the Anatomy Professor

[needed]  (CBC)

[needed]  (CBCE)

As a lark, a pair of medical students steal the corpse of an old lady from an anatomy lab, but they soon discover that the joke's on them.  (NPR)

A medical student's prank raises more than a little hell when it comes back to haunt him in a most unexpected way.  (N25)

Medical students George and Fred are carrying the body of an old lady, a cadaver formerly of the medical school's freezer, to one of the local sorority houses. George has convinced a reluctant Fred that the girl who's stood him up once too often needs to be taught a lesson, and thinks that a stiff with a card on the doorstep is the perfect thing. Fred isn't so sure, but once George is on a tear, well...might as well follow along.

The next day, during hospital rounds in which he has the opportunity to aid a doctor in unsuccessfully reviving a flat-lined patient, Fred gets a strange phone call from a woman who insists he knows her. Despite his uncertainty, Fred accepts her request for a visit that night...to the same sorority house where he and George had left their "present".

Upon arrival, Fred is greeted by a vivacious young woman dressed as a flapper from the late 1920s, whom he doesn't recognize. Some mysterious talk and a bottle of champagne later, Fred is slipping out of his clothes and into the darkened bedroom of his hostess, ready for a fun time. Only, when he's finally in bed with her, he discovers -- rather shockingly -- that his sleeping partner is the corpse of the old lady he and George dropped off the night before.

Back at their rooms, George finds the story of Fred's misfortune all too amusing and assures him that it was merely the sorority girls reciprocating. But somehow Fred is far from reassured. He wonders ... could that girl have been the old lady, as she was at their age, during the heyday of the 20s?

That weekend, George is unable to persuade Fred to go on a skiing trip and leaves him behind to study. Not long afterward, Fred receives a phone call from his new admirer. He hopes leaving it off the hook will deter her from making further contact. Unfortunately, it doesn't, and eventually there is a knock on his door.

Standing on the doorstep, in the nude, is his admiring young flapper, who manages to convince Fred that he would be better off with her in her bed -- i.e. her grave -- than alone in his otherwise dull life. They leave together and walk into the night.

The following Monday morning, the anatomy professor comments on Fred's absence as George opens the freezer to retrieve the cadavers for class. A horrified wail from George draws everyone's attention to Fred's naked corpse, where it shares a slab with the old lady from their mischievous prank. As the professor hurriedly dismisses the class and shouts for someone to call the police, George can't help but comment to the professor: "They look so ... happy, sir."  (Neil Marsh)

Sometimes it's hard to review the first episode of a series you like. You want it to sound good so it will interest people, but you don't want to praise it too much if it isn't that good, otherwise people might not take anything else you review seriously. Fortunately, John Graham's "Love and the Lonely One" is neither terrible, nor is it the best the series has to offer. It's a good, solid -- if vaguely predictable -- horror story that gives listeners a hint of what's to come in future episodes.

One of the things you learn about Bill Howell's productions after listening for awhile is that there are certain actors he always relies on. By the time of Nightfall he had many regulars to choose from, among them John Stocker and Elva Mai Hoover. Stocker really shone in Howell's campy sci-fi adventure series Johnny Chase: Secret Agent of Space, where he played a large handful of regular and recurring characters, sometimes providing more than half-a-dozen voices in one episode! Hoover, among the many productions she played in for Bill Howell prior to Nightfall, was in the CBC Playhouse episode from 1979, "The Sisters" by Silver Donald Cameron and featuring music by Stan Rogers. Her voicework has, like Stocker's, taken her to roles from ...

[more to come...]

  (Neil Marsh)

Following George's final line with the bouncing beat of a Charleston-era Dixieland tune is classic. It's so inappropriate to the events that have just transpired that it fits perfectly. This type of juxtaposition is typical of Nightfall, but must have been a bit of a shock to people tuning into this as the first episode of the series.  (Neil Marsh)

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I loved the music and sound effects on this story. The voice of the dead woman is gruesome! "Right from the start..." Ick! I also really enjoy the creepy intro with Graham Haley talking about "Henry". Fiendish!  (Kevin Hartnell)

Content ©2006  The Nightfall-25 Project
Nightfall was created by Bill Howell and is property of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Nightfall-25 Project is not affiliated with the CBC

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