Room with a View/The Little Black Bag/The Nature of the Enemy

"Room With a View" is an interesting short about how a bed-ridden old man (Joseph Wiseman) manipulates the lives of others. It's short and has the wonderful Diane Keaton in a small role as a nurse. Next is "The Little Black Bag". It's about two hobos (Burgess Meredith, Chill Wills) who find a medical black bag from the future. Meredith wants it to cure people--Wills wants it to make money. It has a very satisfying conclusion. "The Nature of the Enemy" starts off well about two teams sent to the moon to set up camp. They both end up disappearing and (in an unintentionally funny scene) we find out what the enemy is. Hard to believe that Rod Serling wrote it. The only good thing about it is that it's short.

I wish we could rate these separately. The first one, "Room With a View," has the lovely young Diane Keaton playing a perky nurse to a bedridden man who does his best to tease and embarrass her. She is engaged to the chauffeur who spends seemingly hours polishing a classic car, shirt removed. The old guy has a beautiful wife played by Angel Tompkins who is also enamored of the topless car jockey. The man knows that his wife is two timing him, and that leads to his game. We see this one coming from a long way.

"The Little Black Bag" stars Burgess Meredith, one of Serling's favorites. He and character actor (mostly in Westerns), Chill Wills, are a couple of winos who are together when Meredith finds a doctor's bag that has inadvertently been sent from the future. Wills wants to sell it to the pawn shop for eight bucks. Meredith, a doctor who has lost his license because of his drinking some twenty years earlier, checks out the bag and realizes that it contains incredibly advanced medical tools. He starts to cure people but never thinks about the money involved. Will wants a piece of the action, disappointed that the doctor isn't making any money on this. He is a mean spirited, short sighted alcoholic.

In "The Nature of the Enemy," a short piece by Serling, a pair of spaceships on the moon have lost their crews. One of those still alive reports back to Houston. The result of this mess is really disappointing. I guess, if you have 8 minutes to tell the story, it's a bit of a hit and run. I expected a bit more.

I'm not terribly surprised by the negative reviews regarding this short episode that Night Gallery is known for, but I thought there were some redeeming qualities, mainly some decent performances by actors Joseph Campanella, Albert Popwell(Dirty Harry), and Jason Wingreen(All in the Family)wasn't that bad either playing a wooden reporter. The first half contained some decent suspense, as a major problem occurs in space and no one knows what the culprit is; there's some interesting communication revolving around missing astronauts between a very wooden and bad acting Steve(astronaut), who's in space, and Simms(Campanella), who's in the control room. The suspicious media have gathered, and both Popwell and Wingreen get some acting credit time, as tension mounts regarding the missing crew; there is a cool scene with both the media and Simms watching as another member screams in space before the video fades, and we still don't know what's happening up there, and we get to see an object which looks like a giant mousetrap on the moon. A few moments later, a member of the ground crew yells into his monitor, as he obviously sees something; unfortunately, the culprit ends up being a giant mouse who's eating the astronauts. I'm all for the unexpected but this a bit of a letdown after the suspense, and if any reviewer on here says they were happy with the conclusion, they're lying though their teeth. If you must watch this short episode, then do so for Campanella's decent performance and a young Popwell before you see him in the Dirty Harry films.

'Room With A View' - Joseph Wiseman plays an old bedridden invalid who uses his young nurse(played by Diane Keaton) in a cunning plan to get rid of his faithless wife using jealousy as a motive. Slight but effective story.

'The Little Black Bag' - Burgess Meredith & Chill Wills play two bums who find a medical bag from the future, and efforts to use it for good by healing local people end in betrayal, murder, and tragedy. Clever story with a most ironic ending.

'The Nature Of The Enemy' - Astronauts on the moon meet with mysterious deaths. Thin segment with a ludicrous twist ending. First two segments make up for it though.

For the pilot for this series, Rod Serling wrote all the episodes--and they were all very good. But, starting with the very first regular show, the producers started using other writers--an insane decision considering Serling many wonderful TV and movie credits. The first time they tried this, the episode still turned out to be exceptional (episode 1.1). Can this same pattern be repeated in 1.2 where Serling once again contributed none of the writing? "Room With a View" stars Joseph Wiseman ("Dr. No") and a very young Diane Keaton. Wiseman plays an invalid and Keaton his nurse. Wiseman is upset about his young wife's infidelity and uses Keaton to teach her a lesson. Frankly, this one wasn't very good--little in the way of irony or horror. I'd give this one a 3--simply because it's nice to see Keaton and Wiseman together.

"The Little Black Bag" is a sci-fi comedy episode. Apparently a bag with futuristic medical devices is accidentally lost in the past (1971). What can the consequences be? This stars Burgess Meredith and Chill Wills as winos who happen upon this lost item. If the term 'winos' offends you, substitute the more politically correct term 'job and sobriety-impaired'! Any way, Meredith is an old drunk who used to be a doctor. And, with the help of this black bag of goodies, he's a magical healer. Tune in yourself to see where it goes, but it's a pretty ordinary little piece that earns a 5.

"The Nature of the Enemy" is a short segment starring Joseph Campanella. It has to do with a lost space mission but who cares?! The less said about this abominable short, the better. I'd give it a 0--it's THAT bad! Overall, we have a 3, 5 and 0--showing a sharp decrease in quality from the pilot and first episode.