User Reviews

"Pamela's Voice" - Conniving weasel Jonathan (a typically sound performance by John Astin) finds himself haunted by the nagging ghost of his shrewish wife Pamela (sharply played with snarky aplomb by Phyllis Diller) who he murdered. The fierce rat-a-tat-tat dialogue exchanges between Astin and Diller gives this segment plenty of savagely funny sardonic bite. Nifty twist ending, too.

"Survivor" - An Allied ship in 1915 discovers a lone man (an intense and excellent portrayal by John Colicos) adrift at sea in a lifeboat who claims to be a survivor from the Titanic. Torin Thatcher shines as the hard-nosed disbelieving captain of the rescue vessel. Moreover, this story not only boasts a potent eerie atmosphere, but also delivers a strong moral message about the bitter karmic price one must pay for a cowardly act of self-preservation.

"The Doll" - British army colonel Hymber Masters meets his match in the form of a hideous and deadly doll. Director Rudi Dorn expertly crafts a spooky and unsettling mood. Williams handles the lead role well, with ace support from Shari Willis as concerned housekeeper Miss Danton and Henry Silva as the vengeful Pandit Chola. The doll looks quite creepy and scary. Best of all, this stand-out yarn even comes complete with a real corker of a surprise stinger at the end.

"...and this doll you best not play with," warns Rod Serling in his introduction to this magnificent little tale of the supernatural.

Arriving home from duty in colonial India, a British Colonel (played to stoic perfection by the actor John Williams) is greeted by his young ward, Monica whom the Colonel had taken in after the death of her parents. But the Colonel finds himself instantly repelled by the sight of the child's new toy: an odd looking rag doll. He tries to talk Monica into giving up the doll, but she's formed an instant attachment to it and pleads to be allowed to keep it.

The Colonel later buys her a new doll, but that night he's awakened by the child screaming. Bursting into her bedroom he discovers the mutilated remains of the new doll strewn about with Monica's old rag doll sitting on the bed above it. The smile on it's porcelain lips is noticeably wider, and it's eyes are now rimmed with black circles.

Taking Monica's governess aside the Colonel confides, "The doll was not meant for Monica. It was meant for me."

Next the Colonel receives a visit from an Indian national, Pandit Chobra (played by Henry Silva). Pandit's brother was a dissident that the Colonel executed during his tour in India. Pandit tells the Colonel that it was he who sent him the doll, and assures him that "it will not leave until it's done it's work," (namely, to avenge the death of Pandit's brother).

Filled with rage, the Colonel takes a saber and goes after the doll with the intent of chopping it to pieces. He spots the cursed toy sitting on the top step of the staircase, smiling with circles like black cobwebs around it's malevolent little eyes. The Colonel advances up the stairs. In the next room the governess is awakened by a loud noise and when she goes to investigate, she discovers the Colonel lying at the bottom of the staircase.

The governess tries to get a doctor but the Colonel tells her it's too late for that. He then shows her a strange wound on his leg, a wound he claims is from the doll's teeth. The old man asks the governess to care for Monica after he is gone, and also that she mail a letter for him. She agrees to fulfill both requests.

In the final scene, Pandit is in his hotel room packing to leave when he receives a visitor; another East Indian who bears a package. "You sent the Colonel a gift," the mysterious man explains with a smile, "the Colonel reciprocates." The visitor sets the package down and departs. Pandit nervously opens the package and is horrified to see that it contains a doll that looks unnervingly like the Colonel. Suddenly the doll's eyes open and it's lips part revealing a devious smile of triumph. The expression on Pandit's face says it all: a perfect mixture of both shock and resignation, for now He is the one who is royally screwed.

John William's performance as the doomed military man is pitch perfect. The doll (which we never actually see move) is very creepy looking with it's malicious intent conveyed through the changing expressions on it's nasty little face. The shadowy cinematography well enhances the dark mood of the piece. The entire episode, superbly directed by Rudi Dorn, is not even 20 minutes long, but every single scene is key to the advancement of the story which ends brilliantly with it's chilling shot of ironic comeuppance. "The Doll" is one of "Night Gallery's" finest entries. A flawless little horror story.

This short film is among the most profoundly frightening ever made. In spite of its brevity and small budget, it is infinitely better than the many junk-horror programmers that have exploited the theme in subsequent decades. Its story and screenplay are soundly constructed, sets and costumes meet the modest standard of 1970s American commercial television, color and lighting inject considerable atmosphere and the score's frissons of autoharp are well timed. All these, however, are only adequate support for the film's incredible potency -- which, of course, emanates from the . . . the DOLL, itself. For the doll is alive, dear reader . . . and she has teeth.

One technical note: the original airing of The Doll opened with a brief but singularly horrifying scene, largely without dialogue, showing the chaos of battle in Victorian India. This slight bit of footage ends with a slow pan to . . . the DOLL. Apparently the hateful object had been discarded in the dirt by some unfortunate child amid the tumult of evacuation. Then, just as the camera takes notice of the thing -- it SITS UP. This scene was edited out of later broadcasts.

This is one of my favorite Night Gallery episodes, featuring two very funny people in a story with a serious side to it. The serious idea here is that heaven and hell might be the same place--one person loving it, another finding it eternal pain. At the beginning, husband John Astin is gloating over being free of his unattractive, chatterbox (but rich)wife, Pamela (comedienne Phyllis Diller). But he quickly learns that Pamela is worse dead than alive, since she can yack eternally. Astin's punishment for having murdered her is, appropriately, he has to listen to her forever. Astin isn't that great at delivering some of Rod Serling's pompous-sounding dialogue, but Diller is superb and even gains a little sympathy when we hear Astin mocking her 'suet pudding body.' For a moment you feel a twinge of warmth for the unattractive girl who could only by married by a fortune-hunting cad. The last few seconds are truly funny, as Diller's motormouth goes into hyperdrive, and Astin tries vainly to shut out the noise.

The first season of "Night Gallery" was an uneven blend of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and, yes, comedy. Nowhere is that more represented than in this trio of tales, representative of each genre.

"Pamela's Voice" makes wise use of guest star Phyllis Diller's trademark cackle and grating tone. She portrays the recently deceased wife of John Astin who makes an unexpected return to her husband. Astin's character has murdered his wife following years of tolerating her whining; her return is not only an aggravation to him but reveals an even more revealing aspect of their relationship. The latter is amusing and appropriate for his crime.

"Lone Survivor" features a brilliant performance from John Colicos as the title character, a man adrift in a boat from the doomed lined Titanic, picked up by another passing ship. The rescuing ship itself and a subsequent one are there to provide the stunning ending and why Colicos' character was adrift in the first place. Torin Thatcher plays the captain of the second ship rescuing craft.

"The Doll" is the best of the bunch with John Williams - who will appear in the second season's terrifying "The Caterpillar" - as an English colonial whose niece receives a deadly present in the form of a malevolent doll. Henry Silva assays another exotic role in his long line of them as a vengeful Indian, the doll's sender. The doll itself, created for this installment, is appropriately menacing.

The episode also effectively uses stock music that enhances the terror.

I can't help thinking that if I had seen these episodes of 'Night Gallery' as a kid the way I saw most of the 'Twilight Zone' stories, they might have had a more lasting impact on me. Today, they come across as largely predictable and the payoffs don't seem so remarkable. Not that they're bad, the ideas in each of these tales make for interesting stories, but they don't seem very original or creative.

The John Astin/Phyllis Diller team-up in the first story was a fun one. One forgets that Ms. Diller wasn't a bad looking woman in her early career, and her persistent comic monologues mentioning husband 'Fang' were always a hoot. Which is why she was a perfect choice to go one on one with Astin's character in 'Pamela's Voice'. Can you imagine having to listen to that voice for all eternity?

'The Lone Survivor' gave away it's ultimate ending with the revelation of the life preserver marked 'Lusitania' when a survivor of The Titanic was discovered adrift at sea. The three year time gap seemed somehow manageable within the confines of that story, but moving ahead forty years was too much of a stretch to get to the final payoff. But it did set the proper ironic tone when we learn the last vessel was the Andrea Doria.

'The Doll' is a little longer in the telling than the prior two entries, and offers a nicely nuanced performance by Henry Silva as Pandit Chola, a 'sudra' out for revenge when he sends a voodoo styled doll to the home of Colonel Masters (John Williams). The tables will turn when the Colonel reverses the 'favor' and sends Chola a parting gift after he dies. The story brought to mind a Serling favorite from the fifth season of 'The Twilight Zone' called 'Living Doll' which had a more direct message for it's intended victim by stating - "My name is Talking Tina, and I'm going to kill you".

Like so many of Serling's teleplays, this episode is less about horror & more a series of morality plays with a supernatural background. Pamela's Voice featuring John Astin & Phyllis Diller is a mild attempt at black humor with a murderous husband getting his come-uppance. Lone Survivor features John Colicos as a doomed man who will spend eternity traveling through maritime disasters. The final episode, The Doll, meets the standard of horror as a British Office faces vengeance at the hands of a demonic doll. (The ending on this one is actually quite good). Highlights - Henry DaSilva as a menacing villain and a particularly disturbing doll.

While Rod Serling introduced each segment on Night Gallery and he was a fantastic writer, he actually did not often write this series--even though it was often referred to as "Rod Serling's Night Gallery". The show, in general, wasn't nearly as good as "The Twilight Zone" but it did have some excellent horror and suspense stories. Each episode was broken down into two or more stories--with occasional very short comedic horror stories thrown in as well.

"Pamela's Voice" stars John Astin and Phyllis Diller. It's a very short episode but good for it's comedy. It's all about a wife who was murdered because they husband just wanted her to shut up! Now, there is, of course, a twist. I liked this one and score it an 8.

"Lone Survivor" is a very odd story. It begins on the bridge of a ship. They sight a lifeboat and it's for the Titanic---and there man dressed as a woman aboard! The problem is that the Titanic sank several years earlier--and this just couldn't be from that ill-fated ship...it just can't be! The shocking twist is yet to come....but you'll have to learn what this is yourself. John Calicos (who almost always played baddies) stars as the survivor. Here, he overacts a bit--but it works well in this instance where you don't want subtlety! I liked this one as well. It was a nice case of a man getting what he so richly deserved! Or, as the show says "...justice of a poetic sort...". I'd give this one an 9.

The final segment is "The Doll". It is odd in that it actually was written by Serling! This one stars John Williams--the fake 'Mr. French' from "Family Affair". Williams plays a retired British Colonel (circa 1880 or so). When his niece, Monica, shows up with a creepy looking doll, Williams is obviously unnerved by it--as if he knows it's some sort of portent of evil. The governess assumed the doll was bought by the Colonel--but it was actually a gift to the Colonel! Odd...and something you'll understand if you watch this episode. And, of the three episodes this is by far the best--super-creepy and nicely written! I'd give this one a 9...almost a 10.

Hmm....my average for these three is 9--very, very good for this series.

Pamela's voice : 6/10 Ghosts talking

so this short episode last 10 minutes but we had some interesting mise en scene and revelations. So we basically understand the woman Pamela had died recently . So we have some brief talks of what her husband was and that kind of talk . Most surprisely we had also the name of her killer and its her husband . But what is the most surprising in this episode was that the fact the husband died too and its just ghost talking and talk about heaven too . I was just shocked that it end pretty quickly and feel very rushed despite some interesting revelations and mise en scene .

Lone survivor :Titanic Survivor 5/10

It was an ok episode . The story get a little bit confusing with this time and boats and survivor . So we basically see a man get rescued and we will try to understand . I didnt really get the ghosts part . Like everyone was a ghost in the boat . Quite confusing . Not really that explicit . But we understand it despite some non sense. Get a little bit slow and the shots was kind of static and get very boring . So yeah a reference to the culture (Titanic ) but not more . Just to serve the story .Quite disappointed

The Doll: The nice doll 6/10

im a little bit disappointed : i expected way more imagination behind it and that doll . We have story just kind of classic . A cursed doll that have been sent and we witness some strange things arround . We see also the indian and the problem . I love the ending : when we see the main character who just died because of the doll and appear in a doll appareance and it was pretty well made. But the story was a little bit simple and some dialogues look a little bit childish mostly arround the doll . Some good make up and effects for the dolls . Sure.

A bit of background is needed here. In the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic, some of those who were in the water, but were pulled up into the lifeboats, still died as a result of exposure. The most notable victim among these was John Philips, one of the two brave wireless men - the other was Harold Bride - who kept sending distress messages for the two and a half hours the Titanic was sinking: Philips died just before the Carpathia arrived. The Carpathia and other rescue ships had to spend some time picking up hundreds of corpses. Not all of the 1500 odd victims were found - many floated away hundreds of miles until their bodies sank. But a little over two hundred were actually retrieved and buried on land (mostly in Halifax, Canada).

In the shifting of the bodies from the actually living survivors, four dead bodies were left in a rubber collapsible boat. A few weeks after they were left, the boat was found again by one of the other "rescue vessels", and rather than return these decaying corpses, they were wrapped up and tied to the collapsible, and the collapsible allowed to be deflated and sunk into the Atlantic.

It is believed that this particular story is the basis for the "NIGHT GALLERY" episode known as LONE SURVIVOR, although an older sea legend is connected, as well as the tale of the man who fled the Titanic and was supposedly wearing a dress or a woman's shawl (most likely candidate for that was a steerage passenger named Patrick Buckley, who was wearing a shawl). The episode on "NIGHT GALLERY" dealt with a lifeboat of the Titanic found floating in the North Atlantic (more precisely, floating off the coast of southern Ireland near the Old Head of Kinsale) on May 7, 1915. There is a dazed man in it, and he is alive. How has he been able to survive for three years? The episode was not the best written - except for occasional segments of the new series, Sterling's crisp writing from THE TWILIGHT ZONE was not as obvious in his second, lesser series. The Captain of the ship (Torin Thatcher) and the ship's doctor (Hedley Mattingly) try to deal with this strange survivor (John Colicos) only to find that he is as dazed about why he has been at sea for three years as they are. He can recall the night to remember, but he needs awhile to remember the details.

Eventually he realizes that he is the Flying Dutchman - he is a specter who is doomed (as punishment for fleeing the Titanic in the place of a woman) to be at sea, saved from one doomed ship to go to another doomed ship forever. He tells Mattingly to warn Thatcher that the Lusitania will be torpedoed that day off Ireland. Mattingly does tell a dismissive Thatcher, but then Thatcher notices that Mattingly and the other crew and passengers seemed to have disappeared. A moment later we see the wake of torpedo and hear the explosion.

The last moments of the episode (of course) shows that some forty one year, in July 1956, off Nantucket, Massachusetts, a lifeboat from the Lusitania is spotted with one survivor in it - and picked up by the crew of the Andrea Doria.

If one figured out the timing of the years between Titanic and the second disaster, it was pretty easy to figure out what unnamed ship picked up the lone survivor in the Titanic lifeboat. Oddly enough they jumped to the next famous luxury liner disaster - they could have chosen (instead) to pick, say, the "Vestris" or the "Morro Castle" or the "Dara" from that forty year period. If the acting was sufficiently good to keep one watching, the story was not compelling enough to merit the retelling.

One interesting feature regarding one of the performers. Hedley Mattingley was in many television shows, most notably in DAKTARI with Marshall Thompson in the middle 1960s. His appearance here is a decent performance (complete with beard) but nothing special there. What is special is a little ironic. If you check his thread on this board, Mattingley was born on May 7, 1915! He came in just as the Lusitania left the scene.

In this segment, adapted by Serling from the short story by Algernon Blackwood, one of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's peers in horror writing, Colonel Hymber Masters (John Williams, noted for appearing in the 1954 film Dial M for Murder, amongst other cinematic and TV offerings) arrives home from duty in India to find the place in order, and his niece, Monica (Jewel Blanch) well cared for by Miss Danton (Shani Wallis), her governess. He also finds Monica holding a doll that looks rather unsettling in appearance. Miss Danton explains that since the doll was sent in a package postmarked India, that she assumed the colonel sent it to Monica as a present. Masters informs Miss Danton that he most assuredly did not send the hideous thing to Monica as a gift, and asks Miss Danton her views concerning the doll. She says that she senses an unwholesomeness, an aura of evil, surrounding the doll, and the colonel says, "The doll was not intended for my niece. It was meant as a gift to me. We must find a way to get it away from her somehow, but say nothing about intention...in the doll's presence." The colonel offers to get Monica a new doll, saying that she must not imagine such things as being spoken to by the doll she plays with presently. She says that the doll would be displeased if any new doll were brought to replace it, a statement confirmed one evening when both the colonel and Miss Danton are awakened by Monica's tearful wailing and find the new doll smashed and the first doll, eyes open and teeth exposed, standing on the stairs and looking at Masters. He tries, and fails, to get rid of the doll, and has his suspicions as to its purpose confirmed when Pandit Chola (Henry Silva), a leader of the resistance movement in India, visits him the next night. Chola, a Sudra, sent the doll, which was a representation of Chola's brother, whom Masters ordered executed for resistance activities, as an instrument of revenge, and Chola informs the colonel that the doll cannot be destroyed until its mission was accomplished, adding, "Best remain awake, Colonel. The doll has teeth, and there is no medicine on earth to save you." Masters, hearing Monica's cries for her missing doll, seizes a poker from the fire place, rasping angrily, "Indestructible, eh? Let's just see how indestructible you are." Miss Danton, Monica, and the butler (John Barclay), hearing a sharp cry, arrive to find the colonel on the floor, his arm wounded. The doll, having done its work, is taken by Masters to the fireplace and burned. He informs Miss Danton to use the money from his insurance, which he willed to Monica, to live in a place where she would have children of her own age to play with, and to provide for Monica's needs, then asks Miss Danton to send a letter addressed to an Indian name, adding, "Tell him that the thing has happened." Chola, while packing for his departure, pauses to answer a knock at the door. A messenger in Indian clothing greets him with a package, saying, "Colonel Masters did not wish to appear ungracious. You gave him a gift, he reciprocates." Chola closes the door, opens the box, and drops it in shock. Inside the box is a doll, which represents the likeness of Colonel Masters in British Army uniform. Chola looks on with dread, knowing what his fate will be, as the doll's eyes open slowly and the mouth grins. This story proves that retribution can be reciprocal, through the use of dolls. Spoiler alert: Bud Westmore, the legendary makeup artist at Universal, worked on the creation of both the hideous dolls with another artisan.