"Tales of the Unexpected"
Neck (1979)

Regisseur:

Christopher Miles

Drehbuchautoren:

Roald Dahl (writer)
Robin Chapman (dramatisation)

TV-Serie:

"Tales of the Unexpected" (1979)

Erstausstrahlung:

28. April 1979 (Staffel 1, Folge 6)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Footsie Under The Table | Cult TV | Famous Opening Theme | Bizarre | Anthology

Nutzerkommentare:

Decent Tales of the Unexpected episode.

Besetzung

Roald Dahl	...	Himself - Introduced by
Joan Collins	...	Natalia Turton
Michael Aldridge	...	Sir Basil Turton
Peter Bowles	...	Major Haddock
Paul Herzberg	...	John Bannister
Carmen Silvera	...	Carmen La Rosa
John Gielgud	...	Jelks
übrige Besetzung in alphabetischer Reihenfolge:
Mark Anderson	...	Boy

Decent Tales of the Unexpected episode.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Tales of the Unexpected: Neck is set in a huge stately house in Norfolk, England owned by newspaper tycoon Sir Basil Turton (Michael Aldridge) & his domineering & unfaithful wife Natalia (Joan Collins). Basil loves modern art & his latest purchase is a strangely carved wooden shape with a hole in it, Natalia thinks their weird & while poking fun at his latest buy she gets her head stuck in the hole. This incident causes much merriment amongst Basil's guests & a lot of embarrassment to Natalia, then Jelke's (Sir John Gielgud) the loyal butler brings Basil a huge double bladed axe from a suit of armour inside the house. The only decision Basil has to make is whether to use the axe on his brand new wooden sculpture or on his wife's neck...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 6 from season 1 & originally aired here in the UK during April 1979, directed by Christopher Miles Neck isn't the best story from season 1 but it's still quite fun to watch. The story by Roald Dahl was dramatised by Robin Chapman & in his introduction Dahl says that writing a black comedy is one of the hardest things to do & because of the presence of two famous actor's Neck turned out funnier then he ever thought it would, that's a bit strong but the cast does help & his imaginative source material must also get some credit. Neck is a tale of someone unpleasant getting their comeuppance in a ironic & twisted way, in that respect it works very well & is good fun. However at only 25 minutes in length there isn't really enough time to set the Natalia character up so the final pay-off has maximum impact, sure we know she's not a very nice person but I never hated her & maybe if it had more time the script could have painted her as a really nasty piece of work which would have made the cool ending even better. A small quibble though & Neck is still a good Tales of the Unexpected episode.

This one looks really nice & hasn't dated as badly as many episodes from this series, it's set in one of those timeless & gorgeous stately homes here in the English countryside. There's nothing scary in this episode & there's no tension either but the first 20 odd minutes is nothing but build-up to the ending. Unfortunately we never get to see what decision Basil makes as the credits come up just has he brings the axe down, I guess it's left up to the viewer to decide which way he went. Again I am impressed with the cast, did Tales of the Unexpected ever have a bad cast without at least one famous face? Here we get Joan Collins in her first Tales of the Unecpected appearance, she also stared in Gerogy Porgy (1980) from season 2, & the late Sir John Gilgud makes his first appearance & would go on to appear in Parson's Pleasure (1980) also from season 2.

Neck is a neat little Tales of the Unexpected story from the imagination of Roald Dahl, it's not the best Tales of the Unexpected story but it's far from the worst & is quite fun in it's own right.