After six rather forgettable crime entries, "The Purple Room" marks the debut of new producer William Frye and the result is THRILLER's first all-out horror story, written and directed by Douglas Heyes, who would repeat his double duties for "The Hungry Glass." Rip Torn stars as the inheritor of a spooky mansion (the PSYCHO house no less, which would reappear in "Mr. George", "Masquerade", and "An Attractive Family") that he will forfeit to his cousins unless he lives in it for a full year. He decides to spend the night in the 'Purple Room,' where a murder took place 100 years earlier, and is now reputed to be haunted. Patricia Barry would be more sympathetic in "A Good Imagination," far less so in "A Wig for Miss Devore," and Richard Anderson is a bonus in the varied twists and turns. Atmospheric and scary, this first classic demonstrates why this was one series that was thankfully done in black and white, retaining its eerie effectiveness without becoming dated, since most of the scripts were adaptations based on actual novels and magazine stories, from authors such as Cornell Woolrich, Robert Bloch ("Psycho") and Richard Matheson ("The Shrinking Man" and "I Am Legend"). Frye would remain as producer for the rest of its run, with only a few more crime episodes from Maxwell Shane.
10 Reviews
"Well, nice place to visit..., but you wouldn't want to die here."
classicsoncall15 January 2012
Warning: Spoilers
With the first six shows of the series devoted to crime and mystery stories, this episode delves into true horror for the first time with host Boris Karloff's direst assurance that 'THIS... is a THRILLER'. Underscoring the creepiness of the tale, the picture opens with a view of an old dark house reminiscent of the Norman Bates home in "Psycho"; another reviewer for this episode states that it's one and the same, but I haven't been able to verify that myself.
The central plot element here may have been borrowed from a Vincent Price vehicle from the prior year, "House on Haunted Hill". That one gave me the willies for a good long while when I first saw it as a kid, and I dare say this one would have done the same if I saw it back then as well. Duncan Corey (Rip Torn) inherits the family estate, but the will states he must live in the house for a year before he's able to sell it. Otherwise the house and property go to cousin Rachel Judson (Patricia Barry) and her husband Oliver (Richard Anderson). The twist is that he's bound to make up his mind about the deal by spending only a single night there, so with all the braggadocio he can muster, Duncan heads off to the place to begin staking his claim.
What's cool about the story is that once the basic premise is set and the legend of The Purple Room is established, the story unfolds along the same lines as the legend itself. Before letting the viewer in on the Judson's scheme, you're left to wonder about the moving portrait, the opened door that was previously locked shut and the knife thrown at Duncan's feet as he investigates a noise downstairs. I will say though, the ghost disguise worn by Oliver was more corny than frightening, unless of course you're a kid, and then it would have sent me under the covers for a week.
The central plot element here may have been borrowed from a Vincent Price vehicle from the prior year, "House on Haunted Hill". That one gave me the willies for a good long while when I first saw it as a kid, and I dare say this one would have done the same if I saw it back then as well. Duncan Corey (Rip Torn) inherits the family estate, but the will states he must live in the house for a year before he's able to sell it. Otherwise the house and property go to cousin Rachel Judson (Patricia Barry) and her husband Oliver (Richard Anderson). The twist is that he's bound to make up his mind about the deal by spending only a single night there, so with all the braggadocio he can muster, Duncan heads off to the place to begin staking his claim.
What's cool about the story is that once the basic premise is set and the legend of The Purple Room is established, the story unfolds along the same lines as the legend itself. Before letting the viewer in on the Judson's scheme, you're left to wonder about the moving portrait, the opened door that was previously locked shut and the knife thrown at Duncan's feet as he investigates a noise downstairs. I will say though, the ghost disguise worn by Oliver was more corny than frightening, unless of course you're a kid, and then it would have sent me under the covers for a week.
Superb Premise
aramis-112-80488010 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
"The Purple Room" has a great premise, if somewhat hackneyed even by the early 1960s. Duncan Corey (Rip Torn) inherits a house in Louisiana he wants to sell to developers. The problem is, he has to spend the night there and decide if he wants to stay. If he stays, he has to live there a year before he can sell it. The clauses some people stick in wills, huh? Along the way, Duncan meets a couple of sleazy cousins, played by Richard Anderson ("Perry Mason") and Patricia Barry, who know they are next in line if Rip Torn decides to skedaddle. This gives them every reason to lurk around the house that night, scaring the living daylights out of him.
Torn plays a cynical city slicker who had no time for spooks. Yet, as the night progresses, he hears so many weird noises and sees so many weird things, he wonders if it's really his cousins after all. So do we.
The small cast is excellent and I loved the way they are introduced during Boris Karloff's inimitable introduction. The problem is, Rip Torn, a good ol' Texas boy, unfortunately has "Actor's Studio" method training. Probably to make his character more realistic, he, uh, begins, uh, to say "Uh" in nearly, uh, every sentence, and it gets, uh, very annoying. He's, uh, one protagonist you'd like to see dragged away by ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Perhaps by design, I ended up pulling for the much more normally acting Richard Anderson.
One major plus in this episode: the lawyer executing the will is Alan Napier, aka Alfred from the old "Batman" television show.
Torn plays a cynical city slicker who had no time for spooks. Yet, as the night progresses, he hears so many weird noises and sees so many weird things, he wonders if it's really his cousins after all. So do we.
The small cast is excellent and I loved the way they are introduced during Boris Karloff's inimitable introduction. The problem is, Rip Torn, a good ol' Texas boy, unfortunately has "Actor's Studio" method training. Probably to make his character more realistic, he, uh, begins, uh, to say "Uh" in nearly, uh, every sentence, and it gets, uh, very annoying. He's, uh, one protagonist you'd like to see dragged away by ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Perhaps by design, I ended up pulling for the much more normally acting Richard Anderson.
One major plus in this episode: the lawyer executing the will is Alan Napier, aka Alfred from the old "Batman" television show.
What a thrill
searchanddestroy-127 July 2015
Yes, I totally agree to what have said the other users. This is a terrific episode far away better than the previous ones of this series. Those other were not so terrible, but certainly not at the scale of this one. I must admit that, when watching it, I thought a little of another ghost story, with a man supposed to stay for a while in a haunted mansion: The film directed by Antonio Margheriti and starring Tony Franciosa, from 1970, which I don't remind the English title; check on IMDb. Of course, the story is not exactly the same, but there are some lines in common between the two of them.
Appreciate this one, folks, highly recommended. The best of the series so far.
Appreciate this one, folks, highly recommended. The best of the series so far.
Horror In Black Oak
AaronCapenBanner29 October 2014
Rip Torn plays Duncan Corey, a rather smug young heir who has just inherited a Bayou mansion called Black Oak, but is informed that he must spend a year living in it if he is to inherit the estate, which is going to become quite valuable to re-developers. If he leaves before the year is up, the property goes to Oliver & Rachel Judson(played by Richard Anderson & Patricia Barry). They too are determined to inherit it, and try to scare him with the legend of the haunted purple room, where his ancestor shot and killed her husband, then went mad. The three of them will indeed spend an eventful first night in Black Oak, which may also be their last... Quite entertaining episode was the first of the horror ones, and works very well indeed, with a fine cast, story and direction.
THRILLER'S First Classic Gothic Horror Episode.
lrrap30 March 2020
What a difference a producer (and an imaginative director) can make! Fletcher Markle is OUT (with a couple more of his dreary crime shows still in the can) and William Frye has begun to slowly guide "Thriller" into its glory period.
I would include "Purple Room" among my dozen favorite Thrillers---it's just so damned cool and atmospheric, ESPECIALLY for a guy (me) who remembers that great Halloween/fall/spooky time-of-year feeling in the late 50's; this episode ABSOLUTELY captures it, especially with the nightmarish "PSYCHO" house as the main setting.
Karloff's intro is superb; note how he rushes onscreen, while the background does a few in-and-out-of focus shifts. (I was puzzled by the DVD commentary's discussion of Richard Anderson being ON THE SET WITH KARLOFF for the filming of this intro; looks to me like rear-projection: how else could the out-of-focus background thing be done? Also, the 3 principal actors look distinctly "down a generation" in terms of visual clarity compared to Boris).
Rip Torn's performance is a text-book example of a young, N.Y. trained actor methodically working his way from caustic and cynical to that creepy, crawly, pit-of-stomach terror that results in a total stroke-out. Masterful.
The Ghost scene, which I remember clearly from the June '61 NBC summer rerun of this episode, is one of the iconic scenes in all Thriller-dom. Here's Rip Torn essentially "playing to" a pitch-black room and a dumbshow-style apparition that moves ever-so-slowly out of the shadows; you HAVE to imagine yourself back in the actual 1960 time period to really appreciate how TERRIFYING this sequence is. (Hey, I never realized that the mask is a make-over of the Cagney "Man of 1000 Faces"-Phantom thing!)
I love Pete Rugolo's contemporary, late-50's jazz/horror infused score for this specific episode....those eerie whistling violin harmonics, the ominously thumping drums and plucked strings, the cheezy electronic organ/Novachord playing the "Thriller" motif...very cool stuff, especially during Richard Anderson's long story-telling scene, when director Doug Heyes shows us nothing but spooky shots of the gloomy, elegant, 19th-century room.
Admittedly, the post-ghost progression of "Purple Room" is a let-down, though Richard Anderson's OWN monologue, with the roles now reversed as HE now addresses a dark room and confronts a terrifying apparition, is very effective. (I have always admired Anderson's poise and subtle "bite" onscreen, though his range is a tad limited. If you want to see him at his best, check "Combat's" 2nd season "Silent Cry").
In any case-- with this episode, Director/writer Doug Heyes clearly revealed the potential for turning the dull, heavy-handed, unfocused crime stuff of "Thriller" into the classic, one-of-a-kind, iconic Horror show it would eventually become. It would still be a slow journey, but "The "Purple Room" stands as the first truly memorable show of the series. LR
I would include "Purple Room" among my dozen favorite Thrillers---it's just so damned cool and atmospheric, ESPECIALLY for a guy (me) who remembers that great Halloween/fall/spooky time-of-year feeling in the late 50's; this episode ABSOLUTELY captures it, especially with the nightmarish "PSYCHO" house as the main setting.
Karloff's intro is superb; note how he rushes onscreen, while the background does a few in-and-out-of focus shifts. (I was puzzled by the DVD commentary's discussion of Richard Anderson being ON THE SET WITH KARLOFF for the filming of this intro; looks to me like rear-projection: how else could the out-of-focus background thing be done? Also, the 3 principal actors look distinctly "down a generation" in terms of visual clarity compared to Boris).
Rip Torn's performance is a text-book example of a young, N.Y. trained actor methodically working his way from caustic and cynical to that creepy, crawly, pit-of-stomach terror that results in a total stroke-out. Masterful.
The Ghost scene, which I remember clearly from the June '61 NBC summer rerun of this episode, is one of the iconic scenes in all Thriller-dom. Here's Rip Torn essentially "playing to" a pitch-black room and a dumbshow-style apparition that moves ever-so-slowly out of the shadows; you HAVE to imagine yourself back in the actual 1960 time period to really appreciate how TERRIFYING this sequence is. (Hey, I never realized that the mask is a make-over of the Cagney "Man of 1000 Faces"-Phantom thing!)
I love Pete Rugolo's contemporary, late-50's jazz/horror infused score for this specific episode....those eerie whistling violin harmonics, the ominously thumping drums and plucked strings, the cheezy electronic organ/Novachord playing the "Thriller" motif...very cool stuff, especially during Richard Anderson's long story-telling scene, when director Doug Heyes shows us nothing but spooky shots of the gloomy, elegant, 19th-century room.
Admittedly, the post-ghost progression of "Purple Room" is a let-down, though Richard Anderson's OWN monologue, with the roles now reversed as HE now addresses a dark room and confronts a terrifying apparition, is very effective. (I have always admired Anderson's poise and subtle "bite" onscreen, though his range is a tad limited. If you want to see him at his best, check "Combat's" 2nd season "Silent Cry").
In any case-- with this episode, Director/writer Doug Heyes clearly revealed the potential for turning the dull, heavy-handed, unfocused crime stuff of "Thriller" into the classic, one-of-a-kind, iconic Horror show it would eventually become. It would still be a slow journey, but "The "Purple Room" stands as the first truly memorable show of the series. LR
The first horror show for "Thriller"...and not a bad one.
preppy-312 July 2015
The "Thriller" TV show started out primarily as a crime anthology but started to veer over to horror during its first season. This was their first horror show and it's not bad. An obnoxious guy named Duncan Corey (a ridiculously young Rip Torn) is left an old haunted house when his brother dies. He wants to sell it BUT must spend a year in it before he can do it. If he leaves or dies it goes to his cousins--Rachel and Oliver Judson (Patricia Barry and Richard Anderson). He agrees and it goes predictably at first with strange noises and unexplained events. However it changes gears halfway through, throws in a twist and ends on a satisfying note. Not really scary but creepy and well-acted...except for Torn. He is a wonderful actor but not here. He over OVER acts to an embarrassing degree and it gets tiresome. Still it's worth catching.
An Actual Thriller
Hitchcoc10 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A variation on one of the oldest of the ghost story motifs: in order to get an inheritance, one must spend the night in an old house. Of course, the place is haunted and the smug new resident is suspicious of everything and everyone. A man and his wife are at the center of this, capitalizing on a murder that had taken place in the deep dark past. Their goal is originally to frighten their cousin after drugging him, but when he dies from a heart attack, things get much more complicated. As we all know, however, there is a much more gruesome element. That legend didn't get started for no reason. We just know that somehow the tables are going be turned. By the way, that old house really looked like the one in Psycho.
Boris finally gets to haunt a house.
mark.waltz6 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This episode of "Thriller" is the very first actual horror themed episode, and in spite of slow pacing, presents a very spooky haunted house. The doors squeak as they open and close by themselves; chains rattle; loud, slow moving footsteps get closer; a masked figure with a knife in its chest appears with sinister attentions. It involves Rip Torn who seems to be drugged so he has all of these strange hallucinations, Richard Anderson and Patricia Barry, warned about the house by Alan Napier, but staying there anyway.
While it has a genuinely spooky atmosphere, there's something not quite clear in its motivations and thus disappointing. Torn is excellent in a very long sequence where he's the only one on screen, and the photography and editing in that scene is brilliant. The atmosphere is perfectly macabre, but the script is meandering and bizarre.
While it has a genuinely spooky atmosphere, there's something not quite clear in its motivations and thus disappointing. Torn is excellent in a very long sequence where he's the only one on screen, and the photography and editing in that scene is brilliant. The atmosphere is perfectly macabre, but the script is meandering and bizarre.
15 minutes of material stretched out to an hour fomat.
planktonrules19 October 2018
Duncan (Rip Torn) is a cocky young idiot who was given given an inheritance. But there is a weird stipulation to the house he's been given....he must reside there for a year before he can legally sell it...and he intends to sell it. He's told a variety of things about it being haunted...but he doesn't seem to care. He has his gun and intends to shoot anyone or anything that tries to hurt him.
The problem with "The Purple Room" is that it's got enough material for about 10-20 minutes...tops. But it's stretched out for an hour time slot...and the show really could have used a trimming. Instead, the show is padded and Torn spents too much of his time talking out loud to fill in the slow periods. It's really sad to see...as he is a good actor. Additionally, the main story idea is ancient...and so it's far from original. Finally, the female character is truly annoying and I just wanted her to shut up! Overall, a pretty awful episode with little to redeem it.
The problem with "The Purple Room" is that it's got enough material for about 10-20 minutes...tops. But it's stretched out for an hour time slot...and the show really could have used a trimming. Instead, the show is padded and Torn spents too much of his time talking out loud to fill in the slow periods. It's really sad to see...as he is a good actor. Additionally, the main story idea is ancient...and so it's far from original. Finally, the female character is truly annoying and I just wanted her to shut up! Overall, a pretty awful episode with little to redeem it.
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