Cool Air/Camera Obscura/Quoth the Raven

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.

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.

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!

Another Lovecraft episode finds Henry Darrow putting off death by maintaining a level of cold in his apartments. Unfortunately, he is at the mercy of an aging refrigeration device that runs non-stop. The poor man has lost his wife and begins a relationship with a beautiful young woman who is willing to come to his rooms and dine with him He tells her of his experiments and the necessity for him to remain in this frigid environment. Sadly, one day the thing stops working and the temperature begins to rise. He calls the young woman and she desperately tries to find someone to fix it. This is a terrifying tale and the acting is excellent.

Also outstanding, is the second story, "Camera Obscura." Ross Martin, playing a kindly old man, is visited by a loan shark, played by Rene Auberjunois. The guy is only interested in assuring Martin that he will be ready to pay off his usurious loan the following Monday. We find out this man and his father before him are incredibly heartless, not caring what happens to those they destroy financially. Martin who is quite rich, with masterpieces of art on his walls, goes to bat for a friend of his who is about to be done in by Auberjunois. He is unyielding, though Martin makes it clear he has an opportunity to be compassionate. During the visit, Martin shows the shark a camera that can look back in time. After all this, he excuses himself and tells Martin that he had better have the money. As he retreats, he goes out a back doorway, and finds himself years in the past. Now he must confront the evil he and his father have done.

"Quoth the Raven" has Marty Allen, a comedian I never found funny, playing Edgar Allen Poe with writer's block. Nothing much here.

One of the most faithfully-adapted of Serling's teleplays for this series, "Camera Obscura" follows Basil Copper's creepy short story very closely. The dialogue is very well-written, and the casting is interesting. Rene Auberjunois plays the hard-hearted financier Mr. Sharsted very much in the style of his character on "Benson" (rather than as the gruff security chief on "Star Trek: DS9" -- makes you wonder which is his real voice!), and Ross Martin plays the mysterious and otherworldly Mr. Gingold very differently than most of his other TV characterizations (unless it was as Artemis Gordon in one of his disguises). The Mark Twain-lookalike makeup on Martin is a little discordant, but otherwise his performance is very fine. The set designs are superb, from Gingold's gloomy (and apparently haunted) house to the preternaturally grew environment that Sharsted finds himself after leaving the comparative safety of the house. The soundtrack is also nicely done, with an alternately intense or warbling melody that sets the tone well for the vaguely sorcerous theme of the episode.

The interaction between Martin/Gingold and his "Victorian toy," the titular camera obscura, is particularly fascinating, and there are a couple of fine moments of foreshadowing when the viewer begins to understand the underlying sinister nature behind Gingold's otherwise obliging exterior. For example, when Gingold offers to show Sharsted his other, truly unique camera obscura in another part of the house, he opens the door to the passageway and offers, "It's through here, Mr. Sharsted," in a voice that is soft and yet subtly menacing that causes Sharsted to stutter and hesitate. Also, the expression on Gingold's face while they're watching visions from both the past and the future on the remarkable device seems somber and almost melancholy, very different from Sharsted's open-mouthed astonishment. But it's his, "And I bid you good-bye, Mr. Sharsted," that really seals the deal.

Having seen one of these very interesting devices in operation once in Edinburgh, it's all the more fun to watch this episode again. Thank heavens the one I saw didn't have the extraordinary powers of Gingold's!