All posts by Natalie Devitt

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[November 29, 1963] An old doll's new tricks (Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episodes 5-8)

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by Natalie Devitt

The latest season of The Twilight Zone is back in full swing, complete with great storytelling and acting that still outshines most other shows on the air. For those of you who may not be staying up every Friday night to catch The Twlilight Zone, allow me to bring you up to speed.

The Last Night of a Jockey, by Rod Serling

In The Last Night of a Jockey, Mickey Rooney plays Michael Grady, a man who has based his self worth on his success as a jockey. When he is suspended from racing after being accused of race fixing, he isolates himself in his tiny apartment. All alone, he dwells on his fears that his career is over. After having devoted to his life to the race track, he worries that he will be left with few career opportunities, except perhaps as a driver to a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park.

Grady is small in stature, and this experience leaves Grady feeling even smaller, so he wishes one night to be taller. The next morning, he wakes up to find his feet hanging over his bed. He looks in the mirror and sees how he towers over everything in his studio apartment. Initially pleased with his sudden growth spurt, he declares, “I’m big, honey, you understand that? I’m b-i-g.” As the story progresses, he begins to realize that everything in life is a trade-off.

The Last Night of a Jockey feels like a bit like a chamber play. It all takes place in one room. Rooney is the only actor who is ever shown on screen, so Grady reveals information about himself and his feelings by either speaking to himself or through phone conversations, where the other characters are never present. The episode is only a half an hour, but even that felt a little too long because The Last Night of a Jockey does not have much going on visually. It could have used a little more emphasis on the lighting or maybe different camera angles to make it look less flat. The script relies almost too much on dialogue, which I hate to say because I like dialogue driven stories, but it can be difficult to do effectively when the other person’s reactions are never shown. In addition, The Last Night of a Jockey suffers from being one of the less effective The Twilight Zone entries with the message “be careful what you wish for.”

Having said that, Rooney really shows his dramatic range as Grady. His role in The Last Night of a Jockey stands in stark contrast to his breakout performance as Andy Hardy in all of MGM’s Hardy films. The Last Night of a Jockey receives two and a half stars from me, which is entirely for Mickey Rooney’s performance.

Living Doll, by Charles Beaumont

Living Doll tells the story of Talky Tina, a doll that, you guessed it, talks. Tina has recently found a new home with a little girl named Christie. Christie lives with her mother, played by Bye Bye Birdie’s Mary Laroche and stepfather, portrayed by Birdman of Alcatraz’s Telly Savalas. She and her stepfather, Erich, have struggled to build a relationship with one another. When Christie, played by little Tracy Stratford, first receives Tina, the doll seems like any wind-up toy, telling her, “I love you very much.” However, when Christie’s stepfather is alone with the doll, he soon realizes through a series of not so subtle hints that Tina is no ordinary doll. The first of which is her telling him, “My name is Talky Tina and I don’t think I like you.” Shortly after that, the doll winks at him. Testing the doll, he lights a match in its face and threatens to hurt to hurt her, only for Tina to react with, “Not really, but I could hurt you.”

Erich grows more and more suspicious each time he sees the doll. At one point, he theorizes that his wife has installed a walkie-talkie in the doll as some sort of prank, but he soon finds holes in that theory. Things continue to escalate. Fed up, Erich throws the doll in the trash. Thinking he is finally free from Tina, he receives a phone call with what sounds like Tina on the other end, now threatening, “My name is Talky Tina and I am going to kill you.” Startled by this, Erich checks on his stepdaughter in her bedroom, where he finds Tina next to Christie in bed. Things erupt into an all out war as he confronts Tina, but can he defeat a seemingly indestructible doll?

Living Doll is interesting because it can be looked from different angles. Is the doll’s behavior a reflection of Christie’s feelings towards her stepfather or rather or a reflection of Erich’s own insecurities? The story never really answers all of my questions, which I think makes the episode all the more frightening. Dolls, especially porcelain ones, can be scary, perhaps due to their incredibly life-like appearance. The episode certainly brings to mind Michael Redgrave’s living dummy in Dead of Night, and I would imagine that The Twilight Zone fans would probably be reminded of The Dummy.

The already strong story is topped off by very believable performances by all of the actors involved. Living Doll is easily one of the strongest episodes of the season, which is why I rate it at four stars.

The Old Man in the Cave, by Rod Serling

It is the year 1974, ten years since a nuclear war. One group of people who have survived it have had difficulty finding a reliable food source. When they finally do find some canned goods, conflict arises. Is it worth the risk to eat food that could have been exposed to radiation? To settle things, they look to the title character: the old man in the cave, a mysterious entity. The men and women in the group never see him, but he always gives reliable advice. His track record is so good that when word returns that the food is not safe, the people decide not to take a gamble on the possibly contaminated food.

Not long after, some soldiers, led by The Magnificent Seven’s James Coburn, arrive in town. Coburn plays the role of Major French. French and his men claim to know of other survivors, but he may not be completely trustworthy and could just be after the cans of food. Nevertheless, this sows the seeds of doubt and leads some folks in the town to question the old man’s words.

The Old Man in the Cave seems like it could be about anything — from religion to politics to technology. In addition, it could easily be about hardwired human behavior. In fact, the episode lends itself to so many different interpretations, which is what I think makes it an interesting watch. The work of actors like James Coburn and John Anderson do not hurt, either. While The Old Man in the Cave is not as strong as other The Twilight Zone tales that have taken place in a post-apocalyptic world, such as Time Enough at Last, it certainly is a worthy entry to the series. I happily give it three stars.

Uncle Simon, by Rod Serling

How much can a person take? This question never left my mind while watching Uncle Simon, an episode directed by Don Siegel, director of 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Television actress Constance Ford stars as Barbara, a woman who has devoted her life to caring for her cruel elderly uncle Simon, perfectly cast as theater and film actor Cedric Hardwicke. Each day Barbara endures insult after insult from her uncle. It may one day pay off when Simon passes away and she inherits his fortune, but is it worth the days she spends dutifully by his side at every beck and call until that day comes? When Simon is not busy looking for any reason to put Barbara down, he spends his time in the basement, working on an invention that he goes to great lengths to keep secret from Barbara.

One day Barbara decides that she is going to find out exactly her uncle is working on down in the basement, but he catches her breaking into his lab, which results in an altercation. Simon falls and Barbara allows him to die as a result of his injuries. After he passes away, Barbara is not really free from her uncle after all. In fact, the terms of his will state that she must care for his secret invention, which Barbara comes to find out is a robot, in order to inherit his estate. Simon has figured out a way to keep her trapped, even in death.

Uncle Simon is pretty depressing and difficult to watch. It’s easy to say Barbara should leave, but I am willing to bet most of us have had situations in life that where we tolerate things for much longer than we should, which is part of what makes this story so depressing. Simon certainly has a lot of memorable one-liners, some of which are quite good while others are a tad silly.

On the bright side, Uncle Simon does have Robby the Robot. I must add that while I sometimes complain that The Twilight Zone reuses too many things from Forbidden Planet and I know I sometimes fail to take into account the budget for television, the robot designed by Robert Kinoshita was very welcome, and certainly made a dark episode a little brighter. While not bad, Uncle Simon is a bit draining emotionally. Maybe that shows its effectiveness. I could just be the tone of this entry that I find so off-putting. In any case, I am going to have to I give it two stars.

All in all, The Twilight Zone continues to move along, with stories that still intrigue and challenge its audience. Living Doll and The Old Man in the Cave are certainly great examples. I must say that I look forward to the episodes that are still forthcoming.




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[November 15, 1963] A Sign of Things to Come? (The Outer Limits, Episodes 5-8)

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by Natalie Devitt

Last month I questioned whether it was worth the average person’s time to watch The Outer Limits. Sure, The Architects of Fear was a great episode, but all of the other episodes during the show’s first month on the air were not nearly as strong. After continuing to watch the program for yet another month, I finally have reached a verdict, and the answer yes. The Outer Limits really seems to come into its own this month. Allow me to explain.

The Sixth Finger, by Ellis St. Joseph

In The Sixth Finger, Edward Mulhare stars as a scientist named Professor Mathers, who has developed a process that he hopes will improve the fate of mankind. The scientist hypothesizes that by speeding up man’s evolution that man will somehow become so intelligent that he will become more peaceful. Of course, the plan goes haywire when Mathers actually tests his hypothesis out on a real human subject. David McCallum, who you may have recently seen in The Great Escape, plays Gwyllm Griffiths, a miner who volunteers to be a test subject for Mathers. Shortly after the process begins, Mathers realizes that Griffiths is not only becoming smarter at a speed much faster than he ever could have predicted, but also that Griffiths has begun undergoing a number of physical transformations, including growing a sixth finger. Also, as time passes, Griffiths becomes more and more difficult to control.

This is the first very satisfying episode of The Outer Limits since The Architects of Fear. Part of what made both episodes so effective was the special effects makeup. Similar to The Architects of Fear, an actor in The Sixth Finger undergoes a pretty impressive transformation over the course of the episode. In this case, Griffiths’ hair thins while his skull increases in size. His ears take on more of a pointed shape, and let’s not forget the finger referenced in the episode’s title.

While I am sure the novelty may wear off at some point, I am finding myself a little excited to see what kind of alien or monster is going to be at the center of each week’s story. The creations made for The Outer Limits may not be quite level of some of Jack Pierce’s makeup for Universal’s movie monsters, like Frankenstein or the Wolfman, but they certainly are unique and ambitious for a weekly show. This is a case where great makeup really helps an already strong story reach its true potential. The Sixth Finger easily earns three and a half stars.

The Man Who Was Never Born, by Anthony Lawrence

The Man Who Was Never Born is about Joseph Reardon, an astronaut who accidentally drives his spacecraft thorough a time portal into the future. In the year 2148, he lands and realizes that much of Earth’s population has been almost entirely wiped out. The one survivor he does meet is a disfigured man named Andro. Andro is played by none other than North by Northwest actor Martin Landau, an actor who I am sure viewers of The Twilight Zone are very familiar with, having starred in Mr. Denton on Doomsday. He and Joseph decide to go back in time to stop the scientist responsible for creating Andro’s disfiguring disease, which left him looking a bit like Lon Chaney Sr. or Charles Laughton in the 1923 and 1939 versions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I know, the premise sounds similar to just about any plot on The Twilight Zone. A recent story such as No Time Like the Past could come to mind. So, if you are thinking this is yet another run-of-the mill time travel tale, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. An episode with a familiar beginning suddenly turns into a surprisingly good retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which I must admit I never saw coming.

What really sets this episode apart is its impressive cinematography, which was clearly inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1946 adaptation of the story. The Outer Limits’ take on the classic fairy tale also utilizes a lot of point-of-view shots. Each shot is very expressionist, so how Andro is shot differs greatly; depending on who is looking at him and their feelings towards him. The classic Hollywood high-key lighting, shots with Vaseline on the lens and the use of images superimposed on top of one another make the viewer feel like they are actually inside a fairy tale. The whole thing concludes with a very striking shot. The Man Who Was Never Born is a feast for the eyes, which is why I give this entry in the series four stars.

O.B.I.T., by Meyer Dolinsky

Senator Orville, played by Maverick actor Peter Breck, is investigating a murder that took place at a military base. While conducting his investigation, Orville begins to uncover what seems to be a poor work environment. Behind the work-place drama, he finds a machine called O.B.I.T., which stands for Outer Band Individuated Teletracer. O.B.I.T. not only tracks employees on the base, but also records anyone within a five hundred mile radius without their consent or knowledge. As troubling as that is, that is not the worst of it. Those who use it, cannot stop using it. One user describes the machine by saying, “No one can joke or laugh. It watches. Worst of all, I watch it. I can’t stop. It’s like a drug, a horrible drug. I can’t resist it. It’s an addiction.”

Initially, O.B.I.T. seemed more like something you would find on Perry Mason rather than on The Outer Limits. Not being a big fan of courtroom dramas myself, I was not terribly interested, but when the plot started to feel more like a George Orwell novel, I suddenly felt more engaged as a viewer.O.B.I.T. is not very visually stimulating; it is an episode that really is carried by the strength of its script and the ideas contained in the script. This is an episode that stayed with me, and it became more disturbing, the more I thought about it. For me, the total erosion of privacy is terrifying because it is something that could actually happen, but O.B.I.T. is interesting whether or not you subscribe to the belief that people with nothing to hide have nothing to fear. I give O.B.I.T. three and half stars.

The Human Factor, by David Duncan

The Human Factor takes place on a remote outpost in Greenland. One of the people at the outpost is Major Brothers, played by Houseboat actor Harry Guardino, a man who feels responsible for the death of one of his soldiers. A soldier who Brothers thinks may have returned to haunt him as a ghost. Major Brothers’ goes through great lengths to rid himself of hallucinations, and ends up paying a visit to Doctor Hamilton. Doctor Hamilton, played by All About Eve actor Gary Merrill, has recently created a device to help him read other people’s thoughts. Doctor Hamilton tries to use the machine on Brothers, only for things to not go as planned. The two men end up accidentally switching minds. Brothers is now in Hamilton’s body and poses a threat to those around him. Unfortunately, nobody will believe Doctor Hamilton, who is stuck in Brothers’ body.

The Human Factor is only fair. The acting is more than good enough, but without a strong story, the episode goes nowhere. On the surface, the episode has a little bit of something for everyone, including action and romance, but the whole thing really struggled to maintain suspense and my attention for the full hour. Sadly, the brief glimpses of the ghost haunting Major Brothers were the only moments of excitement for me. As a result, I can only give it two stars.

If this past month is any indication of where the show is headed, I am very excited. So, if you have not turned into The Outer Limits yet, I highly recommend you start. As the opening monologue says, “Experience the awe and the mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits.”



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[October 26, 1963] [Return to Form] (Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episodes 1-4)

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by Natalie Devitt

In case you have been living under a rock or moved on to newer programs, like The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone returned to television for a fifth season. The series has also returned to a half-hour format and is once again airing on Friday nights. Back in May, I wrote that I hoped the program would be renewed for at least another season, because I just could not bear the thought of a once great series ending its run with an episode like The Bard. Well, it seems as if the television gods must have been listening because my wish has come true. If you have not been tuning in consistently for the past month, here is what you may have missed:

In Praise of Pip, by Rod Serling

In In Praise of Pip stars The Twilight Zone regular Jack Klugman. Klugman plays Max, a bookie who learns that his son, Pip, a soldier in Vietnam, has been wounded and may pass away soon. Shortly after hearing the news, Max is involved in a business deal gone terribly wrong, which results in Max being wounded himself. Max decides not to seek medical attention. Instead, thinking only of Pip and regretting that he did not spend as much time with his son as he would have liked, Max wanders down a street at night. He stops in front of an amusement park and is overcome by memories of his son. Just then, Max spots a boy who looks eerily similar to a young Pip.

There is no shortage of episodes of The Twilight Zone where a character is able to relive and/or change past events. One thing that In Praise of Pip has going for it is that is better written than a number of recent episodes with a similar plot, like The Incredible World of Horace Ford, which you may recall from last season. Jack Klugman delivers a strong performance as Max, as does another The Twilight Zone regular, Billy Mumy. Mumy may be a young boy, but anyone who has watched The Twilight Zone will probably remember him from stories like It’s a Good Life and Long Distance Call. In Praise of Pip includes strong cinematography and an a conclusion that is enjoyable, but the finale is perhaps a little too reminiscent of the film Lady from Shanghai. Overall, the episode earns a solid three stars.

Steel, by Richard Matheson

Steel takes place in the not too distant future. More specifically, the year 1974. Boxing has been deemed too dangerous of a sport for human participation, so the sport is now played using androids. Lee Marvin plays Steel Kelly, coach to one of said robots. Sadly, the android Kelly coaches is outdated and in desperate need of repair. In an effort to earn the money necessary to repair his robot, Kelly hatches a plan to beat the latest model of boxing robots.

In Steel, Marvin is Kelly, a coach with nothing to lose. I am used to seeing Marvin playing a tough guy, but I am not used to him seeing him play a character who is this desperate underneath the tough exterior. Gone is the actor who I know for playing a man who poured hot coffee on Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat. Marvin is replaced with a character who has plenty of experience inside the boxing ring, but with laws changing and advances in technology, has really been left behind in the dust.

While Marvin may have disappeared into his role as Kelly, the special effects makeup used this time around did not always disappear onto the faces of the actors as much as I would have liked. Nevertheless, this week’s episode was a pretty good entry in this anthology, which is why I give it three stars.

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, by Richard Matheson

William Shatner, an actor you have probably seen on other fine programs such as One Step Beyond, Thriller and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (not to mention The Twilight Zone!), plays Robert Wilson, a man who is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Wilson seems to be making improvements in his mental health, until he and his wife board plane. During the flight, Wilson catches a glimpse of a strange creature on one of the wings of the plane. It is referred to as a gremlin, and it may be trying to cause a plane crash. The only problem is that Wilson seems to be the only person aboard the plane who can see it.

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and the feeling of powerlessness that Wilson clearly feels during the flight. The tension builds each and every time, he peeks out his window. My only complaint is that the gremlin kind of looks like a man in a sheep costume, but costumes aside, this is by far the strongest story I have seen on The Twilight Zone this season. This one earns four stars from me.

A Kind of a Stopwatch, by Rod Serling

Richard Erdman plays the role of Patrick McNulty, a man who after being fired from his job decides to drown his sorrows in some booze at his local watering hole. While there, he meets a drunk, who gives him a stopwatch. But the stopwatch that Erdman receives is not an ordinary stopwatch: it has the power to stop time. Erdman, not surprisingly, decides to use the watch for his own personal gain.

A Kind of a Stopwatch is another example of how The Twilight Zone fails pretty miserably when it comes to comedy because nothing about is particularly funny. It does not help that the episode has pretty predictable story. A story that even as short as it is, still seems to drag. A Kind of a Stopwatch is easily the weakest entry in this program all month. For those reasons, I give it two stars.

I was not sure what to expect from The Twilight Zone this time around. Luckily, the series made the most of its return to television after its break between seasons. I just hope The Twilight Zone can keep the momentum going through the season.



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[October 10, 1963] The Outer Limits of television — a first look

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by Natalie Devitt

Does television really need another science fiction anthology series? This is a question I wrestled with not too long ago, back when I heard that ABC had announced their plans to air a new anthology titled The Outer Limits on Monday nights. Sure, I will happily watch just about anything. But does the average person have the time to devote to the show, especially after having watched anything from Science Fiction Theatre to The Twilight Zone? Would The Outer Limits offer anything new, or just simply rework the same stories that we have been watching on other programs for years? On a mission to answer these questions and to save your precious time, I went to The Outer Limits once a week for its first month. Here is what I found:

The Galaxy Being, by Leslie Stevens

The show began with a pretty strong introduction. I was immediately interested as the narrator intoned:

“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission.”

But shortly after the episode started going, I found myself somewhat disappointed. The Galaxy Being is a great example of an interesting idea that is hurt by execution. It features a radio station engineer named Allan, played by Gidget actor Cliff Robertson, who frequently conducts his own experiments at work. Allan makes contact with a being from out of this world called the Galaxy Being.

Allan is intrigued by the Galaxy Being, but is unable to communicate with the alien for too long, due to his wife urging him to attend an event with her. So he leaves the station in the care of a trusted colleague for what he plans to only be an hour with explicit instructions not to alter the controls unless it be an absolute emergency. When Allan is unable to make it back to the station in time (of course), the disc jockey manning the controls increases the transmission, accidentally teleporting the alien to Earth. Once on Earth, the alien receives a less than warm welcome by a number of very frightened humans.

Allan is portrayed as something of a mad scientist, sacrificing his marriage in the pursuit of knowledge. The problem is that the script fails to really establish a strong relationship between him and his wife. As a result, it’s hard to care about Allan’s deteriorating romantic relationship as it is being impacted by the time he spends conducting his research at the station, and it’s hard to understand how his wife could convince him to hand over the radio controls to someone else the night the Galaxy Being is unleashed on the town.

While I did not find the Galaxy Being to be very visually appealing with his fish eyes, I must admit that he is certainly unique and that the technology used to create him is unlike anything I have ever seen before. So, that is worth noting. But unfortunately, there is the sequence where the Galaxy Being is shown causing all kinds of chaos in Allan’s home town once he is teleported to Earth.

Lights flicker and the wind suddenly starts howling, while the alien wanders through the streets at night. He breaks things, sends people screaming, women faint. I must admit as things went on, I found it increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief. The episode suddenly changed tone, and the whole episode started to feel like something straight out of a movie by American International Pictures.

Overall, The Galaxy Being was entertaining, but some elements made it hard to take it seriously as it went on. The whole thing made me wonder what kind of long-tern potential The Outer Limits has. In any case, I give The Galaxy Being two and a half stars.

The One Hundred Days of the Dragon, by Allan Balter and Robert Mintz

The One Hundred Days of the Dragon is a story about a government which may or may not be China's replacing a presidential candidate with a spy right before he is elected into office. The spy has all kinds of plans to take over the United States government, and while all of that sounds interesting, believe me when I write that you have to see the episode to believe it. It is like The Manchurian Candidate’s crazy distant relative.

The Hundred Days of the of the Dragon is more of a thriller, and the script a little more far-fetched, than I had anticipated. All in all, it was well-shot with decent acting, including the work of actor Sidney Blackmer. The musical score, while a little overdone, was effective, and would not be out of place on a Martin Denny record. My big gripe with the episode is that I am confused about the tone that the series is trying to strike with its audience this week. For that reason, I give the episode two and a half stars.

The Architects of Fear, by Meyer Dolinsky

In an attempt to bring together mankind, a group of overly-optimistic scientists devise a plan to create a threat so great that people from all walks of life will have no choice but to unite together — a hoaxed extraterrestrial invasion. The plan involves one of their men undergoing a number of procedures to be transformed into a hideous alien. Robert Culp plays Allen, the man selected at random for the role, who sacrifices everything in his life, including a wonderful marriage and an unborn baby, to try to make people see beyond their differences.

This was the episode that I was waiting for all month long, infinitely more compelling than anything else shown on The Outer Limits thus far. The character development in this episode is vastly superior than in the previous episodes; the relationship between Allen and his wife is one of the story’s greatest strengths. By understanding their bond, the viewer understands exactly what Allen is sacrificing by undergoing experiments and presenting himself as a serious potential threat to humans.

Everything was beautifully shot and dramatically lit with dark shadows, which only helped to accentuate the drama and create a strong sense of atmosphere. So did the point of view shot from Allen’s perspective when he transitions and things begin to look more blurry.  The expressionistic approach to the scene could not have been more effective.

Also, the alien that Allen transformed into is quite frightening and rather detailed. The special effects makeup on Allan during his transitions from human into alien are fairly realistic. All in all, the episode is a good balance of both heart and brain. I give it four and a half stars.

The Man with the Power, by Jerome Ross

The Man with the Power stars British actor Donald Pleasence as a college professor trapped in a meaningless job and a loveless marriage with an overbearing wife. Out of a desire to create some kind of purpose to  his life, he decides against his wife and his employer’s wishes to participate in a scientific study in which an object is implanted into his head, which causes him to develop telekinetic powers. The catch is that his new power seems to be affected by his emotions, and years of built up anger and resentment make his telekinetic abilities increasingly difficult to control.

Despite being fairly well-acted by Donald Pleasence, The Man with the Power failed to offer up anything new. In fact, the script seemed a little too much like Forbidden Planet with the whole emphasis on the man with an inability to control his id. And since the story provided no new material or perspectives, it was fairly predictable. I give The Man with the Power two and a half stars.

The Outer Limits may have the power to control transmission, but can the show keep viewers tuning in week after week? The verdict is still out. The show seems to be much more rooted in science fiction than most other anthology shows in recent years, which is a distinguishing point, but the batting average will probably have to improve: this month only gave me one fantastic, one somewhat entertaining and two otherwise okay episodes.

Guess I’ll just have to tune in next month to give you much more definitive answers to the questions that I posed at the beginning of this article. I hope you will join me next month for another a trip into The Outer Limits.



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[June 6, 1963] Bringing it home (The Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 17-19)

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by Natalie Devitt

I finally finished the fourth season of The Twilight Zone. For the most part, I enjoyed the most recent episodes. The entire season has been all over the place, which unfortunately meant that I really did not know what to expect this time around. The final three episodes of the season retained this record, which meant they were not without their disappointments, but also not without selling points. This is my breakdown of the final three episodes of the season.

On Thursday We Leave for Home, by Rod Serling

The month of May got off to a great start with what is probably the most well-made episode of the month, On Thursday We Leave for Home. James Whitmore stars as Captain Benteen, the leader of a colony in space. It is the year 1991. Captain Benteen’s people fled Earth three decades ago in hopes of starting a better life in space, on a more peaceful planet. What they found was a planet with a harsh climate, where they spend their days just struggling to live to see another day.

The group contacts Earth with the intention of returning to the planet, which some members of colony hardly remember and others have never seen before. As they wait to return to their planet of origin, the people in the colony begin asking questions about Earth. At first, they listen carefully as Benteen tells them about the planet. After a while, they begin to romanticize Earth, so much so that it begins to affect the captain’s ability to control his people.

The script paints a pretty bleak picture of the future, even though I am sure that some people will argue that the episode comments accurately on the world today. Certainly one could see Captain Benteen as a man with too much power, or perhaps this is on its most basic level a tale about a man refusing to adapt to the rapid changes taking place around him. This kind of deep and allegorical story is what audiences used to expect regularly from the series.

Having said that, I must mention that I have only one small complaint about the episode, regarding the sets. I know I am probably just looking for something wrong in an otherwise very strong episode, but is there an episode that takes place in space that does not reuse something from Forbidden Planet? It took only seconds for me to recognize a spaceship from the film.

Of course, if I only have one complaint, then this must be a solid entry in the series. This one easily earns four stars.

Passage on the Lady Anne, by Charles Beaumont

Passage on the Lady Anne is the story of the Ransomes, a young couple played by Lee Philips and Joyce Van Patten, who after years of marriage, can barely keep their relationship going. In their final attempt to save what is left of their marriage, they decide to take a cruise. They visit a travel agent, who reluctantly books them a trip aboard an aging ship. Upon boarding, the young couple notices that all of passengers aboard the ship are senior citizens, and while friendly, are constantly trying to discourage them from staying on the ship. At first, the Ransomes shrug it off, but after a while, they begin to grow suspicious.

While many might argue that this episode is not quite on the same level as On Thusday We Leave for Home, it still has plenty of charm. It does not hurt that I am kind of partial to the episodes written by Charles Beaumont. As a warning to those who prefer their entertainment faster-paced, this is definitely one of the slower and more atmospheric stories on The Twilight Zone. There is also plenty of fog, which helps to create a very haunting atmosphere.

Most people will probably figure out where things are headed long before the conclusion, though it is never really completely spelled out for the audience, which just adds to the aura of mystery. All in all, it is a fun journey with some recognizable actors playing the elderly characters. I rate it at three and a half stars.

The Bard, by Rod Serling

The Bard is the story of a struggling screenwriter named Julius. While in a bookstore one day, Julius, played by Jack Weston, finds a book on black magic and takes it home. He decides to try out some of the book’s spells, one of which helps Julius to conjure up the spirit of none other than William Shakespeare, played by John Williams, who he uses to help catch his big break as a screenwriter.

After the last two solid episodes, I knew things were going a little too well. Then I watched The Bard. The episode was yet another failed attempt at comedy for The Twilight Zone. As much as I like stories about black magic, I found very few redeeming qualities in The Bard. First, the episode is jam-packed with cheesy one liners like, "I’m conjuring, baby." Second, the constant reliance on sound effects to remind the audience to laugh wore very thin over the course of the episode. Third, the ending made a silly episode even sillier. The one thing the episode had going for it is Gunsmoke actor Bert Reynolds doing a pretty good Marlon Brando impersonation, but even that was not enough to save this trainwreck of an episode.

This story barely earns one and a half stars.

On Thursday We Leave for Home was a return to form for the series, then Passage on the Lady Anne kept things going strong. Sadly, The Bard single-handedly destroyed this month’s winning streak. I can only hope that such a disappointing episode will not cause the curtain to finally come down on the anthology series. I really would like to see the show end on a high note. I guess we will just have to wait and see if the show gets picked up for another season.



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[May 4, 1963] The Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 13-16

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by Natalie Devitt

Last month I touched on the possibility that The Twilight Zone could be running out of ideas, considering that a number of the stories seemed to rehash a number of previously done storylines. I concluded that as long as the recycled stories seemed to work, I was not going to judge the episodes too harshly. That is, until April’s episodes aired. So, which episodes fared the best?

The New Exhibit, by Charles Beaumont

If you have a taste for the macabre, you’ll surely love The New Exhibit. The episode is the story of a dedicated wax museum employee by the name of Martin, who loves his job so much that he takes it home with him. Martin, played by actor Martin Balsam, someone who you may recognize from Psycho and The Twilight Zone's The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, is informed by his employer that the wax museum where he curates an exhibit called “Murderer’s Row” will be closing soon.

Upon hearing the news, Martin offers to watch over the figures that he has spent years meticulously caring for, until a buyer for the figures can be found. He houses the sculptures in his basement, much to his wife’s dismay. As time passes, Martin begins to care a little bit too much to the effigies of famous murders, like Jack the Ripper and Henri Désiré Landru.

The New Exhibit brilliantly captures one man’s descent into madness. There is not one scene that does not advance the plot. With each moment, the audience sees the great lengths that Martin is willing to go in order to keep the wax figures to himself.

To top things off, Martin Balsam does a great job of playing a man who has an increasingly difficult time telling the difference between fantasy and reality. A man who begins the story innocently wondering what could drive a man to commit some pretty heinous crimes, but then turns into a man who may be willing to commit a few heinous crimes of his own.

Aside from the fairly predictable ending, I really enjoyed The New Exhibit. I give it four stars.

Of Late I Think of Cliffordville, by Rod Serling (based on "Blind Alley," by Malcolm Jameson)

In Of Late I Think of Cliffordville, character actor Albert Salmi plays William, an aging business man, who after achieving great success still feels unfulfilled. One night after work, he gets drunk and confesses to the janitor at his office that his achievements mean nothing, and that he would like nothing more than to return to his hometown of Cliffordville, Indiana.

Shortly after this confession, he discovers a new travel agency in his office building. The travel agency is owned by a striking young woman named Miss Devlin, played by statuesque dancer-turned-actress, Julie Newmar. Miss Devlin, who wastes no time revealing that she is the devil, offers to send William back to his boyhood home of Cliffordville. Insisting that he can keep the knowledge that he has gained over his life, but still start over looking like a young adult, William agrees to Miss Devlin’s offer.

How long has it been since we had a story about some man who tries to change the past or makes a deal with the devil? The answer: one month. I know these have been reoccurring stories throughout the series, but I have to wonder if The Twilight Zone gotten so desperate for stories that they don’t even bother waiting to recycle their ideas anymore.

To make matters worse, I do not really believe Albert Salmi in the scenes where he plays an older version of William. While the episode’s special effects makeup looks fine, it is not great. Additionally , Albert struggles to really disappear into his role as an old man looking back on his life. On the other hand, Julie Newmar makes a very charming villain in this episode.

This episode never really seems to hit its stride. For that reason, I give it two stars.

The Incredible World of Horace Ford, by Reginald Rose

The Incredible World of Horace Ford is about a man consumed by the past. His name is Horace and is played by Pat Hingle. He is in his late thirties, married and has a job designing toys. Wracked with stress for having to be his family’s breadwinner, he escapes by spending most of his days thinking and talking about his childhood.

One day Horace decides to visit his childhood neighborhood, and to his surprise he finds that not a single thing has changed. He returns few more times to find that it is as if the past keeps on playing again and again. If that was not strange enough, he also finds that the boys he knew as a child never grew up. Horace soon realizes through these trips down memory lane that the past is not exactly the way that he remembers it.

While I do not think an audience needs to like a character, they do need to care about them. I hate to admit that I struggled to care about Horace. Pat Hingle is a perfectly capable actor, but I think he may have been miscast as Horace. He just seemed like an annoying man-child. Also, some of the dialogue involving Horace’s overbearing mother, did not flow very well and at times was unintentionally funny.

Overall, this episode was very unsatisfying. I really hate to give it only one and half stars.

With the exception of the stellar The New Exhibit, this was easily the least enjoyable bunch of episodes I have watched this season. I really hope that things improve. We only have a few more episodes left in the season.



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[April 7, 1963] The Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 9-12

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by Natalie Devitt

This past month on The Twilight Zone has been quite the experience. It has included anything from deals with the devil to time travel. It has also thrown in parallel universes and wish granting genies just for fun. If any of those things sound familiar, there may be good reason. The show does seem to be rehashing some old ideas. So, has The Twilight Zone finally run out of steam, or is it just offering new interpretations of some old classics? After four seasons one thing is for sure: anything is possible in The Twilight Zone.

Printer’s Devil, by Charles Beaumont

What is the price you would pay for one last chance at achieving a dream? That is the question that Douglas Winter, played by Robert Sterling, has to wrestle with in Printer’s Devil. Douglas is the editor of a failing newspaper called The Courier. Faced with the possibility of the paper, to which he has dedicated his life, folding, Douglas contemplates suicide. He drives himself out to a local bridge in the middle of the night, hoping to end it all there.

At the bridge, he meets a mysterious stranger named Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith is played by Twilight Zone favorite Burgess Meredith. Mr. Smith offers Douglas everything he needs in order to keep The Courier in business. In no time, the paper is beating its competition to the latest scoop. In this surprisingly strong update of Faust, Douglas begins to question if his paper’s success is worth the price he will have to pay Mr. Smith, who is really the devil in disguise.

A story about someone selling their soul to the devil is hardly a new one. The episode’s writer, Charles Beaumont, knows that and has fun with the cliché in his script. Mr. Smith even makes jokes about the rumors that violinist Niccolò Paganini sold his soul to the devil to become a virtuoso. In addition, the script does not waste time revealing that Mr. Smith is the devil. In fact, during his first scene on screen, Mr. Smith is shown lighting his crooked cigar with his fingertip, so the viewer is aware of Mr. Smith's diabolic nature from the get-go. The story spends most of the time focusing on the characters and their motivations, which I feel helps to make this version of a classic bargain work surprisingly well.

The story’s script is made even better by Burgess Meredith’s mischievous performance as Mr. Smith. He really seems to relish his role without being hammy as he tells Douglas that no modern man could possibly believe that he could sell his soul to the devil, and that the contract he drew up for Douglas’ soul was just him being an eccentric old man.

This episode offers a new twist on an old tale. I give it three and a half stars.

No Time Like the Past, by Rod Serling

Dana Andrews stars as Paul Driscoll, a man who thinks he has the solution for the problems that plague the world today. He uses a time machine in hopes of altering the past and preventing the world’s current problems. He tries going back to Hiroshima in 1945, just in time to warn people about the atomic bomb. There, he is dismissed as being crazy, so he then tries going back to Berlin in 1939 to assassinate Hitler. His plans are foiled, so he travels back to 1915 to stop the RMS Lusitania from being torpedoed by a German U-boat. Once again, things do not go as planned.

Douglas’ failed attempts to alter the past cause him to conclude that the past cannot be changed. He decides to time travel one last time, this time to Homeville, Indiana in the year 1881, where he says he plans to go, “to live, not to change anything.“ It is a place where he could be free of the all the problems in the present day. Only, once again, things do not go quite as well as he hopes.

It turns out that the good old days are not quite as good as he imagined they would be. Bad things continue to happen all around him, and he still is powerless to do anything. Even if he could change things, he considers the possibility that his actions cause a chain reaction for things to change for the worse. One thing is certain, though. Having come from the future, he can predict every historical event or disaster before it actually happens, which has its disadvantages.

This is another story with a familiar theme — the episode Back There tread similar ground. That said, this episode is not bad, but it takes a while to get going. At first, it jumps from time to time, with transitions not as smooth as they could have been. Once the story does stay for a while in a single time period, as it does in 1881, the episode improves dramatically.

This episode was a perfectly fine way to spend a Thursday night. It deserves three stars.

The Parallel, by Rod Serling

Robert Gaines, played by Steve Forrest, is an astronaut who has returned to Earth from space. He blacks out shortly before landing, but he somehow manages to get land and everything seems fine at first. As he tries to transition back into everyday life, he finds that life back on Earth is not quite the way he remembers it. His house is a little different, his wife seems uncomfortable when he shows her affection, his colleagues cannot remember his proper ranking at work, nobody knows that John F. Kennedy is president, and one day, his daughter tells him that she does not know who he is. Robert comes to the conclusion that he must have landed in a parallel universe, but not everyone agrees with him.

This is an episode that really uses the hour long length to its advantage. It uses the extra time to build suspense as the people closest to Robert begin to question his sanity due to all of his theories about parallel time. Additionally, a number of sequences, including one in a hospital and some at the space station, use a lot things like low key lighting and lots of shadows to intensify the atmosphere of fear and suspicion in a manner similar to that used in film noir and horror films.

Unfortunately, the ending was not quite as strong as the rest of the episode, but overall this episode was pretty good. It earns three stars from me.

I Dream of Genie, by John Furia, Jr.

I Dream of Genie tells the story of a perpetually unlucky nebbish named George Hanley, played by Howard Morris, who purchases an oil lamp. While trying to clean the lamp, he accidentally rubs it and releases its genie. Out of his lamp, the genie reveals himself to be a cranky old man, who does not look or act like your traditional genie. For example, he wears modern western clothing. The genie tells George that he will grant him only one wish. George works through his options in fantasy first, so as to make the best decision. He imagines himself married to a beautiful secretary from work, then being rich, and finally, becoming the President. Sadly, even in his dreams, he cannot seem to catch a break.

When I realized that this episode would be a comedy, I was excited about the possible change of pace. Perhaps it would provide some much needed relief from the darker and more serious tones of the previous episodes. I could not have been more wrong. The generally good acting can save even the worst episodes of this series, but that is not the case this time around. The acting was so over the top, and not in an entertaining way. This was especially the case in scenes where George is trying to win the love of his coworker, Ann. The fact that this episode was an hour long made it even harder to watch. To make matters worse, George’s final wish does not reward the viewer for not changing the station.

The Twilight Zone has made better episodes about lonely and down on their luck men who finally seem to get a chance to turn their lives around. Incorporating comedy into this series has been a risk that often does not seem to pay off. This episodes was sadly not an exception to that rule.

All I can give this episode is one star, which I hate to admit is probably being generous.

The Twilight Zone revisited some familiar stories and themes this time around, which actually seemed to work most of the time. It remains to be seen if this will continue to be the case. I will just have to keeping on watching to find out. I hope you'll join me — both misery and joy love company.



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[March 10, 1963] The Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 5-8

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[We have a special treat for you, today. One of the Journey's long-time followers has prepared a review of the latest episodes of The Twilight Zone. Natalie describes herself as having "devoted her life to finding the best and the worst popular culture has to offer. Areas of expertise include music, movies and television." I hope you enjoy her words as much as I did…and perhaps we can convince her to return?]


by Natalie Devitt

As you know by now, The Twilight Zone is no longer the most consistently good show. Episodes have been varying dramatically in terms of quality. The longer episodes this season have not helped matters. Some episodes seem padded to add time to stretch to the full hour, while others would probably work better as feature length films. That was certainly the case with some of the episodes this past month, but the episodes were not without moments of brilliance.

Mute, by Richard Matheson

Mute is the story of a young girl named Ilse, who is used as a test subject by her parents. Her parents are members of an organization that studies telepathy. Even though Ilse is perfectly capable of learning how to speak, as part of a deal with other members of the organization, her parents raise her to communicate using only telepathy and document the results for other members of their organization.

Sadly, her parents never seem to consider what would happen to Ilse if they were no longer able to care for her. So, when the family’s home suddenly burns down one night, killing both of her mother and her father, Ilse is left without the means to communicate with those around her. Luckily, the local sheriff and his wife offer her a place to stay, while they try to contact her next of kin. In the meantime, they enroll her in school, assuming that the school would teach her everything thing she needs to know in order to assimilate.

I hate to admit that after last season’s Little Girl Lost, I expected a higher caliber of work from screenwriter Richard Matheson. This episode does not seem to work as an hour long story. What could be an interesting episode about the pressure to conform or adults not always knowing what is best for children, turns into an episode that fails to leave any lasting impression.

That said, Ann Jullian, who you may remember in Babes in Toyland and Gypsy, does a fine job as Ilse. In addition, the camera work with its frequent tilts and pans, effectively conveys Ilse’s feelings of being disoriented as she transitions from having lived in silence to being thrown into a world of filled sound. The episode deserves two and a half stars.

Death Ship, by Richard Matheson

This episode gives a glimpse into the future. In the year 1997, Earth is overpopulated, so humans are in need of a new planet to colonize. A crew aboard a spaceship set out on an expedition in hopes of finding one. Once they finally land on a planet that they think has potential, they find a spaceship that bears a striking resemblance to their own. After assessing the situation, they enter the spaceship only to find a crew that looks just like them — except for one thing, the men in the spaceship are dead. The living crew struggle to find an explanation for how the ship and their deceased doppelgangers ended up on the planet, and how they can avoid meeting a similar fate.

This episode stars Jack Klugman and Ross Martin, and is a pretty consistently good episode. It can be at times fairly predictable. My biggest complaint is that a number of the sets have clearly been reused in order to cut costs. Even though the episode did not offer anything new visually, I still give it three stars.

Jess-Bell, by Earl Hammer Jr.

There is something special about Jess-Belle, a tale of obsession that aired just in time for Valentine’s Day. This episode takes place in the not too distant past of the Appalachian Mountains. The title character in the episode is played by an unrecognizable Anne Francis, best known for her work as Altaira in Forbidden Planet. This time the usually blonde actress is sporting a black wig and playing a desperate young woman, who enlists the help of a local witch, referred to as Granny Hart, to win back a former lover by the name of Billy Ben. Billy Ben is played by Western regular James Best. Not surprisingly, trouble ensues.

Anytime a blonde actress wears a dark wig and flirts with the dark side, you know what you are watching is bound to be entertaining, even if it is not in the way originally intended. To its credit, though, Jess-Belle manages to be very effective with its strong performances and haunting atmosphere, despite most of its characters being hillbilly stereotypes. I could not get this episode out of my head for days, so for that reason I give it four stars.

Miniature, by Charles Beaumont

This episode is about a character named Charley, who is played brilliantly by Robert Duvall. He is in his thirties and still lives at home with his controlling mother. He struggles to hold down a job or find a mate.

One day on a trip to the museum he finds the excitement he craves in the most unlikely of places, inside a dollhouse. The only problem is that nobody else seems to realize that a beautiful doll in the museum dollhouse is alive. Most of the story revolves around his overbearing mother and well-meaning sister trying to help him meet all of the markers of an ordinary adult life. The more his family members try to help him out of his state of arrested development, the more Charley escapes into fantasies of a love affair with the doll.

The years Robert Duvall spent honing his acting skills in the theatre world have finally paid off, because I cannot praise him enough for his work in this episode. Sometimes when actors transition from theater to television, they can be overly dramatic, because they are used to playing to the back of the house. That is certainly not the case with Robert Duvall‘s subtle performance in Miniature.

Charley, if played by a less skilled actor could seem pathetic, because he is almost unbelievably passive at work and at home. Also, his imaginary relationship with the doll could have come across as being creepy in the wrong hands. Robert’s approach to the character, makes the episode incredibly touching, even to viewers who may not relate to Charley. The acting alone earns the episode a solid three stars.

The most recent episodes certainly had their flaws, but I still found them enjoyable to watch. I am curious to see what the rest of the season has to offer.




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