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

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.

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.

To start with, this viewer must say that he watched this episode on DVD, where the final 'Witches Feast' segment was replaced with another story entirely, 'Satisfaction Guaranteed'. He cannot comment on the episode as it originally aired back in '71.

As for the rest:

'Death in the Family'. The wonderful E.G. Marshall (whom horror fans know as Upson Pratt in "Creepshow") is Mr. Soames, a funeral home director accosted in his place of business by young murderer Doran (Desi Arnaz, Jr.). Doran is in for a surprise when he sees that he sees that there is actually no safe haven here. Mr. Soames, you see, is an eccentric who has certain ideas about what to do with dead individuals. Scripted by Rod Serling, based on Miriam Allen DeFords' story, this is pretty good, but delivers no earthshaking revelations. Some good atmosphere, in any event.

'The Merciful'. An "original" by series producer Jack Laird (this is obviously inspired by Edgar Allan Poe), this has a loving wife (Imogene Coca) walling up her husband (King Donovan) for supposedly compassionate reasons. The revelation is amusing, if not a great one, and this at least represents something of an improvement over a previous Laird-scripted comic vignette, 'Miss Lovecraft Sent Me'). Ms. Coca is a delight.

'Class of '99'. This is far and away the standout segment of this episode, and is a Serling original, showing off his great ear for dialogue and talent for intelligent rumination on the idea of human nature. Vincent Price is an officious professor, presiding over the final exam for his students. Brandon de Wilde, the young boy from "Shane" all grown up, is one of them. It's worth it all just for Serling's delicious reveal, which may actually catch the viewer by surprise. The episode really cooks once we get to a confrontation between two students, one white and one black, and we think about instinctual reactions to being provoked.

Finally, 'Satisfaction Guaranteed'. Another original by Laird. Victor Buono plays a pompous schlub who wants a young woman for some unknown purpose, while an employment agency proprietress (Cathleen Cordell) parades some efficient young ladies before him. Once a certain character comes through the door, and Buono's eyes light up, you see what he's really going for. Overall, this short segment is amusing, and shows that Laird was showing some (very mild) improvement in terms of his writing. But Buono is the real reason to watch.

Look for various familiar faces turning up throughout: James B. Sikking, Hunter von Leer, Randolph Mantooth, Soon-Tek Oh, etc.

The *real* twist here is that all four of these segments were directed by the same man for once, Jeannot Szwarc ("Jaws 2", "Somewhere in Time"), who worked on 19 episodes of the series in total.

Seven out of 10.

"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.

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".