Make Me Laugh/Clean Kills and Other Trophies

This is a mediocre episode with one good sequence and one bad.

Make Me Laugh is the first of a few Rod Serling scripts that suffers from feeling too much like Twilight Zone episodes. This feels a little too much like the Zone episode What You Need. It's a shame because this one was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Clean Kills and Other Trophies is a good episode. I heard Serling was dissatisfied with Raymond Massey's performance. I can understand he felt Massey wasn't strong enough, but I feel the actor did a good job to make you want to hate this ruthless old man obsessed with hunting.

Over a decade before Steven Spielberg directed a segment of Twilight Zone The Movie, he cut his teeth on Rod Serling's Night Gallery, helming a couple of tales, both of which felt very much like something from The Twilight Zone.

Make Me Laugh is Spielberg's second Night Gallery story and tells of an unsuccessful stand-up comic, Jackie Slater (Godfrey Cambridge), who is granted a wish by a genie (Jackie Vernon). In a trite plot development, Slater's wish to make everybody laugh causes him further strife, so he tries his luck as an actor. When no-one will take him seriously, he wishes that he could move people and make them cry. The final twist is not unexpected. I had hoped for something a bit more original from Spielberg, but I guess it was still early days...

The second story (not directed by Spielberg) is Clean Kill and Other Trophies, in which meek pacifist Archie Dittman Jr. (Barry Brown) is faced with being disinherited by his father (Raymond Massey) unless he can hunt and kill an animal within fifteen days. Again, the denouement isn't all that unexpected, making this episode rather disappointing as a whole.

'Make Me Laugh' - Godfrey Cambridge plays a frustrated comedian who just can't make audiences laugh until a self-proclaimed(and frustrated) miracle worker(played by Jackie Vernon) grants him his wish, but it still ends tragically like he had feared... Mediocre tale is ultimately just sad, though ending does have a sting to it.

'Clean Kills and Other Trophies' - Raymond Massey plays a frustrated hunter whose attempts to drive his hunting-hating son to kill backfire completely on him in a most ironic way... Forceful tale will please animal rights people with its harsh(if slightly comical) final scene, straight out of "The Twilight Zone".

The first episode, "Make Me Laugh," is one of those "Be careful what you wish for" episodes. It involves a horrible comic who has been doing some awful material for years. He is played by Godfrey Cambridge. Along with his sidekick, Tom Bosley, they have been in every dive imaginable. There is nothing quite as uncomfortable as a person trying to make people laugh and having them stare blankly at him. There isn't even a chuckle. He gets fired after one performance and is commiserating in a bar. A man in a ridiculous turban approaches him as he rants about how unfair the world is. This man is played by Jackie Vernon (one of the funniest comedians ever. He was also Frosty the Snowman). Vernon tells him that he can grant one request each month and he hasn't used one yet. When the comedian jumps at the chance, Vernon warns him that numerous others have made wishes but somehow paid a great price for them; he is even quite specific. Of course, our guy ignores the warning and makes his request: he wants to make people laugh. You guessed it. They don't laugh at his jokes. They laugh at everything he says. Even people on the street. His gift becomes a pariah to him.

The second episode, " Clean Kills and Other Trophies," concerns a big game hunter played by the great Raymond Massey. He is a very rich man and has spent his life killing anything that moves. He has a trophy room with the heads of numerous beasts. The biggest disappointment in his life is his son. A boozing, liberal thinking, passive young man whose father sees as a total failure. He is in the house with a lawyer who is going to do the final touches on a trust fund. Angry that this is too easy, Dad puts a codicil in the trust. The son must kill a deer in the next fifteen hours or the trust will disintegrate into worthless paper. There is a fourth character. A black man of African descent who is treated as a lesser human by the old man. This man patiently puts up with the racism of his boss, but has a certain aura of control about him. Of course, the hunt becomes the focus of the rest of the episode. Ultimately disappointing in my view. One reason, for me, was that the son may have good intentions but he is weak and ineffective.

This is one of my absolute favorites. How often have you heard the expression "be careful for what you wish". This episode perfectly summarizes that sentiment. It has served me well, over the years, and as far as heavy handed lessons go, this one was worth watching. I love how the tide turns, and then turns again, for the protagonist, Godfrey Cambridge - one of the comedic greats.

Also see him is the Watermelon Man, Cotton Comes to Harlem (an awesome flick) and Come Back Charleston Blue. I give it a ten of ten, because, though I have only seen it once, it left me with a an indelible memory.

Feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree. racerdex@hotmail.com