"Night Gallery" was brilliant TV writer Rod Serling's follow-up to his cult hit "The Twilight Zone". These comments refer to the pilot episode, a feature-length anthology film with big-name stars directed by young directors (one of whom, Steven Spielberg, certainly ended up making a splash on the horror circuit and beyond). These stories are filmed in a quality color process and are all variations on a theme of painting and perception generally speaking.
The first story concerns a young upstart nephew (Roddy McDowall) who stands to inherit a fortune from his artist uncle (George Macready) and decides to help him a little along the way. Ossie Davis provides some very good support as "Porter Foy", the old man's reliable manservant. This vignette deals with the fragile hold of sanity on the conscious mind. I really enjoyed the performances of the lead actors in this one and it was my favorite in the film.
The second story features star Joan Crawford and was the one directed by Spielberg. It concerns a wealthy evil old woman who is willing to blackmail her doctor (Barry Sullivan) into performing an operation that will give her vision for 12 hours, but deprive another human being of his vision for the rest of his life. She finds a suitably desperate man with a gambling debt to do this. This story is very remarkable, somewhat sad in a way. I thought it was a bit too obvious in a way though.
The final story is relatively inconsequential, dealing with a nazi war criminal who is hiding in South America and is identified because of his association with a particular picture in a gallery. This portion of the film went on too long for what it's story was worth and the entire part with the prostitute could have been excised without anyone noticing.
All in all, this is a very entertaining piece of TV film-making that classic movie fans will enjoy discovering because of the classic stars who all give solid performances.
The first story concerns a young upstart nephew (Roddy McDowall) who stands to inherit a fortune from his artist uncle (George Macready) and decides to help him a little along the way. Ossie Davis provides some very good support as "Porter Foy", the old man's reliable manservant. This vignette deals with the fragile hold of sanity on the conscious mind. I really enjoyed the performances of the lead actors in this one and it was my favorite in the film.
The second story features star Joan Crawford and was the one directed by Spielberg. It concerns a wealthy evil old woman who is willing to blackmail her doctor (Barry Sullivan) into performing an operation that will give her vision for 12 hours, but deprive another human being of his vision for the rest of his life. She finds a suitably desperate man with a gambling debt to do this. This story is very remarkable, somewhat sad in a way. I thought it was a bit too obvious in a way though.
The final story is relatively inconsequential, dealing with a nazi war criminal who is hiding in South America and is identified because of his association with a particular picture in a gallery. This portion of the film went on too long for what it's story was worth and the entire part with the prostitute could have been excised without anyone noticing.
All in all, this is a very entertaining piece of TV film-making that classic movie fans will enjoy discovering because of the classic stars who all give solid performances.