Night Gallery (1969) [SF078-1382]

If your a fan of "The Twilight Zone" you may also like "Night Gallery" . Both were created by the great writer Rod Serling. The laserdisc is a Japan only release with Japanese subtitles in picture. I never had a problem with in picture subtitles especially if there is no alternative to it. The picture quality throughout varies in relation to the flesh tones. During closeups flesh tones sometimes look unnatural. I must admit some of that may be due to the cheesy TV make-up of the period. There is some motion blurring at times but it is tolerable as many other still scenes vividly compensate for it. It is all much sharper than you would ever have seen on a TV screen in 1969 (year of release) and subsequent broadcasts. The laserdisc player you have plays a role here as with other discs. Some of my previous negative statements on picture quality can be greatly reduced with some tweaking of your player. Some later models incorporated a D-EXT feature which provides a natural increase in black levels and compensates for any "washed out" looks. It doesn't always work for some films, making them too dark. In the case of Night Gallery, it is just what the doctor ordered. Shot for TV the aspect ratio is a non academy "1:33". The audio, as like the picture vacillates in quality. Dialog tends to be on the lower end of the spectrum while back-round noise is generally solid. Keep in mind you'll need to set you amplifier to analog as there is no digital sound and the playback is mono.

Don't let my deep audio critiques chase you away. The analog sound still comes across very nice, especially footsteps, echoes and wind. This is the way Night Gallery should be heard, in full nuanced analog. This TV pilot spawned the short lived TV series of the same name. The pilot episode is chock full of stars such as Roddy McDowall (a big standout), Joan Crawford, Ossie Davis and more. Night Gallery contains three separate stories, one of them is "Eyes" directed by a young Steven Spielberg. In my opinion the real treasure of this disc is a short story called "The Cemetery". If your into early "Tales From The Crypt" magazine macabre this will fully satisfy. Serlings oratory gift never disappoints at the start of each story. A Great haunting soundtrack at the beginning will have you diving right in. A nice laserdisc with some interesting rear jacket photos to boot.