Night Gallery - Spectre in Tap-Shoes

Sandra Dee had her big lead episode of Night Gallery with this very familiar kind of “woman in mourning driven to madness” story in the episode titled, “Spectre in Tap-Shoes”. I think Dee is just fine as the deteriorating Millicent, succumbing to delusion, it would seem, after finding her twin sister hanging, still wearing her tap shoes, a turned-over chair indicating how it all happened. Of course, there is more to this than meets the eye as Dane Clark co-stars as a property developer/businessman desperate to purchase the Dance Studio property the two twin sisters owned and operated. Christopher Connelly appears sparingly as a confidante of Dee’s, someone who wants her to get counseling and help, understanding her to be in deep grief and suffering perhaps from guilt in not being there, or even seeing whatever signs might have been present. Dee hearing piano music and tap-dance on the floor where the sisters used to perform together is a significant presence in the episode, and she is tasked with convincing us that her Millicent is having a mental come-apart, even seeing her sister’s hair in a brush, cigarette butts around (Millicent doesn’t smoke, her sister did), dresses hanging in the closet (her sister’s red dress as an example, with no recollection of ever putting it there), and a locket that was buried with the sister, now found on a desk in the studio. So the episode asks us to determine if the sister is haunting Millicent or if a total personality takeover might even be underway…a sign when visiting a doctor both the sisters know reveals that perhaps Millicent has dual personalities since the sister’s death. Clark’s involvement in what is happening to Millicent should be of no real shock considering he wants the property bad enough…but the story does leave us firmly aware that Millicent needed her sister’s help when Clark’s William Jason came calling for proof of an affair, blackmail he was willing to kill for. The trope of gaslighting is tried and true…manipulate someone into believing she is seeing things and hearing things no one else does, slowly driving the person to think it is all some illusion concocted by a mind and emotional state toiling with a severe loss. Dee’s drifting off while Clark is discussing the property with her is a good example of how she gradually gives way to the madness…even if manufactured, enough grief and trauma can definitely seed into something devastating on the mind. And those “demons of the mind” seem to remain with Millicent if you take how Dee still seems to hear that piano tune…those tap-dances on the floor may never leave her. 3/5