Something spooky happened today. I was having my morning coffee, when I switched off the ever-depressing news and flicked onto Tales from the Unexpected.
In my mind I hoped it would be an episode I watched decades ago called the Vorpal Blade.
I couldn't believe it. It was!
There are 112 episodes of Tales of the Unexpected, so I guess the chances of me simply stumbling across this episode on TV are pretty slim.
But there it was just as I remembered it.
Starring Peter Cushing in his last ITV role, this 1983 slice of unpleasantness centres around Heidelberg University around 1930, where rival fraternities are battling it out in the traditional duelling sport of Schläger or Mensur.
The aim of this stiff-looking fencing style is to cut the opponents face with the sword. In upper-class Germany these scars were marks of honour back then.
Needless to say, the particular bout in the show goes horribly wrong with blood spilt and reputations ruined.
The final scene of Cushing and his friend chatting as old men was a neat twist and yes, unexpected.
The title the Vorpal Blade was borrowed from tne Lewis Carol poem the Jabberwocky.
I wonder when I'll see this episode again?
Do you have a favourite or recurring episode?
The series 1 episode 'The Landlady' still scares the life out of me. 'Lamb to the slaughter' is also a very good tale although it was previously made two decades earlier as an episode of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' back in 1958 (which you can also catch on Sky Arts every weekday!)
ReplyDeleteTales of the Unexpected is such a wonderful, bizarre series. I did not appreciate it when t was first aired in the US back in the day, but its on Roku now and I watch it every so often. The tales are great, but I really like the shot-on-video look of it, very much a product of its time. And some great stars, too. But I have never seen that Peter Cushing episode, I will have to search for it! SFZ
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