Twilight Zone – Of Late I Think Of Cliffordville

★★★★ April 11, 1963 Season 4 Episode 14

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This is a good episode. It has two plot lines that I love…time travel and deals with the Devil. If the devil looked like  Julie Newmar…there would be a lot of deals signed. Albert Salmi as the greedy Feathersmith is fantastic. He is one of my favorite chacter actors of that time. You may recognize John Anderson as Deidrich…he was a character actor until his death in 1992. He had 246 acting credits on various tv shows. 

If you could go back knowing what you know now. Would it be something small or  large you would miss because you were so excited? Chances are yes…and that little something could start a chain reaction…and you might just regret it. 

The special effects in the Twilight Zone are usually great. The only bad thing I can say about them in this one is Salmi’s “old” makeup. I believe though it’s a product of our times. With high definition tv now…you can see it clear but back then on 60’s tv…it was probably fine. This one is marked low in IMDB which I totally disagree with. It does have it’s faults but is an enjoyable episode. 

From IMDB: Ms. Devlin’s Travel Offices are on the 13th floor. This is unusual in the US (and suitable to her nature) as most buildings before the 1980’s skip the 13th floor when numbering floors in their buildings. The number 13 has long been considered unlucky.

Albert Salmi previously appeared in The Twilight Zone: Execution (1960) and The Twilight Zone: A Quality of Mercy (1961), all of which involve time travel. In “Execution” and “Cliffordville” his characters are very unlikable, although that is not the case in “Quality.”

This show was written by Rod Serling and Malcolm Jameson

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Witness a murder. The killer is Mr. William Feathersmith, a robber baron whose body composition is made up of a refrigeration plant covered by thick skin. In a moment, Mr. Feathersmith will proceed on his daily course of conquest and calumny with yet another business dealing. But this one will be one of those bizarre transactions that take place in an odd marketplace known as the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Mr. William J. Feathersmith, tycoon, who tried the track one more time and found it muddier than he remembered, proving with at least a degree of conclusiveness that nice guys don’t always finish last, and some people should quit when they’re ahead. Tonight’s tale of iron men and irony, delivered F.O.B. from the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling…Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Albert Salmi … Feathersmith
John Anderson … Deidrich
Wright King … Hecate
Guy Raymond … Gibbons
Christine Burke … Joanna
John Harmon … Clark
Hugh Sanders … Cronk
Julie Newmar … Miss Devlin
Mary Jackson … Miss Pepper (uncredited)

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

16 thoughts on “Twilight Zone – Of Late I Think Of Cliffordville”

  2. Ideally enjoyed this one! Time travel and the devil. And not the traditional tired sell your soul to the devil premise. Very creative idea. I love the look on his face when Devlin takes off her hat with the horns and she still has horns.

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  5. Again, I think the hour-long format works very well for this, as there is a lot of story to tell. I like the parable of the story. Good casting also! Yes, the “aged” MC special effects are little hokey but all in all I enjoyed the episode.

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  6. Sounds like a good one! I think it’s a universal feeling – the “what if?” – but the mark of maturity is realizing you need to focus on the road ahead not the rear view, so to speak. Part of that I suppose ties into the “grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” theory. When we look back at the possibilities, the girls we could have gone after, the jobs we didn’t apply for, the parties we didn’t go to, we always seem to think of running the mental films to the best possible outcome. And as we know, few things end up being “best possible” outcomes.

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    1. Oh yes we do. You could have had a terrible wreck going to one of those parties, met a deranged person on one of those dates you turned down….etc.
      We do have an image of great things happening rather than bad.

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      1. Exactly! You buy that winning Powerball ticket but get run over by a tractor trailer crossing the road to the lotto office, next thing you know Alanis is singing songs about you and annoying English grammarians in so doing. No one thinks of that…
        Looks like ‘Twilight Zone’ has disappeared from Hulu! A drag that !

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      2. Oh man….I think I know why it vanished. Paramount + who owns the TZ….is trying to get it back just to them. Dailymotion does have some of them with the complete episodes… Just search the title + dailymotion

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  8. Pingback: Twilight Zone Season 4 Review – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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