User Reviews

Screen star Barbara Rush and television actor Henry Darrow ("The High Chapparal") star in one of "Night Gallery's" most touching and horrific tales. Rush plays a young woman drawn to a mysterious recluse (Darrow) that lives in the same boarding house as she. The recluse has a secret that mandates that he keeps his room at a certain temperature.

During a power outage, Darrow's character needs to maintain the refrigerated condition the he says is necessary. Rush frantically searches all over town for ice or any means to honor his urgent requests. Unfortunately, her efforts are in vain and the resulting opening of the apartment door yields the truth about the enigmatic resident.

Both Rush and Darrow are effective as we see how their characters have bonded romantically and the ending, though shocking, is a fitting denouement for a program of this type.

Rod Serling's Night Gallery dipped into the Lovecraft well quite liberally, and the first entry in this trio of stories is another fine example. Told in flashback style from the perspective of Miss Agatha Howard (Barbara Rush), it relates how a well educated and refined gentleman (Henry Darrow) intends to defeat death by his own will and nerves. However there's always an obstacle to these well intentioned plans, and Dr. Juan Munos's theories are thwarted when a refrigerator unit in his apartment breaks down and the temperature begins to hover above the essential fifty five degree requirement to keep the man alive. The story ends a little like one of those 'Tales From the Crypt' episodes, complete with Crypt Keeper, if you know what I mean.

'Camera Obscura' was a well told tale with an ironic resolution one could see coming as the story progressed. When the miserly William Sharsted (Rene Auberjonois) states his intention to foreclose on a debt, eccentric collector Gingold (Ross Martin) expertly gains his confidence before lowering the boom on his greedy expectations. Carrying the green tinted landscape over to the 'real' world of the past from the Camera Obscura perspective was a neat touch. I thought it might also have been a fitting ending for Ebeneezer Scooge in 'A Christmas Carol' if he hadn't turned the corner on his own miserly ways.

And as with so many of the Night Gallery short subjects, the final filler piece might have been better put to use hawking an additional commercial product or two instead of torturing a poem by the master, Edgar Allan Poe. Although I haven't seen Marty Allen in anything in a long, long time, so at least he made it somewhat bearable.

***SPOILERS*** We already know that the mysterious Doctor Jaun Munos, Henry Darrow, is already dead and buried in that we see at the beginning on the "Night Gallary: episode his good friend Agatha Howard, Barbara Rush, making her annual visit to his graveside. But how he died and the circumstances surrounding his death is as they say in old neighborhood "One for the Books".

Visiting Dr. Munos who was a good friend of her father a professor at MIT Agatha is stunned to find him living in a cold storage apartment with the temperature never going over 50 degrees. Well read elegant and likable Dr. Munos has this hang up about living forever as long as he or his body is kept in the cold. Agatha puts up with Dr. Munos weirdness just to hear him out about life death and all that's in between that he's obvious an expert in. What she doesn't realize is that he's far weirder then she can ever imagine! And it's a power shortage in Dr. Munos apartment that fully brings that, how weird he is, up to the surface.

***SPOILER*** In the end Dr. Munos is finally forced to face reality in that life, like the refrigeration unit he has in his apartment, can't last forever. Needing ice to stay alive as his body is slowly decomposing Dr. Munos's fight to stay alive and breathing is a losing battle even with the ice man's, Karl Lukas, desperate attempt to keep him alive by his back breaking hurling over 300 pounds of ice in his apartment as the broiling summer temperature melted it as fast as he delivered it. It doesn't take long for Dr. Munos to meet his maker as his organs started to decompose as he became the rotted corpse that he so successfully avoided to become for the last 10 years.

'Cool Air'. Rod Serling himself adapts the H.P. Lovecraft short story about a Gothic would-be romance. Barbara Rush plays Agatha Howard, who goes to visit an old acquaintance of her father. Dr. Munoz (Henry Darrow) is kindly and very knowledgeable, but must live in a constantly refrigerated apartment due to dire health concerns. Alas, we must eventually find out what will happen to him should his equipment malfunction... This is very effective stuff, with two endearing performances by Rush & Darrow, and fine support by Beatrice Kay and Larry J. Blake. The element of tragedy is what really sells this one, and the material has lots of resonance, especially as an elderly Agatha relates the story in flashback. Good ambiance, too, and a nice music score. Taking up the bulk of the episodes' length, this was directed by 'Night Gallery' veteran Jeannot Szwarc.

'Camera Obscura'. Serling again does the adaptation, this time working from a short story by Basil Copper. A hard-hearted money lender (Rene Auberjonois) goes to visit a debtor (Ross Martin) who shows him an incredible, obscure invention. It can actually show scenery from past *and* present. And so it is that the money lender is magically transported into an eerie past populated by unhappy spirits (who are unhappy because of people like Auberjonois and his late father). Excellent creepy atmosphere in the finale is a major selling point, as well as efficient performances by Auberjonois and Martin, with the latter made up to look rather like Mark Twain. Good bit performances are delivered by old pros like Milton Parsons and Arthur Malet. As in 'Cool Air', the material is treated with intelligence and real gravitas by Mr. Serling. Directed by future mainstream action specialist John Badham.

'Quoth the Raven'. Series producer Jack Laird strikes again, with another of his VERY brief comic vignettes. Edgar Allan Poe (played by Marty Allen!) is stumbling over a line in his legendary poem "The Raven", and receives assistance from an appropriate source (voiced by an uncredited Mel Blanc). Nothing special, but it's good for one mild chuckle.

Eight out of 10.

***SPOILERS*** This review is only about the Night Gallery episode "Camera Obscure".

With greedy banker or better yet money lender William Shanster, Rene Auberjonois, about to foreclose on his friend 76 year old Norton Flate's home and put the old man out on the street another one of his costumers or victims Mr. Gingold, Ross Martin,who owes Shanster 300 pound sterling at 13% interest tries to soften his cold heart in giving the old man a little more time to pay up.

Inviting Shanster into his study Mr. Gingold shows him a strange camera contraption that brings out the truth about himself and where his greedy and cold hearted actions will eventually lead him to. Not at first realizing what Gingold is showing him, by transporting him back into his dark past, Shanster thinks it's some kind of practical joke. That's until he starts to recognize that those he sees there are the very people whom in his actions as a big time "Bankster" had destroyed their lives and left them on poverty row! And now it's payback time for him in what he did to them!

***SPOILERS*** You can't say that Mr. Shanster didn't earn exactly what he got coming to him at the end of this "Night Gallary" episode with, like he always enjoys tacking on to his helpless victims, interest compounded. Shanster made his money off the blood sweat & tears of others by squeezing them dry with his money lending tactics and lack of feelings for others. His humanity, if he had any, left him when it came for him to collect his high interest payments from those who, and he knew that when he lent them the money, were in no financial shape to pay him back. Now he's to face the very same kind of things if not even worse from the kind of persons more or less like himself that he's been dammed to be with for all of eternity.

This episode brings back more Lovecraft and a Basil Copper story as well in an episode that stays mainly on the side of horror and less of the poor attempts at humor that often ruin this show.

After having Jack Laird bring a Lovecraft story to a previous episode*, host Rod Serling wrote "Cool Air," which is directed by Jeannot Szwarc. It's about the strange love story between Agatha Howard (Barbara Rush) and Dr. Juan Munoz (Henry Darrow), a man who must live in a constantly cold apartment. Her father was a professor that wrote often to Munoz and they both refused to believe in the power of death. Szwarc has commented that Lovecraft, as written, was unfilmable. Serling solves that by making this horror actually about romance and loss, even if it leaves Agatha alone in a graveyard, saying "I wonder if I'm mourning something that was or something that might have been."

I know I go on and on about how this show gets damaged by the attempts at humor, but this story is an example of just how perfect this series can be when it works. It's not a slavish version of the Lovecraft story, but takes the main ideas and becomes something more suited for the small screen.

"Camera Obscura" is directed by John Badham and written by Serling. It's about a money lender named Mr. Sharsted (Rene Auberjonois) collecting from a man whose 13% interest has come due, Mr. Gingold (Ross Martin). Gingold has a camera obscura - a darkened room with a small hole through which an image can be projected onto a wall or table - that can see nearly all of London and he uses it to point out the greed that has marked Sharsted's career. And he has another camera just like it, yet it can send a man back in time to a world of even greedier men whose sins have transformed them into monsters.

"Quoth the Raven" is directed by Jeff Corey and written by Laird. Edgar Allan Poe (Marty Allen) is trying to write and the raven (Mel Blanc) is annoying him. Do I even need to write how this made me feel?

That said, this episode is so strong, one can escape those last few pointless moments.

*"Pickman's Model" in season 2, episode 11.

This is easily the best episode of Night Gallery, in my opinion, and I've watched it several times. The story has already been described in rich detail by other commenters, so I think I can do without mentioning the particulars.

The acting is first-rate from all concerned and the sets (utilizing the studio's "back-lot village") are superb. When Mr. Sharsted leaves the house, take a good look at the surroundings-- the "Foreign Wine and Spirit Merchant" shop looks utterly sepulchral, with its arched, tunnel-like entrance and lack of windows; the establishment next door, "The Exchange Dining Rooms" hardly looks any more inviting, and the Corn Exchange, with its adjoining steps and open square before it, reminded me of an arena (which I don't think was accidental.)

Then there are the characterizations: the old lamplighter, apparently trying to be helpful but later mocking; Mr. Sanderson, cheerful at meeting-up with an old friend in Sharsted, who is horrified to find that Sanderson is still carrying-out his wretched business; war profiteer Amos Drucker, bent over and scuttling along like a Robber-Crab; William Sharsted Sr., who looked to my eye like a stereotypical pirate; and of course Abel Joyce, who in his dark coat, cravat and top hat, carries himself erect with an almost regal bearing, walking slowly and deliberately as if he KNOWS he's head-and-shoulders above the rest of this crew of low-lifes.

One of the finest things about this episode is the fact that they could do so much with what they had, that they could create a slice of hell in a late 19th Century setting WITHOUT the use of computer-generated effects.

Rene Auberjonois ("Odo" from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") and the late Ross Martin ("Artemis West" from the 60's classic "The Wild, Wild West") are adversaries in this tale of poetic justice. Auberjonois plays a heartless financier that finds much pleasure in causing foreclosures and bankruptcies to owners of small franchises. Martin plays one of those poor unfortunates that enact his revenge upon Auberjonois in the form of a "camera obscura" that transports the uncaring banker to a dimension where he meets the "ghouls" of the persons that he has doomed. Running through the apparently abandoned streets of London's financial district, Auberjonois's character encounters one horrific fiend after the other, each one intent on getting their hands on him. Martin has gotten even with him by placing him in his own perfect hell, eternally.

"Camera Obscura" stands out as one "Night Gallery's" most frightening, yet satisfying thrillers. Both actors, along with the makeup department, deserved some recognition from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

"Cool Air" - Dr. Juan Munos (a sturdy and sympathetic portrayal by Henry Darrow) suffers from a rare disease that forces him to live in isolation in a refrigerated apartment. Complications ensue when Manos falls in love with Agatha Howard (a fine and appealing performance by Barbara Rush). Director Jeannot Szwarc ably crafts a haunting melancholy mood. Beatrice Kay lends amusing support as cranky landlady Mrs. Gibbons. This excellent adaptation of a touching and tragic H.P. Lovecraft story packs a strong emotional punch.

"Camera Obscura" - Pernicious miser William Sharsted (well played to the detestable hilt by Rene Auberjonois) finds himself trapped in a nightmarish alternate dimension by eccentric inventor Mr. Gingold (a pleasingly quirky turn by Ross Martin). Director John Badham presents a flavorsome period atmosphere and milks the hellish other world for maximum creepiness. Moreover, it's a pleasure to watch the hateful Sharsted get his just nasty desserts.

"Quoth the Raven" - Still yet another dopey comic short with a lame punchline.

In this segment, masterfully adapted by Serling from the Basil Copper short story, William Sharsted, a financier who expresses pleasure in causing total financial destruction to those whom he lent money, and, for various reasons, couldn't repay the amount due, arrives at the Ginggold residence with the intent of doing the same to Gingold since it looks like Ginggold is unable to pay the amount of money that Sharsted loaned to him. During the discussion of the terms of the debt settlement, Ginggold first demonstrates his latest acquisition: a viewing device showing the home of one of Sharsted's debtors, said home about to be sold out from under the man to recoup the amount of money that Sharsted loaned to him, thus destroying the man financially. When Sharsted refuses to show mercy to his debtor, Ginggold then demonstrates another viewing device, which in addition to being rarer than the first one, displays images of buildings in the village that existed in Sharsted's past. Sharsted not only continues to refuse Ginggold's pleas to show his debtors any mercy, but bids Ginggold a good evening as he leaves, reminding him that he would be returning on Monday to auction off some of Ginggold's antiques to recover the loan with interest. Ginggold responds ominously, "And I, Mr. Sharsted, bid you goodbye." Sharsted exits Ginggold's building from the back stairs, into the village as it was in Sharsted's youth. He comes upon the Corn Exchange building, which had been destroyed in a bombing raid in World War 1, then Victoria Greens, which was also gone. Along the way he ends up encountering the following people whom Ginggold sentenced to this rather unique form of punishment which Sharsted now experiences firsthand: Sanderson, a grave robber who was executed when Sharsted was a boy, Amos Drucker, a war profiteer who hung himself in prison, Abel Joyce, a banker who, like Sharsted, took pleasure only when he subjected his debtors to destitution, and William Sharsted, Sr., who passed down to his son the same cruel character traits that he possessed. Sharsted attempts to escape the fiends by running through the streets and alleyways of the village, but ends up running to the Corn Exchange and Victoria Greens every time, and ends up being seized by the ghouls who proclaim him one of their own. Sharsted pleads to Ginggold to show him mercy, offering to forgive Ginggold's debt along with the amounts of money owed by Sharsted's other debtors. Ginggold responds, "Oh, no, Mr. Sharsted, too late for reprieve. Now you shall stumble, and weep, and swear along the streets and squares and alleyways of your own private hell. And you shall do so for all eternity," closing the lid on the viewing table of the viewing device that displays the fate of those who refuse to show compassion to their fellow human beings. Spoiler Alert: John Badham, the segment's director, paid for the horse and wagon that was used in the segment's shooting out of his own pocket, asking series producer Jack Laird to let him use the scenes involving the use of the horse and wagon. Along with that, Badham and cinematographer Leonard J. South used both still and motion picture film shot through green and gold filter gels placed in the camera lens to give the sequence involving Sharsted's condemnation a very hellish look to it.