This is the 1969 TV movie that served as the pilot for Rod Serling’s Night Gallery TV series. It’s probably best known today for the “Eyes” episode — simply because it stars Joan Crawford and was made by a then-unknown director named Steven Spielberg. I’m not exactly one of Spielberg’s most ardent admirers, but there’s no denying that he brought more directorial flair to his episode than did the other two directors to theirs. That said, I really prefer Boris Sagal’s “The Cemetery,” which benefits from the campy villainy of Roddy McDowall (wearing some prime 1960s fashions) and the commanding dignity of Ossie Davis. Overall though, the three films are going to rise or fall on your fondness — or lack thereof — for the particular writing style of Rod Serling. Though these shows lack the sometimes cringe-worthy morals of Serling’s Twilight Zone episodes, these are very much of a piece as concerns their facile use of irony and “surprise” endings that you can see coming from a mile away. It’s largely a matter of taste, but these things just never seem nearly as clever as they apparently believe themselves to be — and there were better episodes in the series than this first set of three. But it does capture the essence of the show for the uninitiated.
The Hendersonville Film Society will show Night Gallery Sunday, Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.
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