User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** Local neighborhood bookie Tommy Vale, Danny Aiello, has a reputation of never turning down a bet with him of course setting the odds and paying off no matter how deep in the hole or in debt he gets.

As Tommy is talking over the local take with his good friend and accountant Horace Chadway, Robert Weil, in pops a ghost dressed all in white from Tommy's past Bill Lacey, Tom Noonan. Lacy is out to break Tommy in what he did to his father Bill Sr. that lead the guy to kill himself by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Making a number of bets on the ponies as well as basketball games Lacy has the stunned, in how lucky the guy is, Tommy Vale on the balls of his you know what by the time the day of betting with him is over.

As Tommy is getting clobbered by Lacy he finally realizes that the guy is not Lacy Jr. or a relative or friend of his but Lacy himself who came back from the dead to seek revenge in Tommy busting him in the bets he placed with Tommy over 20 years ago! Knowing that Lacy can somehow see the future Tommy still takes his bets and gets clobbered by them to the point where he's just about busted himself!

***SPOILER ALERT*** With Lacy not really interested in money since he can't spend it where he is or going back to the only bet left his has to make with Tommy is on his life! Taking Lacy's bet that he's to die at exactly 8:00 am the next morning Tommy knows that he can't change what fate and the future has in store for him. It's what a "Hail Mary" like pass on Tommy's part the he pulls off the impossible in cheating death and a stunned Bill Lacy by living passed the deadline, 8:00 am, that Lacy set and bet on him to expire!

As we soon see Tommy's number was indeed up but he still had an ace up his sleeve that the so sure of himself and overconfident as well as a bit naive Lacy never thought of. And in finally winning the bet of his life and sending Lacy back to where he came from Tommy can now die in peace knowing that his reputation in never ducking a bet is still in tact as well as die with a great big smile on his face!

Danny Aiello plays Tom Vale, a bookie who never turns down a bet. A mysterious man by the name of Bill Lacey comes along and challenges Vale. Vale graciously accepts, thinking Lacey has no chance by making some ludicrous decisions. Lacey starts winning bets left and right. Tom Vale realizes who Bill Lacey is when Lacey bets that Vale will die of natural causes by 8:00 am the next day. This is the first episode I've enjoyed since the pilot. This show churns out some poor episodes, and a lot of them don't make much sense. This one has a few plot holes as well, but at least it's pretty entertaining. The atmosphere is laid on thick in this one. There is always a sense of eeriness. Bill Lacey's motive isn't explored as much as I'd have liked, but it gives us just enough to have his revenge make sense. Danny Aiello's performance is excellent. I did feel he was a bit too complacent with his precarious situation, but he definitely felt like bad-ass at the same time. Tom Noonan is quite creepy as Lacey. I quite liked this one. Some might find it to be a bit slow-paced, but I enjoyed it.

7.5/10

Maybe it's because I like stories about chance, luck, betting against the odds, etc., but I found this episode to be the best out of the first five "Tales from the Darkside". It's a cracking little tale about a bookie who takes the ultimate bet: against his own life. Danny Aiello is perfectly cast in the role and gives a strong performance, and there are at least two big surprises awaiting the viewer. The scene where all the characters sit around a table as the clock is ticking closer and closer to the bookie's "foretold" time of death is great, as is the line "Wake me up if I die!". To find such a good episode so early in this anthology series is certainly auspicious. *** out of 4. EDIT: After watching the entire first season, this is the best out of the 24 episodes, with "Slippage" its only serious competition.

"I've never been cheated. I've never been broken. I'm still the best."

A bookie, Tommy Vale (Danny Aiello), known to beat the odds time and again, meets his match in a tall, white-suited man, Bill Lacey (Tom Noonan; who looks just as creepy as ever, also wearing a white hat). Lacey walks in one day, five $100 nickels (out of circulation), a smile on his face (and a peculiar chuckle when he wins), betting on a horse no one believes has a prayer of crossing the finish line ahead, actually winning. Despite the odds against each choice (a Baltimore Orioles pick, a certain boxer known as the Bold Avenger, etc), Lacey continues to win. Vale agrees to a very unusual bet from Lacey—Tommy's life is the odds! Vale never refuses a bet and takes him on. 8:00 a.m. is the time Lacey expects Tommy to die and the wait is on...will Tommy lose this bet as well? Nice supporting part for Robert Weil as Tommy's associate, Horace, who looks at his boss' strategy, questioning his methods of receiving bets that could cost him, especially concerned of Lacey's morbid bet on whether Vale will make it to 8:00 or not. Tommy and Horace notice that Lacey looks familiar, that he is similar to a man who once laid bets with them, losing over and over until he was broke, eventually taking his own life. A supernatural twist is involved here which I thought was perfect for a show like Tales from the Darkside—explaining how Lacey is so hot with his bets, why he has the inside track, and particularly the specific time table for Tommy's possible demise. Aiello is always watchable, even more so here, sweating, seeming to gray more as the show continues, but always assured, never wavering or showing fear despite Noonan's intimidating cockiness and confidence. Noonan has this ominous presence he was born with; the guy, no matter the part, walks into a scene and has this pervasive creepiness about him. Seeing the great staredown between Aiello and Noonan at the end, as the bet is coming close to its conclusion, is a treat. I have to say that after the first so-so episodes, Tales from the Darkside is starting to hit its stride.

Tommy Vale (Danny Aiello) never skips a chance to bet. So when a dead man comes back - Bill Lacey (Tom Noonan) - and wagers that Tommy will be dead in 24 hours, he takes that bet. And then we wait.

This episode feels almost like a stage play with Aiello's quiet dignity even in the face of his corrupt life and the fact that he's never been taken advantage of when betting up against a man who he thinks is Lacey's son but who could very well be a ghost.

Director James Steven Sadwith is probably best known for the Sinatra and Elvis miniseries that he directed. He co-wrote this with Carole Lucia Satrina, who also wrote three of the Cannon Movie Tales, Red Riding Hood, Puss In Boots and Beauty and the Beast.

The joy of this episode is seeing Aiello and Noonan act opposite one another. This is one of the rare episodes of this show with some restraint in the storytelling instead of a monster of the week and that makes this quite an enjoyable twenty plus minutes.

Obnoxious gambler Lacey (an excellent performance by Tom Noonan) just can't seem to lose a bet. But after he makes a wager that sly bookie Tom Vale (Danny Aiello in a terrific portrayal) will die at 8:00 a.m. the following morning, Lacey may finally have run out of luck. Writer/director James Steven Sadwith astutely nails the fierce competitive nature of high stakes gambling (Vale in particular has a legendary reputation about never refusing a bet that he wants to keep no matter what), makes the most out of the atmospheric barroom setting, generates a good deal of true tension, and pulls off an absolute doozy of a double surprise twist at the very end. Moreover, the two leads do ace work in their roles: Aiello brings a delicious rip-snorting brio to his character while Noonan projects a certain quietly unsettling creepiness and cuts a suave figure in a snazzy white suit. Robert Weil likewise registers well as Vale's loyal pal Horace Chadway. One of this show's best and brightest half hours.

Both episodes take place entirely in a smoke-filled bars, both have an older man in essentially a battle of wills with a younger one, both emphasize being the best, both have a supernatural element but it's not really the point of the episode, and both have sharp dialogue.

'The Odds' features Danny Aiello as Tommy Vale, a minor league bookie who repeatedly boasts that he's never been broken and he's never been cheated. He says at least twice that he's "the best", and like Fats in 'A Game of Pool', Tommy takes pride in being the best even though it's pretty minor. But like Fats says, it may not be the most important thing in the world but he's the best at it, and that carries a certain cachet.

The episode is sort of 'A Game' looked at from the oldest player's POV. This time it's the younger competitor who shows up, trying to destroy the oldest person. Okay, in 'A Game' there's no such destruction trying to take place, but this is 'Tales From the Darkside', not 'Twilight Zone'.

But you've got good performances from the two main actors. Danny Aiello as the older bookie is top star, with his constant boasting of being the best and never being broken, and the fact that everything he says and does sells that, is the mark of a veteran actor. The contempt in his voice near the end when he tells Lacey he's a cheap loser, and always was, is a thing of beauty.

Tom Noonan, a veteran "Hey, It's That Guy!" and general creepy character actor of the 80s, is also good as the Bold Avenger come back from the grave to "avenge" his own death.

High marks to Robert Weil as Tommy's loyal sidekick Horace and even Michael Quill as Lacey's staring "bodyguard". They have small part, but like they say, there are no small parts, only small actors.

Ditto for the episode. 'Tales' was never a great series, and will never be spoken of in the same hushed tones as most of the 'Twilight Zone's. But when it was hot, it was hot. And 'The Odds' is one of the best.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

Tales from the Darkside: The Odds starts as bookie Tommy Vale (Danny Aiello) gets a visit from a mysterious man named Lacey (Tom Noonan) who places some strange bets which seem like total losers but against all the odds come through & make him a load of money from Vale. Then Lacey stakes everything he has won from Vale on an unusual bet, he bets everything that Vale will die of natural causes by 8 O'Clock the following morning. Vale never refuses a bet & accepts, as 8 O'Clock fast approaches who will win the high stakes bet?

Episode 4 from season 1 this Tales from the Darkside story originally aired in the US during October 1984, written & directed James Steven Sadwith this didn't really impress me all that much. The script is rather slow, there's a lack of action & there's not much too it. The whole 'con a conner' type story is somewhat lost, the twist ending seems lacklustre & a bit uninspired. The character's are OK as is the dialogue but it just plods along in the same vein for 20 odd minutes & then ends with a whimper rather than a bang. Not one of the better episodes, there are better episodes out there.

This one is set in the same location throughout, it looks OK but gets repetitive. It's well made but forgettable, there's no horror or scares in this one either as it relies totally on it's twist ending which is where it falls down. The acting is alright & Danny Aiello is the first big name guest star to appear in the series.

The Odds is a dull sort of story, it's build up isn't anything special, the twist isn't anything special & neither is the episode as a whole. Not a classic in my opinion.