Thriller (TV Series) Child's Play (1960) User Reviews

"One more step Black Bart, and you're a dead man."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 10 January 2012]

"Child's Play" takes a bit of a kid's imagination with B movie Western adventures and mixes it with the legend of William Tell shooting an apple off of his son's head. Young Hank Hattering (Tommy Nolan) doesn't have a bow and arrow, so a .22 caliber rifle will have to do. Whereas the other three reviewers at the time of my posting found this story to be less than exceptional, I found it fairly intriguing for all the same reasons posited for being boring. It's a well scripted tale of marital discord and parental neglect culminating in what could have been a disaster had Hank not been such a good shot. Now if the story were made today, Hank and his parents (Frank Overton, Bethel Leslie) would never have made it to their summer cabin. They would have still been in court being sued by the parents of the summer camp child who Hank had in his gun-sight the prior year. Or, Child Protective Services would have stepped in to take Hank away from the folks who couldn't control him. You see what a half century of progress will do to TV fare?

But if the story is still too uneventful for you, keep an eye out for a couple of entertaining goofs. When Hank takes target practice with some cans and bottles after he crosses the waterfall, you can hear his rifle go off just before he pulls the trigger for the third shot. Back at the cabin, father Bart (the real Black Bart) puts his rifle back on the gun rack, and as the viewer, you can see him facing you approaching the camera. But when he turns away to look to his wife, you see that the gun rack is mounted on a solid wall. I don't believe I've ever seen it handled this way before in a picture, and I had to do a quick rewind to see if I saw what I saw.

In any event, I think you can cut this episode some slack. I'm actually new to Boris Karloff's 'Thriller' series, and watching them in order, this is only the second one so I really don't have much else to judge by. What I can say is that I relate to the kid Hank because I used to play these imaginary games myself when I was a kid around the same time, 1960, but fortunately, I never carried things that far. I did use a squirt gun on my grandmother once though.

That kid's a screwball!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 12 December 2013]

This is the second episode of the series "Thriller". It's far better than the first episode, though this is hardly a glowing endorsement. However, it is worth seeing even if its message is a bit screwy.

A family is staying in a vacation cabin. Dad is working hard on some article he's writing and he's ignoring the rest of the family. As for Mom, she's miserable but says nothing...at first. In the meantime, their 11 year-old picks up the family rifle and begins to run amok. Now based on what the kid's already done in the beginning of the episode, keeping a gun anywhere near him is bizarrely inappropriate. However, while the little screwball is out playing with the gun, Mom tells her husband about an incident a year ago when their son almost killed another kid with a gun! Now what SANE person would keep that to themselves?! Well, obviously sanity doesn't run in this family! And, while Mom and Dad air their gripes about the marriage, the kid takes someone captive! Cute.

I think the message is that you should spend more time with your kid and this will just make everything fine. NO!!! The boy is obviously homicidal and the message seems just bizarre. Better parenting certainly wouldn't hurt, but the kid's problems run far deeper and point to his being a loony! A truly bizarre and chilling show with a strange, cryptic message. Not great.

Sick Kid/Idiot Father/Poor Fisherman

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 7 November 2016]

This episode is partly about a boy who is probably about as far to the right on the autism spectrum as there is room. It is about a father who is clueless about the world he lives in. He is abusive and full of himself. He has a beautiful wife who has stayed with him for some reason (he is a writer who can't stand to be disturbed by even day to day events). This boy has an imagination where he drops out of reality. He has this fixation on an imaginary bad guy named "Black Bart." His father is named Bart, by the way. How subtle is that? Anyway, he gets his hands on a gun and goes around shooting up the woods until a poor fisherman comes out in the open. The whole conversation between the wife and the writer is very painful, but he still doesn't get it. This is one time when we really could have used a few more minutes to have some sort of resolution. I hope what we are left with isn't just, "Well, that solves that problem. We're one big happy family again." The fisherman should have insisted that that kid be locked up somewhere.

Back when psychopaths just needed a father figure...

[stonewolf_kk · 2/10 · 16 July 2014]

Remember back in the day when children acted out their frustrations by making people play sadistic games of William Tell with real firearms? Me neither.

This episode was daring for the day, but it's treatment of a child who is obviously delusional with psychopathic father issues as just a bad boy throwing a temper tantrum is scarier in its blithe ignorance than its story.

The episode also suffers from being a tad too long. The while the homicidal little tyke is out entering his fugue state, mom & dad discuss a separation, mostly spurred on by the dad being a jerk, and mom being an enabler. Their discussion of their marital strife really drags down the tempo of the show without adding much as its pretty obvious from the start they are both poor parents.

Somewhat static episode still has intelligent dialogue and tense scenes

[J. Spurlin · 26 May 2011]

An 11-year-old boy (Tommy Nolan) neglected by his father (Frank Overton) gets so caught up in his fantasy world that he takes a real rifle to hunt down his made-up enemy, the evil Black Bart. This early episode, which according to the other reviews is atypical of the series, is probably a bit too static. Much of the screen time is given over to the mother (Bethel Leslie) and father having a domestic quarrel in their summer cabin. As a magazine writer, his job takes him mentally and often physically away from his family, and the wife yearns for him even while asking him for a separation. Still, I couldn't help but enjoy the heightened, intelligent dialogue of a kind that is only heard in the old TV dramas of the day. The director (Arthur Hiller) and writer (Robert Dozier) do a pretty good job of punctuating the talk with tense scenes of the boy putting himself, and eventually a poor fisherman he mistakes for his quarry, in danger.

Disturbing view of the mind of a neglected child.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 5 October 2019]

For young Tommy Nolan, the busy career of his father Frank Overton has made Nolan a truly disturbed child. Obsessed with the legends of Black Bart and William Tell, and getting ahold of a rifle, he makes neighbor Parley Baer the subject of his anger, holding onto the name of Bart because of his father's first name.

As Nolan is out terrorizing the countryside, Overton and his wife Bethel Leslie are busy discussing their son's issues and the future of their marriage. Leslie wants a separation but Overton fights that with the argument that everything he's done has been for the good of the family. But is it really good when Nolan is busy forcing Baer to put an apple on his head so he can shoot it off?

This is definitely disturbing, showing the psychiatric breakdown of a young boy but I didn't for a minute buy the conclusion, wrapped up too nearly but extremely clumsily. Performances are decent, and tension is real, but outside the delusions of a problem child's mind, there's just that one click missing to make it all work.

To much padding in a fairly interesting story.

[b_kite · 5/10 · 30 June 2019]

The second episode follows a family who seem to be staying in there cabin summer home in the woods for vacation. The young son right off the bat has a very colorful imagination always chasing after a villian which he refers to as "black bart". The father is a writer and spends most of his time doing so, never really having much to do with either his son or his wife. She recommends he take the boy hunting, but, he doesn't seem vary interested in having much to do with him. The boy then leaves and furnishes his fathers .22 rifle to finally go out and stop "black bart", meanwhile the husband and wife talk, shes discusses the fact that the young boy was kicked out of summer camp last year due to shooting an apple from a boys head. They then talk about there relationship weather they should separate or not. Meanwhile, the young boy has taken a fisherman hostage and plans to reenact his apple trick, but, can the parents stop him in time. This is one of those stories that would be so much better at the thirty minute length. They spend much of the whole episode talking about how the husband and wife haven't had a meaningful relationship in years, she even hints that they have no sex life and he hardly won't touch her. This is fine, but, it goes on for way to long, and eventually everyone can she its just senseless padding. Things begin to pick up towards the end, but, its not really good enough to save it, and I believe this kid defiantly has more wrong with him then a wild imagination gone awry.

No Murderous Dolls Here (Or anything else of Interest)

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 2/10 · 29 August 2010]

For some reason, the makers of most Horror anthology TV series seem to have the unexplainable urge to throw in dramatic episodes that handle topics such as marital problems and lack of parental attention instead of delivering Horror. This was also the case with "Child's Play", the second episode of "Thriller", a show hosted by the great Boris Karloff in the early 1960s. Most of the early episodes of the series aren't really Horror but mystery/crime stories; this one however, is pure drama, and a very boring one I may add.

The episode is about a 12-year old boy who, after being ignored by his father, debauches in fantasies so extensively that they become dangerous. This might be an interesting premise; however, the episode mainly focuses on endless conversations between the mother and father which are both cheesy and so boring that they are hard to endure. The father is a total jerk, the mother is hysteric and the son is annoying. The only interesting part about the story, the boy's obsessive fantasies, are so unlikely that they are simply ridiculous. Supernatural stories do not need to be realistic, but they should have a certain inner logic. Children are not idiots, and they do not confuse stories with reality out of the blue, just because daddy gives them too little attention. The most interesting thing about "Child's Play" is the fact that it shares its name with a popular 80s Horror film. The only reasons to see this episode are Boris Karloff's introduction or the wish to see all episodes of the series. I'd recommend any other "Thriller" episode over this one, especially the later ones in which the episodes became Gothic Horror tales instead of rather un-mysterious mysteries such as this one.

Weak second episode

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 9 May 2008]

THRILLER's second episode "Child's Play" is hands down one of the weakest. An intriguing premise with a 12 year old boy brandishing a loaded rifle in search of an imaginary foe he calls Black Bart (actually his father's name) gets bogged down in endless talk between the lad's parents in a remote mountain cabin where they're spending the summer. The father is a writer of magazine stories who doesn't spend enough time with his son while the mother tries to shield the boy by concealing his past misdeeds from her usually absent spouse, especially the time he shot an apple off of a playmate's head in a nod to William Tell. An uncomprehending fisherman happens upon the boy and things get a little bit sticky from that point on, the director trying hard to create tension in cutting back and forth between the bickering parents and the child's loaded situation. As the father, Frank Overton engenders no sympathy whatsoever while the attractive Bethel Leslie (later seen in "The Merriweather File") does what she can with a boring, and bored, character (at least their conversations are shockingly frank for their time, a pleasant surprise). Overton is probably best remembered for the STAR TREK episode "This Side of Paradise" in 1967, the year he died.

story that reminds timely and increasingly frightening

[cbmd-37352 · 8/10 · 31 December 2021]

This episode is interesting for the fine acting and frank realistic dialogue somewhat unusual for this era. The father is focused on his work, not his family, but when his wife finally is honest with him in regard to her frustrations and their sons problems, he does respond, and stops working to spend time with the boy. The wife apparently is stuck in the 1950's fantasy of the happy homemaker who makes everybody else happy and never complains or ask for anything for herself. She bemoans the lack of marital relations, but has not initiated any herself, and although the husband expected to spend the month alone with her, they are stuck with the boy. She finally shares the boy can't go to camp because of his violent actions last year. Even worse, she sought no treatment for the child .

So the disturbed preteen is threatening a man with his shotgun. Given the current trend of school shootings, clueless parents and fatal shootings and other accidents during movie filming, the last scene where the father draws the threat to himself, and the gun goes off is truly terrifying.

Adults Talk

[AaronCapenBanner · 5/10 · 29 October 2014]

Frank Overton and Bethel Leslie portray Bart and Gail Hattering, who are deeply concerned about their son Hank(played by Tommy Nolan) while they are on vacation in a mountain cabin, where there are no other children, and Hank's fantasy life has gotten out of control, with him taking his father's rifle and trying to track down and kill Black Bart, who by no coincidence has the same name as his father, something an unsuspecting fisherman(played by Parley Baer) will discover, as he is to be a part of a William Tell scenario to be played out for real... Good actors can't save overly talky episode where not much happens until the tense climax. Until then, it's argue, bicker, and debate!

I didn't want to hurt him! I just wanted to scare him a little!

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 16 June 2014]

***SPOILERS*** This crazy kid Hank Hattering,Tom Noland, has gotten this weird idea in his mind that he's William Tell and is out to get this fictional character Black Bart whom he blames for all the trouble in the world including his own. It's Hank's mom Mrs. Gale Hattering, Bethel Leslie, who's been keeping her somewhat crazy son's secret from his pop Bart Hattering, Frank Overton, who's really the Black Bart of Hank's fantasy world.

It's when Gale is about to brake the news to her husband about the unstable as well as dangerous state of mind that Hank is in that thing start to get a bit hairy. The year before at summer camp Hank playing William tell shooting an apple off one's head was kicked out for almost blowing a fellow camper's head off in trying to prove his innocence, of what?, in his weird game of trial by fire. Now out in the woods Hank confronts this unsuspecting, in just how crazy Hank is, fisherman Parley Bear and plans, in shooting an apple off his head, to do the same thing!

***SPOILERS*** We soon learn that the Hatterings haven't been getting along very well in Bart a newspaper columnist spending all his time behind his typewriter and not with his wife & son. This not only is causing the breakup of his marriage but the alienation and resentment of his not too on the ball, or noodle, son Hank. Finally tracking down Hank and his terrified hostage, the fisherman, Bart himself play the part of the his son's object of resentment Black Bart to, if he survives from all this craziness, finally put an end to Hank's murderous obsession.

Apple

[NuttyBaby · 3/10 · 16 July 2023]

This is quite an episode, too much thickness with dull chat between husband and wife. It seemed to be dragging on and not properly exploring the main theme, which is the boy's over active imagination. He was going around playing but things took a worst turn once he ran off sneaking his father's loaded gun, He started threatening people and back at the holiday cabin, mother and father were talking and it went on and on and on... I found the wife in this episode untrusting and even partially to blame because she never told her husband that their son was banned from summer camp as he almost tried to kill another kid. She never thought it was important enough to tell her husband.

Yawn

[mcintoshalyssa24 · 2/10 · 16 May 2022]

The whole thing focused on the parents talking and drama. Normal husband/wife problems. 😒 And if the mom revealed what Hank did to one of the campers last summer at camp and that's why he got kicked out-tbh, she should have sought some help for her son. I mean, it's not just child imagination-but seriously would you let your kid get away with psychopath or homicidal maniac? I'm not a parent, never will be. But if I was in the mom's shoes, instead of focusing on my problems, I would place my kid in therapy or in a rehab Center.

A well done drama but hardly a thriller

[preppy-3 · 4/10 · 24 July 2014]

An episode of the "Thriller" TV series. It's about the Hattering family--father Bart (Frank Overton), mother Gale (Bethel Leslie) and only child Hank (Tommy Nolan). Bart has very little time for his wife and son. He's always busy writing articles for work. Gale and Tommy both feel neglected and alone. They rent a cabin in the woods one summer. Tommy is left to his own devices while his parents argue or work. Also his dad bought along two guns. Tommy gets one, loads it up and goes out hunting....

It's a good domestic drama. Most of the time is spent seeing Bart and Gale arguing and talking about whether should break up. The dialogue is good and both of the actors are excellent in their roles. However this is supposed to be a thriller...and it isn't. When we focus on Hank roaming around with his gun it gets kind of dull. Also since it's a 1960s TV drama we know how it will all end. It is well-done but just doesn't live up to the title of the series.

Ahead of its time

[bellaparkinson-33537 · 8/10 · 26 July 2023]

On first watch, I found this episode boring. Too much dialogue, annoying kid, the works. On rewatch, I'm impressed by how ahead of its time this display of fatherhood (or lack thereof) is. The father is absent, only cares about work, and holds his wife accountable for all their child's behavior. The son just wants his dad to spend time with him. I just can't believe they didn't take the guns out of the house after the summer camp incident!

The father doesn't feel connected to his child, and blames on his own "need to grow up too quickly". He does not parent his child, but takes him to the country so he can neglect his wife and child under the guise of "working". Too oblivious to almost believe, he somehow thinks that by just treating his 11 year old child (he thought he was 10) as an adult, he'll become one. Meanwhile his mother just wants him to feel loved, desperate to try to be the bridge between him and his father.

A terrifying picture of a neglectful father leads his child to try to find attention in any other way, even going so far as to name his main villain after his father.