Tales From The Crypt “Cutting Cards”

So…this was probably my favorite episode when this show was new.  It was my brother’s too.  I took a pic of the episode at a key moment and texted him with two words, and he texted back that this was the best episode of the entire series.  I don’t know about that, but here we are.

The episode stars Lance Henricksen as Reno Crevice, a high stakes gambler who comes back to whatever town in his cowboy duds and immediately challenges another high stakes gambler, Sam Forney, to a game to prove who is the better gambler and needs to leave town.  I vaguely remembered that part, and the game they play at episode’s end, the one that I texted to my brother and got a reply from almost immediately.  That game?  Chop poker.

The episode, however, is not quite what I remembered.  I thought it was a Western-setting.  It isn’t.  It’s present day.  There’s a bartender played by character actor Roy Brocksmith who also appeared in the previous episode as a mad scientist.  Much of the episode shows Reno and Sam playing Russian roulette in the parking lot, only all the shots end with nothing, so they resort to chop poker to see who the better gambler is and who has to leave town.  Neither man is willing to quit.  So, when they play a game where the loser loses a body part, starting with fingers, well…

You know, since the episode ends with limbless Sam and Reno playing checkers in a hospital and apparently sharing gum.  The story ends before the gum is even visible, but they are leaning towards each other…

I don’t know if the episode holds up as well as I wanted it to, but I am interested in finding out what my brother thinks if he opts to rewatch it.  I’m actually kinda curious now: why did this episode stick out so much for us?  We watched this show fairly regularly.  There were more gruesome fates.  Why, of all things, did “chop poker” stay with us?  I mean, I didn’t even remember most of the episode was the guys playing Russian Roulette in the parking lot…

What about the Cryptkeeper?  I think it is safe to say the Cryptkeeper is finally the character I remember.  He spends the intro playing cards with a skeleton, and it looks like he’s cooking Reno and Sam’s fingers in the end sketch.  The puns also flow aplenty.

Notable Names:  Henricksen, co-writer and director Walter Hill