Michael Dunn returns for his tenth and final appearance as Dr. Miguelito Loveless. It is a surrealistic masterpiece. The episode also has a sense of finality to it eve though Loveless promises to return. The writing must have been on the wall, if not for the entire series, then for Dunn. Not to be morbid here, but declining health kept him from playing the recurring arch villain he had been during the first two seasons. Dunn’s health would sadly continue failing until his death in 1973 at the far too young age of 39.Fortunately, his swan song is one of the best Loveless episodes. Loveless has been kidnapping people he has a grudge with based on the nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child:”
Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
The seven people relating to each day are an actress who refused to help the career of one of Loveless’ friends, a ballet writer who allegedly plagiarized one of his works, a jockey who threw a race Loveless lost money on, a judge who sentenced an accomplice to death, a financier who refused to find a scheme to shrink men in stature, a blacksmith who was foreman on his condemned friend’s jury, and Jim. Loveless considers all these people a thorn in his side, so he sets up a kangaroo court in an old circus to sentence them all to death.
When you first hear the plot, you might snicker at it sounding like some junior high kid’s fantasy revenge against the cool kids who shoved him ito his locker and never invited him to their parties. You would be right on some level. There has always been a certain petulance mixed in with the evil, but epicurean genius of Loveless. But the silliness of Loveless’ motivation is a strength, not a weakness, when the minimalist, surreal atmosphere of the episode is taken into consideration. For once, we literally get into his warped mind in order to see his twisted vision of the world. This circus ad mock trial are a reflection of his reality and it is terrifying to say the least.
But still awesome. Loveless could not have gone out with a bigger bang.
“The Night of Miguelito’s Revenge” is another out of filming order episode in which Charles Aidman fills in as Jeremy Pike for the ailing Ross Martin. Jeremy I not really his own character here as e was in his previous appearance. It is quite clear the script was written for Artie and Jeremy is taking over his lines. While the no script changes are obvious, they do not distract from te episode in any way other than making you mis Artie.
There is also a blink and you will miss it subplot with Loveless having created a steam powered android that gets about ten minutes of screen time. Loveless does not even use it in the kidnappings. One wonders if the android was not intended for another Loveless episode that was not likely to come, so they tossed it in here. It is such a minor element which has to be forced ito the plot by serving as the faux judge at trial, it feels like an afterthought.
Nevertheless, I really like the episode. The good stuff more than competes for some script flaws. It would have been great to see more loveless, but at least he went out on a high note.
Rating: **** (out of 5)
