Hi all,
Have a question...I've heard the most terrifying story from the Thriller series is called, "Pidgeons From Hell." Without giving away the ending, can someone tell me what the story is about?
Thanx all...
"Just as sure as my name is Boris Karloff, its going to be a Thriller."
It is based on a short story by Robert E Howard of Conan fame.
Basically, it is a tale of voodoo revenge,involving a mysterious creature that purportedly haunts an old mansion. It is hard to relate the plot without giving the ending away, but it is quite a gruesome story and a surprise ending. I recommend finding Howard's short story - it is actually much better than the Thriller episode. To me this was not the scariest of Thrillers, and the episode did not do the actual story justice. WARNING - the short story by Howard is NOT politically correct.
Okay that does it...I've got to see this story!!!!!!! You along with many Thriller fans have expressed how scary this story is. Oh, thanks for the warning about correctness. I appreciate that.
shareWell, just be prepared for a letdown. The Thriller episode is not nearly as powerful as the short story. The 'creature' in the end looks about like an ordinary bag lady, not the grisly thing that Howard describes. The good news is that the story in the link I posted has been sanitized and made more politically correct. I have Howard's original version, which uses the N-word a lot, as was common in the 1930's when it was written. Why the two partners in the short story became brothers in the TV show I have no idea - I call it the Peter Jackson syndrome.
shareImdb has Ottola Nesmith's character as "Eula Lee Blassenville". Shouldn't that be Eulalie Blassenville? Otherwise it's a very Southern adaptation of a French name... :)
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Tally-ho, my fine saucy young trollop!
Could be either one. I had a great aunt named Eula Belle. I think Eula was a fairly common name in the late 1800s.
shareI saw "Pidgeons from Hell" last night and though I love a nice chilling horror story, I didn't find it so with this episode.
It was creepy and atmospheric, but I have to say from comments I have seen in the past raving about this story, IMHO it is over-rated.
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I saw it the night it first aired in 1960. I was 15 and it was so frightening I slept with the lights on that night.
shareI am watching the episode at this very moment.
I am a big fan of the Howard original & i heard this was an accurate adaption.
Although i am only eleven minutes into it,i cannot help but notice how much change from the original there is.
The house is set in an isolated area instead of appearing in the distance.
Their car breaks down,forcing them to spend the night in the house.
They manage to light a fire.In the Howard version,most of the story took place in pitch blackness.Although this was impressive in a written story,i do not think it would translate well to screen.
Although i enjoyed reading Howard's version & consider it superior to this version,i am impressed with these changes.
Also,the pigeons have not cleared off yet for some unknown reason.
Anyhows...i go back to watching.
Well...having watched the episode,i am rather disappointed.
I cannot refer to too much at risk of giving the plot away.
The fear of the original story all revolves around how the main character acted.What causes a man to plunge out through a window & run blindly into the woods in the middle of the night?It was how the main character acted that proved he was innocent.Being sick at the sight of his friends body.Questioning his sanity.
I prefered it when they used a torch with batteries rather than a lamp.The idea was,that there was a darkness there that the torch could not penitrate.I think the makers of this episode did not get the idea.
Ho hum.
I don't understand why, but the writers, producers, etc. always speak of this episode as being the best of the series. I didn't think so at all. I can only assume that maybe it was back then during that time of movies with big ants attacking or Hitchcock's "the Birds" was popular.
Though I agree with them on their other mentioned top picks.
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Voodoo curses, for sure, as well as family curses, but also the dead hand of the past and how it affects the present, served up with a generous dose of the supernatural. A very scary episode, one of the best of the series, the Robert Howard story it's based on is even more frightening .
shareIt was on METV last night , I could feel my skin crawl toward
the end . It was scary . It was better than the horror movies
they are making today .
The House was dark inside and my imagination took off . And it had a
little bit of gore for a 1960s tv show.
The House looked like the Old house in the Dark Shadows serial ?
It was scary and great . 100 out of 10 .
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I'm glad you enjoyed it, or rather was scared out of your wits by it , as was the intention.
The gore, while slight by today's standards was to me more shocking because one doesn't expect any gore in a TV series made fifty years ago. There wasn't a lot of it but enough.
A lot of people don't like the actors. I do. They do a lot with what's basically not only a mystery story (of sorts) but a situation they can't make heads or tails of. They're supposed to be jumpy, so their line reading aren't perfect. They're not supposed to be.
The ending was haunting, pensive and downbeat, and perfect for this episode.
It was a good one I might of seen when I was young but could not remember it.
The House looks like it used used as the Barkley house in "The big Valley"?
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It looked like "Tara" to me...run down of course
shareI was about 10 or 11 when I saw it. I lived with my grandparents and if I was good I was allowed to stay up late on Friday or Saturday night to watch the "scary shows" so I watched this one night by myself. Needless to say it scared me to death and I don't think I watched horror moves for a long time after that. I don't remember any other Thriller shows but remember a lot of Twilight Zones. I think this was the most scary one that I saw for that time. I have seen it once a while ago so maybe it will come one again. Good show!!!
shareWhen I saw this episode, I kept thinking of the two guys in "Route 66", one blonde and one dark haired.
Maybe that is why the "Thriller" writer changed the two men to brothers rather than companions.
It was on last night and scared me so bad (I kept thinking "Just get out of that house til daylight!"), I actually locked my bedroom door. The noises my cats were making in another room made me too nervous.
I don't recall watching these shows when I was a kid like I do with the others (T Zone,etc) so I appreciate ME TV showing them Sunday night.
I saw this episode when it first aired in the 60s and it scared the heck out of me. Even though I had to wait many years to see it again, I still thought it was well written and acted despite the discrepancies in the plot. The ending was the topper.
This was 60s TV; budgets were tight and they had to squeeze the story into less than 60 minutes because of TV commercials.
The reviewers who panned this episode probably only saw it recently and time has taken its toll on the shock value us oldsters originally enjoyed.
"You may as well go to perdition in ermine; you're sure to come back in rags." Katharine Hepburn