tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post7275229025748028010..comments2024-03-16T11:23:44.620-07:00Comments on A Thriller a Day...: The Cheaters: Season 1 Episode 15John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-88631112181775715432023-08-22T09:31:22.021-07:002023-08-22T09:31:22.021-07:00Good comment Anon, and I was going to make the sam...Good comment Anon, and I was going to make the same observation. Isn't it the ultimate "spoiler" to mark an episode with the closing shock image? I just watched "The Cheaters" for the first time, and when I got to the end I thought: "Oh yeah, that guy. I saw him at the start of the show." <br /><br />What louts and clueless bozos those DVD guys were, to do that. <br /><br />It was a good episode, easily the best "Thriller" so far. But I didn't find it remotely scary. As a kid, I would have been scared by the last five minutes, but as an adult I yawned through it, and I figured the show would end with the image I'd already seen--which it did. <br /><br />Gary Gerani's commentary was excellent.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-26684857146923308902023-08-21T01:55:05.100-07:002023-08-21T01:55:05.100-07:00Robert Garrick here, with no Google account.
Th...Robert Garrick here, with no Google account. <br /><br />The most shocking moment in TV horror--and I really don't think there's much doubt about this--is the Alfred Hitchcock Hour presentation of "An Unlocked Window," which first ran on February 15, 1965. My mother allowed me to stay up, though it was way past my bedtime, because she didn't like to be up alone. (My father was out of town.) And then we watched THAT episode. It's still the most frightened and shaken up I've ever been, by anything on TV or in a movie theatre. And (unlike some of the Thrillers) it holds up.<br /><br />The Psycho house is used in the episode, and there's music by Bernard Herrmann, and the photography is by Stanley Cortez. The woman-in-peril is no other than Dana "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" Wynter. James Bridges wrote many of the best Hitchcock hours, and he wrote this one. And the competent Joseph M. Newman directed.<br /><br />At least one writer, somewhere (maybe in the MacFarland Press book, "This is a Thriller") says that "Pigeons from Hell" and "An Unlocked Window" were the two most frightening hours shown on commercial TV--ever--and that both were lucky to slip through the censors. Certainly that's true of the Hitchcock show.<br /><br />I'm getting to it late, but I'm enjoying your website. Most of the Thrillers so far have been awful (including "The Guilty Men"--awful) but the damage is mitigated by your amusing and learned comments.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-10546497098898709802022-06-08T00:57:42.517-07:002022-06-08T00:57:42.517-07:00Yes, Dean's responses to the man cheating him ...Yes, Dean's responses to the man cheating him at cards were correct as to what was happening, yet he was not, as a man, up to what he needed to do, which is count to ten, take a few deep breaths, and think about what to do next (emphasis on "think", not "who to kill"). It seems that the Cheaters (perhaps) drive people whom wear them mad rather than reveal the truth (or Truth) about someone or something.<br /><br />Does anyone who wears the Cheaters behave rationally upon<br />doing so? It seems not If so, why should the Truth (the Latin word for which is embedded on the glasses) be such a dangerous thing. It's not always easy to see or face up to a truth, or true thing, about oneself, but in my experience and through my observation I've seen that while the truth can hurt, it can also set one free. <br /><br />Taking into consideration the various dangers and implications of facing up to Truth or true things, whether it's person whose feelings one hurt, and who's angry over something one said or did, or realizing that one has, at last, fallen in love with someone, which has been reciprocated, and one is joyous and buoyant; both these things are truth. Yet there are ugly truths in the results of lab tests that give a diagnosis of an illness that can be fatal; also, good news when the results bring good news.<br /><br />An episode of a TV series like Thriller may not be high art; and in some cases can bring terror and sadness to the viewer; and yet there are lessons in the better episodes; and they can make one think. The Cheaters has caused me think a good deal over the years,--and not bad thoughts, either--and in its melodramatic framing it has helped me understand life somewhat better, more wisely, had I never watched the episode at all. <br />john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-18728227746161548462021-12-25T16:09:02.791-08:002021-12-25T16:09:02.791-08:00I have no beef with composer Pete Rugalo - it'...I have no beef with composer Pete Rugalo - it's just that his jazz-centric approach doesn't work with every episode that was scored by him. It's also interesting to hear Jerry Goldsmith's work prior to his cinematic composer's career.<br /><br />Goldsmith's score for "The Cheaters" is astoundingly effective: it's sheer unobtrusiveness is no small feat - its overarching sense of melancholy and loss really does support the pacing and direction. I also agree that the segment with Edward Dean (Weston) felt kinda forced. He knows who's cheating at cards, and then the accused turns the tables, and accuses him? Then, during the brawl, he gets a (fatal) konk on the head? In the words of the Church Lady, "How convenient!" Could've made more sense if the scene unfolded at say, a local saloon instead of Dean's drawing room. Fueled by alcohol, the (rightly) accused overreacts, and in desperation, attacks or shoots Dean dead; then, in the reveal, we find out that Dean's accusations were founded. Certainly a more plausible and organic exposition.David Gerardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03858152445325088221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-57979890890465093492021-12-09T02:43:03.165-08:002021-12-09T02:43:03.165-08:00There was a 1974 TV movie that told the story behi...There was a 1974 TV movie that told the story behind every owner of a certain handgun... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071590/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_6casydemarcohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16300173612917513839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-46357984961138770172020-08-10T03:36:01.932-07:002020-08-10T03:36:01.932-07:00I think that the Cheaters are truthful up to a poi...I think that the Cheaters are truthful up to a point, but a lot of their effect has as much to do of the truth as seen by those who wear them as to objectivity per se. We all, each of us, has his own version of the truth (or Truth, if you will). We each process this differently.<br /><br />In this, the Devil is not so much in the details as in our groundedness in a cold, loveless world and, by implication, universe. We're players in the game, not masters of it; nor can we be. We have our God, and I believe in God, yet not as a sort of chess Grand Master of the galaxies; more something spiritual, near spectral, which we can access, cannot and never can wholly understand. <br /><br />I'm lapsing here into a kind of meta-eschatology, with additional theological musings outside the scope of a now sixty year old TV series that specialized in horror. However, it was a good show, for some of us a great one; and for many, certainly, a seminal one. For my part, I'm reading a lot into it that many others cannot or refuse to see, much less ponder. <br /><br />To return to The Cheaters, this is as good as any episode I can think of as typical of what that amazing series was, and how it sparked the imaginations of so many of us in our formative years. Even decades later it still works its charms (as it were); and while often very frightening it was also provocative. Yet as disturbing as Thriller so often was I remember it with affection and a kind of love. It could rattle me, but I always knew I was watching a TV show designed to entertain, and I accepted in on those terms; and I still do.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-44903125265209857802018-07-28T12:58:11.745-07:002018-07-28T12:58:11.745-07:00Need help to catch and find out about a cheating p...Need help to catch and find out about a cheating partner, spy and track on GPS location, need help with phone hack and gain unrestricted access to all partners texts and deleted messages, get to see all call logs remotely without partner getting to find out, recover lost password, remove unwanted content from the internet and lots more can be done for you. Find: certifiedhacker4real at gmail dotcom for help out.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17176286280660441068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-18180629870707304372016-03-12T07:09:44.416-08:002016-03-12T07:09:44.416-08:00Point taken, however I view Grimm as the (unoffici...Point taken, however I view Grimm as the (unofficial) narrator of the tale even as we are introduced to him in the last leg of the journey. <br /><br />He is or appears to be rather upper class, is articulate and well educated,--and he's only character in the story, aside from Van Prinn the "alchemist" who qualifies as an intellectual--which makes him a sot of master detective, the man most likely to get to the bottom of what the Cheaters really are, why they affect people as they do.<br /><br />Downside from Grimm, as for Van Prinn: hubris. He had to take that look in the mirror, and those final few minutes of the episode are the most frightening of all. In the end, Grimm isn't up to it (and that's putting it mildly). If one can see the episode as a study in vanity, of self-absorption, the lust for wealth and, in Grimm's case glory, it's not only a grand horror tale but a moral one as well.<br /><br />The moral is quite subtle, and it takes some pondering to get there, but after many viewings I finally got it. Maybe because of this it's the most truly frightening of all Thrillers, as it's far more than a horror tale. There's actually a lesson in it for us all.<br /><br />For this reason if for no other I think it's Thriller's best episode. It's not the most grisly, nor the most atmospheric, and the middle section rather drags, but when it gets down to business it delivers the goods. It's a Thriller to actually think about.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-10449158724495186692015-10-14T19:45:45.881-07:002015-10-14T19:45:45.881-07:00The chief flaw with this episode IMO is that the e...The chief flaw with this episode IMO is that the entire business with Grimm seems hopelessly tacked on. He's a character we only barely have time to get introduced to, necessitating an overly rushed bit of exposition on his part for us to learn that he has (very implausibly) managed to make all the connections in the history of the spectacles ownership and then we get sent up with a climax about the nature of his soul but honestly just *why* is his character being greeted to this? Or is this a fate that is reserved for *anyone* who wears them and looks into the mirror? Effective as the story is, this is a plot point that IMO is not handled very well and keeps the episode from being worthy of four stars IMO. Maybe if we'd been introduced to Grimm earlier in the story and gotten an insight into his character, the ending would have been even more effective.ericpaddonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05880416865587861007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-18751208181311075362015-06-07T16:02:34.868-07:002015-06-07T16:02:34.868-07:00Yes, I agree--no more comments since 2014?Yes, I agree--no more comments since 2014?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-16472579532652978592014-07-01T14:39:24.425-07:002014-07-01T14:39:24.425-07:00Supposedly, the wearer of the spectacles saw into ...Supposedly, the wearer of the spectacles saw into his inner soul or whatever we substitute for the religion of our choice--he came off as, a, well, Dorian Gray type without benefit of not aging.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-15822222857648309662014-07-01T04:48:25.432-07:002014-07-01T04:48:25.432-07:00Just watched this eye glasses show for the first t...Just watched this eye glasses show for the first time at<br />3AM on Me-TV. What was that ending scab face in the <br />mirror all about? I don't get it. Please explain further.<br />OFW oldflagswantedhttp://www.movieflags.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-83213992807669215442014-06-30T23:15:47.259-07:002014-06-30T23:15:47.259-07:00Right on your last point. All they needed was a st...Right on your last point. All they needed was a still of Daniell wearing the "cheaters". That would be plenty scary enough.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-58927988863122775182014-06-30T23:12:12.822-07:002014-06-30T23:12:12.822-07:00He probably was lusting after her money. Get rid o...He probably was lusting after her money. Get rid of Joe, then get rid of her.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-44120687479800803822014-02-21T11:35:21.117-08:002014-02-21T11:35:21.117-08:00While it's lost most of it's punch with 50...While it's lost most of it's punch with 50 years of advances in special effects, back in the day, the gremlin reveal was certifiably terrifying. Shatner is so good in that role, and the Tuttle makeup is primo. One of television's greatest shock moments ever.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-6121657006453701582013-12-14T01:44:27.919-08:002013-12-14T01:44:27.919-08:00Loved this episode except for the suspension of di...Loved this episode except for the suspension of disbelief needed to buy that Ed Nelson was lusting after Junkman Joe's 15-to-20-years-older-than-him wife (who in turn seemed a decade or two younger than Junkman Joe).<br /><br />That was almost as bad as the suspension of disbelief needed to buy that Kevin James could get a hot chick like Leah Remini in King of Queens.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-29787497862009833472013-11-14T18:11:08.906-08:002013-11-14T18:11:08.906-08:00Dorian Gray. That was a static display a la the G...Dorian Gray. That was a static display a la the Grim Reaper painting but absolutely macabre. Don;t believe Serling did this one in Night Gallery-certainly ripe for the production. Too bad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-53646725894202690372013-06-01T16:02:22.974-07:002013-06-01T16:02:22.974-07:00I totally agree that this was the first real "...I totally agree that this was the first real "thriller" upstaging the Purple Room. However, in terms of shock effect, the final scenes showing the fatal choice made by our misguided hero" does not compare to the horribly macabre picture of Dorian Grey. I note the Grim Reaper prop--that should be another category--best props. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-32980985036478258532012-01-08T11:55:05.168-08:002012-01-08T11:55:05.168-08:00This episode is tightly wound, with little filler ...This episode is tightly wound, with little filler to protract the running time. That’s because it is, in a sense, 5 short stories, or 4 shorts and a pre-title vignette. Each story follows the same pattern but without becoming repetitious. Together the stories add up to one narrative whole.<br /><br /> Though employed only in the first of the 4, the gimmick is most clever where the mind-read thoughts of mayhem heard by the junkman (Paul Newlan) are re-stated aloud with an innocent spin.<br /><br /> I wish the commentary had paid some attention to Henry Daniell, whose character invents the cheaters. However, he does get some attention in the track about “Well of Doom.”<br /><br /> It’s a shame that the dvd chose for its background image the climactic revelation of what the Harry Townes character saw in the mirror. That reduces the shock for the first-time viewer.Stephen Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03833474733614713615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-40638745285766983572012-01-07T21:38:25.852-08:002012-01-07T21:38:25.852-08:00I remember the final scene of this scaring the cra...I remember the final scene of this scaring the crap out of me when I was a child and has stuck with me since then. What I had forgotten (or didn't appreciate at the time) was Mildred Dunnock's performance as what hynek called "kelpto-granny." She has this wonderful sense of animal cunning when she's feigning drowsiness with her nephew's wife and trying to lift object and even when she's getting ready to kill the old man. And I love her drunk scene later. Does she toast the old guy by clinking on the glass in his hand or the hatpin sticking out of his chest? Either way, it's a great bit. I hated to see her go up in flames.Frank Millernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-35802889106657174492011-08-14T16:29:34.782-07:002011-08-14T16:29:34.782-07:00After churning out crime dramas of varying quality...After churning out crime dramas of varying quality, the Thriller staff surprises with this gem. <br /><br />As I've posted earlier, I don't mind the crime dramas, but none of them have that intangible horror/mystery element that is capable of producing maximum impact, such as The Cheaters.<br /><br />The premise of being able to mind read is not unique to the arts, but it's a given an interesting twist by using a pair of spectacles to bring on the power.<br /><br />The opening scene with the alchemist from years past sets our story up nicely. Just a quick question, were there any scientists from back in the day who didn't bring upon themselves the wrath of horror. Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, etc.?<br /><br />The first trio we are introduced to are a henpecked sad sack of a husband, his cheating wife and her lover. The smallish and ordinary stature of the Van Prinn residence belies the extraordinary treasure that has been resting inside. Lucky for Junkyard Joe he stumbles upon the Cheaters just before his wife and her boy toy are about to bump him off with a last supper. For a moment there I thought that Joe was going to intellectually counter the cheaters with a clever plan, but no, Joe was far too much the simpleton and counters with good old fashioned rage of passion.<br /><br />Next to stumble upon the cheaters is klepto-granny. The problem with granny is that she's in the way of an inheritance to her ungrateful kin. Granny gets wise to the plan to bump her off and uses every favorite granny murdering weapon, a knitting needle.<br /><br />Fast forwarding a year, the cheaters are still in the family, but undiscovered. Lucky for us there is an upcoming costume party and the cheaters are just the perfect accoutrement for granny's nephew's Ben Franklin outfit. During a poker game, the cheaters do what they are designed to do and we soon have the fourth death attributed to these harmless spectacles. <br /><br />Now we're in the home stretch. The keenly observant Sebastian Grimm was quick to make the connection between the unusual deaths and that ordinary looking pair of spectacle. Grimm explains the powers of the cheaters to his wife and is eager to subject himself to their powers. Sebastian takes them back to their birth house, the old Van Prinn residence, and then dons them where all of his inner being is revealed to poor old Grimm as he manically proceeds to lose it.<br /><br />I put on the Cheaters for my eye exam and I see three and a half Karloffs.Hynekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08641908347705520084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-68955630318521539682011-06-28T13:27:06.978-07:002011-06-28T13:27:06.978-07:00Hey Guys! Jo Gabriel aka MonsterGirl at The Last D...Hey Guys! Jo Gabriel aka MonsterGirl at The Last Drive In still lives! <br /><br />It's way cool of you to mention me. I am really trying to blog more lately. Although I tend to be long winded. Love your site. It's very fun. Glad we love Boris in common. I've got some more Thriller posts coming up.<br /><br />Your scoring method is cute! Stop by the drive in sometime. Joey MonsterGirl<br />http://monstergirl.wordpress.com/monstergirlhttp://monstergirl.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-43230411866277569592011-05-02T06:13:17.289-07:002011-05-02T06:13:17.289-07:00An excellent THRILLER episode. Everything from th...An excellent THRILLER episode. Everything from the music to the fine performances and a frightening, yet interesting tale. I think that's the difference here. The story is unique and grabs hold of you. Everyone at some time has wondered what it would be like to read another's mind. <br /><br />I particularly liked how the lighting and shadows played differently as the wearer heard their thoughts. I wasn't bothered by the "interthought conversations". It just added to the fun.<br /><br />"3 1/2 Karloffs". Nice job.SoSo Cinemahttp://www.sosocinema.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-13446033752881842132011-04-11T09:54:38.775-07:002011-04-11T09:54:38.775-07:00This was my first THRILLER - 50 years ago. I was 1...This was my first THRILLER - 50 years ago. I was 13, an avid Famous Monsters reader, and it still shocked me! That face was something you just didn't see back then. Now I'm more inclined to ask why he looked like that. What did it mean? But, hey, I've kept that image in my head for half a century. That, to me, is a testament to the power and timeliness of this program.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3413477571485423494.post-90914768878574405432011-02-17T01:27:40.687-08:002011-02-17T01:27:40.687-08:00I love The Cheaters, which is solid from start to ...I love The Cheaters, which is solid from start to finish, and begins to feel a bit surreal at the costume party near the end. A nice touch, segues into the final Sebastian Grimm part of the story.<br /><br />Does anyone have any thoughts as to how 1960 audiences responded to the last scenes? The ones with Grimm alone in the Van Prinn house, hearing the voice, going mad, ripping his face off fuh cryin' out loud!--this is 1960 televison, Ozzie and Harriet era--and the last thing we see is his wife banging on the door. <br /><br />Television was very different back then (duh!), all black and white. Issues were supposed to be wrapped up at the end of every show, whether it was Dragnet or I Love Lucy. The Cheaters doesn't tell us what happened to Grimm (the story does), and the viewer is left wondering. This is my favorite Thriller ending. No leaping out the window a la Shatner, no grannies on fire, just a man shrieking in physical and emotional agony. Egads, what an episode! Harry Townes seals the deal. I can't imagine anyone else doing it better.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com