Twilight Zone occasionally ventured into the world of pure Horror, with varying results. Unfortunately, the season 4 hour episodes were very difficult to sustain in the TZ-style format---regardless of their subject matter---and "The New Exhibit" suffers as a result.
The NBC Boris Karloff-hosted "THRILLER" really knew how to do this sort of story right, and Robert Bloch's "Waxworks" with the great Oscar Homolka (telecast in January, 1962) TOTALLY blows "The New Exhibit" out of the water in terms of its sheer, creeping, claustrophobic terror ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents" also did a similarly-themed half hour, "The Waxwork" in 1959, which is about as slack and lacking in atmosphere as the TZ effort).
I appreciate the fact that the Beaumont/Sohl TZ script attempts something different--that the action takes place OUTSIDE of the museum, but the mundane and depressingly ordinary setting of Senescu's suburban bungalow basement really kills the potential for real tension and atmosphere for me. Martin Balsam, an actor I rarely find totally convincing, gives a very solid performance of a most interesting-- but annoyingly whiny and obsessed---character. His gradual slipping into the realm of madness is subtly and effectively portrayed, as he endlessly fusses over the wear-and-tear of the dummies' clothing, etc.
Maggie Mahoney is saddled with a very one-dimensional, typical 60's housewife role, and William Mims is as unlikable and phony as your average used-car salesman.
Maybe it's just my own particular bias, but I find it very difficult to get past the trappings of its mid-60's suburban setting to experience anything more than a yawn throughout most of "The New Exhibit". Thriller's "WAXWORKS" just looms too large for me, making it impossible to judge "New Exhibit" on its own merits.
The only real interest for me is observing the actors who play the wax murderers.
Seeing closeups of David Bond (the 3 Stooge's hypnotist "The Great Svengarlic") as Jack the Ripper, that goof-ball MIlton Parsons as Landrieu, acrobat/mime/clown Billy Beck as Hare, etc makes an occasional viewing of this episode worthwhile. I wonder, though, why director John Brahm didn't use a still photo for the final shot of Martin Balsam; it would have been more creepy and convincing. LR