While the multi-talented Tim Curry is an actor best known for his film roles, including those in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Clue (1985), and Legend (1985), he was also prolific on television. Not every single thing he did on TV was as renowned as, say, Pennywise in the original It (1990), but nonetheless, Curry infused each part with the same talent and style he brought to the big screen. And quite often, these performances went undetected rather than unseen.
By the 1990s, Curry had made a considerable transition to voice acting. His chops could be heard in a number of children’s shows, including The Pirates of Dark Water, Darkwing Duck, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, and The Wild Thornberrys. Of course, Curry didn’t completely stay off camera back then; one particular live-action role of his still stays with me and, undoubtedly, plenty of others who grew up on Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996).
Having first seen Season Five’s “Death of Some Salesmen” at a pretty young age, I didn’t invest a lot of thought into who played the characters in these macabre stories I loved. So I most certainly didn’t stop to notice that all three members of the Brackett family were played by Tim Curry. My awareness of this awesome triple play came later in life, but I also wasn’t surprised. By then, I had become much more aware of Curry’s skills as an actor.
Like other episodes of Tales from the Crypt, “Death of Some Salesmen” doesn’t exactly match up with its source material. The destinations are the same in either story; the door-to-door protagonist meets an untimely end during his travels. In EC Comics’ version, though, you may actually feel some sympathy for the main character. Here we find a man who was just looking for help, as opposed to his next sucker.
In a story written by Al Feldstein and drawn by Jack Kamen, “Death of Some Salesmen!”—EC loved its exclamation points!—began with Stuart Thatcher getting caught in a heavy downpour. His recent failed attempts at selling some mysterious item have led him to give up and go home. It’s only once Stuart’s car stalls that he goes knocking on the wrong door in the middle of the night. At a house on a hill, Stuart is taken in by a woman who bears a resemblance to the Crypt-Keeper, the hosting GhouLunatic of A Crypt of Terror (which was later retitled Tales from the Crypt). This Henrietta and her husband, Eban, don’t waste any time before they let their guest feel threatened.
Had it not been for Stuart mentioning his line of work, perhaps he would have lived longer. Mr. Thatcher wasn’t even there to pull a fast one on this gruesome couple, much less sell whatever he was selling. All he simply wanted was to use their phone (and understandably, they didn’t have one). Nonetheless, Henrietta and Eban have been burned in the past, so their mouths start foaming at the mere mention of “traveling salesman”.
Stuart, like Ed Begley Jr.’s character in the TV adaptation, learns what’s up early on. And that’s only because Henrietta and Eban give their unwelcome guest a ghastly tour of all their new appliances, as well as the salesmen who provided them. Mind you, not every one of those peddlers ripped them off, but alas, even the decent ones didn’t go unpunished. Henrietta and Eban killed them just the same as the dishonest salesmen. The couple also stored their victims’ bodies inside of said appliances (e.g., one corpse is found inside a freezer). More or less, this is what happened in the Crypt episode before Begley’s character is knocked unconscious by “Pa” Brackett.
Shifting into the adaptation, which was directed by Gilbert Adler and co-written by Adler and A. L. Katz, that salesman truly got what was coming to him. After all, he was selling fake cemetery plots to the grief-stricken. And after swindling Yvonne De Carlo’s poor character in a scene that really sold how unscrupulous this Judd Campbell guy is, there was no turning back. Thankfully, the episode also doesn’t disappoint by not delivering the most logical outcome for Begley’s role: to make him dig his own grave.
Now, the comic showed Stuart getting what wasn’t owed to him; Henrietta and Eban were just taking out their grievances on whoever was available. That same story also ended more straightforwardly, seeing as how the couple didn’t bother to trick Stuart. No, they made their plan clear from the beginning. And after Eban retrieved that enigmatic piece of merchandise from Mr. Thatcher’s car—a handy-dandy meat slicer—these potential customers tested the product in the only way they saw fit.
Meanwhile, in Tales from the Crypt’s version, there was some attempt at deceiving the deceiver. The logic of that scheme isn’t especially brilliant, or even sound, but Curry’s presence more than makes up for the so-so writing. He disappeared into all three of his roles here—and not because of the heavy makeup and prosthetics. No, Curry got absolutely lost in his characters, and the outcome is as brilliant as it is repulsive.
Tales from the Crypt was never too apologetic about itself; that’s something its fans can attest to, as well as appreciate. And although “Death of Some Salesmen” does become an endurance test at times—it seemed almost hellbent on making the audience gag and squirm—that depravity, along with Curry’s total extraness, is its selling point. Above all, this episode is a shining example of bad taste done very well.
Season Five of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on May 29.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
