How is this for a bit of twisted irony--it was during the filming of “The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse’ that show creator Michael Garrison fell down the stairs at his home and fatally broke his neck. The cast and crew were famously spooked they had to continue filming a episode centered around a mortuary immediately after garrison’s death.Carroll O’Connor guest stars, five years prior to playing Archie Bunker for the first time, as Fabian Lavendor, a crooked mortician who kill drifters and performs cosmetic surgery on them to replace various criminals, murders, and other assorted never do wells for a price. That way, they can fake their deaths and begin a new identity with a new face.
Lavendor comes to the attention of Jim and Artie when the assassin of some flight by night dictator they were protecting winds up dead himself. Things just do not add up, so search about until they stumble upon Lavendor’s operation. In a rare twist, Artie is captured by Lavendor, so Jim has to save him instead of the usual reverse. Jim hides in a coffin in order to do so. That had to feel nice and cozy, considering Garrison’s recent departure from this veil of tears.
It turns out Lavendor is also blackmailing his clients about their new names and faces. When the assassin finds out, he kills Levandor himself. Just to wrap everything up in a nice, neat package, he was hired by the now dead dictator’s wife, whom he planned to ru off with. So every character except for Rose the barmaid wound up being villains. Man, that is one cynical view of human nature. I like it.
“The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse” is a particularly ghoulish episode, but it is amusing to watch. The description makes it sound awfully derivative of “The Night That Terror Stalked the Town” and "The Night of the Big Blast.” In some ways, it is, but there is enough unique elements to qualify the episode as its own creature. O’Connor makes a charming, but still chilling villain with a dash of macabre humor.
Garrison’s death marks the beginning of the revolving door of executive producers the series will experience throughout the rest of its run. Six more will serve stints of various lengths. They will brig with them different philosophies and styles. Naturally, that will make the series uneven at times as the science fiction an horror elements go way over the top. Fret not. The over the top elements make for some of the best episodes of the series.Rating: *** (out of 5)
