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There's no's, no admission, no requirement of the membership, only a
strong and abiding belief in the dark at the top of the stairs or Lady
the Night Gallery. All right, all right, Loveler is welcome back to
Midnight Viewing The Night Gallery podcast, where we take a look at Ronson's follow
up to The Twilight Zone nineteen seventies, the Night Gallery. And joining me
here in the gallery are Chris Statue from the Culture Cast. Chris, this
ain't your Daddy's twilight Zone. Okay, as there were the tagline for this
Night Gallery cold this ain't your Daddy's twilight Zone. That would be that would
be like what happens in the Night Gallery stays in the Night gallerries right,
Yeah, Yeah, that's fair. Also also a good one. Also joining
us from the projection booth, mister Mike White, I so want to make
a reference to Fang, but I don't think anybody's gonna get that with Fang.
Yes, I remember Fang in Phillips. Of course he's mentioned it because
we're gonna be talking about Phillips in a second. In fact, we're talking
about season one, episode of five. I say art on January thirteenth and
nineteen seventy one and broken into three segments. The first is Pamela's Voice,
then a lone survivor, and the doll. Welcome heart lovers. We offer
for your approval of still life, if you will of noise, a soundless
canvas suggestive of sound. The mouth belongs to Pamela in life, a shrieking
battle axe made up of adnoid's tonsils and sound decibls. In death, an
unmuted practitioner of fishwifery, undeterred and UnGagged by what one would assume to be
the Great Silencer. Some ghosts come back to hunt. Others come back simply
to pick up where they left off. Our painting is called Pamela's Voice,
and this is the Night Gallery Now. Pamela's voice was written by Rod Serling,
directed by Richard Beckert, and stars Phyllis Diller and John Aston. Only
it's about a murderous husband who discovers that all too late, that the difference
between heaven and hell. Chris, you want to start on this one?
And I tell you, guys something funny. Sure, yes, I didn't
know that that was what Phillis Dillard looked like. Oh really? Like as
ah, did you just know her as a tune puppet, an old,
older person like in her seventies and eighties? Like when I say I didn't
know, I mean I knew because the episode told me. But I was
like, that's Phillis Diller. Yeah, like from like, I only really
think of Phillis Diller when she tells the when she's in the what the fuck
is that movie? Cope the Aristocrats? Oh okay, she's in The Aristocrats.
She had the voice of the Queens. Yeah yeah, but yeah,
but I didn't like, she didn't look like Phillis Diller outside of that though,
Gomez Adams killing his wife. I mean, come on, come on,
John Aston's great are you saying come on? Like you can't you can't
believe they made him kill his wife. Are you saying like hooray, No,
I'm saying, come on, like that's that's very tongue in cheek,
given that his the character that he is one more or less known for playing,
loves his wife immensely, and in as he's like, yeah, fuck
you, if this is hell, I'll die again. Like all right,
I love that I grew up with Phila Stiller. Just she was always there
for the longest time, just always there TV movies, there were so many
more variety shows and stuff on TV all the time, on talk shows all
the time. She was even the Monster's mate in Mad Monster Party. So
we've talked a little bit about her before. Yeah that was bad, Yeah,
very bad. But I mean she was just doing Phila Stiller everything.
Yeah, and literally yeah, because Fang was like my husband. I'd barely
remember this one. It really made a big impression. Yeah, because nothing,
nothing happens. Yes, that the simplicity and beauty of it is the
brevity. And yeah, to be fair though, like was there any more
that they could have given us and or that we needed? Not? Really?
No, right, I mean, look, it's who's afraid of Virginia
Woolf in two minutes with ghosts. You know, look, it suffers from
the rod sertling overly writerritis and it is bottled and whatever. But like you
said, Chris, it's it's quick overstay. Its welcome, definitely, And
some of their barbs at one another are actually pretty good. Like when she
shows up as a ghost, seemingly for the first time, she says,
you're surprised to see me, and he says, no, I'm not surprised.
You showed up everywhere uninvited your entire life. Why should anything be different
now? Like that's good, you know, I will say they sort of
tread with like or they sort of treat lightly the notion at the end,
which is this isn't a ghost story at all. This is she's in heaven
and he's in hell simultaneously, right, Like, that's what what's going on,
which is really metaphysical and fun for a brief little morsel at the beginning
of this episode, Yeah, I didn't. I was having our time on
understanding that conceit. Her heaven is just her heaven is torturing him okay by
talking, Okay, his hell is being tortured by her from talking. You
know, it's like an Oh Henry story in a way. Yeah, yeah,
I know. You know. Again, it didn't overstay, It's welcome.
John Aston's a good actor. It's great in everything. I've seen him
in The Fright Nurse being one of those things. He's okay, he's not
the best part of that, but he did you know he's the father of
Shawn Aston. He's the original Gomez Adams. Not only is he playing against
type here, but he underplays everything. He's really spooky, how quiet he
is. Like, yeah, I've never seen a performance like that from him
before, so that was really welcome and interesting. No, I like this
segment a fair amount only because it a doesn't overstay, it's welcome, and
the and the twist at the end is nice. It's a it's a it's
a it's a cheeky little twist. It is like the jokes are not really
that funny. I mean, I I've praised it for landing a few,
but like, I don't know, it accomplished what it set out to.
Just a couple hating each other and now they're tramped together forever and good for
them. And look. Twilight Zone nineteen eighty five didn't that they had those
like brief segments, those little essentially what amounted to interstitials. It can work
if they know what these are spectacular children's zoo. Yeah, Dreams for Sale
was literally the name of the show. I never really realized until we started
doing this show how much John Aston had to do with Nike Gallery. I
know right now, like because he directed a segment we've already we've already talked
about. He's in this one, he's in another one. I can't wait
till we get to that one because I remember it being hilarious, Like his
performance is so good. And I think he directs one more too, at
least one more, which is a lot. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
I don't think if John Aston is anything other than an actor. So
it's interesting because you know, we have already seen him direct something and that
was okay. I mean I don't think he brought anything to it. The
failure wasn't the direction. No, I mean you did with what you could,
you know, like the ultimate failure of the Tom Bosley Steven Spielberg episode.
It's not the direction, it's the terrible script. Yeah, but at
least here it's you can't go around the two people just throwing barbs at each
other and then getting a pretty decent twist. No, yeah, it's and
it doesn't overstate it's welcome either, which is the important part because it could
have shown him killing her, given us a couple of scenes of you know
them, it's like, I don't need that, Like they can do that
through dialogue and it's fine, and they did, and it's it's it's okay,
Yeah, it's It's a rare instance where it's kind of a strength to
just have them talking to each other, Like it doesn't feel like they're trying
to skimp on a budget, like, oh, Diana, this is a
room of people talking. It's like, but that's what this is. It's
just everything in this episode segment is just much more well thought out. You
dig Boothhill baby, Like I love that line too, all right? Moving
on, Our next segment is called Loan Survivor and Unforgiving. She usually buries
its secrets beneath itself. Woarships and ocean miners, treasure gunnions, and submarines
turn into rushing relics inside a watery lacquer lost of memory, but occasionally there
comes a floating unbidden reminder of disaster like this lifeboat. The painting is called
a loan survivor. Will put it in tow and see where she came from
and won. Now. This one was written by Rod Sterling, directed by
Gene Levitt, starring John colicos Hedgeley Mattingly and Tarn Thatcher. This one,
a lifeboat is pulled from the North Sea, but it's it's occupant isn't exactly
what he seems. Would you think of this one, Mike? I actually
like this one. It goes on for a little too long, with this
whole thing of them pulling him up. And he survived the Titanic, and
I knew, I mean pretty much right before they said it. I was
just like, oh, they must be on the Lustinia. And then I'm
like, oh, okay, so what's the next boat going to be that
picks him up like the Andrea Doria. I don't know, but I kind
of like this whole thing of this doomed person, And I like John Ka
he goes a lot. I really obviously him in Star Trek being one of
the best Klingons around, and just he's been around forever. He's got I
know, you called this face weird, but I love that face. I
think that's really good. And I thought that he played that survivor, the
titular lone survivor. I thought that he played him very well. I just
now placed where he was from Mike because he said star Trek, right,
can you see him with the goatee and holy shit the og Klingon Yeah,
Klingon Pride. Him and Mark Leonard were like the original Klingons. Yeah yeah,
no, uh he was Baltard too, and Batistar galactic Yeah yeah,
but man, yeah, what a It kind of reminds me in a way
of a more subdued version of Richard Kylie's performance, where it's like a man
racked with guilt right with no way to deal with it. It reminds me
a lot of that episode. And I think it's just you know that episode.
I think we are big issue with that episode was it went on too
long. I don't think this. I think I think you're right. I
think this one goes on one bit too much because I think it could have
ended when it was like the Lucitania like that, you could have ended it,
right, Yeah, Like that's it hits that moment pretty hard, and
then it keeps going. It's like, but what, like, we know
what he's already said, what he is, Like, you don't need to
force feed me everything, right, yeah? Man, Yeah, you know
the idea behind this episode's fun. I like this idea of this, you
know, erstwhile dickhead who kind of did one thing and now he's being punished
for eternity for it. Like I like that. You know, the punishment
maybe doesn't fit the crime specifically, but holy shit, Night Gallery three X
paid Back. Yeah, welcome to the Night Gallery. Right. Yeah,
I like this episode quite a bit. Have the same problem I think with
you guys. It is just a little too long, and I think it's
right at the top, like you said, Mike, it's just the procedural
of pulling him up like quarter ahead, quarter ahead. They're calling it up
and down and then like and the problem is I noticed it right away.
You wouldn't have cared if even one shot showed us the ocean, if they
had shown one life boat bobbing on a wave, then we wouldn't have cared.
It was all interior set bound, and they're all just talking to each
other to the point where they like they're looking through the binoculars. They didn't
even give us a binocular shot of the boat, saying Titanic on the side.
Like I kept thinking, like do they understand this is a visual medium,
Like no, all of this can be even if they start in the
enterprises. It's in the enterprise's nurse enterprises, like first aid station is what
it feels like, you know what I mean? It's so fucking set bound,
Like, oh my god, looks like I was filmed in a closet
somewhere on the NBC backlot, Like I don't CBS backlot, excuse me.
I don't understand because like the episodes idea is sound, but then everything else
is just kind of like are we trying here? Yeah? And like why
are we spinning our wheels for like you know, like three or four minutes
at the beginning with that, you know, like we got to hoist them
up? Now you look, now, you look now, you look right?
Yeah, what do you see? What do you see? What fuck
is going on here? Get to the point. What a weird way to
start. But once he gets on the boat, like I'm on the on
board. You know, guys, my favorite record growing up as a kid,
I had this record. It was a Pickwick record called Famous Ghost Stories,
and that's exactly what we get here, Like you know it was.
It was for kids, obviously, just old famous ghost stories. When he
tells the tale of the wreck of the Titanic, man, I thought it
was pivoting. It's one of those cases where the set bound doesn't matter anymore
because the performance is so good and so captivating the stories he's telling. The
story he's telling is so good. What's weird is they don't they tell us
right at the outset that we're on the loose Titania. Like they pull him
out and go, he's on the Titanic, and then they pan over and
show the Lusitania. So so now it's not a oh my god, we're
on the Lusitanians and that as well, it's a is he or is he
a lunatic or not? But we already know that the Lusitania is going down,
so that's kind of a false start. But what they end up coming
up with this sort of human flying dutchman that he's that that this that none
of those people are real, right, it's all set dressing to punish him,
and he's gonna have to keep doing it. And then he'll meet the
ghosts of the Andrea Doria. Like that's really frightening to me, Like when
when when? Right before it happens when everyone is gone and he's left alone
on the deck to watch as the torpedo nears, Like that's pretty good.
We've endured a lot this season, but this one I liked a lot.
Yeah, I agree, it's a it's a lot of fun, and yeah,
it does kind of just go on a little too long, but they
want to get their more contemporary one in there, Andrea Doria. I mean,
you know, the Lusitania is not I guess it's kind of contemporary,
but they wanted to go one step further, and I think by going one
step further, I think it's one step just a tad too far. But
you know what, it takes away time from some of the other less successful
segments in this episode, So maybe it's not all bad. Did you notice
that? Like, so this is a period piece, right, this is
the first thing. This is the first period piece we've gotten from Serling for
a long time. Notice how much better all the dialogue seems coming out of
people when they're you tell me it's nineteen forty five. I'm like oh right,
yeah, yeah, this everything is good. Everything makes total sense,
and everything's normal, and everyone's attitude is good. You know, we're gonna
see it in the next one too. But like Pamela's voice, like,
man, no, he s he's trying, but it ain't there and certainly
not in previous episodes like he was. He was not a man of the
moment. No, but that's okay when it was working in Twilight Zone.
It's just now we're a little further ahead, right, and again this is
or like a Twilight Zone than not. I mean, oh, this episode
segment, for sure. If you peeled the color off of this and said
this is from sixty two, I'd be like absolutely, I remember this one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it definitely has that Twilight Zone flavored Yeah.
I mean, and it is a good twist, and you know,
yeah, all the performances are good. It's a good twist. But you
can't do the same twist in the same episode twice. No, Yeah,
the Andrea Doria one at the end, like yeah, it's like him alone
at the end. That's enough. We got the point, Like we know
what's going to happen again. It clearly happened again, right, it was
good. Yeah, yeah, really good. What a what a refreshing change?
Yeah, you're in the night gallery, moving off from ships like the
Titanic and the Andrea Doria to a small fragment of history. This little collector's
item here dates back a few hundred years to the British Indian colonial period,
proving only that sometimes the least likely objects can be filled with the most likely
horror. Our painting is called a doll, and this one you does not
play with all right now? The last segment is called the doll. This
one was written by Rod sort Lane, although he adapted this one. This
was originally from a short story by Algernon Blackwood. Directed by Rudy Dorn,
This one starred Shanny Wallace. Her name is spelled incorrectly, Wallace with an
I s at the end. That's not right. John Williams and Henry Silva.
This one's about a British colonel who's recently returned from Indian finds himself the
prey of a rather peculiar instrument of revenge. Mike, what'd you think of
this one? Oh? I surely they'd like seeing the Henry Silva. That
was nice And Henry Silva can play bullshit and the ethnicity. He's like the
lower budget Anthony Quinn. You know, Anthon even more so than Quinn,
Right, I think you're right. Yeah, yeah, Like you could plug
him into virtually anything, and I'll go, yeah, okay. If he
had been the gin in the uh make me laugh episode, like it could
have, it could have much better. Yeah, I think, yeah,
he would have been much better. And it wasn't like they were calling for
Jack. You're going to do a whole lot of comedy on that, so
yeah, have So it was a funny guy. Silva wouldn't even need the
turban, no, no, just those steely eyes. Yet they gave him
a turban in this yes they did. Yeah, boy, unfortunate this year.
It all seems to be pointing in one direction. What's going on,
Rod, I don't have a bad experience in India, like in between when
The Twilight Zone went off the air and this show came on. He's he's
a big fan of characters wearing turbans. I think we all are. But
that doesn't mean you have to take a white guy from Brooklyn and throw a
little brown on him. If we're gonna pretend he's from he's suddenly at least
he doesn't do a voice. That's I want to say that about Jackie Vernon
as well. That's the only silver lining in both these performances. Neither of
these guys like sort of descended into APU, right exactly. Yeah, And
I wonder if they were prodded to do so and chose not there or or
really wanted to Well, well never now, I guess. But like,
thank god in the end we didn't get that accent, but thank god we
got John Williams as a creepy doll. Oh certainly, who's got that doll
these days? That's that's the question that's on everyone's mind. Yeah, So
the doll is haunted. No, the doll is cursed with it. It's
it's cursed, it's hext by Henry Silva, Yes, animated by him?
Or is it its own thing? Did it come to life? Is it?
Is it all turned into a doll? What is going on in this
is the Dolls? The Brother? Yeah, I was a little bit more
than confused. I've really enjoyed it when I was watching it, and now
that I'm thinking about with the initial doll, Henry Silva sends to the colonel.
It was that a doll that he made animate through magic? Or is
it a like personification of somebody that he loved because he's there for revenge for
his dead brother, right, yeah, it was It couldn't have been his
dead brother though it was clearly like a little girl though, right. I
thought that the doll was there to kill John Williams. Right, so maybe
okay, but he didn't. Henry Silva never like spills the beans as to
like what in particular is making that thing run him up? Right? There's
like two or three scenes missing. Yeah, you know what? And I
always I always hate when when anything sort of genre and supernatural like over explains
things, but like a word or two would be I can handle. Yeah,
I don't know what was going on here, Like I I watched this
episode three times this second, and I still don't understand what the dolls because
he freaks out pretty hard at it. He's like, oh my God,
like oh no, like holy man, like get this thing out of my
house, and everybody else is like, it's just a doll. Man,
Can I defend him a little bit? It's a horrifying doll. Oh yeah,
but I mean it's really right now I'm Tiny Tina and I'm gonna kill
you. Yeah, exactly, like and this is like what's supposed to be
like nineteen sixteen or something like that, right, like, and he just
got back from India and like suddenly his little girls show the girl shows up
with this doll. It's all blasted, black eyed and freaky look and she's
like, this is my favorite thing in the world and it talks to me.
I'd be like, that might be a problem here if this thing is
talking to you in what voices is it using the kind that are in the
lower register? Putting aside that it might be an instrument of vengeance, like
it's a really weird doll for your child to be toting. Yeah, yeah,
it's like it's like in Annabelle, Like the original Annabelle doll is a
raggedy ann doll that looks unassuming. Anyone would love that. You made it
really yeah, you made it really scary. And to miss the point,
it's scary because it's innocuous, not because it looks like a horrifying creature.
All right, all right, and I'm sure they would count like, well,
we couldn't do the rag end all. It's copywritten thing. It's like,
yeah, but you made up a gargoyle like a pleasant little rag.
It's like the same doll in this episode. It's the same thing where it's
like kind of weird and like tarnished and his eyes are strange and it sits
and stares at you. Get out of here. Dolls aren't scary. I
understand why people find them scary. I personally don't. But you can't tell
me that everybody's not going to look at that doll and just be like,
there's guy's gotta go, yeah, put that away. Your kids, Guys,
your kid? Something wrong with your kid? Like why are they toting
around this horrifying cool of a doll. I'm gonna give you, guys my
hope chest it's for your child, no more specifically her doll. Go.
So yeah, I was on the colonel side for that, you know.
And so what does this end up being just like a a parable of like
World War two guards or something like. I was just following orders, but
you're gonna get it anyway. But then Double Cross, Supernatural, Double Cross?
How did that happen? I loved it, actually, but I don't
know how it happened. What happens at the end, So Henry Silva gets
a doll of John Williams. That mean Henry Silva's going to turn into a
doll himself. Maybe I think maybe the magic's that Henry Silva was involved c
KS that created this doll that went off and murdered the thing murdered this guy,
Like did it murder him? That guy? Well, it's he's a
doll now, right, But say, is it like a gift or like
did he just turn into a doll? Did his Is it like a chuck?
Is it? Is it a chucky thing? Where like, yeah,
that's what I thought, where his spirit is in the doll, but his
body is dead. He didn't turn into a doll. I don't know what
the fox's going on here? Why did the doll look like him? I'm
even more convind Why is this one so confusing? But I don't hate the
episode, And there are episodes that late everything out so wonderfully and I can
I never want to think about them again, because you like that doll.
It's a good doll man and Henry Silva like breaking down barriers and like we
can accept him for some reason. Yeah, yeah, who knows? This
episode overall isn't bad. It's definitely better than the last one. The doll
had pretty good music too, like they were. They were leaning in heavy
on the water phone early seventies, like Horror TV Creep Factor. Well,
when you've got John Williams as your main character, right, the one and
only John Williams, I can do everything. Yeah, man, he can
be a doll. He can be you know, you can retire from from
from composing. Don't ever retire from acting, John, not, not from
what we've seen here today. And he's going to be on an episode of
Colombo here in the future. So yeah, composer John Williams. Johnny Williams
to his friends, composing, just coming off of the law Us in space
up the song, Yes, yes, exactly, here's a jazz man that.
Yeah, he's about to head into the long goodbye territory. All right,
hang on, folks, are gonna play a commercial for our next episode.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to an exhibit of the Erie and the odd
Ball, Our first offering this evening faces paint, pigment and desperation, the
quiet desperation of men over forty You keep hearing footsteps behind them and are torn
between a fear and a compulsion to look over their shoulders. The painting is
called They're Turning down Tim Riley's Barn. Welcome, art lovers. We offer
for your approval of painting, which has to do with what happens to men
who take a walk into nature's market place and exchange certain powers for other powers.
The blind were told, for example, develop an extraordinary sense of touch.
In this case, the story of a man who perfects the art of
killing. Our painting is the last la all right, until then? Where
can people find you? Mister Chris Stashu See stashu dot com. That's my
link tree. Go there for all the things that I work on. Some
of the stuff I work on with Mike White. We do a Columbo show
together. And on our next episode of this show, Jack Cassidy is in
it, and he's in an episode of Colombo that we did. So that's
a wat. Yeah, so that's the thing, And that was directed by
Steven Spielberg who directed an episode of this show last time we talked, and
it was bad, but that episode of Columbo's good. See stashu dot com
is where you can find and how about you, mate? You find me
at the Projection Booth, which is available at Projection Booth podcast dot com.
All Right. As for me, you can find me at father Malone dot
com. All Right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us,
and we'll catch you next time.