Albert Salmi is a practical joker. The thing is that his jokes are juvenile and tasteless. He also has an Achilles heel, a neck condition that can cause temporary paralysis. He is a reporter who along with his cronies (among them a young James Coburn) hang around the police station and the morgue, hoping to get inside information. The man who runs that morgue is a sad old fellow who is losing his abilities. He is hard of hearing, can't see well, and he makes mistakes in judgment at times. He also has a sick wife and really needs to keep his job. Salmi's character, instead of feeling for the old guy uses him as his foil. The man is sincere and trusts these men. They play a joke on him, putting Salmi in one of the compartments. He rises from the dead, scaring the old man, who runs to his superior. This could be the last straw for the man and so the joke is doubly cruel. The episode then focuses on Salmi's character and his drunkenness and bad behavior. He gets into it with some hard characters in a local bar. The story is far fetched but like most of these stories, we can enjoy it if we don't think too much. Don't ask too many questions. Just go along for the ride.
Review of The Jokester
