I've started a watch of the anthology series. I know that CMM did this boxset a few years back. I can remember the series airing back in the 70s but I don't think I ever saw an episode. My first reaction was surprise at the running times as episodes seem to be about 70 minutes (albeit with the US titles sequnces thrown in as an extra) which I guess meant that they occupied 90-minute slots on ITV.
Lady Killer is quite a fun little start to the series with the familiar set up enlivened by some twists exactly when the narrative needed them and a rare example of a sock-based murder.
File It Under Fear was one which favourably impressed me, also the one with Diana Dors as a sinister nurse....'Feed a cold, starve a fever...'
An Echo of Theresa and The Colour of Blood, are IMHO excellent episodes. I remember Screamer being interesting as well. I think those three are the ones I remember very well. I believe Echo was later on turned into a stage play.
I have seen all 43 episodes, maybe a decade ago, I tucked a list inside the case (to jog my memory if I wanted to watch something good), lets looks at what I rated
THE BEST:
An Echo of Theresea
The Colour of Blood
Screamer
A Killer in Every Corner
GOOD STUFF
Lady Killer
The Eyes Have It
If it's a Man, Hang Up
The Crazy Kill
The Next Voice You See
Death in Deep Water
POOR
One Deadly Owner
Who Killed Lamb? (unintentionally hilarious in places)
And the witchcraft one set in a village (don't remember the name)
Only a Scream Away has newly-wed Hayley Mills being persecuted by someone from her past. I'm starting to think that I'm going to have the same reaction to every episode that Terence Feely writes - not a bad idea but not sufficiently developed to be satisfactory. In this one, the ending just seems to go on and on.
Once the Killing Starts has wife-murderer Patrick O’Neal becoming increasingly paranoid after receiving blackmail letters. I guessed the twist very early but the story is structured well enough that it maintained my interest and O'Neal is always very watchable.
The Eyes Have It, sort of like the film Suddenly only set in an institution for the blind. It's Terence Feely on scripting duties again and, again, the execution feels rather weak and the story overstretched.
Spell of Evil. Now I see what CMM was saying above. This Terence Feely-scripted effort about businessman Edward de Souza being persecuted by witch Diane Cilento is a bit of a stinker with an extremely flimsy story failing to generate any interest over an excruciatingly overlong running time.Good only for unintentional laughs.
I've rattled through a few more episodes and I'm very surprised at how high the quality is.
Someone at the Top of the Stairs is another supernatural episode, this time set in a horrible boarding house where awful things are happening to the tenants. Splendid stuff.
An Echo of Theresa. Unlike CMM I enjoyed this change of pace episode and would happily have watched further adventures of Dinsdale Landen's character. Admittedly, it does rather feel like a pilot for such a series rather than a proper episode of Thriller.
The Colour of Blood. I guessed the twist fairly early but I still enjoyed it as it's a good one. I've just watched an episode of Rising Damp where the plot hinges on a mix-up over mistaken identify involving the wearing of flowers to recognise people by so obviously that kind of thing happens more often than I imagined.
Murder in Mind is the weakest episode for me so far. It seems very over-extended as far as its plot goes and it's padded out with a lot of comedy that seems to have strayed in from a different script.
A Place to Die, in which the series embraces folk horror. The set up is tremendous, the execution rather less so, perhaps because Clemens didn't write this one. Good, but not the classic that it might have been.
File It Under Fear. This one is brilliant and might easily have been adapted into a theatrical feature. It hurts not a bit that the lovely Jan Francis has an important role and the setting of an early-'70s public library is pure catnip for me - I loved the proper wooden shelves, the cool pillars, the hardback thrillers ... The story itself is full of atmosphere as a community is terrorised by a killer of young women. Loved it.
Possession, in which Clemens is hot with the supernatural ... 😃 I liked this one a lot but - and I suspect this may turn out to be typical of this series - I don't want to say too much because of spoilers. Quite creepy at times and with another clever twist.
While looking for something else I came across these snippets from the old BHF board:
Posted 15 January 2007 - 05:24 PM
Still ploughing through the Complete 'Thriller' set. Last night watched the wretched 'Echo of Theresa'. Hope it doesn't get any worse, most episodes have been entertaining at least, (best being Charles Gray's episode) this one was a drag.
and
Posted 18 January 2007 - 01:42 PM
'Thriller' episode 'Spell Of Evil'. Oh dear. Seems that Clemens isn't so hot with the supernatural.
I was entertained by most of the episodes - inevitably there are a few stinkers, but they are that, few. I think Wabs, our sometime Radio Times delivery man, saw the whole series, too - making an inventory of decanters along the way, as I recall.