Dahl Study: Mr. Botibol

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Mr. Botibol" from Collected Stories (read 7/14/19)

Mr. Botibol has lunch with a businessman who wants to buy his father's business. He accepts the first offer, even though the businessman threw a number out there to get the bidding started. The businessman is excited about the deal and orders lots of drinks for the two of them. Mr. Botibol isn't used to drinking, and the alcohol goes to his head. He starts talking about success, and how he's never had any. He gets home and listens to the radio, which is playing a symphony. He is overcome by the music and pretends to conduct it from his chair. It makes him feel good, so he stands up and gets into it with his whole body. He's exhausted when it's over, but feels proud of himself. He pretends that he composed the work and just conducted it, and the audience is demanding more. He looks up when more symphonies will be on the radio, and conducts those, too.
     This all makes him feel so good that he decides to convert a room in his home into a theater. He installs theater seating, a small stage, a box for the conductor, and special record players and speakers. He gets records of different kinds of applause, and buys a variety of symphonies to conduct. He loves acting like a famous composer. Botibol then decides to get a piano so he can pretend to play. He goes to the store to get one rigged to be silent, then goes to buy more piano records. There he meets a woman who starts talking about what music she loves. Never really having relationships, he awkwardly invites her over to his house to listen to music. She agrees and comes over and he explains his hobby to her. She doesn't seem to think it's weird, and pretends to play the piano while he conducts her. When he invites her back, she says she can't come because of work. She reveals that she's a piano teacher.

"Mr. Botibol's First Love" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/14/19)

The episode was pretty much the same as the written story. Overall it was an interesting story to read, because it seems like a pretty strange hobby. I thought it was amusing at one point - who hasn't danced as if they're onstage, or sang into a fake microphone and pretended they're a famous singer? But once the woman came over, I saw it from her point of view and realized how strange I would have thought it was if a man acted that way on a "date". The visual version of the story wasn't as interesting, but that's just my personal opinion.

Dahl Study: Genesis and Catastrophe

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Genesis and Catastrophe" from Collected Stories (read 7/5/19)

This story is pretty excellent. There's a great twist... but it's not really a twist because it's a fictional interpretation of real life events, so if you know history and obscure facts about political leaders, you might already know the story based on context clues.

A woman is worried about her new baby, because she has lost her three other young children in the past 18 months. The doctor assures her that the baby is fine, healthy, a bit small, but will make it. The mother can't look, she keeps talking about her other children and how they died. (It's here that history buffs might make the connection - the mother is named, and names the other children that have died.) The doctor then calls the mother by her full name, which I won't say here because it's a pretty good twist. She then gives the baby his famous names, and prays for him to live, and it's so deliciously ironic!

"Genesis and Catastrophe" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/12/19)

This episode had a lot more to it than the story, but it didn't necessarily add to it. It made it more interesting for TV, I suppose, but that's about it. It starts with a young boy running to tell the father that his baby is being born, but the man won't go to his wife. He doesn't want another dead baby. Much of the episode is the same as the story, but with a lot more from the man's point of view. He wasn't much of a sympathetic character in the story, but he is in the show. I don't think the twist packed as much of a punch as in the written story, either, so definitely read the story first.

Dahl Study: The Umbrella Man

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"The Umbrella Man" from Collected Stories (read 7/5/19)

A young girl and her mother are in town when they get caught in a rainstorm. They were trying to flag down a taxi when an old man came up to them. He was well-dressed with a nice umbrella. He told them that he didn't have his wallet, but needed money for a taxi fare. He had walked to town, but was now too tired to walk back home. He wasn't begging for money, but rather wanted to sell them his umbrella. He told them it was silk and cost him twenty pounds, but he'd sell it for one pound, just to get taxi fare. The mother bought the umbrella and she and her daughter huddled beneath it to stay dry. The daughter noticed the old man practically running down the street, and commented that he didn't seem as tired as he claimed he was. The mother is suspicious, and they follow the man down the road. He disappears into a pub, so they stand in the window and watch him. He orders a drink at the bar, pays with the mother's pound, and downs the drink. As he leaves, he snags an umbrella from the stand near the door. The girl and her mother watch him walk down the street to sell that umbrella to another unsuspecting stranger, then head towards another pub to do the same thing again.

"The Umbrella Man" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/12/19)

I like the show version of this story better than the written one. It starts from the Umbrella Man's point of view, though of course we don't know him as such at this point. He is just checking into an inn, asking where he might find a list of the nearby pubs. He goes up to his room and marks a map of pubs, then listens to the radio, getting frustrated to hear it's supposed to be a beautiful day. The next day, we are shown a man and his wife waiting for a train. Another man walks in and purposefully puts his umbrella on the table and settles next to the couple. They all know each other, but when the husband leaves to check on the train, it is revealed that the wife is having an affair with the other man. The man wonders if the husband suspects anything, but the wife assures him her husband is oblivious. They all get ready to get on the train and the man makes a point of coming back to grab his nice umbrella.
     The woman gets her hair done and it starts pouring as soon as she leaves the salon. The Umbrella Man finds her huddled under and overhang and offers to sell his umbrella to her. She takes him up on it. Later the husband and the man having an affair with his wife meet while waiting for the train home. The man is soaking wet and the husband asks what happened to his umbrella, since he was so smart to bring one that morning. The man said it got stolen at a pub. He then mentions something about the wife getting her hair done, and the husband laughs that she will look like a drowned rat since she thought it was going to be a beautiful day. The wife comes up at that moment, looking wonderful and holding the umbrella. She tells her husband to not get mad because she didn't buy a new one at full cost, and starts to tell him the story. He cuts her off and gets angry because he has suspected an affair, and now this is proof to him. He thinks she and the man met at lunchtime and he let her use his umbrella that afternoon. He starts a fight and the wife insists a man sold it to her and tells her husband what the Umbrella Man's game was. She drags him to the police station to prove it.
     While at the police station, the man insists his umbrella was stolen and he would never have an affair with the man's wife because he loved his own, etc. It hurt the woman's feelings, so when the Umbrella Man is brought into the station, she says it wasn't him. She lets her husband leave talking about a divorce, and the man she was having an affair with is mad she denied it and got him in trouble, too. She realized neither man cares about her.

Dahl Study: Nunc Dimittis/Depart in Peace

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Nunc Dimittis" from Collected Stories (read 1/13/19)

A man who has been seeing a woman for a long time finds out that she has been telling people in their circle that he is boring. It embarrasses him and makes him so mad, he decides he wants revenge. He secretly commissions a painter to paint his girlfriend's portrait. The painter is known for painting in layers - as in, he paints a woman nude, then adds her undergarments, then adds her dress. Once the painting of the girlfriend is complete, the man, an art collector, carefully uses turpentine to remove the top layer of paint. He hangs the portrait of the woman in her undergarments in his dining room and invites all of their rich friends over for a dinner party. He slips away from the party right after the painting is unveiled. He later finds out that his revenge backfires - everyone hates him. The girlfriend forgives him, though, and sends some of his favorite caviar, which he eats - then feels ill.

"Depart in Peace" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/4/19)

The episode is called "Depart in Peace" even though the short story was titled Nunc Dimittis, which means "Now you dismiss." I like that the new title is a variation of the same sentiment, and I like how both versions of the title add meaning to the end of the story. The short story was originally published as "The Devious Bachelor", which also applies to the story, but isn't as clever as the two later titles.
          The show is the same as the story, but with a bit more clarity. The man doesn't leave when the paint is unveiled, but rather makes eye contact with the girlfriend and watches as she faints. Later, she comes to him in person to forgive him and say she loves him and always will, and he must not listen to gossip from people in their circle. She gives him the caviar and he makes a cracker for her and then eats his own. He starts to feel strange, looks at her, and she puts her uneaten cracker back on the tray with a smile. She leaves and he walks away, towards the painting of her (for reasons I didn't understand, if there are any). He's basically hiding behind a curtain without really hiding when the butler comes in to clean up the tray. The butler looks around, sees no one, and sneaks a bite of the caviar. He is walking to the door when the man falls from behind the curtain. The butler drops his tray and falls into a chair, as if he is also feeling ill. The woman comes back into the room, looks at both men, and smiles at what she's done.

Dahl Study: Georgy Porgy

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Georgy Porgy" from Collected Stories (read 1/11/19)

A vicar has never settled down, and all of the "spinsters" in his parish are after him. He resists, but one finally puts something in his drink and gets him alone. The vicar had a traumatic experience as a boy - watching a mother bunny eat her newborn, and then thinking his mother was going to do the same to him. He ran away from his mother at the time, and she ran after him but got hit by a passing car. In present day, when the spinster leans forward to kiss the vicar, he freaks out about her mouth. She apparently actually eats him and he lives inside her?

"Georgy Porgy" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/4/19)

This was... pretty different from the story in terms of specifics and story building. I didn't remember the story that clearly, but it didn't stand out to me as weird or unsettling, besides the odd ending that didn't seem typical for Dahl. But the show version was very strange, and I felt uncomfortable the whole time I was watching it. The vicar is weird from the start, kind of twitchy, and it kept showing him clench his fists behind his back while preaching and singing. There were flashbacks showing how off her rocker his mother was - she really messed him up. To the extent that the father was shown nearby in all the scenes, and I wanted to scream at him "Why aren't you stopping her?!" She was so inappropriate with her son. 

          The woman of interest in the show wasn't a spinster from town, but rather one of their younger, female, married, relatives. This woman spikes the vicar's drink, and when she leans in to kiss him, he freaks out as he did in the story. But in the show, he strangles her. She falls to the floor, bleeding from the mouth, and two spinsters come to see what happened. He yells about his mother and runs past them. The strangled woman is still alive on the floor, and then we are shown the vicar in a straitjacket, talking to a therapist about where in the woman's body he is living now.

          I wonder if this was how the story ended. I remember the writing explaining that the vicar is living inside the woman because she ate him, but maybe I read it wrong, or didn't read into it enough, and it was actually him in therapy talking about it.

Dahl Study: My Lady Love, My Dove

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"My Lady Love, My Dove" from Collected Stories (read 1/11/19)

A man and his wife invite a couple to their home for the weekend to play bridge. The wife doesn't like the couple, and wants to bug their room to listen in to their conversations and activities. The man goes along with her idea, because it's easier than fighting. The couple arrives, and they all stay up late playing really good games of bridge. When they go back to their rooms, the man and wife listen in to the couple as they talk and get ready for bed. They realize that the other couple has a very detailed and polished system for cheating. The wife thinks it's brilliant and wants to copy it to do with her husband when they play.

"My Lady Love, My Dove" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 7/4/19)

The premise was slightly different - the woman is very rich, and this is her third husband. He doesn't work, but listens to music all day and is good with sound systems. She says she's bored and doesn't want the couple to come this weekend, but they're already on their way, so she wants to have fun with them. She bribes her husband to wire their room - he really doesn't want to, but she threatens him and says her second husband is working elsewhere as a salesman, and that threat pushes the man to do as she wishes. The rest of the show is the same as the story.

Dahl Study: Taste

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Taste" from Collected Stories (read 1/11/19)

A wine connoisseur comes to a man's house for dinner. The man loves to challenge the connoisseur to identify his wines, and this time he thinks he'll have him stumped. He wages a bet to make it interesting. The connoisseur keeps raising the stakes, and since the man is so sure the connoisseur won't guess correctly, he keeps agreeing. If the wine connoisseur loses, he gives the man two houses. If the connoisseur wins, he gets to marry the man's daughter. The connoisseur takes his time identifying the wine, building suspense, and eventually guesses correctly. Everyone is dumbfounded, until the maid brings the connoisseur his glasses from where he left them in the study when he went in and looked at the wine bottle's label before dinner.

"Taste" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 6/4/19)

This episode was just like the story. It was somewhat jarring to see how young the daughter was and how old and creepy the wine connoisseur was, but I guess that just adds to the suspense of the marriage bet. I think there was a little more foreshadowing about the study in the episode, because it's mentioned several times. The man is initially in the study before the wine connoisseur comes for dinner. When the wine connoisseur comes over, he asks for soda water to cleanse his palate, and goes away to use it privately. It is discussed at dinner that the study is the best place for wine to breathe, and that the man determined that location with help from the wine connoisseur. So it was not surprising when the maid brought in his glasses and said she found him in the study. It made sense that they would be there and that the wine connoisseur knew where the wine was kept, but still packed a punch for the ending of the story to realize what happened and that he's a cheater.

Dahl Study: Poison

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Poison" from Collected Stories (read 1/11/19)

A man comes home and finds his roommate stuck in bed, unmoving, because of a venomous snake that crawled onto his stomach and fell asleep. The suspense is interesting and unique, with the ticking timebomb of the sleeping snake, being quiet and motionless to not wake him up, and trying to figure out what to do about the whole predicament. The man gets a knife ready so he can cut the bite and suck out the poison. He calls a doctor who brings a somewhat ineffective serum, but they try anyway. After using chloroform to keep the snake sleepy, they pull the sheet back and find nothing! It's implied that the roommate imagined it all, possibly due to PTSD. 

"Poison" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 6/4/19)

The episode was similar to the story, though I don't remember if the man brought a woman home. I don't think he did, because later in the episode she steals the doctor's car, and I don't recall that from the story. I think she was added into the episode to make it more dramatic. The bulk of the episode is the same as the story, with the added aspect of the woman hiding in the kitchen so the roommate and doctor don't see her and tarnish her reputation. After the sheet is pulled back and there's no snake, the doctor asks the man if the roommate might have imagined it all. When the doctor sees his car is gone, stolen by the woman brought home, he gets angry. The man tries to calm him down and says he knows where his car is, and that he'll take him there. After they leave, the roommate gets up and goes to the liquor cabinet. He wants something strong to take the edge off his anxiety from the snake. He reaches for a bottle and the snake coils around his wrist and bites him. He dies. I loved this ending so much more than the story, though I like being able to compare them both, because I think it makes the episode's twist stand out that much more.

Dahl Study: Fat Chance

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Fat Chance" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 6/4/19)

This episode was unique because there was no matching story in Collected Stories. The story is actually written by Robert Bloch, but since it was part of the series I still wanted to view it and see how it fit in. Dahl does introduce the story on film, as he does with his own.

The episode has a good, but fairly common concept, but of course with a nice twist. A pharmacist is having an affair with his wife's best friend. He and this woman act in local plays together, so no one seems suspicious of them. While this is going on, the wife is going to a weight loss clinic because he husband calls her a compulsive eater. She's often shown eaten candy hidden in her purse while he's at work all day. She hides the report cards from the weight loss clinic, but the pharmacist knows where she hides them and always checks - she's not losing weight. He's frustrated with her, and the mistress is frustrated with their relationship. She tells the pharmacist he needs to leave his wife, but he's reluctant to change anything.

The best friend/mistress goes to visit the wife and plants seeds that the husband is cheating on her. The wife gets mad and says she'll take him for all he's worth. When the husband hears this, he and the mistress both agree he can't divorce her, because then they'd be poor. The mistress implies that he needs to kill her, and that he can since he's a pharmacist and has the knowledge of what might work, and has access to lots of pills.

The wife always asks the husband to bring home low calorie treats from the pharmacy, but one day he surprises her with a box of chocolates. He injected the chocolates with a drug and carefully covered his tracks so she'd eat them. She's happy but puts them aside for the night. The next morning, the mistress comes to the husband at work and says she's going away for awhile, and will only come back if the wife is out of the picture. When the pharmacist comes home his wife is stretched out on the couch; she looks dead, but wakes up when he leans over her. He asks if she ate the chocolates, and she excitedly tells him that she's realized she's not losing weight due to her own lack of willpower, and now she's determined to lose weight. He asks where the chocolates are, and she says she gave them to the best friend/mistress when she came over to say goodbye.

Dahl Study: The Hitch-Hiker

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"The Hitch-Hiker" from Collected Stories (read 1/10/19)

A man in a fancy car stops to pick up a hitch-hiker because he remembers hitch-hiking and getting passed by. The hitch-hiker convinces the man to top out the speed on his car, so they get to 120mph before a cop pulls them over. The cop writes a ticket and threatens jail time, and writes the hitch-hiker's name on his notepad because his face looks familiar. The men drive away and the driver worries until the hitch-hiker proves he is a fingersmith (pickpocket) and stole the cop's ticket book and notebook, which they pull over and burn.

"The Hitch-Hiker" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/10/19)

This was similar to the story but with a much better ending! While getting the bonfire ready, the hitch-hiker asks the man to get more sticks. When the man comes back, the hitch-hiker has stolen his car!

Dahl Study: Galloping Foxley

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Galloping Foxley" from Collected Stories (read 1/10/19)

Mr. Perkins is an old man who loves his daily routine and commute is shaken when a stranger starts taking the same train as him. Something about the stranger seems familiar - his looks, the way he talks... It makes Mr. Perkins feel slightly afraid. Then he realizes this man was his school bully! He remembers all of the awful things this bully did to him, and is determined to politely embarrass the bully. He introduces himself, and the bully introduces himself back - it's not the bully.

"Galloping Foxley" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/10/19)

The film was pretty similar to the story, with some changes to make it more visually appealing. At the end, Perkins told everyone the awful things that happened at school before asking the man to introduce himself, and it turned out the man wasn't the bully. I liked this more than in the story where Perkins only introduced himself. Though I'm still half convinced, in the film version, that the man WAS the bully, and was just lying because that's the type of person he is. Who would listen to those awful things being said about them and then admit they are that person??

Dahl Study: Skin

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Skin" from Collected Stories (read 1/9/19)

A man meets a young artist and commissions the artist to paint his wife's portrait. One night the three get drunk together, and the husband has the artist tattoo a large portrait of the wife on his back. Years later, the man has lost touch with the artist, but sees his name in a gallery window. The man is old and poor and dirty and almost gets thrown out of the gallery because of how he looks, before he takes off his shirt and shows everyone his tattoo. They recognize it as the artist's work, and a bidding war starts - they want his skin! Finally, he chooses a man who wants live art at his resort - the resort owner wants the man to live at his resort and be pampered, as long as he walks around with his shirt off so all the guests can see the artwork. Later the skin is shown framed and hung.

"Skin" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/9/19)

The film followed the story well, except it seems like the artist and the wife he painted had an affair. In the story, the artist lusted after the wife, but I don't think she reciprocated.

Dahl Study: Royal Jelly

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Royal Jelly" from Collected Stories (read 1/9/19)

I had no clue what this one would be about, but once I started, I was hooked. A beekeeper is reading about royal jelly in a magazine. Royal jelly is made by bees to make a queen rich and healthy, and studies have been done on rats with similar results. When the beekeeper and his wife have a baby after nine years of trying, they are upset that she is rapidly losing weight. The wife is stressed, and when her husband drones on and on about royal jelly, she keeps picturing him as a bee excitedly buzzing around. Her husband reveals that he has been feeding the baby royal jelly, which helped her grow rapidly. The wife is pleased, but then gets worried. The husband reveals he has been taking it, too - that's how they finally had a baby after nine years of trying!

"Royal Jelly" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/9/19)

This started off like the story, but the beekeeper gave an interview on TV instead of reading about royal jelly in a magazine. It made me wonder why it took him so long to use royal jelly with his daughter, since he knew about it and had been using it on himself already. The ending is pretty hokey, with the man slurring his "s"s into "zzzz"s and the end fading out with a weird screen effect and a scream, like a cheaply made YouTube clip. Check it out on my Instagram account and let me know what you think!

Dahl Study: The Way Up to Heaven

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"The Way Up to Heaven" from Collected Stories (read 1/6/19)

A woman gets incredibly anxious about making appointments on time (I could totally relate to this, and felt anxious with her in many parts of the story!). Her husband often makes her wait a few minutes for him, and her eye starts to twitch. Before leaving for a long trip to Paris, he makes her wait and antagonizes her about her anxiety and punctuality. He runs back to the house for something. She waits, then starts to go after him. She changes her mind and leaves him. When she returns, she seems to know something is up and calls a repairman to come fix her elevator. I guess she knew he was trapped in there? I'm not sure.

"The Way Up to Heaven" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/6/19)

The film closely followed the story, but clarified a lot for me. As soon as I saw the elevator was metal/mesh, I understood the ending. There was also a clarification in that the wife heard her husband calling for her from inside the house when she went back to look after him. She peeked through the mail slot before leaving him there. She knew he was trapped, but might have just left him hanging. She doesn't seem surprised or sad when she comes back from her trip and he's still there. She also went to New York instead of Paris - I wonder why the change?

Dahl Study: A Dip in the Pool

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"A Dip in the Pool" from Collected Stories (read 1/3/19)

A man is on a cruise. There is some sort of auction where passengers vote on how far they think the ship will travel in a day. It seems a storm is coming, so the man bids on a low number and goes to bed. He wakes up to a beautiful day, and the ship is speeding to make up time. He gets scared because he bet his life savings and his wife will be mad, so he decides to slow the ship down. He makes sure someone will see him, then jumps overboard. But the person who saw him was an old woman who just thought he was jumping in to get some exercise.

"A Dip in the Pool" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/3/19)

The film was pretty much the same as the story. The actor playing Mr. Botibol was better than I could have imagined! Everything about him was perfect. I want to go back and re-read the story with him in mind. The film actually clarified the auction/betting aspect of it for me, too, so this might be one of the rare cases where watching the film first might be a good thing to help flesh out the story.

I think this has been one of my favorite stories and film adaptations of Dahl's so far!

Dahl Study: Edward the Conqueror

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Edward the Conqueror" from Collected Stories (read 1/3/19)

This story was so weird but very interesting. A man is cleaning up his wild yard with a bonfire, and his wife rescues a cat from it. She takes the cat in even though the husband hates it. She plays piano for it and becomes convinced, through its reactions, that the cat is Liszt reincarnated. She shows her husband but he thinks she's crazy. She researches Liszt and it sure the cat is him because of various markings, and wants to make a big public deal about it. Her husband is embarrassed she wants to do this. While she cooks dinner for them, the husband throws the cat in the backyard fire.

"Edward the Conqueror" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/3/19)

This was pretty similar to the story in the beginning: cat comes to yard, woman plays piano for it. The library scene had me cracking up! A chatty librarian sharing theories and "research" about reincarnation. So busy talking while shelving that he doesn't even notice she left! That was added in, of course, but appreciated! The ending was different because, while it seemed like the husband got rid of the cat, the wife went after the husband with a knife, and later the cat came back in through the window.

Dahl Study: Neck

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Neck" from Collected Stories (read 1/3/19)

This story was a little strange overall. It took a bit to get into the action, then I think the ending was over my head (no pun intended). A newspaper columnist meets an important man's wife, and manages to get invited to their estate for the weekend. The husband used to own a newspaper when he was single, but he got rich, his wife nailed him down, and now he is an art collector and has huge statues all over the estate. The columnist hits it off with the husband while the wife is very rude and flirts with other guests. The newspaper columnist and husband walk the grounds and see the wife goofing around with a guest, even kissing him. She gets her head stuck in a statue and the husband has to cut her out with an ax or saw... but the ending was ambiguous to me. I think he lets her die from asphyxiation? 

"Neck" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/3/19)

The show cut to the chase quickly, having an art historian (instead of a columnist) come to the estate of an art collector and his wife. The wife came on to the art historian in his room one night - something that wasn't in the story. The backstory of the husband owning a newspaper and his wife chasing him into marriage came out in later dialogue. The sculpture scene and kiss happen, but the husband first tries to put Vaseline on the wife's neck to pull her head out. It makes her mad that he makes her messy trying this, because it makes her look silly. I was hoping the film would show the ending to clear it up for me, but it still had him going for her/the sculpture with an ax, and her screaming, so who knows. Maybe he chopped her head off with the ax in this one?

Dahl Study: The Landlady

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"The Landlady" from Collected Stories (read 1/3/19)

A young man takes the train to a new city for his job. He is supposed to find his own room, and asks for a recommendation. On his way to the recommended pub, he sees a cozy-looking room with a bed and breakfast sign in the window. He stops there instead of continuing on to the recommended place. It's cheaper than he was expecting, so he stays. The woman seemed to have been waiting for him, and she is very...into him. She has him sign the guestbook and he sees two names only. The names sound a bit familiar to him. Then he learns the woman is a skilled taxidermist, and she says her two other guests never left...

"The Landlady" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 1/3/19)

This starts off similar to the story, but is more explicit in laying it out. The landlady gives the young man tea and explains about her taxidermy and then the young man starts feeling sick. She takes him to his bed as he tries to figure out how he knows the two other names in her guestbook. It then shows her "caring for" the two taxidermy men before returning to the newest young man, donning her apron, and readying her supplies.

Dahl Study: Lamb to the Slaughter

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"Lamb to the Slaughter" from Collected Stories (read 12/28/18)

A woman who was always serving her husband - drinks, homemade dinners, etc. - is told that he's leaving her. On autopilot, she goes to get some meat from the freezer to prepare dinner for him. Before putting the huge leg of lamb in the oven, she clubs him with it, then runs to the grocery (for vegetable sides) to have an alibi. She comes home to "find" her husband dead and calls the cops. Her alibi checks out with the grocer. The cops can tell her husband was hit with a heavy object, so they are looking for it, but agree to take a break when she offers them some of the lamb that's been cooking, since it's way too much food and she's not hungry, anyway. 

"Lamb to the Slaughter" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 12/31/18)

The film was BEAUTIFUL. I actually loved it more than the story. To be fair, if the story had been done the same way, it would seem like the author was withholding information, so I guess it's fine as it is. The film, though, starts with showing the wife coming in from the store and seeing the body. We're in the dark, but the pieces are revealed to us through flashbacks as the cops question her. So well done (no lamb pun intended!). I would love to see this as a play.

There are a few nit-picky spoilers I noticed in the film, particularly since I'd read the story and knew the outcome. When the wife comes in from the grocery store, she is already/automatically looking at the floor where her husband's body fell after she bludgeoned him. Also, she sees her husband dead on the floor and stays in the house to wait on the cops, not worried that whoever killed her husband might also come after her.

Dahl Study: William and Mary

My author study of Roald Dahl started with a reading of his Collected Stories while watching the accompanying episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Each Friday I'll recap a story and show (with spoilers, just so you know), but I encourage you to read and watch them on your own if you're interested!

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"William and Mary" from Collected Stories (read 12/28/18)

This is an incredibly weird, Twilight Zone-y story about a philosopher who is very ill and dying. He is approached by a neurosurgeon he knows from working with him at the university. The neurosurgeon convinces the philosopher to donate his brain to science, and the neurosurgeon is sure he can keep it alive. The neurosurgeon works to explain to the philosopher how it will work, how they can even take an eye so the brain can see, and how nothing would be lost if it doesn't work. This is all happening while the philosopher's health is declining.

The reader only finds all of this information out after the philosopher's death, at the same time as his wife. She gets a letter a week after her husband has died, laying out all of this information in his own words. He tells her who to contact to visit his brain, if she chooses.

The wife has been unhappy throughout most of their marriage, but decides to contact the neurosurgeon and check on the status of her husband's brain. It's there, in the lab as he described it would be in the letter. It's hooked up to things that keep the brain alive and eye functioning, so he can see his wife as she approaches the tank.

This is an interesting take on life and thoughts and what it's all worth, and how it could all work.

"William and Mary" from Tales of the Unexpected (viewed 12/31/18)

The film is quite different from the book, since the bulk of the story is told through the letter the wife gets after her husband's death. This had to be changed so the film wouldn't be boring, watching a woman read a letter while listening to a voiceover. Instead, all of the backstory is presented by the neurosurgeon to the wife, but this presentation lessens some of the shock that comes from reading the story. While the background is given, we are shown footage of a similar experiment done to an animal that succeeded, so some of the wonder of "will it work?" is lost.

The story ended with the wife wanting to take her husband home, but in the film she gets him and it's a bit hokey to see the whole set-up in their living room, with the wife sassing the brain. I like the ambiguity of the story more, but I guess the shock factor and the definite ending were needed for the film version.