Back in the day, even before the time of my childhood, in the dark pages of history forgotten to the modern age, there was horror on television cast in black and white shadows that was usually disrupted by bouts of static interference only curable by a slam on the side of the box and twisting rods in odd directions and weird geometry (while the best parts of the show got missed…) There were programs like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and One Step Beyond.
One of the best, dedicated to horror (unlike the others that always injected a regular shot of sci-fi,) was Boris Karloff’s grim goodie, Thriller. The show sadly met its demise after only two seasons, too closely competitive with The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
These classics used skillful storytelling, masterful acting, and creepy lighting to create their spooky atmosphere instead of blood and shock tactics, and they still present a safe (if somewhat twisted) family viewing opportunity. Not that the kids won’t be watching some of these from under the covers and checking under the bed for the rest of their years.
Fog-enshrouded graveyards, creaking mansions… Each tale of the haunted black and white ambience of this gothic horror anthology listed here is a terrifying gem hiding in the dark, cobweb-laden corners of the past. (Though many of the 67 shows are crime drama.) A pinch of salt (and iron) and a little suspension of disbelief will pay off big, because the low budget doesn’t take away from the eeriness of the dank cellars and abandoned houses in this well written, well acted show. So, allow The Curator of The Dark Museum to present:
The Top 10 Scariest Episodes of Karloff’s Thriller!
Thriller
1960-1962Total # Episodes: 67
10. Masquerade [S2:E06]
(by Henry Kuttner, Starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Tom Poston, & John Carradine) A couple are stranded, find shelter over at the Frankenstein place, and discover the family ‘s vampire curse. Humorous, and a favorite!
9. Well Of Doom [S1:E23]
A man and his wife are locked in a remote chapel by the evil ghost of a man his father wronged.
8. The Weird Tailor [S2:E04]
When one man’s son dies in an occult accident, he enlists the help of a poverty-stricken tailor (and his lonely wife) to make a very special suit.
7. Parasite Mansion [S1:E30]
A woman’s car breaks down and she is locked in the upstairs bedroom by a twisted hillbilly family.
6. The Return Of Andrew Bentley [S2:E12]
(by August Derleth, screenplay by Richard Matheson) A sorcerer wills his considerable estate to his nephew who must promise never to leave, because another sorcerer wants the body!
5. The Hollow Watcher [S2:E20]
(Warren Oates, Denver Pyle) When a grifter kills her husband’s father in the Old West, a vengeful spirit who watches over the valley takes offense.
4. La Strega [S2:E17]
(Ursula Andress) A girl tries to escape the clutches of a conjure woman.
3. The Hungry Glass [S1:E16]
(by Robert Bloch – William Shatner) A couple buys an old mansion that has no mirrors. But there are shadows in all the glass, and a locked room in the attic.
2. Pigeons From Hell [S1:E36]
(by Robert E. Howard) Two men spend the night in an abandoned house.
1. The Incredible Doktor Markesan [S2:E22]
(by August Derleth – Boris Karloff) A young couple goes to visit their uncle, but instead of hospitality, are locked in their rooms at night. Uncle Konrad Markesan has made a remarkable scientific discovery.
Just Starting Out: Actors of the 1970s
Thriller is great fun for folks like me who grew up watching the sitcoms of the 1970s! You’ll recognize more than a few stars (looking a whole lot younger): from Gilligan’s Island, The Professor in “The Hungry Glass” (along with Elly May Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies,) and Mrs. Howell in “The Grim Reaper”.
“The Purple Room” boasts Oscar Goldman from The Six Million Dollar Man, Alfred, Batman’s butler, and the ever-looming Psycho House.
My favorite episode has to be “Masquerade”that stars Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha from Bewitched) and Tom Poston, (the caretaker from Newhart), which is funny because Darren (Dick York) from Bewitched was in the episode “The Incredible Doctor Markesan” and we see the mousey Mr. Peterson (John Fiedler) from the original Newhart Show in “A Wig for Miss Devore”!
In “Late Date”, The Chief from Get Smart makes an appearance, and the episode “The Prisoner in the Mirror” stars a particularly captivating Marion Ross, who played Marion Cunningham, the mom on Happy Days!
Most armchair critics of Thriller seem to agree there is a major gap between the average short-story crime drama episodes and the “good episodes” that really resonate with creativity and tend to stick with you when you slowly climb the stairs to bed alone in a dark house. So we continue our list (now in ascending order) with…
The 25 Best Episodes of Thriller!
Terror in Teakwood [S1:E33]
(Guy Rolfe) A variation on The Hands of Orlac. A world-class pianist suddenly gains the ability to play a piece that could be played by no one but its composer because of his freakishly large hand-span.
God Grante That She Lye Still [S2:E05]
A beautiful witch curses those who condemned her to burn until the end of her bloodline. Her descendant is visited by her spirit. “First fire, then death; so shall it be, until my body is returned to me.”
The Purple Room [S1:E07]
(Rip Torn) A man is suspicious after inheriting a haunted mansion; if he chooses not to live in the house for a year after spending the first night there, the valuable estate falls to his cousin and her husband.
Dialogues With Death [S2:E11]
(Boris Karloff) Two tales of Terror: In the first, the old morgue caretaker talks to the spirits of the bodies in cold storage and some nosy reporters learn something not meant for the living. Then a couple on the run hide at a withering plantation where a crazy aunt thinks they are dead… so she locks them in the family crypt!
Papa Benjamin [S1:E26]
A band leader uses voodoo drums in his act after he is warned not to. (Also adapted in: Old Time Radio 1948 Escape! & 1965 Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors.)
Dark Legacy [S1:35]
One of the world’s greatest stage musicians leaves his magic book, the secret to his impossible feats, to one successor whose ambition drives him to summon Astaroth! (The dog dies.)
The Prisoner in the Mirror [S1:E34]
Count Cagliostro the magician traps himself and his reluctant lover within a mirror. A modern man becomes infatuated with the woman, and tries to set the prisoners free.
A Wig for Miss Devore [S2:19]
(by August Derleth) A witch is hung. Her wig, the product of witchcraft created strand by strand from the hair of her victims, falls to an aging actress who wants only to be admired again. But there is a terrible price.
The Cheaters [S1:E15]
(by Robert Bloch) This story follows a pair of glasses marked “veritas” through a series of vignettes in which the wearers are able to see the truth of any situation.
The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk [S2:13]
(John Carradine) A woman who runs a prize pig farm places an ad for help in a lonely hearts magazine, but the drifters who show up all seem to disappear. Two hobos are used as bait to test the theory that Mrs. Hawk is really Circe, the Greek sorceress. [Adapted from: Margaret St. Clair
The Guillotine [S2:E02]
If an executioner dies, the next man in line to die is set free. A woman set on preventing her lover’s sentence poisons the local executioner. Will he make his appointment on time? The suspense!
The Storm [S2:08]
It was a dark and stormy night. A woman arrives home to a dark house and begins to fear there might be a prowler. Then she finds a body in the basement. If only her husband would get home soon. [Based on “The Storm” by McKnight Malmar]
The Grim Reaper [S1:E37]
(by Robert Bloch – William Shatner) A mystery writer buys a cursed painting, then finds herself caught up in her very own murder mystery. Fun performance by Shatner.
He sketches at night in graveyards. Last month he did a portrait at the morgue. His model was a corpse. He called the painting “Still Life”!
The Closed Cabinet [S2:E10]
A gothic romance fit for a novel emblazoned with a woman in a gown running from a mist-enshrouded mansion, a single light glowing from the attic window. In medieval times, a noblewoman kills her abusive husband, and in retaliation, her mother-in-law curses the family that each generation there will be a Mervyn that shall bring shame and death to the family… until innocent blood touches the original dagger stained with her son’s blood!
In modern day, Lucy and George Mervyn invite Eve (who George’s brother Alan has a thing for,) to the family estate. Eve demands to stay in the haunted bedroom where there is a locked cabinet. She sees a ghost! During a tour by Alan, they discover a hidden tomb in the dungeon (a real dungeon!) That night during a phantom thunderstorm, a forlorn female ghost leads Eve to the cabinet, in a vision, helps her open the secret panel… and removes a blood-stained knife! Reliving the events of the fateful night hundreds of years before, Eve struggles not to stab the man in the bed! (Directed by Ida Lupino.)
Late Date [S1:27]
A man tries to cover for his brother when he kills his cheating wife in a fit of rage. A tension-filled episode with a great ending… until the lousy tacked on resolution that the studio required!
The Crime-Comedy Trilogy
Three popular episodes starring Edward Andrews with a twisted humorous slant.
Cousin Tundifer [S2:E21]
With a rich uncle who has one foot in the grave and a house that can transport you to the 1890s, what would you do if your uncle fell in with a gold-digging woman who is far too young for him? A murder-comedy with the absolute best introduction by Karloff.
A Third For Pinochle [S2:E09]
A hen-pecked husband has the perfect plan to murder his wealthy virago of a wife, but he doesn’t realize that the nosy neighbors, whom he counts on as witnesses, have secrets of their own!
A Good Imagination [S1:E31]
The best of the comedy episodes, a book dealer does away with his cheating wife’s lovers in inventive ways that he learns from his books. It all goes well until he tries a classic bit from Poe.
25 episodes doesn’t even begin to cover the eerie wickedness of a show as good as Thriller. So here’s what the rest of the episodes look like! Join me as I watch along with…
The Complete Episodes of Boris Karloff’s Thriller!
The Watcher [S1:E08]
A man believes it his moral duty to kill “corruptors,” and stalks a young couple he believes are acting inappropriately. An exercise in tension and suspense. (Not to be confused with the episode named “The Hollow Watcher” in Season 2) (Adapted from: Dolores Hitchens
The Poisoner [S1:E17]
A tale filled with tension. Edward Griffith is surprised to discover not only is his new bride not wealthy, but Mom and sister have come to stay! He has no choice but to set things right with a little extra something added from his “Borgia ring” to Mother’s beloved wine. (When he realizes what his wife has grifted him, Griffith destroys his own painting of her in a rage, making the trademark Thriller off-kilter cross-hatch lines through her portrait!) Then when Uncle George refuses to sign over the inheritance that he is custodian for, but that is truly Griffith’s money, he too must fall.
But sister Helen has seen it… and cries murder! Suddenly her wheelchair crashes backwards down the stairs! We are encouraged to despise our protagonist as he pushes a cat from its perch and we learn that he has made poor choices, living extravagantly in an attempt to make a name for himself and accruing massive debt. He is a dead-beat. Though the poisoner must face his due, at the end I still felt for him.
The story is very loosely based on real life author and artist Thomas Griffiths Wainwright, jailed in 1837… for bank fraud.
Choose a Victim [S1:E19]
(Billy Barty cameo) It’s the same motif found in so many other mystery/noir stories where a scoundrel targets a wealthy woman for her money, then the plot twist is that she was the real cold-hearted killer, just using the poor sap to commit murder on her behalf. There is a secondary twist here, but the angle is that if no one’s clean, there’s no real victim. Even poor Uncle Phillip is a jerk that you really want to see dead. I guess the real victim is Faye, on the boardwalk, who’s only crime was loving Harry. (You might recognize Susan Oliver, who played the love interest in the Star Trek episode “The Menagerie”.)
Hay Fork and Bill Hook [S1:E20]
I’m almost certain this episode influenced The Wicker Man. A city investigator from Scotland Yard arrives in the small hamlet of Dark Woods to solve a murder. Turns out no one in town considers it murder if you’re ridding the countryside of witches. The detective’s wife sees a black dog, an omen of evil that also signifies that she may have a certain light behind her eyes… the burning flame of witchcraft. The local constable’s mansion is missing wicker laundry hampers that end up burning on the hill. Will the investigator’s wife fill the next one? The town’s dirty secrets are uncovered, resulting in more killing as the black dog appears, to play Lassie and lead the detective to his kidnapped wife.
I must note that the Black Shuck here is not a big imposing wolf, Rottweiler, or Great Dane, like The Hound of The Baskervilles, but instead, a cute little terrier who is not even all black. But for spooky back-woods folk horror and stone circles on the moors styled creepy atmosphere, this episode has to top the list. (And yes, that is Alfred from Batman.)
The Merriweather File [S1:E21]
A crime episode. Inspector Luger (from Barney Miller) plays a lawyer who is trying to defend his next door neighbor and friend from a murder charge. Meanwhile, someone is breaking into the house next door and trying to murder his client’s wife by turning on the gas! It has twists and turns as the secrets begin to come out. We begin to suspect so many possibilities, and then the end scene adds one more twist that makes it all come together in a very different light. Not scary, but as a crime thriller it delivers! (Adapted from Lionel White. Starring James Gregory.)
Trio For Terror [S1:E25]
An anthology of three stories directed by Ida Lupino:
“The Extra Passenger” (adapted from August Derleth writing as Stephen Grendon), the most interesting of the three adaptations is about an unscrupulous man who falls to his lover’s pressure to kill his wealthy uncle: an occultist that uses a rooster as a familiar. He is confronted by a peculiar stranger in his private train berth after the murder.
“A Terribly Strange Bed” (adapted from Wilkie Collins), which is a rather unimaginitive tale about a gambler who is almost relieved of his winnings by a canopy bed that collapses to suffocate the drunkard passed out in it. They changed the ending to something much more entertaining!
“The Mask of Medusa” (also done on the radio show Mystery in the Air, adapted from Nelson Bond,) Is about the Leyton Strangler, who happens to dodge the police by running inside the back door of a wax museum. The museum is run by a man who collects serial killers… after showing off to them the spoils of his years as a Grecian archaeologist. Nothing here that will stand up to the Twilight Zone, but a lot of fun.
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper [S1:E28]
(by Robert Bloch) Jack the Ripper’s crimes are reconstructed in modern-day Chicago. A predictable but sufficiently moody whodunit. (Yes, this is the story that inspired the “Wolf in The Fold” episode of Star Trek.)
Devil’s Ticket [S1:29]
(by Robert Bloch) A Faustian tale of a starving artist who only pawns his soul for a ninety-day loan.
Mr. George [S1:E32]
A sweet, Twilight Zone-style story about a family who repeatedly attempts to kill a little girl for her inheritance… and a guardian spirit who just won’t let that happen.
What Beckoning Ghost [S2:E01]
A man and his wife’s sister plot to drive a concert pianist insane to inherit her wealth. They succeed! But… who is that playing the piano? Is it a double cross or a real ghost? (Directed by Ida Lupino) [Adapted from: Douglas G. Browne]
The Premature Burial [S2:E03]
(Boris Karloff) A new interpretation of Poe’s classic. Karloff is a doctor who watches as his cataleptic friend is allowed to be buried alive by a woman who is in love with another man, “killed by torture” for his wealth.
Last of the Sommervilles [S2:E07]
Rutherford shows up at his Aunt Celia’s mansion for a visit… and to ask her for a business loan that he graciously wants to cut her in on. He finds his cousin already living there, waiting for the wealthy coot to kick the bucket. Why not shorten the wait? Ursula convinces Rutherford to choke her. Karloff appears in this episode as Celia’s nerdy doctor and friend on the night the treacherous two enact their plot. Ursula is quite the schemer. She has the night planned to the minute. But later, they are thrown for a loop when a letter shows up saying I know what you did: “Murder is not cheap nor silent.” Blackmail! Was it Farnham? The episode ends pleasantly with the win going to the most treacherously evil villain! Dr. Farnham appears in the epilogue while Karloff appeals to our sense of righteousness, claiming that poetic justice has been served. But that was outside the narrative, so it doesn’t count! (Directed by Ida Lupino)
Very Attractive Family, A [S2:E15]
The Farrington family, Dick and Marian and Uncle Bert, are indeed quite charismatic. And deadly. They run double-indemnity scam after scam, making their spouses’ deaths appear to be accidents, living high until the cash runs out again. They take in their niece, Jinny, the daughter of one of their ex-spouses who stands to inherit a fortune on her eighteenth birthday… unless she dies first, in which case her guardians would become rich. So begins the gaslighting.
Poison mushrooms for dinner are a foiled plot, so the conspirators themselves begin to produce crazy hallucinations that drive Jinny to hang herself. There are alibis to prove she was unstable. The ending isn’t really imaginative, but the story about this Addams family of killers and murder schemes is somehow eerily fulfilling. Plus the house from Psycho! [Adapted from Robert Arthur]
The Bride That Died Twice [S2:E25]
A tear-jerker Romeo and Juliet send-up set during the Mexican Civil War. A hardened and abusive soldier blackmails an aging general into marrying his daughter. She fakes her death once, but after they are caught… tragedy awaits. Well acted. An truly excellent episode if you want romantic heartbreak instead of horror.
I am looking for a movie on a island and the husband operates on his wife trying to keep her young but the operation goes bad. But their is a lot of women that dress up like Jane in tarzan but their is a boat crash. And at the end the wife helps the people to escape from the island. I don’t know if boris karloff is the doctor or if it’s peter cushing or vincent price. This movie was around 1950 to 1969 if it helps to tell me the name of this chiller movie back then.
I am just getting back into these because they were so scary when I was a kid. My grandmother and I would watch them together, and I am reminded that after the episode mentioning Jack the Ripper, my grandmother said, “He’s not a fictional character. He actually existed.” My next question was, “What happened to him?” My dad said, “We don’t know. He was never caught.”….It was hard to sleep that night!!!
looking for the episode where grandpa dies and billy (billie??) is told buy father not to lety anyone in….later in the night there is a rapping at his window and when he goes to the windon he hears his grandpa asking to be let in. What little billy does not know is that his grandpa (played by karloff) is a vampite. Does anyone know the title of this short film?
I think you may be remembering one of the vignettes from Black Sabbath, a 1963 movie starring Boris Karloff, called “The Wurdulak”!
There’s. An episode of THRILLER that I recall seeing when it was first broadcast where a young girl is sitting by herself on the other side of a mirror. Creeped me right out. Does anyone recognize this scene? And do you know which episode? I’ve not been able to find it. It’s not a scene in the Shatner/mirrors episode.
“A Good Imagination” is an episode you want to like. Edward Andrews is great as a psychopath. But the story is infuriating and requires too much Dumb Water to be drunk by the characters.
First of all, the description is wrong when it says Andrews kills his wife’s lovers. Only one of the people he killed was cheating with his wife. The other two were his wife’s brother and the Private Eye the brother hired to look into the death of the first guy. A second lover is later driven crazy, but not killed.
What makes the episode infuriating is that his wife suspects that Andrews killed the first guy, and tells her brother about it. Then, when her brother and his private eye both end up dead a few days later, she somehow STOPS suspecting Andrews, and goes out into the middle of nowhere with him, where she’s almost killed too. That’s totally insane. If she suspected that her husband had killed her lover, she’d wouldn’t have hung around, she’d have gotten away.
The Private Eye tried to blackmail Andrews, but the brother did nothing wrong whatsoever. She could not possibly have not suspected that Andrews did it, when she suspected him of killing the lover.
“Fun performance by Shatner.”
By Shatner?? Shatner is good in The Grim Reaper, sure. But Natalie Schafer (not mentioned in the review) goes to town, and totally steals the show in this one. Shatner is actually totally non-descript until about 37 minutes in, when he finally starts having some fun.
I’m looking for an episode which may be in any of the following: Thriller, Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits or such.
Story about a woman (this is the ending part) coming back home, and the door opens (a wreath in front of door) and she’s told that she doesn’t live there and the house was sold 20 years ago. Yet, it had only been hours since she left the house.
Hello there, the story sounds like Split Second by Daphne DuMaurier – it concerns exaclty what you describe. I did not know there had ever been a television version.
For me, the very best episodes were “The Hungry Glass” and “Paradise Mansion” . Superb writing, acting, direction and photography. Even watching them today I get goosebumps. I wish this series had stayed on for many years, but from what I read Hitchcock asked the head of Universal who was a friend to kill Boris Karloff Presents Thriller so Hitch’s series could continued unabated. Apparently, that worked.
My all time favorite is A Wig for Miss Devore……suspense, dread galore. Scared me so much when younger and I still remember the drama! I’m so glad we can watch them now.
Referred to this program by the great Stephen King, who referred to it as the finest television horror anthology show. I love to watch these shows after dark on YouTube, and scream every time the eerie “Thriller” bumpers appear with the creepy music and spider webs appearing one by one. I agree with Mr. King: I’ve never seen a better horror anthology, with many of the same stars in the rough as The Twilight Zone.