Rod Serling: Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. We offer up hopefully-salutary, possibly-educative, but certainly a few terrifying little items in this, the mausoleum of the malignant. An art house full of bogies, elves, pixies, bad fairies, and a few demonic inhabitants, all put together for your pleasure and titillation in what we call: the Night Gallery.
Lindemann's Catch
Written by: Rod Serling
Directed by: Jeff Corey
Rod Serling: Painting number one; having to do with fishermen, and what they fish for. Or, more specifically in this case, a fisherman and what he wasn't fishing for. What appeared in his net one afternoon defies logic, reason, and belief. But, there it was: Lindemann's Catch.
In a New England seaport, experienced fishing boat captain Hendrick Lindemann (Stuart Whitman), exhausted from his latest outing at sea, enters the local bar to drink away his lonely and miserable existence. After assaulting wannabe soothsayer Abner Suggs (Harry Townes) for offering to read his palm and storming back to his ship, Lindemann discovers that his crew have caught a real-life mermaid, who feebly reaches out to him and proves that she is capable of human intellect. The fisherman originally has plans to parade her around town as a sideshow attraction, but he gradually falls in love with the mermaid and is desperate to save her from dying, even accepting a suspicious potion from Suggs that he alleges will give her human legs.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Situation: Did Abner genuinely not realize that his potion would switch the mermaid's halves? Or was he fully aware of what it would do to her and gave it to Lindemann as revenge for being assaulted? It's not so ambiguous in the short story, where it's explicitly the latter option.
- Bathtub Mermaid: Some of the townsfolk get the idea to throw the mermaid in a tank and pay people from across New England to see her for money.
- Bittersweet Ending: The mermaid escapes back to the sea, but Lindemann drowns in trying to swim after her, and we don't even know if she'll be able to survive with her new appearance.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Abner, as Lindemann remembers his talk of potions earlier in the segment and looks for him to give the mermaid legs.
- Chromosome Casting: The only female character present is the mermaid.
- Covers Always Lie: The segment's painting indicates that the supernatural element will be a giant sea serpent. There's actually just a mermaid that Lindemann falls in love with.
- Determinator: Lindemann refuses to let the mermaid return to the sea because of his love for her, and is destined to do anything to turn her into a full-on woman.
- Entitled to Have You: As the mermaid tries to crawl back into the sea early in the segment, Lindemann stops her, as he declares that she was caught on his boat and he therefore owns her.
- Establishing Character Moment: Abner sitting at his table and reading his Tarot cards, predicting what they say about a ship's travels to Boston. Lindemann's occurs a moment later, demonstrating how bitter and surly his constant loneliness has left him by assaulting Abner when he tries reading his palm for booze money.
- Exact Words: Abner sells Lindemann a potion that will give the mermaid human legs. It does this by moving the fish part to the upper half of her body.
- Feet-First Introduction: How the mermaid's swapped halves are revealed.
- Foreshadowing: Abner notes that he sells potions to Lindemann in the opening scene in the tavern, to which he punches him out. After wanting to give the mermaid legs, he remembers Abner's talk of potions and eagerly seeks the wannabe soothsayer's services.
- The Heartless: Everyone in town views Lindemann as a heartless bastard who takes his loneliness-fueled aggression out on those smaller and weaker than him, so the sight of him genuinely falling in love with the mermaid leaves them absolutely flummoxed and greatly concerned.
- Here We Go Again!: As Abner attends Lindemann's memorial service, he eagerly asks the doctor if he'd like a potion or a palm reading, indicating that he's learned nothing and is still hankering for booze money.
- Mermaid Problem: A driving factor behind the segment's conflict. Lindemann has fallen in love with a mermaid, the first form of affection he's publicly shown, and is given a potion by Abner that will make her have legs like a woman. Unfortunately, the potion accomplishes this by swapping the human and fish halves.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The other men in town and aboard Lindemann's ship realize that things aren't normal when they discover him actually expressing affection and positivity to the captured mermaid.
- The Quiet One: The mermaid is heard breathing heavily and raspily moaning, but she has no dialogue, due to a combination of her lack of knoweldge on human language and her weakened state from being out of water for so long. Despite this, Lindemann tells the local doctor that she's able to communicate with him in her own unique way, the pair keeping themselves comfortable and relaxed in this way.
- Shout-Out: With his beard, surly demeanor, and dead-serious intent on fulfilling his goals no matter the cost, Captain Lindemann easily brings Captain Ahab to mind.
- The Stoic: Lindemann's crew and the other fishermen in town universally recognize him because of his unemotional behavior and his tendency to inflict violence. The sight of him verbally expressing his love to the mermaid his men captured utterly shocks them.
- Time Skip: The night after Lindemann's men catch the mermaid, the segment moves forward three days, where the captain hasn't been out to sea since he started falling for her.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Though we learn that Lindemann drowned in his pursuit of the now-inverted mermaid, we don't know whether the mermaid herself will be able to survive with her swapped appearance.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Before Lindemann falls in love with the mermaid, he's appalled and horrified at its presence, deeming it to be far too horrific for Davy Jones himself to conjure. His men aren't that discriminatory, but they aspire to put her in a tank and pay "bumpkins" from around the state to gawk at her.
The Late Mr. Peddington
Based on the short story "The Flat Male" by Frank Sisk.
Teleplay by: Jack Larid
Directed by: Jeff Corey
Rod Serling: A dead man splattered on a concrete walk. Not the most appetizing of scenes, and not the pleasantest of stories. But if you're interested remotely in homey homicides, this may be your bag. We call it: The Late Mr. Peddington.
Funeral director Thaddeus Conway (Harry Morgan) greets his new client Cora Peddington (Kim Hunter), who explains that she wants the cheapest funeral possible for her late husband Adam, who accidentally fell from their apartment balcony after it was removed for repairs. She claims that the cheap funeral is due to the fact that Adam arranged a prenup where she has to live on his $2,000 life insurance policy for two years before inheriting the rest of his fortune, though the phrasing in her requests indicate that there may be a reason for Adam's death besides clumsiness.
Tropes
- Asshole Victim: If Cora's claims are accurate, Adam was highly deserving of plummeting to his death and receiving the cheapest funeral possible.
- Awful Wedded Life: Cora views her marriage this way, with Adam spending the last 20 years being far too focused on his money and business to pay attention to her.
- Black Comedy: The segment is played for it, as Thaddeus is too absorbed in the quality of his funeral home and the determination of it being able to handle any service to notice that Cora's tone and the details she gives him rather blatantly hinting that she's going to kill Adam and subject him to a dirt-poor funeral to spite him.
- The Cameo: A young Randy Quaid plays John, Thaddeus' embalmer.
- Could Say It, But...: Cora's phrasing about her married life and the cheap funeral she demands for Adam, which spells out everything about her plan while Thaddeus and John are left none the wiser.
- Due to the Dead: Sharply averted for Cora, as she plans a particularly cheap funeral for Adam, the rich husband she murders, shoving the body in a basket without any cosmetic work or change of attire.
- Foreshadowing: The phrasing Cora partakes in during her recollections of Adam's occupation and history eagerly hint at the twist ending, including her mention that the nature of his death could be seen as "precipitated", how he’s been home so little lately, and how his will contains a double-indemnity clause in the case of accidental death, bringing Adam's life insurance up to $4,000.
- Irony: Cora invokes it regarding Adam's funeral. Since he was far more obsessed with money than her, she insists that the service be dirt cheap as a final flipped bird to him.
- Jump Scare: The sudden cut to Adam plummeting to his death and screaming his lungs out after Thaddeus is busy explaining what he thinks were Cora's motives to John could be considered an early example.
- Karma Houdini: Cora gets away with killing her husband and subjecting him to a dirt cheap funeral.
- Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe, this is the reason why Thaddeus doesn't bring up any of the ominous notes in Cora's speech to him and John, as putting on a service as cheap as Adam's will prove that his company can handle any request, sending customers flocking to them.
- The Reveal: The sudden final shot of Adam plummeting 10 stories to his doom reveals that Cora was describing the funeral she wanted him to have before she killed him.
- Spot the Thread: Thaddeus takes a moment to note the contradictions in Cora's backstory about Adam, asking why she wants to give him a cheap funeral when it's obvious he had more than enough money to make it more grand. He's fooled easily by her lies about the prenup Adam arranged that keeps her from inheriting his fortune, though.
- Unwitting Pawn: Thaddeus and John play right into Cora's hands, letting her rich and unloving husband Adam have the cheapest funeral they can manage to put on.
- Woman Scorned: Cora, who is driven to murder Adam because he loves his money more than her.
- Wham Shot: The abrupt cut to Adam plummeting to his death after stepping on the empty space where his balcony would normally be, revealing that Cora hadn't actually killed him yet.
A Feast of Blood
Based on the short story "The Fur Brooch" by Dulcie Gray.
Teleplay by: Stanford Whitmore
Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc
Rod Serling: In the general, generic area of costume jewelry, note girl and note expression. Obviously, a lady much disturbed by whatever little bauble she has recently been the recipient of. Said sentence improperly ending on a preposition, but this story ending on a much more deadly note than that. We call it: A Feast of Blood.
In spite of her hopes that her younger suitor John Coolridge will propose to her, Sheila Gray (Sondra Locke) reluctantly travels with her dapper and persistent admirer Henry Malloy (Norman Lloyd) to a fancy restaurant for a dinner date. Before she leaves, Henry gives Sheila's mother (Hermione Baddeley) a brooch resembling a mouse with red eyes that she puts on her shirt, which has an attachment that will keep it from falling off. After the date, Sheila pulls away when Henry attempts to force kisses upon her, prompting her to get out of the car and walk home. As she walks, however, Henry's brooch comes to life, grows into a large rodent-like monster, and through matters most bloodily, ensures that Sheila doesn't get too far.
Tropes
- The Bad Guy Wins: Henry gets away with killing Sheila through his monstrous brooch, and he ends the episode preparing to do the same thing to another woman in a bar.
- Blatant Lies: Henry's promise to Mrs. Gray that he'll take good care of Sheila.
- Bloody Horror: A rarity for this series, as the segment gives the viewers clear, graphic shots of Sheila's dead body after the brooch monster is done with her.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: It's quite clear that if Sheila's unseen younger suitor John just manned up and proposed to her, she wouldn't have gone on that fatal date with Henry.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Henry gives his dates brooches that transform into large rat-like monsters that gorily kill them after they reject his romantic advances.
- Downer Ending: Sheila ends up bloodily dismembered by Henry's brooch, and he's free to continue killing every other woman he ends up courting.
- Establishing Character Moment: The opening of the segment has the bored Sheila looking at the warped glass in her mirror, then expecting the bouquet of flowers Henry has her mother send her, right at the time she expects him to do so.
- Evil Wears Black: Henry wears a black suit for his date with Sheila. A date that ends with the brooch he gave to her tearing her apart.
- Exact Words: Thanks to the brooch, Henry's declaration of how John will never live to marry Sheila comes to pass.
- Fatal Attractor: Henry, who gives monstrous, ratlike creatures to women who tickle his fancy, then activates them to dismember said women when they refuse to go along with his advances.
- Foreshadowing: As he demonstrates the brooch he gifted to Sheila, the young woman notes that he's talking to it as if it were alive.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Averted, as we can see the results of the brooch tearing Sheila apart quite clearly.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Henry is shown to be a serial killer who butchers the women he dates with magic brooches that grow into carnivorous rat-like creatures.
- Here We Go Again!: Henry ends the episode victorious, and is seen preparing to give a brooch to his next victim.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Sheila's mother thinks of Henry as a well-meaning man who poses no threat to her daughter in spite of his stalker tendencies. She knows that Sheila wants to marry John, but advises her to go out with him anyway solely because "it isn't official yet", as well as Henry's hefty insurance keeping the family content in financial matters. She's the one who even pins the brooch that kills Sheila on her shirt, highlighting how unintelligent she is.
- Irony: Mrs. Gray's declaration to Sheila about how "good things come in small packages" is proven to be unequivocally false once she gets the brooch.
- I Warned You: Henry gives Sheila this treatment when she storms out of the car and insults him before deciding to walk home, where the brooch comes alive and dismembers her.
- May–December Romance: Sheila is a young woman who wants nothing to do with the middle-aged Henry, which is why she is given his fatal brooch.
- Properly Paranoid: Sheila notes that there's "something not quite right" about Henry as her mother expounds on his good traits, and given what he gives her at the end of the date, she was right all along.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: The brooch Henry gives Sheila grows to gigantic size as it mauls her to death. Frankie describes it as a giant hedgehog when he glimpses it crossing the road and heading into the woods.
- Stalker with a Crush: Sheila's reactions to Henry's presence and persistence in going on dates with Sheila establish him to be one, with her outright saying that she hates him and that they've already been on four or five unhappy dates in the past. Let's not forget that she's killed by the brooch he gives her when she announces that she wants nothing more to do with him.
- Those Two Guys: Frankie and Gippo, the singing, bicycling drunks who find Sheila's dead body. The former also glimpses the brooch that killed her, which he assumes is a giant hedgehog, crossing the street and fleeing into the woods, which the latter dismisses as his drunken mind playing tricks on him.
- Too Dumb to Live: Mrs. Gray, who sends Sheila on a date with a stalker/serial killer she outright tells her she hates just because her other love interest John hasn't officially proposed to her.
- Wham Shot: Sheila suddenly gains cuts on her fingers as her walk home continues, revealing that the brooch has already come to life.
- You Dirty Rat!: Henry's brooches transform into rat-like monsters that murder the women he gifts them to.
