Retro Recap - Tales From the Crypt: "Dig That Cat...He's Real Gone"

Written by Scotty

Every once in a while an opportunity of a lifetime presents itself to you.  It is your decision if you decide to jump at it or not, since you never know if it will present itself to you again.  If you decide to take it, it will change your life and you will be better or worse off for doing it, but you have to take it to find out.  There are repercussions for everything we do in life, but if you don’t take a chance once in a while, you will never know what you have missed.

Doctor Emil Manfred is out looking in the gutters, trying to find someone that he can experiment on with his new theories.  Finding Ulric sleeping in a box, Manfred has found the perfect person to perform his tests on.  Promising fame and fortune, Ulric is willing to hear the doctor out, but is curious about what would happen if the experiment goes awry.  With promises that he will not suffer, Ulric allows the doctor to perform the surgery that will change his outlook on life for the rest of his days.

Doctor Manfred is convinced that with the nine lives that cats have been known to have, he can transplant the small part of the brain to a human and allow a person to have the same longevity in life.  When Ulric wakes up, he is not convinced that the surgery was a success, so the doctor shows him first hand.  Shooting Ulric in the head, the newly rich homeless man awakes from his death and is set to make fortunes of his own.  The doctor has a plan ready to make money to fund his research and has sold the idea to the carnival to have a man killed and resurrected before the audience’s very eyes.  A new idea, but the owner agrees and Ulric the Undying has been born.

With his first death in the carnival being a success, Ulric becomes a phenom and people from miles around come and pay top dollar to see him die and come back to life in the same night.   Although there is no specific time frame for his resurrection, Ulric comes back every time.  With plenty of money coming in, Ulric wants more since he is the main attraction, but with more money, he gets a target painted on his back.  Killing Doctor Manfred in an auto accident, Ulric is happy with his new relationship with Coralee, but she wants what he wants, all of the money and ends up killing him in their love nest.  With nine lives to start with and down to one left, Ulric who is now broke will need to make the most money he possibly can with his final death and demands one hundred percent of the take for it.  But while waiting for death to come to his door once again, Ulric remembers that the cat had to die to give him his lives, and instead of starting his new life with nine lives, he only had eight.

As story of love, greed and never having to pay the consequences for ones actions.  This is a great story that sticks in your head, as if you are offered something that is too good to be true, it probably is, only if you can keep count that is.  With Joe Pantoliano as Ulric and one of my favorites, Robert Wuhl as Barker who is running the carnival, it is hard to go wrong with any aspect of the story.  With plenty of laughs…or attempted laughs from a salesman’s pitch, it is just a wonderful ride down the worm hole to see a man that has taken his life for granted. Until next time, Stay Scared.

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