User Reviews

Thriller is, without doubt, the finest anthology series I have ever seen. It is superior to The Twilight Zone (all three incarnations), Tales Of The Unexpected, Tales From The Darkside and Alfred Hitchcock Presents - all fine programmes which are also worthy of your attention.

It is difficult to exactly define Thriller's appeal, suffice to say, that the atmosphere created never fails to enthrall the viewer and make him/her feel an impending sense of unease at how the 65 minutes will unfold.

'Lady Killer', the first story, premiered on 14 April 1973. It is a finely-crafted tale of Paul Tanner, an unscrupulous con-man, who ensnares a somewhat naive American lady, Jenny Frifth into his affections. Within a few days the happy couple are experiencing married bliss and Paul's plan, which involves murdering his spouse and claiming the life assurance money, is gradually coming together. He is ably assisted in his machinations by his existing wife Toni, whose existence he conveniently doesn't mention to Jenny.

Robert Powell makes his first of two Thriller appearances as the steely Tanner, a ruthless and conniving trickster while Barbara Feldon and Linda Thorson handle the two female leads with customary style. T P McKenna makes a brief appearance as Jack Hardisty, a old friend of Paul's.

An impressive opener which will keep the viewer's interest right until the final frame.

I can't tell you how happy that I am, I really lucked out coming across this series. I've seen three now, and plan to watch as many as I can find. Someone at the top of the stairs was creepy good, and Lady killer was just good, so good. I was thinking that if they ever remake this, they should ask James Scott to play Paul (EJ DiMera on Days of our lives). James is such a talented actor, and of course has brought Days of our lives the paltry ratings it still manages to drag in. The show is nothing without that 6'5", talented and beautiful man. Anyhow, I kept thinking that I'd seen Jenny someplace, didn't realize she was the girl from Get Smart. Robert Powell was amazing, and of course, he got what he had coming!

So yeah this first episode let us introduced the situation without being too explicit ( the main character on the phone ,preparing something). So we immediately know that man dont marry his new woman by pure love but he is planning something with what involve money and the fact that he is still married with another woman and their goal is clearly money and get away with murder or something . But everything go pretty wrong : with that man who finally get killed because he asked too much money , and the accident will lead to an unexpected event : the death of his real wife .so everyone lose on that story : nobody will earn money , the woman is pretty traumatised with the news that she needed to be killed and the fact that she survived

i found it quite interesting from the beginning for two reasons : where that lies , plan will lead the main character ? Is he gonna success ? And whats really the plan of this man for his wife ?

So we follow the story with curiosity , to know the plan of this man and how he will tricks his new wife to get his plan done . A nice first episode and i really enjoyed it for what it hide and what we slowly discover from small gestures and gifts of the main character and of course the horrible truth and the final confrontation who will put an end to this episode .

This was the very first in Brian Clemens's superb "Thriller" anthology series and it is one of the very best outings. Jenny (Barbara Feldon), a shy American librarian, holidaying in the UK, is befriended by Paul (Robert Powell), an urbane, smooth-talking Englishman. They get married. It appears she has struck very lucky, but appearances are deceptive. We can see that he is plotting with someone behind her back. It transpires that he is already married to Toni (Linda Thorson) who is presumed dead, but is actually very much alive. Paul is planning to kill Jenny, and Toni is in on the plans and very much behind them... This episode is distinguished by three especially fine performances by Robert Powell, Barbara Feldon & Linda Thorson in the key roles. It also sees an excellent cameo by T.P. McKenna as a friend of Paul's who knows his intentions and wants to blackmail him. The show starts as it meant to go on with a disturbing mood skilfully created. This isn't as frightening as some other episodes but is none the worse for that. An excellent effort.

Lady Killer ('The Death Policy' in the USA - which I like better) is the first episode of a classic British anthology called 'Thriller!' The series ran from 1973 to 1976. (Not to be confused with an American series called 'Thriller' featuring Boris Karloff.)

A gaunt and rail thin, yet impossibly good looking, Robert Powell is first rate as the quick thinking con man who plans to murder his new wife to pick up the insurance money.

Barbara Feldon (known in the USA as Connie Baker in 'Get Smart') was flown in to be the victim. She was still sexy and attractive at 40!

Linda Thorson returns to the small screen, four years after her stint on 'The Avengers'. Hard working Thomas Patrick McKenna also appears as an old friend to complicate plans. Finally, Mary Wimbush is a treat as the whiskey-stealing house cleaner! (She was Prudie in the 1977 (better!) version of Poldark and Aunt Agatha in 'Jeeves and Wooster with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.)

The story itself should have been a simple one, but it wouldn't be very interesting if that were the case, right?

SPOILERS below this warning!

Paul and his 'real' wife Toni have been planning this for years... Paul meets a Toni-look-alike, woos her, 'marries' her, pushes her off the cliff in front of a nosy neighbor and picks up the insurance money for which they have been paying for, for three years so as to avoid too much scrutiny. It's a good plan, too. Toni has fainting fits and goes to her doctor to get treatment for them. What could go wrong, right?

Well, plenty! First off, the new 'wife' Jenny, hires a cleaner to keep her company during the day in the big house. Then a dodgy business partner from Paul's past shows up and demands half of the action. Finally; it turns out that Jenny is a millionaire and Paul doesn't want to push her off the cliff anymore. Pretty hectic, eh?

They say love is blind and in Jenny's case it's definitely true. Despite pretty compelling evidence that her new 'husband' is a bad egg, she continually believes his hurried lies and inventive excuses. It's one of those where you shout "He's behind you!" at the TV, as the victim looks over her shoulder in the opposite direction!

It's a gloriously ludicrous yarn, yet the cast and crew make it devilishly compelling to watch. Powell is particularly chilling as the affable but deadly con man. In one delightful scene, he carries on a bizarre conversation downstairs with a man he's just killed while his 'wife' is upstairs reading a book! Brilliant stuff.

All the nasty villains all get what's coming to them and the punchline at the end is particularly rewarding.

A great start to a fantastic series.

Commentary: I don't know that hiring American actors simply to make British TV more attractive for the American market is a good idea. None of my anecdotal evidence over the years suggests that it is. I lived in America for a long time (I'm English) and one of the reasons that Americans watch British TV is because of how entirely 'British' it is. I don't think they want their murder mysteries contaminated with American TV celebrities... it takes away from the purity of watching something special on PBS! Just my thoughts.

I can remember "Thriller" so well, the eerie music, the odd, telescopic credits, so when I found it on Amazon I didn't hesitate to buy it. There is always the possibility that viewing after many years (37) will prove disappointing but so far that is not the case.

Often popular American stars mingled with the British ones (it was an English series) to make it more appealing to the American market. "Lady Killer" was the first of series one. Robert Powell was an extremely popular British actor at that time - he was in all the teenage magazines and the star of "Doomwatch". In this story he is joined by Linda Thorsen (the actress you don't remember from "The Avengers") and Barbara Feldon (from "Get Smart").

Paul Tanner (Powell) sweeps shy Jenny Frifth (Feldon) off her feet, but from the start things are not what they seem. He spends a lot of time on the phone plotting and planning - the surprise being it is his supposed deceased wife Toni (Thorsen) who he is conversing with. Their complicated plan involves finding a girl who looks similar to Toni, for Paul to marry her, for her to have an unfortunate accident and then for Paul and Toni (who has remained in hiding) to collect the insurance money and skip the country. The twist is when, after their marriage, Jenny informs Paul that she is an heiress, worth over $1,000,000!!! - a bit more than the paltry insurance money. How the problem is solved is completely unexpected but very satisfactory. A combination of Rebecca/Gaslight/Vertigo, it is highly recommended.

A sort of suspenseful story, but with a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge plot hole.

It really is ridiculous.

Stupid, even.

For his original plan to work, why did Paul have to go through the trouble of wooing - and marrying - Barbara Feldon??

This made no sense. Paul's real wife - Linda Thorson - could simply have stuck around and pretended to have the fainting spells, the dizzy spells, the blackouts, the doctor's visits, etc., and THEN, when they were good and ready, Paul could simply have abducted a lookalike and tossed her off the cliff.