SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: Approx. 49:15 Min.
First airing on January 22, 1980, on ABC-TV, Ray Austin directed this early Hart to Hart episode, which was written by Bill La Mond & Jo La Mond. Attending an awkward dinner party on a dark, stormy night, millionaire & amateur sleuth Jonathan Hart (Wagner) reluctantly declines wife Jennifer’s (Powers) prodding that they politely escape while they can.
Not only is their friends Amanda & Fred’s (Harris & Snyder) secluded mansion haunted, the evening’s quirky fun is a treasure hunt for the late prior owner’s priceless cache stashed somewhere in the house. Others recruited for this dimly-lit parlor game are: a boozy realtor (Small); a smarmy horror novelist (Shenar); an enigmatic reverend (Martin); the household’s creepy butler (Stuthman); and a frosty psychologist (van Pallandt) prone to psychic disturbances.
Once their host makes a ghoulish entrance, everyone is split into random pairs to search the house – evidently, with the winner to take all. As Jennifer & Jonathan find out, double-crosses aside, it appears that somebody is willing to kill to acquire the lost Greeley fortune.
With their cars and telephones disabled, everyone has no choice but to wait inside the mansion and resume the search. Not only are the elusive Greely gems at stake, so now are the Harts’ lives.
Jonathan Hart & Jennifer Hart: Robert Wagner & Stefanie Powers
Max: Lionel Stander
Amanda & Fred: Cynthia Harris & Arlen Dean Snyder
Reverend Tyson: Barney Martin
Michael Shillingford: Paul Shenar
Gladys Leary: Mews Small
Simon: Fred Stuthman
Dr. Lorna Phelps: Nina van Pallandt
Freeway: Charlie Gray
REVIEW:
It’s false optimism if one expects more from this murder-mystery hokum than Wagner and Powers trading Halloween quips and marital double-entendres. Otherwise, the eye-rolling plot resembles Hart to Hart’s bungled attempt at playing CLUE.
Sabotaged by a glut of haunted house teases from a Hollywood cliché festival, the cast’s presence offers this misfire’s sole asset. Still, the actors fall short of overcoming the guest characters’ absence of depth, let alone selling a series of plot curveballs that lead nowhere. The blame falls on the La Monds’ mediocre script imitating far better haunted house whodunnits, which director Ray Austin doesn’t improve upon. All he can do is convey an appropriately spooky ambiance, which mostly goes to waste.
This episode’s first two-thirds is tolerable as an average TV mystery for that era. Regrettably, the worst unforced error comes in its last fifteen minutes, which resorts to some midnight grave-robbing. There’s no plausibility justifying sending the Harts and the other treasure seekers out to raid the Greeley family cemetery … conveniently located in the estate’s backyard.
Even impulsive greed, as a homicidal motive, doesn’t disguise the last few twists in the cemetery from being flat-out ludicrous. Ultimately, “Night Horrors” is one dubious Hart to Hart caper where even die-hard fans might resent far more cheese being served than substance.
P.S. As a spoiler, the script’s ineptitude even botches an easy gag prior to the epilogue. Viewers will get to glimpse the aforementioned Greeley gems, which are obviously nothing more than glittery trinkets from the studio’s prop department. The mystery’s end, however, is left ambiguous, with most of the treasure hunters inexplicably losing interest after taking a gaze inside the jewelry box.
The La Monds and/or Austin inexplicably fail to conjure up some satisfying wink to explain why these gems were a joke all along (as irony given an earlier plot hiccup). For instance, do the characters scornfully recognize these ‘precious’ Greeley gems as an assortment of unremarkable costume jewelry after risking their lives for it? Or is there some other reason why no one seems to want this treasure in the end?
Such a surprise wouldn’t have salvaged this TV dud, but one decent chuckle still might have sufficed for viewers. And the less said about the epilogue’s weak finish afterwards playing ‘vampires’ with Max the better.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 4 Stars
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