Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series) Down Among the Sheltering Palms (1983) User Reviews

Biggest twist of the series

[Midgegirl · 7/10 · 29 June 2017]

Given that the point of the series was to give the viewer a surprise ending, this episode definitely fulfilled the brief. I always try to guess the twist in any given episode, and more often than not I'm right, and when I'm wrong, I'm usually close- but with this one, I genuinely didn't see it coming and found it both pretty heart-breaking and a neat exploration of the nature of memory, the stories we tell ourselves, romanticism and how some of us change.

There is some foreshadowing of the way in which people can put a romantic gloss on an encounter (or just plain misread it) when we hear the irritating Marjorie telling onlookers what a wonderful time she'd been having with the American; a few scenes later and we discover that Doris is now a miserable cynic: or maybe she was a miserable cynic back in 1942 as well, but Gerry Armstrong was just too romantic or deluded to see it, as was Marjorie. Indeed, does Gerry tell people his wife is a wonderfully kind and romantic soul in the same way that Marjorie seems to embellish her tales about unwanted admirers?

There again, as others have said, maybe the writer was simply saying that the romantic dreams of wartime romances often fade and turn sour over time, thereby turning viewer expectations on their head and giving them a very downbeat ending after watching a seemingly very romantic tale.

All in all, a very thought-provoking end to the tale, and far better than all my initial mad predictions about Carol being his granddaughter or a ghost. Which is why I am not a writer!

Looking for his lost love.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 19 February 2016]

Gerry Armstrong enters into a dance hall, a place where he'd spent plenty of time forty years ago during the War. He chats with the Barman Bill about his time there, and later gets into conversation with the overbearing Marge who tries to pick him up. He's distracted by a glamorous young couple on the floor. When they argue, he goes in search of the young woman, who reminds him of his wife Doris. The trouble is nobody has seen the girl, or can remember her, Gerry gets into a state.

I can understand how this episode would create disagreement, it's a deep story, clever and moving. It's very different from the usual episodes, it's not a mystery or a suspense, it's a snapshot of a feeling and emotion. Showing the effect love can have on a person.

Van Johnson is in a different league, he puts in a fantastic performance, he turns an average story into something rather good, Margaret Courtenay puts in a good showing too, she had a great line in domineering ladies.

Quite unique, definitely worth a watch 7/10 (I like the twist too!)

Think the previous comment misses the point

[Pandrea100 · 6/10 · 14 December 2007]

OK, sorry to give away the ending but there IS a twist at the end. The old American guy spends the evening trying to speak to the girl who reminds him of his lost love Doris during the war (though it's actually just a modern young girl) but he doesn't go back to a hotel - he goes home to his unpleasant shrewish wife. You find out that he lives in Britain and the implication is that he actually married Doris and settled down there but the young, innocent and charming girl he met grew into a horrible old bag (who says she never did like that dancehall). Thus Doris was only "lost" in the metaphorical sense. That's also why, throughout, there are various comments about other Yank soldiers who had affairs and then went home to the US - it's what he obviously should have done. It's actually quite a sweet and clever story, not the best "Tales" but not bad. There's also a bit of humour with the other old lady who keeps trying to force him to dance with her. Mind you the fashions and set are pretty naff.

"She was pure and innocent, like a lily."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 12 December 2021]

Based on other viewer comments, this might be the most disagreed upon episode of the entire series. Folks can't even agree on where Gerry Armstrong (Van Johnson) wound up after the proprietress Lena (Anne Carroll) sent him on his way in a cab. Personally, I thought it was a sadly poignant tale of a man who's nostalgia for the past returns to the frustrating face of reality as soon as he gets back to his hotel room. (And yes, it was a hotel room.) Generally speaking, Gerry seemed to be a nice enough guy, returning to the night club he frequented during World War II along with many other GI's. Sadly, the years have taken a toll on the establishment, as well as his memories. For in his imagination, the woman of his dreams slipped away four decades earlier when she disappeared without a trace. Or so he says in telling the story. As he becomes progressively tipsy, he also gets aggressive to the point of hostility, until the woman Lena comes to his aid. Apologizing profusely, Gerry realizes he's been a jerk, and is agreeable to being whisked back to his hotel. The story's twist, if you want to call it that, is that Gerry's tantalizing woman in the white dress that he fell in love with never got away physically, but the span of years did something to either change her personality entirely, or his rose colored glasses about the woman he married never could stand up to the reality he expected. It's virtually a truism that one's favorable recollections of the past are much better remembered than those events that were disagreeable. In Gerry's case, he suffered living with both.

"I bet he kept my bone china." Awful Tales of the Unexpected episode.

[poolandrews · 2/10 · 21 April 2007]

Tales of the Unexpected: Down Among the Sheltering Palms starts as an American named Gerald T. Armstrong (Van Johnson) walks into the bar where he used to spend a lot of his time 40 years prior when he was positioned in England during World War II, he reminisces about how things used to be to the barman Bill (Christopher Fulford). This is where Gerry met his wife Doris (Gabrielle Hamilton) & while looking across the dance floor he notices a young girl which reminds him of her...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 7 from season 6 that originally aired here in the UK during May 1983, the tenth of eleven Tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by John Gorrie this is absolutely awful & quite why it's part of this series I have no idea. The script by Gorrie has no point, it's boring plus it's utterly dull & forgettable. The way I see it most Tales of the Unexpected stories have two basic ingredients with some sort of build up which then ends in a twist ending, unfortunately Down Among the Sheltering Palms has neither & frankly nothing else besides by which to recommend it either. This American guy just turns up, has an encounter with a girl who reminds him of his wife & then goes back to his hotel & that's it. There is no twist, there is no action, nothing happens & this 30 odd minutes of rubbishy TV has more chance of sending you to sleep that shocking or surprising you which is what a good Tales of the Unexpected should deliver. This is bad, very bad & there's nothing unexpected about it.

This looks cheap, it's set in some sort of early 80's disco where a bunch of elderly people slowly dance to some hideous music provided by a band who wear embarrassing shirts that you need sunglasses to look at. God this looks terrible with bad fashions & hairdos abound, it has no suspense, no tension or atmosphere & is pretty weak overall. The acting goes from hammy to utterly awful.

Down Among the Sheltering Palms is a terrible Tales of the Unexpected episode, I don't claim to have seen them all but this is by far the worst one I've seen so far. For those of you who have the DVD box sets released by Acorn Media in the US be aware that they have some episodes missing due to rights issues & Down Among the Sheltering Palms is one such episode, all I'll say is believe me when I tell you your not missing anything.

Response to pandrea100

[hrt123 · 3/10 · 5 March 2008]

I'm afraid the twist you describe most likely doesn't exist. I have re-watched the end of the episode since reading your comment. The manageress of the nightclub orders him a taxi for the Duke's Head and when he returns to his room, it has a room number on it 301. He also has to unlock it to get in. It is clear he/they are staying in a hotel. Additionally his wife says they have a long way to travel the following day. Finally they may or may not have been visiting from America. I could see nothing in the final scene to support one side or another except to say that the wife has no real American accent.

Besides these points, I couldn't really see the point of the Marge character, or the exchange at the beginning with the band or Sid's dislike of Americans. It's not as if they were particularly good Red Herrings. I agree with the first review that this is one of the worst episodes in the series.

Unexpected and sad

[francespen · 8/10 · 14 March 2021]

I know it's been years since poolandrews posted on here, but I have to disagree with their opinion about it being the 'worst' one. It could have gone any way during the story. I didn't suspect it until I saw him walking wearily up the stairs in the Hotel, definitely not his home, that his 'lost' Doris was still his wife. She may have been living in the States since the end of the war, but it is possible she would still have her English accent. I'm also of the opinion it was a sad ending, Gerry was reminded by Carol of how Doris was when he first met her, leading you to think either he'd lost her or she had died. Shame we never got to find out why she had turned so bitter. Geoffrey Bayldon's, who will always be Catweazle to me, character gave the viewers the other side of what some Brit's thought of Yanks during the war, his sister had a bad marriage to one. We also saw Christopher Fulford, who is a familiar face on TV now in one of his early appearances.

The male counter-part to 'The Colonel's Lady'

[nqure · 8/10 · 19 March 2021]

As someone who has tried to write short stories, I initially thought this was based on one because it possessed more subtlety than it is being given credited for by some reviewers.

What starts as a nostalgic trip into the past turns into a drunken, bathetic attempt to recapture an illusion. There is a truthful, unsentimental (cynical) strain throughout this episode that makes the surprise ending appear to make sense and illuminate everything that went before. The young barman (Christopher Fulford/Pierrepoint) is irreverent about the dance-night (Grab a Granny). Marjorie, late middle-aged & buxom, injects comedy as she makes a bee-line for Gerry the ex-US GI, who, instead of welcoming her attention, becomes wrapped up in the past & obsessed with the pursuit of a young girl in white.

Is she a phantom? A ghost of the past he is seeking to recapture? I, too, thought it was about a man trying to find a lost daughter, but then the writer/director cleverly played with the dates, confusing everything. The girl is in her early 20s, Gerry last visited the dance-hall in 1942. It transpires the girl is involved in an unhappy love triangle. Others misinterpret Gerry's desire for familiarity as the desperate attempts of lecherous old man. Everything appears illusory, even the palm trees are made of card-board. I liked the character played by Geoffrey Bayldon (Sid) who exhibits a barely concealed hostility towards US GIs in the war and this foreshadows the ending. Things did not end happily for his sister after she got involved with an American soldier.

Gradually, Gerry's nostalgic trip into the past turns into a kind of drunken nightmare as Marge (Margaret Courtenay) finally man-handles him on to the dance-floor but by this time Gerry has become so inebriated that he collapses so that, at first, one thinks he has had a coronary.

The brisk manageress of the dance hall - initially wearied by his incessant questions - does eventually take pity on him (a good old cup of English tea) & a taxi is called by Sid.

Others have already stated the ending, but this episode was enjoyable as it often played against expectation. It is about romantic illusion and emotional disappointment. It reminded me of the episode based on a Somerset Maugham short story, 'The Colonel's Wife' , about a long marriage whose sexual passion has long disappeared.

Both appear to convey an emotional truth. All I can say is that I enjoyed it/both & the final scene lingered in my mind. Gerry's resignation as he defers to a woman who appears to browbeat him, probably in a manner that made facing the German Wehrmacht positively inviting.

disagree - they were at a hotel

[maryfromeire · 10/10 · 16 January 2008]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents. I could see other reviewers were debating some bits of this episode... I loved the episode and got the impression they were staying in a hotel. My only question is were they visiting from another part of the UK, or were they traveling over from the US? Great episode - very sad ending. Van Johnson is great in it. It is a shame that this episode is not on the DVD - it is my personal favorite. Sorry to keep harping on - I can't seem to submit my review unless it is over 10 lines even though I have said everything I wanted. Geez.. Just wanted to add my 2 cents. I could see other reviewers were debating some bits of this episode... I loved the episode and got the impression they were staying in a hotel. My only question is were they visiting from another part of the UK, or were they traveling over from the US? Great episode - very sad ending. Van Johnson is great in it. It is a shame that this episode is not on the DVD - it is my personal favorite. Sorry to keep harping on - I can't seem to submit my review unless it is over 10 lines even though I have said everything I wanted. Geez..