User Reviews

An elderly man desperately seeks an ancient manuscript in order to destroy the last testament of a scholarly relative whose 'eyeless' spirit appears to be haunting him. Despite the obvious limitations one associates with the early days of television, this emerges a rather splendid and memorable chiller (adapted from M.R. James' awkwardly-titled "The Tractate Middoth"); the introduction of female characters into the mix, however, is regrettable. The short is bookended by the interpolations of an eccentric host in the "Inner Sanctum" mold and a young Leslie Nielsen proves to be a most adequate leading man here. Frankly, I have never heard of this particular TV series but I must say that "You Tube" can be a veritable treasure trove when it comes to such fare which, apart from their obvious future historical importance, also serve to store for posterity's sake the pre-stardom efforts of many a famous Hollywood personality!

I recently discovered a couple old anthology series for free download at archive.org--"Tales of Tomorrow" and "Lights Out". "Tales of Tomorrow" is clearly the better of the two series and few episodes are poor ones. Unfortunately, while "Lights Out" was made by the prestige network of the time (NBC) and "Tales of Tomorrow" the poor upstart network (ABC), more money didn't translate to a better show. While BOTH shows are not available in their entirety (because networks often filmed live and kept no backups or destroyed them soon after re-airing them), enough exist of both to be able to assert that the ABC show was clearly better. However, occasionally "Lights Out" hit a home run--and "The Lost Will of Dr. Rant" (as well as "Dead Man's Coat") are clearly exceptional shows.

The Lost Will of Dr. Rant" is based on the story "The Tractate Middoth" by M.R. James and stars stars Leslie Nielsen. The plot is a bit hard to believe but it worked very well here. An old man comes into the library and demands a copy of some obscure Hebrew text about the Talmud. However, when the librarian (Nielsen) goes to fetch it, another old man has the book and won't give it to him. When Nielsen later tries again to get the book, the same old man is holding it--only this time he sees the man's face and the man is DEAD!! What is going on?! See the show and find out for yourself--as I'd hate to spoil the suspense. Overall, this is a very cleverly written and well-acted show--and really was quite original. Well worth seeing.