Twilight Zone Companion (59 page)

The Jeopardy Room is a gripping little political thriller, acted with intensity by John vanDreelen and Martin Landau (last seen in Mr. Denton on Doomsday). Like Serlings previous The Silence, this has no fantasy element in it at all; nonetheless, the battle of wits between predator and prey is fascinating.

The major weakness of The Jeopardy Room is in its finale. It is simply preposterous that a Soviet assassin would knowingly enter a room containing a live bomb which he himself planted, after he has seen his intended victim escape. This is done merely so his none-too-bright assistant can accidentally set it off, killing both of them and providing the piece with a happy ending.

Mr. Garrity and the Graves

Written by Rod Serling

Producer: William Froug

Director: Ted Post

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

Music: Tommy Morgan

Cast: Jared Garrity: John Dehner Gooberman: J. Pat OMalley Jensen: Stanley Adams Lapham: Percy Helton Sheriff Gilchrist: Norman Leavitt Man: Patrick OMoore Lightning Peterson: John Cliff Ace: John Mitchum Zelda Gooberman: Kate Murtagh

Introducing Mr. Jared Garrity, a gentleman of commerce, who in the latter half of the nineteenth century plied his trade in the wild and wooly hinterlands of the American West. And Mr. Garrity, if one can believe him, is a resurrecter of the deadwhich, on the face of it, certainly sounds like the bull is off the nickel. But to the scoffers amongst you, and you ladies and gentlemen from Missouri, don’t laugh this one off entirely, at least until youve seen a sample of Mr. Garritys wares, and an example of his services. The place is Happiness, Arizona, the time about 1890. And you and I have just entered a saloon where the bar whiskey is brewed, bottled and delivered from the Twilight Zone

After bringing back to life a dog run over by a wagon, Garrity promises to resurrect, at midnight, all 128 of the towns deadall but one of whom died by violence. As the hour draws near, the townsfolk grow apprehensive at the prospect of the deceased returning, notably the sheriff, who ambushed an unarmed gunman; the barkeep, who shot his no-good brother in the back; and the town drunk, whose 247-pound wife broke his arm six times before she died. Garrity agrees to reverse the resurrectionfor a price. The townsfolk pay him off handsomely. Much richer, Garrity leaves Happiness, but not before retrieving his dog and the man who supposedly ran it overboth Garritys accomplices in a most imaginative con game. But as they pass the cemetery, they fail to notice that the dead have risen, appreciative of Garritys abilityand extremely eager to get back into town.414

Exit Mr. Garrity, a would-be charlatan, a make-believe con man and a sad misjudger of his own talents. Respectfully submitted from an empty cemetery on a dark hillside that is one of the slopes leading to the Twilight Zone .

The best of Serlings final episodes was Mr. Garrity and the Graves. John Dehner is marvelously dry as a con man in the Old West and there is a good deal of humor as he goes about his business in the town of Happiness, Arizona, with 128 dead, all but one victims of violence (That was my dear wife Zelda, rest her soul, the town drunk explains, a fine, healthy, strapping woman of 247 poundsbut not unattractive, mind you). But even here there is a sloppiness of conception. For instance, when Garrity reveals that those with him in the saloon will have to pay him to not resurrect their less-than-dearly departed, everyone, including the town drunk, has between five hundred and twelve hundred dollars on their person. Clearly, this was intended as an expedient to keep the plot moving along as quickly as possible, but it is just not plausible.

Then there is the matter of Garritys accomplice, who impersonates the barkeeps dead brother and limps slowly down the towns foggy, moonlit dirt road. The instant that the bartender coughs up Garritys requested wwresurrecting fee, the man disappears, right in front of the astounded townsfolksand oureyes. Whats never explained, though, is just how the fellow accomplished this seemingly-supernatural trick.

NINETY YEARS WITHOUT SLUMBERING(12/20/63)

Written by Richard deRoy

Producer: William Froug

Director: Roger Kay

Director of Photography: Robert W. Pittack

Music: Bernard Herrmann

Cast: Sam Forstmann: Ed Wynn Marnie Kirk: Carolyn Kearney Doug Kirk: James Callahan Dr. Mel Avery: William Sargent Carol Chase: Carol Byron Mover #1: Dick Wilson Mover #2: Chuck Hicks Policeman: John Pickard

Each man measures his time; some with hope, some with joy, some with fear. But Sam Forstmann measures his allotted time by a grandfathers clock, a unique mechanism whose pendulum swings between life and death, a very special clock that keeps a special kind of time in the Twilight Zone .

Although he is sent to a psychiatrist, Sam Forstmann remains unshakable in his conviction that when the grandfather clock he has owned all his life comes to a stop, he will die. Nevertheless, in order to appease his granddaughter Marnie and her husband Doug, he sells the clock to their neighbor Carol, with the proviso that he can make regular maintenance visits. But when Carol and her husband leave on vacation, the clock begins to wind down. On the verge of hysteria, Sam tries to break into the house in order to wind it, only to be stopped by the police. Back home in his bed, he is resigned to the fact that he will die momentarily when the clock stops. The pendulum slows, then is still. Sams spirit leaves his body, informing him its time to depart. But Sam has other ideas. He doesnt believe that nonsense about the clockhes been to a psychiatrist! The spiritno more than a figment of Sams imaginationdisappears. Sam has triumphed over himself. Or, as he tells Marnie, When that clock died, / was born again.

Clocks are made by men, God creates time. No man can prolong his allotted hours, he can only live them to the fullestin this world or in the Twilight Zone.

While Bert Granet was still producer, George Clayton Johnson submitted a story entitled The Grandfather Clock. He was given the go-ahead and enlarged it to a full teleplay with the title Tick of Time. In the sensitively written original, Johnson once again returned to the themes of old age and fear of death. An old man who lives with his pregnant granddaughter and her husband believes he will die if his grandfather clock ever stops. Pressured by the young people to get rid of the clock, the old man gives it to an antique dealer. But later, he changes his mind and tries to struggle the huge clock home in a childs wagon with the assistance of a neighborhood boy. It is an exhausting and hazardous ordeal, made doubly so by the knowledge that a grandfather clock, in order to keep ticking, must remain absolutely upright. When the old man tries to lift the clock out of the wagon, it falls on top of him. It stops ticking and he dies. Several bystanders set the clock upright. At the same moment that it begins to tick again, the mans granddaughter gives birth to her baby. The cycle begins anew.

By the time this script was turned in, William Froug had assumed the helm. He was not pleased by Tick of Time. He paid Johnson, then hired another writer, Richard deRoy, to entirely revamp the script. Sadly, in this transition little was gained and much was lost.

In the finished episode, Ninety Years Without Slumbering, both the family situation and the central obsession remain the same. Although he is sent to a psychiatrist, Sam Forstmann remains unshakable in his conviction that his mortality is inextricably intertwined with that of his clock. Back home in his bed, he is resigned to the fact that he will die momentarily when the clock stops. It is better this way, he says. It has to come sometime, and I want it to come for me here.

Then something extremely peculiar happens. Sams spirit leaves his body and begins to beckon him to depart:

spirit: … Your time has come, Sam. After all, you are seventy-six.

sam: Dont give me that spirit of seventy-six stuff.

And who says its my time to go?

spirit: Have you forgotten what your father told you and your grandfather?

sam: About what?

spirit: Didnt they always tell you that when the clock winds down youll die?

sam: Yes, and you know something? I used to believe that stuff!

spirit: Well, you should have. They told you often enough.

sam: But thats silly, dont you know that? I do. Ive been to a psychiatrist!

spirit: So what?

sam: So he told me he didnt think I needed the clockand he didnt think I was crazy! And you know something? He was right and were wrong.

Imagine, Sam Forstmann has staunchly held to his belief in the face of all logic to the contrary, trumpeted it to a psychiatrist, even attempted breaking-and-entering in order to keep the clock tickingand what does he do at the last possible moment? Blithely talk himself out of his most strongly held belief of over seventy years. As Forstmann, Ed Wynn is

about as disarming and lovable as one could hope for, but not even he can sell this bill of goods.

Not at all happy about all this is George Clayton Johnson, who rightly views it as an inept alteration of something he originated. It makes the plot trivial. If youre going to get involved in his problems youve got to believe in his problems, and if he doesnt believe in them you feel cheated.

NEWCOMERS

Including Ninety Years Without Slumbering, six episodes produced by William Frougfully one-fourth his outputwere written by newcomers to the series. As the results demonstrate, most of them just did not understand the form.

In previous seasons, virtually all the better episodes had running through them a sense of cosmic justice, of people getting their just deserts, often with a full helping of irony. The fantastic element that was the Twilight Zone was there for a reason: if the main character was a rotter, it would give him his comeuppance; if he was a decent sort it would give him a second chance, a magical opportunity to set his life right. On the rare occasion that someone inoffensive ended up badly (as in Time Enough at Last), there was a deliberate sense of tragedy. A moral code was being applied.

In the six episodes by the newcomers, such is not the case. Instead, there is a feeling of things gone tilt. Consequences are often unfairly meted out. Rather than a cosmos in which every action brings about an equal reaction, this is a universe ruled by chaos.

CAESAR AND ME (4/10/64)

Written by A. T. Strassfield

Producer: William Froug

Director: Robert Butler

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

Music: Richard Shores

Cast: Jonathan West: Jackie Cooper Susan: Susanne Cupito Mrs. Cudahy: Sarah Selby Mr. Smiles: Olan Soule Pawnbroker: Stafford Repp Watchman: Sidney Marion Detective: Don Gazzaniga Mr. Miller: Ken Konopka

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 .

Unable to get bookings because his act just isnt funny, West has no money to pay for food or rent. After bombing out at an employment agency, West follows Little Caesars directions and commits several petty burglaries. During a theater robbery, West is spotted by a night watchman. His landladys niece Susan, a vicious brat, overhears him discussing the bungled job with Caesar and calls the police. West is hauled off to jail, but Little Caesarbeing viewed as merely inanimate woodgets away scot-free. Caesar tells Susan he likes her style and suggests they team up. Theyll go to New Yorkbut first theyll have to get rid of her aunt.

Little girl and a wooden doll, a lethal dummy in the shape of a man. But everybody knows dummies cant talkunless, of course, they learn their vocabulary in the Twilight Zone.

The basic theme of Caesar and Me had been done many times before, including in Serlings The Dummy. The Dummy, however, focuses on a specific dramatic issue: a battle of wills between an anthropomorphized piece of wood and a ventriloquist whose tenuous hold on reality is rapidly slipping. Caesar and Me is merely pointless. The mild-mannered ventriloquist is framed by his dummy (with the aid of the vicious little girl) and taken away by the cops. Little Caesar, certainly the villain of the piece, never pays for his deeds, and the hapless ventriloquist gets much worse than he deserves. It would be tragic were it not for the fact that the ventriloquist is such a dull-witted patsy, so utterly unable to defend himself, that he elicits little sympathy.

William Froug reveals one distinction peculiar to this episode. Credited to A. T. Strassfield, it is the only episode of the series scripted by a woman. Adele T. Strassfield was actually my secretary, he explains. She was an exceptionally bright woman, and she said to me, T can show you Im a writer. I want to write a Twilight Zone. So she came up with a notion. Shed never written a script before and has never written one since. In effect, I sort of wrote it with her. I wanted her to have the credit, and she got a great thrill out of it.

FROM AGNES WITH LOVE (2/14/64)

Written by Bernard C. Shoenfeld

Producer: William Froug

Director: Richard Donner

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

Music: Van Cleave

Cas  James Elwood: Wally Cox Millie: Sue Randall Walter Holmes: Ralph Taeger Supervisor: Raymond Bailey Fred Danziger: Don Keefer Secretary: Nan Peterson Assistant: Byron Kane

James Elwood, master programmer; in charge of Mark 502-741, commonly known as Agnes, the worlds most advanced electronic computer. Machines are made by men for mans 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 intothe Twilight Zone.