The Night of the Dancing Death

One of this show's Saturday serial-style episodes, complete with hokey costumes for the bad guys (and gals). This kind of thing worked way better when the show decided to add a sense of humor to its bad-guys-in-costumes eps, but this was played straight, script-wise. Written straight, we could say. Thus, though Richman is quite good as Prince Gio, he has no chance to make the character anything beyond a caricature, and Gio's over the top display of manufactured rage at the story's start gives the teleplay's main twist as much surprise power as Bob Conrad removing his shirt. And there's some very obvious lip-syncing going on in the scene in which the story's missing person is discovered. Unaccountably, her lines are dubbed with an American accent. Also odd is the confused demeanor of the actor, as if the director had failed to explain the scene to her--she watches a moving prop as if amazed by its motility. I'm just glad WWW became so much better at presenting this kind of plot.