On the Orient, North

The mystical nature of Ray Bradbury's point-of-view failed to enthrall me in this peculiar episode, devoted to folks who want to believe in the unknown or specifically the spirit world. His writing is neither nihilistic nor upbeat, but sort of nostalgic, as when our heroine shows the ghost several books of wonder (Poe, Conan Doyle, etc.) to help perk him up.

For me, the romanticism of death, perhaps endemic to creative writers of the macabre like Bradbury or Ambrose Bierce, is hard to swallow, but the saving grace here is Magali Noel, a French actress whose work in many classic European films I have enjoyed over the years. Though her career does not date back earlier than the Fifties, her closeups in this episode recall the magnificent actresses of the Silent Era and the 1930s, icons like Garbo and Dietrich photographed by William Daniels. It's a treat seeing her thus, rising above the lesser story and unimpressive "ghost" turn by co-star Ian Bannen.