Double Dipping: 'The Weird Tailor' - Boris Karloff's Thriller

 Asylum is a surprisingly rich topic for content.

One of the Segments was called 'The Weird Tailor.'

Well, in 1961, it was also adapted into an Episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller.

With Robert Bloch writing both versions, how do they match up?
Let's see...

A drunk, young man waltzes into his Dad's Room, where he is doing a dark, possibly Satanic ritual.

He walks into the Circle and... dies...I guess.

I mean, I guess that makes sense...maybe?

Unlike the Film's version, we see more of the Tailor- played by famous That Guy Henry Jones- and he's...a drunk jerk.

Joy- I'm glad they fleshed him out here.

The rich guy- calling himself Mr. Smith- sees a Psychic to make his next move and she leads him to...a Used Car Salesman.

That guy sells him the Book for- wait for it- $1 million.  

That's ALOT!

Also the Psychic is blind, which is supposed to be a twist.

He finally goes to see the Tailor- who, to be clear, is not actually weird here- and everything plays out the same.

Make the Suit between midnight and 5 am.  Use only this material.  No buttons.

During all of this, we see that the depressed Wife keeps the old Suit Mannequin in a nearby Room (since it was damaged) and talks to it because she is so unhappy.

Fun.

In a slight change, the Tailor finds the body and thinks that the Dad killed the Son and, somewhat intentionally, stabs him off-camera.

He returns home and gets abusive, literally choking the wife.

The Mannequin- with the suit on it- comes to life and kills him, speaking to her.
The End.

I think that sometimes less is probably more.  There's probably not a bad Robert Bloch Story out there, right?

Even so, I like the cut down one better.

For one, they don't make the Tailor a bad person.  He's exasperated by being broke and under pressure.  When he kills Smith, it is the classic 'trying to wrestle the gun away' bit, so he's not an active killer.
He's also not awful and then killed (the latter because he has to be 'telling the story,' of course).

Likewise, there's far more mystery about Smith in Asylum as well.  We don't see how his son died, which is key.  We don't see him go to a Psychic- twice, no less! 
Seriously, that second appearance was filler, right?

We also don't know that he's spent all of his money, which is a nice twist to add when the Tailor comes for payment.

Again, I must ask- why is this called 'The Weird Tailor.'  He's a dick in this one, but that's, sadly, not that weird.

So, I won't say that the Thriller Episode is bad- not at all.  It's just a rare case of the shorter version hitting all of the right beats without adding the stuff we don't need.

Fun fact: Jones was the final Villain on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.  He was a Time Traveler who tried to betray America to the British and change history in their last Episode.

Asylum has the better, shorter version, but do check this one out too.  I mean, it's Thriller- it's always going to be pretty good.