A Question of Fear/The Devil Is Not Mocked

This epi certainly poses a good question: what happens when evil collides with evil, as Serling himself puts it. I grant you that I was sort of bothered by some nitpicky details-- the uniforms the SS were shown wearing were wrong for the period and the Halftrack was an (obviously) American one. However, the use of the small staff car and the Mercedes-Benz six-wheeler were very good touches.

Francis Lederer was a man totally devoted to his craft, still teaching Acting until the end of his very long life, and I was amused by the fact that Dantine was himself a former concentration camp inmate!

All in all, this is one fine episode, thanks primarily to the acting that is on display here.

'A Question Of Fear' - Leslie Nielsen plays a mercenary who accepts the bet made by a man(played by Fritz Weaver) who challenges him to spend the night in a haunted house for money. The mercenary scoffs at the cheap horror tricks on display in the house, but a hidden agenda comes into play, as the mercenary is faced with another horror entirely unexpected... Memorable tale is equal parts fun and menacing, with surprises and a nifty double twist ending.

'The Devil Is Not Mocked' - Francis Lederer plays a Transylvanian count who finds his castle invaded by the Nazis during World War II, but it then becomes a fight of who are the worst monsters... Most satisfying tale with an unbeatable premise of real vs. "unreal" monsters. Lederer's casting is most clever, having played this role before in "The Return Of Dracula".

"A Question of Fear" has the time-honored premise of a boastfully fearless man dared to spend a night in a haunted house, though there is a lot more to it than that (I won't spoil). It is a long, measured horror/ghost story that is genuinely unsettling, but not for its special effects or gruesome makeups. While some of the effects are indeed startling, the makeup is shockingly amateurish. Fritz Weaver's spraycan white hair (which ostensibly turned white from shock) is downright embarrassing, and the makeup on a recurring apparition wouldn't pass the muster in a community theatre. What makes the story so scary is its implication and the performance of Weaver who describes a series of horrors in so chillingly that it doesn't need jumpcut scares and horrible faces. Leslie Nielsen is good as the ultra-macho "hero," but it is Weaver who really smacks this one out of the park.

"The Devil is Not Mocked" about a group of Nazis arriving at a Balkan castle to take it over during World War II is competently done, but anyone who cannot see the punchline coming a kilometer away should stop watching horror films. Particularly unnecessary is a wraparound sequence about a doting grandpa telling his grandson what he did in the great war.

This episode is worth watching largely for "A Question of Fear."

"A Question of Fear" is a very good episode. Neilsen and Weaver go hand in glove. The ending is a bit weak and could have been left ambiguous. Watching it first run had me going.

"A Question of Fear" is one of those bets that take place when a group of men have to exhibit their testosterone levels. Leslie Nielsen, normally a comedic actor, plays a soldier of fortune who is appalled by another man's (Fritz Weaver's) description of being utterly beset by fear attempting to stay in a haunted house.. Nielsen claims he has never been afraid and bets Weaver 10,000 dollars that he will not die of fright staying in the same house overnight. The game is afoot and Nielsen bids adieu to his rival. There is a great deal of techno-fear engendered by Nielsen is expecting this kind of stuff, and rejects it. Of course, we know that something more sophisticated and more cerebral is coming, so we wait it out. It's interesting. Throughout the entire episode I was pulling for the "bad" guy. I wanted him to have the wherewithal to succeed. This must have been a relatively expensive episode to produce.

I ran across "The Devil Is Not Mocked" a summer or so ago, so I knew how things would transpire. It tells the tale of a battalion of Nazis approaching a castle where they suspect an underground movement is being initiated. Rather than being repelled, they are met at the door by a gregarious, dignified man in a cape. He invites them in. Even their armor is allowed to enter the courtyard. The servants see to their needs. The host is unflappable. He continues to insist they will not find anything but are welcome to continue to search. The Nazi captain is convinced that there are escape routes but that no one will escape. This one can be figured out easily about a third of the way through. Still, it's a good deal of fun.