Dark Legacy is a well above average episode of the Thriller TV series that could have been a classic of its kind with a better script and one major change in the casting. The opening is one of the best of the entire series. It's a dark night at the castle, with distinguished players Richard Hale, Doris Lloyd, Harry Townes as guests, and spectral Milton Parsons on hand as the butler. Magician Radan Asparos (also played by Harry Townes) is preparing to die, summons up unholy spirits to help him to prepare for death and make some last minute decisions as to what to give the members of his family.
The episode never gets better than the first act. Radan wills a book of black magic to nephew Mario, a second rate magician who truly has no new tricks up his sleeve. We even get to see part of his nightclub act, and it's terrible. It's no wonder that his boss is threatening to let him go. As things turn out the book teaches Mario how to really put on a show, but at a price, by dancing with the devil, called Astaroth in the story, which changes Mario's personality considerably, inspiring him to conjure up tricks that appear to defy not only God but the laws of physics, and of nature in general.
Mario is having problems with his wife, who wants no part of her husband's increasingly bizarre magic act; and an old friend of the couple a former magician himself, who knows the tricks of the trade and doesn't like what he sees, is also involved, and he urges Mario to turn his back on his newly acquired powers. By this time, in the episode's second half, it begins to veer away from horror toward soap opera; and yet the horror is still there, alive and well, returns in full hurricane force, in the final scenes. Director John Brahm works wonders with the story; and the production values are superb, especially early on. The mixture of seedy nightclub antics and Gothic horror is in itself novel, and this adds to the story's effectiveness.
Sadly, those wonderful players whom we see early in the episode do not turn up later. Harry Townes, an excellent actor, is miscast as Mario. He was too refined as a type to play such a seedy character; and he lacked the larger than life quality to convincingly play a magician. Of the actress who plays his wife, the less said the better. Henry Silva, in the ex-magician turned psychology student (!) part, also seems miscast. His somewhat diabolical presence would have made him better casting as Mario, but no matter. As a mood piece, Dark Legacy works wonders. The Lovecraftian premise is an intriguing one, and the elder gods makes their presence felt.