Rod Serling: The name of this place that you've come in here accidentally out of the rain, is the Night Gallery. We deal in paint, pigment, light and shadow, realism, surrealism, impressionism, and ghost stories.
The Different Ones
Written by: Rod Serling
Directed by: John Meredyth Lucas
Rod Serling: Item number one, over there. It could be a gentleman sitting in an electric chair, but it isn't. What it depicts is, in a sense, a method of execution that we humans reserve for other humans who happen to be dissimilar to us. You're about to look under that hood, and meet firsthand, one of: The Different Ones, tonight's first excursion into the realm of the unusual.
Sometime in the far off future, Paul Koch (Dana Andrews) tries in vain to figure out what to do for his miserable son Victor (Jon Korkes), who suffers from a congenital deformity that has disfigured his face, marking him as a lifelong laughing stock. Placing a call to the government, Paul learns that human society doesn't seem to be able to assimilate Victor, as there are no group homes or institutions for him to stay in and he doesn’t want to resort to a state-approved mercy killing. At the last minute, Paul learns of an inter-planetary exchange program, so Paul decides to send his son to live on the planet Boreon, where he turns out to be much happier.
Tropes
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The segment is set in an undisclosed period in the future where student exchanges between alien worlds are common.
- Contrived Coincidence: The phone call that the government official gets about the interplanetary student exchange comes out of nowhere, allowing for Victor to finally live somewhere where he's not only respected, but adored.
- Dramatic Unmask: Victor tearfully storms into the living room during his father's video call to rip off his hood and reveal the "freak" underneath, causing the operator to look away in shock.
- Establishing Character Moment: The opening scene features Victor wearing his hood as he sits alone, the taunts of his ugliness spoken by the children outside emanating through the open window. Paul barges over to the window and firmly tells the kids to leave before he calls the police, establishing his strong love for his "different" son.
- Good Parents: Paul treasures his son in spite of his deformity, and clearly doesn't want to have him put out of his misery. He eagerly accepts the exchange trip to Boreon in the hopes that Victor will be happy on a new planet, and unknown to him, he's right.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Victor has been the target of taunts and mockery for as long as he can remember, and over his father's video call with the government officials, he breaks down in tears, pleading to be accepted as a person instead of a "mistake"; a one-of-a-kind freak to be put in a jar of alcohol or chained up in a horror show.
- Informed Attractiveness: The hideously deformed Victor is signed into an exchange program with a student from the planet Boreon. When he arrives, Victor finds that the other transfer student is being sent to Earth because he looks like a normal human, while the Boreonians look exactly like Victor. What's more, he's soon met by a group of girls who all think he's cute.
- Innocent Aliens: Boreon is said to be greatly underpopulated, but the inhabitants who are already there are kindly and generous. The government official Paul talks to notes that they accept transfers from any planet in any system, with no restrictions of any kind as to who can travel, and financing the entire operation to actually send their new transfers to the planet.
- Kids Are Cruel: They've been cruel to Victor all his life, even taunting him through the open window in the first scene alone.
- Mercy Kill: It's apparently legal in this future world, so long as it's approved and sanctioned by the government.
- Papa Wolf: Paul is greatly protective of his son, yelling at the children making fun of him outside to leave before he calls the police.
- Planet of Steves: Victor discovers that everyone on Boreon looks exactly like him, and the girls there find him irresistibly handsome.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Victor and the Boreonians basically look like people with wrinkly skin and melted wax on their heads.
- Stock Footage: Footage of a rocket takeoff is used to illustrate Victor traveling to Boreon.
- The Stoic: Though he's greatly pained by the treatment he gets on the inside, Victor spends the opening scene remaining as silent and steady as a rock, letting the kids out the window taunt him relentlessly.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: Victor discovers that everyone on Boreon looks just like him, allowing him to finally be accepted. What's more, minutes after he arrives, he's met by a group of female students who think he looks devilishly attractive.
- Video Phone: Paul contacts the government through a monitor on his wall, dialing their number via a dial pad on his chair.
Tell David...
Original story by: Penelope Wallace
Teleplay by: Gerald Sanford
Directed by: Jeff Corey
Rod Serling: Jealousy is what we normally paint green, and jealousy provides a springboard of this particular painting. It offers up the bottom line of what can happen to human beings when trust is wiped out by suspicion. At this point, it ceases to be just a kind of titillating tale of human comedy. It becomes what it is: a horror story. Our painting is called: Tell David...
After driving through a strong thunderstorm, Ann Bolt (Sandra Dee) stops at a futuristic house when she gets lost. She is welcomed inside and warmly greeted by Pat Blessington (Jenny Sullivan) and her husband David (Jared Martin), who invite her in for some pleasant conversation. During one of her later visits, Ann shares her feelings that her husband Tony may be seeing another woman, prompting David to warn her about jealousy, noting that his mother killed his father and later killed herself in prison on the night of his fourth birthday. The series of events leading up to said confrontation begin to occur at the Bolt house, as Ann soon realizes that David Blessington is actually her son David Bolt from twenty years into the future, hinting that he's trying to stop her from going down her murderous path.
Tropes
- 20 Minutes into the Future: David's adult self's futuristic house holds all sorts of technological marvels, like TV phones and an electronic map.
- 555: Ann's home phone number is 555-7436. When she tries calling it on the Blessingtons' video phone, it's unable to make the connection because the line's busy.
- Asshole Victim: Tony, who terrifies Ann with his old hag disguise when she comes home, and later cheats on her with Ivan, which prompts her to shoot him dead.
- Awful Wedded Life: Ann is terrorized by a disguised Tony for being out late, despite the fact that he's late all the time to potentially avoid her. The near-end of the segment has her learning that Tony's cheating on her with Ivan the nanny and kills him.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: On the night of David's fourth birthday, Ann discovers her husband Tony cheating on her with Ivan and kills him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ann goes down the path that leads to her husband's murder and her suicide in prison, but she's content that her son, only four years old in her time, will grow up to be the wonderful and pleasant young man he is in the future, as well as the fact that he forgives her for the act.
- Cassandra Truth: Ann tells Tony about her trips to the future, but Tony thinks she's delirious under her medication after fainting.
- Chekhov's Gun: The pack of Pacific Cigarettes that the Blessingtons give to Ann as a souvenir of her first visit. Not only has she never heard of the brand or expected the tarless, no-nicotine taste, but she finally confirms her trips to the future were real by reading the pack's date of manufacture: June 7, 1989. She goes to show the pack to Tony, but finds him and Ivan getting intimate on the couch, whereupon she snaps and kills him.
- Could Say It, But...: Ann comes to the conclusion that Future!David knew she was his mother all along, and his phrasing to her during her second visit was his way of warning her what she would do so she could stop it.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Future!David views Ann's murder of Tony and her suicide as this, but ever since he was adopted by a distant relative of Tony, he's largely put all of that behind him.
- Distinguishing Mark: Future!David has a scar on his thumb from when he tried slicing his birthday cake by himself. Ann is already curious about the similarity Mr. Blessington had with her son, but she arrives home just after Child!David cuts his thumb slicing the cake, fueling her theories.
- Driven to Suicide: The older David recalls how his mother killed herself in prison after she killed his father, which comes to pass at the end of the segment.
- Face Death with Dignity: Realizing that she's fulfilled the destiny David was trying to keep her from following, Ann shows no fear or sorrow towards her impending suicide, as she's deliriously glad that David has forgiven her and grown into a respectable young man.
- Faint in Shock: It's hinted that Ann did this after Tony reveals he has a cousin named Jane Blessington, who she asks to take care of David after she kills Tony and herself.
- Fatal Flaw: Ann's jealousy, which drives her to kill Tony and herself, once she's in prison.
- Foreshadowing:
- The implications of the Bolts' marriage being strained are first noted when Ann comes home from the Blessingtons' house. Tony jumps out of the corner dressed like an old hag and tears into her for being late, saying that he had to make dinner and ended up burning it. Ann isn't very happy with what she sees as a portrayal of how Tony sees her, and she straight up kills him after Future!David's exposition reveals that he's cheating on her with his past self's nanny.
- Ivan also appears to lean in for a kiss with Tony after he promises Ann that he'll never enter a relationship with another woman, only to turn away from her.
- Future Music: The Blessingtons listen to this kind of music for entertainment, and Ann's car radio picks it up as she enters the future. From what we can hear, it has a mix of electronic and Middle-Eastern instruments that appears to be more jumbled, atonal noise instead of actual, rhythmic music. Since she can't get it in her home and it sounds horrible from her point of view, Ann thinks that it must come from some kind of underground radio station.
- Gadgeteer Genius: David's future self is said to be a lover of gadgets, working on a futuristic map and radio when Ann comes over to the house.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ann brings this up in regards to how the other woman visiting the Blessingtons looked at David, and how Pat didn't seem to mind, saying that she'd be jealous if Tony did the same thing. It's there we learn that David has a very low opinion on jealousy, outright calling it "the old green-eyed monster" for how it ruined his mother's life.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Ann gets lost and ends up finding the Blessington house on such a night. When she returns to the present day, the storm suddenly disappears, getting her to think that something may be going on with her trips to the future family.
- Karma Houdini: Tony is shot dead, but Ivan, the adulterous nanny to his four-year-old son, runs away as he keels over, not getting blown away herself.
- Kid from the Future: Subverted with David. He's already been born, but his mother Ann somehow finds herself traveling 20 years into the future, where he's grown up.
- Meaningful Name: With the family name of Blessington, how could Pat and David not be total saints?
- Model Couple: The Blessingtons are tried and true saints, willing to invite Ann in for some coffee and pleasant company after she gets lost in the stormy night. Her future son also sympathizes with her frustration at the rumors of her husband Tony fooling around with another woman, revealing what happened to his mother in front of the mother in question.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Overlapping with the below-mentioned time loop, David's exposition about how his mother got wrapped up in jealousy, killed her cheating husband, and killed herself before she stood trial resonates with Ann, who does some digging and ultimately puts that series of events in motion, even asking Tony's cousin Jane to take care of David after she kills herself.
- Small Role, Big Impact: David's nanny Ivan, who Tony is having an affair with, chronologically kickstarts the plot, despite having only three scenes.
- Stable Time Loop: Ann travels to a futuristic house, where the future version of David tells her that his mother killed his father on his fourth birthday. Not suspecting the truth, she goes back home, only to learn more about the circumstances behind the murder-suicide on her next visit. Deciding what choice to make, she tells Jane to take care of David before she discovers Tony having an affair with David's nanny Ivan and kills him in cold blood, just as David described.
- Video Phone: David's future self is shown to own some of these, which Ann uses to try and call her house in the 1970s.
- Wham Line:
- When Pat refers to her husband as "David" for the first time in Ann's presence.
- After little David cuts his thumb, Tony tells Ann that he wasn't home because he was taking a cousin she's never met out for a drink. A cousin named "Jane Blessington".
- Worth It: Ann firmly believes this after she succumbs to insanity, but before she kills herself in prison, as she learns that her future son forgave her for killing his father and grew into a fine young man.
Logoda's Heads
Original story by: August Derleth
Teleplay by: Robert Bloch
Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc
Rod Serling: Item number three in the Night Gallery. You probably recognize this quaint figurine. The dead eyes, the sewn lips, the kind of thing that usually infests nightmares. And that happens to be precisely what it is: a nightmare of the first order. Its title: Logoda's Heads.
In an African country sometime in the past, Major Crosby (Patrick Macnee) of the English Army takes his new American recruit, Henley (Tim Matheson), searching for the truth about what happened to the young man's anthropologist brother. Kyro (Denise Nicholas), a young woman from a nearby village, claims to know what happened to Henley's brother. The brother had evidently earned the ire of Logoda (Brock Peters), a malevolent witch doctor who is said to own a collection of enchanted shrunken heads, who killed him when he got too suspicious about where the heads came from. Kyro insists that Henley and the Major take her back to their base when Logoda threatens her with a curse for spilling the truth, but as the men discover, she has her own set of skills to defend herself, and perhaps grant some justice to the murdered brother in the process.
Tropes
- Big Bad: Logoda, the villainous witch doctor who killed Henley's brother.
- The Dreaded: Logoda is this to the residents of the nearby village, as they bring him offerings of food in the day so he can perform his magic for them at night.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Emba, the witch who assists Logoda, is horrified when she discovers his body torn apart by the shrunken heads.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Witch doctor Logoda has a notable baritone voice. A given for any Brock Peters role.
- He Knows Too Much: It's hinted that Logoda drowned Henley's brother in the nearby river because he was getting too curious about where his shrunken head collection came from.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Logoda ends up gruesomely dismembered by the shrunken heads he's amassed, as Kyro animated them and commanded them to kill him to avenge Henley's brother.
- Ignored Expert: Henley and Crosby learn that everyone who the former's brother encountered told him not to visit Logoda, but he felt he had to in the name of his studies.
- Jungle Drums: Fitting for the segment's African setting, they're heard constantly, even playing over Rod Serling's opening narration. They intensify when the titular shrunken heads are revealed, emphasizing the powerful magic the heads possess. Logoda plays a slower rhythm on his own drums as he prepares to conjure his magic.
- Jungles Sound Like Kookaburras: Like so many other films and TV shows have done, kookaburra calls can erroneously be heard in the exterior scenes of the African jungle, while they're native to Australia.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: The end of the segment has Henley and Crosby discovering Logoda's body torn apart. The culprit turns out to be Kyro, also a witch doctor, who animated the shrunken heads Logoda collected and commanded them to kill him to avenge Henley's brother, who Logoda unjustly murdered.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Henley's brother, who was murdered by Logoda, and prompted Henley himself to fly to Africa to look for him.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: There are a few scenes where Logoda, Emba, and Sergeant Imo the interpreter exchange dialogue in Swahili, with little translation for the audience.
- Shrunken Head: Logoda has a vast collection of them, hinted to have been amassed from the corpses of enemies he cursed to die, and is said to have enchanted them to speak. Kyro, who also studies voodoo, enchants them to kill Logoda to avenge Henley's brother, who Logoda killed.
- Title Drop: Kyro quotes the title when discussing where Henley's brother went with him and Crosby.
- Witch Doctor: Logoda, who collects shrunken heads and previously killed Henley's brother. Kyro is revealed to be one as well, and she enchants Logoda's head collection to kill him as revenge for Henley's brother's death.
- You No Take Candle: Logoda is prone to speaking in this manner to address Crosby and Henley.
