Death in the Family/The Merciful/Class of '99/Witches' Feast

"A Death in the Family" Starring EG Marshall as a funeral home proprietor and Desi Arnez Jr. as an escaped convict really brings home why I love 'Night Gallery' so much. It really encapsulates the best of the series, along with several other stories, the great mood that good horror writing has. To paraphrase an author whose name escapes me, "Horror is the realization" In other words, its not th blood and guts that makes horror so good, its the full realization of what is really happening. This episode fills that bill perfectly as we see what is REALLY going on in the Soames home for funerals. Not easily forgotten, this episode.

Brandon deWilde, Vincent Price and Randolph Mantooth gave fine performances. They all did, and so did the Asian guy (Mr. Chang"?)who was part of the dialogue, and his was not a bit part. Yet the production people chose to ignore him. Hollywood racism at its best, you must make noise to get a fair shake.

It should also be noted that when the student recited an equation for momentum (m*v) of a rocket, he cited a correction factor for fuel loss, ln(e). I don't know what these guys were smoking but that smart Asian kid would tell you that ln(e^x) = x

So 8 for the acting and 4 for the writing.

The second episode from season two once again contains four segments.

The first "A Death In the Family" has a rather odd mortician doing his duty, when he gets paid a visit by a wounded thief. As the episode progresses we later learn that the lonely man takes his job pretty dang seriously and decides to make plans for the thief and several other stiffs he has on display. There really isn't nothing to exciting to this tale as another reviewer stated its more rather sad then terrifying, but, it does have some creepy moments and two good performances from E,G, Marshall and Desi Arnaz, jr.

The second "The Merciful" is another comedy short where a woman seems to be building a wall over her sick husband. As normal there's a twist to the affair and its rather obvious.

The third "Class of '99" is the star piece of the episode. It features Vincent Price as a college professor, teaching a class of men and women all of different types the meaning of life and different feelings, as things go along they go to the extreme and we later learn this isn't no ordinary class of students, I'm not going to say anything more about his, but, its a moving tale that fits perfectly in today's society defiantly holds up the episode on its own merit.

The fourth "Witches' Feast" is another comedy short about bickering witches, long thought to be lost it was later discovered, its a good thing its short because it begins to ware out its welcome.

Overall a decent episode worth watching primarily for "Class of '99".

Let me say right from the jump that E.G. Marshall is terrific as Mr. Soames, a funeral director who takes his job rather seriously, even to the extent of helping an escaped prisoner, played decently enough by a young Desi Arnaz Jr, who's on the run from the authorities. The funeral parlor and house are very creepy looking on both inside and out and makes for a fine setting; this show is known for the old mansions which appear in many episodes. Marshall is very convincing as the lonely director, whose work appears to be his life, although he could use some singing lessons. After being stopped by the police near his home and questioned about seeing the loose convict, they let him go back home; soon after, the escaped, injured, and very wet convict(Arnaz Jr.)breaks through a window carrying a gun and requests to be able to lay down on the sofa to rest. Soames is more than happy to have the young man stay, and you sense that he is fattening him up for the kill. It turns out that the director has a newly dead family propped up on a dinner table, and I wish they would've used dummies or something other than real people just staring into the camera. Soames and the convict neither had a family of their own, so the director wants to add to his make believe family, although against the young man's wishes. Other than this downer, this is still a solid episode of the best season of Night Gallery and has a fine atmosphere.

E. G. Marshall stars in "Death in the Family." No, not the James Agee classic but the story of a funeral director who doesn't want to let his clients go. He invites them to a party. He has an entire family set up at a table, to celebrate a birthday. Apparently, empty caskets are being put in the ground (they are the poor and dissolute) and he keeps the bodies. There is no mention of taxidermy, but they seem quite well preserved. Along comes Desi Arnaz, Jr., a murderer who has been shot and is being pursued by the police. He realizes his wound may be fatal. Marshall invites him in and takes care of him. Anyway, we can see it coming. This is quite a unique episode.

"The Merciful" is a new version of Poe's "A Cask of Amontillado." Enough said about that.

"The Class of '99" features a final oral exam for a group of attractive graduate students. They are asked extremely hard questions and answer them flawlessly. Well, almost. One is only able to give three of four answers and is maligned for it. The teacher is Vincent Price and he holds forth with an ugly disdain and absolute power over them. Part of their exam is to deal with issues of bigotry and hate and act "appropriately" when confronting these things. It gets really ugly at times. The conclusion explains what is at issue here. For me, this was the best of the three.

Finally, "Satisfaction Guaranteed" (which doesn't appear at the top of this page but is definitely in this collection) is about an overweight man, played by Victor Buono, who is at a secretarial agency, trying to choose an employee. The company guarantees satisfaction. so? Anyway, it probably ranks as one of the silliest episodes. But watching Buono was always a great treat.