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Director Gerd Oswald's, FUN AND GAMES, is a weird,
exciting Sci-Fi tale.
Nick Adams, who came to fame, as TV's "The Rebel", is quite
good playing a former prizefighter who hates confinement. He is persuasive
as a fugitive on the run who only reluctantly chooses to fight for the
Earth's survival.
Nancy Malone is Adam's blond, pretty, anti-violence teammate. Malone
holds our interest as a pacifist who must decide if she can discard
her strongly held beliefs, in order to save someone she cares about.
The dialogue in this episode, (Teleplay by Robert Specht and Joseph
Stefano; Story by Robert Specht), is better than usual. When the alien
game master asks Adams, "Are all of you that preoccupied with death?,"
Adams succinctly replies, "Only game you can't win."
There are two types of aliens in this episode. The ones that you see
clearly, Adams and Malone's alien opponents in their battle for survival,
look silly, with unconvincing Halloween mask-type heads. But the alien
running the game, "The Senator" (Robert Johnson) is mostly
kept in the shadows, and as a result is a more effective alien presence.
The music in the episode is quite varied, ranging from dreamy, harp
stuff to brassy, cliched "action" music. Dominic Frontiere
once again gets the music credit.
My favorite scene takes place late in the episode. As Adams hangs by
his arms from a log bridge, suspended over a deadly boiling lake, an
alien stomps on his hands with it's big-clawed alien feet. Malone shows
up, grabs an alien boomerang, then wrestles with her pacifist feelings
as Adams cries for help. It's a wonderfully suspenseful Sci-Fi scene.
Director of Photography, Kenneth Peach, excels in the episode's outdoors
scenes. A shot of the forest, pierced by diagonal beams of sun light
as Adams runs by, is terrific.
FUN AND GAMES should be rather watchable for most Sci-Fi viewers. Fans
of the late Nick Adams are in for a treat. FUN AND GAMES is a winner!
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