Tales from the Crypt (TV Series) Strung Along (1992) User Reviews

"Lets not blow it out of proportion, it's just a TV show." A good tale from the crypt.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 20 March 2007]

Tales from the Crypt: Strung Along starts as an old 50's TV child's entertainer named Joseph Renfield (Donald O'Connor) gets a letter asking him to appear in a 50's TV special, since he hasn't worked for years he jumps at the chance despite reservations by his young wife Ellen (Patricia Charbonneau). Joseph hires a young guy named David (Zach Galligan) to help him prepare for his part in the show, however it becomes apparent Ellen doesn't like David as he senses she might be cheating on him. Ellen has been cheating on Joseph but she hadn't counted on Cocco the clown, Joseph's most treasured marionette...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 12 from season 4, co-written & directed by Kevin Yagher who is usually responsible for the opening & closing Crypt Keeper segments I thought Strung Along was another good tale from the crypt. The script by Yagher & Yale Udoff was based on a story from 'The Vault of Horror' comic book & is your standard murder-for-money tale until the horror themed twist ending which is pretty neat if maybe a touch predictable. The familiar Tales from the Crypt concepts are here in abundance, a jilted lover, the sustained build up, double-crosses, greed, murder & a twist ending in which some just deserts are dished out with a supernatural flavour. This one is quite serious in tone & doesn't have much black humour to it but it's still a good episode all the same.

The production values are good & it's well made, Cocco the puppet looks suitably creepy although apart from blood splatter at the end there's no gore or elaborate special effects in this one which is odd considering director's Yagher's background in special make-up effects & animatronics.

Strung Along is another nice little tale from the crypt that's worth a watch.

Puppet comes to life for a surprise I just love happy endings!

[blanbrn · 7/10 · 26 October 2006]

This crypt episode called "Strung Along" is well done with a surprise twist ending like many of the episodes, with some happy revenge as justice is served puppet style! In a tale of strings attached an aging puppeteer(Donald O' Connor) takes under his wing a new up and coming student(Zach Galligan) only to suspect that this student is the much younger lover of his sexy wife(Patricia Charbonneau). A nasty and cruel trick backfires, though as you will see in the end a puppet comes to life to string cruel lovers side by side! This episode ends with a nice twist and happy ending. After watching episodes like these time after time over the years you just feel good to see revenge and justice served crypt style. Right boils and ghouls!

Reminds you of another episode but still good

[shellytwade · 8/10 · 15 April 2022]

This is a lot like the episode in season 2 with the ventriloquist dummy but this time it ends in a much different way. Even if you manage to guess one twist, I"m sure you won't guess the second. Probably gruesome, this is what Tales from the Crypt is all about.

"You mean if you were you, or if you were me..."

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 10/10 · 21 September 2011]

To me this is definitely one of the best episodes of season 4, of which I only consider there to be 4. I felt that by this season the magic of Tales was fading fast. I love the lost horror art of the killer puppet done well, so that's probably why I rate this so highly. I care not for whatever flaws it may have.(Could have gotten someone better to play wife!) I have always found puppets to be creepy,(Except Pinocchio)more so with their strings attached, at least as a kid. I was even a little scared of Punch and Judy as a kid! I think that there are actually not that many horror movies/tales based on puppets, and I'm not counting those mostly awful Puppet Master movies that have really come to monopolise this mini-genre. I think this is one of the better ones ever made. I like the title's double meaning, what with the stringing along of the unfortunate Joseph, and the more macabre meaning later. Zach Galligan was such a cutie when he was in his chubby stage back in 1992, wasn't he? Anyway, I thought he was really good in this as a seemingly nice guy who later shows his true colours. As great as Zach played the nice guy, I thought it suited him much more playing a gloating bad guy. He should have done it more often. There's a really awesome moment near the end, when Dave looks under the bed for Koko. There's nothing there. He rises and is ambushed. A possible homage to Poltergeist? Patricia Charbonneau was okay as a cheater wife. I've only ever seen her in a few episodes of TV shows and in Robocop 2, I thought she was really good in that, good enough to deserve the credit anyway. Charbonneau is a lesbo? Wow. I knew there was something weird about her! I thought Donald O'Connor was great as a doomed ageing puppeteer who is just too trusting in his young wife for his own good.(Or is he?) I thought he was very sympathetic and I found it quite sad, the way he practically lived like a hermit in his big dark house, surrounded by faded grandeur, and reminders of better days, unable to really communicate with anyone except his favourite puppet, Koko...I thought that the puppet was so beautifully designed. He looked like a classic clown. He actually looked quite sweet. I loved the moments when it shows the puppet's face and then cuts to someone talking or something and then returned and you would see that the expression had changed, or the eyes would move ever so slightly. I really liked how they were careful to keep the puppet's mystique intact and never let him appear like the simple puppet he really is. The thing I liked most about the episode was how they never really let you know if Koko really speaks to Joseph, or if it's just in his head. Or, if it's a split personality, as Joseph is old and weak, while Koko is witty, commanding and strong. I think that his bond with his puppet is so deep, that Koko is already a little alive even before Joe's death. A neat bit is where Joe has just had a heart to heart with his apparently concerned wife. He says: "She's magnificent, isn't she Koko?" Koko replies: "She's a real piece' a work alright..." And you can so tell the the puppet doesn't trust her-or is it Joe that doesn't? I love that element, that the puppet can see things that Joe can't, or is unwilling to see. The two scenes that are my favourite ones are two simple scenes, really. They are one's where Joe is sitting in a darkened room with Koko, sharing his/their concerns about his wife. I find these scenes so great because their is such a magnificently dark and atmospheric feel to them , and such great ambiance. There's a roaring fire, it's raining, and Tales From the Crypt, god bless em' never one's for subtlety, even thunder and lightning! I just love it to death because it shows the true depths of Joe's bond with Koko, a bond that will go on, beyond the grave!!!(Thunder flashes!) When it gets to the point where the two liars look down on poor Joe and smugly and cruelly reveal their plans for the future, you really hate them. This was always one of the most fun things about Tales From The Crypt: those two jerks are going down! And you can't wait to see how! It's very weird at the end when it is revealed that after his death, Joe has truly become Koko. At first I didn't like how the puppet had Joe's face, but it works better that way if you think about it. They were one and the same all along, so it's only fitting it have his visage. Who cares if the ending is predictable? Which it isn't. When I first saw this, when it's at the part where Koko is apparently stabbing Ellen to death and Joe has a heart attack, I did not see it coming that it wasn't the real Koko. Complete surprise. If anything, that was probably what most people would have thought was going to happen. That final scene at the end. That is such a great horror image. Two dead would-be murderers, strung up like puppets, by a puppet. The perfect ending for this episode.

Watch that wife

[ctomvelu1 · 6/10 · 24 January 2010]

Donald O'Connor plays a retired puppeteer who is asked to perform on a nostalgia TV show. He is married to a woman half his age (Pat Charbonneau), who introduces him to a young man from her weekly acting class (Zach Galligan). The youth helps the old puppeteer spruce up his rusty act for the TV special. The wife may be cheating, possibly with her acting coach, and Galligan and the lonely O'Connor form a special bond, almost like father and son. No surprises here, as this follows the same plot as dozens of ventriloquist dummy horror movies. not to mention the PUPPETMASTER series. But it is worth watching for Charbonneau, in real life a lesbian who always brought an edgy level to her film and TV roles. The aged O'Connor, with his hair dyed dark brown, is at best bland.

Neat episode

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 3 August 2011]

Amiable aging puppeteer Joseph Renfield (a fine and credible performance by Donald O'Connor) decides to hire the eager David (a likable portrayal by Zach Gilligan of "Gremlins" fame) as his new assistant. Complications ensue when Joseph suspects that his snippy young wife Ellen (well played to the bitchy hilt by the lovely Patricia Charbonneau) is cheating on him. Director Kevin Yagher, who also co-wrote the engrossing script with Yale Udorff, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, maintains a serious tone throughout, and does a sound job of building a good deal of tension and creating a spooky atmosphere (Joseph's puppet Coco in particular is genuinely creepy). Moreover, there are a couple of pleasingly gory murders and a nifty surprise twist at the conclusion. The wonderfully macabre final image hits the twisted spot as well. John R. Leonetti's sharp cinematography provides an effectively slick'n'shadowy look. Jay Ferguson's shuddery score does the shivery trick. A worthwhile show.

Funny episode with an old glory from the 1950s

[bellino-angelo2014 · 9/10 · 27 June 2021]

Joseph Renfield (FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE's Donald O'Connor) is a retired puppeteer that one day is called for doing a TV special on the entertainment shows of the 1950s. His much younger wife Ellen is sick and tired of being used like a piece of forniture and goes to acting lessons for spending less time with Joseph. In fact, she has an affair with fellow student David (Zach Galligan) that one day goes to their house for learning the secrets of puppeteering from the Master himself. When Joseph finds out hints of his wife's affair in the drawer David stages her death but it won't go too far as Joseph uses his most known puppet Koko the clown for the revenge...

The episode was very entertaining and I loved the story about the puppeteer and the final scene when the police enters and finds out that he turned himself in Koko the Clown was very shocking and unexpected. Another one in a long line of great episodes.

Who's pulling the strings!

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 24 July 2016]

***SPOILERS*** Legendary song & dance man Donald O'Connor, remember him in "Singing in the Rain", is famous and retired puppeteer Joseph Renfield who's to do a TV show on the 1950's entertainment scene in 1992 when most people watching it have all but forget about it! With his old lady who's over 20 years his junior Ellen, Patricia Chabonneau,(Now that's a mouthful)sick and tired of his treating her like a piece of furniture compared to his favorite puppet Koko she decides to leave and take up acting lessons just to get away from him. It's Ellen's fellow acting class student David, Zach Galligan,who shows up at Joseph's house wanting to learn pup-petering from the "Master" himself in wanting, with his heart about to give out, to learn all the tricks of the trade before he expires and takes them with him to his grave.

It soon turns out that Ellen isn't going to acting school to learn acting but is having a affair with one of the student there who just happens to be***SPOILER of SPOILERS*** the handsome and hot in the pants David himself! The two plan to induce Joeseph to get a heart attack but there's only one thing in the way of them doing it: KoKo whom they to plan to do Joseph in with by scaring him to death. What they don't know is that it's KoKo who's got other plans and is ready to execute them.

Admitted out of the closet lesbian Patricia Charbonneau-Now that's a mouthful-as Ellen almost gave herself away at the very start of this TFTDS episode as we see her frisking by the pool with a shapely cutie of the same sex-woman-and enjoying it far more then her interaction with the handsome David whom she's supposed to be having an affair with. In the end Both Ellen and David were left hanging with KoKo-not her by then dead husband Joseph-pulling the strings.