From the Archives of Vintage Television: Night Gallery - Lindemann's Catch (1972)

Tonight’s focus is on ‘Lindemann’s Catch,’ the opening segment of Night Gallery’s 16th episode from season 2. Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1969 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre, introduced by Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling, who was also a major script contributor.

Set in a small, 19th century New England fishing village. One fogshrouded evening, Captain Hendrick Lindemann (Stuart Whitman), a cold-hearted and weary fisherman enters the wharfside fisherman’s tavern and soon gets into a row with Abner Suggs (Harry Townes), scrounging among the villagers for a bit of spare coin in exchange for a fortune reading. After slugging the harmless old man, Lindemann return to his boat and finds his crew huddled around their mysterious catch. Tangled in their nets, is a living mermaid (lovely Annabelle Garth). The poignant tale benefits from a brooding, dark and foggy atmosphere, crafts a gloomy vibe, with its mysterious sea creature, and fish-headed monstrosity straight out of Lovecraft, the production design perfectly establishing the feel of a 19th century New England fishing village setting, with its fogshrouded wharf and desolate gas-lit tavern, evoking a nicely moist and damp nautical vibe. There are a few surprising near glimpses of nudity, though the mermaid’s breast remain covered by her long flowing hair, and the grim and tragic ending packs a potent punch. The near-nudity was rare but not exceptional. Some vintage television movies like the 1975 ‘The Legend of Lizzie Borden,’ ‘Helter Skelter’ from 1976 and the British ‘Spectre,’ 1977, featured actual nudity.

According to some sources, these sequences were specifically shot for the versions exhibited theatrically in Europe, like some of Baker and Berman’s British horrors, ‘The Flesh and the Fiends’ and ‘Jack the Ripper,’ or Lindsay Shonteff’s ‘Devil Doll,’ in the late 1950s and 1960s. The sequences at the tavern are reminiscent of the villagers huddling together and conspiring at the start of Corman’s 'The Haunted Palace,' while this enjoyable episode would make a nice nautical companion piece to the atmospheric The Wild Wild West episodes, ‘The Night of the Watery Death,’ featuring a Mermaid Bar, and ‘The Night of the Kraken.’