horror) I like it better than this one. My favorite so far in rewatching all the episodes in order on the DVD set is "The Hungry Glass." There's just something I like better about the overall feel. Nonetheless, "Pigeons From Hell" is pretty great. But "The Grim Reaper," which I just watched last night, is also better. (I'm not a big William Shatner fan today, but I love him in these early Thriller episodes, and he was a completely gorgeous man.)Jack Rabbit, INLAND EMPIREnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-53655252250052043952015-09-22T21:41:19.665-07:002015-09-22T21:41:19.665-07:00I can't believe they gave this only 2 heads. T...I can't believe they gave this only 2 heads. This is the freakiest, scariest 50 minutes I've ever seen. 4 Heads!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-89429804347323998742015-05-10T16:46:17.841-07:002015-05-10T16:46:17.841-07:00Agree. Not bad considering the brothers weren'...Agree. Not bad considering the brothers weren't the best actors and the special effects were not up to today's computer designed standards. The black and white filming--great--don't try to make it colrized.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-61259274094011079332015-02-01T22:56:49.725-08:002015-02-01T22:56:49.725-08:00Agreed. This episode is wildly overrated. Agreed. This episode is wildly overrated. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-40523253860375343512015-01-29T21:24:58.539-08:002015-01-29T21:24:58.539-08:00I don't understand the high regard for this ep...I don't understand the high regard for this episode. It's boring and the acting is amateurish. Luckily, the infinitely superior Well of Doom was the first episode I saw of this series. If it had been Pigeons from Hell, I'm not sure I would have watched another. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-14068251598876585962015-01-13T02:52:24.129-08:002015-01-13T02:52:24.129-08:00At the risk of sounding redundant, yup. It's o...At the risk of sounding redundant, yup. It's one of the best. a not totally ireelevant aside: I watched Hud a couple of weeks ago. The Paul Newman picture from 1963, and Lo!--in an early scene we see a dead heifer surrounded by evil looking buzzards waiting to consume it, but for the presence of some humans---one of the actors portraying one of the humans is Brando de Wilde, another, Crahan Denton! <br /><br />This was less than two years after Pigeons From Hell aired on Thriller. An homage to the TV show? I rather doubt it, as Hud was serious, albeit mainstream art picture, filmed on location, I believe, and otherwise the plot bore no resemblance to Pigeons, though it too dealt with the effects of nasty goings on in a provincial American family in an isolated setting. The dead hand of the past as it aff affects the present is also a factor in the film, as it is in pigeons; but still, no pigeons, no zuvembies. Great movie, though.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-70566685921289242922014-11-18T18:48:24.590-08:002014-11-18T18:48:24.590-08:00Horrific episode! All-time best.Horrific episode! All-time best.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-54763681019884136962014-07-11T23:22:55.989-07:002014-07-11T23:22:55.989-07:00This is a very entertaining episode, except for th...This is a very entertaining episode, except for the fact that they changed the actual ending, robbing it of a really satisfying twist of an end. The REH story's ending is much more powerful than this rather tepid ending, which spoils an otherwise excellent adaptation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-60452034737931841932014-06-03T19:05:57.899-07:002014-06-03T19:05:57.899-07:00I enjoyed reading Howard's story, and I paid p...I enjoyed reading Howard's story, and I paid particular attention to the fact tht the identity of the zombie was changed when the story went from print to TV.<br /><br />I would like to see the printed version of "Dr. Markesan," but it seems to be out of print and a rare collector's item, or something.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-78194667231480445332014-05-23T18:19:05.456-07:002014-05-23T18:19:05.456-07:00Yes. JS--in retrospect-I agree with your take on ...Yes. JS--in retrospect-I agree with your take on this episode, and Grim Reaper is all alone at the top of the heap. The ME TV reruns start to dilute the original runs--even with the embedded commercials. <br /><br />JS: Nice of you to clarify that King didn't say it was the greatest. But even if he had, I would respectfully disagree. I enjoy a hatchet murder as much as the next guy (heck, perhaps moreso), and I still feel comfortable saying this is not one of the better Thriller episodes, let alone the best. And perhaps while cutting edge when released (sorry, I couldn't resist), that doesn't make it a better episode then than it is today.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-37893011296684909872014-05-09T04:15:09.177-07:002014-05-09T04:15:09.177-07:00I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw the ...I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw the parallels between "Pigeons" and "Man-Eating House". Very similar in feel, even if the plots are far apart.<br /><br />When I was recently posting something about THRILLER, I even started to do frame grabs of the houses from "Pigeons" and "Man-Eating", because I was going to show that the same house was used in both episodes. I soon discovered that I was wrong, but rewatching the shows I can see why I made the false connection. The houses, the surroundings, even how the directors shot the initial approach to both dwellings; all were very similar.Biffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162726794990296872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-40890677148835273762014-01-01T01:39:49.223-08:002014-01-01T01:39:49.223-08:00I watched Pigeons From Hell the other night, waite...I watched Pigeons From Hell the other night, waited for the sheriff's referring to Jacob Blount as boy when he went to wake him up and either I'm losing my hearing OR they edited the b word out. Otherwise, the ep played pretty much the same as before. I paid closer attention to the pigeon sounds this time and they only made noise when something "was up". Jacob heard them outside his shack just prior to the little brudder serpent bite.<br /><br />Brandon de Wilde's rising and going upstairs alone in a trance was well done but either there was an edit or maybe they wanted an element of surprise but it wasn't clear that Buckner was up there till he shot Eula Lee. He got four shots off at her when she came at the young boy, ought to have been lying on the floor but apparently (magically?) was (conveniently) "sitting dead" in a chair in the final moments of the episode. Did they move her? No matter. The dream-like nature of the episode makes it all okay. john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-66479285200538209802013-11-20T03:28:19.141-08:002013-11-20T03:28:19.141-08:00things.things.Allen Championnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-73694941238224190802013-11-20T03:27:07.006-08:002013-11-20T03:27:07.006-08:00I mean "What you can imagine...." I wis...I mean "What you can imagine...." I wish we could edit these thins post-post! (If not post-haste!)Allen Championnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-18388247319414436482013-11-20T03:24:16.809-08:002013-11-20T03:24:16.809-08:00Not the best episode, but definitely in the top fi...Not the best episode, but definitely in the top five. I can't give a "Best Episode" to one that doesn't actually have Karloff in it, so I pick MARKESON. <br />It's also not as good as Howard's original story--it's rare that I find a live action chiller as effective as the written word. "What you can imagination is scarier blah blah blah and all that" I guess . . . . . .Allen Championnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-62877779145640857832013-11-11T18:43:54.850-08:002013-11-11T18:43:54.850-08:00All points voiced above well taken. The most horr...All points voiced above well taken. The most horrific real grisly murder, not Texas Chain Saw Massacre exploitation hype. The black man dragged behind a pickup truck and dismembered by good awful good ole boys not far from 'GWB;s home in E Texas. Texas-a whole nuther country.<br /><br />Say when--not many years ago. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-54231456852533744812013-07-30T17:15:25.777-07:002013-07-30T17:15:25.777-07:00Wow, I've really enjoyed the controversy here,...Wow, I've really enjoyed the controversy here, and the comments defending the 'classic' designation of the episode speak for me. It has many flaws -- too many contrivances, and a too-cluttered story, which made it hard for the actors to seem credible. De Wilde never seems upset enough about losing his brother, and wouldn't he want to contact their parents immediately? The voodoo bit was obviously part of the original story, but was a needless complication for a fifty-some-odd minute episode. Couldn't Eula simply be the bitter, mixed-race, much-beaten madwoman in the attic? Wasn't that horrific enough?<br /><br />It is and would have been, because the fever-dream aspect of the episode which was so well described in a couple of comments above, comes partly because of the implications of a horrible, bitter history of unhappy people, a misery that lives on to poison the present day. And yes, the sudden violence of John's demise, the bloody head and the bloody hatchet (just a year after PSYCHO shocked America, and here it was on our TV screens) -- this is an episode with lots of echos and resonance. Not least racial ones -- Hynek above nails that -- I too thought about the ill-fated white college boys who went south in 1963 to enroll black voters only to be horribly murdered and dumped in shallow graves. Though the tangled racial and sexual legacies of the story were barely touched on, audiences had recently seen RAINTREE COUNTY and BAND OF ANGELS, two best-sellers about miscegenation that had been made into movies. Audiences then could fill in the blanks.<br /><br />And a word defending Brandon De Wilde. Viewers in 1961 would have remembered him fondly as a child actor in A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING and SHANE, and he scarcely looked any different, even as a young man. That open, childlike all-American face was the perfect foil for the unspeakable evil that he and his brother couldn't begin to grasp, a horrible legacy of a slavery and the south. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-67209109370031036402013-07-21T18:58:17.678-07:002013-07-21T18:58:17.678-07:00Anonymous said...They arrive at Jacobs shack. He’s...Anonymous said...They arrive at Jacobs shack. He’s an old raggedy man lying in his cot. Buckner starts shaking Jacob and says “I’ve got some questions I wanna ask you, Come on boy get up. (I was very offended at this gesture, Jacob was a very old southern black man and the use of the term ” boy” was a very racist remark. I don’t believe he would have referred to an old white male this way). <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-4164871742083064392013-07-21T18:33:12.602-07:002013-07-21T18:33:12.602-07:00 white men would and did refer to older black men ... white men would and did refer to older black men as “boy” when they were not actually using the “N” wordl. It was not only racist but it kept the black men “not grown”, not a “real man” in the Whites’ eyes. Like a child who must bend to the white man’s authority. <br /><br />And any time a woman is not “mindful” of her place (black or white or Asian), she is not considered human like men are human. How many times have you heard a woman of any colour referred to as a wildcat, a fox, a chick, a tomato, a skirt, a piece of ass (property), a dog (if she’s not pretty) and how about that common term for women now — bitch. <br /><br />Good article.<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com