The Dead Man/The Housekeeper

'The Dead Man' - A doctor/hypnotist uses a young man as his subject to cheat death, but the man is having an affair with his wife, unconsciously forcing him to put him in a state of living death... Effective story with a most chilling ending.

'The Housekeeper' - Larry Hagman plays a frustrated yet determined man who decides to use black magic to get rid of his unloving wife, and needs a willing but ignorant woman to aid him by a soul transference, no matter how long it takes... Amusing story where the final line is the payoff.

First episode of the TV series.

So I need to review two complete episodes. The first, "The Dead Man" is a tale of a man's arrogance, such an arrogance that he revels in the pain of his subject. He has found a man who when signaled, shows symptoms of whatever has been programmed into his brain. When the good doctor, played by Carl Betz, the father on "The Donna Reed Show," taps, the guy becomes filled with sores, grey with a blood condition, or, in the final test, dead. I didn't catch where this guy came from other than he is rich and bored and interesting in the doctor's young, beautiful wife. There is that tussle that often takes place in shows like this, where despite his need for this not so subtle attraction to progress his research, he harbors some pretty serious anger. This leads to a great mistake. I remember this episode like it was yesterday, and the conclusion is to die for.

The second episode, "The Housekeeper," has the ever entertaining Larry Hagman married to a virago who has a fortune of seven million dollars. There is no pre-nup, so he must put up with her dalliances. Through a study of the black arts, using frogs, he has found a way to transfer the brain and personality from one person to another (at one point we are let in on his experiments where a pig crows and a rooster oinks. He puts out an add for an unattractive old lady with a kind heart. He hopes to transfer her kind demeanor to his wife's body, and get his hands on her money. This is utterly silly and yet delightful. When he and the old lady goes to the fancy restaurant, he orders frog legs. Interesting.

Having nearly finished the excellent Thriller I'm looking for the next anthology, and gave The Dead Man a try as it's an early one with favourable reviews.

Big mistake. The only platform on which it's currently available has allowed it to be butchered by the ceaseless adverts of a well known, somewhat kitsch, entertainment/theme park company. These appeared no fewer than FIFTEEN times in 37 minutes. A particularly cruel refinement of this torture was that sometimes the programme would resume, only to return to the advert after a few seconds.

I'm not opposed to advertising in principle. Indeed, I'd prefer the BBC to be funded by it in place of the collectivist/socialist system where everyone with a television has to pay £159 pa for it whether they watch the BBC or not. But do advertisers really imagine such absurd overkill will endear them even to those who may be attracted to their products?

I refuse to watch any further episodes similarly disfigured. Alfred Hitchcock often made wry remarks about adverts but I doubt his shows had it this bad. Without the ads I'd have probably scored it 6 or 7.

Rod Serling introduces two macabre tales based around the exhibits in his 'night gallery'.

In The Dead Man, Dr. Max Redford (Carl Betz) invites his friend Dr. Miles Talmadge (Jeff Corey) to his home, to introduce him to John Fearing (Michael Blodgett), a patient who he has conditioned using hypnotic suggestion to fall ill, and return to health, on his command; Max believes that his control method may even help conquer death. Redford's experiments take a horrific turn when his subject dies and he is unable to bring him back as planned. When Miles goes through Max's case notes and recordings, he discovers his friend's mistake - an error that proves to have deadly consequences. The final EC-style twist in this episode is enjoyable, but like the stories in the pilot, I think it would have been more impactful if they had been able to up the gruesomeness.

Story number two is a more whimsical affair, Larry Hagman playing Cedric Acton, the husband of a wealthy and attractive woman with a horrible personality. Using the dark arts, Cedric hopes to carry out a personality transplant, replacing his wife's obnoxiousness with the more benign nature of housekeeper Miss Wattle (Jeanette Nolan). Obviously, things don't go according to plan. The light-hearted tone makes this an inoffensive bit of fun, while the short running time ensures that it never bores. Unlikely to give you nightmares, but entertaining nonetheless.

The first episode of the "Night Gallery" TV series. First is "The Dead Man" where a scientist can make a man either live or die by hypnosis. He also has a lovely young wife who falls for the young man he's experimenting on. Then he wills the young man to die...but can't bring him back to life. It all leads to a downright terrifying ending. Scary and well-done with great acting.

"The Housekeeper" isn't half as good. Larry Hagman stars as a man who experiments in black magic. He also has a wife who is beautiful but cold and cruel. He wants to transfer the soul of a kind and gentle old woman (Jeanette Nolan) into his wife's body. He does but the results are not what he hoped for. Boring and silly.

Watch it for the first story--skip the second.