Tales from the Crypt gave many stars a chance to direct and this time, Tom Hanks is the man yelling action.

“Damn you Marcel! I told you they wanted violence, not violins. Good help is so hard to fiend isn’t it, kiddies? Want a little more cham-pain? I hope you’re hungry for tonight’s murderous menu. It concerns a man who’s discovered that the fastest way to a woman’s heart is with a pickaxe! I call this tasty little horror d’oeuvre “None But the Lonely Heart.””

Howard Prince (Treat Williams) has his eyes on a new mark, a new wealthy widow (Frances Sternhagen). Working with his partner Morty (Clive Rosengren) and using the video dating service of Baxter (Hanks), this is but the next older woman who he will marry and murder.

The problem for our protagonist is that someone is sending him notes telling him to stop. It’s a gravedigger (Sugar Ray Leonard) but before he reveals who hired him, Howard kills him, just like he’s already killed his partner. Maybe he should have realized that he’s in an E.C. Comics story and all of the women he’s poisoned have become the walking dead and plan on eating him.

This episode is based on “None But the Lonely Heart,” which was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Graham Ingels. It was in Tales from the Crypt #33.