Cast: Elizabeth Montgomery (Woman), Charles Bronson (Man)
Elizabeth Montgomery in Two (Season 3, Episode 1, Aired on 9/15/1961)
This installment of TV’s Golden Age focuses on my favorite episode of the Twilight Zone. Please put any of your own favorite episode(s) in the comments.
Elizabeth Montgomery in Two (Season 3, Episode 1, Aired on 9/15/1961)
Two featured Charles Bronson & Elizabeth Montgomery giving the best performances of their careers in a dystopian tale of the aftermath of the Cold War gone hot. So hot in fact, that almost everyone is dead. Except for these Two, one from each side of the conflict.
Elizabeth Montgomery in Two (Season 3, Episode 1, Aired on 9/15/1961)
It begins, of course, with Serling’s introduction. Then, Elizabeth Montgomery comes out of the jungle and into the little town. Looking around, she stops and looks at a gown in a shop window, then spots a restaurant. It is food that she is looking for and finding it, begins to look for a way to open a can. As she opens the can, Bronson’s character comes through the door. She throws pots and pans at him and they begin to scuffle. It ends when Bronson punches her in the face.
Charles Bronson in Two (Season 3, Episode 1, Aired on 9/15/1961)
Possibly, one of the simplest and most powerful of all the Twilight Zone episodes. In so many cases the performances in The Twilight Zone are high water marks in the work of the performers. This reflects not only the actor’s talent, but the high quality of the writing and production as well.
Charles Bronson & Elizabeth Montgomery in Two (Season 3, Episode 1, Aired on 9/15/1961)
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
Two
Prekrasny, is the only word spoken in the episode by The Woman. Prekrasny is Russian for pretty.
The uniform of the male soldier’s uniform are all of Confederate design. MGM had a large storage of costumes from past projects and this may have been a budget decision. The Woman’s uniform is meant to be Russian.
CAST: Jack Warden (James A. Corry), John Dehner (Captain Allenby), Jean March (Alicia), Ted Knight (Adams), James Turley (Carstairs).
The Lonely is an episode that stays with you long after you view it. Jack Warden stars as a prisoner confined to an asteroid. It begins with a wide shot of his prison, the surface of the asteroid and the tin hut and the old car that he tells you about in the narrative that begins as he starts writing in his journal. There is a supply ship “…due or over due…” coming and he hopes it’s Captain Allenby (John Dehner), “…he brings me things.”
When they arrive, one of the crewman taunts Corry with the fact that the courts aren’t reviewing cases of homicide so he should forget about ever being paroled. Captain Allenby tries to placate him, telling him that he has brought him something that will help combat the loneliness. He also asks Corry not to open the crate that it’s in until he and his crew have departed.
This time Captain Allenby has brought him a robot named Alicia ( Jean March) that is impossible to distinguish from a human. Although he rejects her violently at first, he quickly comes to love her as he sees her reactions to his cruelty. In time, he sees her as an extension of himself as she comes to care about the same things that he does. He loses the simple truth that she is in fact, only a robot.
When the Captain’s ship returns earlier than the scheduled three months with the good news of his pardon, Corry is beside himself with joy until a realization of the reality of the situation comes over him. He wants to disagree with what his friend Captain Allenby is telling him, but…
A simple tale that is tautly written and directed with excellent performances. It is among the best of the first season Twilight Zones.
Time Enough at Last (Season 1 Episode 8)
Directed by John Brahm
Written by Rod Serling based on a story by Lynn Venable
Henry Bemis is a book lover, or at least he loves to read more than anything else in his life. He doesn’t get much time to between his harpy of a wife and his manager at the bank where he is a clerk. One day, Henry is so desperate for some reading time that he goes down into the bank’s vault just to get some time alone and undisturbed so he can read in peace. He is interrupted not by his boss, but by a jarring explosion.
When he exits the vault, he finds that everything has been destroyed by a hydrogen bomb. At first, he has the normal reaction as it dawns on him that he is totally alone in the world, but before panic allows him to pull the trigger, he has the realization that he now has all the time to read that he could desire! That is until fate intervenes in the most unexpectedly mundane way possible.
Burgess Meredith Burgess Meredith
Time Enough at Last is a tour de force for Burgess Meredith that he embraces as he transforms himself into one Henry Bemis. It is his performance that makes us believe in the man’s travail as he searches for those moments when he will be allowed the only thing that matters to him in his miserable world, reading. It is no wonder that he went on to appear in three more episodes.
Burgess Meredith in Time Enough at Last(1959)
He is supported by Vaughn Taylor as (Psycho) Mr. Carsville his boss, and Jacqueline deWit (Tea and Sympathy) as his shrewish wife. Serling’s script is as concise as an O’Henry short story, and contains an equally powerful denouement. The photography and sets are dreamlike and the direction earned John Brahm a 1960 Director’s Guild award.
This episode is not only a fan favorite, but certainly one of the most memorable as well.
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
The Lonely
The first of many episodes to be filmed on location in Death Valley. Unprepared for the terrible conditions they would face, the crew suffered dehydration and heat exhaustion. The director of photography, George T. Clemens actually collapsed and fell from a camera crane during filming.
Ted Knight makes an uncredited appearance as Captain Allenby’s taunting crew member Adams.
Time Enough at Last
Of the 92 episodes of The Twilight Zone written by Rod Serling, this was his personal favorite.
This was Burgess Meredith’s first of four starring roles in the series.
Cast: Gig Young (Martin Sloan), Michael Montgomery (young Martin), Ron Howard (young boy), Frank Overton (Robert Sloan), Irene Tedrow (Mrs. Sloan)
Walking Distance is a good example of how much mileage the show could get out of a simple, well written story paired with a fine actor. Martin Sloan (Gig Young) comes back to the small town he grew up in and finds it much more familiar than he expected.
Gig Young in Walking Distance
Young (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They) delivers a hauntingly layered performance as a 50’s ad man at the end of a very short rope; he has come back to his hometown looking for answers. His chagrin at finding things just as he remembers them is confounding, deepening his pain as he helplessly encounters what he so hopelessly desires. The Universe has thrown him a spit ball. Young captures the calm (or as Thoreau would have it, quiet) desperation of modern man with an unsettling ease. Some call it a mid-life crisis, some a nervous breakdown, it culminates with the realization that you suddenly find yourself in a place that you never meant to inhabit.
Gig Young in Walking Distance
Familiar faces supporting him in the cast include Ron Howard, Irene Tedrow, and Frank Overton (To Kill A Mockingbird). Overton does a measured job as Martin’s father; Ron Howard is the perpetual 50’s every boy, and character actress Irene Tendrow is perfect as Martin’s frightened mother.
David Wayne & Thomas Gomez in
Escape Clause (Season One, Episode 6)
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Cinematography George T. Clemens
Written by Rod Serling
Theme music Bernard Herrmann, Stock music Jerry Goldsmith & Lucien Moraweck
Cast: David Wayne (Walter Bedeker), Thomas Gomez (Cadwallader), Virginia Christine (Ethel Bedeker), Raymond Bailey (Doctor), Dick Wilson (Jack)
Escape Clause is another favorite of mine that features David Wayne (The Andromeda Strain), a multi-talented and prolific stage, screen & TV actor who originated the roles in the original Broadway productions of Og in Finian’s Rainbow, Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts, and Sakini in Teahouse of the August Moon.
David Wayne in Escape Clause
Hypochondria has taken control of Walter Bedeker’s (David Wayne) life. The doctor (Raymond Bailey) finds nothing wrong with him, but he can see the toll that Walter’s behavior is taking on his long suffering wife (Virginia Christine), and writes her a prescription for vitamins. Christine (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), a noted character actor, is convincingly entwined in her husband’s absurd anxiety.
Virginia Christine & David Wayne in Escape Clause
The story is delivered with a light touch of dark humor which enhances its impact as it unwinds to its surprising climax and conclusion. The performances of both Wayne & Gomez (Ride the Pink Horse) are extreme parodies of their characters while the rest of the cast plays it perfectly straight. From the moment that Cadwallader (Thomas Gomez) enters, he is a counterpoint to Bedeker in every way. Indirectly direct and not so subtly ironic, he makes a comically chilling Satan.
Thomas Gomez in The Escape Clause “…a fragment of an atom of your being…your soul.”
Bedeker’s eagerness to make a deal for immortality is all the more unsettling because he has been so cautious of even the most mundane things; yet, he trusts this man that has suddenly appeared in his bedroom. Once the agreement is made (complete with flaming signature to bind it), Bedeker further tests our willful suspension of disbelief as he tries to fight the boredom of being immortal with outlandish schemes and actions. Easily one of the best episodes in the series.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration: There’s a saying, ‘Every man is put on Earth condemned to die, time and method of execution unknown.’ Perhaps, this is as it should be. Case in point: Walter Bedeker, lately deceased, a little man with such a yen to live. Beaten by the Devil, by his own boredom – and by the scheme of things in this, The Twilight Zone.
These two early episodes are a good reason to re-watch what you think you remember. I guarantee that on a careful viewing, you will find much more in each than what you think you recall. Both, well worth another trip into The Twilight Zone.
Facts, Rumors, and Hearsay
Walking Distance
One of the townspeople that Martin Sloane remembers walking through Homewood is “Dr. Bradbury.” Rod Serling, the screenwriter of this episode, was acknowledging the inspiration of Ray Bradbury.
This episode was Ron Howard’s first time being credited as Ronnie Howard.
Escape Clause
The episode features two actors best known for long-running TV commercials: Virginia Christine (as Mrs. Olson for Folgers Coffee for 21 years) and Dick Wilson (as Mr. Whipple for Charmin Bathroom Tissue for 25 years).
