Honourable Mentions from the Night Gallery

The Night Gallery had many very short segments, some too short to warrant a review even though they featured a vampire. Here is a collection of several of those shorts.

A Midnight Visit to the Neighbourhood Blood Bank

A girl (Journey Laird) lies sleeping, with the window open, when a crap bat flies towards her domicile. The bat flies into the room and then becomes a vampire (Victor Buono) – though to be fair he wasn’t the svelte vampire of popular gothic novels.

He approaches the bed, leans over the girl, ready to take a bite. “I gave at the office,” she murmurs and he apologises – striking her from his list. This was great fun, just a minute or two of gothic indulgence and silliness.

The episode's imdb page is here.

Smile Please

A sea storms below a castle and a man (Cesare Danova) leads a photographer (Lindsay Wagner) into the basement of the castle. He tells her that when they are sleeping they are harmless and she is excited as she will get the world’s first photograph of a vampire. However, the casket is empty. Not to worry, she’ll still get her picture. As he smiles her guide reveals fangs.

Again very short with some great gypsyesque music and the bonus of Lindsay Wagner – my first ever crush. The episode's imdb page is here.

Miss Lovecraft Sent Me

Betsy (Sue Lyon) has been sent to the house by Miss Lovecraft from the babysitting Agency. The father (Joseph Campanella) answers the door. His wife has already left – when it is a full moon there just is no holding her back, he says. He is in the process of getting the son ready for bed but stops to stoke the fire.

Betsy realises that he has no reflection and, when he goes upstairs, she is sure she can hear a dog. The bookshelf has strange books upon it with weird and wonderful titles. She hears the father tell the son that he’ll eat her all up and when she hears him putting slippers on, and they get to the third, she drops her radio and runs off into the night.

Interesting enough as a very short but it doesn’t really have a punch line as such. The episode's imdb page is here.

A Matter of Semantics

This sees a nurse (E J Peaker) at work in a blood bank. It is the end of her day, getting to 7PM, but a new client has just arrived. He is Count Dracula (Cesar Romero) and she is impressed that a foreign visitor, a dignitary no less, would come to the clinic . She notices that he keeps looking at the plasma fridge.

She assumes he is worried by the equipment and tells him not to be. It only involves a pint. Not enough, says the Count, he needs at least three but she says it is dangerous to take so much. The Count is confused, it is a blood bank and he doesn’t want to give, he wants to take out a loan. It is, of course, all a matter of semantics.

This was a pleasing little short and, of course, it was a joy to see Cesar Romero as the Count. The episode's imdb page is here.

;)Q