The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 2 Episode 15 (The Invaders)

I remember having a nightmare once.  I was trapped in my grandmother’s house.  All of the doors were locked and I was being chased by a small snail that secreted ribbons.  I have no idea why, but I was deathly afraid of this snail.  I could easily outrun it, but I kept screaming and trying to get out of the house.

In The Invaders, an unnamed woman finds herself in a similar situation.  A high-pitched noise precedes a small flying saucer.  A small being emerges and chases her around her house.  In this case, the small being is dangerous, as it can wield one of her knives.  It’s unclear why she doesn’t simply leave the building or call for help, but she’s terrified of the small man.

In a way, though, the fear is understandable.  There is a risk to her life.  She can easily kick or throw the being far away, but it returns.  She did nothing to provoke him, yet he’s aggressive and that’s enough.  And then, there’s the twist at the end.  Rod Serling liked to play with our perspective and we get a bit of whopper here.

The Twilight Zone was no stranger to budget restrictions.  It shows here, in that there’s one building, requiring a minimum of sets.  There are two characters, one played by Agnes Moorehead and the other by what would appear to be a toy robot.  With this, we’re given a complete story.  We have a beginning, a middle and a resolution.

There are also a minimum of lines.  The Woman tells us everything with little more than grunts and facial expressions.  Maybe it’s not a particularly deep episode.  There aren’t a lot of complexities, but we get the point.  She wants nothing more than to defend herself and her property from The Invader.

To be fair, she would appear to be on a farm in a remote area.  As to why she didn’t call for help, it’s possible that her neighbor was too far away.  My big question is why the invaders would head for these extremely large artificial structures.  You’d think that someone would have the good sense to keep their distance.

Still, it’s a good study in simplicity.  Motion pictures are more than just words and people.  There’s an emotional element to it.  There’s a physical aspect that’s just as important as sounds.  This episode relies on the small details.  If you are able to watch this, pay attention.

 

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 2 Episode 12 (Dust)

Luis is someone who, at first glance, might seem irredeemable.  He killed a child.  Yes, it was accidental, but he’s still found guilty and sentenced to death.  His father pleads for Luis’s life.  Luis was drunk and despondent, which doesn’t make the death of the girl any easier.  However, the father is now faced with the impending loss of his own grown son.

Enter Sykes, the man who sold the sheriff a five-strand rope for the hanging.  He offers the condemned’s father some magic dust that, if used properly, might cause the family to feel sympathetic towards Luis.  The father is desperate enough to buy it.

When the time comes, the rope fails.  Did the dust work?  We know that it’s ordinary dust because we saw Sykes gather it from the ground.  Then again, it comes from the same person who sold the rope to the sheriff.

The twist ending here isn’t typical of The Twilight Zone, but it is something to make you think.  What really did happen?  Maybe the dust didn’t work.  Maybe it was just a placebo.  However, there are issues of punishment and suffering.  How is it right to increase suffering when it won’t bring back the victim?

The episode is weak for the episode, as it’s not necessarily magical.  Sykes sells defective products.  There’s no surprise that the rope didn’t work.  In fact, I don’t even feel guilty about giving that bit of information away.  It does work on an emotional level, even if it is still a little weak.

Luis admits what he did.  He is actually guilty in this case.  The fact that the victim is a child only serves to make the crime that much more tragic.  How do you convince the parents to forgive someone when their daughter’s life was cut short so soon?  Also, drunkenness and despondency aren’t particularly good excuses.  However, I don’t think the episode was meant to focus too heavily on that.

I have to admit that I didn’t really feel too much for Luis.  He’s not a particularly sympathetic character.  Neither is Sykes.  The sheriff does show some empathy, but the character we’re supposed to identify with is the father, who mostly comes across as desperate.  The episode comes across as a morality play.  In the end, Sykes learns his lesson and everything is a little better than it was at the start.

 

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 2 Episode 6 (Eye of the Beholder/A Private World Of Darkness)

There are certain situations where spoilers should be withheld.  There are others where spoiler warnings are unnecessary.  This is a case where I don’t feel bad about giving away major details, as most people should be able to see the twist coming.  It’s almost impossible for me to review this episode without at least hinting at it, even if subconsciously.

You see, Janet Tyler is undergoing her eleventh attempt at corrective surgery.  This is her last chance.  If the bandages come off and she’s still abnormal, there are few alternatives left for her.  All of the characters, including the doctors and nurses, spend the beginning of the episode either in the shadows or blocked from the camera’s view so that we can’t see their faces.

When the bandages come off of Janet’s face, we see a beautiful woman.  The norm is a warped, pig-like face that we would consider hideous.  This society, wherever it is, values conformity.  It values standard people with a standard look.  Janet doesn’t fit the bill, so she’s to be sent to live with others of her kind.  The hospital even brings in a man to ease her into the transition.

When I first saw this episode, I took it at face value, if you’ll pardon the pun.  Ours is a species that values attractiveness.  What attractiveness means is subjective, but we can be cruel to those who don’t have it.  Sure, Janet will still be able to live a productive life.  She just won’t be able to do it with normal society.

It wasn’t until I started reading about the episode that I picked up on other details, like the fact that she’s basically being set to a ghetto.  When the episode ran in syndication, it was called The Private World Of Darkness.  (The alternate title plays on not only the lack of light in the beginning of the episode, but on the fact that darker skin tends not to be viewed as desirable.)

There’s a reason that this is one of the most iconic episodes of the series.  There are subtle jabs at segregation and race that would still have meaning today.  Appearance shouldn’t matter, but it does.  It’s as relevant now as it was in 1960, almost 60 years ago.  We don’t even need to know if the characters are human or not.  It doesn’t really matter.

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 2 Episode 5 (The Howling Man)

The original Twilight Zone had a very stripped-down feel to it.  Granted, this was out of necessity, as the network often didn’t want to spend a lot of money on any given episode.  This meant just a few actors and usually one or two sets per story.   Some were effective.  Others, not so much.  The Howling Man was one of the better episodes.  It has only five main characters and gets its point across effectively.

It’s told in retrospect about (and by) a man named David Ellington.  He was walking across Europe shortly after World War I.  Trapped in a rainstorm, he sought shelter in a sanctuary that tried desperately to turn him away.  As David started to leave, he collapsed from exhaustion.

You might ask why the brothers at the sanctuary were so desperate to be rid of visitors.  The reason is the character credited as The Howling Man.  Brother Jerome tells David that this is no ordinary man and that his imprisonment is necessary for the benefit of all mankind.  David is just as suspicious as you or I might be, and with good reason.  The prisoner appears to be just an ordinary man.  Maybe a little crazy, but that’s to be expected. He comes across as desperate to get out of his cell.

Well, David makes the mistake of releasing the prisoner only to find out that he’s made a huge mistake.  The episode ends with David telling his housekeeper that he’s captured the prisoner and is going to make arrangements to have him transported back to Brother Jerome.  No amount of narration of warning is enough to prevent the prisoner from being released again.

The reason that the episode is so effective is that we get just enough details to tell us what’s going on.  The presence of two brothers means that the prisoner is a serious threat.  The fact that David is on a walking tour of Europe tells you that he’s not far from civilization.  The fact that a religious order would send a stranger back into the rain is telling.  Even the fact that the prisoner is held in by little more than a long stick is suspicious.

And yet, it packs that punch.  As soon as the prisoner leaves, you know it’s a mistake.  Any one of us would probably do the same thing.  Yes, the prisoner is dangerous.  We get that because we’re the audience.  However, what would you do if you found someone being held in a neighbor’s house?  Even though the story, itself, is implausible, the reactions are very much understandable.

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 2 Episode 3 (Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room)

Jackie Rhoades is a petty criminal.  More than that, he’s a relatively minor person in the overall scheme of the criminal organization and life in general.  He never stands up to people and has nothing to show for his inaction.  He’s a nobody.

Jackie begins the episode in a cheap motel room, as the title would imply, waiting for instructions from his handler, George.  Those instructions are to kill a barkeeper who isn’t keeping up with protection money.  This is beyond what Jackie thinks himself capable of, which is exactly why he’s given the job.

While talking to himself in a mirror, Jackie finds a different version of himself.  This version is confident and willing to do what it takes to get noticed.  For purposes of this review, we’ll call this version John Rhoades.  John and Jackie argue about what to do.  Jackie could shoot the barkeep and risk the death penalty or he could not do the job and risk the wrath of George.

The term bottle episode originated with Star Trek, although such episodes have been found in series both before and since.  A bottle episode tends to refer to episodic television using established sets and as few guest actors as possible.  (The term comes from Star Trek having to use only ship sets, hence a ship-in-a-bottle episode.)   The Twilight Zone also had a few entries, this being one of them.

The entire narrative for Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room takes place in one room and involves only two characters.  To make it more of a character study, George only appears for a minute or two at the beginning and the end of the episode.  The advantage is that we get to know both sides of Mr. Rhoades very well.

It actually works kind of well.  The say that you have to be able to look at the man in the mirror.  Imagine having a whole conversation.  It would seem a little simple by today’s standards.  I imagine that this is why the show keeps getting an update every few decades.  Given that the second-season episodes are only 30 minutes each, it’s worth a watch, especially if you can get it streaming.

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 34 (The After Hours)

WARNING:  This review gives away major details, including the ending.


During the first season, The Twilight Zone had some very good episodes.  Some made you think.  Others had that plot twist the series became associated with.  This wasn’t one of those episodes for me.  The plot is strange, but it seems somewhat uncharacteristic of the series.

The episodes would seem to be about Marsha White.  She’s in a department store looking for a gold thimble for her mother.  She’s directed by the elevator operator to the store’s ninth floor.   The problem is that the elevator would seem to only go to the eighth floor.

Marsha is let out on a deserted floor.  There are empty display cases and unused mannequins, but there don’t seem to be any employees or product at first.  She is eventually greeted by a rather hostile female employee who sells her a gold thimble for $25.

It isn’t until Marsha is back on the elevator that she notices damage to the thimble.  The elevator operator directs her to customer service.  Customer service is insistent that there is no ninth floor and that thimbles are sold on the third floor, but Marsha has a very clear memory of what happened.

She’s allowed to lie down for a whole, but is eventually locked in the store.  She can’t get out of the building, but manages to find her way back to the ninth floor.  She’s understandably agitated and afraid.  It doesn’t help when the mannequins start talking to her.  It turns out that she’s a mannequin.

Each mannequin is allowed a month on the outside and Marsha’s month was up yesterday.  She comes to accept this and returns to her normal ‘job’.  The next mannequin to go out is the ‘sales lady’ that sold her the gold thimble.  The episode ends with the customer service manager seeing Marsha as a mannequin, wondering what the heck just happened.

The episode seems to work more with suspense.  We see two store employees (the sales lady and the elevator operator) who seem rather hostile.  Both help her, but both seem short with her.  Even if you’ve never seen a Twilight Zone episode before, you get the sense that something is up.  It’s just a question of what.

The thing that becomes distracting is some of the questions I ended up having.  If she’s a mannequin, does she really have a mother?  Where does she live during the month?  Do the mannequins have an apartment or house that they use?  If so, how do they pay for it?  Do they have to get a job?  Do they eat like a normal person?  How is it that the store never notices the rotation of a missing mannequin?  These are all questions I had while viewing the episode recently.

I’m not saying that it’s a bad episode.  It’s just kind of weak.  The story doesn’t seem to have a clear moral, except maybe that you can’t run from your responsibilities forever.  I’ve seen it in Twilight Zone marathons.  The funny thing is that if I had to choose episodes for a marathon, I’d probably leave this one out. 

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 31 (The Chaser)

Roger has a thing for Leila.  Leila would rather forget that Roger exists.  What’s poor Roger to do?  After being rejected by Leila, a stranger offers Roger a business card so that Roger might leave a payphone for others to use.  Roger is assured that this Prof. A. Daemon has what Roger needs, whatever that might be.

When Roger visits Daemon, he has many books, among which are many potions.  Daemon suggests the glove cleaner, which Roger turns down.  Daemon also suggests getting a cocker spaniel, which Roger doesn’t want.  Roger wants something to make Leila love him.

Daemon has something for that, although he’s certain that Roger will be back.  It would seem that Roger’s story is familiar to Daemon.  Daemon seems tired of people like Roger.  After all, the love potion goes for $1, whereas the glove cleaner goes for much more.

The love potion works as promised.  Six months later, Roger and Leila are married, although Roger isn’t so happy.  It turns out that Leila’s love is total and unwavering.  Nothing that Roger could do would make Leila stop loving him.  He goes back to Professor Daemon, hoping for some way of toning it down a little.  Daemon informs Roger that it’s an all-or-nothing deal.  That’s what the glove cleaner is for.

What is the glove cleaner?  It’s something that will take care of someone without any evidence whatsoever.  It’s the perfect way to get someone off your hands.   Roger reluctantly takes it.  When he gets home, Leila has a little surprise for him.  Roger realizes that he can’t go through with it, after all.

The title of the episode has sort of a double meaning.  Not only is Roger chasing Leila in the beginning, but the glove cleaner is said to be a chaser for the love potion, as everyone eventually comes back for it.  Daemon has no shortage of people to buy the love potion.  He also seems to get as many customers for glove cleaner.

Love potions like this are nothing new.  My one concern with this episode is that Roger is so willing to undermine Leila’s ability to consent.  Not only did Roger use the potion, but it would seem a great many other men did, as well.   I know I’m looking at this episode nearly sixty years later.  (Yes, it’s that old.  The episode aired May 13, 1960.)  Times have changed.  I wonder how the episode went over when it first aired.  I don’t recall reading too much about this aspect of the plot.

The episode seems to focus more on the down side of not being able to moderate what you want.  It might have been nice if Roger could have dialed in Leila’s affection, but he’s all that she can think about.  One might even imagine that the love potion was made only to give people a reason to really want the glove cleaner.  This Daemon guy knows what he’s doing.  Maybe Roger should have gotten that cocker spaniel, after all.

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 20 (Elegy)

Sometimes, bad people get what they deserve.  Other times, good people stumble into a situation that they’re not getting out of.  Captain James Webber, Kurt Meyers and Peter Kirby are good people.  They’re astronauts that happened to run out of fuel.  When they find an asteroid with Earth-like conditions, they land and find a world just like Earth, except that everyone is frozen.

After wandering around, they meet Jeremy Wickwire.  Wickwire is the asteroid’s caretaker.  He explains that rich people, rather than being buried, can spend their eternal rest in a situation to their liking.  This could take the form of winning a beauty pageant or being elected mayor.  Each scenario that the astronauts walked through was a similar scene staged for a wealthy client.

It turns out that Wickwire is an android, turning on only when necessary. Wickwire serves the three astronauts wine and asks what their wish is.  The only thing any of them wants is to go home, which Wickwire is happy to give them…in his own way.

The episode was a little confusing to me.  It seems odd to be posed like that after you die.  It looked almost like a set of museum displays.  I don’t imagine that the people were conscious.  It also didn’t look like the asteroid got a lot of visitors.  So, why spend all that money on something you won’t be able to enjoy?

It’s not a great episode, but it is watchable.  I think part of my confusion with the episode is that it first aired almost fifty years ago.  I have to wonder if I’m missing some sort of context.  To me, the episode was a wrong-place-wrong-time story.  Had the astronauts found any other place to land, they might have lived, even for a little while longer

I would say that it’s a mid-level story.  The story didn’t drag, which probably owes to the 30-minute format.  It’s also generally safe for teenagers and above.  Other than the asteroid being an elaborate graveyard, there’s nothing overly scary about it. The three astronauts are the only ones killed and that’s by poisoning.  I would say that younger children might not fully understand it and if they do, it’s the kind of thing that would stick with them.  I’m not certain that I fully understand it.

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The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 11 (And When the Sky Was Opened)

I remember seeing And When the Sky Was Opened as a kid.  There was something unsettling about the plot.  It was a solid, understandable story.  Three pilots return from a mission in space, except now there are two.  Then, there’s one.  Finally, the last one disappears from existence.  There was just something that never really sat well with me.  I couldn’t articulate it until now.

The story begins with Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes visiting Major William Gart in the hospital.  Forbes is already most of the way to a nervous breakdown.  Forbes asks Gart if he remembers Colonel Ed Harrington.  You might ask who Harrington is.  Gart certainly does.  Harrington was the first person from the space flight to disappear.

Forbes is the only person that can remember him.  People that have known him for years suddenly have no memory of him.  Mr. and Mrs. Harrington claimed not to have a son moments before Ed disappeared.  Even the newspaper shows only Gart and Forbes having returned from space.  Forbes recalls his version of events since the crash to Gart.  It isn’t until Forbes runs from the room that Gart realizes it was all true.  Forbes disappears.  Shortly thereafter, so do Gart and the plane.  It’s as if none of them ever existed.

Here’s what I couldn’t ask as a kid:  Why?  It’s never explained why the three men had to be erased from history.  It’s implied that they may have come into contact with something, but they blacked out.  If they can’t remember, there’s no real threat.  If something did happen and covering it up is that important, why not just erase the ship?  It seems a bit harsh to erase three men from history, as well.

If they are being erased, that would imply a conscious effort.  There’s no real speculation as to who or what that might be.  We don’t see a ship in orbit.  There’s no post-credit scene of two aliens talking to each other.  The episode ends with an empty bedroom where a test pilot should have been.

The episode seems designed more to instill fear than to impart some great moral.  This might have made more sense if the episode had aired on or near Halloween, but it first aired on December 11, 1959.  Despite having first seen it decades ago, there’s no I-get-it moment.  I’ve seen movies and TV episodes where some new piece of information puts the plot into perspective.

The only thing I can think of here is that there’s some historical context that I’m missing.  Perhaps there’s something about the late 50s that I’m not understanding.  In 1959, we hadn’t been to the moon yet.  This could simply be a way of playing on the fear of eventually leaving Earth.

This episode isn’t going to make my top-ten list.  It is enjoyable.  I might consider it for the top 30 or so.  It just leaves too many unanswered questions.  It would be interesting to see what Rod Serling would have done with more time.  As it is, it’s a somewhat lacking episode.


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