Thief enters The Twilight Zone

SYNOPSIS: A man (Earl Holimann) finds himself in a deserted town trying to find someone while unable to remember his name or even how he got there.

QUICK THOUGHTS: Although Holimann was a bit spotty in his delivery, he does succeed in transmitting the growing desperation and anxiety of his character. There is an effective sense of isolation and an eerie atmosphere as we see him wandering around, monologuing, and trying to find someone, anyone.

From a technical standpoint, the direction was very good as it alternated between wide shots and closeups to alternate between that isolation and the desperation of being enclosed in a phone booth or a small box. The climatic thing with the mirror was also very well executed; it made me jump. And also, Bernard Herrmann score! *chef kiss*

THE TWIST:


Grade:

__________________

Yes, I absolutely loved those New Year Day marathons.

I think I've probably seen about 2/3 of the episodes. I've gone on a few binges over the years, especially when they hit new streaming services.

I have a handful of absolute favorites (Nothing in the Dark, The Invaders, Nightmare as a Child, The Midnight Sun), but even in some of the more middling episodes, there are striking visuals or a line of dialogue that's just really choice.

I think that the series is pretty striking in the way that it examines notions of identity and connection, and how we reveal ourselves and our priorities in extreme circumstances.

It does have some limitations in terms of imagining social progress and falling into dated tropes. Yes, it's the nature of when it was made, but from a contemporary view the number of stories centered on white middle class people is striking, as are the number of stories set in the future/other planets/etc where women are still mainly housewives and the jobs the men work are basically the same. To be very clear before people start frothing at the mouth, I mainly think this is a shame because combining Serling's writing and interest in humanity with a wider demographic of characters could have led to some amazing stories. One of the most interesting things about science fiction from another era is seeing what they could imagine being different and what they couldn't. (Also, yes, I understand that keeping the trappings the same helps the audience process the thing that is "off" in the episodes). And similarly, it's especially fascinating to see how Serling's military service during WW2 shows up in the series. You can see him working through some pretty serious stuff. There's an episode called "Quality of Mercy" where an American intent on wiping out a group of cornered Japanese soldiers suddenly finds himself transformed into a Japanese lieutenant trying to convince his superior not to do the same to a group of trapped American soldiers. It just . . . slightly blows my mind. I think it would have been fascinating to have a conversation with Serling.

There are only a couple dozen best things ever, and Twilight Zone is definitely one of them.


I wouldn't be surprised if I haven't seen more than half of them. But I've seen a lot.

SYNOPSIS: A pitchman (Ed Wynn) realizes that Death (Murray Hamilton) is out to get him, forcing him to try to sneak his way out. However, when Death sets out to find a tragic alternative, the pitchman must deliver a unique pitch "for the angels".

QUICK THOUGHTS: This was a pretty neat one, mostly on the strength of Wynn and Hamilton's interaction. Hamilton in particular was pretty good as the cold but cordial "Mr. Death". He alone makes this worth a watch, but Wynn is also a good contrast with his sly but earnest attitude.

The direction is more straightforward than the previous one, but they do play some tricks as you see Mr. Death constantly popping up in different places as the pitchman tries to sneak away from him. The score was not very subtle, but I like how it made this big boom when it wanted to heighten the tension. Very intentional, but effective nonetheless.

THE TWIST:


Grade:

And this is me just realizing that Murray Hamilton is the Mayor from Jaws I was sure I had seen him somewhere, but I just couldn't place him. Mr. Death indeed.

Hah! That never occurred to me either!

I know it's been a few years since I've seen that episode, I loved it, and Mary Badham being in it may be a huge reason, as To Kill A Mockingbird is my all-time favorite film. So I definitely noticed the names "Sport" and "Gil." I don't think it was an accident. It was co-written by Earl Hamner Jr. and Rod Serling, and I'd bet that Hamner Jr., the creator of The Waltons, was responsible for the familiar-sounding names of the kids. It just sounds more like something he'd do than Serling. Anyway, a great episode, IMO.

Favorite episodes:
S1:
The Lonely
Time Enough At Last
Perchance to Dream
What You Need
The Four of Us Are Dying
Third From the Sun
I Shot an Arrow into the Air
The Purple Testament
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

S2
The Howling Man
Eye of the Beholder
A Most Unusual Camera
The Invaders
A Penny For Your Thoughts
Long Distance Call
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

S3
Two
It's a Good Life
The Jungle
Nothing in the Dark
The Hunt
The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
To Serve Man
The Fugitive
Little Girl Lost
Person or Persons Unknown
I Sing the Body Electric

S4
The Thirty-Fathom Grave
Jess-Belle

S5
Steel
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Living Doll
The Old Man in the Cave
You Drive
Night Call
The Masks
The Jeopardy Room
The Encounter
Mr. Garrity and the Graves
The Fear
The Bewitchin' Pool

If it seems that I like less episodes from Season Four, it's because I've only listed those that I can remember. But I intend to watch the others soon, and all the ones from all seasons that I've missed or think I've missed. Because I can recall a time when I thought I had watched all of them. Great topic, @Thief!

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

PS: Amazing series. Eye of the Beholder and To Serve Men are my two favorite episodes but there are countless great ones!

__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

This is going to happen to you throughout the series.
Lots of baby-faced future stars sprinkled throughout the show.

__________________
Captain's Log
My Collection

An interesting side effect of watching a lot of Twilight Zone is catching the enormous number of homages/references in other movies/shows.

I absolutely love the little throwaway gag in Madagascar when the animals are meeting in a crashed airplane and one goes running down the aisle holding

There's also a YouTube video (if it's still out there) that focuses on all the movies that have been based on TZ (whether intentionally or because they just happen to have the same or a similar plot).

Yeah, one of the great shocks the first time I watched "Nothing in the Dark" was the appearance of a Robert Redford who looks like he just graduated high school.

Buster Keaton stops by in a later episode that is a personal favorite of mine.

In The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, Lloyd Bochner appears as one the villainous characters, and as chaos breaks out near the end of the movie, he's seen running around, shouting "It's a cookbook! It's a cookbook!" while carrying To Serve Man in his hands. Bochner was the star of that TZ episode.

Sometimes, because I am the way I am, if I'm very stressed I will go "It's a cookbook! It's a cookbook!" just to remind myself that, you know, it could be worse.

Also, it's basically a family rule that if my sister or I say the word "cookbook," the other must respond with that quote.

So The Twilight Zone has thoroughly infiltrated my life.

SYNOPSIS: A therapist (Martin Balsam) receives the visit of a man (William Bendix) that claims to be suffering from a recurring dream in which he wakes up in a hotel in Hawaii days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

QUICK THOUGHTS: Although not a proper Twilight Zone episode, this is probably what paved the way for the show to exist. Written by Rod Serling, this episode aired during the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse to much acclaim prompting CBS to launch the series.

It is always a delight to watch Balsam in anything, and here he is calm, cool and collected as he listens to the story of this man, Peter Jenson, haunted by this dream. Bendix plays Jenson with a weird mixture of hot temper and earnestness that makes his character more interesting. I think it could've been cut down to 30-ish minutes while still being as effective, but it still has a nice pace as it is.

THE TWIST:


Grade:

Good review Another one I've not seen. Martin Balsam---it seems like he was in another episode down the line. I was just wondering the other night how many performers were in more than one episode. I know Jack Klugman has to have to record for most appearances. And John Dehner, one of my favorite character actors, was in at least two, maybe three. Anybody know of any others off the top of their head?

I found this on YouTube and I think Dailymotion (or Vimeo?) so I'm sure you can find it easily.


As a matter of fact, I went back to it last night after posting my review and I think it improved a bit. I might raise that rating a notch.

For what it's worth, I bumped the rating of that last one to 4 stars.

SYNOPSIS: A former gunslinger turned alcoholic (Dan Duryea) gets a second chance to regain his former skills and maybe his confidence when he is visited by Fate. But is there a catch to this deal?

QUICK THOUGHTS: I really enjoyed this one, mostly because of the performances. I'm a fan of Duryea in everything I've seen him in. He's great as the titular Denton, as you see him go from a defeated and regretful shell of a man to someone that has regained a bit of confidence as the episode goes on. He's paired with Martin Landau, who is also excellent as a younger gunslinger that constantly bullies him. Finally, Atterbury is also pretty good as Henry J. Fate, "the third principal character of our story".

Aside from the cast, the direction from Reisner is also pretty good, paired with George Clements cinematography. I really liked the way they moved the camera around; concisely but without being too flourished. Overall, I enjoyed the mixture of gunslinging action with the more introspective layers of the episode, and what it has to say about our choices and our fate.

THE TWIST:


Grade: