The Other Way Out

Worth seeing to see Burl Ives as old man Doubleday.

Ross Martin (some may recall him from the 70's series "Little House on the Prairie" as the hapless general store owner, Alison Angrim's father).

Martin is an uptight businessman being blackmailed by someone who tells him to drive into the desert, and deliver blackmail money. Someone has witnessed a murder. Martin is good, we see the environs of the 1970's ; boat-like cars, plaid leisure suits. It is sort of a throwback in time to watch some of these episodes.

Chiller channel often shows many episodes of Night Gallery. It would be nice to get a complete set of DVD's to watch on a rainy night. Recommended.

Ross Martin plays philandering businessman Bradley Meredith, who returns from vacation and receives a threatening note about a go-go dancer he had an affair with and murdered, though got away with. He drives out to a remote location to pay the blackmail demand, but instead falls into a carefully laid trap created by her vengeful grandfather(played menacingly by Burl Ives) who wants him to pay for his crime, and offers him a stark way out of the trap as soon as Sonny comes... Best episode of this truncated season is a real knockout, with fine acting and quite a forceful script and direction. Mercilessly bleak of course, with a humdinger of an ending.

There were a few aspects which kept this from being a great segment, and I'll get to them in a minute, but Ross Martin(Bradley Meredith)absolutely stole the show as a man who killed a dancer, although we never see any of it. Perhaps this was edited, but watching a scene like that would've enhanced this episode; in any event, Martin was in fine form. I can't say the same for Burl Ives, who basically mumbles his way for most of the duration, while clumsily playing a banjo; he happens to be the grandfather of the dead girl, and he figures out that Meredith was her killer, and he decides to torment him in a revengeful way, although I thought Ives could've added more to what was an interesting role. The creepy house(a Night Gallery staple)and surrounding foggy atmosphere was filmed well, as were the "escape" routes in said house. I was also a little disappointed when we finally meet Sonny, played by Adam Weed(his only acting performance), as the brother of the dancer. Martin makes up for these little fuzzy details that bug me, as he was very convincing as the confused man uncertain just what's going on in this house. Let me also mention the noisy dogs in the yard to add to the craziness.

Ross Martin makes a great mistake. He is responsible for the death of a young woman. After a vacation with his wife, a letter shows up in his office, telling him to look at a particular page in a newspaper. There he sees the article about the death of a young woman and he goes apoplectic. A series of notes draw him to pay a ransom to silence whoever it is that knows his secret. He drives recklessly to the site of the money drop where he crashes his car and then comes upon a weird man, played by Burl Ives, who was an excellent actor. This man is not interested in anything Martin has to say and literally kidnaps him and forces him to wait for Sonny, who poses an incredible threat. The place is set up so that if Martin tries to escape he will face ravenous dogs. We are taken along for the ride, waiting for Sonny. Watch this. It will grab you and hold you all the way.

This is my all-time favorite episode of Night Gallery; just thinking about it gives me gooseflesh! I vividly remember seeing this episode as a small child and being scared out of my wits! I literally had nightmares for days afterward. And the choice of Burl Ives to play creepy Old Man Doubleday is such a juxtaposition to his usual roles as to add to the creepiness tenfold. Years later, when I first heard the song "Hotel California" I was reminded of this episode. Watch it and you'll see why!

PS: The above reviewer is incorrect. Richard Bull played Nels Oleson on Little House on the Prairie.