"The Coffin" feels a lot more Bradbury-ish than a good deal of the tales I've seen in the series thus far. It concerns a dying millionaire robotics genius named Charles Braling (Dan O'Herlihy) who has a no-good blood-sucking leech for a brother, Richard (Delholm Elliot) that cannot seem to stop rubbing a former woman (that came between them) he took from him in his face. She is brought up by Richard in every conversation with Charles, mainly because this conquest was his one "sole victory" in life. Charles has robotic manservants and his genius in the field of cybernetics built the fortune he had. Richard has nothing since he squandered all the borrowed wealth in gambling and booze and bad decisions. From their mother, even selling his portion of the family estate to pay off gambling debts to the mob, Richard had money given to him, but as he re-enters the picture, as his brother is nearing life's end, he's got nothing but patience awaiting Charles' death. The bitter hatred is intense at times, other times the two just needle away. It is mostly Richard who likes to provoke Charles' wrath, going to the one source of pain he can pull from the past. The whole point of "The Coffin" is that Charles is building a coffin, with Richard around to question its value. It seems Charles drops dead before its finish, but as we soon learn the coffin was actually meant
for someone else. Delholm Elliot is suitably malignant and poisonous, the kind of relative that siphons monetary funds from others because "he likes to live the high life" and enjoy the fruits "of others' labor". Brothers by blood are all these two are. The coffin itself is really nifty, particularly when it's under operation once Richard lies within it as Charles expected he would. Perhaps a bit far-fetched (it is a bit too convenient that Richard would lie inside it in position, following a letter that was placed at the pillow inside the coffin), this ending does show that Charlie truly hated Richard with how well-orchestrated and maliciously built his invention was (including a hypodermic and steel bar, making damn sure the body in the coffin stayed put). The spinning drills at each end of the coffin, digging into the earth, and the tape recording of Charles prior to death, a tone that mockingly describes his feeling for dear brother, Richard certainly provided enough incentive for a creatively diabolical death box. Darkly humorous finale with wreath and all, including Charles' little robot finishing digging the grave.
6 Reviews
The Glassed Coffin
claudio_carvalho28 March 2009
When the exotic millionaire Charles Braling (Dan O'Herlihy) a.k.a. Robot Man brings all his savings to his manor and builds a glassed coffin, his greedy brother Richard Braling (Denholm Elliott) mocks him. Charles dies and in the will, Richard may have the mansion and all his savings if he finds where it is hidden. Richard seeks the money in the coffin and finds a tragic surprise.
"The Coffin" is quite silly but entertains. The surprise that the ambitious and mean Richard Braling finds in the coffin is darkly funny. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "The Coffin"
"The Coffin" is quite silly but entertains. The surprise that the ambitious and mean Richard Braling finds in the coffin is darkly funny. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "The Coffin"
Quid pro Quo
Hitchcoc23 March 2015
No one gets out alive. The rich brother gets his jollies but isn't there to enjoy them. His ne'er do well brother manages to finally get his slimy hands on the fortune, but makes a fatal mistake (an I mean fatal). This is entertaining in a silly kind of way. It also seems pretty cruel, but then that brother had no moral sense whatsoever. This is certainly an expansion on the original story which is much less techy. It is in each of us to wish that those treat others badly ultimately get theirs, so it is with the worst of motivations that I enjoy this. There are some amazing plot holes having to do with the total cooperation of the victim, putting himself in dire straits. Still, it's a lot of fun for those of us not in the coffin.
"I'm busy dying if you must know"
classicsoncall31 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Except for the somewhat goofy and simplistic robots, this was a clever tale of revenge by one brother upon another, bringing an end to a life long feud. Richard Braling (Denholm Elliott) probably should have been suspicious when Charles (Dan O'Herlihy) died and didn't have it specified in his will that he should be buried in the lavish coffin of his own design. I would have wondered about that. This tale of greed relies on the somewhat suspect idea that Richard would actually lie down in the coffin designed by his brother in order to partake of it's riches. The voice over from the departed Charles helps convey the rationale for Richard doing so, but it still seemed a bit of a stretch. This episode reminded me of a silly saying I once read as a kid, I think it was in Mad Magazine - 'It's not the cough that carries you off, but the coffin they carry you off in'!
Revenge is a Dish Best Served... by Ray Bradbury
Gislef15 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
"The Coffin" is a macabre little story that once again shows that Bradbury was at his best when writing horror. Whether it's longer-form like "Something Wicked This Way Comes", or shorter like "Mars is Heaven" and "The City".
The story is pretty straightforward. There are two brothers, neither of which are particularly impressive examples of humanity. The older is a misogynist robot builder who has been harboring a grudge for decades: the younger is a greedy and insensitive jerk. The younger preys constantly on the older for inherited money. When the older dies, the younger seeks out the inherited money and discovers it hidden in a strange coffin that the older built before his death.
The younger brother, Richard, gets in the coffin to find the hidden money. And that's where the horror begins and ends, as the coffin has been designed to robotically trap Richard, drug him with a sedative, and bury him. The unstoppable clockwork of the coffin, and older brother, Charles, both anticipated what Richard would do and how he would lay, and took provisions against anything Richard would try (thus the sedative and a metal bar to hold Richard's hand in place), makes the last scenes cringeworthy horror.
It helps that one of the robots looks like Marvin the Martian, thanks to his helm. Nothing creepier than being buried alive while Marvin looks on.
You feel bad for Richard, not because he comes to a horrific end--Denholm Elliott portrays him throughout as an unredeemable cad--but because he's caught up in a clockwork demise. And because his final fate, to be buried alive for a slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation, is so much worse than anything he did. But it's still perfectly suitable, both because Richard is portrayed as such a louse and because of what relatively little we see in comparison of Charles (Dan O'Herlihy), we get the impression that it's the kind of thing Charles would do. Both because he's a jerk in his own right, and because of how slimy Richard is.
Like the best stories/episodes of 'Tales From the Crypt', "The Coffin" wouldn't work unless everyone involved (and there's only the two brothers, not counting a relatively minor lawyer) didn't deserve what they got. There's no sympathy for anyone here. In "The City" (which, sadly, was never adapted for 'Ray Bradbury Theater'), the crew are ciphers. Here we get a half-hour episode dwelling on how lousy the two brothers are. Which makes it an even better horror story. Bradbury should have done 'Tales From the Crypt' stories. His grasp of horror in this and several other stories/episodes was even better than his grasp of s.f./fantasy.
The episode reminds me of an early precursor to 'Saw'. Richard dies because of his own actions. Yes, Charles set the trap up and put the machinery in motion, so to speak. But if Richard hadn't been a complete jerk, he could have spared himself. The way out for Richard isn't to mutilate himself, but to not make the bad decisions that were so obvious he was going to do that even Charles could predict them before his own death.
"The Coffin" is better than 'Tales' because it's something that could happen. Okay, not all of us have an older brother that hates our guts. But having a robot coffin rather than animated corpses and vampires is slightly more "believable", especially in the modern era. And you've got Ray Bradbury gently ushering you into the horror, rather than a cackling Cryptkeeper.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The story is pretty straightforward. There are two brothers, neither of which are particularly impressive examples of humanity. The older is a misogynist robot builder who has been harboring a grudge for decades: the younger is a greedy and insensitive jerk. The younger preys constantly on the older for inherited money. When the older dies, the younger seeks out the inherited money and discovers it hidden in a strange coffin that the older built before his death.
The younger brother, Richard, gets in the coffin to find the hidden money. And that's where the horror begins and ends, as the coffin has been designed to robotically trap Richard, drug him with a sedative, and bury him. The unstoppable clockwork of the coffin, and older brother, Charles, both anticipated what Richard would do and how he would lay, and took provisions against anything Richard would try (thus the sedative and a metal bar to hold Richard's hand in place), makes the last scenes cringeworthy horror.
It helps that one of the robots looks like Marvin the Martian, thanks to his helm. Nothing creepier than being buried alive while Marvin looks on.
You feel bad for Richard, not because he comes to a horrific end--Denholm Elliott portrays him throughout as an unredeemable cad--but because he's caught up in a clockwork demise. And because his final fate, to be buried alive for a slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation, is so much worse than anything he did. But it's still perfectly suitable, both because Richard is portrayed as such a louse and because of what relatively little we see in comparison of Charles (Dan O'Herlihy), we get the impression that it's the kind of thing Charles would do. Both because he's a jerk in his own right, and because of how slimy Richard is.
Like the best stories/episodes of 'Tales From the Crypt', "The Coffin" wouldn't work unless everyone involved (and there's only the two brothers, not counting a relatively minor lawyer) didn't deserve what they got. There's no sympathy for anyone here. In "The City" (which, sadly, was never adapted for 'Ray Bradbury Theater'), the crew are ciphers. Here we get a half-hour episode dwelling on how lousy the two brothers are. Which makes it an even better horror story. Bradbury should have done 'Tales From the Crypt' stories. His grasp of horror in this and several other stories/episodes was even better than his grasp of s.f./fantasy.
The episode reminds me of an early precursor to 'Saw'. Richard dies because of his own actions. Yes, Charles set the trap up and put the machinery in motion, so to speak. But if Richard hadn't been a complete jerk, he could have spared himself. The way out for Richard isn't to mutilate himself, but to not make the bad decisions that were so obvious he was going to do that even Charles could predict them before his own death.
"The Coffin" is better than 'Tales' because it's something that could happen. Okay, not all of us have an older brother that hates our guts. But having a robot coffin rather than animated corpses and vampires is slightly more "believable", especially in the modern era. And you've got Ray Bradbury gently ushering you into the horror, rather than a cackling Cryptkeeper.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
If your life isn't worth fighting for,what is ?
ronnybee211230 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A pair of brothers carry a lifelong feud/rivalry to the grave and way beyond!
Undeniably sobering and scary !
(The only ridiculous part is how little effort the victim expends to fight his way out of the bad spot he is in).
Undeniably sobering and scary !
(The only ridiculous part is how little effort the victim expends to fight his way out of the bad spot he is in).
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