Airdates: August 26 - Sept. 7, 1966
THE PLOT
Bill Malloy meets with Burke once more, to offer him Roger Collins "on a silver platter," in exchange for Burke's promise to stop his move against the rest of the Collins family. He tells Burke to meet him at Roger's office at eleven o'clock that night, at which time Malloy will play his "hole card," to wrap up the entire sordid mess in one go.
However, Malloy forgot a certain saying about the best-laid plans. Before the night is through, there will be a death in Collinsport!
THOUGHTS
Though there a few episodes of pure filler (Episode 48 being a particular offender), this disc is mostly engrossing. There was nothing really compelling me to watch more than one episode at a time, and it took me a few weeks to watch my way through it. But with rare exceptions, every time I sat down to watch an episode, my attention was held.
In my last review, I observed that some of the Gothic atmosphere was creeping back into the show. That continues with this disc. The episodes set at the house have quite a bit of atmosphere, with the shows set during the night in which Caroline and Vicki see the dead body having some effectively eerie moments.
Cast & Characters
One thought regarding the other characters' reactions to David. Of course, David genuinely is a despicable little monster at this point in the series. But when he complains that his father hates him, everyone rejects that as ridiculous... no matter how many times we directly see Roger expressing his loathing for David! It's not exactly helping David to pretend to him that his father feels differently. David knows better, and he knows that Vicki and Elizabeth know better. So every time Vicki or Elizabeth tell the boy that his father doesn't hate him, they're only proving to David that they can't be trusted to tell him the truth. Vicki is, incidentally, an appallingly bad teacher from the glimpses we get of her teaching David his "lessons." Reciting facts to a child from a book is a sure way to make that child tune out. It's certainly no way to make him learn. And any time he happens to get interested ("Could you transport a dead body down a river?"), Vicki shuts him down - rather than follow up on that interest. Sure, transporting a dead body is ghoulish. But if David's interested in that example, then it's a valid example to use within a legitimate lesson.
Moving away from Vicki and David to characters who are actually interesting, let's turn our attention to Bill Malloy. Frank Schofield is terrific as Malloy bullies, cajoles, and threatens Roger and Sam to make sure that they come to his meeting. The ever-steady Schofield has done a fantastic job from his first appearance at portraying a man whose loyalty to the Collins family, specifically Elizabeth, is so strong that he is willing to sacrifice just about anything for their interests. He lays it out for Roger that, as he sees it, the choice is between Roger's welfare and the family's. To see the previously taciturn, unflappable Malloy practically spitting and growling at Roger and Sam is very effective, and Schofield's performance is a big part of what makes it work so well.
Schofield makes a strong impression, which helps to sell it when Elizabeth labels Malloy "the most reliable man (she's) ever known." Roger remains far from reliable - and for a character who's basically the villain of the piece, he remains a largely stupid villain. He tells lies that are easily penetrated, insists on calling and visiting Sam while at the same time insisting to Sam that it's important they not be seen together (um, step one genius - Stop spending so much time around him), and ping-pongs between icy cool and irrational outbursts. Despite his campier tendencies, Louis Edmonds actually is doing a fine job of playing Roger, and even at investing Roger with intelligence on a scene-by-scene basis. But the character, as written, makes too many contradictory and downright stupid decisions to come across as anything but a moron by this point.
Final Note
Though the series is not hooking me the way it was in Discs 2 and 3 of the first collection, it does continue to be enjoyable. I'm only sitting down to it here and there, as is obvious from the rate of these reviews - two to three episodes per week seems to have settled into being the average. But when I watch it, I usually enjoy it, often enough to carry me through the occasional episode of dull filler. The increasing atmosphere is a good sign, and the disappearance and evident demise of one of the major supporting players seems likely to make for some intriguing plot turns as the show moves forward.
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