Director: Richard Donner
Writer: Terry Black
Starring: Joe Pantoliano, Robert Wuhl, Kathleen York, John Kassir
Quick Kill: Drowning, stabbing, and other grisly deaths? All in a day's work.
Review: Another super-raspy outing from the Cryptkeeper kicks things off.
The episode proper starts with a nicely executed POV shot through a low-rent circus set to really eerie music. Sideshow act Ulric the Undying (Pantoliano) is introduced by a creepy barker (Wuhl). Ulric throws us some quick direct to camera exposition, and we move into flashback land. Sure, Ulric may now be a circus star who is about to be buried in a coffin only to rise again. But he started as a bum, buried under a cardboard box in an alley.
Ulric is enticed by a cash offer to the lab of genetic scientist Dr. Manfred. The doctor claims to have proven true the folk wisdom about cats having nine lives. Testing will require only a willing subject and the implantation of a feline gland. Once the surgery is complete, he is Ulric the Unbelieving, and takes a bullet's worth of proof from the doctor (life #1). Ulric does indeed return from the dead.
Together, the men hatch a plan to sell Ulric's resurrection powers for major money (millions, in Ulric's mind)...to the same seedy circus we see at the open of the episode. Well, I guess Tales' logic isn't always completely sound.
Ulric's first show is a drowning (#2). He multitasks and also makes a date with cute show assistant Coralee (York). The show appears to have failed, as the resurrection takes a little longer this time, but the man lives up to his name in the end. As a result, Ulric does indeed become a circus sensation, and his next show is a hanging (#3).
But like so many EC partnerships, the possible monetary comfort of both parties is superseded by the greed of one, and Ulric uses his next life (#4) to eliminate Dr. Manfred in a car crash on a rainy night.
Now in full control of the Ulric fortunes, the shows continue with an electrocution (#5) which almost results in his being embalmed when the resurrection takes hours to take effect. Understandably wary about this happening again, Ulric asks his girlfriend to make sure his body is kept safe after the shows.
Ulric's next show sees him killed (#6) by means of an arrow in a human shooting gallery. (90's TV historians take note: the kid who is forced to take a shot at Ulric is played by none other than Salute Your Shorts' Donkeylips [Michael Bower]).
Rich and getting richer, Ulric seems to be on top of the world. But as the true Tales fan knows, in this world, no bad deed goes unpunished. Coralee literally backstabs Ulric (#7), and takes off with his cash.
Now broke and down to his last resurrectable life, Ulric plans one last big show and gets Wuhl to agree to give him 100% of the profits. Death number 8 will be burial alive in that coffin from the top of the episode, and Ulric will be dug up and brought back to life the next day. Monologuing to us about how sweet life is going to be once he gets that cash, Ulric slowly comes to the conclusion sharp-eyed and minded viewers may have already reached (though I didn't the first time I saw the episode). The cat Ulric received his gland from died in the service of the experiment, and therefore only had eight lives left to give. Cue screams and fade to black.
Pantoliano is good in the episode, but not at his best. Wuhl ends up as the standout here. He's delightfully manic and over the top, both in performance and appearance (that ever-changing facial hair!).
The writing is probably the best of the series thus far. The jokes, often tinged with death or cat related punchlines, are strong. The story is developed well, and the monologue of the reveal is handled with a sense of genuine dread.
However, apart from the opening POV work and a few other moments here and there, I was disappointed in Donner's direction here. It may have just been the show's low budget in the early going keeping things from reaching their full potential, but it doesn't have the snap of Zemekis' "And All Through the House". And for a show with so many death sequences, none of them are particularly visually interesting. That was probably the biggest disappointment of the episode.
"Dig That Cat" is not a bad episode, but it does have the misfortune of directly following the series' first great one.
Best Death: As mentioned above, the death scenes here are a disappointment. The electrocution is the best of the bunch, though.
Creeper Corner: None this time around.
Cryptkeeper's Line of the Week: "This little drama is about one of life's little unexpected pleasures. Dying, that is!"
Episode Rating: I'm tempted to end up at 2.5 here. However, the ending is so strong, I'm going to cut it a little slack. 3 out of 4 Cryptkeepers
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