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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 03:55 pm:   

I've decided that my adventures watching this fabulous TV show deserve a thread of their own. It all started here:


I've just taken a bit of a gamble by ordering the US Region 1 complete box set of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' (1960-1962) - there's no chance of it ever seeing the light of day over here ffs - and I have a multi-region DVD player. The gamble is that it only cost £20 and is Used but said to be in "Very Good" condition from a highly rated seller on Amazon Marketplace.

As the set is now selling for over £90 new and may never be released again I couldn't resist the chance of seeing it. All 67 hour long episodes of what is purported to be the greatest horror anthology TV series ever made. To me this series represents the Holy Grail of televisual terror! Fingers crossed the gamble pays off...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 03:57 pm:   

It arrived!! I hold in my hands the Holy Grail of television horror and can barely believe it! The complete box set of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller'. I'll be running home after work praying my multi-region DVD player and TV can play this okay. If so this has just become one of my most treasured possessions. 67 fricking hours worth!! <gulp>
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 03:57 pm:   

It plays!! Hallelujah!!!! The first episode was a brilliant psycho suspense thriller starring Leslie Nielsen - of all people - that was obviously inspired by Patricia's 'The Talented Mr Ripley'. A psychotically jealous little man and compulsive criminal sets about destroying his boss and assuming his identity. This was like watching a classic film noir movie the production, acting, script, direction, music and glorious chiarascuro b&w cinematography were that good! Stephen King didn't exaggerate the quality of this show and Boris Karloff's pitch perfect introduction was the very model of atmospheric scene setting. To think there are another 66 hour long episodes of this quality to come. Jesus H. Christ, there is a God!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:00 pm:   

Episode 1 was called "The Twisted Image" and Leslie Nielsen was indeed very good in it as the harassed boss but George Grizzard stole the show as his slimily envious nemesis. The quality of the production was astonishing! It was directed by Arthur Hiller and written by James P. Cavanagh. It also boasted a great jazzy score that really suited the mood.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:02 pm:   

Watched Episode 2 of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' last night.

"Child's Play", directed by Arthur Hiller & written by Robert Dozier, while not nearly as gripping as the opener, was still a beautifully made and acted little domestic drama with a macabre slant. An eleven year old boy, troubled by witnessing persistent rows between his parents, takes his father's hunting rifle and a box of shells and goes on a bit of a psychotic rampage through the surrounding countryside. The action culminates in him holding an innocent fisherman at gunpoint and projecting all his subconscious hatred of his father onto him, as an invented villain called Black Bart. All very tense and psychologically penetrating with not as cosily predictable a happy ending as one might imagine. I thoroughly enjoyed it in a quality "play of the week" kind of way.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:02 pm:   

An interesting addition to the "evil child" sub-genre that was so popular and never better done than at that time (late 50s/early 60s).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:04 pm:   

Time for a recap of the last three episodes of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller':

Ep3: "Worse Than Murder" directed by Mitchell Leisen & written by Mel Goldberg - a grim tale of dark family secrets, murder and blackmail in which all the characters are roundly despicable and out to do each other over for the family inheritance - with Constance Ford relishing her part as the arch-bitch femme fatale at the centre of the plotting. Again this is just like watching a top quality hour long film noir thriller made for the cinema.

Ep4: "The Mark Of The Hand" directed by Paul Henreid & written by Eric Peters - another twist on the evil child sub-genre this one presents the investigating detective with an innocent looking little girl who has just shot a man to death in cold blood and then proceeds to try and do in her stepmother with a knife as well. When questioned the girl stubbornly refuses to speak and the child psychologists are called in. A clever little mystery with the usual excellent acting and production values.

Ep5: "Rose's Last Summer" directed by Arthur Hiller & written by Marie Baumer - the suspicious death of an aging and once famous movie starlet, long descended into self-pitying alcoholism, leads her ex-husband and doctor to turn amateur detectives as they are convinced she was murdered. Boasts a neat if gimmicky twist ending and a bravura performance by Mary Astor as Rose.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:06 pm:   

Episode 6 of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller', "The Guilty Men", is directed by Jules Bricken and written by John Vlahos. It is a fascinating mini-gangster epic telling of three boys rise from childhood friends in the backstreets of New York to different degrees of "success". The first becomes a respected doctor caring for the poor, the second becomes a top lawyer, of the crooked variety, and the third fights, steals and kills his way to become the head of one of the Mafia's largest crime syndicates. The story concentrates on them as older men looking back over their lives and facing their own mortality with a mixture of pride and fear. This is a neat little morality play with a killer pay-off and great performances by familiar faces; Everett Sloane, Frank Silvera & John Marley. Quality stuff as ever.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:07 pm:   

Time for a recap of recently watched episodes of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller':

Ep7: "The Purple Room", written and directed by Douglas Heyes, was the first pure scary-as-feck gothic horror episode of the show. Made as a one-off Halloween special it had such an impact that the producers were eventually convinced to move away from crime thrillers and dedicate the programme entirely to horror. Even Boris Karloff relishes his candelabra clutching intro in this one so it was a no-brainer really. This is a stone cold classic haunted room yarn featuring your typical spooky mansion and the shunned bedroom of the title in which bloody murder was committed 100 years before. Rip Torn plays the hard-headed sceptic who dares to spend a night in the purple room despite all warnings and the rest is as gloriously, atmospherically cliched as one could hope for... up to a point. It also boasts a fine twist. Absolutely wonderful and with several scenes - one in particular - that had the hair standing up on my head!!

Ep8: "The Watcher”, directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sandord, stands up as one of the most groundbreaking TV dramas of its era that I have seen. This features a very young Richard Chamberlain as a teenage hunk in a small American town who is secretly lusted after by a self-loathing creepy old “born again chistian” religious nut – chillingly played by Martin Gabel. Pretending to take the boy under his avuncular wing this arch-hypocrite is eaten up with jealousy at the parade of girls who continually turn the lad’s head and is driven into a self-righteous homicidal rage in which he proceeds to murder his “rivals” one-by-one as “brazen Jezebels” who would corrupt the golden youth he longs to... well, you know. A brilliant psychological thriller of nail-biting suspense.

Ep9: “Girl With A Secret”, directed by Mitchell Leisen and written by Charles Beaumont, is a nifty Hitchcockian spy thriller in which the wife of an American agent is placed in an impossible position by stumbling upon one of her husband’s most important secrets and being unable to tell a soul – not even her own family - as it would mean his cover being blown and instant death while away from home on his latest mission. Of course the bad guys come calling and she’s left all on her own with no one to trust. The story plays with the test of trust between husband and wife quite ingeniously as, up until then, she had no idea what his real job was... and even now, can she believe that he is what he claims to be? Top quality entertainment as ever.

Ep10: “The Prediction”, directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sandford, is another stone cold classic supernatural horror episode starring Boris Karloff himself as a fake stage Swami who claims to foretell the future of random audience members. Then one night he is struck by a hideous premonition that a boxer is going to be killed in the ring and tries desperately to stop the fight... to no avail. From there the man finds himself haunted by visions of impending death for random people he comes into contact with and slowly begins to lose his mind as each and every prediction comes horribly true. Everything about this one is sublime right up to the brilliantly macabre twist ending. Karloff is remarkably intense and moving as the anguished fortune teller.

Ep11: “The Fatal Impulse”, directed by Gerald Mayer and written by Philip MacDonald, features Elisha Cook Jnr as a mad bomber who terrorises a city by placing a pocket-sized bomb in a random woman’s handbag, encountered in a crowded lift, that is timed to explode at 11pm. The rest of the episode is a riveting exercise in escalating suspense with a wonderfully sympathetic no-nonsense performance by Robert Lansing as the increasingly pressurised police lieutenant in charge of the hunt for the unwitting walking bomb. There’s nothing particularly original here but the simplicity of the set-up coupled with the commitment of the cast results in a true gem of a nail-biter – with a nicely judged vein of black humour to boot.

Ep12: “The Big Blackout”, directed by Maurice Geraghty and written by Oscar Millard, is another entertaining film noir crime thriller that sees a recovered alcoholic, who had been prone to weeks long drunken blackouts, and is now happily married and the captain of a chartered fishing boat, have his shady past come back to haunt him in the form of a motley assortment of vicious hoodlums who call him by another name and are convinced he knows where a fortune in drugs is stashed. Of course he genuinely hasn’t a clue what the hell they’re talking about but he needs to find out fast as they’ve kidnapped his wife and baby daughter and will not hesitate to execute them if he fails to come up with the stuff. Jack Carson is believably bewildered as the self-doubting hero.

Ep13: “Knock Three-One-Two”, directed by Herman Hoffman and written by John Kneubuhl, is easily the best written and acted of the crime stories so far and not least because it features the great Warren Oates in a typically captivating performance as a mentally subnormal newspaper salesman who is convinced he is the one who has been strangling women in the city – during mental blackouts – but no one will believe him, not his friends, not the police, not the press, no one. To them he is poor harmless Benny the loveable local dimwit. But that’s only one of the strands in this ingenious story. Add to that a gambler heavily in debt to the mob who has been given only three days to pay up or he’ll be six feet under and one of the most cruelly clever “perfect murder of a spouse” plots I’ve ever come across all interweaving brilliantly until the viewer’s expectations are left admirably tied in knots, right up to the absolutely perfect ending, and we’re talking another stone cold TV classic!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:08 pm:   

Don't know how I forgot to mention but what made "The Purple Room" episode even more memorable was that it was all shot in and around that house from 'Psycho' (1960) - and looked every bit as cinematic!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:08 pm:   

'Boris Karloff's Thriller' update and one of them is an absolute corker:

Ep14: "Man In The Middle", directed by Fletcher Markle and written by Howard Rodman, was a fairly routine but entertaining noir crime thriller involving an ordinary joe, played by Mort Sahl, who accidentally overhears a plot to kidnap and murder a society heiress while sitting by himself in the pub. His actions, having been unable to convince her or her family of the threat, are to kidnap her himself until the danger has blown over. This promising set-up is unremarkably handled and suffers from an unconvincingly lacklustre lead performance. Perfectly watchable but nothing special.

Ep15: "The Cheaters", directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sanford, was, however, another kettle of fish entirely and the best episode of the show so far, imho. Based on a Robert Bloch short story this tells the positively M.R. Jamesian tale of a pair of cursed spectacles (or “cheaters” of the title) created by an infamous alchemist cum sorcerer, Dirk Van Prinn, hundreds of years before. Inscribed with the word “Veritas” they show nothing but the truth to the wearer and forced their creator to hang himself on looking in a mirror in the wonderfully frightening intro. Jump forward to the early 60s and one unlucky antique dealer comes into possession of them. From there we have a four story portmanteau horror classic with the glasses passing from one unfortunate owner to the next, all of whom come to ingeniously grisly ends and all of whom are cheaters, in their own sad way... right up until an unscrupulous sensationalist hack writer, Sebastian Grimm, played wonderfully by Harry Townes, works out the history of the specs and comes to understand their power. But all the time the temptation to find out the truth about himself eats away at his soul. The ending, when Grimm returns to the old Van Prinn house and dares to try and cheat his own fate is a horror tour de force!!

This series was exceptional from the start but now it’s really cooking!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:09 pm:   

Watched three more BKT episodes:

Ep16: "The Hungry Glass", written and directed by Douglas Heyes, even topped "The Cheaters" as a stone cold classic gothic horror episode and was again based on a Robert Bloch short story. This is one of the most perfect haunted house tales I have ever seen produced for television and starred William Shatner in yet another great genre role years before 'Star Trek'. The man seemed to have a golden touch when it came to appearing in these kind of shows; AHP's "The Glass Eye", TTZ's "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet", TOL's "Cold Hands, Warm Heart", etc. The story involves your typical all-American newlywed couple moving into their "dream home" in the country and mildly puzzled to find not a single mirror in the place. Then the wife, Joanna Heyes, discovers a secret room in the attic lined with mirrors and all hell proceeds to break loose! Marvellously atmospheric, unrelentingly grim in tone and scary as feck this is what I dreamed of watching when I thought about this show! Fantastic late night spooky entertainment!!

Ep17: "The Poisoner", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert H. Andrews, was a deliciously black comic and atmospheric gaslight murder tale of a heavily in debt Victorian aristocrat who takes to poisoning off his irritating relatives one-by-one for financial gain. The episode is made memorable by an outrageously suave and wittily erudite lead performance from Murray Matheson that would even have put Vincent Price to shame. Incredibly the story is based on the real life exploits of multiple poisoner, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847)! Highly entertaining stuff as ever.

Ep18: "Man In The Cage", directed by Gerald Mayer and written by Stuart Jerome, saw a return to modern crime material with a routine but enjoyable tale of smuggling, double crosses and murder in Tangiers. Philip Carey plays an American businessman who travels to Morocco in search of his missing younger brother and becomes embroiled in a deadly plot involving international gun-runners and a vicious band of Arab radicals. There is one brilliant sequence in this episode that instructs the viewer how to escape from a securely locked iron cage with nothing more than a length of rope and a stick that is worth watching for alone! It's now filed away in the "handy survival tips" area of my brain.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:10 pm:   

Couldn't resist a late night double bill of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' last night. Another two excellent mini-films, the secone one exceptional:

Ep19: "Choose A Victim", directed by Richard Carlson and written by George Bellak, was a classic twisty murder tale of a petty criminal beach bum (Larry Blyden) who uses his wiles and macho charm to seduce a lonely and beautiful rich heiress (Susan Oliver) with plans to marry her and get a piece of the high life - if it weren't for her tyrannical uncle guardian (Vaughn Taylor). He coaxes her into murdering the old git and making it look like an accident, so the whole fortune comes to her, and... let's just say there are a few juicy twists. Again this was just like watching an hour long film noir crime thriller made for the cinema - and it isn't half as predictable as it sounds, in a wonderfully Highsmithian kind of way.

Ep20: "Hayfork And Billhook", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Alan Caillou, blew me away with its perfect Hammer Horror atmospherics and iconic plot of a Scotland Yard detective inspector (Kenneth Haigh) honeymooning with his beautiful young wife (Audrey Dalton) in Wales when he gets roped into the investigation of a ritual witchcraft murder in the remote border village of Dark Woods! The victim was found pinned to the ground with a hayfork in the middle of an ancient stone circle, used for druid sacrifices, and had a cross carved into his throat with a billhook. Compelled to track down the murderer, despite open hostility from the creepy locals, he finds himself drawn ever deeper into a world of witchcraft and satanism while his dark-eyed wife is haunted by visions of a sinister black dog, said to presage hideous death and only to appear to those with knowledge of the "old religion". Yes, it's every bit as goosepimply atmospheric and scary as it sounds and surely must have had a profound influence on the folk horror boom of the late 60s-early 70s, 'The Wicker Man' (1973) in particular. Can this remarkable series possibly get any better?!?!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:10 pm:   

As I'm sat in dosed with the cold this weekend I've had time to watch another two excellent episodes of BKT:

Ep21: "The Merriweather File", directed by John Brahm and written by John Kneubuhl, is truly one of the most ingenious whodunit murder mysteries I have seen produced for television! An apparently innocent man called Charles Merriweather (Ross Elliott) appears to have been framed for the murder of a complete stranger when an unidentified corpse is found by a roadside mechanic in the boot of his car. There has already been a murder attempt made on this bewildered ordinary joe's deeply neurotic wife, Ann Merriweather (Bethel Leslie), who still grieves for their young boy killed in a tragic accident three years before. Their concerned next door neighbour, and bachelor, Howard Yates (James Gregory), who harbours a secret love for Ann, turns amateur detective in an attempt to prove his friend's innocence while Police Lt Giddeon (Edward Binns) has no doubt that Merriweather is their man - especially after he is proved to have lied about having huge gambling debts and a kept mistress (K.T. Stevens) with shady connections. Twist after twist leaves the viewer swinging one way after another as to the true murderer's identity and how all this links up on the attempt to kill Mrs Merriweather and the death of their boy. The final explanation had me cursing for getting it half right and glowing with admiration for the cleverness of the writer (this was based on a novel by Lionel White). It's an absolute corker made with great almost giallo-like style and wonderfully committed performances from a top-notch cast of familiar faces. One of the best of the series that will have you mulling over its convolutions and shocker of a perfect ending for quite a while after!! And it is solveable... the culprit is one of the principal characters so have that notebook to hand and hit the pause button just before the final reveal. And yet, even then, ambiguity remains as to who really was the guilty party. Absolutely ingenious stuff!!

Ep22: "The Fingers Of Fear", directed by Jules Bricken and written by Robert H. Andrews, is the single most disturbing and shockingly contemporary story in the series yet!! As groundbreakingly powerful a psychological thriller as "The Watcher" or "Knock Three-One-Two" (see above) and as spine-tinglingly creepy as any of the pure horror episodes! Based on a short story by Philip MacDonald this tells of the manhunt for a paedophile serial killer of young girls, who are found horribly mutilated with a hunting knife after being sexually assaulted. Overwhelming circumstantial evidence leads to the arrest of a hulking simpleton called Ohrback (played brilliantly by Robert Middleton) who has a fascination with knives and a record of hanging around school playgrounds. The mayor insists they stitch the man up as the last thing they need is a public panic with summer festival approaching and the town relying so heavily on tourism (sound familiar). Police Lt Wagner (Nehemiah Persoff) is not completely convinced they have the right man but can do nothing to stop the children being allowed back on the streets and in the parks. While sweet natured old Mr Merriman (Thayer Roberts) cruises the streets looking for friends for his cherished little princess... a plastic life-sized Italian wind-up doll that laughs, cries, talks and gets jealous and very, very angry. This one is disturbing as fuck and quite possibly the best evil doll/serial killer story I have ever seen dramatised!!

Both stories haunt me yet...
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.237.187.186
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 04:36 pm:   

Oh, wow! Stevie, if there wasn't the Irish Sea in between us I'd be round your house knocking on your door right this minute! Dead jealous.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, October 28, 2013 - 10:11 am:   

You're welcome anytime, Caroline!

The quality of this show is consistently astonishing. Directing, writing, acting, glorious b&w cinematography, the sheer atmosphere and Karloff's wonderful intros are a joy to behold... at last!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.87
Posted on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 06:25 pm:   

Enjoyed another exceptional double bill over the weekend - one horror and one sci-fi/horror - and about to watch the next episode which I'm quite excited to learn is a three story portmanteau horror featuring tales by Nelson Bond, Wilkie Collins & August Derleth!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 04:16 pm:   

Three cracking horror episodes in a row! Now the show really has come into its own:

Ep23: "The Well Of Doom", directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sanford, was ridiculously enjoyable pure gothic horror melodrama set in the eerie Scottish Highlands and featuring a bizarre demonic duo who could have come straight from the imagination of Clive Barker! Familiar face, Henry Daniell, enjoys himself immensely as the cackling undead black magician, Squire Moloch, with his cadaverous features, black cape and top hat, while Richard Kiel (alias Jaws) has never been more frightening than as his monstrous mute henchman, Mister Styx. This pair kidnap the young heir to a Scottish estate (Robert Penrose) and his beautiful bride (Laura Dunning) on the eve of their wedding, along with hard-headed faithful manservant, Teal (Torin Thatcher in great form), and hold them prisoner in the ruins of a gothic fortress that contains a cursed well in which Moloch claims to have died, having been flung there by the former squire (Penrose's father). His aim is an unholy revenge from beyond the grave on the bloodline that stole his property and they have until dawn to escape the diabolical trap he has set for them or face a fate worse than death... hur hur. Absolutely brilliant supernatural chills and stirring suspense make this another well nigh perfect horror treat!!

Ep24: "The Ordeal Of Dr Cordell", directed by Laslo Benedek and written by Donald S. Sanford, was the first foray into science fiction in the series and presented an interesting twist on the Jekyll & Hyde theme that shared many similarities with the story of 'The Incredible Hulk'! Robert Vaughn plays the mild mannered scientist of the title, who, after being exposed to a mystery gas in a laboratory accident, is sent into a superhuman homicidal rage every time he hears bells ringing. After several bloody murders, the victims having been literally torn apart, he locks himself away in a desperate attempt to find a cure... but fate, in the form of the woman who loves him (Kathleen Crowley), intervenes. Vaughn grows ever more pitiful as the story progresses in one of his most intense performances. Great stuff!

Ep25: "Trio For Terror", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Barré Lyndon, was seriously bloody fantastic!! Karloff introduces three horror tales from his booth, quaffing claret, in a quaint old English pub each of which involves one of the customers just about to leave. The first tale is an absolutely terrifying adaptation of the August Derleth short story, "The Extra Passenger", that on this evidence surely must be one of his best! A tale of murder and satanic revenge from beyond the grave with an unforgettably nightmarish pay-off!! The second is a brilliantly atmospheric rendering of Wilkie Collin's classic chiller, "A Very Strange Bed", that boasts one of the most devilish murder devices ever devised and a neat twist ending. The third story is another wonderful supernatural horror based on the Nelson Bond short story, "Chamber Of Horrors". It features perhaps the first screen appearance of one of the great monsters from Greek mythology, transposed to a gothic horror setting, and a rather creepy old man who uses it to exact retribution on a serial strangler of young women. Remember all those great portmanteau horrors that littered the 60s & 70s? The format was perfected here! Utterly, utterly wonderful timeless entertainment for discerning horror connoisseurs everywhere!!!!

It's Halloween and I just have to watch another one tonight. Next up is a voodoo horror tale called "Papa Benjamin"...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.10
Posted on Friday, November 01, 2013 - 11:54 am:   

For Halloween I treated myself to a late night triple bill of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller':

Ep26: "Papa Benjamin", directed by Ted Post and written by John Kneubuhl, was based on a supernatural horror story written by Cornell Woolrich that, I was amazed to realise, was blatantly ripped off by Amicus in the comedic Roy Castle voodoo segment of their great portmanteau, 'Dr Terror's House Of Horrors' (1965)! Here the story is done dead straight and makes for a wonderfully effective chiller. John Ireland plays Eddie Wilson, a popular big band leader on a Caribbean tour who stumbles upon a secret voodoo ritual and steals the unearthly music he hears playing, later orchestrating it as his own smash hit Voodoo Rhapsody. But the presiding houngan, Papa Benjamin, curses the white interloper to a slow and agonising death by voodoo doll that gains an extra pin every time the piece is played. Realising his danger Wilson must travel back to Haiti in a desperate attempt to free himself from the terrible curse and thereby hangs the tale. Flawlessly done pure horror atmospherics all the way as ever!!

Ep27: "Late Date", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Donald S. Sanford, completed a double helping of great Cornell Woolrich adaptations. This one is a masterpiece of pure edge-of-the-seat nail-biting suspense that Hitchcock himself couldn't have handled any better! The real time set-up is sublimely gripping right from the start and involves that ever entertaining theme of how difficult it is to get rid of a corpse, familiar from 'The Trouble With Harry' (1955) and 'Weekend At Bernie's' (1989), but here done dead straight and involving a misguidedly loyal innocent young man (Larry Pennell) in the dilemma of his life when he comes to the aid of his hero-worshipped older brother (Edward Platt) who has just broken the neck of his hated adulterous wife in a blind rage and taken off leaving bro to impulsively cover his tracks. The suspense never let's up for a second as our hero gets drawn into ever more desperate and criminal measures to unburden himself of his load, without any witnesses, while surrounded by family, friends and neighbours - any one of whom could send him to the electric chair for his brother's crime. The deliciously macabre twist ending rounds everything off to perfection. Another stone cold classic TV thriller!!

Ep28: "Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper", directed by Ray Milland(!) and written by Barré Lyndon, ended the night on a supernatural horror high of exceptional quality! Based on the famous Robert Bloch short story this tells of the obsessive 30 year globe-spanning hunt, by an ageing British detective (John Williams in wonderful form), for the man he believes to be the original Jack the Ripper, a black magician who must repeat his six satanic ritual knife murders of women every few years to the identical pattern in a different great city of the world in order to be granted eternal youth! 77 years after the original murders in London the crimes are being repeated again in New York and this time our dogged hero feels sure that the full force of modern (1960s) police technology and manpower will finally put an end to the immortal fiend's trail of terror. Sublimely atmospheric and remarkably grim in tone yet with a perfectly judged vein of jet black humour this is the ultimate adaptation of one of Bloch's greatest horror tales and certainly one of the most cherishable high points of this increasingly awesome series!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.10
Posted on Friday, November 01, 2013 - 12:51 pm:   

Back to one a week after this I think. I want to draw this series out for as long as possible - especially now we're well into the horror stories that made it famous.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.140.51
Posted on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 08:39 pm:   

Ep29: "The Devil's Ticket", directed by Jules Bricken and written by Robert Bloch, as an adaptation of his own short story, was another gloriously atmospheric and frightening supernatural horror that presents a novel twist on the old Faustian pact with the Devil tale. Macdonald Carey plays a struggling artist who is reduced to trying to pawn his own paintings in order to survive but the spooky old backstreet pawnshop he enters happens to be run by Satan himself, played with diabolical menace by the admirably straight-faced John Emery. The Devil presents him with a pawn ticket in exchange for his soul and a strict deadline for him to claim it back if he paints a portrait of anyone else whose soul he is prepared to sacrifice in order to save his own - and all this for promised artistic fame and riches beyond his wildest dreams! Carey comes up with a foolproof plan to cheat Satan at his own game - and succeeds - but the final brilliant twist culminates in a horror tour-de-force that sent shivers down my spine. Don't expect any whimsical black humour from this retelling of the tale but another dead straight and genuinely scary classic shocker!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 12:31 pm:   

Ep30: "Parasite Mansion", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Donald S. Sanford, was one of the creepiest and most atmospheric horror episodes yet! A classic Southern Gothic tale of family curses and a demonic haunter of the dark with a certain Lovecraftian flavour to it that was based on a short story by Mary Elizabeth Counselman. Pippa Scott plays your typical lone driver who breaks down late at night in the middle of a thunderstorm and approaches the only habitation for miles around... one of the spookiest crumbling piles you ever laid eyes upon! She then finds herself held prisoner by a family of mad recluses, the Harrod Family; alcoholic Pa (James Griffith), who considers himself a bit of an amateur surgeon, a hideous cackling hag, Granny Harrod (Jeanette Nolan in gleefully fiendish form), the violent teenage son (Tom Nolan) & his poor haunted waif-like sister (Beverly Washburn). But something far worse than this benighted crew lurks unseen in the shadows of Parasite Mansion - a demonic Thing that has haunted the family for generations and that no outsider must ever discover the truth of... But guess who does and can never be allowed to leave?! Everything about this one is a joy to behold with the dusty, cobweb festooned sets and glorious chiaroscuro lighting creating a picture of gothic horror perfection with a monstrous dark secret that does not disappoint! Absolutely wonderful!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 03:36 pm:   

Ep31: "A Good Imagination", directed by John Brahm and written by Robert Bloch, based on his own short story, was a curiously unsettling black comedy episode filled with grotesque caricatures of characters - not unlike those found in the books of the late lamented Tom Sharpe. Edward Andrews plays Frank Logan, a super-nerd bookworm obsessed with Poe, who is married to an irredeemably shallow and unfaithful wife (the luscious Patricia Barry - oh yes, I would!), and who titters and grins his way wolfishly through this episode as he kills off each of her succession of handsome hunk lovers one-by-one according to Poe ("what a good imagination that man had") without ever once being suspected by the authorities. But the cruel little comments he drops into everyday conversation leave her in no doubt who is fucking up her sex life. It's slight but enjoyably played and boasts a great twist ending.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 04:00 pm:   

Next up is a full episode adaptation of August Derleth's short story, "Mr George" (1946), which promises good things.

This show's version of his "The Extra Passenger" (also 1946) is probably the most frightening and gruesome part of the whole series so far.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.163
Posted on Friday, November 22, 2013 - 08:26 pm:   

Ep32: "Mr George", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Donald S. Sanford, was an adaptation of an August Derleth ghost story featuring a child heiress to a fortune, Priscilla (Gina Gillespie), who is threatened with untimely death by a grotesque trio of avaricious relatives but who has an imaginary friend, Mr George, who has no intention of seeing any harm come to her. Virginia Gregg, Howard Freeman and Lillian Bronson ham it up nicely as the wicked adults who each meet a ghastly fate in turn when they try to engineer fatal accidents for the little girl but in the end the child actress is rather too irritating (I dearly wanted to see the little brat snuffed out!) and the production too sweetly sentimental to be truly effective as a horror story. Entertaining hokum for all that.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2013 - 12:05 am:   

Ep33: "The Terror In Teakwood", directed by Paul Henreid and written by Alan Caillou, was adapted from the short story by Harold Lawlor and saw a return to gloriously atmospheric supernatural horror, right from the opening scene in a fog shrouded graveyard, that could have come straight from a Universal horror of the 30s. Guy Rolfe plays a famed virtuoso concert pianist, Vladimir Vicek, who is maniacally obsessed by his lifelong hatred for his great rival and composer, Carnowitz, and his inability to master the man's crowning major opus, the notorious 7th Sonata. On the death of Carnowitz his obsession only grows worse and drives him to break into the man's mausoleum and sever his hated hands, that he has preserved and keeps in an ornate Teakwood box. No prizes for guessing where this one's headed but as Vicek announces to the world his attempt to play the 7th Sonata at his next performance and drives himself into madness by rehearsing behind a locked door, with the accursed hands in sight as his inspiration, things take a turn for the decidedly macabre while his increasingly disturbed wife (Hazel Court) looks on helplessly. The ending, as the audience, and we, wait with bated breath, is another superbly staged horror/suspense tour de force. Great stuff, flawlessly done!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.140.46
Posted on Monday, November 25, 2013 - 05:17 pm:   

Ep34: "The Prisoner In The Mirror", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Arthur, was another sublime and truly frightening supernatural episode that was again nicked by Amicus for one of their most memorable portmanteau segments; the marvellous haunted mirror story with David Warner in their best horror film, 'From Beyond The Grave' (1974)! Lloyd Bochner is wonderful as the history professor researching the life of notorious black magician, Count Alexandre Cagliostro, who comes into possession of an antique mirror once owned by the man and that the previous owner had covered in black paint before committing suicide. Removing the paint he soon comes under the evil spell of Cagliostro (another scarily intense performance by Henry Daniell - see "The Well Of Doom" above) whose spirit has been trapped in the mirror for over two hundred years and who can only leave by possessing a willing host body. Once free to walk the earth again, in Bochner's body, the evil sorcerer vents all his lust for life and bloody murder while our poor sucker hero languishes unseen behind the cold reflecting glass! This is a remorselessly bleak and disturbing tale of insidious evil that doesn't relinquish its grim and icy grip until the very last nightmare scene!! One of the very best of the series so far!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.14
Posted on Monday, November 25, 2013 - 06:01 pm:   

And I've just realised that's me halfway through the complete run of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller'! Another 33 predominantly horror episodes to go.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Friday, November 29, 2013 - 11:20 pm:   

Ep35: "Dark Legacy", directed by John Brahm and written by John Tomerlin, starred Harry Townes as an amateur stage magician who inherits a book of black magic from his mad old occultist uncle and uses the incantations therein to work real magic and achieve a never before dreamed of fame. But, as always with the forces of darkness, there is a price to pay. What I really liked about this episode was the tantalising ambiguity of the supernatural elements as, unknown to our hero, his wife (Ilka Windish) is having an affair with his best friend (Henry Silva) who is a practicing hypnotist. So when the Demon Ashtaroth comes calling for his dues can we be sure that what Townes sees is really there? Either way it's another cracking and genuinely scary horror classic!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Friday, November 29, 2013 - 11:32 pm:   

And next up it's Robert E. Howard's "Pigeons From Hell"!!

I can't imagine the episode being as graphically gruesome as the actual story (just read it) but the haunted Southern mansion setting and the truly frightening horror set pieces Howard dreamt up should be perfect for this show to bring to life, if done with anything like the quality I've come to expect.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.233.97
Posted on Sunday, December 01, 2013 - 12:44 am:   

I'm watching it now with my critical faculties honed like never before. This one's for Joel.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.233.97
Posted on Sunday, December 01, 2013 - 01:12 am:   

Okay, I've watched the intro and it's fucking brilliant!! Sorry, Joel, but it is!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.233.97
Posted on Sunday, December 01, 2013 - 01:30 am:   

This is one of the great horror stories of unsuspecting innocents being dragged into a situation of abominable horror that has nothing to do with them but that the locals know all about and have turned a blind eye to until one brave officer of the law, and of sanity, decides to believe the impossible and look further than anyone had ever done before!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.233.97
Posted on Sunday, December 01, 2013 - 01:35 am:   

And what he discovers is shattering...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.233.97
Posted on Sunday, December 01, 2013 - 01:49 am:   

And it's got nothing to do with pigeons pecking people to death ffs! So get that idea right out of your heads!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, December 02, 2013 - 03:38 pm:   

Ep36: "Pigeons From Hell", directed by John Newland and written by John Kneubuhl, based on the famous Robert E. Howard short horror story, is categorically the finest episode of the series so far and quite possibly the best horror TV production I ever saw. It rivals all the classics from 'The Twilight Zone' (of which more anon) to those great M.R. James Christmas adaptations and the British 'Thriller' series to 'Hammer House Of Horror' and 'The X Files', 'Masters Of Horror', etc... The set-up is, yet again, that old familiar standby of the car breaking down in the middle of nowhere and the occupants approaching the nearest, obviously spooky as fuck, habitation. But this time Howard and the makers of this episode got everything so bloody right that this story has to stand as the ultimate achievement of such tales. Two young men, brothers, driving through the Southern swamplands break down in their car late at night and decide to camp out in their sleeping bags in a nearby deserted plantation mansion that is unnaturally swathed in a mass of cooing pigeons. What happens next is bloody terrifying - and almost as bloody as the original story! Thank feck for b&w! The unspeakable horror that befalls these innocents has nothing to do with the pigeons, which are merely harbingers of doom - each one representing a dead soul, but everything to do with voodoo, zombies, negro revenge against their white persecutors, dark family secrets, sexual taboos and a hideous horror that haunts the mansion and makes its presence felt by an eerie whistling and the impossible extinguishing of all light when it is on the prowl. This is one of the great and scariest black magic tales ever written or made! Two guileless ordinary young men (Brandon De Wilde & David Whorf) and a hard-bitten logical man of the law (Crahan Denton, as the local Sheriff and the very personification of macho decency - i.e. your typical Howardian man of action) come up against an unimaginable horror that says much about the legacy of pain left behind by the slave trade and how abominable crimes can go unpaid when all those in the vicinity turn a blind eye... through fear! I keep imagining myself in this scenario and I hope I would have acted exactly as the Sheriff did but I'd have more likely been a cloud of screaming dust on the horizon!! An absolute masterpiece!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, December 02, 2013 - 03:51 pm:   

Even Karloff looked genuinely scared in the intro to this one!!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, December 02, 2013 - 03:57 pm:   

Thanks for the review, Stevie—I'm (re)reading Howard's novella now, and looking forward to seeing the episode—it's available on youtube!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, December 02, 2013 - 04:08 pm:   

I'm glad I read the story first, Craig. There are subtle differences that make the story work better visually but other than that it's one of the most remarkably faithful and effective screen adaptations of a great horror story I've ever seen.

But, then again, I know how hard you are to please!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, December 03, 2013 - 03:39 pm:   

Oh, no, me? I'm so easygoing when it comes to books and films and TV, barely an opinion at all do I voice....

I keep getting distracted, but I read the first section of "Pigeons." To be frank, coming off a Ross McDonald novel (The Drowning Pool [1950]) and looking forward to reading, I think, Hammett's The Glass Key (finally finish off his novels, I figure, before the year ends)—Howard's prose falls far short. I'm only comparing because it's of that same sort of hardboiled, "pulpy prose" world: you get so used to masters of the craft/their best examples, that lesser writing withers alongside. I read that Howard never published this novella in his lifetime, it appeared in print some years after his death; maybe he meant to revise it...?

But that's my imperfect critique, based on but 1/3 of the whole. Enjoyment factor? Story? Being hooked? In other words, everything else? Love it!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, December 03, 2013 - 05:09 pm:   

Howard was never one of the truly great literary talents, Craig, but he did have the most vivid and compelling imagination of all the pulp writers I've ever read. He wrote possibly the most thrilling and heartfelt pure entertainments of his or any era, imho.

Only one episode of Season 1 of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' left to watch, "The Grim Reaper", and I'm rather excited about it, as it's another Robert Bloch scripted story and stars the one and only William Shatner, again! He was brilliant in "The Hungry Glass" (see above).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, January 27, 2014 - 12:58 am:   

Time for a recap of recently watched BKT episodes:

Ep37: "The Grim Reaper", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Bloch, was another genuinely scary supernatural horror tale based on a short story by Harold Lawlor and starring the one and only William Shatner. The atmospheric intro sees a tortured Victorian artist hang himself upon completing his masterpiece... a gothic portrait of the grim reaper himself, scythe in hand. Jump forward to the 1960s and we find our Bill visiting his eccentric old aunt (Natalie Schafer) who has just acquired the painting for her collection of macabre oddities unaware that it bears a curse. When the scythe in the painting runs red with blood the current owner invariably meets a grisly fate. Boasting several memorable twists that keep the viewer forever wrong footed this one builds to one of the show's most frightening horror climaxes. Brilliant stuff!!

Ep38: "What Beckoning Ghost?", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Donald S. Sanford, was one of those atmospheric and entertaining if somewhat predictable thrillers of the "let's scare the wealthy heiress with the weak heart to death" variety that was also based on a Harold Lawlor short story (a notable name I've been coming across a lot recently). It stars Judith Evelyn as the terrified victim who is haunted by visions of her own coffin laid out in the drawing room, Tom Helmore as her slimy husband and Adele Mara as her treacherous sister who are having an affair and are, naturally, behind the dastardly murder plot. But things don't quite pan out as they expected when the supernatural really does intrude. Superior horror entertainment as ever. This was the first episode of the second and final season - with no evidence of any decline in quality or change in presentation style.

Ep39: "Guillotine", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Charles Beaumont, from a period suspense story by Cornell Woolrich, is a rather slight and long drawn out tale for an hour's running time of a condemned Frenchman's (Alejandro Rey) attempt to escape the guillotine by arranging the seduction and murder of the notorious city executioner, Monsieur de Paris (Robert Middleton), by his loving wife on the outside (Danielle De Metz) on the morning he is to get the chop - tradition decreeing that on such an occasion the executionee be pardoned. But they underestimate Monsieur de Paris' dedication to his job even unto death. Well made and acted as it is this story would still have worked better as a half hour episode of 'The Twilight Zone' or 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', imho.

Ep40: "The Premature Burial", directed by Douglas Heyes and written by William D. Gordon, is a loose adaptation and updating of the Edgar Allan Poe story that sees Sidney Blackmer play the old man haunted by the fear of being buried alive due to his regular cataleptic seizures and taking all manner of elaborate precautions while unaware that his unfaithful young wife (Patricia Medina) and her lover (Scott Marlowe) intend to use his condition to carry out the perfect murder. Only the family doctor, played with relish by Boris Karloff himself, suspects foul play when his patient appears to die only to disappear from his tomb and be seen wandering the grounds of the family estate in his burial shroud. Has he returned from beyond the grave for revenge or is something else afoot? A quality perfect murder and ghost story rolled into one with some seriously jump out of your skin moments!

Ep41: "The Weird Tailor", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Bloch, based on his own short story, that he would adapt again for a segment of the classic Amicus portmanteau, 'Asylum' (1972), is another of the virtually flawless supernatural horror episodes that benefits immensely from the longer running time here. Foolish dabbler in black magic, the ever creepy George Macready in great form, is horrified when one of his demonic conjurations results in the death and damnation of his innocent son and sets out to bargain with the Devil (Abraham Sofaer) for his return to life by the creation of a magical suit made from forbidden material that will reanimate the corpse once dressed in it. Delivering the weird cloth to a poor tailor with precise measurements and instructions Macready reckons without the interference of the man's unstable and bullied wife (Sondra Blake) and her unnatural attachment to their old shop dummy - her 'confidant' and 'only friend'. Another wonderful high point of this great, great series!!

Ep42: "God Grante That She Lye Stille", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert H. Andrews, was based on a classic ghost story by Lady Cynthia Asquith that rather shocked me with its unrelenting bleakness of tone and brutality. Starting in 1661 with the graphic burning to death of a beautiful young witch, Elspeth Clewer, who dies cursing the bloodline that condemned her and vowing to return, the action then moves forward to the present and the haunting and possession of the last of the family line, the stunningly beautiful Sarah Marshall in a dual role as sickly blonde victim and demonic raven haired ghost, and the futile attempts to save her soul by the sceptical man of science who loves her, Dr Stone (Ronald Howard), and the local priest (ever reliable Henry Daniell in another dual role), who is the descendant of the very priest who torched Elspeth all those centuries ago. Evil reigns supreme in this masterly tale of black magic, family curses, reincarnation and the wicked corruption of innocence. Quite, quite brilliant!!

And I've another 25 episodes of this quality still to come!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, January 27, 2014 - 04:14 pm:   

Ep43: "Masquerade", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Donald S. Sanford, based on a short story by Henry Kuttner, marked a change of tone for the show being the first tongue-in-cheek comedy horror episode and featuring the memorable pairing of Tom Poston and Elizabeth Montgomery (if anything, looking even more ravishing with black hair). They play a married couple lost in a thunderstorm in the sticks who have the misfortune to seek shelter in the 'Psycho' (1960) house itself (as also featured in "The Purple Room" above) which this time is inhabited by the sinister Carta family, led by John Carradine in his best leering form. What follows is a night to remember involving dark family secrets, hidden rooms, gruesome murder, cannibalism, a mad old woman locked in the attic and even a few vampires in a riotous cobweb festooned gothic stew that deliberately throws every cornball horror cliche in the book at the viewer to endearing effect. The final twist comes across like the groan inducing punchline to a bad joke but the wonderfully entertaining performances are what matters here. Great silly fun!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, January 27, 2014 - 11:42 pm:   

Ep44: "The Last Of The Sommervilles", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Ida & Richard Lupino, saw a return to the crime genre, albeit with gothic trappings, in its story of dastardly relatives plotting the murder of a wealthy old eccentric for her inheritance. Phyllis Thaxter and Peter Walker play cousins and the last remaining rivals for the Sommerville fortune who must not only get rid of old Aunt Celia (Martita Hunt) but guard against the ruthless machinations of each other while avoiding the suspicions of their aunt's close friend and physician, Dr Farnham, played as a deceptively doddery old buffoon by a bizarrely made up Boris Karloff. The story is as professionally mounted and entertainingly performed as ever and has a few nice twists in its length but is somewhat let down by a cop-out coda in which justice has to be seen to be done following what would have been a brilliantly macabre ending. Shorn of this feeble and unnecessary final scene what we have is a nicely grim toned little story of murder, double and triple cross.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.232.97
Posted on Saturday, February 01, 2014 - 06:18 pm:   

Ep45: "Letter To A Lover", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Donald S. Sanford, based on a play by Sheridan Gibney, was a straight crime Agatha Christie-like whodunit with four suspects all incriminated in the stabbing to death of a crooked doctor; a mentally unstable woman (Ann Todd) who has been secretly visiting him for treatment, her jealous husband (Murray Matheson) who is convinced she is having an affair and suspects the doctor, the real lover she is actually having the affair with (Felix Deebank) and the doctor's own wife and nurse assistant (Avis Scott) who has one mighty chip on her shoulder. Entertaining if somewhat hackneyed twists and red herrings ensue leading to the climactic unveiling of the culprit and smug explanation by the investigating detective (Jack Greening) before a final ironic twist to cap things off. A solidly mounted if routine little mystery yarn that doesn't take too much solving.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.235.17
Posted on Sunday, February 02, 2014 - 06:12 pm:   

Ep46: "A Third For Pinochle", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Mark Hanna & Boris Sobelman, presented a deliciously macabre and blackly comedic perfect murder plot by a viciously hen-pecked mild mannered husband, Maynard Thispin (another entertainingly gleeful performance by Edward Andrews - see "A Good Imagination" above), of his terrifying battle axe wife (Ann Shoemaker). His plans are meticulous and carried out with expert relish but he reckons without the binocular wielding inquisitiveness of the mad old Pennaroyd sisters across the street (Doro Merande & June Walker in great barmy form) who will do anything to acquire a captive third partner for their never ending games of pinochle and who have a nasty way with a meat cleaver whenever their current victim tries to break free. Poor Maynard soon finds out that there are worse punishments for murder than the gas chamber... great ghoulish fun.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.235.171
Posted on Thursday, February 06, 2014 - 04:52 pm:   

Ep47: "The Closed Cabinet", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Jess Carneol & Kay Lenard, is another top quality gothic ghost story that was an original teleplay but could easily have come from the pen of any of the masters. The story starts in mediaeval times with a wife's bloody murder of her fearsome boor of a husband and her own suicide, followed by the grief stricken mother-in-law, and witch, casting a curse on the Mervyn family that took her son. From then on every generation will suffer the bloody murder of one of their sons by a loved one until the riddle of a specially designed unopenable cabinet, containing the bloody dagger, has been solved and the blade wiped clean. The action then moves forward to Victorian times and the arrival of a handsome young Mervyn (David Frankham), with his beautiful American sweetheart (Olive Sturgess), at the same ancestral castle. You can guess the rest... the feisty heroine becomes fascinated by the family legend and the murders that did indeed plague each generation up to this one and determines to solve the puzzle of the cabinet once and for all while being helped by wordless hints from the diaphanous spectre of the original murderess herself - your classic "mournful lady in white" ghostly figure, played bewitchingly by Patricia Manning. A pitch perfect and gloriously atmospheric ghost story with some of the most brilliant use of chiaroscuro cinematography in the entire series. A splendidly old fashioned frightener!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.153
Posted on Saturday, February 08, 2014 - 12:22 am:   

Ep48: "Dialogues With Death", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Arthur, as adaptations of two of his own short stories, was the second portmanteau horror episode of this marvellous series (see also "Trio For Terror" above). Boris Karloff introduces and stars in two flawlessly done and wonderfully creepy half hour tales of the literally unquiet dead. In the first he is an eccentric old morgue attendant who claims to hold conversations with his passing "guests". When the latest cadaver turns out to be a murdered gangster a pair of intrepid reporters unwisely eavesdrop on the old man's ramblings and on investigating are amazed to discover the identity of the killer but Death cannot allow them to use the information they so unscrupulously obtained. In the second Karloff and Estelle Winwood play a mad old couple still living in the dusty ruins of their formerly grand southern plantation mansion. When their reportedly dead criminal nephew arrives with his moll partner seeking a fortune in stolen loot he had hidden there they refuse to believe either of them are still living as they claim to commonly communicate with the shades of passed on family members. This unfortunate misunderstanding results in a hideously macabre fate for the desperate fugitives. Both stories are absolute stone cold classics of their kind either of which could more than hold its own against even the finest half hour episodes of 'The Twilight Zone'. One of the very best and most memorably chilling of the entire series with Karloff really excelling in his three roles!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.235.237
Posted on Monday, February 17, 2014 - 03:34 am:   

Ep49: "The Return Of Andrew Bentley", directed by John Newland and written by Richard Matheson, based on a short story by August Derleth, was the most purely Lovecraftian episode of the series so far and the scariest since "Pigeons From Hell", which was also directed by John Newland, well known at the time as the host of 'One Step Beyond' (1959) - a successful half hour rival show to 'The Twilight Zone'. Here Newland also stars as inheritor of the house and fortune of his mad old occultist uncle (Terence de Marney) with the legal stipulation that he must take up residence and guard over the old man's burial vault under the house from something he feared may happen to his corpse. Along with his dubious wife (Antoinette Bower) and superstitious manservant (Ken Renard) and the help of the sceptical family doctor (Philip Bourneuf) and crucifix wielding local priest (Oscar Beregi) he finds himself plunged into a nightmare of satanic revenge from beyond the grave as, night after night, the sealed and magically protected tomb is attacked by the corporeal spectre of a long dead sorcerer, and his uncle's sworn enemy, one Andrew Bentley (a terrifying performance by the Nosferatu-like actor, Reggie Nalder!), who is accompanied by a hideous shambling demon, the sanity blasting appearance of which is always preceded by a horrendous squealing sound. This blurry, mist-swathed and half-glimpsed monstrosity must have been responsible for some pretty wild nightmares when it exploded onto the TV screens in the early 1960s as it is as hideous an apparition as ever graced any horror film - a hulking misshapen clawed giant with a head that is all gaping frog-like mouth!! The basic plot is that old Uncle Amos had somehow cheated his partner Bentley during a conjuration of the Devil thus consigning his wicked soul to eternal torment but if the undead sorcerer can gain access to his corpse and allow his demonic familiar to possess it he shall be freed. The whole episode is a wonderfully straight faced spine-tingling masterpiece of brooding gothic horror building to moments of stark supernatural terror and is performed with admirable intensity by all concerned. I was in horror heaven watching this and absolutely loved every perfectly realised moment. It's a toss-up between this one and PFH now for my favourite episode. Good director that man!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.118.88.85
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 01:05 am:   

Oh, sweet holy fuck! I just looked up Reggie Nalder (see above) on Wikipedia and discovered something genuinely uncanny that has now tipped the balance in favour of "The Return Of Andrew Bentley" as my favourite (fuck me, what a hard bloody choice!) episode (so far) of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller'!!!!

No spoilers from me... look it up yourself and reel in astonishment as I dd! This hideous man had already scared the living crap out of me - as never before or since - at the age of 14!!!! I still remember an old codger friend of the family, whose name escapes me (must ask Mum), who had watched it as well, telling us how it was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen! He died soon after... God bless you, man, you were right.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.118.55.127
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 01:32 am:   

Okay, you were right, Craig. I've just read the first piece of prose by Joyce Carol Oates it was my pleasure to experience - "The Bingo Master" in 'Dark Forces'- and it completely blew me away by its in-depth personal characterisation. Jesus H. Christ but the spirit of Dostoevesky is alive and well and I think I've just fallen in love again. Patricia, please don't be jealous. Maybe this is just a fleeting infatuation?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.118.55.127
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 01:33 am:   

Wrong fucking thread! It must be love!!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 01:57 am:   

Wow, you'd not read Oates before, Stevie?! She's marvelous—far too prolific to keep up with, and she crosses all genres: the supernatural in "Night-Side" (1974), the grotesque in "Family" (1989), neo-noir in "Do With Me What You Will" (1973) and "Faithless" (1997), etc. She wrote one as good as its title, "Did You Ever Slip On Red Blood?" (1973). Soooo many stories. And then there's the novels! Which I've yet to experience, but others here have read a few (Terry, I believe?).

And yeah, Dark Forces is superb. And I'd not even classify that Wagner story there as his best—all the other stories gathered in his first collection, In A Lonely Place (1983), beat it (which is still a good 'un, though). The best tales in this particular McCauley anthology? Those by Oates, Klein, Campbell, Wellman, Wolfe, and King, with maybe Simak's included there in the top. The rest are very good, too. Enjoy the rest of it!

(btw, Stevie: got your invite for Twitter—just give me a bit to set it up).
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 01:57 am:   

Sometimes, it's right, to be wrong....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 02:25 am:   

Ah, now I understand the Twitter reference!

I just upgraded to an Apple iPhone and have been playing with it obsessively and clicking yes to just about everything. So now I'm a bona-fide twit! Yeehaa!! I've joined the 21st Century, folks!!!!

If only Mick were here to tell me how to get the most out of the bloody thing!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 02:34 am:   

But now back to Reggie Nalder! Does anyone here (without looking up Wiki - as I had to) know who I'm talking about and why he should be venerated as a horror icon on the strength of the BKT episode above and one of the very scariest horror films of the 1970s?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 02:35 am:   

That Wagner story is an absolute classic, Craig, imho!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 02:45 am:   

Let me take a wild stab in the dark, and not looking anything up....

Is he the voice of the Devil coming through Regan in The Exorcist?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 02:48 am:   

I guess I'm just a pleased man too hard, Stevie.
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Seanmcd (Seanmcd)
Username: Seanmcd

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.179.76.242
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 01:41 pm:   

Without looking it up. Mr Barlow?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 02:41 pm:   

You hit the nail on the head, Sean! I still can't believe it's the same guy but it is. Not the sort of bloke you'd like to bump into alone at night. He looked like that without make-up! Shudder...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 02:51 pm:   

The voice of the Devil in 'The Exorcist' was a woman, Craig. Forget her name but remember seeing her interviewed about it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 03:06 pm:   

Hey, Sean. Can you text me as my old Nokia died on me a few weeks ago and I lost all my contacts!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 08:19 pm:   

Ep50: "The Remarkable Mrs Hawk", directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sanford, based on a short story by Margaret St Clair, made it two sensationally effective supernatural horror episodes in a row, each elevated into genius by a memorably evil title performance! This time Jo Van Fleet sets the pulses racing as the deliriously wicked Cissy Hawk, a widowed pig farmer with one hell of a chilling secret. John Carradine (in magnificent form as a kind of unscrupulous Van Helsing figure), Bruce Dern (long one of my favourite actors) & Hal Baylor play three hobos who approach her "Isle of Aiaie" homestead seeking casual work - unsuspecting that their charming twinkly-eyed hostess with her fine home cooking and delicious blackberry wine has no intention of ever letting them leave. One-by-one the men fall victim to the unspeakable supernatural power behind the sweet old face until well read Carradine stumbles upon the truth resulting in a brilliant battle of wits between these two great old troupers that had me on the edge of my seat squirming with delight. It's like Cushing and Lee squaring off all over again but with a brilliantly judged vein of outrageous and quite sick, for the time, black humour. What our Cissy does to her all male victims is as frightening as it is nightmarishly absurd and involves the secret behind why her hogs always win first prize at the county fair. There's even the expected intervention by the local Sheriff (Paul Newlan) curious as to why Mrs Hawk gets through so many male workers, none of whom are ever seen again. Van Fleet relishes every moment of her devilish performance and reminded me in no small measure of Diana Dors in Brian Clemens' "Nurse Will Make It Better" (1975) or Sheila Keith in Pete Walker's 'Frightmare' (1974) - yes, that intensely evil with the same quality of joyous mischief in her every glance or simper. There's also a sick though nicely understated sexual element to her satanic dabblings that surely must have raised a few eyebrows at the time. It's the young strong ones she likes best... Great original story, an unforgettably monstrous villainess and a marvellously horrific ending make this possibly the third best of the series so far!! Take it from me, 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' is, as Stephen King stated in 'Danse Macabre' (1981), the best TV horror series ever made!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.1.56.95
Posted on Thursday, May 22, 2014 - 09:02 pm:   

This is in answer to a query from Cynthia regarding episode 34, "The Prisoner In The Mirror" (see above):

After a bit of research, and having only a rudimentary knowledge of Latin, this was the best I could come up with:

Henry Daniell, as Count Cagliostro, recites the incantation, "Homine domini petrim bar trem paradisi tempore para nara dixe dome."

I have transliterally translated this, thanks to Google, as;
Man - of - rock - bar - centre - paradise - at the right time - prepare - consciousness - regarding - at home.

He then says in English, "Now it is time for you to join us. Your physical body cannot enter into the mirror world but your spirit can. When I speak your spirit will rise leaving your body and come to us. The time has come. Rise and join us in the world of the mirror. Come.. come.. come... come.... come into the mirror." And thus Lloyd Bochner's terrible fate is sealed.

Hope that's what you were looking for.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.1.56.95
Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2014 - 05:04 pm:   

Time to get back into this wondrous series. I took a deliberate break at episode 50 as there are only 17 episodes left and after the peak of excellence of the last two stories I wanted to string the rest of it out a bit. Here goes...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.1.56.95
Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2014 - 05:11 pm:   

So I'm watching 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' (1960-62), 'Door Into Darkness' (1973) and 'The Nightmare Man' (1981) at the minute with 'MPD Psycho' (2000) to follow. Horror TV doesn't get any better than that.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.1.56.95
Posted on Monday, May 26, 2014 - 08:28 pm:   

Ep51: "Portrait Without A Face", directed by John Newland and written by Jason Wingreen, was the third supernatural horror episode to be directed by Newland, in which he also has a cameo in the atmospheric intro, as the caddish artist Robertson Moffat, who takes an arrow in the head fired from the skylight of his studio while just about to start work on what he proclaims will be his greatest masterpiece. Six months later, the killer having never been caught, his widow Ann (Jane Greer), is horrified when the same blank canvas that had stood untouched in his locked studio ever since begins to fill itself in bit by bit, in the dead artist's unmistakeable style, as a painting of him lying transfixed with a figure outlined in the window above! Of course the last detail to be completed will be the face of the murderer looking down. An expert (Robert Webber) is called in to investigate and what follows is a nice little whodunit murder mystery featuring the usual array of suspects all with some reason to have done in the blackguard. A watch is kept over the ghostly night by night completion of the painting knowing that the killer will be forced to try and destroy it before his/her identity is revealed. Great idea brilliantly directed and performed with a classic twist ending I didn't see coming to cap things off. That makes it three of the best episodes of the series out of three for Newland. I'm really looking forward to the next sixteen weeks of this timeless TV masterpiece!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Friday, June 06, 2014 - 04:56 pm:   

Ep52: "An Attractive Family", directed by John Brahm and written by Robert Arthur, based on his own short story, opens with a frightening dream sequence in which a young woman (Joyce Bulifant) is chased into an old house by shadowy figures and mocking voices before ending up balancing on a stool with a noose around her neck. We then go into a series of flashbacks involving three individuals committing ghastly murders of unwitting dupes - all of which seem unconnected and nothing to do with the introductory nightmare. The intriguing plot gradually resolves itself into another of those old "let's scare the timid young heiress to death" chillers, with the gleefully wicked trio of Otto Kruger, Richard Long & Joan Tetzel as the murderous Farrington family of the title. There is something creepily incestuous about the three - old uncle, brother and sister - and they milk every scene they share together for maximum shuddery effect, while their hopelessly naive victim looks on them as her only friends, as she battles the invisible mocking demons that haunt her, asleep and, increasingly, awake. Thank heavens for their eccentric but shrewd old neighbour Major Downey (Leo G. Carroll) who alone suspects that sinister games are afoot. Cracking horror entertainment, as ever, with great performances from all the cast. The twist ending, revealing the truth behind the recurring dream urging suicide, may be overly convoluted, as is often the way with these type of stories, but the beauty and enjoyment is all in the detail. If this is one of the lesser recent episodes it is still of an astonishingly high cinematic quality that has rarely been equalled on television since, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Monday, June 23, 2014 - 02:39 pm:   

Ep53: "Waxworks", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Bloch, as an adaptation of his own short story, that he would adapt again for the Amicus portmanteau 'The House That Dripped Blood' (1971), was yet another stone cold classic supernatural horror episode with Bloch's customary wicked sense of humour. The story is basically a reworking of 'Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper' [see Ep 28 above] that sees a retired French homicide detective, played by Martin Kosleck, arriving in America in private pursuit of a mysterious serial killer who roams the world reenacting hideous murders from history. It is his contention that the culprit is one Pierre Jacquelin (Oscar Homolka), aided and abetted by his beautiful daughter Annette (Antoinette Bower), who are the proprieters of a travelling wax museum dedicated to the macabre and the horrific. Wherever they pitch up murders inevitably occur in the style of some of their more infamous exhibits! Can you see the twist coming? Once again the hour long running time allows Bloch to flesh out the story and characters to more satisfying effect than a 20 minute portmanteau segment (memorable as it still is) and I’d rank this as one of the most frightening episodes of the series. Though even it is pipped by a particular hour long Season 4 episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ called “The New Exhibit” on the same perennial horror theme. TV horror doesn't get any better than these adaptations, folks.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2014 - 12:16 pm:   

Ep54: "La Strega", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Alan Caillou, was an absolutely cracking period gothic horror yarn set in a remote village in Italy, ruled by superstition. The intro sees the attempted drowning by a mob of a very young and stunning looking Ursula Andress, who is accused of being "la strega" - a witch. She is rescued by the intervention of an idealistic young artist (Alejandro Rey) who immediately falls under her spell and takes her home with him to "dry off". It transpires that she is on the run from her grandmother, who she claims really is a witch, and that no matter where she attempts to hide the old crone will always find her and take her back to a life dedicated to the worship of Satan! It isn't long before the hideously wizened hag shows up - an unrecognisable Jeanette Nolan in the scariest witch make-up I have honestly ever seen - and the young man incurs her wrath by refusing to hand over his new love. The rest of the story is a relentlessly bleak persecution of the two fleeing lovers by the forces of darkness, determined to reclaim their own, that culminates in a truly terrible denouement. This is yet another well nigh perfect, cinematic quality, horror production that is still genuinely frightening and pulls no punches in its depiction of a world over which unimaginable evil rules supreme. It has something of a dark fairy-tale quality about it that haunts me yet. Exceptional television!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Friday, July 04, 2014 - 01:26 pm:   

Ep55: “The Storm”, directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by William D. Gordon, based on a short story by McKnight Malmar, returned the show to non-supernatural suspense thriller territory with the tense tale of a woman (Nancy Kelly) and her cat, alone in their remote farmhouse on a wild and stormy night, being beset by paranoid fears of a shadowy intruder outside trying to gain entry, while her husband is away on business and the phone lines, naturally, are down. Is it all in her panic-stricken mind or are the strange thumps and bangs she hears from without really evidence of what she has always feared most? When the power cuts out and she stumbles upon a murdered woman’s body hidden in the cellar, with the storm doors blown open, it would appear that she has very real reason to be terrified! This is a well mounted and acted but routine “woman in peril” thriller with a twist that I did see coming. Solid adult entertainment without being particularly memorable. The acting, by a virtual cast of one, raises it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.234.141
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2014 - 03:13 am:   

Ep56: "A Wig For Miss Devore", directed by John Brahm and written by August Derleth & Donald S. Sanford, from Derleth's own short story, started with the hanging of a beautiful young murderess, rumoured to be a witch, in the Middle Ages whose corpse is transformed into that of a hideously deformed crone on removal of the elaborate bouffant wig she wears, made from the hairs of each of her victims. Jump forward to contemporary times and we are introduced to an ageing former starlet of the screen, Miss Sheila Devore (Patricia Barry), who is planning a big comeback horror movie with herself playing the same infamous sorceress. To get "into character" the pampered star insists on the purchase of the original wig from a private collection and on wearing it appears transformed back into the ravishing beauty she was in her hey day! But such gifts come at a price and soon the demonic personality of the witch has consumed the actress's own and people around her begin to die in "mysterious accidents". Worse still she finds herself unable to remove the accursed wig in public because each time she does her appearance in the mirror becomes all the more horrifically twisted. Once again this is a stone cold classic and supremely entertaining supernatural horror yarn of ravishing quality. The final reveal of the monstrous face is still genuinely spine-chilling!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2014 - 03:50 pm:   

Ep57: "The Hollow Watcher", directed by William F. Claxton and written by Jay Simms, is a well nigh perfect combination of classic fiilm noir cynicism and terrifying supernatural horror. Meg O'Danagh Wheeler & Sean O'Danagh play a couple of jovially charismatic Irish immigrant con artists who come up with a scheme to make their fortune in the good old US of A. And how refreshing it was, for me, to see the Irish charm used for villainous rather than comedic purposes, for once! They pose as brother and sister and move out to the sticks, where she sets about seducing and marrying a naive hick farmer who is rumoured to be worth a fortune, brilliantly played, as ever, by possibly my favourite actor, Warren Oates. She moves in but, due to a quaint Irish custom they invented, no doubt after watching 'The Quiet Man' (1952), she refuses to consumate the marriage until he has proved himself a man, while continuing to shag her live-in "brother" all the while. When Oates' old man, played by Denver Pyle (of grandpa in 'The Dukes Of Hazard' fame), gets suspicious they murder him and hide his corpse inside the farm's old scarecrow. Can you guess the rest? While they search for the non-existent fortune the scarecrow, out in the west field, appears to be moving ever closer to the house, night by night, until... Just watch it! It's a horror masterpiece!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2014 - 03:54 pm:   

Feck! There are only 10 episodes left!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Friday, August 08, 2014 - 11:44 am:   

Ep58: "Cousin Tundifer", directed by John Brahm and written by Boris Sobelman, was the third black comedy episode to star Edward Andrews in the series (see also "A Good Imagination" & "A Third For Pinochle" above). Once again he is a twinkly eyed little man plotting murder to better his lot, but this time a rather ingenious fantastic element is introduced, when he stumbles upon an old house that contains a portal back in time to the previous century, and plans to murder his rich uncle, for the inheritance, and dispose of his body where no one can ever find it. Unfortunately cousin Tundifer bears an uncanny resemblance to his evil ancestor, a notorious serial killer, who lived at the time the house was built and into which he unwittingly steps, corpse and all. I bet you can see the "twist" coming but the beauty is all in the delightful execution here. It may be one of the slighter episodes but is still a marvellously entertaining old school moral fable with impeccable performances and production values. Excellent stuff!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Friday, August 08, 2014 - 12:49 pm:   

Oops, silly me! In "The Hollow Watcher" make that Audrey Dalton & Sean McClory playing the "O'Danaghs".

When I come to rank all the episodes of this incredible series that one will be well up near the top.

Oh, what the hell! Here's my Top 10 so far:

1. "The Return Of Andrew Bentley" - Ep49
2. "Pigeons From Hell" - Ep36
3. "The Remarkable Mrs Hawk" - Ep50
4. "Trio For Terror" - Ep25
5. "The Hungry Glass" - Ep16
6. "The Fingers Of Fear" - Ep22
7. "The Prisoner In The Mirror" - Ep34
8. "The Weird Tailor" - Ep41
9. "Parasite Mansion" - Ep30
10. "Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper" - Ep28

Goes to show the quality of this series that a superb frightener like "The Hollow Watcher" only comes in at No. 12!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Monday, August 11, 2014 - 10:52 am:   

Okay, forget the above list. We have a new No.1! Ain't that always the way. The following episode is the best of the series so far:

Ep59: "The Incredible Doktor Markesan", directed by Robert Florey and written by Donald S. Sanford, once again from an August Derleth short story, starred Boris Karloff in, I kid you not, one of the most truly frightening pure horror performances of his career!! He plays the enigmatic title character, a reclusive scientist hidden away in his remote gothic mansion after having to resign his illustrious academic career following some terrible scandal. Arriving out of the blue, with no money and looking somewhere to stay, are his unsuspecting nephew (Dick York, never once making us think of Darren in 'Bewitched'), and his new bride (Carolyn Kearney). The hollow eyed old man isn't best pleased to see them but puts them up anyway, with strict instructions that they are never to leave their room after dark! Their foreboding only increases when they discover that he has even taken the precaution of locking them in <gulp>. Of course our intrepid couple can't resist a bit of snooping and, after forcing the lock, the nephew stumbles upon a scene of mind-blasting horror in the makeshift cellar laboratory below. Unwilling to frighten his wife he makes plans for a desperate escape without telling her what he has witnessed, but, alas, they already know too much... I don't want to spoil the story but it involves a truly nightmarish plan for revenge on the fellow academics who ruined the "good" Doktor and the continuation of his unholy experiments in reanimating the dead! As rotting zombie stories go this is one of the most marvellously atmospheric and genuinely petrifying I have ever seen - boosted no end by the glorious b&w cinematography and shadowy, cobweb strewn sets. One can almost smell the decay permeating the house and the tone throughout is just as unrelentingly bleak. The innocent couple of fresh-faced newlyweds seem to become physically corrupted themselves by Karloff's towering performance of unrepentant evil. It's all in the voice, the steady unblinking eyes and the calm deliberate manner with which he goes about his infernal business - no hamming it up here, folks. The levels of fear generated are truly spine-tingling and had me wanting to scream "Get the fuck out of there!!" at the screen like never before. A bona-fide ***** terror masterpiece of the very highest order and one of the finest things its star ever appeared in. Nuff said...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Friday, August 15, 2014 - 03:54 pm:   

Ep60: "Flowers Of Evil", directed by John Brahm and written by Barré Lyndon, was based on a short story by Hugh Walpole and, despite the title, is not about man-eating plants but is rather a Poe-like tale of adultery, murder, blackmail and supernatural revenge from beyond the grave. Luciana Paluzzi, as the femme fatale Madalena, and Kevin Hagen (good old Doc Baker from 'Little House On The Prairie') are the scheming lovers in 19th Century Paris who murder her husband for his business and sell the body to a medical school where it is turned into a display skeleton. But the skeleton has a disturbing habit of arriving back home and awakening the lovers with its pitiful screaming!! Jack Weston plays the school director who is hopelessly in love with Madalena and blackmails her into a relationship with him after working out the truth. These three despicable characters dance around each other, scheming, manipulating and double crossing, until each of them, with the help of the errant skeleton, meets a ghastly comeuppance. It's an entertaining and atmospheric gothic horror melodrama without being one of the more memorable episodes, due to an overly contrived and long drawn out script. Still this is high quality television for all that.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.29.1
Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - 06:22 pm:   

Ep61: "'Til Death Do Us Part", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Bloch, from his own short story, was another blackly comedic tale of a little man (Henry Jones) planning to murder his bad tempered walrus of a wife (Reta Shaw). The twist is that he deserves his fate having only eloped and married her thinking she was going to come into a fortune, only to discover that her marriage means she has been disinherited - so he's stuck with her in penury. Despite Jones's likeably immoral performance he illicits little sympathy from the viewer having already been seen to have murdered his first wife in the intro! Being an undertaker he disposed of her body in the false bottom of someone else's coffin and know he plans to do the same to his second missus. But the best laid plans of mice and men... Though slight and predictable the performances and witty script make it a highly enjoyable macabre entertainment. Not one of the best of the series but great fun nonetheless.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - 06:43 pm:   

I finished this great series quite a while ago now and must write up the remaining episodes.

I was reminded of the show by picking up its short lived and never broadcast forerunner, 'The Veil' (1958), on DVD. It too was a horror anthology introduced by and starring Boris Karloff. About to watch the first of its 10 half hour episodes now and this is as good a place as any to give my thoughts on them.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - 07:51 pm:   

The Veil, Ep1: "Vision Of Crime", directed by Herbert L. Strock and written by Fred Schiller, was a pleasantly distracting little supernatural drama made notable by the comic interplay between Karloff's incompetent old police sergeant and his frustrated young assistant, Patrick Macnee, of all people! Also appearing in the cast was an unrecognisably young Robert Hardy, as the brother of a murder victim who had a premonitory vision of the crime while hundreds of miles away on a boat to France. He comes to suspect his gold-digging fiancée, Jennifer Raine (as wooden as a post), of the crime and sets about getting her to confess. Betty Fairfax adds further eccentricity to the cast, as a gossipy witness, but, aside from historical novelty value, there's nothing especially memorable to write home about here.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - 11:48 pm:   

After writing up the last six episodes of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' I will list all 67 in order of preference. Looking forward to that.

Ep62: "The Bride Who Died Twice", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Robert H. Andrews, is one of the least interesting non-supernatural episodes of the series. It is, in fact, a romantic melodrama set in an unspecified South American country facing the usual violent revolution. A ruthlessly ambitious general (Joe De Santis) sets his sights on marrying the daughter of "El Presidente" (Eduardo Ciannelli) but must first get rid of her handsome young soldier fiancé (Robert Colbert). After sending his rival on a suicide mission, leading to apparent death in the mountains, he uses blackmail and torture to inveigle his way into the girl (Mala Powers) and her father's "affections", leading to a horrendously mismatched arranged marriage. But things get complicated when she commits suicide on the eve of the wedding and, of course, her true love returns, alas too late, having not been killed, and sets about exacting revenge. The whole thing plays like a far-fetched soap opera and, apart from a tame torture scene, is in no way macabre. There is an entirely predictable "twist", that the title even gives away, and one has as good as forgotten the episode about 10 minutes after watching it. It passes the time but is a long way behind the quality I had come to expect of the show by this stage. Disappointingly average.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Thursday, June 23, 2016 - 01:18 pm:   

The Veil, Ep2: "Girl On The Road", written and directed by George Waggner, presented us with a noirish twist on the old urban myth of the phantom hitchhiker. While passing through a small town a young man (Tod Andrews) stops to help a beautiful blonde (Eve Brent), whose car is broke down by the side of the road, and finds himself enmeshed in a mystery as to her identity and why she is so terrified of local bigwig Morgan Debs (Karloff). After she vanishes our hero determines to get to the truth, despite hostility from the locals, and uncovers a shocking secret. This is a neatly presented little entertainment that deftly switches from noir crime thriller, ala 'Kiss Me Deadly' (1955), to something much weirder. A marked improvement over the first episode with a satisfyingly spooky twist in the tail.

Interesting to note that the first two eps were both directed by horror veterans:
Herbert L. Strock - 'I Was A Teenage Frankenstein' (1957), etc...
George Waggner - 'The Wolf Man' (1941), etc...
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.117.197.80
Posted on Thursday, June 23, 2016 - 03:33 pm:   

The Cave, which I'd never heard of before. This got a very lukewarm reception upon its release in 2005 and appears to be universally detested. I liked the Lovecraftian touches - that closer look at one of the creatures which shows tatooed initials on its skin, revealing that the thing *gasp* once used to be human. The old monastery hidden from view was well executed, the legends of Knights Templar doing battle with cave-dwelling horrors are intriguing and add historical verisimilitude. I liked the critters too. In the end it's all a tad predictable, especially once the beings are shown in their entirety, as is the 'shock ending'. Babe Piper Perabo shows a leg (or two).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 90.214.168.17
Posted on Thursday, June 23, 2016 - 04:19 pm:   

I enjoyed 'The Cave' (2005) too, Hubert, and thought it was criminally underrated. I agree, the atmospheric Lovecraftian touches and back story were what made it. I have it in the collection. Not quite a lost classic or anything but it is very good with a strong twist ending and cool monsters. They reminded me of the things in 'Pitch Black' (2000).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 08:14 pm:   

The Veil, Ep3: "Food On The Table", co-written and directed by Frank B. Bibas and co-written by Jack Jacobs, gave Karloff a wickedly villainous part to get his teeth into, as a monstrously vain and selfish womanising sea captain who plans to murder his bullied wife (Kay Stewart) and marry a rich widow who has eyes for him. He takes her along on one of his voyages, locks her in the cabin and slowly, agonisingly poisons her - while telling her she is merely suffering from sea sickness, and professing grief-stricken shock to the crew when the inevitable happens. A truly horrible death! The rest is a nicely presented and atmospheric period gothic horror of revenge from beyond the grave. The way in which the wife's ghost remorselessly destroys his reputation among his sea-faring colleagues, by playing on his vanity, rather than just killing him, is particularly effective and understated.

So far these are pleasingly entertaining little playlets of a well mounted steady professionalism without being anywhere near the level of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', 'The Twilight Zone' or BKT. I'm enjoying the series. It's great comfort watching.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 09:17 pm:   

The Veil, Ep4: "The Doctors", directed by George Waggner and written by Frank P. Bibas & David Evans, showcased BK's versatility, following the last episode, by having him play a kindly old country doctor who is idolised by his patients and can never do enough for them. His recently qualified doctor son (Tony Travis), on a visit home from his big city practice, is worried however that the old man is working himself into the grave and insists on taking over some of his load. However, when the young man is called out in the middle of a stormy night to help a desperately ill young girl her family refuse to let him treat her as they only trust "their own doctor". Knowing the girl will die unless given immediate treatment this leaves him in a desperate dilemma... until an oddly silent Karloff "impossibly" turns up to save the day. We think we know what to expect when the son gets home but there is a neat double twist when the actual truth is revealed. The story purports to be based on an actual documented case - as do all the episodes - and this does have the feel of a folksy urban legend. A decent half hour distraction.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 - 09:44 pm:   

The Veil, Ep5: "The Crystal Ball", directed by Herbert L. Strock and written by Robert Joseph, was a rather stodgy supernatural drama and the weakest of the show so far - at half way through. Booth Colman plays the annoyingly weak willed protagonist, a lovestruck young writer who is ditched by his gold-digging girlfriend (Roxanne Berard) in favour of his much older but wealthy boss (Leon Penn). Despite the no nonsense advice of his wise old uncle (Karloff) and best efforts to shake him out of wallowing in self-pity the young man descends into obsessive jealousy. This focuses on a newly acquired antique crystal ball that appears to reveal his former love's every moment in her new life. But when she starts messing about with a young bohemian artist (Albert Carrier) a chance for revenge presents itself. After much agonising things come to a head when the husband begins to suspect our wimpy hero of being the "other man". There's really nothing of any note here. Entirely forgettable.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2016 - 02:49 am:   

Back to 'Boris Karloff's Thriller'...

Ep63: "Kill My Love", directed by Herschel Daughterty and written by Donald S. Sanford, gave one of my favourite actors of the period, Richard Carlson (square jawed hero of so many sci-fi classics), the chance to shine in a shockingly untypical villainous role. He plays an ordinary all-American suburban husband and father who finds himself forced by circumstances into becoming a serial killer, at first to protect his reputation and family, having embarked on an unwise extra-marital affair, and then in order to avoid being caught. There is a horrible feeling of inevitability about his downfall as the man, having crossed the line, ends up literally having to kill all he loves in order to cover up each successive crime. Carlson was the perfect guy to play the role and one really feels for him despite his increasingly unthinkable actions. It is when his loving wife (K.T. Stevens) and adoring teenage son (David Kent) begin to suspect something is amiss that things reach nightmarish levels of emotional anguish and intense moral dilemma. A gripping psychological crime drama with more than a touch of Patricia Highsmith about it. It was in fact based upon a short story by one Kyle Hunt. Very, very good.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2016 - 05:13 am:   

The Veil, Ep6: "Genesis", directed by George Waggner and written by Sidney Morse, got things back on track with an atmospheric and suspenseful ghost story. Two brothers, one good and loyal (Lee Farr), the other an immoral waster (Peter Miller), fall out when their father (Charles Meredith) dies and there is a dispute over his will, leaving their farm to the feckless one, who plans to sell it and put their mother (Katherine Squire) in an old folks home and his bro out on the street. Karloff plays the kindly family lawyer who tries to get the will overturned in court. Allegedly based on a true case that made legal history (yeah, right) matters were sorted out from beyond the grave by a visitation of the father's spectre pointing the way to a misplaced second will. Though predictable the story was well paced and acted showing a much firmer directorial hold than the two episodes made by Herbert L. Strock, so far. Quality will out. I rank this one highly.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 03:45 pm:   

The Veil, Ep7: "Summer Heat", directed by George Waggner and written by Rik Vollaerts, has a nightmarish quality that raises it to the level of one of the better 'Twilight Zone' episodes. During one of New York's notorious summer heat waves a mild mannered little man (Harry Bartell) witnesses the brutal murder of a young woman by a thuggish intruder in the window of an apartment across the way. He immediately reports the killing to the police and when they take him along to investigate all they find is an empty flat with no one living there. When the man hysterically insists what he saw was real he ends up thrown into the nuthatch for observation by Karloff's intrigued head doctor. On the day of his release the murder occurs exactly as he had reported it - the victim having moved in and furnished the flat just as he described - and, guess what, the poor man ends up chief suspect! There is a neat twist in the tail that I won't spoil here. This is easily the best episode of the series so far. Excellent stuff!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 04:29 pm:   

The Veil, Ep8: "The Return Of Madame Vernoy", directed by Herbert L. Strock and written by Stanley H. Silverman, brought us back down to earth with another dull plodding episode reputedly based on a true story of reincarnation in India in the 1930s. A teenage native girl (Lee Torrance) travels from her remote village with her mother to the palatial home of a much older English gentleman (Jean Del Val) insisting she is his long dead wife, Madame Vernoy, reborn. Naturally, despite her knowledge of personal things only his wife could know, the man is sceptical, while his son, and her son(!!), a very young and intense George Hamilton, is openly hostile. Family friend Karloff plays devil's advocate and the girl is sent packing but not before she has provided solid physical proof that what she says must be true. What could have been an interesting examination of the Indian caste system under British rule is hamstrung, again, by wholly uninspired going-through-the-motions direction.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 04:54 pm:   

The Veil, Ep9: "Jack The Ripper", directed by David MacDonald and written by Michael Plant, really grabbed my interest (being a committed Ripperologist) as an imaginative dramatisation of the true story of the famous Victorian psychic Robert Lees' involvement with the hunt for the Whitechapel maniac. Niall MacGinnis gave a brilliantly tortured performance as a man desperate to make the police believe in his graphic visions of the murders and who is repeatedly dismissed as a kook. Until his prediction of the infamous "double event" lands him in a prison cell as the chief suspect! Around these facts the writer has constructed a neat little conspiracy theory pointing the finger at a renowned local surgeon who had undergone brain trauma, turning him into a violent madman. The doctor's family covered up their suspicions and faked his death after having him incarcerated in a lunatic asylum, whereupon the Ripper murders ceased. Despite being the only episode in which Karloff does not have a role, appearing only for the intro and conclusion, this is one of the very best of the series. A highly atmospheric and genuinely intriguing take on the mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 06:14 pm:   

The Veil, Ep10: "Destination Nightmare", directed by Paul Landres and written by Ellis Marcus, brought the series to a strong finish with a particularly creepy airborne ghost story, that reminded me not a little of the BBC 'Dead Of Night' play "Return Flight" (1972). Karloff plays the bullish head of a small European airline who is giving his son (Ron Hagherty) a tough time as he learns the ropes of the family business. While at the controls during a training flight the boy comes under the malign influence of a ghostly presence, seen as a shimmering reflection in front of him, that commands him to fly into a mountain. Only the quick action of his co-pilot (Myron Healy) saves them from disaster. After much disbelieving grief from his bullying father the young man is astonished to recognise the ghost that almost killed him in an old wartime photograph beside dear old Dad as co-member of a bomber crew. Some digging into the past and another encounter with the vengeful spectre reveals a guilty secret that his father would rather have left buried. Brilliant episode that wouldn't have been out of place as a 'Twilight Zone' story.

And that's your lot...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016 - 06:25 pm:   

Here are all 10 episodes of 'The Veil' (1958) ranked in order of preference:

1. Ep7: "Summer Heat" by George Waggner
2. Ep10: "Destination Nightmare" by Paul Landres
3. Ep2: "Girl On The Road" by George Waggner
4. Ep9: "Jack The Ripper" by David MacDonald
5. Ep3: "Food On The Table" by Frank P. Bibas
6. Ep6: "Genesis" by George Waggner
7. Ep4: "The Doctors" by George Waggner
8. Ep1: "Vision Of Crime" by Herbert L. Strock
9. Ep8: "The Return Of Madame Vernoy" by Herbert L. Strock
10. Ep5: "The Crystal Ball" by Herbert L. Strock

An interesting little series of supernatural dramas, showcasing Boris Karloff's virtuosity as a character actor, and that works as a kind of cosy intro to the more frightening pleasures of his 'Thriller' series.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, July 31, 2016 - 04:36 am:   

Back to 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' and this is me into the final four episodes:

Ep64: "Man Of Mystery", directed by John Newland and written by Robert Bloch, based on his own short story, marked the last stone cold classic horror episode of the show, with only three left to go after it. That makes four of the very best horror episodes that were directed by Newland, of 'One Step Beyond' (1959-61) fame. This is one of those truly compelling horror mysteries in which an investigative journalist, likeably played by William Windom, digs into the secret life of an enigmatic international financier (John Van Dreelen) whose dubious rise to riches has left a string of bodies in its wake. Aided by the mute manservant who never leaves his side - an unforgettably menacing performance by Walter Burke - this ruthless tycoon has his eyes set on winning the hand in marriage of a beautiful young cabaret singer (Mary Tyler Moore) whom our hero is determined to warn off - all the man's previous partners having coming to suspicious ends or simply disappeared, never to be seen again. Through all of this there is a distinct whiff of something unholy about the relationship between boss and servant and the collection of portraits of former loves that decorates their palatial mansion. Building to a memorably spine-chilling and remarkably bleak shock ending, that reveals the terrible secret behind the villain's charmed career, this is one of those well nigh flawless episodes that enshrines the show's place in the pantheon of timeless TV horror. You'll find yourself beseeching the attractive pair of plucky young sleuths to "For God Sake!" stop digging and leave well enough alone in this one. Utterly brilliant edge-of-the-seat entertainment!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Sunday, July 31, 2016 - 08:58 am:   

Ep65: "The Innocent Bystanders", directed by John English and written by Robert H. Andrews, was the last horror themed episode of the series, being yet another retelling of the Burke & Hare story, most memorably filmed as 'The Body Snatcher' (1945) starring Karloff & Lugosi. This time familiar faces John Anderson and George Kennedy play the murderous grave-robbers supplying corpses to Carl Benton Reid's unscrupulous professor of anatomy. It's a well made, entertaining and atmospheric version without bringing anything particularly new to the hoary old tale. They kill a few people for money, get greedy, raise suspicions and meet their comeuppance at the hands of rival corpse stealers who feel they are giving the trade a bad name. Anderson is the brains and Kennedy plays the dim-witted brawn reminding us how good is at playing thuggish villains - see 'Thunderbolt And Lightfoot' (1974). But for all that this is still one of the weaker episodes that passes the time pleasantly enough but doesn't linger long in the mind. One gets the impression the producers were treading water with this one and the show was finally starting to run out of steam.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2016 - 12:08 am:   

The penultimate episode:

Ep66: "The Lethal Ladies", directed by Ida Lupino and written by Boris Sobelman, based on a pair of crime short stories by Joseph Payne Brennan - author of the unforgettable "Slime" (1953). This was the last of four portmanteau episodes produced for the series - see also "The Cheaters", "Trio For Terror" and "Dialogues With Death" above. We are given two tales of desperate women pushed into acts of murder, adapted from "The Pool" and "Goodbye, Dr Bliss". Interestingly the same two actors - Howard Morris & Rosemary Murphy - play the male and female leads in both stories and a great job they do too in markedly different roles. The first tale has a loyal wife escaping a murder attempt by her slimy philandering husband and horribly turning the tables on him in a carefully staged act of poetically just revenge. It's a slight but amusing little story that is completely overshadowed by the second segment. In this a timid spinster librarian, Miss Quimby, is relentlessly bullied by her authoritarian new boss, Dr Bliss, in the job she has loved doing all her working life. Finally pushed too far the worm turns and she comes up with a fail-safe plan to get rid of the man in a particularly nasty way, that has to be one of the most horrible deaths imaginable. The stars clearly enjoy sparking off each other in this one and I found it highly entertaining. It's just a shame that they didn't pick a couple of Payne's more famous horror stories to adapt.

And so on to the last episode of the series and then I look forward to listing all of them ranked in order of preference!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2016 - 12:43 am:   

Ep67: "The Specialists", directed by Ted Post and written by John Kneubuhl, based on a short story by Gordon Ash, sadly ended the series with one of its least memorable non-horror stories. A competently told and perfectly watchable crime thriller that follows an elite team of independent law enforcement agents as they attempt to bring down an international diamond smuggling ring. The action moves from Montreal to London and involves a few murders, a bombing and lots of surveillance before things are wound up and the bad guys brought to book. Lin McCarthy plays the square jawed do-or-die chief lawman, Ronald Howard is the vicious mastermind of the criminal gang and gorgeous Suzanne Lloyd provides a bit of love interest. There are no surprises here and when this one ended I was left with a distinct feeling of anti-climax. But that can't take away from the vast majority of exceptional episodes in this timelessly great TV show. When 'Thriller' was at its best, as in most of the gothic horror stories, it was the equal of anything being produced in the cinema at the time. I know I'll be returning to this treasured DVD box set many, many times over the years to come.

And now it's time to put my sorting cap on and rank all 67 episodes! Watch this space, folks...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 5.68.170.9
Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2016 - 05:00 pm:   

First up here's my personal pick of the Top 10 episodes:

BORIS KARLOFF'S THRILLER (1960-62)

1. Ep59: "The Incredible Doktor Markesan" (Feb 1962), directed by Robert Florey and written by Donald S. Sanford, based on a short story by August Derleth and starring Boris Karloff, Dick York and Carolyn Kearney. *****

2. Ep49: "The Return Of Andrew Bentley" (Dec 1961), directed by John Newland and written by Richard Matheson, based on a short story by August Derleth and starring John Newland, Reggie Nalder and Antoinette Bower. *****

3. Ep36: "Pigeons From Hell" (Jun 1961), directed by John Newland and written by John Kneubuhl, based on a short story by Robert E. Howard and starring Brandon De Wilde, David Whorf and Crahan Denton. *****

4. Ep50: "The Remarkable Mrs Hawk" (Dec 1961), directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sanford, based on a short story by Margaret St Clair and starring Jo Van Fleet, John Carradine, Bruce Dern and Hal Baylor. *****

5. Ep25: "Trio For Terror" (Mar 1961), directed by Ida Lupino and written by Barré Lyndon, based on the short stories; "The Extra Passenger" by August Derleth, "A Very Strange Bed" by Wilkie Collins and "Chamber Of Horrors" by Nelson Bond, and starring Terence de Marney, Richard Lupino, Reginald Owen, Robin Hughes, John Abbott and Michael Pate. *****

6. Ep16: "The Hungry Glass" (Jan 1961), written and directed by Douglas Heyes, based on a short story by Robert Bloch and starring William Shatner and Joanna Heyes. *****

7. Ep22: "The Fingers Of Fear" (Feb 1961), directed by Jules Bricken and written by Robert H. Andrews, based on a short story by Philip MacDonald and starring Nehemiah Persoff, Robert Middleton and Thayer Roberts. *****

8. Ep34: "The Prisoner In The Mirror" (May 1961), directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Arthur, as an original screenplay, starring Lloyd Bochner and Henry Daniell. *****

9. Ep41: "The Weird Tailor" (Oct 1961), directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert Bloch, based on his own short story and starring George Macready, Abraham Sofaer, Henry Jones and Sondra Blake. *****

10. Ep30: "Parasite Mansion" (Apr 1961), directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Donald S. Sanford, based on a short story by Mary Elizabeth Counselman and starring Pippa Scott, Jeanette Nolan, James Griffith, Beverly Washburn and Tom Nolan . *****

The rest to follow...

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