Cool Air/Camera Obscura/Quoth the Raven

This is one of Night Gallery's best and creepiest episodes during its run! All the stories(except the Edgar Allen Poe story at the end) are in my Night Gallery Top Ten list! Cool Air was a very good story with a strong horror tight and well acted performances! And the second story, Camera Obscura, was also very creepy and reminded me of movies like Night of the Living Dead or Lemora: Child of darkness!And they were creepy with having to use any blood, gore, sex or CGI! I recommend watching ONLY the unedited version of Camera Obscura! The syndicated version ruins the story by adding scenes that that have nothing to do with the show and making it far more predictable! Camera Obscura to me is the best story of this bunch!

'Cool Air' - Barbara Rush plays a woman who pays a visit to a colleague of her late fathers only to find him in a peculiar state: while charming, he insists on staying in his refrigerated apartment for undisclosed reasons, though of course she will discover the chilling truth. Another first-rate H.P. Lovecraft adaptation is quite memorable.

'Camera Obscura' - Rene Auberjonois plays a cold-hearted money lender who gets a harsh punishment while trying to collect from a Mr. Gingold(played by Ross Martin) who owns a most obscure and deadly toy... Harsh tale indeed is superbly acted and directed, with much striking imagery, though morally dubious when carefully considered afterwords.

'Quoth The Raven' - No way to treat this masterful Poe Poem. Nevermore indeed!

This was one of my favorite episodes of a generally uneven but watchable classic series from 1970s TV. "Cool Air" as written by Rod Serling takes a number of liberties with H.P. Lovecraft's original tale, not the least of which is substituting a female visitor (capably played by Barbara Rush) to the enigmatic rooming house boarder Dr. Munoz, in place of the male fellow renter who meets and befriends his mysterious neighbor via a medical emergency. However, in spite of the the artistic license, the story is well written and well acted; veteran TV character actor Henry Darrow does a nice job as Munoz, though he's not exactly as I would have pictured him from the Lovecraft story. He seems younger, and his voice is a bit too lively and vibrant. Also, in light of Munoz' unique physical malady, it's rather odd to see him sipping coffee or tea at dinner with Rush's character. All in all, though, the story is beautifully filmed and paced, and the haunting acoustic guitar soundtrack provides a very moody backdrop to the gradual eerie build-up to the horrific climax.

This story was redone about 10 years ago as part of the "H.P. Lovecraft Collection" with another veteran actor, Jack Donner, playing Dr. Munoz much closer to how I would have visualized him. The story is very faithful to the original tale, with the main character once again a male (and apparently meant to be a surrogate Lovecraft). Nevertheless, the Night Gallery version is very well done and well worth the watch.

Cool Air is phenomenal, especially the twist ending!!! Barbara Rush and Henry Darrow both play their roles very well. A hauntingly great love story.

Camera Obscura is one of my favorite segments on Night Gallery. This is superb in every department: acting, writing, camera work, makeup, music, etc. What a creepy and terrific treat this is.

Quote the Raven is the only weak element in an otherwise brilliant hour of television. Unfunny. The only thing I like is that Mel Blanc was used to voice the raven.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Jeannot Szwarc; Produced by Jack Laird for the Universal TV series "Night Gallery"; Broadcast by NBC. Screenplay by Rod Serling, from Story by H. P. Lovecraft; Photography by Leonard South; Edited by David Rawlings and Sam Vitale; Music by Robert Bain; Art Direction by Joe Alves. Starring: Barbara Rush, Henry Darrow, Beatrice Kay, Larry Blake and Karl Lukas.

"Cool Air" is a good adaptation by Rod of an atmospheric HPL opus. Barbara is very convincing and great hand-held, first-person camerawork delivers windblown action at start and finish to create a bittersweet mood for this tale of artificially preserved life after death, and a woman's reaction to the realization and loss accompanying her discovery of her lover's malady/final demise, as well as her recalling these events with a chill. Jeannot uses slow-motion and stylized white-out for the climactic scream scene. The haunting Spanish guitar score is excellent.