"The Poisoner," the show's first Gothic entry, is greatly enhanced by the presence of Murray Matheson in a rare leading role (later to be seen in "Letter to a Lover"), which brings to mind Dennis Price from the 1949 classic "Kind Hearts and Coronets." He portrays Thomas Edward Griffith, a 19th-century artist and author accustomed to the finer things, determined to live life to the fullest. Chagrined to learn that his lovely bride (Sarah Marshall, daughter of Herbert) actually possesses no wealth at all, he is even more displeased by the unwelcome intrusion of her insufferable drunkard mother (Brenda Forbes) and wheelchair-bound sister (Jennifer Raine). Adding to his woes is his miserly uncle George (Maurice Dallimore), who refuses to divulge a cent to his debt-ridden nephew due to a carelessly forged check. Amazingly, even after turning to poison from his Borgia ring as the solution to any problem, our erudite and composed hero never once loses audience sympathy (well, maybe once) as he flaunts the wheels of justice even under threat by the mob. Robert Hardy Andrews loosely based his script on the real-life crimes of Thomas Griffiths Wainwright (1794-1847), who actually was sentenced to life imprisonment in Australia, posthumously defended by no less a wit than Oscar Wilde. Director Herschel Daughterty would go on to do 14 more episodes, Murray Matheson a vastly underrated actor who did memorable turns on THE TWILIGHT ZONE ("Five Characters in Search of an Exit") and KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER ("Horror in the Heights," as the expert who divulges the Hindu legend of the Rakshasa.) Beautiful Sarah Marshall would reappear in "God Grante That She Lye Stille," but is best remembered by genre enthusiasts for her appearance in the STAR TREK episode "The Deadly Years." David Frankham would return in three additional entries: "Prisoner in the Mirror," "The Closed Cabinet," and "The Specialists." Seen in the later episode "The Closed Cabinet," Jennifer Raine was the stepdaughter of former Karloff co-star Alan Napier ("The Strange Door"), and also the mother of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY's Brian Forster.