Here we are again in Atlanta, Gateway to the South. Our last visit to the Dogwood City was at the invitation of Georgia Tech, who asked me, as a science fiction writer, to discuss predictions of the future. Particularly, they wanted my opinion on the dangers of overpopulation, pollution, and nuclear annihilation–and what might be done to avoid catastrophe.
The talk went off rather well, and so now I'm at a conference addressing a bevy of biologists on the nascent science of exobiology, or more accurately, how aliens have figured in science fiction, both in our solar system and without.
I must confess, there is a great feeling of accomplishment in being paid good money to talk about the things I love. And the pastries are free, too!
First up, we have the sequel to Dawn in what is clearly a serial by another name (like Poul Anderson's The Star Fox). As such, I will try to judge each piece as part of a great whole.
And what an excellent part! Zelazny returns us to an unnamed world that is nevertheless explicitly not Earth (betrayed by its two moons). Millennia ago, its colonists split into two castes: The Firsts, blessed with psychic powers, have effective immortality by swapping consciousnesses into other bodies. Everyone else lives in enforced medieval squalor patterned after Hindu tradition. The Firsts are, of course, associated with the Indian pantheon.
One rebel First, name of Sam, has styled himself the Buddha and is reintroducing Gautama's creed. In this installment, the First who has made himself Yama, God of Death, arrives at Sam's purple grove to deliver a fatal message from Kali, head of the Firsts.
Just last article, Jessica Dickinson Goodman lamented that there were precious few f&sf stories that didn't derive their settings from a strongly European tradition. Zelazny has shown that the subcontinent is as fertile a source for inspiration as any other. And where Herbert's Persia-as-SF (Dune) fell flat for me, mostly due to Herbert's inexpertise as an author, in the hands of Zelazny, ancient India-turned-scientifiction sparkles. Plus, there's lots of mighty thews-type combat for those who are into that sort of thing (paging Ms. Buhlert.)
Five stars for this segment.
The Royal Road to There, by Robert M. Green, Jr.
The Jackson family is on a seemingly endless freeway, headed for the unveiling of their uncle's will. Said uncle was an eccentric who kept a horse-and-buggy factory going long after the automobile had become ascendant.
In a Twilight Zone-ish bit, the freeway ensnares the family, depositing them in the town his uncle built, where they are presented with a most unique offer, which may just require them to give up their gas-guzzling beast.
Is the story anti-progress? Or does it simply advocate smarter progress? My brother, Lou, still laments the removal of the little red trains that used to knit Los Angeles together. Now, the San Gabriel Valley is a basin of smog and a snarl of endless traffic. If there had been more sensible city planning and incorporation of public transit and rail, perhaps it wouldn't be this way.
Three stars.
Gentlemen, Be Seated, by Charles Beaumont
In the future, comedy is dead. It seems the progressive types who were offended by racial humor and violent slapstick inadvertently caused the extinction of laughter. It's up to a secret society, armed with bad puns and blackface, to restore hope to mankind.
I hate to speak ill of the dead (Beaumont died on my 48th birthday this year), but this story is as bad as it sounds.
One star.
"…But for the Grace of God", by Gilbert Thomas
A predator of the masculine variety comes across a much more capable predator of the feminine variety. A bit too long-winded and predictable to be truly effective, but I appreciate what the author is doing, nevertheless.
Three stars.
Non-Time Travel, by Isaac Asimov
Every so often, the Good Doctor finds himself so at a loss for ideas, that he picks a pointless subject to expound upon. His piece on the International Date Line is pleasant enough, but it could just as easily have been a paragraph long.
Three stars.
The First Postulate, by Gerald Jonas
On a remote Mexican island, where the Mayan tradition still runs strong, the first two deaths due to natural causes in over forty years of worldwide immortality have been reported. The scientific team dispatched there encounters increasing resistance from the locals, who ultimately fire their base to retrieve the corpses. Is it a kind of insanity that drives the indios? Or is it a natural reaction to an unnatural situation?
Readable, vivid, if not particularly memorable. Three stars.
Lastly, another after-the-bomb tale, told from the perspective of a band of bandy youths who encounter a house of the giants. This one is all in the telling, a lovely tale that reminds me of Edgar Pangborn's Davy.
Four stars.
Miles to go before I sleep
So ends a perfectly suitable (with one small exception) issue. My only real complaint is that I finished it on the flight out! Luckily, I've got another book reserved for the flight back, which you'll hear about next month.
In the meantime, please wish me luck for tonight's speech!
I picked up the latest Ace Double Novel at my local Woolworth's the other day, and had to share my opinions of the two novels with my fine science fiction friends.
On one side of the double was the deliriously wacky cover shown below, which actually is a scene in John Rackham's meandering but intriguing new novel. By my reckoning, this is at least the third Ace double this prolific author has delivered over the last two years, and though I haven't read either Watch on Peter or Danger from Vega yet, this slim novel – a true Ace double at 137 pages – makes me want to try them out too.
The main character of We, the Venusians is Anthony Taylor, a man who feels himself out of place on a future version of Earth. Though the timing of that future isn't revealed in the novel, it's clear he lives in a bit of a dystopian world. Advertising is pervasive and unavoidable, commerce and greed rule the world, and the arts are trivialized and mocked.
This all matters because Taylor is an accomplished musician and the owner of a small club in which he plays Liszt, Schubert, Bach and the other classical artists to an ever-diminishing tribe of listeners. He is truly a man on the outside of his time. That's why he has a mixed reaction when a strange man wanders into Taylor's club and offers an obscene amount of money to travel to the Terran colony on Venus to play music, Taylor is both intrigued and repulsed by the opportunity. He is intrigued by chance to get rich quick and the chance to make a new start. Taylor is also repulsed by the idea because he has a secret he fears will be revealed on his new home: though his skin appears human color, he is actually a Greenie, a green-skinned Venusian native.
Through a series of plot machinations, Taylor does end up journeying to Venus along with two other musicians, one of whom, named Martha Merrill, is a beautiful woman who possesses an unbelievable singing voice. They also discover that the human colonists have enslaved thousands of apparently mindless Greenies to do menial labor in order to keep the colony buzzing along. Taylor and Merrill escape the human domes into the native lands, and both performers literally go native – Martha is also secretly a Venusian.
Though Merrill soon dies, Taylor finds his destiny among his own people and ends up becoming a force for revolution among his adopted people against the colonists.
One of the most intriguing elements of the book is the beans which grow on Venus and provide nutrition and energy for the people living there. While the Venusians protect their precious resource carefully, the humans try to exploit the beans and export the incredibly valuable food back to Terra. This element of the plot had an intriguing post-colonial feel to it. It's easy for the reader to substitute tobacco or silk as the exploited resource in our own history. It's a smart choice by Rackham to bring in that idea, as it adds resonance and contrast to the human/greenie struggle.
We, the Venusians is full of interesting ideas, from its resonances to the Civil Rights movement of today to its treatment of Indians in the west to the ways pop music overwhelms classics. Rackham keeps his story focused on character, and that keeps the reader involved in this novel. I enjoyed reading how Anthony Taylor grows and changes as this book goes along, and that growth gives this book a lot of its energy.
That said, the book rambles and wanders a bit too much and seems to frequently lose its focus. I know it's anathema to us fans of Ace doubles, but another 20 pages of meat would have made this book's bones stronger.
Fred Saberhagen is another science fiction writer who has settled into a journeyman status at this point. He's appeared in a number of the science fiction magazines in recent years, and his "Berserker" stories have started to gain more attention from aficionados. My colleague David Levinson has praised Saberhagen's ability to pull off modern fiction within the framework of space opera, and that skill is well on display in The Water of Thought.
Like We, the Venusians, Saberhagen's novel takes place on an alien planet on which native peoples are in conflict with Terrans. The planet Kappa is a kind of garden of Eden, a paradise and perfect place for rest and relaxation for exhausted Space Force planeteers. It's also the home to native peoples and a type of water which provides amazing changes in people. When a planeteer named Jones samples the water, he goes crazy and disappears from the colony. Planeteer Boris Brazil must follow to investigate.
Jones becomes megalomaniacal under the influence of the "water of thought", and rapidly becomes an addict. Jones is constantly seeking his next drink, like a heroin addict looking for his next fix. When Jones forces Brazil to drink the water, it has a different effect on him. Brazil is nearly paralyzed and loses his free will while in proximity to Jones, but does not become addicted. The battle between the two men, and the story of the humans and natives caught in the middle, is an important part of the book.
Like We theVenusians, this book has a natural resource as a key point of conflict between humans and Kappans as the water is seen by some as a resource to be exploited for personal gain. The human mayor of Kappa sells the water as a drug, trying to earn a neat profit off of a local resource. Meanwhile a human scientist has slightly more noble goals: he believes the water may help the local hominid species gain intelligence and gain their freedom from slavery by the natives.
The Water of Thought is a more complex book than it seems at first glance, and reveals some of the shallowness of Rackham's world. Where Rackham draws a pretty clear line between humans and greenies on Venus, Saberhagen presents Kappa as a more complex world. Kappa is a place where the lines between hero and villain are somewhat unclear, where everybody is exploiting each other in some ways, and in which the precious natural resource has ambiguous effects.
This book adroitly shows Saberhagen's skills at mixing space opera elements with a psychological and philosophical elements. The Water of Thought feels contemporary for our year of 1965, a time in which the smartest people are embracing ideas of the past but providing new approaches to those ideas.
4 stars.
Gamma #5: The Worst Sci-fi Magazine Ever Published?
by Mx. Kris Vyas-Myall
Back in the early 1950s, when the market was flooded with magazines, there used to be plenty of forgettable magazines that would crank out terrible stories. Whilst it may be possible my memory is cheating me, I cannot recall a single issue as awful as this issue of Gamma:
This terrible issue of Gamma starts as it means to go on with another lurid cover from John Healey. I had hoped the style from the last issue was just due to it being a special edition calling back to the 30s, apparently this is the direction the magazine is going, with it illustrating the lead novella.
John Healey himself is a talented artist apparently working on shows like Johnny Quest, so I more question the editorial choice than his skill.
Now, take a deep breath, and let us all work together to get through this issue:
Nesbit, by Ron Goulart
Taking up nearly half the magazine, the perpetually disappointing Ron Goulart returns as, apparently, the editors simply cannot resist his writing. Once again, I find my eyebrow raised at this assertion.
This novella follows an attempt to shoot a pilot for a “jungle series”. When the Hollywood lot turns out to be in use Tim McCarey goes to visit Vincent Belgraf’s estate, to convince him to let them use his transplanted jungle for the shoot. However, on arriving he cannot get ahold of Mr. Belgraf and the other residents tell him it is not for rent.
Tim believes something else is amiss and finds a gorilla running around the estate in a soldier’s outfit. It turns out that this is Nesbit Belgraf. After being attacked by his own private army he had his brain transplanted into that of a gorilla, so he will be strong enough to become emperor of the United States and battle the unseen forces secretly controlling everyone’s lives.
Whilst Tim does not agree with this fascist conspiracy-minded gorilla and his family, he agrees to help with his propaganda efforts in exchange for being able to use part of the jungle for filming. However, Nesbit is very emotional and has difficulty keeping his cool.
I have trouble working out what Goulart is trying to do with this piece. If it is a satire on fascism and right-wing conspiracy theories, it fails. For, apart from Nesbit being a gorilla, it feels more like a documentary piece, as I am fully aware of the existence of those who believe in Jewish-Communist conspiracies controlling the world. It never does anything to really contradict what the Brelgrafs say, nor even to particularly suggest that their plans to put all non-white people into concentration camps or exterminate them, is as horrific as it really is.
If it is trying to be just an adventure story, it also fails. Intelligent gorilla stories are two-a-penny in comic books but are usually mindlessly enjoyable. This is incredibly dull and padded, full of side details that another might make charming, yet Goulart makes unbelievably tedious.
I could imagine many interesting ways a more skilled writer could have taken this piece, but instead Goulart produces something truly dreadful.
An exceptionally low One Star.
Policy Conference, by Sylvia Dees and Ted White
Peter and The Chief meet in the latter’s office to discuss how they could improve “interregional relations” for their boss Old Nick (I offer no prizes for guessing who that actually is).
Whilst this story is more supernatural than science fictional it weirdly has the same conceit as the previous tale, of someone having to work on PR for a monster. It just helps highlight how unoriginal a concept this is. Mercifully, this one is very short.
One Star
We get the return of the unrelated sketches. Depressingly they are better than the actual text.
Auto Suggestion, by Charles Beaumont
Returning from the earlier issues of Gamma (publishing the best story in issue 1) The Twilight Zone writer brings a story of automobiles. Unfortunately, this is definitely not his best work.
Abnar Llewellyn, a nervous driver, suddenly finds his car talking to him and it encourages him to be a more aggressive on the roads. It also starts to interfere in other areas on Abnar’s life, asking out women for him and instructing him on how to commit crimes.
I have gone on record saying I am no lover of cars, and so tales like this generally leave me cold. However, even accounting for that, I felt the story was bad. It is painfully overwritten to the point of being juvenile:
A truck’s air horn began some car lengths away. A frightening sound, a terrible sound, like the scream of a wounded elephant, and it led other smaller cars to renew their anger, shrill now beneath the dump-truck’s might below, shrill and chittering, like arboreal creatures gone mad.
Even Lovecraft would probably tell him he needed to cut out some description!
It also ends up not doing anything particularly interesting, just being a story where the protagonist does unpleasant things and may or may not be insane.
One Star
Welcome to Procyon IV, by Chester H. Carlfi
This is not a new writer to these pages but, rather, another story by longtime editor Charles E. Fritch, contributing his 4th story to the magazine.
In this vignette, Jameson and his wife are the last people left alive on the dead world of Porycon IV, with humans having wiped out the natives and disease killing the rest of the human population. On his ancient radio Jameson hears a human expedition coming but when they come to in to his cabin they discover a terrible truth about Jameson’s wife.
This feels like a pale imitation of Ray Bradbury’s Martian stories. It is more competent than the previous two pieces in the magazine, but a lot remains heavily unexplained. Also including a genocide in one line without any further thought left a bad taste in my mouth.
One and a half stars
Interest, by Richard Matheson
Cathryn is to be married to Gerald Cruickshank, yet find his parents and their house terrifying. However, she cannot work out why that is.
As stated in the introduction, this is a Poe-esque tale, although the purpose of it escapes me. Feels more like a derivative work you would find in a bad fanzine.
One Star
Another sketch, holding my interest much more than Matheson’s story did.
Lullaby and Goodnight, by George Clayton Johnson
In the aftermath of a nuclear war, an outpost of shelters is setup outside of an unnamed city. Our narrator (also unnamed) talks about the trouble Sarah Hartman is having with trying to keep her baby Adam alive in the radiation-soaked world.
This vignette marks a short foray into the New Wave from the usually conservative Gamma. It is not the best example, but the melancholic atmosphere raises it above the rest of the stories here.
This is a reprint from New Detective Magazine from almost 19 years ago and, unfortunately, it shows.
It narrates the story of a haemophiliac author, named Rob, who keeps being sent sharp objects in the mail, in an attempt to stop his book from being published.
I know Bradbury is popular right now, but do we have to reprint everything he did in his early days? The truth is he has evolved as a writer and most of his work before 1950 is simply not that good!
This is not really a science fiction or fantasy piece, but I suppose it could be classified as uncanny horror. Unfortunately, it lacks anything interesting, it seems more like a sequence of unusual events, like reading someone’s disconnected nightmare.
The story is written in a pale imitation of Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled style along with a second person narration. Whilst I do like experimentation this one fails for me.
Two stars
The Late Mr. Adams, by Steve Allen
Another reprint, this time from the publisher’s own collection, Fourteen for Tonight. This is my first experience with Mr. Adams' writings myself, although I hear he is big television personality in the United States.
This is a very silly life-story of a man who is always late. Really, that is all there is to it.
One Star
Wet Season, by Dennis Etchison
Etchison is generally a middling new writer. Shows promise but I am still waiting for a story that astounds me. Unfortunately, this is not it.
In a town there have been an unusually high number of drownings and the women seem to be acting strangely. At the same time rainfall levels are apparently increasing. After Madden’s daughter dies his Brother Bart comes to tell him of his suspicions.
Etchison really seems to like his Puppet Masters style stories and this is another one in that mold. I am willing to concede that it has a good atmosphere but that is all I am going to give.
A low two stars
I love this illustration. Why couldn’t this have been one of the pieces inside?
Summing Up
This issue of the magazine is truly terrible. Some stories are not as bad as the others, but it would be a stretch to say anything is actually good.
I am beginning to feel foolish that I took out a subscription from issue 2, as I have already paid for more of these. However, if the quality continues like this, I find it hard to imagine this magazine continuing much beyond that.
That's all for today, folks! Join us next month for another exciting Galactoscope!
and…
Our next Journey Show: At the Movies, is going to be a blast!
I feel sorry for those who rely entirely on the words of critics to determine whether or not a film is worth seeing. It's so easy to miss out of some of the most absurd and fun movies out there if the viewer approaches them with too analytical a mindset. For instance, those who read The New York Time's review of The Comedy of Terror really missed out on the humor of seeing the iconic actors of horror from the 30s and 40s satirize their own legacies.
In anticipation of the June 24th release of Roger Corman's new movie, The Masque of the Red Death, I dared to take a look at an advanced review of the film from Variety Magazine. Since seeing the film after its premier in Los Angeles, I can sympathize with some of the negative points in the above mentioned article, but it still annoys me that there will be people who will avoid this new Edgar Allan Poe tribute film simply because the Variety review and others seem to be approaching it with a lukewarm reception. Yes, The Masque of the Red Death has its faults, but for a horror movie that takes itself seriously in a time when classic horror themes have become passé, this is a very competently done and memorable movie.
Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is a malicious yet pragmatic and cuttingly frank man whose province in medieval Italy has all but succumbed to the fictitious disease, the Red Death. Although a proud and evangelical self proclaimed Satanist, the Prince is able to rationalize his beliefs in Satan as an all powerful living God by drawing direct inspiration from the morally dubious nature of humanity and the ever present suffering of the world. Taking a woman named Francesca (Jane Asher) from one of the nearby villages after she pleads for the life of her fiancé and father, Prince Prospero makes it his mission to convert her from a believer in God to a hand maiden of Satan, and consequently a hand maiden to himself as a sort of high priest to Satan.
His harsh lessons ultimately culminate in a grand celebration at his palace where his “friends” and followers within the Italian aristocracy plan to feast and revel in a masquerade. All must dress in any human like garb they wish, but per his orders none are allowed to wear red. When a lone figure arrives in towering red robes, Prince Prospero angrily pursues him. The intruder is nothing that he expected, however, and bears a message that he is horrified to hear.
Roger Corman has drawn inspiration from the dark elegance of Edgar Allan Poe's bibliography for years now. Since his production and direction of the 1960 gothic horror film House of Usher, Corman has had at least one Poe-themed film released every year, all of which have been financial successes, if not necessarily critically received. In The Masque of the Red Death Corman once again captures the grandiosity and bleak horror of Poe's writing with the aid of his favorite go-to villainous gentleman, Vincent Price.
The Masque of the Red Death is unique in Corman's work to date. In the 1950s the young and ambitious schlock producer gained a name for himself by churning out many of the low budget, drive-in titles that we grew up on – The Fast and the Furious (1954), Day the World Ended (1955), and Machine Gun Kelley (1958). Using his growing reputation as a Hollywood force who could corral the crew, shoot a film in as little as five days, and still present a profitable final product, Corman swiftly moved on to producing and directing.
His subject matter has included some very interesting forays into edgier territories within American film since the enforcement of the Hayes Code in 1934. Of particular note I would point to the agency of the female characters in The Wasp Woman (1959), the self-aware satire in A Bucket of Blood (1959), and the rage of white racists against school desegregation in The Intruder (1962). In The Masque of the Red Death the topics of the film's plot are not so much unique as they are distinct for being so well interwoven.
The screenplay is credited to Twilight Zone writer Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell (who wrote the screenplay for the 1957 film Man of A Thousand Faces). Their combined effort added an immense amount of humanity and depth to the original sparseness of Poe’s writing. Although the title clearly states that the movie is an adaptation of Poe's 1842 short story "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy", the film is actually a merger of “Mask” with another Poe short story from 1849 titled, "Hop-Frog; Or, the Eight Chained Ourangoutangs". Given that the story of “Mask” is so sparse in characters outside of the protagonist Prince Prospero and the plague personification in The Red Death, the film was obviously in need of other characters to flesh it out into a feature film. The end result penned by Beaumont and Campbell is so perfect that it could easily be believed that the two stories were originally written as one.
The visuals in Corman’s Poe movies are likewise a stark departure from the static and clunky cinematography of his 1950s productions. Working with cinematographer Nicolas Roag (best known for his work on David Lean's 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia), The Masque of the Red Death kept the sharp colors and excellent sets of Corman’s earlier Poe movies. Roag's artistic eye brought it above and beyond that, however. The movement of the camera and the actors achieves a flowing and poetic feel that is new to Corman’s movies. The scene of The Red Death gliding through the revelers at the climax of the film is particularly gripping, as is the creative decision to have the end credits consist of a red and black dichromatic color scheme with the credits appearing in white around slowly placed tarot cards.
It’s a pleasure to see that as Roger Corman gains momentum in the film world he is readily making use of the network of talent opening up to him. Meanwhile, those he has relied upon for previous projects, particularly Vincent Price and R. Wright Campbell, seem to be flourishing under his more experienced directorship and heavier production budgets. My final thought on the film is that as a long time fan of Vincent Price I was thrilled to see that the poor performance I witnessed from Price in The Last Man on Earth was not indicative of a downward spiral for him. While he looked old and brittle in his role as Dr. Robert Morgan – a lonely, despondent, and disillusioned scientist – Price sprang to full vibrant life in a role that really allowed him to channel his inner devil – that of a swarthy, learned, arrogant, pompous and cruel classic villain. No matter what viewers might hear in the critical response to this film, it is a work that is absolutely worth the cost of admission. Of Corman's current bibliography this is a four and a half out of five stars. If Roger Corman continues to assemble and wield his creative team this well in his future projects then he is going to become a force to be reckoned with.
[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]
The quality of the episodes on The Twilight Zone has been pretty inconsistent this past month. One thing that did remain constant was that most of the main characters found themselves in some pretty frightening situations. The month’s entries include a story about a young woman being chased by a stranger dressed in black, a man waiting for his execution, a journalist interviewing an actress who may be keeping a deadly secret, and a man discovering that his television set shows his infidelities for his wife to see.
Spur of the Moment, by Richard Matheson
A young woman named Anne, portrayed by Diana Hyland (who you may have seen on Alfred Hitchcock Presents) goes horseback riding on the grounds of her family’s sprawling estate in Spur of the Moment. While out riding, “a strange nightmarish woman in black” riding a black horse appears, looking down on Anne from on top of a hill. The lady lets out a scream. Then, Anne is chased on horseback by the older woman wearing a long black cloak. She shouts out Anne’s name and begs her to stop, but the woman’s pleas fall on deaf ears as Anne rides to the safety of her home.
Once inside, a disheveled Anne tells her parents and her fiancé about the woman. She cries, “I think if she caught me, she would have killed me.“ In the role of her mother is Marsha Hunt, who just appeared in The Outer Limit’s episode ZZZZZ. Anne’s mother assures her that the whole thing must be a misunderstanding, while Anne’s fiancée, Robert, jokes that the whole incident could be “a warning” to her to cancel their upcoming nuptials.
Just then the bride-to-be is visited by her ex-fiancée, David. He tells Anne, “Break your engagement. You broke ours.“ Anne’s father (Philip Ober of From Here to Eternity) forces David to leave by gunpoint. With this many bad omens, will Robert and Anne’s wedding go on as planned?
Spur of the Moment has so much potential that it never seems to totally fulfill. The premise is interesting enough, even with the identity of the woman in black being pretty easy to figure out. The real twist is actually much less predictable and quite good. That said, the screenplay could have used a little more character development because most of the characters are pretty one-dimensional. This is especially true when it comes to Anne, who is obnoxious and entitled.
In addition to the screenplay, the episode is marred by over-acting by otherwise decent actors. Then there is the makeup used to age some of the actors, which is a bit of a distraction. As much as I wanted to love this episode with its striking image of the lady with the black cape on the stallion, two and a half stars is all I can give to Spur of the Moment.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Robert Enrico
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is as the opening monologue announces, “a film shot in France” and it is Robert Enrico’s adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s classic short story by the same name. Playing Peyton Farquhar is French actor Roger Jacquet. Peyton is about to be hung by Union soldiers during the Civil War. Prior to his scheduled hanging at Owl Creek Bridge, Peyton looks back on his life, thinking mainly of his family. Somehow as Peyton is falling from the bridge, his noose miraculously snaps and he falls into the water below. Peyton swims away, narrowly escaping the soldiers. He then travels through the woods in order to be reunited with his loved ones, or does he?
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is easily the most impressive episode this month. As Peyton is escaping, the audience see things from Peyton’s perspective, watching his senses grow stronger and he notices everything around him. Visually, this is episode is incredibly ambitious. There is underwater photography, and nature shots that appear to employ a wide variety of camera lenses and filters. The episode also uses quite a few different type of camera shots with plenty to stare at in each and every shot.
There is not much dialogue in this short film, but what little spoken word that is used really helps to put the viewer in Peyton‘s place. This includes an exchange between the Union men, which is slowed down as they try unsuccessfully to catch him. There is also the sound of birds chirping and Peyton’s watch ticking. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a far cry from your usual television fare; this 1962 Cannes Film Festival winner for Best Short Subject screams European art house cinema. It is a fantastic episode, even if aside from the conclusion, it seems a little bit out of place with the series. In any case, the episode earns its five stars.
Queen of the Nile, by Charles Beaumont
In Queen of the Nile, Ann Blyth of Mildred Pierce plays “Pamela Morris, renowned movie star, whose name is a household word and whose face is known to millions.” Lee Philips, who last appeared on The Twilight Zone in the haunting Passage on the Lady Anne, plays cynical reporter Jordan; he has an appointment to interview the ageless actress at her mansion.
During the interview, he notices some other things. Despite more than 20 years passing since she was painted in one of her portraits on display in the house, she looks exactly the same. He cannot resist the urge to ask her, “Just how old are you?” She tells him that, “A woman in my position can’t afford to have any secrets.” After playing some games, she claims to be 38. But in order for that to be true, she would have had to have made some of her biggest pictures when she was a small child, which would have meant that she was too young to have made her 1940 breakout performance in Queen of the Nile.
Later, he learns that there were two Queen of the Nile movies, one of which was made during the silent era. The actress in the original died in a tragic accident and her replacement looked remarkably similar to the Pamela Morris. Is it possible that Pamela Morris really starred in both films and has not aged a single day in all in the years since? If so, what is her secret staying so youthful?
Queen of the Nile not is not terribly creative or deep. Everyone ages around Pamela while she stays the same, like some sort of Dorian Gray character. We have all seen similar stories countless times. In fact, The Twilight Zone’s Long Live Walter Jameson had one such story. Luckily, the acting and overall execution adds credibility to this television equivalent of a B movie. Simply put, Queen of the Nile is entertaining, which is why it receives three stars.
What’s in the Box, by Martin Goldsmith
What’s in the Box tells the story of a couple that hires a new repairman to fix their television set. Rod Serling calls the man “factory-trained, prompt, honest.” Academy Award nominee Joan Blondell plays Phyllis, who has her suspicions about her husband’s faithfulness. Once the repairman finishes the job, her husband Joe, played by fellow Academy Award nominee William Demarest notices the television is showing what he thought were private moments with his mistress.
In the meantime, he tries to prevent Phyllis from watching the television. Not long after, he notices that the television has begun showing recent arguments with his wife. Thinking his wife is responsible, he begins to ask her questions: “Are you sure you never saw that repair guy before?” She calls him “cracked.” Unfortunately for Joe, things continue to get worse and the television begins predicting the couple’s future conflicts.
What’s in the Box revisits some of the ideas explored in the previous episode, A Most Unusual Camera. This time around, the story had some incredibly annoying characters played by extremely talented actors in what is probably the most depressing entry since Uncle Simon. The episode lacked sympathetic characters and even the faintest glimmer of hope. Two stars is all I can give to What’s in the Box.
This month on The Twilight Zone featured characters in some terrifying circumstances. Perhaps the most shocking thing is how much the quality of the episodes vary these days. Two entries were enjoyable. As for the remaining two offerings, one had potential and the other was a bit of a disappointment. At this point, I think it is safe to say that we are witnessing the last gasps of a once great series.
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The characters in the most recent month of The Twilight Zone certainly encountered plenty of doubt and hesitation when they asked for help or tried to express themselves. Such entries include the family of a young woman encouraging her to get a life-altering procedure against her wishes, a teenage girl’s alien boyfriend not receiving the help he needs when he tries to warn her that aliens plan to poison the water supply, an aging spinster struggling to get people to believe that she has been receiving a series of creepy calls, and a man who is so desperate he takes the advice of a computer to get one very special woman to acknowledge his existence.
Number 12 Looks Just Like You, by Charles Beaumont and John Tomerlin
Number 12 Looks Just Like You offers a glimpse of what the year 2000 might look like. In this futuristic society, "science has developed the means to give everyone the face and body he dreams of." A young woman by the name of Marilyn, played by Collin Wilcox of To Kill a Mockingbird, is approaching her 19th birthday. She is also being pressured by her loved ones to mark the occasion with a certain rite of passage, which includes selecting a new body out of a handful of options, like she’s ordering one from a catalog. Then, undergo a procedure to transform into her new self. She is told, "The transformation is the most marvelous thing that could happen to a person." Still, she has her concerns.
Several people in this society, while attractive, look identical and everyone wears name tags so nobody confuses any of the doppelgangers. I am sure it is no coincidence that Marilyn shares a name with one of the silver screen’s most iconic beauties. Her mother, portrayed by model Suzy Parker, asks, "What’s so terrible about being beautiful? After all, isn’t everybody?" Marilyn argues that that is exactly the problem: "Is that good, being like everybody? Isn’t that the same as being nobody?"
A family member refers to her reservations about the procedure as "radical ideas" and she is also described as being a "sick girl." To make matters worse, her beliefs echo things her father said shortly before taking his own life. Can Marilyn continue to resist the intense pressure to conform?
Number 12 Looks Just Like You is good, but not excellent. It kind of feels like a lesser version of a previous entry of The Twilight Zone, Eye of the Beholder. Collin Wilcox really becomes her character, who is significantly younger than she is in real life. Then there is the episode’s conclusion, which is incredibly frightening and is probably the episode’s greatest strength. Overall, I would say that Number 12 Looks Just Like You deserves a pretty solid three stars.
Black Leather Jackets, by Earl Hamner Jr.
In Black Leather Jackets, a biker gang rides into a sleepy town wearing, you guessed it, Black Leather Jackets. Despite some similarities, Black Leather Jackets is hardly The Wild One — the three men are not members of your ordinary biker gang. In fact, they are aliens with telekinetic powers. The aliens set up shop in a vacant house. Upon the gang’s arrival, the neighbors are hardly welcoming. One of them, Stu, portrayed by Western regular Denver Pyle, describes them as, "strange type for this neighborhood." Shelly Fabares of The Donna Reed Show plays his teenage daughter, Ellen, who Stu warns to steer clear of the gang.
It is not long after the bikers move in that the electricity in Stu’s house begins turning on and off, and Ellen’s radio picks up some strange voices. While trying to determine the cause, Stu notices a large antenna on the roof of the gang‘s house. He thinks he may have found the cause of his family‘s problems, and he decides to pay their house a visit.
As it turns out, the men are much more threatening than he ever could have imagined. They are spying on others and are receiving broadcasts of orders from their alien leader. Orders to release a deadly bacteria into the water supply in order to kill Earth’s population so they can colonize the planet. The bikers erase Stu’s memories of visiting their house and send him home in a trance. He describes the men as "three very nice boys" and no longer suspects them of being responsible for the family’s poor reception.
Shortly after, a member of the group, Scott, performed by Golden Globe Nominee Lee Kinsolving, becomes romantically involved with Ellen, much to the gang’s dismay. They are ordered by their boss to "continue without him," even though he is involved with a member of a "stupid race." Scott urges Ellen to leave town and he offers to take her to safety. He warns, "Everything alive is going to be dead," but not surprisingly, he does not exactly get the help he needs.
It is worth noting that Black Leather Jackets has a plot that is remarkably similar to Teenagers from Outer Space, but is not nearly as enjoyable as the movie. Despite looking slicker than Teenagers, Black Leather Jackets is only mildly entertaining, and often unintentionally funny. The actors did an adequate job, but it is a shame that they did not have very good source material. The screenplay is hardly Earl Hamner, Jr. at his best. I did, however, enjoy Nathan Van Cleave’s jazzy score for the episode. So, I would say that this episode deserves two and a half stars.
Night Call, by Richard Matheson
Gladys Cooper makes yet another memorable appearance on The Twilight Zone with Night Call. It has not even been a year since her last performance in the enjoyable Passage on the Lady Anne. Cooper plays Elva, a disabled and elderly woman, who lives alone. One rainy night during a storm, her phone rings. When she answers, all she hears is silence. Immediately after, she receives another call with even more silence.
Elva contacts the phone company, hoping to get to root of the problem. She is informed that during the storm, some wires had fallen. Elva is told that the unusual calls could have been the result of someone to reach her or someone else on her party line during the storm. Elva continues to receive calls, which grow increasingly strange, including calls with moaning and a man saying, "Hello." She tells her caretaker, Margaret, about the calls. Unfortunately, Margaret acts like she suspects Elva is going senile.
The phone company plans to send out a worker to check on the line as soon as the weather permits, but Elva fears that the company might think of her as a "nervous old biddy falling prey to my imagination." Until a worker can check on the line, she tries leaving the phone off of the hook. But as soon as she puts it back on the hook, it starts ringing again. Things continue to escalate and now the voice on the end of the line is asking, "Where are you? I want to talk with you."
Finally, the phone company contacts her tell her that the source of the problem is likely a "fallen wire on the edge of town." But they also add, "there is no way that anyone could have called from that location." So, who is contacting Elva and why? When calls are "routed directly through The Twilight Zone," anything is possible.
What’s not to like about Night Call? Sure, it does not hurt that it was written by Richard Matheson and directed by Jacques Tourneur, who is perhaps best known for his work with Val Lewton in pictures like 1942’s Cat People. Night Call is not flashy, but it is very effective. The suspense slowly builds. It is easily one of the high points of the season, perhaps of the series. Gladys Cooper is terrific, as usual. In addition, the episode’s score, while not specifically composed for the episode, helps to compliment the episode. This is especially true in the scene that reveals Elva’s caller. Night Call easily earns its four stars.
From Agnes with Love, by Bernard C. Schoenfeld
As From Agnes with Love opens with computer programmers struggling to repair Agnes, a very sophisticated and almost human computer, but sadly nobody can get her back in working. That is, until James, played my television actor Wally Cox, arrives. He is told, "She’s been out of her mind for a week." Luckily, as soon as the "master programmer" begins to work on then malfunctioning machine, she resumes normal activity.
James might excel at work, but he struggles in his love life. After working with Agnes for a while, she begins inquiring about his love life and coaching him. Leave It to Beaver’s Sue Randall plays Millie, Jame’s co-worker, who he has a pretty intense crush on. After rejecting James several times, Millie finally agrees to a dinner date.
Agnes sends James messages with dating advice, including "Agnes knows best." She lets him know that "reckless romantic approach required" in order to win over Millie. James is book smart, but often lacks common sense, so what he does not realize is that Agnes has actually set him up for failure. When things do not work out with Millie, Agnes tries to cheer him up him by sending him the message, "Millie is a square. Better girl loves you."
While From Agnes with Love is better than some other entries with a sense of humor, it still is pretty weak. So weak, in fact, that it really requires silly musical cues to remind the audience to laugh. The narrative is incredibly predictable, and the only person surprised by anything that happens is James. As much as I hate to admit it, two stars is all that I can give From Agnes with Love.
Some of characters this month were able to overcome people's doubts, others were not so lucky. The episodes this time around varied quite a bit in terms of quality. There were two very strong offerings. The remaining two were not so memorable. All in all, a hodgepodge of a month, but mostly worth the ride.
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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.
There's a change brewing, slowly but surely. If you've been anywhere near a radio, TV set, or newspaper, you know that the spark lit by the Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education has kindled into a fire, a burning energy to make Black people in America "Free at Last." We've seen it in countless marches, integrating schools, the new civil rights legislation slowly working its way through Congress, and (sadly) the deplorable counterattacks by reactionary white supremacists.
The battleground also exists on television. Black people have been few and far between on the little screen: Jack Benny's assistant, Rochester; the dispatcher on Car 54 Where are You?; Ethel Waters playing a dying blues star on Route 66 (and not a dry eye in that house); non-speaking Marines on the set of The Lieutenant.
Last week marked a refreshing change in the right direction. First, there was an episode of East Side/West Side, a dramatic look at social workers in New York City. A Black actor was cast in the role of a psychiatrist, diagnosing the outlook for a mentally impaired individual. It was a breakthrough for me because it was the first time I saw a Black man cast as the erudite smart one of an ensemble cast. Moreover, I believe I've seen this character before, which would make him semi-recurring.
This week's episode of East Side/West Side did not feature the psychiatrist, but (even better) focused on a Black family and the hardships they endured after they lost their young child. It starred James Earl Jones, whom I know from his stage work, as well as several other actors and actress with whom I was not familiar, but who all turned in excellent performances.
Last week, there was an episode of The Great Adventure, an educational series spotlighting important moments in American history, depicting the story of Harriet Tubman, who helped thousands of slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad in the 19th Century.
And this week, actor/playwright Ossie Davis appeared on the game show, To Tell the Truth!
It's happening, little by little, in all walks of life. There is light at the end of this tunnel.
And speaking of welcome surprises, I'm happy to present the second issue of the science fiction quarterly, Gamma. After last month's dreadful line of mags, it was such a relief to have reading material I could look forward to.
Gamma styles itself as a kind of F&SF plus, getting the best stories with the highest literary merit. So far, they're doing great. Gamma 2 is, despite the gorgeous cover by Dollens, really more of a fantasy/horror mag, as befits its publication date, occurring as it did just before Halloween and Dia de los Muertes. So light the hearth, put a kettle on, and prepare to enjoy a fiendishly pleasant experience:
The Granny Woman, by Dorothy B. Hughes
Novelist Hughes offers up an evocative tale of the Ozarks in which a professor from the city investigates the recent death of The Granny Woman, widely rumored to be a witch. Was it natural causes, or did the village-folk hex the reputed hexer? Not sf, not even really fantasy, but a lovely tale just the same, and suitably spooky for the holidays. Four stars.
The Old College Try , by Robert Bloch
An over-eager colonial administrator is dispatched to an alien world to oversee the native mine workers, ignoring the advice from his laid-back predecessor that it is often better to get along than steam headlong into the winds of tradition.
It's a competently written, Sheckley-esque satire with a joke ending you'll see a mile away. Bloch, the author of Psycho, is one of the more effective horror writers out there, but he didn't strain his talents making this piece. Three stars.
Michael, by Francesca Marques
Every five year old dreams of going on an adventure, but are the aliens calling Michael real or a sign of his mental instability? Told from the point of view of his older sister, this is a beautiful vignette with an excellent sting in its tail. Well done, Francesca, especially for a first tale! Four stars.
Robert Carter, 34, accountant and father, lives a perfectly normal life until the morning he simultaneously bumps his head and cuts his throat — exposing the wires and oil that betray his robotic origin. Has Carter gone mad or is he on his way to discovering the truth of the world?
It's not a bad piece, but like Bloch, Matheson (possibly the finest sff screenplay writer in the business) did not devote much effort this passable but forgettable work. Three stars.
The Kid Learns, by William Faulkner
Where Gamma 1 featured an early genre piece by Tennessee Williams, this time around, it's William Faulkner's turn. The Kid Learns dates back to 1925 and involves a young crimelord aspirant who tangles with a rival and ends up on a date with death. Good, not great, but I did appreciate that I had to read twice to understand what had happened. Three stars.
King's Jester, by Jack Matcha
An overagitated corporate executive hires a Court Jester to lighten the mood, but the contract only serves to facilitate a complete breakdown — of the president and the company. A overly heavy piece that thuds to an ending, I wasn't particularly impressed. Two stars.
Here's Sport Indeed! by William Shakespeare and Ib Melchior
Ib Melchior, son of opera star Lauritz Melchior, has combed the works of The Bard to assemble the damnedest tale of planetary exploration you ever read. An utterly insane exercise, and one that tickled me in all the right places. Five stars.
Portfolio by Burt Shonberg
Here's something nifty: The fellow behind the weird paintings in the film, The House of Usher, has provided several new weird compositions just for this issue. Worth a look. 5 stars.
The Undiscovered Country, by William F. Temple
History is filled with episodes wherein rapacious foreigners kidnap the local princess. In this case, her highness is a telekinetic from Pluto, and Earthers are the bad guys. A well-told story marred by the utterly human form of the aliens despite their wildly differing climate, as well as the moral implications: we should be rooting for the girl, but the story is written sympathetically to the terrans. Three stars.
The Gamma Interview: Robert Sheckley
You better believe I turned to this piece first, and I was not disappointed. Bob, now situated in Italy and sustaining a shamefully low output to our genre, discusses his views on science fiction and his role in it. Five stars of goodness from one of the field's greats.
Castaway, by Charles E. Fritch
Gamma's editor once again takes up the quill for his own publication, much to the benefit of the issue. His story about a shipwrecked Earther, whose planetary imprisonment outlasts the endurance of his physical body, is just beautiful. Five stars.
Something in the Earth, by Charles Beaumont
As with the last issue, both of Twilight Zone's most featured guest writers make an appearance here (Matheson is the other one). Sadly, Beaumont's tale of Earth's last patch of forest and the fellow who appoints himself its defender is overly sentimental and not particularly insightful. Two stars.
I'm Only Lonesome When I'm Lonely, by William F. Nolan
For some people, drifting from cocktail party to cocktail party, living on scotch and the company of others, is a way of life. But as Nolan's story demonstrates, it's always possible to have too much of a good thing. An impressively dialogue-reliant piece. Four stars.
artwork by Luan Meatheringham
Sombra y Sol, by Ray Bradbury
Sadly, the mag ends with the softest of whimpers as everyone's (but mine) favorite "sf" author presents a sort of prose poem, likening the death of little Raimundo during the Day of the Dead to the bull's inevitable end in the arena. Dry, affected, and just plain bad. One star.
Well, I hate to end on a sour note. The fact is, this issue is well worth the 50 cent price, rough patches aside. Get yourself a copy while you can.
Based on the quality of this and the last issue, I'd get a subscription, too. And perhaps you can catch reruns of The Great Adventure and East Side/West Side next summer. That would make your 1964 quite bright, indeed!
The history of our genre, like that of all things, contains several ups and downs. From its beginnings in the pulp explosion, to its near-extinction during the second world war, to the resurgence during the digest age starting in the late '40s, and finally, to its decline at the end of the last decade. At its most recent nadir, the number of science fiction periodicals had dropped to six from a high of forty. Many predicted the imminent death of the genre, and not without justification.
1963 may well be remembered as the year things turned around. In February, Worlds of Tomorrow was introduced as a sibling to sister magazines, Galaxy and IF. To all accounts, it is a successful venture. And last month, another digest joined the throng.
Back in 1949, the digest boom was kicked off by the birth of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was, in many ways, a repudiation of the pulp genre, or perhaps a sign of its maturation. F&SF set its literary standards bar very high, filling its pages with some of the most articulate works and authors our field has seen (and, with some hiccoughs, continues that tradition to this day). For fourteen years, it stood unique in SFF. This is not to say that other magazines did not approach or even surpass it in quality, but the combination of breadth of subject matter and eloquence of presentation made it a creature unto itself.
Until now.
The newest SFF mag is called Gamma, and here's how its editor, Charles E. Fritch, introduces it:
The Dictionary defines GAMMA for us: "…to designate some bright star." One look at our cover and at the stunning lineup of stellar names for our next issue will confirm that definition. Indeed, GAMMA is the bright new star of the science fiction/fantasy field, and we intend to see that it continues to light up the heavens. The dictionary goes on to mention the gamma function — and we'll assure you that the GAMMA function, in our case, is to give our readers the best fiction, by the finest talents in and out of the sf field — fiction of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. GAMMA will unearth classic fantasy from obscure, out-of-print markets, while creating its own classics and memorable stories in each issue.
Ambitious, to be sure. For those of us who remember the arrival of F&SF, we cannot help note the similarities of the two magazines. The style and composition of the sole piece of art (and the fact there is just one throughout the whole book) is highly reminiscent of the older digest. Inside, too, there are sixteen pieces, none longer than twenty pages. The majority of the listed authors have had work published in F&SF, too.
Just as F&SF has "theme" issues, this "FIRST BIG ISSUE" of Gamma has a clear The Twilight Zone angle. All five of the anthology show's main authors have a piece in the mag, and Rod Serling gets top (or, I suppose it can be argued, bottom) billing.
But does this F&SF doppleganger live up to the standards of its predecessors? You'll have to read it and find out (hint: You won't be disappointed):
Mourning Song, by Charles Beaumont
Beaumont is one of the "Zone's" most prolific guest writers, and his pieces are generally marked with authorial expertise. He is, in many ways, what Bradbury should be: Emotional without being mawkish; literate without self-indulgence. Mourning Song, about a sightless old bard who claims to know when death is coming, and the young man who dares to disbelieve, is one of the most poignant things I've seen Beaumont produce. Five stars.
Crimes Against Passion, by Fritz Leiber
The damned in hell get a chance to re-plead their cases, with the help of a psychiatric public defender and the burgeoning field of Analysis. It's meant to be a funny piece, but largely fails at comedy (save for one genuinely funny line, when Macbeth shouts irritably at his former adversary, "Lay off, MacDuff!") Lieber's been hit or miss lately, and this is a definite miss. Two stars.
A reprint from the July 1953 Fantastic Universe, this tale of young time travelers from an antiseptic future, and the girl who decides to stay in 1928, is played for every sentimental note. Brush your teeth afterwards. Three stars.
The Vengeance of Nitocris, by Tennessee Williams
Now here's an interesting one, the very first sale of arguably the world's greatest living playwright. This tale of a vengeful Egyptian Empress of the Old Kingdom first appeared in the August 1928 Weird Tales. It's nothing if not lurid, and the story it tells is a true one (or, at least, attested back to ancient times — I checked the sources cited). Three stars.
Itself, by A. E. van Vogt
A robotic anti-sub is the star in Van Vogt's aquatic answer to Laumer's sentient tank story, Combat Unit. Just not as good. Two stars.
Venus Plus Three, by Charles E. Fritch
A disenchanted wife brings his husband to savage Venus so that man-eating plants can preclude the need for a messy divorce. An outdated, pulpish tale, but still entertaining. Three stars.
A Message from Morj, by Ray Russell
The pulsing from the distant world could be none other than a communication — but just what was it trying to say? This vignette manages to be, by turns, both surprising and predictable. Three stars.
To Serve the Ship, by William F. Nolan
When your occupation has been to be sole pilot of a starship for eight decades, it can be pretty hard to adapt to retirement. Author Nolan takes on a subject that both James White (Fast Trip) and Anne McCaffrey (The Ship Who Sang) have handled better. Three stars.
(And now, you may be thinking, "With the exception of the Beaumont, this doesn't sound like a great magazine." Fear not. It's all gravy from here.)
Gamma Interview: Rod Serling, by Rod Serling
Any conversation with one of television's brightest lights is bound to be an engaging one. The Twilight Zone's creator does not disappoint. Five stars.
The Freeway, by George Clayton Johnson
Johnson is another Zone regular, and in this tale of the breakdown of an automatic car in the middle of the desert, he highlights the danger of over-reliance on technology. Could you survive? Not just the physical peril, but the knowledge of just how ill-equipped we are to deal with nature undiluted? A solid three stars.
One Night Stand, by Herbert A. Simmons
Horn-blowing misfit finds his groove and love in a gig on the Red Planet. The first SFF story I've read by a Black man (that I know of), it's a satisfyingly hep read. Three stars.
As Holy and Enchanted, by Kris Neville
I first fell in love with a fictional character when I was ten. It was Polychrome, the fairy daughter of the rainbow who first fell to Earth in The Road to Oz, and I wrote several childish tales that detailed our meeting and (innocent) courtship. This reprint from the April 1953 Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader covers similar ground, but far more beautifully than I ever could have managed. Four stars.
Shade of Day, by John Tomerlin
A sick salesman whose life zagged when it should have zigged revisits the last happy time of his life, touring the Junior High of his early teens. Heavy, subtle, effective. Four stars.
The Girl Who Wasn't There, by Forrest J. Ackerman
If you don't yet know 4E, that legendary SFF fan who helms magazines, anchors conventions, and keeps old magazines in his refrigerator for want of space elsewhere, this tale of a lonely, invisible girl is a good introduction. Four stars.
Death in Mexico, by Ray Bradbury
I spend much of my time praising Bradbury with faint damns, but this poem is a genuinely worthy piece. Four stars.
Crescendo, by Richard Matheson
It's never a bad idea to wrap up a magazine with Matheson, possibly the best SFF screenwriter of our age. Who else could make an electric church organ so plausibly menacing? Four stars.
Viewed with the dispassionate eye of a statistics collector, GAMMA garners a strong, but not noteworthy, score of 3.4 stars. Taken as a whole, however, this is a stunning first issue. For those who like F&SF and wish there were more magazines like it, your prayers have been answered. Here's looking forward to GAMMA 2, coming out in the fall.
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.
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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![[March 25, 1964] The Face of Terror (<i>The Twilight Zone</i>, Season 5, Episodes 20-24)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/640325b.jpg?resize=672%2C372)
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![[November 5, 1963] Beginning to see the light (November 1963 <i>Gamma</i>)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/631105cover.jpg?resize=660%2C372)
