Twilight Zone – Caesar and Me

★★★1/2 April 10, 1964 Season 5 Episode 28

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

This is the second Twilight Zone with a ventriloquist’s dummy that is smarter than his ventriloquist. The episode though doesn’t build the same mystery about the dummy as The Dummy does. Jackie Cooper plays Jonathan West a down-on-his-luck ventriloquist who has no friend but Caesar…the dummy. You do feel some sympathy with this character, but he is far too naive. The trouble starts when Caesar manipulates Jonathan into performing several robberies instead of finding honest work while they are waiting for their big break.

The vicious character in this story is the little girl named Susan played by Suzanne Cupito. She would later play  Katherine Wentworth in Dallas. She started out as an insufferable little  know it all but ended up as evil as the Caesar. This is the only episode of the series written by a woman. Adele T. Strassfield was the secretary of William Froug, the producer of the second half of the final season of The Twilight Zone.

It was a good episode and an improvement over the previous episode Sounds and Silences

IMDB Trivia: The ventriloquist’s dummy is a reuse of the one created for The Twilight Zone: The Dummy (1962). It was modeled on George Murdock, one of that episode’s guest stars.

Jackie Cooper’s name previously appeared on a poster for the film O’Shaughnessy’s Boy (1935), in which he starred, in The Twilight Zone: The Incredible World of Horace Ford (1963).

This show was written by Rod Serling and Adele T. Strassfield

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Jonathan West, ventriloquist, a master of voice manipulation. A man, late of Ireland, with a talent for putting words into other peoples’ mouths. In this case, the other person is a dummy, aptly named Caesar, a small splinter with large ideas, a wooden tyrant with a mind and a voice of his own, who is about to talk Jonathan West – into the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Ventriloquist Jonathan West isn’t having much luck finding a job. He’s gone to several auditions but no one has taken him on. He’s falling behind in his rent and is now getting to the point where he’s running out of things to pawn. He has to put up with the taunts of young Susan, the landlady’s niece. He’s also talking to his dummy, Caesar, who has advice for him on how to get ahead. It’s not very good advice however.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

A little girl and a wooden doll. A lethal dummy in the shape of a man. But everybody knows dummies can’t talk – unless, of course, they learn their vocabulary in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Host / Narrator – Himself
Jackie Cooper … Jonathan West / voice of Caesar
Suzanne Cupito (Morgan Brittany) … Susan
Sarah Selby … Mrs. Cudahy
Stafford Repp … Pawnbroker
Don Gazzaniga … Detective
Kenneth Konopka … Mr. Miller
Sidney Marion … Watchman
Robert McCord … Man Watching Audition
Olan Soule … Mr. Smiles

Twilight Zone – Sounds and Silences

★★  April 3, 1964 Season 5 Episode 27

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

EXACTLY on April 3, 1964…58 years ago today, this episode was aired for the first time. I wish it would have been a better episode that lined up with the current date. This is a light episode, not one of the great ones. The main character (Roswell G. Flemington) is not likable but played well by John McGiver. He is a very loud man because his mom made him be quiet all of his childhood.

You feel for his long-suffering wife played by Penny Singleton. All that said, the film has some funny moments at the expense of Roswell, particularly his employees talking among themselves about him when he isn’t around. He expects the world to put up with his very loud ways. The episode is harmless enough, but it doesn’t get off the ground. It can be taxing to get through.

On May 1961, a script was submitted to Serling entitled The Sound of Silence, concerning a man who could not hear the sounds around him. Serling rejected it, then forgot all about it. Two years later, he wrote Sounds and Silences. As soon as it aired, the writer of the original script filed suit. Because of the similarities in title and plot, the writer was paid $3500 and the matter was settled. Unfortunately, because the suit was in litigation when Twilight Zone was put into syndication, Sounds and Silences was not included. The episode was aired only once and then put away in the CBS vaults.
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IMDB Trivia: Shortly after the airing, a writer came up with a lawsuit claiming his script and title was used. It was settled with him receiving $3500 but litigation prevented it from being included in syndication for a time.

The first “sound effect” record played by John McGiver is actually a 78RPM disc on the Deltone label called “You Won’t Believe Your Eyes” sung by Ina Massine. Ina Massine isn’t a real singer; it was Kathryn Grayson’s character name in the 1951 film “Grounds for Marriage.” This Rodgers and Hart song (real title, “Wait Till You See Him”) was recorded for the movie but not used. This record must have been a leftover prop.

Mrs. Flemington is portrayed by Penny Singleton, who is perhaps best known for portraying Blondie Bumstead from the “Blondie!'” movies of the 1930s and 1940s, that were based on the comic strip created by Chic Young. Penny also provided the voice of Jane Jetson on “The Jetsons” (1962).

This show was written by Rod Serling 

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

This is Roswell G. Flemington, two hundred and twenty pounds of gristle, lung tissue and sound decibels. He is, as you have perceived, a noisy man, one of a breed who substitutes volume for substance, sound for significance, and shouting to cover up the readily apparent phenomenon that he is nothing more than an overweight and aging perennial Sea Scout whose noise-making is in inverse ratio to his competence and to his character. But soon our would-be admiral of the fleet will embark on another voyage. This one is an unchartered and twisting stream that heads for a distant port called the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Rosswell G. Flemington owns a model ship company and loves everything nautical. That’s not his problem, however: he likes everything to be loud. He speaks at the top of his lungs, bellowing commands to his staff. He plays his phonograph records – his favorites include the sound of jets flying off the deck of the USS Hornet – as loud as possible, something that leads his wife to leave him. He’s not prepared for what happens to him in the Twilight Zone however

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

When last heard from, Mr. Roswell G. Flemington was in a sanitarium pleading with the medical staff to make some noise. They, of course, believe the case to be a rather tragic aberration – a man’s mind becoming unhinged. And for this they’ll give him pills, therapy, and rest. Little do they realize that all Mr. Flemington is suffering from is a case of poetic justice. Tonight’s tale of sounds and silences from the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Host / Narrator – Himself
John McGiver … Roswell G. Flemington
Penny Singleton … Mrs. Lydia Flemington
Billy Benedict … Conklin
Francis De Sales … Doctor
Michael Fox … Psychiatrist

 

Twilight Zone – I Am the Night – Color Me Black

★★★★★ March 27, 1964 Season 5 Episode 26

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

IMDB has this one rated with 7.4 out of 10. I think it should have been rated much higher. It is an excellent and powerful episode so I’m giving it 5 stars. A thought-provoking episode that is very original. Rod Serling wrote this and he lashed out at hatred in this episode. It was made only 4 months after JFK was assassinated. I rate this a 5 not because of the action or sci-fi…but it makes you think. The best Twilight Zones do that.  Some might not like it because it is very dark. 

Serling describes darkness covering various areas of the world simultaneously in reference to the evil happenings of the era. It’s a powerful message about a human sickness that all of us can learn and grow from. It was such a great concept to have the sunlight go away and to have total darkness brought on by hate. Maybe it is an act of God that’s being spurred on by men. 

George Lindsey (Goober off of the Andy Griffith Show) plays a backwoods redneck policeman in this one. Michael Constantine plays the sheriff who feels guilty about what is going on and realizes the mistakes that he and everyone else has made. Ivan Dixon plays the Reverend Anderson and he and Constantine are the stars of this episode. The acting, writing, and lessons are great in this one. 

IMDB Trivia: This episode takes place on May 25, 1964.

Ivan Dixon (Reverend) previously starred in The Twilight Zone: The Big Tall Wish (1960).

This show was written by Rod Serling 

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Sheriff Charlie Koch on the morning of an execution. As a matter of fact, it’s seven-thirty in the morning. Logic and natural laws dictate that at this hour there should be daylight. It is a simple rule of physical science that the sun should rise at a certain moment and supersede the darkness. But at this given moment, Sheriff Charlie Koch, a deputy named Pierce, a condemned man named Jagger, and a small, inconsequential village will shortly find out that there are causes and effects that have no precedent. Such is usually the case—in the Twilight Zone.

Summary

In a small town, a man by the name of Jagger is about to be executed after being found guilty of murder. The local newspaperman, Colbey, is convinced that Jagger is innocent. He accuses Deputy Pierce of having perjured himself to get a conviction and accuses Sheriff Charlie Koch of just plain laziness in investigating the case. As the morning of his execution arrives, the townsfolk realize that the sun hasn’t risen that day. They soon begin to understand the cause of the darkness that surrounds them.

SPOILER WARNING WITH VIDEO

 

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

A sickness known as hate. Not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ—but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don’t look for it in the Twilight Zone—look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.

CAST

Rod Serling … Host / Narrator – Himself
Michael Constantine … Sheriff Charlie Koch
Paul Fix … Colbey
George Lindsey … Deputy Pierce
Ivan Dixon … the Reverend Anderson
Terry Becker … Jagger
Eve McVeagh … Ella
Douglas Bank … Man
Russell Custer … Townsman
Elizabeth Harrower … Woman
Michael Jeffers … Deputy
Robert McCord … Townsman
Ward Wood … Man

 

Twilight Zone – The Masks

★★★★★ March 20, 1964 Season 5 Episode 25

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

Rod Serling wrote this episode and it is a bonafide classic. This is one of the episodes I point out to people who have never seen The Twilight Zone. I love some great Twilight Zone justice and this has it. A dying wealthy older man invites his awful family (his daughter Emily, her husband Wilfred, and children Paula & Wilfred Jr.) down to visit and for a party. He makes each of them wear a mask that reflects who they are until midnight. They do not want to wear the masks but he makes it clear, if they don’t wear the masks they will not get anything when he dies. “That is indeed the most touching thing you ever dredged up by way of conversation, Wilfred. But I must include this addendum, this small proviso: You shall wear your masks until midnight. If anyone of you should take them off, from my estate, you shall each receive train fare back to Boston, and that’s it!”

This is one of those perfect episodes. The narration, writing, and acting come together perfectly. The star of it was Robert Keith who played Jason Foster. He is dying and his lines to his family in this episode are cutting but well deserved. This was the only episode of the series to be directed by a woman, Ida Lupino. She previously played Barbara Jean Trenton in the episode The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine. The famous actress Lupino would end up with 42 director credits to go along with her 105 acting ones. 

Here are a few of his quotes

You’ve been at death’s door so often it’s a wonder you haven’t worn a hole in the mat. 

You know, Wilfred, I think the only book you ever read was a ledger. I think if someone cut you open, they would find a cash register.

Well, that’s friendly of you to tell me that, considering that you haven’t seen me yet. All you’ve seen is your mirror image.

This show was written by Rod Serling 

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

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.

Summary

When his doctor tells him that he could die at any moment, the wealthy Jason Foster gathers his heirs including his daughter Emily Harper, her husband Wilfred and their children Paula and Wilfred Jr. Jason doesn’t think much of any of them and it’s clear they can’t wait to get their hands on his fortune. It’s Mardi Gras time in New Orleans and he has one last request – for each of them to wear a carnival mask. Each of the masks is meant to reflect some aspect of their personality – and leave a lasting impression on them.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

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 them—and they’ll wear them for the rest of their lives, said lives now to be spent in shadow. Tonight’s tale of men, the macabre and masks, on the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Robert Keith…Jason Foster
Milton Selzer…Wilfred Harper
Virginia Gregg…Emily Harper
Brooke Hayward…Paula Harper
Alan Sues…Wilfred Harper Jr.
Willis Bouchey…Dr. Samuel Thorne
Bill Walker…Jeffrey The Butler
Maidie Norman…Maid

Twilight Zone – What’s in the Box

★★★1/2 March 13, 1964 Season 5 Episode 24

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

Two bickering and unlikable characters star in this episode. Do you want to see the dark side of marriage? Watch this episode. It reminds me of the episode A Most Unusual Camera. It’s almost too close to that episode. Both take place in a high-rise apartment building that features a window. This time it’s a TV, not a camera that after a “repair” shows the near feature in wonderful black and white. 

 William Demarest and Joan Blondell are effective in portraying their characters here, even if neither one is very likable. There is no need for a back story of these two, it’s clear why they fight. Sterling Holloway plays the TV repairman, and you might recognize his voice as Winnie The Pooh. Again, not in the top episodes but certainly not too bad. The next episode coming Wednesday…a classic. 

From IMDB Trivia: Joe Britt is surprised at getting Channel 10. When television began, it was broadcast over the very high frequency (VHF) band of the radio spectrum. The VHF channels were 2-13, but, to avoid interference, a city could not have channels with consecutive numbers, except for 4 and 5 or 5 and 6. Britt lives in New York, which had channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13.

While the TV repairman is fixing the television in the first scene, numerous voices can be heard. One of them is Rod Serling saying, “Next time on The Twilight Zone (1959)…”

According to The Twilight Zone Companion, Martin M. Goldsmith was brought in to write an episode of The Twilight Zone, due to his previous collaboration with William Froug on Playhouse 90. And according to William Froug, Martin Goldsmith came up with a notion of a guy looking at his own extramarital activities on TV, and trying to it off before his wife could see it. Martin Goldsmith would disown the episode, saying “I didn’t like it, it lacked all subtlety the way it was done. I think Joan Blondell and William Demarest overplayed it. It was just too broad.”

This show was written by Martin Goldsmith and Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Portrait of a TV fan. Name: Joe Britt. Occupation: cab driver. Tonight, Mr. Britt is going to watch “a really big show,” something special for the cabbie who’s seen everything. Joe Britt doesn’t know it, but his flag is down and his meter’s running and he’s in high gear—on his way to the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Taxi driver Joe Britt usually makes his way home to his wife Phyllis but theirs is not a happy marriage as they constantly bicker and she accuses him of having a girlfriend. The obnoxious Joe is having his TV fixed but after the repairman leaves, Joe sees himself with his girlfriend in scenes from the recent past. Soon after, he has a glimpse of what will happen in the near future.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

The next time your TV set is on the blink, when you’re in the need of a first-rate repairman, may we suggest our own specialist? Factory-trained, prompt, honest, twenty-four hour service. You won’t find him in the phone book, but his office is conveniently located—in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Joan Blondell…Phyllis Britt
William Demarest…Joe Britt
Sterling Holloway…TV Repairman
Herbert Lytton…Dr. Saltman
Sandra Gould…Woman On T.V.
Howard Wright…Judge
Douglas Bank…Prosecutor
Ted Christy…The Wild Panther
Robert McCord…Electric Chair Guard
Tony Miller…Announcer
Mitchell Rhein…Neighbour
Ron Stokes…Car Salesman
John L. Sullivan…The Russian Duke

 

Twilight Zone – Queen of the Nile

★★★1/2  March 6, 1964  Season 5 Episode 23

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

The show begins with a reporter coming to the home of a pretty film star that looks amazing for her age. At first, the show seems friendly and innocent and then starts getting dark. It’s a good episode but not spectacular and has twists and turns that will keep viewers interested.

Ann Blyth plays ageless film star Pamela Morris, who is adored and envied by her fans, she has a mysterious past that a syndicated journalist Jordan Herrick (played by Lee Philips) hopes to uncover. This episode was very reminiscent of  “Long Live Walter Jameson” from season 1 except Miss Morris will go to any length to keep her youth. Charles Beaumont wrote that one… and he was credited with Queen of the Nile but it was ghostwritten by Jerry Sohl. Beaumont’s health was in bad shape at the time.

This one is has a blend of drama, science fiction, and mystery.  How does she stay young? How old is she really? The universe has rules and Miss Morris is breaking the biggest one.

From IMDB Trivia: When Jordan is on the phone with his Chicago-based editor Krueger, Krueger states that Constance Taylor had been “reigning beauty in the days of the Florodora Girls.” This is a reference to the chorus girls of the play “Florodora,” a popular musical comedy that opened on Broadway in 1900 and ran for over 550 performances. Much of the show’s success was attributed to the beauty of its sextet of chorines, whom the public dubbed “The Florodora Girls.”

Pamela Morris claimed to have been born in 1925.

This show was written by Charles Beaumont, Rod Serling, and Jerry Sohl (uncredited)

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Jordan Herrick, syndicated columnist, whose work appears in more than a hundred newspapers. By nature a cynic, a disbeliever, caught for the moment by a lovely vision. He knows the vision he’s seen is no dream; she is Pamela Morris, renowned movie star, whose name is a household word and whose face is known to millions. What Mr. Herrick does not know is that he has also just looked into the face—of the Twilight Zone.

Summary

A syndicated columnist, Jordan Herrick, gets an interview with the famous and beautiful actress Pamela Morris. She claims to be 38 years old but according to Jordan’s information, that would have made her first film as an adult when she was only 10. He takes her word for it but her elderly mother, Viola Draper, has news for him: she’s not Pamela’s mother, she is her daughter. The more he looks into her background, the more convinced he becomes that Pamela hasn’t aged for decades. Faced with the facts, Pamela shows the lengths she will go to in order to protect her great secret.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Everyone knows Pamela Morris, the beautiful and eternally young movie star. Or does she have another name, even more famous, an Egyptian name from centuries past? It’s best not to be too curious, lest you wind up like Jordan Herrick, a pile of dust and old clothing discarded in the endless eternity of the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Ann Blyth…Pamela Morris/Constance Taylor
Lee Philips…Jordan Herrick
Celia Lovsky…Viola Draper
Ruth Phillips…Charlotte
Frank Ferguson…Krueger
James Tyler…Mr. Jackson

Twilight Zone – An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

★★★★★ Feburary 28, 1964 Season 5 Episode 22

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

This one is a totally different animal in the Twilight Zone catalog. It was not written or adapted for the show. The producer William Froug had seen An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a French film that had won first prize for short subjects at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. Based on the story by Ambrose Bierce, it told the story of a condemned Confederate spy who, during the instant that he’s falling before the rope breaks his neck, imagines an involved and successful escape.

The Twilight Zone was running over budget for the year so they paid 10,000 dollars for a one year viewing and it balanced their budget. The film was shortened by several minutes and an introduction by Serling was added and voilà… it was a Twilight Zone.

The first time I watched this, I didn’t like it as much because I wasn’t expecting it. Now when watching it I realize what a brilliant short film it is. It was almost entirely silent…there were maybe a half-dozen lines in film. It fits the Twilight Zone on one hand…but on another it works independently of it because it was made that way.

A good watch and I reccomend it. It has a little different look and feel but it fits.

I found a discrepancy on who saw the film at a film festival. Rod Serling or the producer William Froug. I’ve read conflicting info at different places. I stated above William Froug because of Marc Scott Zicree’s book on the Twilight Zone. Below this you will see IMDB Trivia saying Mr. Serling…Until confirmed otherwise I will stick to the book. Who knows? Maybe they went together.

 

IMDB Trivia: Rod Serling was getting ready to take his end-of-season break, with all but one of the shows for the fifth season already filmed or in production, when he decided to leave early and go to a French film festival. There he saw Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961) and immediately hunted down the producers with an offer to buy it for a one-time showing for American TV. Serling reportedly picked it up for $10,000 and flew straight back to Los Angeles, filming a new intro the moment he got to the studio and plugging the show into that same week’s time slot. Not only did Serling get what was considered a classic, he also saved nearly $100,000 in production costs and brought the season’s worth of shows in on budget. This prompted ABC-TV to offer to pick up The Twilight Zone (1959) for another season. Serling said no to the deal when his discussions over the content of the new season made it appear he would be “going to the graveyard” for each show, doing Gothic horror shows. (ABC did want that, and eventually would pick up Dark Shadows: The Vampire Curse (1966), which fit the bill, in daytime.) ironically, Serling would return to television in 1970 for three seasons of Night Gallery (1970) on NBC, consisting of the exact format that ABC had asked for.

The 1962 French version of Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961) won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject.

The French title of this film -“La riviere du hibou” – translates into English as “The River of the Owl.”

This show was written by Ambrose Bierce Robert Enrico

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Tonight a presentation so special and unique that, for the first time in the five years we’ve been presenting The Twilight Zone, we’re offering a film shot in France by others. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival of 1962, as well as other international awards, here is a haunting study of the incredible, from the past master of the incredible, Ambrose Bierce. Here is the French production of ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

Summary

A Southern planter is about to be hanged for sabotage during the Civil War; when he is dropped off the bridge the rope breaks and he flees for his safety amid bullets and shots from a cannon. In this wonderful adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s short story, the depths of a condemned man’s mind are probed. What does go through one’s mind moments before death?

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – in two forms, as it was dreamed, and as it was lived and died. This is the stuff of fantasy, the thread of imagination… the ingredients of the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Roger Jacquet … Peyton Farquhar
Anne Cornaly … Mrs. Farquhar
Anker Larsen … Union Officer
Stéphane Fey … Union Officer
Jean-François Zeller … Union Sergeant
Pierre Danny … Union Soldier
Louis Adelin … Union Soldier

 

Twilight Zone – Spur of the Moment

★★★★ Feburary 21, 1964 Season 5 Episode 21

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

An eerie opening makes this one very promising. There are things you dream about happening and there is reality that actually happens. Diana Hyland plays Anne Henderson who gets a frightening visitor while riding a horse …or is it a warning? This episode makes you think about the choices you make and how those choices make you who you are…good or bad. Sometimes we all have red flags…not necessarily someone screaming on a horse but things that we know we shouldn’t ignore.

Richard Mathesons final four Twilight Zone scripts run the gamut from mildly disturbing to outright horrific. In Spur of the Moment, the romantic situation is a familiar one…Annes family wants her to marry the proper-but-dull stockbroker, but she is in love with the romantic, headstrong young fellow of whom they disapprove. We just know what she picks. The characters show Serling’s usual level of humanism but with a disturbing realistic edge.

This episode takes place on June 13, 1939, and in 1964.

This show was written by Rod Serling  and Richard Matheson

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

This is the face of terror. Anne Marie Henderson, 18 years of age, her young existence suddenly marred by a savage and wholly unanticipated pursuit by a strange, nightmarish figure of a woman in black, who has appeared as if from nowhere and now, at driving gallop, chases the terrified girl across the countryside, as if she means to ride her down and kill her, and then suddenly and inexplicably stops to watch in malignant silence as her prey takes flight. Miss Henderson has no idea whatever as to the motive for this pursuit. Worse, not the vaguest notion regarding the identity of her pursuer. Soon enough, she will be given the solution to this twofold mystery, but in a manner far beyond her present capacity to understand, a manner enigmatically bizarre in terms of time and space – which is to say, an answer from… the Twilight Zone.

Summary

While out horseback riding on June 13, 1939, 18 year-old Anne Henderson comes across another rider, a middle-aged woman dressed in black, who chases after her. She’s terrified and races home. It’s the day of her engagement party. She’s supposed to marry Robert Blake but childhood friend David Mitchell wants her to break it off and marry him instead. As for the woman in black, she is someone who knows Anne quite well.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

This is the face of terror. Anne Marie Mitchell, 43 years of age, her desolate existence once more afflicted by the hope of altering her past mistake – a hope which is unfortunately doomed to disappointment. For warnings from the future to the past must be taken in the past. Today may change tomorrow but once today is gone, tomorrow can only look back in sorrow that the warning was ignored. Said warning as of now stamped ‘Not Accepted’- and stored away in the dead file, in the recording office… of the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Diana Hyland … Anne Henderson
Robert J. Hogan … Robert Blake
Philip Ober … Mr. Henderson
Marsha Hunt … Mrs. Henderson
Roger Davis … David Mitchell
Jack Raine … Reynolds

 

Twilight Zone – From Agnes – With Love

★★★ Feburary 14, 1964 Season 5 Episode 20

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

This episode is a light Twilight Zone and it was appropriately released on Valentine’s Day. Wally Cox  plays James Elwood a computer programmer in the early 60s. Wally Cox’s voice is distinctive. If you are a cartoon fan, he was the voice of Underdog. He was also Marlon Brando’s best friend throughout their lives. The computer he is programming is acting strange…that is because “Agnes” the computer is in love with James. 

The problem with From Agnes With Love lies with the main character. James Elwood is enormously brilliant in his position but positively inept and naive in life. Sue Randall appears in this episode and she is probably best known as Miss Landers in Leave It To Beaver. All in all, it’s a fun episode but not as memorable as some of the other lighter episodes. As I’ve said before, the 5th season is not as consistent as the first 3. You do have some great episodes mixed in with good and a couple that are below the Twilight Zone’s high standards. 

From IMDB Trivia: When Agnes opens the doors to communicate, there are a few phrases that apparently make no sense. AUT AMAT AUT ODIT FEMINA is Latin for “a woman either loves or hates”. Also T’MA ZHILI BYLI and V TUMANE are stories by Russian author Leonid Andreyev. They translate to “Once There Lived”, and “In the Fog”, both controversial stories about women’s sexuality.

While they are in Walter’s apartment he mentions he wanted to drive a “Mustang 500” sports car. This episode was broadcast on February 14, 1964. The 1964-1/2 Ford Mustang was first introduced to the public on April 17, 1964 at the New York World’s Fair, although there had been Mustang concept cars in 1962 and 1963. The Shelby GT500 Mustang was first produced for the 1967 model year.

The music heard early in the episode and in different variations throughout the episodes, is titled “The Cuckoo Song”. Also known as “Dance Of The Cuckoos”, it is perhaps best known as the theme music from the Laurel and Hardy comedy films of the early to mid 1900s.

This show was written by Rod Serling and Bernard C. Schoenfeld

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

James Elwood: master programmer. In charge of Mark 502-741, commonly known as Agnes, the world’s most advanced electronic computer. Machines are made by men for man’s benefit and progress, but when man ceases to control the products of his ingenuity and imagination he not only risks losing the benefit, but he takes a long and unpredictable step into… the Twilight Zone.

Summary

When their computer, known as Agnes, breaks down the company supervisor calls in a master programmer James Elwood to see if he can figure out what has gone wrong. He solves the problem quickly and soon finds himself in charge of the machine. Agnes and Elwood quickly develop a rapport and the machine takes to giving him advice about Millie, Jim’s co-worker who has finally agreed to go out on a date with. The date doesn’t go well and Agnes has more and more advice for him. It turns out that Agnes has her own agenda.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Advice to all future male scientists: be sure you understand the opposite sex, especially if you intend being a computer expert. Otherwise, you may find yourself like poor Elwood, defeated by a jealous machine, a most dangerous sort of female, whose victims are forever banished… to the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Wally Cox … James Elwood
Sue Randall … Millie
Raymond Bailey … Supervisor
Ralph Taeger … Walter Holmes
Don Keefer … Fred Danziger
Byron Kane … Assistant
Nan Peterson … Secretary

 

Twilight Zone – Night Call

★★★★1/2 February 7, 1964 Season 5 Episode 19

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

I really like this one a lot. It has a feel of a horror movie because it is somewhat of a ghost story. It’s about an older lady who starts getting calls in the middle of the night. Gladys Cooper is brilliant as Elva Keene in this episode. Elva is confused and frightened by persistent phone calls from an eerie sounding caller. 

Gladys also appeared in Nothing in the Dark opposite Robert Redford in the 3rd season.  Who else but Rod Serling could take something as simple as an inanimate object, a telephone, and turn it into an element of fear and dread?Highly suspenseful episode with an ironical ending. So who is the caller interrupting elderly Elva’s rest? One typical Twilight Zone trait is here…loneliness. This one will make you hesitant to answer the phone at night. 

From IMDB Trivia: The title of Richard Matheson’s original short story is “Long Distance Call”. However, as there was already an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) with this title, The Twilight Zone: Long Distance Call (1961), the title of this episode had to be changed.

Originally scheduled to air on November 22, 1963, it was preempted by John F. Kennedy’s assassination. In the alternate timeline featured in The Twilight Zone: Profile in Silver/Button, Button (1986) in which JFK’s assassination was prevented, a CBS television announcement is heard: “We will now return to our regular programming” and the theme of The Twilight Zone (1959) is played, a reference to the intended broadcast date of this episode.

Elva’s phone number is KL-5-2368. The K and the L are both the number 5 on the phone dial. “555” is an exchange number commonly thought to be reserved by the phone companies for use by TV and movies in order to prevent prank phone calls to real people. In fact, only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use, and the other numbers have been released for actual assignment.

On the day that this episode was first aired (February 7, 1964), The Beatles arrived in the United States in preparation for their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948): The Ed Sullivan Show: Meet The Beatles (1964).

This show was written by Rod Serling and Richard Matheson

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Miss Elva Keene lives alone on the outskirts of London Flats, a tiny rural community in Maine. Up until now, the pattern of Miss Keene’s existence has been that of lying in her bed or sitting in her wheelchair, reading books, listening to a radio, eating, napping, taking medication—and waiting for something different to happen. Miss Keene doesn’t know it yet, but her period of waiting has just ended, for something different is about to happen to her, has in fact already begun to happen, via two most unaccountable telephone calls in the middle of a stormy night, telephone calls routed directly through—the Twilight Zone.

Summary

The elderly Elva Keene is not too happy when she begins receiving phone calls in the middle of the night. At first the calls are little more than static and her complaints to the local telephone operator, Miss Finch, seem to go unheeded. Over time however, she begins to hear a man’s voice but out of fear, tells whoever it is to go away. When Miss Finch reports they’ve found the problem, Elva visits the site only to realize the identity of the caller, and that regardless of anything she’s said, desperately wants the calls to continue.

VIDEO SPOILERS

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

According to the Bible, God created the Heavens and the Earth. It is man’s prerogative—and woman’s—to create their own particular and private Hell. Case in point, Miss Elva Keene, who in every sense has made her own bed and now must lie in it, sadder, but wiser, by dint of a rather painful lesson in responsibility, transmitted from the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Gladys Cooper…Elva Keene
Nora Marlowe…Margaret Phillips
Martine Bartlett…Miss Finch

 

Twilight Zone – Black Leather Jackets

★★1/2 January 31, 1964 Season 5 Episode 18

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

This episode is a weak one but it does contain some science fiction for sci-fi fans. It is not the worse episode of the series but certainly not the best. Most of the time I do not question TZ logic but on this occasion, I had to. Aliens are on the planet and are trying to blend in with the rest of society. Do you think it’s wise to be three leather jacket motorcycle-riding beatniks moving in a residential neighborhood in the early 60s? Would the term “sore thumb” be used in this case?

I knew the leading lady looked familiar. It was Shelley Fabares who played Ellen Tillman who would 3 decades later star in the TV series Coach. She and Lee Kinsolving who plays Scott bumped this up from a 2. Denver Pyle is also in this episode but really doesn’t have much to do. Earl Hamner Jr admitted in an interview later that this episode was bad. He was not as proud of it as most of the other episodes of The Twilight Zone that he wrote.

From IMDB trivia: 

In “The Twilight Zone Companion” (1983), Marc Scott Zicree described this episode as “It Came from Outer Space (1953) meets The Wild One (1953).”

When the real estate agent’s sign is shown in close-up, its phone number is “485-412,” not the standard 7 digit number it should have been. This was presumably done to avoid accidentally using a real number without resorting to the usual 555 prefix.

The close-up of the Invasion Commander’s eye resembles the logo of CBS which produced this show. It is the “All-Seeing Eye” of the Illuminati, also known as the “Eye of Providence” of the Free Masons. It is unclear if CBS is an adept of either practice.

The street is the same as the one in the season one episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”.

All exteriors were shot in Universal’s back lot. As the bikers enter town at the beginning of the episode, they drive right past the town square made famous in Back to the Future (1985).

This show was written by Rod Serling and Earl Hamner Jr.

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Three strangers arrive in a small town; three men in black leather jackets in an empty, rented house. We’ll call them Steve, and Scott, and Fred, but their names are not important; their mission is, as three men on motorcycles lead us into the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Three leather-clad motorcycle-riding young men arrive in a small town where they rent a house on a quiet residential street. The neighbors aren’t too sure about them but they are certainly exotic, certainly in the eyes of young Ellen Tillman. The three men leave the house unfurnished and move in with several large crates. As Ellen and her father interact it becomes clear they are something very special indeed. Ellen and Scott begin spending time together while the two others continue with their plans.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Portrait of an American family on the eve of invasion from outer space. Of course, we know it’s merely fiction—and yet, think twice when you drink your next glass of water. Find out if it’s from your local reservoir, or possibly it came direct to you….from the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Lee Kinsolving … Scott
Michael Forest … Steve
Tom Gilleran … Fred
Michael Conrad … Police Officer/Alien
Shelley Fabares … Ellen Tillman
Denver Pyle … Stuart Tillman
Irene Hervey … Martha Tillman

Twilight Zone – Number Twelve Looks Just Like You

★★★★★ January 24, 1964 Season 5 Episode 17

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

“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Personally, I think this is one of the most important Twilight Zone episodes ever made. It could have been made now. 

This one is deeply disturbing and not in a monster or twist sense…it tackles an issue that still is going strong. Did Rod Serling have a crystal ball or did he see where everything was going?  This episode takes place in the 21st century and yes, it is very relatable now. In a time now where our cars, houses, and clothes look the same you could see this coming and with plastic sugery it is essentially here. On our phones, computers, tv’s, and magazines we are hit with a barrage of advertising aimed at beautifying ourselves. We are obssessed with celebrities looking perfect and mimicking them. We can lose our identity if we are not careful as a whole. 

There is a line in the episode where the lead character says “Is that good being like everybody? Isn’t that the same as being nobody?” and that line speaks volumes. The episode is about when a person turns 19, he or she must choose which body and face they want to go through life with. All the choices are basically models and they are forced to go through with this operation. However, it’s not only the body and face that is changed, it’s their outlook and personality. They are always shallow and happy because no deep thoughts are allowed. The lead character Marilyn Cuberle is billiantly played by Collin Wilcox and you feel like she is alone in the world.

The episode is not about beauty. It’s not about if you are beautiful you are automatically shallow. I think people have misread it through the years. It’s about conforming to the social norm. There is the social price that we pay for not conforming, but I would rather pay it with intrest than go along with the crowd. In a world where everything is beautiful, nothing is. 

*** I apologize for interupting here but this is a personal reflection on what this episode means to me. The quote at the top “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.” by Ralph Waldo Emerson is the most important quote I’ve ever read. I found it in high school and later on I was wrote up at work (I don’t work at that place now) because I had it on my computer desktop. I was not “part of the team” with thoughts like that. ***

IMDB Trivia: All the characters are named after conventionally beautiful film stars of the day: Lana for Lana Turner, Marilyn for Marilyn Monroe, Grace for Grace Kelly, Rex for Rex Harrison, Eva for Eva Marie Saint, Valerie for Valerie Allen.

Three separate characters – Uncle Rick, Dr. Rex, and Dr. Sigmund Friend – were identical in appearance, but were distinctly different as portrayed by Richard Long. Uncle Rick was kindly and down-to-earth; Dr. Rex was eerily good-natured, with some peculiar mannerisms; and “Sigmund Friend” was a Freud-like, ominous and shadowy character with a thick German accent.

This episode is reported to be the inspiration for “Uglies”, a 21st Century series of young adult science fiction novels by Scott Westerfeld.

When Marilyn shows her mother Lana a picture of herself (Lana) before her own “Transformation,” the picture is of Collin Wilcox with a different hairstyle. Wilcox was herself twenty-eight years old when she made this episode (and just two years younger than Suzy Parker), but the premise made it possible for her to be credible as a nineteen-year-old.

This episode is based on Charles Beaumont’s short story, “The Beautiful People”, which first appeared in the September 1952 issue of the science fiction magazine “If”.

This show was written by Charles Beaumont, John Tomerlin, and Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Given the chance, what young girl wouldn’t happily exchange a plain face for a lovely one? What girl could refuse the opportunity to be beautiful? For want of a better estimate, let’s call it the year 2000. At any rate, imagine a time in the future where science has developed the means of giving everyone the face and body he dreams of. It may not happen tomorrow, but it happens now, in The Twilight Zone.

Summary

As Marilyn Cuberle approaches her 19th birthday she faces a momentous decision. Like everyone else in this futuristic society, she must choose which look she will adopt in the transformation process. Here, all men and women look like one of a series of approved faces, all are beautiful or handsome. Marilyn doesn’t want to change her appearance and is happy to look different from anyone else. Everyone assures her that she is under no obligation to undergo the transformation – but they go out of their way to make it difficult for her to say no.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Portrait of a young lady in love – with herself. Improbable? Perhaps. But in an age of plastic surgery, body building and an infinity of cosmetics, let us hesitate to say impossible. These, and other strange blessings, may be waiting in the future, which, after all, is The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Collin Wilcox…Marilyn Cuberle
Suzy Parker…Lana Cuberle / Eva / Doe / Grace / Jane / Patient / Number 12
Richard Long…Uncle Rick / Dr. Rex / Sigmund Friend / Dr. Tom / Tad / Jack / Attendant
Pam Austin…Valerie / Marilyn (after transformation) / Number…

 

Twilight Zone – The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross

★★★★ January 17, 1964 Season 5 Episode 16

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

Don Gordon who plays Salvadore Ross a troubled young man who has fits of rages. He soon finds out that human characteristics can be bought, sold, and exchanged like stock. There is one thing though…it’s a price steeper than money. Salvadore starts out as another Serling low life. A small-time man looking for shortcuts who only want things without giving back. His newfound power has no explanation, but I didn’t mind.

This is an episode about getting what you want and how essential it is to be true to yourself in attaining it. Sometimes it’s not about having it but how you get it. The acting is top-notch. Don Gordon went on to have 134 acting credits in 6 different decades. He also appeared in the Twilight Zone appearance since The Four of Us Are Dying. The character here is similar…cocky, slightly cruel, and short-tempered.

From IMDB Trivia: Based upon a short story of the same name, written by Henry Slesar and first published in the May 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction by Mercury Press, Inc.

Kathleen O’Malley plays the nurse and J. Pat O’Malley played the older patient in the hospital. They were not related, however, when he began his career, he was known as Pat O’Malley, but when he arrived in Hollywood, he became known professionally as J. Pat O’Malley to avoid confusion with the actor Pat O’Malley who was, in real life, the father of Kathleen O’Malley.

The character of Salvadore Ross is 26, but the actor playing him, Don Gordon, was 38.

The $100,000.00 offer in 1964 would be the equivalent of about $896,000.00 in the year 2022.

This show was written by Jerry McNeely, Henry Slesar, and Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

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 towards self-improvement. Estimate of potential success: a sure bet for a listing in Who’s Who in the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Salvadore Ross is a volatile mix of violence and frustration. He’s not very bright and hasn’t made much of himself so far. He is very much in love with Leah Maitland though she has told him she doesn’t want to see him anymore. He thinks she won’t see him because her father doesn’t approve and that they both think she can do better. When he realizes he can actually exchange parts of himself, like his age, with others he sets out on a path to make himself more acceptable to both of them.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

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 do. Or think you want to do. Money-back guarantee. Offer limited to…the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Don Gordon…Salvadore Ross
Gail Kobe…Leah Maitland
Vaughn Taylor…Mr. Maitland
J. Pat O’Malley…Old Man
Douglass Dumbrille…Mr. Halpert
Douglas Lambert…Albert Rowe
Seymour Cassel…Jerry (uncredited)
Ted Jacques…Bartender (uncredited)
Kathleen O’Malley…Nurse (uncredited)

 

Twilight Zone – The Long Morrow

★★★★ January 10, 1964 Season 5 Episode 15

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

The Long Morrow is a simple but complicated love story in the Twilight Zone. Robert Lansing and Mariette Hartley play Commander Douglas Stansfield and Sandra Horn respectively. They make the characers real and inject an emotional depth to their  story. The Twilight Zone had some of the best casting of any show on television. 

I would say it’s The Twilight Zone’s most romantic episode. This one is unbelievably poignant with the ironic ending.  It makes you think about human spirit and the lenghs to which Man (and Woman) will go to realize an ultimate ambition. We are clever when we want to be but sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way we think it will. 

To talk anymore about it would give the ending away. This is one you will have to watch. 

Robert Lansing: I was a little reluctant to do the semi-nude thing in the ice block, but it was such a good idea, so visual, that I bypassed my own feelings and did it. I was wearing a pair of mini-trunks which today id wear on a beach.

From IMDB Trivia: 

Both Robert Lansing (Commander Stansfield) and Mariette Hartley (Sandra Horn) later both guest star on Star Trek (1966), but not together. Robert Lansing played Gary Seven in S2E26 (“Assignment: Earth”), for a spin-off series that was not picked up. Mariette Hartley played Zarabeth in S3E23 (“All Our Yesterdays”) as a love interest for Mr. Spock.

This episode takes place in June 1987, in November 1987, from December 31, 1987 to January 1, 1988, on April 19, 1988, on May 1, 1988 and in 2027.

This show was written by Rod Serling 

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

It may be said with a degree of assurance that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears. Case in point, the scene you’re watching. This is not a hospital, not a morgue, not a mausoleum, not an undertaker’s parlor of the future. What it is is the belly of a spaceship. It is en route to another planetary system, an incredible distance from the Earth. This is the crux of our story – a flight into space. It is also the story of the things that might happen to human beings who take a step beyond, unable to anticipate everything that might await them out there.

The narration continues after Stansfield is informed that his journey into space will take forty years:

Commander Douglas Stansfield, astronaut, a man about to embark on one of history’s longest journeys: forty years out into endless space and hopefully back again. This is the beginning, the first step towards man’s longest leap into the unknown. Science has solved the mechanical details and now it’s up to one human being to breathe life into blueprints and computers, to prove once and for all that man can live half a lifetime in the total void of outer space, forty years alone in the unknown. This is Earth. Ahead lies a planetary system. The vast region in between is the Twilight Zone.

Summary

Commander Douglas Stansfield is selected to be the first astronaut to go on a deep-space mission. He will be away for 40 years but for much of that, he will be in stasis, and on his return he will hardly have aged. Stansfield is a seemingly ideal candidate as he is single and has no close family. Prior to his departure however, he meets the beautiful Sandra Horn and they fall very much in love. Forty years later, Stansfield returns but it seems he and Sandra had their own way of dealing with the 40 years since they last saw each other.

 

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Commander Douglas Stansfield, one of the forgotten pioneers of the space age. He’s been pushed aside by the flow of progress and the passage of years, and the ferocious travesty of fate. Tonight’s tale of the ionosphere and irony, delivered from the Twilight Zone.

 

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Robert Lansing…Commander Douglas Stansfield
Mariette Hartley…Sandra Horn
George Macready…Dr. Bixler
Ed Binns…General Walters
William Swan…Technician

 

Twilight Zone – You Drive

★★★★ January 3, 1964 Season 5 Episode 14

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

The first episode that was shown in 1964. America was going through a big change. JFK had been assassinated two months before and The Beatles were on their way the following month. This episode predates the movie Christine and The Car by decades. Edward Andrews plays Oliver Pope who is driving distractedly on a rainy day and runs down a boy on a bike.

The boy is badly injured, and Andrews runs when he sees no one around. He goes home, filled with guilt and paranoia. He is worried about a man who he thinks is after his job. At this point, his car begins to act out. At first, it flashes headlights. Then it’s the horn. Then the radio. No matter what Andrews does, the car continues to act out.

They could have played this one like a horror movie but instead, they built up suspense based on a guilty conscience.

Another good episode that was written by Earl Hamner Jr….the creator of The Waltons.

Earl Hamner Jr: All mechanical things frustrate me. Im like my friend, John McGreevey, the writer, who once cut himself with a sponge. I am afraid of and inept with all mechanical devices. Its kind of a love-hate relationship. I drive a Corvette which I love because it is so at odds with the image of John-Boy Walton as an old man. And of course it is a stunning machine. But at the same time, I do not trust it. It seems to have a life of its own, and sometimes when it will not start I suspect it is because it has some personal grudge against me.

This show was written by Rod Serling  and Earl Hamner Jr.

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Portrait of a nervous man: Oliver Pope by name, office manager by profession. A man beset by life’s problems: his job, his salary, the competition to get ahead. Obviously, Mr. Pope’s mind is not on his driving.

Oliver Pope, businessman-turned-killer, on a rain-soaked street in the early evening of just another day during just another drive home from the office. The victim, a kid on a bicycle, lying injured, near death. But Mr. Pope hasn’t time for the victim, his only concern is for himself. Oliver Pope, hit-and-run driver, just arrived at a crossroad in his life, and he’s chosen the wrong turn. The hit occurred in the world he knows, but the run will lead him straight into—the Twilight Zone.

Summary

On a rainy day, office manager Oliver Pope is driving home when he hits a newspaper boy with his car and promptly flees the scene. He puts the car in his garage but when his wife sees the lights flashing, she thinks they have an intruder. In fact, its just the car acting up. In the middle of the night, his car horn honks and when his wife takes it out the next day, it stops at the exact corner where the accident occurred. When his competitor at the office, Pete Radcliff, is arrested he thinks he’s home free. It’s apparent however that the car is going to continue acting up until Pope makes things right.

WARNING VIDEO CONTAINS SPOILERS

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

All persons attempting to conceal criminal acts involving their cars are hereby warned: check first to see that underneath that chrome there does not lie a conscience, especially if you’re driving along a rain-soaked highway in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Edward Andrews…Oliver Pope
Helen Westcott…Lillian Pope
Kevin Hagen…Pete Radcliff
Totty Ames…Muriel Hastings
Michael Gorfain…Timmy Danbers, newspaper boy
John Hanek…Policeman
Robert McCord…Passerby