User Reviews

Tales from the Darkside: Red Leader is set in New York in the office of ruthless real estate developer Alex Hayes (Joe E. Tata) where he is visited by his dead partner Jake Kay (Carmine Caridi) who now exists in hell but he wants more & ask's Alex for the files which proves his criminal activities, unfortunately for Jake the files also incriminate Alex so he refuses to hand them over. Then the main man himself the Devil turns up...

Episode 16 from season 3 this Tales from the Darkside story originally aired in the US during February 1987, directed by John Sutherland one has to say that Red Leader is yet another poor Tales from the Darkside episode that just feels so pointless & surreal. The script by Edithe Swensen is just strange & doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I just don't understand what people see in these odd pointless little episodes. When Tales from the Darksides concentrates on being a horror it's good but when it is as unfocused & an uneven mix of bizarre ideas as Red Leader I just don't like it at all, even at a short twenty minute duration this bored me.

Like many Tales from the Darkside episodes Red Leader is set entirely in one single location with the minimum of actor's. This episode isn't scary, there aren't any special effects to speak of & I don't really know what sort of audience Red Leader was aimed at. Actor Joe E. Tata went on to appear in no less than 238 episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990 - 2000) & I am happy to say that I haven't seen a single one of them.

Red Leader is yet another Tales from the Darkside episode that I have to admit I didn't like at all, the strange mix of clichéd ideas & themes just didn't do anything for me.

In one of the more audaciously comic episodes on Hell and the use of backstabbing, greedy, immoral corporate business practices tying to it, Tales from the Darkside delivers a rather absurd and inspired episode that goes for broke and doesn't look back. It is all in the script and the way the material is performed. This isn't something you take seriously at all. When you have the recently deceased businessman, Jake Caine (Carmine Caridi), bulldozing his way into the office of former partner, Alex Hayes (Joe E Tata) from hell (!) itself then realizing this is anything but a satire should be the way to look at the episode. I could just go with it, myself, especially considering how Tata just immerses himself in the sleazy dirtbag in a suit and tie role with a smile on his face, a devious mind always at play to see how he can make it out on top no matter the situation, and a knife (or in this case, a gun in his desk drawer) ready to stab in the back of anyone who threatens his status of power. When the Devil (Peter Bromilow), known by his minions (the top-of-the-line generals over the peasant workers in hell) as Red Leader, shows up with an offer to Alex, Jake realizes he is even a flunky to Hayes in the afterlife (haha!). There is even a minion in a hard hat (Devil also emerges in a hard hat!) that was in charge of Jake, trying to retrieve him, not knowing Red Leader set all of this in motion to get a meet-and-greet with Alex.

You have to either go with it or just give up because this is totally dedicated to the satiric jabs of how companies in corporations use cruel, evil, or conniving tactics to make heavy profits. We get an early scene before all the supernatural shenanigans where Alex is confronted by Jake's luscious (and desperate) wife, Amanda (Brioni Farrell) after the funeral, wanting to appeal to his vanity or desire. Running through what he has taken away from her (she is honest that she just married Jake for his money), Alex is rather proud of himself and just can't get rid of that grin, despite all the threats pointedly directed at him by Amanda…a woman scorned is not a good idea. Red Leader will use Amanda's rage for his own purposes. The script offers a ludicrous plot development involving Satan needing a minion of *high caliber* to organize the construction of his palace, offering the "lofty position" to Alex if he'll accept a prime spot in Hell! Tata and Caridi are fun to watch, particularly when the former tries to talk down the latter's evil wickedness in life, but Bromilow as Satan bests them in a delicious part where he is quite confident that he'll get his way. The way he lights up one of Alex's cigars, comfortably lounges on a coach in Alex's office, and goes into his presentation to secure Alex's favor (his complaining that there just isn't the same level of good minions anymore is a particular highlight), Bromilow nails the part. But how corporate greed and avarice is parodied in connection with what it takes to *get it good* in hell is what I took away from this episode as a major reason it is a riot. Also how the actors really make their characters amoral and slimy, perfectly fit subjects for hell, is what truly makes the material work.

Avaricious and unscrupulous businessman Alex Hayes (well played to the smarmy and ruthless hilt by Joe E. Tata) is so good at being bad that none other than Satan appears in his office to make him a juicy offer that he can't refuse. Director John Harrison relates the enjoyable story at a brisk pace and maintains an engaging tongue-in-cheek tone throughout. Edithe Swensen's witty script pokes wickedly amusing fun at cutthroat corporate culture. The concept of hell as a construction site is genuinely inspired. Moreover, there are sound thespic contributions from Carmine Caridi as Alex's equally immoral deceased partner Jake Caine and Brioni Farrell as Jake's conniving widow Amanda. However, it's Peter Bromilow who easily cops the top acting honors with his sly and robust portrayal of a shrewd and ingratiating devil. A real hoot.