Episode 1: The Man Who Was Death

Episode 1: The Man Who Was Death

Original Airdate: June 10, 1989
Written By: Walter Hill, Robert Reneau
Directed By: Walter Hill
Starring: William Sadler, Roy Brocksmith

Meet Niles Talbot. He's an incredibly mild-mannered, self-reflective advocate of the Death Penalty. And, outside of the Cryptkeeper, he's likely the perfect exhibit of a character representation for Tales from the Crypt.

In the very first episode of Tales from the Crypt, William Sadler stars as Talbot, a character of little sophistication who borders neither protagonist nor antagonist waters. He doesn't have any ties or convictions, friends nor family, yet he's a sympathetically vigilant character. In fact, it is his vigilance that makes this first episode such a wonderful demonstration of Crypt content. And it makes this first review all the better to soak up.

The story starts with Talbot discussing his next victim, Charley Ledbetter, who has been sentenced to immediate execution at the hands of the electric chair. Ledbetter cries and pleads for remission, going as far as to claim that the governor will call for him. But Talbot remains unmoved. Talbot is the titular character, working his job in the prison system as an executioner. A 12-year veteran, Talbot was brought up to love the electric chair in one of the simplest, most one-dimensional ways imaginable.

"I like electricity. It's dependable. You can trust it." -Niles Talbot

Such simplistic, one-sided appeal leaves little to the imagination about Talbot. As best we can tell, he goes through everyday just the same, flipping the switch on one side, and mercilessly recanting his tales of pleasure from pain to any audience with an ear. For Niles Talbot, however, things are changing rapidly. Just hours after the execution of Ledbetter, the state announced a repeal on the death penalty, putting Niles out of a job.

As he's let go, he's informed that the prison system has nothing for him and would prefer to keep him distanced from the inmates he knew. He makes sense of his predicament, but only as some soluble justification. In truth, Niles is devastated by the loss of the one thing he thought he did well.

"This ain't the kind of work they give you a gold watch for, is it?" -Niles Talbot

Tales From the Crypt was created and executive produced by five visionaries of the motion picture industry during the late 80's. Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis, each with great background in horror and science fiction, came together on this incredible collaborative effort for HBO. The horror anthology show was nigh untouchable.

The Twilight Zone had long held the torch for greatest in a field that included few other contenders. Rod Serling's work, his lifework in the Zone, paved the way for hundreds like him in the decades that followed. So taking source material, like critically infamous 1950's EC Comics, and adopting their ironic and satirical motifs into the new age was a massive undertaking. What followed was the seven seasons of terror that crept quietly through the night during the breakout age of Home Box Office.

And "The Man Who Was Death" started it all. During the embryonic first season, the five producers stepped in to secure six episodes of absolute joy. Walter Hill was in charge of both directing and writing duties on this one, and his fingerprints are visible all throughout the black light bulbs. Hill had previously contributed to (and been perhaps most notable for) the adapted screenplay of The Warriors. So telling another story on the streets with morally righteous characters who tread the surface of good and evil wasn't all that difficult. Enter Niles Talbot, a character who so embodies those basic ideals. Now back to the story.

In one of the more significant court cases following the ban, James Flood walks despite being confirmed as a murderer. With no penalties in place and no justice to be had, Talbot enters and uses an almost Batman-esque objective to make Flood pay. Talbot waits, and, with a few simply placed charges of good ol' electricity, murders Flood by shocking him to death.

"Sure there's a God. No doubt about it. Problem is he spends too much time making assholes like that biker." -Niles Talbot

As Talbot celebrates with drinks around his sympathetic bartender Vic (played by Roy Brocksmith), more crimes throughout the city go unpunished. Theodore Carne (Gerrit Graham) and Cynthia Baldwin are the next victims for conspiring to murder Carne's former wife. Talbot's murders are becoming more barbaric, as this time, he traps them in a hot tub with his friend the circuit.

The beauty of this episode lies in the continued struggle of Talbot's appeasement. For every life he takes, he feels no greater knowledge nor being. He's simply a man doing his job as he's been trained to do. But without the shackles of selection or even the slightest hint of a sympathetic conscience, he's slipping further into madness. From what was once a righteous crusade into the world of vigilante justice, Talbot is now spending his evenings in a strip club where he decides to take the life of a go-go dancer in a cage.

It's a setup, however, as Niles is captured and arrested after evidence links him back to the three previous murders. He's a man of God, of this there is no doubt, but God doesn't seem to take jurisdiction when Talbot is forced on the other side of the judicial system. Upon his incarceration, Talbot finds out that Capital Punishment has been reinstated and he'll be the next victim of its wicked ways.

As he's dragged, inch by inch, to his inevitable conclusion, Talbot screams at the top of his lungs that the governor will call for his pardon. Just like Ledbetter had done earlier. In the end, Niles bemoans that he still hasn't done anything wrong, but that justification is only temporary as a new state appointed executioner throws the switch.

"If a man ain't good at his job, then what the hell is he good for?" -Niles Talbot

Parallels to the EC Source Material:
"The Man Who Was Death" was originally published in the first EC Comics release of The Crypt of Terror (later Tales From the Crypt). In this version, we follow Edgar Bowman on the same basic journey from executioner to acute madman. Bowman's personality is less of a simple man doing God's work to a more cynical, "eye for an eye" kind of rogue. Bowman is also much more adaptable to different kinds of Capital Punishment, including both hanging and the gas chamber.

Bowman even goes as far as attempting to top himself following each of his vigilante murders, until he's finally captured attempting to murder a woman named Betty Bates. As he's hauled off to his own execution, he finally expresses the same kind of fear his previous victims had about mortality. Overall, however, the story is much less sympathetic towards the lead.

Horror Alumni Roll Call:
-William Sadler (Niles Talbot) appeared in Tales From the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, the first HBO-based Tales movie in 1995. He would also go on to play the role of the Grim Reaper (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) in a cameo appearance during the later Tales episode, "The Assassin." He reappeared in the same skit for the intro of Tales From the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood, but this time, he portrayed a mummy. He was even the Cryptkeeper-archetype Mr. Rush in the EC Comics/TFTC spinoff, Two Fisted Tales. Sadler's latest horror works include the adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Mist, one of numerous collaborations he's been on with director Frank Darabont (including Two Fisted Tales).

-Roy Brocksmith (Vic) stuck mostly to the satirical and Sci-Fi side of acting, appearing in both Arachanophobia and, in perhaps his most notable role, as a lab technician alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall. He also did episodes of Star Trek, Red Dwarf, and the children's anthology program, Eerie, Indiana before his death in 2001.

-Gerrit Graham (Theodore Carne) is best known for his role as the paranoid sidekick to Kurt Russell in Used Cars. Graham also played parts in B-grade horror films Demon Seed and Chopping Mall. But, in 1990, Graham played Phil Simpson in Child's Play 2, a foster parent to lead character Andy Barclay. He was murdered after Chucky tripped him down the stairs towards the basement.

-Dani Minnick (Cynthia Baldwin) made a career, albeit brief, out of television roles. In mainstream cinema, however, she appeared in terrible films like The Sleeping Car and From the Dead of Night, the latter of which featured fellow Crypt-alum Bruce Boxleitner.

-Walter Hill (Director, Writer) has been out of the horror business for sometime, instead helping to produce parts of one of the most thrilling science-fiction franchises of all time. He helped write Aliens, Alien 3, and is working currently on the sequel to Prometheus. As previously mentioned, Hill was also an advocate of action pictures, directing both installments of 48 Hours and The Warriors.

Number of puns delivered by the Cryptkeeper: 4 (The worst of which happens at the end of the episode).

In Summation: Hill's delivery of this simple tale, about a simple man doing simply cathartic things that he feels are morally and contractually unambiguous, can leave one feeling quite contemplative. At the end of the day, the cruel irony that befalls Niles Talbot isn't unlike that of anyone masquerading as the Angel of Death. No man is their own maker; a fact they may not understand until the meeting with said maker takes place. And by that time, the governor's call wouldn't even be enough to save you.

-Benjamin M. Benya