Noise Junkies. It's a music podcast, baby, covering every musical genre. What we got that the others don't. I'll tell you we got Mondo, Heathers, Heather Drained, nor Junky, we got wolf and raisins hp n Junky, we got dark destinations, Father alone n and we got you, we got music and we got you made it and you getting a weird in way media noise Junkies weird. We do a little mate light and shot realism, surrealism, Impressionism, and a story and interesting behind wall a Ford unship
towards the bizarre. And this place is nothing if it isn't bizarre. There's no admission, no requirement of membership, only a strong of the plighting, belief in the dark at the top of the stairs or things that go bump in the night. The name of this place you told commit your actually defentically out of the rank, just a night got Welcome back, art lovers to Midnight Viewing the Night Gallery podcast, where we discuss what was initially Rod Serlings
follow up to the twilight Zone Night Gallery. I'm Father Malone and with me here in the gallery are On Sigala, Stephen Sigal podcasts Chris Stashier. If you don't know me now, you'll know me as the Worm by the end of this episode and from the Cold Jack Tapes, mister Mike White, why has no one offered me money to stay in a haunted house? We're here at the Gallery are discussing season two, episode six. This aired on October
twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one, making it their Halloween special. It's an all access Halloween special. That's access powers. The Cherry's and the Eye Ties a full display here. They appear separately in our two segments only two, hearkening back to a more innocent and simple time at the Night Gallery. Those segments are a Question of Fear and the Devil is Not Mocked Painting Number one
about a man who spends a night in a haunted house. An unbeliever if you will, who by Dunn believes The name of the painting is a question of fear. The name of this place is the Night Gallery. Now. A Question of Fear was written by Theodore J. Flicker, based on a short story by Brian Lewis and directed by Jack Laird. Stars Leslie Nielsen,
Richard Vickers and Creepshow and Fritz Weaver, Extra Stanley and Creepshow. That's right, it's a retroactive Creepshow reunion, although they actually to act with each other here, which is different than a creep show. It also starts Jack Bannon and Ivan Bonar and special appearance by Castle Thunder. This is a tale of courage in the face of supernatural terror when Leslie Nielsen's mercenary Malloy accepts a bet to spend a night in a haunted house with from Fritz Weaver's doctor Macchi,
who may have an ulterior motive in this wager. What do you think of this one? Mike went on for a little too long, But I mean, it was so nice to see Leslie Nielsen, especially you know, we've been talking a lot about him with the police squad, but it was great seeing him here with the I Patch for no good reason. And yeah, Fritz Weaver, he's so awesome. I really like that guy a lot. So I had a good time, even though I think this went on for a little too long. How about you, Chris So to say, how
much more do we need to see of Leslie? To Nielson at this point, I'm a little Leslie Nielsen nowt good lord. I mean it's it's it's funny. You know, it wasn't intentional the timing here, but we have been, you know, revisiting police Squad and the Naked Gun and airplane, so to see Leslie Nielsen in something else, it's kind of hard to take him seriously. Unfortunately, I just have a hard time because again, like he's in the in the best police Squad and naked gun stuff, he's playing
it straight. So here he's playing it straight and everything else is straight as well or as straight as it can get with night Gallery. But I think overall it's interesting. I think the twist is pretty obvious, but also at the same time, like I don't know, it's a it's an it's an interesting story that I'm sure Teddy j Flicker of Barney Miller fame, he landed it rather well. What about you, father Malone. I love this one.
I was on board, like the whole thing everything, And you know, the thing about Leslie Nielsen is I remember him mainly as a dramatic actor. So when he'd made the switch to police school for first obviously airplane and then police Squad and then Naked Gun, like, to me, the joke was always how straight he was playing it. He eventually kind of turned into a clown. And he is a very funny comedic actor, no question about it, But like the early funny movies he was in were only funny because
of how dramatic he was playing it. So every time I get to see Leslie Nielson actually playing a dramatic role, I'm happy. My favorite role of his all time is a creep show as Richard Vickers. He's one of my favorite villains of all time. He's so gleeful and wonderful in that, and so I was excited to see a different kind of villain from him here,
and I thought, I thought he nailed it. That type of character that sort of overly proud of what an asshole he is and everyone else is a coward and beneath him like that kind of masculinity makes me want to switch pronouns man like it's and he does it so well. I do wonder about that, I patch, because you know, they kept giving us lots of close
ups where he clear you could see his eye in there. That was that was a little bit of a failing also, you know, just character wise, at the beginning, he mentions that he killed six men for desertion. I'd say that that's only what he told his superiors. I think this is just a kill crazy madman. And yeah, yeah, he was like, oh I wish I was in my lie. Yeah, yeah, right exactly. Like, first of all, what is he doing at that club at
the beginning? Anyway, he's the most ornery guy, Like he's running the pool table. I'm sure everyone at that club walks in. It's just like, oh my god, Malloy's here. Let's just go back to the when you mentioned the twist, Chris, are we talking about the fact that there was no thing in the basement? Is that the twin? That's the twist, at least in my mind? Well, I guess there's two twists,
right, Yeah, there's two twists for me anyway. Yeah, and I saw the you know, it wasn't a real thing at all coming, but I certainly didn't expect this unted house Pepper's ghost kind of dark ride that the episode began as to suddenly turn into a body horror nightmare from nineteen seventy one. Holy god, I didn't remember this episode at all. I'm glad I didn't, because I got way into it. But I like that whole monologue at the end with Fritzweeber just going on and on and on and is really
horrifying. Yeah, how gleeful he is and how terrible he is going to make Leslie Nielsen feel like it is. It is a true like he is filled with glee. So it's it's interesting that there is no real thing going on, but it also work. I think it makes the episode segment work even better that there is kind of a double twist to it. Yeah, and just that he pretty much drives Leslie Nielsen to kill himself spoilers, But
I love that, really love that. I would have liked have seen the worm, but like I think we all know that, like whatever that would have been actually would not have looked very good. So probably for the best that we didn't see it. Yeah, I was like, oh boy, are they gonna show a big worm with a human face, like how they showed a big spider last time? Yes, it worked in Freaked, right, Yeah, it worked in Freaked twenty years later with it right well exactly
the prosthetic artistry going on instead of the cobble together. We'd have to get this shot by noon of mentality over at the night Gallery. I did kind of wonder why, First of all, did you did you notice what this mercenary, this career soldier, what he thinks belongs in a survival pack. He had cigarettes, a coffee thermist, extra ammunition, a flashlight, and a bigger flashlight. Oh yeah, that's it. I mean, I know he wasn't expecting trouble because he didn't believe in ghosts. Only cowards do.
But like, certainly, I don't know, it just seemed like an odd assortment. I think Leslie Nielsen would get along really well with that character that Tony Montagna plays in that episode of twilight Zone nineteen eighty five. If you guys remember that in the Bunker was it? What was it? Joe Montaigna, Na Joe Montagna. But he these two dudes would get along, Like I like that they in these shows kind of take to task being a jingoistic
patriot dickhead. Like I appreciate that that these dudes get their come up ins in both segments frankly and skillfully. So I mean, I'm glad Theodore Flicker is the one adapting this and not Rod sterling Um because because it has all the hallmarks of something sterling would have been drawn to, which is the haunted house sort of trope, and you know, and the rich and the play anyway, you know, you know my things? Did you did either of
you happen to read the short story did not? By mister Brian Lewis I did. It is remarkably similar except several small differences. Malloy is a nearly homeless alcoholic because he has no more wars to fight, and he's just home. He doesn't know how to be a human anymore. He's actually painted as the hero, like we follow it from his point of view. When two it's like trading places like these two men in a limo are like, come with us, we've got to We'll give you some money if you can.
We hear you're a soldier and you can, you know, make it through the if you don't be scared. It isn't a haunted house situation. They just say you need to survive the night on this compound, right, So he goes onto the compound and is immediately attacked by three dogs, who he kills with a gun that they've given him, and then discovers afterwards that the dogs have no teeth, that they were just there to scare him, even
though he killed them. Okay, So then he gets into the house and goes into the basement where the door bolts behind him, and he sees that there's a gorilla in the room and he still has his pistol, and the gorilla in the darkness is shambling around and screaming at him, and then starts to come for him, and he fires the gun a bunch of times, and the gorilla just doesn't feel anything and eventually tires of the guy and goes
back into the corner. The lights common, and he realizes there's this plexiglass between him and the gorilla, so he's getting the idea, oh, they're just trying to scare me to death, right, and then goes to sleep. No, they do the pendulum thing to him, but he just falls asleep, wakes up the next day, and then the rest plays exactly like the episode in higher speech that Fritz Weaver gives like word for word, it's
there. Either one would work, And I guess it's better that they went with Haunted House because I thought the Haunted House stuff is actually really good here, and there was no way they were going to have three dogs with no teeth attacking him on a compound. Anyway, like I said, better than the Flicker A flicker did it and put it into this Haunted House because some of it, Like I said, some of the Haunted House effects were really
great. Actually, that weird fractal kind of post that attacks him while he's in the basement, I thought that was actually genuinely scary. Yeah, and I like the solarized sort of yellow ghost that is stalking him around for a little bit. Like all that was fun, like you know, this is again TV nineteen seventy one. Some of the effects weren't great for some reason.
They cut to an exterior of the house and there was a matt shot of a bat flying by for no reason, like, oh yeah, by the way, that was just the Psycho House, Like what Yeah, I thought that looked familiar. Yeah, boy didn't it because it got moved a few times, so like that's why the surroundings looked a bit different. But it was obviously the Psycho House. Yeah. When I realized it was universal as well, I was like, oh, okay, this kind of makes
sense. Yeah, why did he touch every drop of blood anyone? He did everything but tasted Yeah, I do have to ask though, like if if either of you were in the scenario that Leslie Nelson has put in, you don't you don't kill yourself that quickly, right, Like that is the one thing here where it's like he's like, you're Fritz Weaver is really banking on Leslie Nielsen just like all right, I could not like I'm he's right, no way, he's making this up. Like what should have happened is
he should have been drugged. Again he said, like, oh, you eat the food. It's not poisoned at all. It should have been drugged. And so when he's giving him the spiel about what's happening, like see that puncture mark on your on your arm, like your muscle should start to be feeling really tight right now, and like whatever drug he gave him like started to make him feel that, Like that would kill myself, Like oh god, I'm going to turn into a fucking worm. But like it was
set up like in a few days, you'll start to chick. I would wait a few days. Any of us would wait a few days. I don't care what kind of hand before. Yeah, yeah, if anything, I would have given him like a slow acting poison or something something slow acting, so that over those next few days something goes on with them or to
your point, like oh, you're starting to feel it right now. I mean, there's a lot to be said for a psycho semantic, but really you need to be able to feel something, and that, for me is the issue. It's just like it feels a little like a little bit of a contrivance that all he did was just be like, this is what's going to happen, and then he says the thing about in a couple of days. I was like, wait a second, in a couple of days, like yeah, you could even walk out of here, Like what the fuck?
I mean? Well, yeah, like they said, I mean like what like six months later, Like what the slow acting? Good lord? This isn't a really elaborate plan, just too. If it was to just introduce the serum, it would be kind of outlandish, but I guess it had. Did it need to be that outlandish? I don't. Couldn't you just locked him in a room and like you hit him over the head and he wakes up and you go, this is what happened he last night?
Like struck the bed that has metal arms that will fold and hold you while the pendulum comes down and swings like a guillotine. By the way, in that guillotine scene where he actually experiences fear while we're still thinking that's what this entire episode is about, like that he's finally been broken when he realizes he's not going to die and he starts boasting. I wanted, with all my hopes and wishes for the guillotine to just drop down in behead him once he
started, Oh I'm still here. You have to do bother than that cut That would have been great. I can hold my breath for a long time. Oh, I do have one other thing. I thought it was really well shot. They even had a day for night thing that did not bother me at all, Like I enjoyed it. But there's an unforgivable moment where Leslie Nelson goes to the bedroom and drops down to the floor to look under the bed and the camera lowers down with him, which would be a beautiful
shot if it wasn't in the hand of like a palsy nightmare. It was just like with all the cuts to like bats and exteriors and paintings and stuff like, couldn't they have just cut to the shot of him on the floor. It was right. It didn't seem like we're young and innovative filmmakers. It feel like, well, who cares? But I think I think overall, for kind of what this was and the story that it was telling, it is pretty good. Right. Yeah, I never didn't enjoy myself watching
the episode. I'm nitpicking because I have to, but like, right, and even with the twist at the end, like being kind of hinky, like I think it's I think it's still by the end of it, I was like, this was a full, fully thought out story with a great ending that I think is pretty impactful, even if it is kind of a little wonky, Like Fritz Weaver is enjoying himself throughout, that's for sure, and his character is relishing that moment at the end that he gets over Leslie
Nielsen and I don't know, this has been one of the more successful segments of the show so far for me at least agreed. Also, Leslie Nielson had one really nice character moment, which I'm assuming was him when he first is exploring the haunted house. He walks past the chandelier and he reaches over and taps it, which is what you do when you're trying to see if it's actually crystal or not. And it had no bearing on anything else.
But I really liked that he did it all right, before we get to our final segment, I have been all this season attempting to point a spotlight or an accent light, that's what they're called to museums on some of the note or less, he's celebrated members of the Night Gallery family in front of
and behind the camera. In this case, I want to mention a fellow by the name of Wayne Fitzgerald. Wayne was born in la in nineteen thirty died in twenty nineteen at the age of eighty nine, and mister Fitzgerald is the gentleman responsible for Night Galleries title sequence you see every week, which scared the hell out of me when I was a kid, and really is as essential to the show as anything else as far as I'm concerned. So obviously he's a really good TV title guy, right, yes, but so goddamn
much more all right. This man gone out of the Navy, where he was on a submarine during the Korean War and started his career making titles for little tiny flicks like Touch of Evil, The Fly Pillow Talk, Homicidal, the Music Man. This man has four hundred and fifty eight credits. In nineteen eight, four of the five Best Picture nominees had titles designed by him. In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? And Bonnie and Clyde. He did all of copolist titles. Apocalypse.
Now that's him. Just an incredible career. And his son Eric continued, the business has done every Walter Hill title sequence since Johnny Handsome. Anyway, just wanted to give a shout out to one of our one of our night gallery people that probably nobody knows his name, but they ought to because he's kind of a giant in his field. Title sequences and posters. Man,
that's a lost art. It really is such a like, you know, I didn't grow up at a time when Drew Struson was really at his height, but I'm glad that I still got to see some of those Drew strus And posters in the wild for real, because that's a lost art, just like title sequences. Yeah, I think strus and stuff like you know, got overly sort of copied, but you know, by the by the late nineties probably but like at the time things were gorgeous. They're still gorgeous
obviously, and yeah, what an iconic beyond iconic? Yeah, actual paintings, actual thought, like going into what you want to feature about this film other than let's put four faces slatting together. Four faces, there we go, that's what you And then like a blue light in the center, yeah, right, or a big head or them or them facing away looking over their shoulder, or my favorite between the leg shot. Oh yeah, that one too lost art. Indeed, all right, now, our final segment
here is called The Devil is not Mocked. Oscrew Wild said something to the effect that if there were not a devil, we'd very likely invent him. He serves many a purpose, and this grim visaged character here is proof of that. Rather bitter pudding, a story that tells what happens when evil collides
with the evil. The painting is called The Devil is written by Gen Kearney, Oh Boy, based on the short story by Manly Wade Wellman, and then directed by Gene Karney, starring Francis Letterer, Helmet Dantine, Martin Coslick and single classic Wolf, Ladies and Gentlemen. I actually I'll just do it right here at the top. If you have not seen this episode, this is what you were hearing behind people talking like the hip hop airhorn, but a fucking werewolf instead. Yes, over and over, layer up. Can
you listen to these where the children of the nineties? What beats they drop? Guys? Remember a song called nineteen and anti Vietnam song from nineteen oh no, no, no, no, nineteen nineteen. Yeah, single classic wolf version. That's what we got here in The Devil is Not Mocked. The story is a grandfather telling his grandson about what he did during the war. It's basically a blackout sketch stretched out to an interminable level. What do
you think of this one, Chris? I love anytime we get to see Dracula doing really weird things like killing Nazis, because that's a fun concept that you know, has some legs to it. Apparently not here though, like you said, I mean, it's a Playboys. It's a Playboy one panel
really like or like it's like you know what it is. It's a mad magazine like four or five panel sketch, Like it's a cracked magazine from the seventies thing, Like, I don't know, it's fun for what it is, but why, I mean, I guess you can't give a question to Fear anymore time, and like what do you do otherwise, Like have somebody come up with two blackout sketches back to back. They've never done that, so I guess they just gave this a little bit more time, and it
shows. It's a little long in the tooth. Oh was that a joke a vampire joke? No, but it was better than every joke in this episode. It wasn't very funny this segment, but I mean, yeah, I saw the twist coming a mile away. I was just happy to see France's Letterer back as Count Dracula. He was in the Return of Dracula from
fifty eight, which I actually watched a few years ago. I was doing an episode about Shadow of a Doubt, and the plot of Shadow of a Doubt and the Return of Dracula are incredibly similar, and some of the shots are even cribbed from Shadow of a Doubt. It's a really interesting film, highly recommended. Well, it's cheap as hell, but I thought it was very entertaining, and it was kind of nice to see him back as Dracula for his final and the guy that played the main Nazi helmet dantein Great Face.
I mostly know him from I think Casablanca, and I think he's the part of the couple that Rick is trying to help out, even though Rickett sticks his neck out for nobody. But they're like the really sympathetic couple. They're like the young Rick and Elsa type of couple. So he sees himself in that. But yeah, it was a good reunion for me of all these great actors. But the sketch itself, I was just like, yeah, all right, it's inoffensive, but really didn't do a whole lot for
me. Here's the thing I liked about the episode. Two things. Francis Letter's performance is Dracula, particularly when he vamps out at the end. He actually is frightening, which is in his performance throughout this sort of bemused, kind of like oh silly little, oh okay, well, we'll play along
like he's great throughout it. Also the fact that they gave him a cape with a white stitched interior folded back over his shoulders, so from behind he looked like like he walked out of a Tim Burton movie, like this black and white kind of stripe and the and the white shirt with the white bow tie. I loved that that was he was dapper as fuck, and I think that's pretty much where my appreciation ends. They do something in this episode
drives me crazy. And it's not just this, it's not your main just this episode. We heard a lot when people, Okay, anytime characters on screen are speaking another language and they're speaking English, we just assume we're hearing German or French or whatever. When they throw in words from that language, it makes me want to slap everybody in the head, you know, like you're speaking German, do not say gaunt in him? Do not? Oh I can tell you somebody that does that quite a bit, mister Tarantino.
There were so many times in Hate Fill eight where I was just like, what are you doing? Drives me a resolutely nuts when they do that, And it's always just because the writer knows those three phrases, so they're gonna they're gonna throw it in. You know. Also, the Nazis in this we know they're bad because they opened doors just by machine gunning them. What was the need do we need that we know their Nazis? They don't have to be and wouldn't have everyone in the room been killed. I know they're
vampires, but like they would have been hit or something. All of these things are problems, including that initial Nazi machine gunner. I know, vol if that guy who's that is the best part of this entire episode. He had a beanie. It looked like the Nazi helmet didn't fit on the top of his head, like it was just that, I don't know. It
looked like Spanky from the art. The thing that bothered me the most is Dracula in this seems to have some rule that they can't start eating before midnight, which makes no sense, right, So, like, I guess it's the idea like he doesn't have his power yet, like he can't attack and slaughter all the idiots and he's just waiting. That's fine, okay, if that's the vampire rule you want to come up with, great, But in the waiting for those last few seconds to tick, the Nazi scumbag makes him
Hyle Hitler, and he does it. Dracula niles, no one, okay, maybe Mina Hark, not even Satan, no man. He's a He's an entity into himself. There is no nation. Butt Dracula. That offended me to my core. I didn't understand it, Like that would have been the moment where Dracula stood up and killed him, Like that's you don't give, you don't make well, you know what, I honestly even to take umbridge with something else. The devil is not mocked. Dracula is not the
devil, right, but the title would are we then? Is Dracula the devil? Per the title of the story, hey man, interchangeable in the minds of nineteen seventy people everywhere. Yeah, I just it's weird that the characterization of Dracula. Dracula would not hyle Hitler unless Dracula was Hitler and was expecting people to hile Dracula. And that's what I you know, I like this. You know, what did you do during the war, Grandpa? Like? I like that, you know, And I it's quaint. I
like vampires killing Nazis. Who doesn't anyway, the Nazis great, but you know, particularly if they're going to be vamped upon. But really, if they wanted to just do this as a blackout sketch, it just should have been like, you know, a Nazi like motorcade, like deciding which road to go down and go and a peasants saying, don't go there, it's spookytown, and them going, we don't care about your spookiness. And then often then they get killed by vampires. That's it. Did either of you
read the short story? No, I feel like I'm letting you down this week, father them alone doesn't matter. You know, nine times out of ten they're almost exact. And this one is very quick and benefits from the fact that we can't see the fact that it's obviously count Dracula in a castle. That's the way. That's the literary way that you have to do it, like that would be the way to do it, Like you don't. In my mind, the way to do this is don't make it obvious it's
Dracula, like right, Why why give it away immediately? Even the short story gives it away because like, first of all, here's the difference in the short story. Okay, the Nazis are not there seeking out this group of terrorist you know, anti Nazi uh, you know, soldiers at all. They just want it because it's a strategic compound. So they show up and and the dracular character lets them in, and and and he's like,
oh, of course you'd want this. It's absolutely strategic. He's like as nice as he is in the thing and as accommodating as he is in the thing. But they're not barking orders and like like trying to let him know how great the Nazis are or anything. They're just like, okay, listen, we're going to be taking this place and you need to stand over there, and you know, And they have a conversation where he's like, oh, I haven't had visitors here for a long time. Englishman named Jonathan Harker,
like, and that's halfway. That's the halfway point in the story. Like, okay, now, if you didn't know here it is, but just handle very brief briefly as this should have been, and skillfully as this should have been as well. I don't know who the blackout sketches involved the universal monsters, though that trend continues. You guys, notice that, Yeah, it's true. We've had a Frankenstein, We've had a Phantom of the Opera, We've had now a straight up Dracula named in Everything, Ductor Jackal
and mister Hyde. Yeah, yeah, we haven't Hadstein Baby, we had no Mummy yet no mummy and we had an invisible man. Yet it feels like we should that's pretty cheap to do. Yeah, we checked in it all the time. Yeah yeah, Jack Laird would be down for that. I'm surprised nobody's exam I'm surprised he suggested. And then go film twenty minutes and immediately put it into an episode without any afterthoughts. All right, well, then we're gonna play a preview of the next episode and we'll be right
back to wrap up. First selection a painting suggesting solitude, or at least solemnity, as viewed during the midnight hour. It tells a tale of two young people caught inexorably in a recurring nightmare with a finale on the jeweltring side. Our painting, with the somewhat familiar face is called Midnight Never Ends, and this is the Night Gallery. There's something rather remarkable in the scope of
imagination, peculiar to children. They project and dream and fantasize with beauty and simplicity and faith in amount of that somehow eludes this as we grow older. This is Brenda, and Brenda has a playmate. It comes to her in part because of loneliness, and what I wish for you is that you never
get that lonely. That's right. On the next Midnight viewing, we'll be taking a look at season two, episode seven, which is broken into another just two segments, Midnight Never Ends and Brenda, one of which features a character so grating that I killed myself. Oh my God and Heaven. I'm
so fucking ready. You don't even understand. I mean, you clearly do, but the audience is not prepared for the level of vitriol that will probably be thrown at one half of the next episode, well until my resurrection. Where can people find you, Mike White? You can find me and all kinds of great stuff over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. It's a great site. Everybody needs to go there right now, What about you, Chris Stashu Weetingwaymedia
dot com. That's the place where you can listen to this show and other shows that we've been on, like Father Malone's Dark Destinations, Mike White's The Projection Booth, and my The Culture Cast. And if you can't find a show to listen to on there, you know, maybe just don't. I don't know where I was going with that. One never mind. Yeah, if it's not on there, you can't. If it's not on there, should you be listening to it at all? Yeah, that's it. I
have a new show. It's called Astounding Tales of the public Domain. It's on weirdingwaymedia dot com. Go there, Go check out all of our shows over there, and thank you for joining us here at midnight viewing. The gallery is now closed.