Night Gallery (TV Series) Midnight Never Ends/Brenda (1971) User Reviews

The First Could Have Been a Twilight Zone Episode

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 8 June 2014]

Rod Serling was fascinated by those plots where a character or group of characters seemed unable to explain their existences and motivations. They seemed to be trapped in some loop, repeating only slightly what they do. Two questions seemed to surface: how did they get here and why? A hitchhiking soldier gets a ride from a woman. They are uncomfortable with each other because when questions are asked, they see unable to supply the answers: "Where are you going? Do you live in L.A.? and so on. They find themselves in a closed diner, forcing the proprietor to give them coffee, but soon are able to predict the next event. At some point, a policeman appears. The conclusion is pretty campy and a little unsatisfying. As were most of those Twilight Zone episodes following similar courses.

In "Brenda" we have a rather unbalanced little girl. She is a pain in the side to everyone on the island where she and her family vacation. She deliberately annoys both adults and other children on the island. She seems to have little conscience and ignores the pleas of her parents as much as possible. Her facial expressions display a kind of conniving humor. Let's face it. She's seems diabolical. Her parents know that when odd things happen on the island she is probably a part of it. One day she finds a strange creature that looks like a pile of leaves and debris. It walks slowly but seems to always be a few feet behind her. She tricks him into falling into a pit where he is unable to escape. She toys with him and talks to him. He does not respond verbally, but does react to her commentary. One day she lets him out. I'm not sure where the writers wanted this to go. Decide for yourself what the the thing's place is in the psyche of this bad seed.

"It's like I've lived all of this before."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 26 May 2017]

Quite often I find similarities between the stories offered on 'Night Gallery' with those of Rod Serling's earlier hosted series, 'The Twilight Zone'. With 'Midnight Never Ends', there's actually two connections I've come up with. It starts out a little like a first season TZ story titled 'The Hitch-Hiker' and ends up similar to a third season Zone entry titled 'Five Characters in Search of an Exit'. Not exactly the same mind you, but close enough to jog one's memory of the earlier series. Serling had a hand in the teleplay of both those stories, so there may have been some subliminal influence on this one which he wrote. The resolution here can be attributed to a case of writer's block on the part of Vincent Riley (Robert F. Lyons). It's a bit of a twist and not really the stuff of horror, but if you like scary, consider those two cups of coffee the Blue Danube Café owner served up at a dime apiece! Yikes!

As for the 'Brenda' segment, I can't imagine why stories like this found there way to the Night Gallery. There's no satisfactory ending to the episode, and one can only consider that the titled young girl had a lot more serious problem going on with her than what could have been dealt with in a short story like this. I categorize this one with the episode that was delivered the week prior during the series run called 'Silent Snow, Secret Snow'. Both of the stories dealt with troubled youngsters but offered no way out of their troubled psyches. I will admit though, reviewer 'mallon1968' had an insight into Brenda's loneliness I hadn't thought of, so if you accept that interpretation, I guess it makes the story a little more acceptable.

Two nifty stories

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 24 September 2018]

"Midnight Never Ends" - Hitchhiking marine Vince Riley (a fine performance by Robert F. Lyons) gets the feeling that he has already met Ruth Asquith (well played by the lovely Susan Strasberg) after she gives him a lift. Director Jeannot Szwarc relates the compelling story at a steady pace as well as ably crafts an intriguing enigmatic atmosphere. Neat little surprise payoff at the end, too.

"Brenda" - Bratty little girl Brenda (a perfectly obnoxious portrayal by Laurie Prange) meets and befriends a strange mossy creature while spending summer vacation on a remote island. This tale offers an interesting exploration of both the troubled psyche of a clearly unstable young girl and the desperate lengths some people will resort to in order to surmount loneliness.

From a short story by Margaret St. Clair.

[venusboys3 · 23 February 2009]

Now that these are up on Hulu I'm getting to see episodes I'd missed. This one, Brenda, if from a short story I happened to read a few years ago. The story doesn't explain much more than the Night Gallery version... except that the girl just finds the creature trapped in the quarry. She's an odd girl... has no friends... and the creature probably would do her in if it got a chance. In a way Brenda is more frightening because of her strange, dreamy malevolence... whereas the creature is just a wild thing, an animal. The 80's horror film 'The Pit' seems like it might have been based on the same story... though 'The Pit' is much more gruesome... and silly.

Mysterious Places

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 11 November 2014]

'Midnight Never Ends' - A hitchhiking marine on his way back to camp is picked up by a young woman, who then stops at a roadside diner, where the marine is convinced that he knows what is going to happen, but doesn't know why. Then there is that mysterious clicking being heard... Predictable tale isn't as surprising as it thinks it is, but still provides some fun.

'Brenda' - Laurie Prange plays a mysterious young girl named Brenda staying on an island with her parents who gets along badly with the residents, but finds solace in a hulking swamp creature who washes ashore, and causes trouble until it is trapped for later use... Odd tale does have an eerie quality about it, though isn't entirely satisfying.

Two good stories with so-so endings.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 2 September 2020]

'Midnight Never Ends'. A Rod Serling original, directed by prolific 'Night Gallery' director Jeannot Szwarc. Robert F. Lyons ("The Todd Killings") and Susan Strasberg ("The Manitou") star as Vincent Riley, a hitchhiking Marine, and Ruth Asquith, the motorist who picks him up. They're puzzled because they don't really seem to be in control of their own destinies. They inform us that they're performing the same routine so frequently that they can easily predict each others' dialogue. Things don't change when they drive up to a diner and forcefully order coffee. Still, they and two other characters can feel themselves being manipulated as if they are puppets. Overall, the script is good stuff (it's Serling, so you expect a degree of quality), with some sharp dialogue, but when we get to the conclusion / revelation, it doesn't come as any Earth-shattering surprise. Still, this is at the least well-directed and well-acted.

'Brenda'. Scripted by Douglas Heyes, based on a story by Margaret St. Clair. Laurie Prange ("Looking for Mr. Goodbar") plays the title character, a rather devilish kid who doesn't seem to care for making friends in any conventional way. Therefore, she's a lonely soul, albeit one who doesn't take her fathers' (Glenn Corbett, "Homicidal") lectures seriously. One day, she encounters a truly bizarre creature; although roughly humanoid, it seems to be made of mud and vegetation. Fear turns into intrigue soon enough, and once she's managed to trap it in a quarry, she finds herself making a connection with the beast, which does seem to respond to her words. Billed as an "unusual love story", 'Brenda' is by turns creepy, humourous, and just plain sad. It does go fairly far on the strength of young Pranges' affecting performance. The rest of the cast is fine (Barbara Babcock ('Hill Street Blues') and Pamelyn Ferdin ("The Beguiled") co-star), but the segment rests largely on Pranges' shoulders. Some viewers may feel some dissatisfaction with the rather open ending, but overall this segment IS fairly memorable, staying with you after it's over.

Seven out of 10.

Laurie Prange is beautiful and talented in her part as 'Brenda'

[belanger75 · 9/10 · 16 August 2019]

The kid lives on a sparsely inhabited with her dad and step-mom. Prange ( at least 18 in real life) is so God-given attractive and fun to watch as the title character it is unreal. The kid seems to have no mom and just a highly disciplining dad who admits he treats her rough but we never see him lay a hand on the beautiful Prange just punishes her to No end. The kid obviously feels sorry for herself with no mom and she is semi-destructive for a time but she will completely grow out of it The minute boys start finding her a great babe which is shortly. She meets a mucky monster but Prange is so engaging and ultra-beautiful in this the monster and his horror is all trivial.

Boris Karloff's Thriller vet Doug Heyes directed

[rokcomx · 7/10 · 16 June 2009]

RTN - the Retro TV Network - has been airing Night Gallery half hour eps each weeknight, and tonight's was one I don't remember seeing before, "Brenda" - turns out Thriller/Zone vet Doug Heyes directed it, but under a pseudonym.

Heyes did some of the greatest Twilight Zone eps, like the fondly remembered "Eye of the Beholder," but I'm particularly a fan of his work on Boris Karloff's Thriller, like the "Hungy Glass" episode with Shatner and Russell "Professor" Johnson - even horror author King has said it was one of the most terrifying things he remembers seeing on TV.

"Brenda" is a really strange ep about a mentally unbalanced girl who both befriends and taunts what looks to be a close relative of the Swamp Thing. There are a few Thriller-like and Heyes-like touches, such as back-to-back shots that alternate between pure terror and the young girl's strangely joyful reactions to the terror, like she's watching a Tom & Jerry cartoon instead of seeing her parents practically dumping in their drawers as they realize the swamp creature in their house (that she let in...with a giggle!) is impervious to their weapons.

(SPOILER PARAGRAPH) The girl is so wacked out that she imagines some kind of love affair with the creature, which sounds silly to type but actually made for a compelling ep, the way the actress played out a year in her character's skewed and psychotic life, managing to seem as if she's grown up when she returns to her monster's island, only to quickly crack back up into the whacked out lonely girl who may either marry or be eaten by her man-thing.

I see opinions on "Brenda" are wildly mixed here at IMDb --- I enjoyed it, tho it was unlike most Gallery eps. I would have found it worth my half hour, even if I hadn't noticed Heyes' credit on the IMDb page -

My ratings

[heidiann-17028 · 9/10 · 14 December 2018]

Midnight Never Ends 7.5 stars

Brenda 9.3 stars

My opinion of these two episodes.

Midnight ride to Nowhere

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 10 May 2014]

***SPOILERS*** Driving to L.A Ruth Asquith, Susan Strasberg, picks up this hitch-hiker Vincent Riley, Robert F. Lyons,who looks like he's a member of the US Marine Band carrying his guitar on his way to Camp Pendleton. Right from the start things don't seem to be going right between Ruth and Vincent in that they eerily remember that they've been through this before as if it's a reoccurring dream or nightmare. As things start to unfold everything that happens on their ride seemed to have been expected by the two in advance including ending up at the "Blue Danube Dinner" for a cup of coffee.

It soon becomes apparent that all this is some kind of weird dream or the two are on some kind of mind altering drug in them not remembering anything about their past and what their doing there in the middle of the night in what looks like the middle of nowhere! Things really get out of control when the local Sheriff Lewis, Robert Karnes, drops in for, you guessed it, a free drink and for reasons known only to himself threatens to arrest the two for the crime of being hippies, as if that's a crime, as well as on LSD which is a total fabrication on his part. Sheriff Lewis also starts to lose it when confronted by Vincent about who he is and what he can remember about himself before he popped up at the dinner as his mind goes completely blank!

***SPOLILERS*** The both mind blowing and altering ending has us see what exactly lead to all this and it has to do with Vincent's frustrations as a free lance writer. He's up to his neck with rejections and crumbled up pages of his "Great American Novel" and it's that that's driving him mad. He can't come up with an ending to his story and is forced to suffer writer's fatigue until he finally does. And as we see this may never happen with him quickly running out of ideas in how to finally finish his "Great Work".

Plot seems oddly familiar from an Outer Limits episode

[CCsito · 5/10 · 27 July 2009]

I saw this episode tonight on TV and it deals with a series of repeating events that involve a military man, a female driver, a diner operator, and a police officer. The female driver picks up the military man on the road and they feel that they are repeating an earlier event that they had previously experienced before. They try to convince the diner operator and police officer who they meet to no avail. The repeating series of events end with the military man being shot by the police officer. Eventually, it is revealed that someone with a writer's block is the instigator of these characters having to experience the repetitious series of events. An Outer Limits episode that I saw a few years ago seem to involve a similar replay of events that a scientist realizes that it keeps repeating (with the end being a massive nuclear blast). The scientist eventually figures out a way out of the infinite loop. The movie "Groundhog Day" also uses this "repeating series of events" in that movie's main theme.

Is it déjà vu or...something worse?

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 13 April 2024]

S02-E07 gives us a creepy pair of stories, but with a distinct problem: the first tale is too brief to really catch fire and the second is hurt by overlength. The opener, "Midnight Never Ends", written by series host Rod Serling, has Susan Strasberg picking up hitchhiking Marine Robert E. Lyons on a lonesome highway--a scenario both know well. Is this a case of déjà vu or is something else going on? "Midnight" is an intriguing piece that begs to be expanded upon; Serling cuts too quickly to the reveal, which director Jeannot Szwarc delivers matter-of-factly. "Brenda", written by Douglas Heyes from Margaret St. Clair's short story, has a dynamic set-up which is unfortunately tempered by too much detail. Laurie Prang is a trouble-causing youngster on an island vacation spot who befriends a boggy monster in the woods. Director Allen Reisner isn't very talented with his actors (everyone is hyped up for no particular purpose), although he delivers a boldly serious finale which, while not scary, is certainly admirable.

Not a horrible episode

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 24 February 2023]

Rod Serling is back in this episode and not just hosting as he contributes an experimental story that might not completely work, but offers something beyond the expected and the everyday.

"Midnight Never Ends" has Ruth Asquith (Susan Strasberg, Scream of Fear) and hitchhiking marine Vincent Riley (Robert F. Lyons, 10 to Midnight) returning again and again to a diner where owner Jim Emsden (Robert Hogan) and Sheriff Lewis (Robert Karnes) confront them, all as they hear the faint sounds of clicking. They've all been there before and yet, they have no idea why. You'll be able to decipher what this is all about relatively quickly, yet the blackened setting and strange air make this work. This is the second Jeannot Szwarc Night Gallery story that tries this approach.

This is the only story that has a painting of Serling, which is appropriate, as it is very much about how. A writer tries to bring his story to life.

"Brenda" (Laurie Prange) is a weird and often mean little girl, knocking over sand castles and treating her friends horribly. The one friend she bonds with and understands comes from the sea and is a monster feared by everyone in the summer vacation town she's spending a few months enjoying with her parents.

Directed by Allen Reisner, whose TV career had work on every show from The Twilight Zone and Playhouse 90 to Hardcastle and McCormick, and written by Douglas Heyes, who created the mini-series North and South from a short story by Margaret St. Clair, this has an odd monster, a strange little girl and an interesting friendship between them.

Not the greatest of episodes but definitely it's nice to have Serling back writing one story and Laird's influence isn't as strong.

One of the best of Season 2

[mallon1968 · 6 January 2009]

You can look at this episode at least two ways: One, as a rambling, silly episode with a bratty girl who befriends a decidedly unscary moss-like monster, or you can interpret this story as I do, as an impressionistic portrait of a lonely girl, where the monster is some important part of Brenda herself, and as the monster seems to be the only entity she has any meaningful relationship with, it only underlines her loneliness, and I find this very poignant. Laurie Prange is probably too old to play Brenda, but she plays it very convincingly, and the teleplay by Matthew Howard (Douglas Heyes) keeps things appropriately ambiguous--has the monster always been on the island? How responsible is Brenda for stirring it to life, and if so, why? There's no shock ending: the monster doesn't 'get' anyone in the end, and viewers are more than adequately left with an unsettling impression that when Brenda returns to the island the following year, the monster will return, too, with a vengeance. Skillfully written, directed and scored (the acting's a little broad--see Glenn Corbett--no matter), and an excellent mix of both the sad and the unsettling, and very resonant to this viewer.

mmmm skip this one!

[mm-39 · 4/10 · 16 March 2024]

Midnight Never Ends well there was this repeating historical loop episode. I do not know if the character are in hell or the diner was haunted, but just does not work. Has a late 60's twisted drug influence feel. More of a haze then a mystery. Brenda the monster one was just dumb. Starts out interesting, but becomes strange. What was the conclusion. All I can say Brenda was one of the most annoying character I have ever seen in T V history. Has too be influence from real life. Everyone knew a Brenda once in their life. Speaking of Brenda the episode grabbed the viewers attention, but became as annoying as the Brenda character. 4 stars.