Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King/Umney's Last Case

Umney's Last Case
Episode 3
Airdate	July 19, 2006
Written by	April Smith
Directed by	Rob Bowman
← 2 Crouch End	4 → The End of the Whole Mess
Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King

Umney's Last Case is the third episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King. Clyde Umney is a fictional private investigator in the 1930s. His writer, Sam Landry, tries to switch places when things in his life take a turn for the worse.

Starring: William H. Macy (Clyde Umney/Sam Landry/George Demmick), Jacqueline McKenzie (Linda Landry/Gloria Demmick)

Co-Stars: Victoria Mussett (Arlene "Candy" Cain/Pool Girl), Harold Hopkins (Vernon Klein), Melinda Butel (Ardis McGill), Don Halbert (Dunninger), Peter Curtin (Mr. Woolrich), Louis Corbett (Danny Landry), John Orcsik (Stan the Cop), Sigrid Thornton (Mrs. Anges Sternwood), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Brandon)

Plot Overview

In 1938, Clyde Umney is a Chandleresque, hard-boiled private investigator. He wakes up one day and things seem a bit strange. His neighbors are nowhere to be seen, nor is their dog. The elevator operator is retiring because he has terminal cancer. Clyde is greeted in his office by Sam Landry, the owner of the building. Sam looks just like Clyde and is from the future. He is a writer who is writing the life of Clyde Umney.

Landry's son died in a drowning accident and Sam has been neglecting his wife by working all the time writing. During one of their fights, Landry got the idea to come see Clyde. He wants Clyde to console his wife because he can't do it himself. Umney refuses and so Landry starts writing one of Clyde's girlfriends out of his life. Landry writes himself in the place of Clyde Umney and takes his life. He writes Clyde out of the story by having him move out of town. When Clyde disappears he reappears in the real world, as Sam Landry. Sam's wife takes to Clyde, but discovers that he's not changing from how he was in the stories. He wants to go back to his world but doesn't know the way.

Ms. Landry is walking down the street when she sees an ambulance and has a flashback of the night her son drowned. She goes to the rooftop of the hospital and jumps off. Sam Landry senses what is going on from inside Clyde's world and regrets what he has done. Meanwhile, Clyde is trying to use the computer but realizes that he's not a real writer. Nevertheless, he decides to continue writing so that he can get his revenge on Landry.

Reviews

• Overall Grade: C+ with 1 review
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 1 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 0 F: 0
• C+: Another decent episode of the softcore horror series. I thought this episode had a lot of potential through the first 20 minutes or so. The 1930s detective novel setting was a good base for the episode, and the idea that this writer has made his way into the world and controlling everything was compelling. However it was at this point that they take away everything compelling about the episode and through in a lame family tragedy plot that I don't think anyone in the audience cared about, and had the two simply switch places. I think it would have been more interesting, and even frightening, to stay within the crime novel setting and have things go from there. --MateoP 10:41, 23 July 2006 (EDT)