Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series) William and Mary (1979) User Reviews

Decent Tales of the Unexpected episode.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 23 September 2007]

Tales of the Unexpected: William and Mary starts as university professor William Pearl (Jimmy Mac) dies, his widow Mary (Elaine Stritch) is contacted by lawyer Arthur Baxter (Richard Hampton) who reads Williams will. In a letter written by William he insists Mary make an appointment & visit brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. John Landy (Marius Goring) which she does, once in his office Dr. Landy has some shocking news for her...

Episode 3 from season 1 this Tales of the Unexpected story originally aired here in the UK during April 1979, directed by Donald McWhinnie I thought this was an alright episode but nothing particularly special. The story by Roald Dahl has already been adapted for several anthology TV show's including Late Night Horror (1968), Way Out (1961) & Clock (1950) before it was dramatised by Ronald Harwood for this generally hit-and-miss British series. The basic story is one of the more ghoulish entries in the show & the mean spirited twist ending is reasonably effective if a little silly. This is a good story with a certain macabre feel to it & is more horror orientated than most episodes from the show & at only 25 minutes in length it moves along at a nice pace & doesn't outstay it's welcome.

As usual for this show William and Mary has dated badly, fashions, technology, hair-dos & the like really age it. Whether that's a good thing or not you can decide on your own. During his filmed introduction Dahl says nothing about the story or any background behind it & simply notes stories which are grim & horrific need humour to balance them out. The acting is fine, Stritch makes her first Tales of the Unexpected appearance after which she would also star in My Lady Love, My Dove from season 2.

William and Mary is an OK tale of the unexpected, it's not the best but at the same time it's not the worst either. A slightly more ghoulish episode than usual this is the sort of story that you would expect from a series called Tales of the Unexpected.

Darkly humorous

[nqure · 7/10 · 13 April 2021]

The elaborate set-up, of a recently departed husband whose brain continues to function and remain alive, much to his wife's horrified astonishment, eventually leads to a neat ending about a wife finally getting her own back on an authoritarian husband.

I didn't find this story as 'nasty' or horrific as Dahl seemed to suggest. It actually put me in mind of another story later in the series which I saw before watching this for the first time - 'Run, Rabbit, Run', also with an elaborate storyline, this time set in post war Liberation Paris, about a wife turning the tables - or an egg-timer - on an impatient, oppressive husband who had made her life a misery.

There are some neat comic one-liners in this episode where Stritch makes a remark undercutting some observation, about her husband (a stern, stuffy academic), her marriage, the memory of his gimlet eye refusing to countenance any untoward behaviour (puritanical) as we begin to find out the real truth about their relationship. It was hardly a meeting of minds. There's an undertow of tragedy - she is childless as her husband didn't want any. Clearly, he was a selfish man who expected his wife to conform entirely to his wishes.

The true horror lies perhaps not in the bizarre procedure that has preserved William's brain, but the prospect of him continuing to exert control over her life even after 'death' (The dead hand of Mr Casaubon). Finally, Mary rebels in an ending that is in complete accordance with the storyline .

We learn so much about the procedure; the fact that William's brain can respond but that he can't speak; his brain waves appear on a sonar type screen; that his 'eye' has some form of limited vision; and the beeping noises he can make to register a response. All this level of detail matters because it contributes to the darkly comic pay-off which ends this tale, bordering on the farcical.

Mary finally gets her revenge after she coerces Dr Landy into returning 'William' into her hands so that 'he' can live back with her. Now she is the one in control. She plonks his 'brain' and the contraption in which it is placed right in front of the tv he so despised - it is showing horse racing just to add insult to injury - with the consequence that his beeping becomes positively manic, his brain waves frenetic whilst his 'eye' whirrs around dementedly in apoplectic rage .

Mary, however , remains oblivious; she couldn't care less. Well, why should she when she has a drink and a cigarette in hand.

Nuts, doctor! He's my husband!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 27 December 2021]

Mary is drinking to that, the death of her husband, but she is in possession of his brain and desires to make her miserable late husband equally as miserable in his brainy afterlife. You can't have a heart attack, but he can have an aneurysm, and she's the gal to do it. She's Elaine Stritch, during her time in London, having gone there for the musical "Company" and not returning until over a decade later. This "Twilight Zone" like episode is very similar in certain ways to "Uncle Simon" where the trouble Constance Ford found herself continually manipulated and harassed by her late Uncle who came back as a robot. Now Stritch is in control of a piece of the afterlife, and she's bound and determined to get more out of life and rub it in her dead husband's face. It's hysterical and ironic, and I wanted to see more of the vengeance. Amusing but not grade, it's another opportunity for the very talented Elaine Stritch to shine.

Eye catching

[xmasdaybaby1966 · 6/10 · 23 March 2021]

I was never keen on this story when reading it and Ms Stitch's comedy capabilities could have been put to better use. As usual, well worth waiting for the sting in the tail.

"Well, life goes on."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 11 August 2021]

Kudos to actress Elaine Stritch for her very constrained effort in dealing with Dr. Landy's (Marius Goring) shocking revelation that her late husband's brain is being kept alive following his death. As a professor, William Pearl (Jimmy Mac) had an interest in criminal psychology, as a husband he held his wife Mary (Stritch) under a very firm thumb, denying such everyday distractions as taking an occasional drink or watching TV. As instructed by her husband's will, Mary visits Dr. John Landy (Marius Goring), who has developed a pre-frontal lobotomy procedure that calls for removing abnormal portions of the brain.

This episode would have been considered much more bizarre over forty years ago, but watching today it's still kind of creepy, especially with Landy's experiment of hooking up William Pearl's brain to one of his eyes, so that he could observe in limited fashion, glimpses of the present from his curious vantage point. The oscilloscope recording Mary's presence when in view of the eye signals uncontrollably, and with it, Mary's intent to teach her husband a lesson in the great beyond. The story's finale transforms Mary from a doughty housewife to a woman of the world.

The biggest kick that I got out of this episode though, was a reminder of a quote I read long ago on the back page of a Nexus comic book written by Steve Rude. Nexus was an intergalactic assassin who once stated quite admirably - "I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy!"

A funny, dark and twisted tale.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 9 February 2016]

After losing her husband William, Mary Pearl leaves behind a life of rules and regulations, no more sobriety and avoiding makeup and cigarettes, but William is still watching.

This is one that always sticks in the mind, it's a brilliantly constructed story, one of bitterness, revenge, spite and downright hatred.

Elaine Stritch does a particularly good job as Mary, she's so brash, she'd have been known to audiences fir Two's company, but this is one of my favourite performances of hers, she's great. I also loved Marius Goring here too, a madcap actor, he could have gone completely overboard with 'Landy' but he kept his restraint.

I particularly enjoyed the part when Mary talks through Doctor Landy's findings, it's a wonderfully twisted and dark moment, you see Mary going from a sense of calm, almost relief, to one of panic and frustration.

It's a very memorable episode.

8/10.

Here's mud in your eye!

[heavenlyhellebores · 10/10 · 12 April 2021]

I love Tales of the Unexpected (hence top score) and admittedly it's a love born from nostalgia of watching this series as a young child and that brings with it a warmth and comfort.

This particular episode is a favourite because of the way the humour takes the sting out of an otherwise unpleasant theme (controlling, belittling spouse relationships and 'vivisection' research, which for those viewers who think this is pure fantasy, sadly is horrifically based on similar real life animal experiments) and the brilliant comic genius that was Elaine Stritch.

As the short story unfolds, I found myself giggling with glee as the tables are finally turned and the bitterness is sweet on the palette.

William and Mary

[Prismark10 · 8/10 · 4 March 2020]

The introduction by Roald Dahl informs the audience that this is a very nasty tale. However Dahl adds humour to it. It helps that Elaine Stritch plays Mary.

When William a well respected academic dies in hospital. Mary has been instructed by a letter sent by William to their solicitor, that Mary should visit neurologist Dr Landry. Other instructions that William has left her is; Mary should continue not to drink, smoke, wear makeup, not watch television and now she would also have no need for a telephone.

Dr Landry tells Mary that her late husband agreed to an experimental surgery, to keep his brain alive. Mary sees first hand that William's brain is functioning and one eye is still linked to his brain via a lot of machinery. Mary is determined to take her husband home with her.

In some ways I fathomed the ending will be in some way similar to the story, The Neat Job featuring Terry Thomas in The Vault of Horror anthology film.

Strich plays Mary with a lot of deadpan humour. She effortlessly conveys that William was a controlling bully of a husband. The twist being that with William at home, Mary openly smokes, drinks and she places his eye right in front of the television knowing his brain would be upset.

I do wonder what was the nastiness Dahl referred to? How Mary treats William at the end or how she was treated by her late husband for years.