User Reviews

"The Man from the South" is the first of short stories by Roald Dahl, the celebrated English writer, to be adapted into the TV series "Tales of the Unexpected". It tells the story of two elder men getting acquainted on the sunny beach of a Jamaican resort. One is British, the other seems native or, at least, from another southern country, as one can infer from the accent. Occasionally, they find themselves chatting with a young American couple sitting on the next table. Cathy and Tommy are their names, and they have recently enrolled in a sailing school nearby.

As the native picks up a cigar, Tommy promptly offers him his lighter. But the man rejects it, saying that it does not work for cigars, especially outdoors in the windy weather. Tommy feels outraged and starts to brag about his American lighter and how it never let him down. Hearing this, the man comes up with a proposal of making a bet on the following terms: if Tommy manages to light the lighter ten times in a row, without missing one, he wins the native's white Jaguar. However, in case he fails, the man from the south may chop off his little finger.

Though as strange as it sounds, Tommy realizes that he indeed has nothing else to put on the bet, but the "useless" pinky finger of his left hand. After mulling over the suggestion the young man wishes to see the car, still lurching between taking the offer and declining it. Eventually, he accepts the bet and the four go upstairs to the native's hotel room. The British gentleman and Cathy unsuccessfully try to dissuade Tommy, by pointing out how this is a stupid and preposterous idea. The man, however, insists that it is a fair bet. Finally, he ties the hand of the young man to the table and holds above it a chopping knife borrowed from the hotel.

Tommy opens the lighter. The whole room is pervaded with fear and tension. Cathy threatens to leave, but Tommy gently asks her to stay. One can easily spot a strange glow in the sadistic eyes of the native. He is certainly enjoying it. When Tommy, all sweaty, has lit the lighter seven times and is about to burst into tears, an old lady unexpectedly explodes into the room and pours cold water on the wager.

Roald Dahl's style emerges from the story line, from beginning to end. Here, the author has dealt with two primary human feelings: greed and temptation. As goes his well-deserved reputation, Dahl had definitely mastered the art of building up a tense situation, with disturbing outcomes and a clever end. If one takes a closer look, the plot calls into question the definition of madness. In this sense, it is hard to separate the behavior of both gamblers, so we could draw a line and label only one of them as insane. Naturally, such mental illness cannot be traced in isolated episodes. On the contrary, it may only be diagnosed from repeated occurrences. Luckily, the wife arrived just in time to stop the wager.

It is a nice story to start the series, although it falls badly behind Hitchcock's adaptation from 1960 - far more glamorous and mysterious, casting the superb Peter Lorre.

Tales of the Unexpected: The Man from the South is set in Jamaica where an American boy named Tommy (Michael Ontkean) & his girl Cathy (Pamela Stephenson) sit down by two men, Carlos (Jose Ferrer) & Rawlsden (Cyril Luckham). Tommy offers them a cigarette & a light, after some banter about Tommy's American lighter Carlos offers him a bet, Carlos bets Tommy his brand new Jaguar car that he couldn't make the lighter strike ten times consecutively. Tommy says that he could, Carlos says if he wins then the Jaguar is his but if he loses then he will chop the little finger on his left hand off, it's a high stakes bet that Tommy accepts but will he end up with the Jaguar or only nine fingers...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 1 from season 1 which was originally broadcast here in the UK on the 24th March 1979 & was obviously the very first story of the series which eventually ran for 112 episodes across 9 seasons, directed by Michael Tuchner out of the ones I've seen this is one of my favourite stories & is just a great way to pass 25 minutes. The story by Roald Dahl had already been used as the basis for a couple of other TV anthology show's called Cameo Theatre: The Man from the South (1955) & Alfred Hichcock Presents: Man from the South (1960) before it was adapted by Kevin Goldstein-Jackson for this series & it is a fine story of an extreme bet, the basic premise is just so gripping & you can't take your eyes off it. At only 25 minutes in length it moves along at a nice pace, it never bores & the build up is excellent as the time for the bet to take place gets nearer & nearer, you can feel the tension & nervousness amongst the character's here. The unexpected twist ending is pretty neat as well so it's good news all the way, one of the very finest episodes let down by the fact that once you've seen it there's no point in seeing it again.

Shot entirely on location in Jamiaca this one looks pretty good & hasn't dated as badly as many episodes from this show. There's a nice atmosphere & tension to this story & the shot where Carlos is holding the mean looking meat clever over Tommy's finger just waiting for the second he fails to light the lighter even made me nervous! In Dahl's opening introduction he talks about writing short stories & having to keep the readers attention for every second but nothing specific about this particular story. Again there's some familiar faces in a good cast including the mysterious Mel Ferrer & Pamela Stephenson.

The Man from the South is a classic Tales of the Unexpected story & one of my favourites from the ones I've seen, definitely well worth a watch if you get hold of a copy.

This is probably my favourite Tale of the Unexpected - both in written form and as a TV short story. Like all of the "tales", the slightly amateurish nature of the film making lends an almost documentary quality to the story which just serves to draw you even further int the plot.

I was therefore more than a little surprised to find that Quentin Tarantino had lifted the plot (very nearly complete) for one of the segments in "Four Rooms". As usual, Tarantinos film lacked subtlety (I'm not a fan of his films) but I suppose it proves that you can't keep a good story down.

I wonder if Roald Dahl's estate gained any royalty payments?

Well, where have I been? Not exactly living under a rock, but I'd never heard of this series before. So it was with great excitement I stumbled upon it on one of the streaming services, and following this first episode, I intend to pursue additional stories of the grim and macabre. I liked Roald Dahl's introduction to this one, stating that when he writes, he does so under the expectation of death if he doesn't keep the reader completely engrossed with every word. That sounded awful extreme, but he appeared to be earnest.

Admittedly, this one will have you guessing right up until the final denouement, when the woman (Katy Jurado) who identifies herself as the wife of Carlos (Jose Ferrer), bursts on the scene to make the potential save for the young man Tommy (Michael Ontkean), who was dangerously close to losing a finger, or alternatively, winning himself a nice, new Jaguar. As the tension ratcheted up with each flick of Tommy's cigarette lighter, it appeared that he was about to jinx himself into a losing proposition. The closing shot of the woman taking back the car keys is now seared into my memory as the opening salvo of what I expect to be a tantalizing series if this first episode has anything to say about it.

P. S. Would love to know the bets that Katy Jurado lost twice, but at least we know that the one she won got her married to the flamboyant Carlos.

I remember first watching this in my early teen years and what a gripping instalment of Tales of the unexpected, big time! I seriously had difficulty watching the denouement as I could only think of the worse, as the tension really was about to explode.

Interestingly, Carlos (Jose Ferrer, who was married twice to Rosemary Clooney) pronounced Jaguar as "Haguar". Michael Ontkean is a dead ringer for John McEnroe and if there ever is a biopic of the tennis great, please call Michael. Pamela Stephenson played his girlfriend in this episode, and she made a name for herself as a comedian and a short-lived cast member on Saturday Night Live.

I would love to see any bloopers and outtakes from this episode.

A low key start for TOTU, but a nice episode nonetheless.

Yes this is the very first episode from 1979!

Filmed on location in Jamaica.

The US Navy has docked and the sailors / trainee sailors are in the hotel. A young sailor (there with his girlfriend) gets chatting to an older guest who offers a bet.

If he can light his lighter 10 times in a row, he wins a Jaguar car.

If he fails, he loses his finger.

The sailor is motivated by wining the car, a bit of showing off in friend of his girlfriend and also to show American workmanship!

They go ahead with the bet and the sailor starts to light the lighter.

Then someone turns up and all is not what it seems.

Then the chimes. Da Da Da dadada.

****SPOILERS*** It's after Tommy, Michael Ontkean, pulled out of his pocket and flicked his "Bic" lighter to light his Cuban cigar for him that the distinguished looking and in all white gentlemen Carlos, Jose Ferrer, made some unkindly remarks about his prized lighter telling Tommy that it doesn't have the staying power that most hand made European lighters have. To prove his point Carlos is willing to bet his brand new white 1979 Jaguar sports car for Tommy's little left finger to prove it by lighting up his lighter 10 times in a row without fail! With Tommy's girlfriend Cathy, Pamela Stephenson, begging him not to go along with Carlos' offer he just can't help agreeing to it knowing that his "Bic" that never let him down before won't let him down this time as well.

With his little left finger tied down and exposed to Carlos', that he borrowed from the hotel kitchen, meat cleaver Tommy lights his "Bic" lighter one flash at a time until he reaches successfully the seventh flick and then all hell breaks loose! That's when Carlos' former lover as well as victim Katy Jurado, Gary Cooper's Mexican girlfriend in the movie "High Noon", pops in unexpectedly!

****SPOILERS**** Putting an end to all this insanity Katy exposes Carlos as the crazed and unbalanced lunatic that he really is as well as, and this is the real big shocker to Tommy, he's not the owner of the Jaguar sport car that he put up together with Tommy's little finger on the chopping block! And as we soon see Katy should know since she had her little finger chopped off by the deranged Carlos some time ago, were not quite sure if it was because her not being able to flick her "Bic" ten times in a row successfully, in the same kind of deal that Carlos had for Tommy.