FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: GREAT GHOST TALES (1961)

GREAT GHOST TALES (1961) – This half-hour series featured dramatizations of horror stories from Algernon Blackwood, Saki, Edgar Allan Poe and others. It was also the very last regularly scheduled fiction program to be broadcast live in the U.S.

Great Ghost Tales only ran for 12 episodes as a Summer Replacement for The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show and was never renewed. Reviews were mixed, but a lot of recognizable faces on their way to stardom showed up in the series, which was hosted by Frank Gallop.

THE EPISODES:

WILLIAM WILSON – Robert Duvall stars as the title character in this adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story. Wilson is increasingly disturbed by a lookalike man who follows him everywhere and even goes by the same name. Star Trek‘s Joanne Linville also stars.

LUCY – Lee Grant plays a young housewife turned amateur actress who realizes she “wished” her new director’s death upon him. Slowly she learns that she has inherited her ancestors’ powers of witchcraft. Also with Kevin McCarthy. 

THE MONKEY’S PAW – By this point nearly every man, woman and child in the United States is familiar with this venerable tale. Ugly results go along with wishes granted by the preserved paw of a monkey. R.G. Armstrong, Mildred Dunnock and William Hansen star.

BYE BYE BABY – Ralph Wilson can’t stand the fact that he is getting older so he seeks out the unorthodox treatments of a sinister hypnotist. Janet Ward, Collin Wilcox Paxton and Gene Sax lead the cast. 

AUGUST HEAT – An artist keeps drawing a male face that haunts his mind. The man has just been condemned to death for murder. One day on a walk the artist meets the man, who is a stonemason and is carving the artist’s tombstone, complete with date of death. James Broderick, Vincent Gardenia, Virginia Leith and Herb Voland star.

SUMMER RENTAL – A young couple who are romantically involved rent a summer home. Some force in the home haunts them regarding a murder they recently committed. Cynthia O’Neal and Harry Millard are the stars.

MR. ARCULARIS – John Abbot stars as Mr. Arcularis, who is relieved to have just survived a risky operation. He boards a cruise ship but begins to wonder where it is really headed for when he sees a coffin being loaded on board. Lois Nettleton and Roger Carmel were in the cast, too.

SREDNI VASHTAR – This adaptation of the Saki story stars Richard Thomas as Conradin, a young man being raised by his abusive female cousin and her equally unpleasant maid. Conradin’s only real friends in the world are a hen and a ferret-polecat hybrid that the young man worships as a god. Conradin’s “god” starts killing off his enemies, Willard style.

A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT – A man looks forward to meeting his friend’s fiancee. In the meantime, he becomes obsessed with the singing of a beautiful young girl who is not what she seems. Clifford David stars.

ROOM 13 – The classic M.R. James short story is adapted with William Redfield, Howard “Floyd the Barber” McNear and Diana Van der Vlis starring. The skull of a blasphemous 12th Century Bishop is found at an old Inn. A theological researcher and his wife stay at the inn while he researches the skull and are alarmed when the room next door to theirs suddenly has its number change to 13. 

THE WENDIGO – Walter Matthau, Barbara Barrie and Lou Antonio star in this tale of a group hunting and being hunted in turn by the Canadian supernatural menace called the Wendigo. Based on Algernon Blackwood’s story.

WHO IS THE FAIREST ONE OF ALL? – Salome Jens stars as Emily Hunter, a schoolteacher who considers herself  unlovably plain until she moves into a new residence, where an antique mirror reflects a whole different image of her. Arthur Hill also stars. 

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