Twilight Zone Companion (53 page)

Written by Rod Serling

Producer: Bert Granet

Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.

Director of Photography: Robert W. Pittack

Music: stock

Cast: Mr. Goldsmith: John Anderson Major French: James Coburn Jason: John Marley Evelyn: Josie Lloyd Harber: Frank Watkins Douglas: Lenny Geer Man: John Craven Woman: Natalie Masters Furman: Don Wilbanks

What youre looking at is a legacy that man left to himself A decade previous he pushed his buttons and, a nightmarish moment later; woke up to find that he had set the clock back a thousand years. His engines, his medicines, his science were buried in a mass tomb, covered over by the biggest gravedigger of them all: a Bomb. And this is the Earth ten years later; a fragment of what was once a whole, a remnant of what was once a race. The year is 1974, and this is the Twilight Zone.

A tiny community has survived for ten years by following the instructions of the mysterious Old Man in the Cave, as relayed to them by Mr. Goldsmith, their leader. But then a small band of armed soldiers commanded by the violent Major French drives into town and takes over. Against Goldsmiths vehement objections, they distribute food and liquor branded contaminated by the Old Man. Resentful over their past privations, the townspeople force Goldsmith to open the cave. The Old Man stands revealed as a computer! Enraged, the townsfolk destroy the machine. Later, though, they pay the price for their faithlessness: the food was contaminated, and all but Goldsmith die.

Mr. Goldsmith, survivor; an eye witness to mans imperfection, an observer of the very human trait of greed and a chronicler of the last chapter the one reading suicide. Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been the Twilight Zone.

Two episodes in the fifth season were based on short stories by Henry Slesar, a leading mystery writer and for many years a staff writer on The Edge of Night.

Based on Slesars The Old Man and scripted by Serling, The Old Man in the Cave dwells on a small group of Atomic Holocaust survivors whose status quo is maintained by an unseen computer. James Coburn, John Anderson and John Marley all perform their roles well, but there are several issues raised by the episode that are hard to ignore. For instance, Goldsmith views the computer as a deity-like authority, and when the people demand to know the identity of the Old Man and disregard his instructions, this is considered the ultimate act of faithlessness the punishment being death. But, in actuality, a computer is not a god, it is a man-made tool, and the towns folks insistence to know the true nature of their leader seems less an act of faithlessness than a natural human curiosity for vital information, a desire for democracy, for self-determination.

On a more prosaic level, there is yet another question: what has been powering the computer during the ten years since all-out nuclear warand how did it get in that cave in the first place?

THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT OF SALVADORE ROSS
(1/17/64)

Written by Jerry McNeely

Producer: Bert Granet

Director: Don Siegel

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

Music: stock

Cast: Salvadore Ross: Don Gordon Leah Maitland: Gail Kobe Mr. Maitland: Vaughn Taylor Old Man: J. Pat OMalley Albert: Doug Lambert Mr. Halpert: Douglass Dumbrille Jerry: Seymour Cassel Bartender: Ted Jacques Nurse: Kathleen OMalley

Confidential personnel file on Salvadore Ross. Personality: a volatile mixture of fury and frustration. Distinguishing physical characteristic: a badly-broken hand which will require emergency treatment at the nearest hospital. Ambition: shows great determination toward self-improvement. Estimate of potential success: a sure bet for a listing in Whos Who in the Twilight Zone

When Leah Maitland, his former social worker, rejects his romantic overtures, Ross angrily punches a door and breaks his hand. Admitted to a hospital, he makes the acquaintance of an elderly patient suffering from severe bronchial congestion. Facetiously, Ross suggests they trade ailments; the old man agrees. Later that night, Ross finds to his amazement that it has workedh e now has a cold but no broken arm! Utilizing his bizarre talent, Ross trades forty-six years of his life to an aged millionaire in exchange for a million dollars and a posh apartment. He then buys back his youth from a variety of young men, a few years at a time. His vitality restored, he sets about courting Leah in style. But its no use; Leah wants a man with compassion, a trait her crippled father has in abundance. Although Mr. Maitland objects strongly to him, Ross convinces him to sell him his compassion for $100,000. The next day, Ross now filled with compassion easily wins Leahs love. But when he tells her father of his plans to marry her and asks his blessing, the compassionless Mr. Maitland pulls a gun and kills him.

The Salvadore Ross program for self-improvement. The all-in-one, sure-fire success course that lets you lick the bully, learn the language, dance the tango and anything else you want to door think you want to do. Money-back guarantee. Offer limited to… the Twilight Zone

Scripted by Jerry McNeeley (,Something for Joey, Streets of San Francisco, Marcus Welby, McMillan and Wife, and others) from The Self-improvement of Salvadore Ross (appearing in the May, 1961, issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,) the episode bears both the same title and plotline.

In the lead is Don Gordon, in his first Twilight Zone appearance since The Four of Us Are Dying. The character here is similarcocky, slightly cruel, short-temperedand, for the most part, Gordon does a good, credible job of it. Fine too is Gail Kobe as Leah Maitland, the gentle social worker who wont give Salvadore Ross a tumbleuntil he mysteriously acquires a kindly disposition.

Although competently directed by Don Siegel, the episode suffers from a sloppiness of production, a lack of attention to detail.

One problem is the improbability of the idea that Leah could go from a rigid conviction not to have anything more to do with Sal to a state of complete infatuation in a single day. No matter how overwhelming his change in personality, this just isnt plausible. It would take time for him to convince her of his sincerity and to heal the wounds caused by his previous behavior.

Worst of all is the scene in which Sal, having traded his youth for a million dollars and an elegant bachelor pad, is supposed to look and act like a man of seventy-two. The age makeup on Gordon looks like something out of a high-school play.

STOPOVER IN A QUIET TOWN (4/24/64)

Written by Earl Hamner, Jr.

Producer: Bert Granet

Director: Ron Winston

Director of Photography:

Robert W. Pittack

Music: stock

Cast: Bob Frazier: Barry Nelson Millie Frazier: Nancy Malone Mother: Karen Norris Little Girl: Denise Lynn

Bob and Millie Frazier; average young New Yorkers who attended a party in the country last night and on the way home took a detour. Most of us on waking in the morning know exactly where we are; the rooster or the alarm clock brings up out of sleep into the familiar sights, sounds, aromas of home and the comfort of a routine day ahead. Not so with our young friends. This will be a day like none they’ve ever spent and they’ll spend it in the Twilight Zone.”

After getting drunk at the party, Bob and Millie wake up the next morning, fully dressed, in bed in a strange house, with no idea where they are nor memory of how they got there. Finding themselves alone, Bob tries to use the kitchen phone it comes off the wall in his hand. Odder still, the foods in the refrigerator are inedible props; the drawers nailed-down facades. Suddenly, they hear the giggling of an unseen little girl. Investigating outside, they find a town completely devoid of people. The mystery grows: a squirrel on a branch is stuffed; a tree falls over when leaned on; grass is made of papier-mache; a car has a dummy at the wheel and no engine. Hearing a train whistle, Bob and Millie rush to find the station. But before they can, a huge hand reaches down and grabs them. The town is merely a toy. Bob and Millie have been abducted by a giant alien and taken to its home world where they are now the playthings of its daughter.

The moral of what you’ve just seen is clear. If you drink, don’t drive. And if your wife has had a couple, she shouldn’t drive either. You might both just wake up with a whale of a headache in a deserted village in the Twilight Zone.”

Earl Hamner, Jr.s, Stopover in a Quiet Town bears a number of similarities to Serlings Where Is Everybody? The genesis of the story was similar, too. I got that idea walking around the backlot at MGM once, Hamner recalls. Everything was made of papier-mache and was a false front. It suddenly came to me, what if someone woke in this surrounding and there was nothing but false labels on everything, and if you dropped a lighted match on the grass it would catch fire, and if you got on a train it would come all the way around to where you started from?

The greatest weakness in Stopover in a Quiet Town, beside the fact that its fairly predictable, lies in its two main characters. The lead in Where Is Everybody? although seemingly none too bright, is at least likeable. But Bob and Millie Frazier have almost no redeeming qualities. Theyre short-tempered, quarrelsome, and blame each other for their predicament. The wife tends toward hysteria and the man is brutishly insensitive. Clearly, neither has much regard for the other. A marvelous exchange occurs when Bob sarcastically remarks, Youre the one who drove us into this nuthouse in the first place! When Millie takes exception to this, Bob replies, Im sorry I said that. Its all my fault for being too tight to drive. Some apology; the implication is clear: had he been driving, they wouldnt be in this mess.

A SHORT DRINK FROM A CERTAIN FOUNTAIN(12/13/63)

Written by Rod Serling

Producer: Bert Granet

Director: Bernard Girard

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

Music: stock

Cast: Harmon Gordon: Patrick ONeal Flora Gordon: Ruta Lee Dr. Raymond Gordon: Walter Brooke

Picture of an aging man who leads his life, as Thoreau said, in quiet desperation. Because Harmon Gordon is enslaved by a love affair with a wife forty years his junior. Because of this, he runs when he should walk. He surrenders when simple pride dictates a stand. He pines away for the lost morning of his life when he should be enjoying the evening. In short, Mr. Harmon Gordon seeks a fountain of youth, and whos to say he wont find it? This happens to be the Twilight Zone.

Desperate to keep up with his gold-digger wife, wealthy Harmon Gordon begs his doctor-brother to inject him with a highly experimental youth serum. Initially, the doctor refuses, but when Harmon threatens suicide he reluctantly agrees. At first, the serums effects seem miraculous; Harmon is restored to vigorous young manhood. But the formula continues to work and Harmon regresses into an infant. As his wife starts to walk out, Harmons brother makes a threat that compels her to stay: raise Harmon to adulthood, staying with him every minute or be cut off without a penny.

It happens to be a fact: as one gets older, one does get wiser. If you dont believe it, ask Flora. Ask her any day of the ensuing weeks of her life, as she takes note during the coming years and realizes that the worm has turned youth has taken over. Its simply the way the calendar crumbles … in the Twilight Zone

Poetic justice of a sort is served at the end of A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain but it would be more satisfying were it not for the uncomfortable realization that a helpless child is being left entirely at the mercy of someone who was an unfit wife and will almost certainly be an unfit mother. For reasons which are cloudy at this late date, this is one of four half-hour episodes which are not in syndication. Considering its wordiness and predictability, however, this is no great loss.

The way the calendar crumbles in the Twilight Zone

The Masks

Written by Rod Serling

Producer: Bert Granet

Director: Ida Lupino

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens 

Music: stock

Cast: Jason Foster: Robert Keith Emily Harper: Virginia Gregg Wilfred Harper: Milton Selzer Wilfred, Jr.: Alan Sues Paula Harper: Brooke Hayward Doctor: Willis Bouchey Butler: Bill Walker

Mr Jason Foster; a tired ancient who on this particular Mardi Gras evening will leave the earth. But before departing he has some things to do, some services to perform, some debts to pay and some justice to mete out. This is New Orleans, Mardi Gras time. It is also the Twilight Zone.

Knowing he is about to die, Foster summons his heirs with whom he shares no affection to his mansion for a bizarre Mardi Gras ritual. A Cajun has fashioned grotesque masks for him that reflect the true inner natures of his family: the whining self-pity of his daughter Emily; the avariciousness of his son-in-law Wilfred; the vanity of his granddaughter Emily; and the dull cruelty of his grandson Wilfred, Jr. Foster demands that they wear the masks until midnight; as for him, he will wear a deaths-head. They refuseuntil he informs them that theyll be disinherited unless they comply. Their greed overcomes their disgust; they all don the masks. As the hours slowly tick by, Fosters kin beg to be allowed to discard the masks, but Foster is steadfast in his determination. As midnight tolls, Foster dies. Overjoyed to be rid of him and to have gained his wealth, his family throw off their disguises and are horrified to see that their faces have taken on the hideous physical characteristics of the masks.

Mardi Gras incident, the dramatis personae being four people who came to celebrate and in a sense let themselves go. This they did with a vengeance. They now wear the faces of all that was inside themand theyll wear them for the rest of their lives, said lives now to be spent in shadow. Tonights tale of men, the macabre and maskson the Twilight Zone.

The Masks is both well written and well directed (by Ida Lupino, making her the only woman to direct a Twilight Zone episode and the only person to both star in an episode The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine and direct one). But much of its success must be credited to the masks themselves, and to the artistry in the heavy makeup applied to the faces beneath. As in The Eye of the Beholder, there is a compelling beauty in the ugliness, an alluring repulsiveness. Designed by William Tuttle and crafted by Tuttle, Charles Schram and others, they are works of art, grotesqueries which reflect all the cruelty, ignorance, vanity and avariciousness described in the characters. And best of all, they bear enough resemblance to the actors faces to seem like hideous, degenerate alter selves.