Category: SF&F TV Show Reviews

SF&F TV Shows reviewed by someone who remembers when Star Trek and Star Wars were actually good.

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 26 – Little Girl Lost

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Chris and Ruth Miller wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of their six-year-old daughter Tina crying for them.  Chris puts on his slippers and goes into Tina’s room but she’s not in her bed.  He calls to her and she answers him but he can’t see her.  Thinking that she’s rolled off and under the bed he looks underneath but she’s not there.  Ruth comes into the room and turns on the light.  Now they see she’s not in the room but they can still hear Tina crying out for them and now her voice seems to be coming from different places in the house.  Chris says he’s going to check under the house but as he opens the kitchen door the little family dog Mack runs inside and runs past Ruth and under the bed.  But Mack disappears too and only his bark indicates that he’s still nearby.

Chris rushes back in the room and after catching up with what happened from Ruth, he tells her that Tina isn’t under the house and he is going to call for help.  He calls his friend Bill and tells him to hurry over.  Ruth wants to know what Bill can do.  Chris tells her that Bill is a physicist and maybe he can explain what is happening.

When Bill arrives, he listens to the story from the couple and then with Chris’s help he moves the bed out of the way.  After some trial and error poking at the floor and wall behind the bed he finds a door sized area of the wall that, though it appears solid, allows his hand to pass through it.  Borrowing a piece of chalk from Ruth he draws an arch around where the portal to another dimension seems to have opened.

Bill tells the Millers that the portal is an opening between our three-dimensional universe and a higher dimensioned space that temporarily are juxtaposed next to each other.  Bill asks why he can’t just go in and get Tina and Bill says that the other dimension may not be normal enough for human sight to navigate it successfully.  He suggests that they call to Tina and tell her to hold onto Mack and follow him back out when they call the dog.  Apparently, the sharper senses of the dog would be a more reliable conduit for escape back into our world.

Tina does indeed see Mack and she begins to follow their instructions but while Chris is coaxing her to follow the dog, he falls into the portal and now is standing in the strange murky and confusing space inside the wall.  With much back and forth talk between Chris and Tina she slowly follows Mack back to where Chris is waiting.  Meanwhile Bill is imploring Chris to hurry the process as much as possible.  Finally, Chris has Tina by the hand and all at once the two people and the dog come tumbling out onto the floor of Tina’s bedroom.  Ruth grabs Tina and takes her out of the room for safety.  Bill stands talking to Chris about the escape.  Chris asks Bill how he was able to see him to pull him out of the portal.  Bill explains that Chris was never fully in the portal.  His back was still in the room.  And now Bill slaps his hand on the wall where the portal used to be.  It was shut.  Bill told him that it was closing all the time he was half in and half out of it.  Another few seconds and he would have been cut in half by its closing.

This is a weird one.  The dramatic effect of the episode is marred by a few problems.  The voice of Tina is actually noticeably that of a grown woman affecting a childish sound.  I found it quite annoying.  And the scene in the other dimension where Chris is calling to Tina and each can’t see the other but keep calling back and forth is also kind of monotonous and annoying.  I get that they were trying to build suspense and excitement but I thought it was overly long and not very effective visually.  And the fact that Chris would call a physicist to handle a missing child is kind of “Ghostbusteresque.”

But the use of the dimensional portal as a plot element in the conventional setting of a normal American household is original and interesting.  Well, at least original for TV.  After all, I remember Heinlein had that story “And He Built a Crooked House.”  Either way it’s an interesting story concept.  Despite the less than brilliant dramatic elements I’m giving this a B+.

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 25 – The Fugitive

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In the first scene we see some boys playing softball.  When one is called out by the umpire a little girl with a leg brace (Jenny) complains about the call.  An old man (Ben) with a big moustache chastises her for contesting the umpire.  Then the old man is up to bat.  He hits the ball and it disappears over the trees like a rocket.  The kids lament the loss of the ball and the old man promises to make up for it by playing a game where they are space rangers and he is an outer space monster.  When the kids sneak up on the monster’s lair (a large bush) a real monster comes out and the kids “shoot” it with ray guns (really just their fingers pointing like a gun and making a ray gun noise).  The monster pretends to be shot and falls behind the bush.  And immediately the old man jumps out and says to the kids, “I think you got him.”

Old Ben carries Jenny (because of her disability) back to the apartment building where they both live.  Ben lives alone and Jenny lives with her very unpleasant Aunt Agnes (played by Nancy Kulp who was Miss Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies).  Aunt Agnes is unhappy because she’s been forced to take responsibility for her orphaned niece.  And Agnes hates Ben whom she thinks encourages her niece to misbehave.  When Ben brings Jenny home, they both get abused verbally by Aunt Agnes.  Ben heads to his apartment.

Two men who claim to be police detectives show up at Aunt Agnes’ door and want to know information about Ben.  They imply that he may be a fugitive that they are chasing.  Hearing this, Jenny sneaks away to Ben’s apartment to warn him.  When Ben hears about the two men, he tells Jenny that he really is a fugitive but from a different planet.  And that he must leave Earth to escape these two men.  Suddenly the two men and Aunt Agnes are banging at the door of Ben’s apartment.  When they come in, they find Jenny but Ben is gone.  After interrogating her they bring her back to her room and the two men leave.  Aunt Agnes yells at Jenny and sends her to bed without supper.  As soon as she is alone, she takes a mouse out of her hand and putting it down it becomes Ben.  Ben tells her it is time for him to leave but before he goes, he has something for her.  She closes her eyes and Ben takes out a hand held device that has a whirling propeller and gives off a light and a noise.  He plays the light over her crippled leg and she is cured.  Ben turns into a fly and disappears out the window.

Jenny runs down the stairs to go after Ben but before she gets out the door, the two detectives point another device like the one Ben used before and Jenny falls unconscious to the floor.  A doctor is summoned and tells Aunt Agnes that Jenny seems to be dying.

Ben returns to Jenny’s room as a fly and then becomes himself.  Using his mysterious device, he wakes Jenny and tells her that the two men did this to her to force him to return.  And now they enter the room.  But what we discover from their talk is that Ben is a runaway king of a far distant world and these two men are loyal servants sent to bring him back to his loving subjects.  Ben acquiesces to returning home.  Jenny begs to go with Ben but the men say it wouldn’t be allowed by their laws.  When Jenny asks them to leave to the room to allow her to say goodbye to Ben the agree as long as Ben promises not to escape.  When they return Ben has changed himself into a twin of Jenny.  Since neither of the twins will admit which is Ben, the detectives will be forced to take both Jennies back to Ben’s world.

Serling’s closing monologue confirms that Ben doesn’t appear as an old man back on his planet.  A picture of him seems to be a boy of about sixteen, even though chronologically he’s hundreds of years old.  And Serling says when Jenny grows up, she’ll be a queen.

Most of the episode is a somewhat sentimental science fiction version of Cinderella.  But I found the idea that Old Ben who was very grandfatherly toward ten year old Jenny would eventually become her husband quite creepy.  Honestly, it ruined the whole thing for me.    F

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 24 – To Serve Man

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Ah, one of my favorites!

The opening scene is of a disheveled man named Michael Chambers apparently an unhappy passenger in his cabin on a space ship, refusing a meal being offered to him over the ship’s intercom system.  He tells this story.

On a sunny April day in New York City a flying saucer lands and a nine-foot alien belonging to a race called the Kanamits speaks before the UN General Assembly.  He informs the humans that his people want to solve all of Earth’s problems and for completely altruistic reasons.  They will provide technological solutions to food and power scarcity and they will provide every country with an impenetrable force field that will render warfare obsolete.  When the Kanamit leaves the building, he leaves behind a book in the Kanamit language.  The American intelligence agencies pass the book over to their code cracking (cryptography) team, led by Michael Chambers and including his associate Patty.  After a while they are able to translate the title.  It reads, “To Serve Man.”  But the rest of the book evades their efforts to translate.

Meanwhile the Kanamits make good on their promises and provide the humans with technological wonders that make Earth a veritable paradise.  During a polygraph (lie detector) test the Kanamit reveals that as part of their new relations with Earth, the Kanamits were encouraging large numbers of humans to visit the Kanamit planet as a means of mutual cultural exchange.

In a scene at the Cryptography Department we see Michael Chambers and Patty talking about how their jobs have become obsolete with the disappearance of war and they note somewhat skeptically about how every day thousands of humans take the tourist trip to the Kanamit world while more and more Kanamits take up residence on Earth.  But then Chambers admits sheepishly that he has accepted an invitation to spend a lengthy sabbatical there in the near future.  Patty admits that she is still working to translate the Kanamit book even though no one now cares about the answers there.

In the next scene Michael Chambers is in line to go aboard the Kanamit space ship for his trip when Patty rushes up to the ship and calls to him.  A Kanamit restrains her but Chambers stops on the ramp and hears Patty say that immortal line, “Mr. Chambers, don’t get on that ship! The rest of the book To Serve Man, it’s… it’s a cookbook!”

And of course, the other Kanamit at the ramp forces Chambers up the ramp and seals the ship for take-off.

In the last scene, on the space ship, Chambers finally relents and eats a meal when one of the Kanamits jokes that he wouldn’t want Chambers to lose weight.  Then Chambers summarizes the situation and speaking to the viewing audience he tells us that even if we are hearing this back on Earth, we’ll all be on the menu eventually, all of us.

The only cast item of note is that the Kanamits are all played by exceedingly tall actor, Richard Kiel who played Jaws in some of the James Bond movies.

What can I say?  I love this episode.  The title pun, the goofy looking Kanamits, the surprise ending.  It’s marvelous.  Oh sure, it’s all kinds of dopey.  A race that has intergalactic space travel capability and impenetrable force fields needs or wants to fool lesser beings into travelling halfway across the universe to be made into soup.  And the explanation for why the code breakers could translate the title of the book but not the text, because the title is in capital letters but the rest is lower case?  That’s nonsense.

But I don’t care.  How can you not love the payoff, the horrified woman trying to save her boss from the cannibal’s pot stuttering out the ultimate irony?  The Kanamits thought so little of our intelligence that they left behind the truth of their contempt for us in plain sight.  Marvelous.  A+

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 23 – The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank

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The episode opens up with a funeral mass being held in a rustic church somewhere in a country holler.  A young man named Jeff Myrtlebank is being mourned by his family, friends and sweetheart.  He died two days earlier from influenza and the town is assembled to say goodbye and lay him to rest in the churchyard.

Suddenly the cover of the coffin is pushed open and Jeff sits up.  The congregation panics and stampedes out of the church.  When Jeff follows them out most of them are too frightened of him to go near him.  Jeff tells them that he just woke up in the box and doesn’t remember anything after he fell ill.  Jeff begs his family to welcome him back and finally his kid sister Liz comes up and hugs him.  Now the town doctor who up until this moment assured everyone that he had carefully checked for any sign of life when Jeff expired remembers a very rare syndrome that causes suspended animation as a side effect and declares this the reason for the miraculous cure.  This breaks the ice and the crowd calms down and Jeff’s parents get over their fear and take him home to a big meal to satisfy a three day fast.

But after a few days his parents notice some changes in their restored son.  Whereas previously Jeff was never a hard worker now he is relentless at performing all the hard farm work that he undertakes.  He has become remarkably stronger than he was before but despite this higher work output, he now eats much less than had been his habit.  Overhearing his parents talking about these things, Liz spread this information as gossip and it makes the rounds in the community.  Pretty soon the consensus around town is that Jeff is possessed by a haint or evil spirit.  When Jeff goes to see his girl Comfort Gatewood at her home, she is afraid of him, especially after the bouquet of roses he freshly picked for her turns out to be wilted and dead.  Her brother Orgram, who had always bullied Jeff when they were younger attempts to throw Jeff out of the house but Jeff easily beat him in a fistfight.

Now the whole town is convinced that Jeff is demon possessed.  Deciding that she still loves Jeff, Comfort reaches Jeff’s farm before the mob and warns him that they are coming to threaten him and force him to leave town.  When the mob reaches his property and gives him the ultimatum, Jeff asks Comfort if she will marry him.  When she accepts Jeff tells her to stand behind him and then he faces the crowd.

He makes a speech.  He says that there are two possibilities about him.  One is that he’s just a normal man and if that’s the case they have nothing to fear from him.  The other possibility is that he’s a haint and if that’s the case then he can use his powers to destroy their crops and kill their livestock.  When the mob thinks about this for a moment, they get the message and change their tune and say now that he is marrying Comfort everyone will be one big happy family and they depart quickly.

After they are alone Comfort asks Jeff if he really has those powers and Jeff demurs that it was just something he had to say.  But as he is lighting his pipe the match flares up without Jeff striking it.  Comfort exclaims about this but Jeff says, “Comfort, honey, first thing you got to learn is not to imagine things.”  Then as they’re walking toward his house the property gate at the road closes slowly behind them on its own.

Well, you all know I like the comical episodes and this one is definitely that.  And I liked the way it was done with just the right amount of cornpone, tongue-in-cheek hillbilly flavor to lay to rest any doubts as to its intentions.   It’s a B.

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 22 – A Piano in the House

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Jerry Fortune is a theater critic who doesn’t like anyone.  He is buying his much younger wife Esther a player piano because she wants to learn to play and he thinks it will be a cruel insult to taunt her with.  Jerry discovers that when this piano plays a song that is resonant with some hidden emotion in a listener then that person uncontrollably reveals the feeling to those present.  First the solemn faced butler reveals that he actually finds Mr. Fortune’s little cruelties quite funny.  Jerry decides to use the piano to reveal everyone’s secret feelings at Esther’s birthday party that night.

Esther reveals that she despises Jerry and wants to leave him.  Next, we find out that playwright Greg Walker is secretly in love with Esther and wants her to run away with him.  Then a very overweight “friend” Marge is humiliated by revealing her inner desire to be a dancer.  But before Jerry can continue the reign of terror Esther replaces the music spool with one that makes Jerry reveal that he is an insecure child that attacks everyone around him because inside he fears them.  When he admits his inadequacy Esther and Greg leave together, apparently to be together permanently and all the other guests leave as Jerry throws a childish tantrum.  When the butler returns Jerry asks him if he is going to laugh at him but the butler says, “You’re not funny anymore.”

This episode is pretty thin stuff.  I don’t even particularly dislike it.  It’s pretty forgettable.  C-.

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 21 – Kick the Can

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This iconic episode takes place at a retirement home called Sunnyvale Rest Home.  We’re shown a cross section of the inhabitants doddering around or dozing in chairs along with a few nurses and a doctor supervising the elderly.  Next, we see one old man, Charles Whitley, trying to sneak out the front door with a suitcase in hand without the nurse seeing him.  When he manages it, a car pulls up in front of Sunnyvale and Charles gets in.  But we’re witness to Charles’ son telling his old Dad that he didn’t say he would be taking Dad home with him but that he would talk with him about it.  Next, we see the car drive away with Charles left behind.  Walking dejectedly back toward Sunnyvale Charles is mesmerized by the sight of a bunch of young boys playing kick the can.  In fact, almost unconsciously he picks up the can and walks away with it as the kids plead with him to return it.

Back in his room Charles talks to his old friend Ben Conroy about what happened.  Ben criticizes Charles’ son for abandoning him but Charles claims that he can’t expect his son to have the resources to take him into his small home.  After all, his growing family needs all the resources available.  But Charles has begun to think about what life should be like for himself.  And the thought that has entered his mind is that acting young has a magic that can make him young.  He tells Ben that he thinks that if he can relive his childhood pursuit of a game like Kick the Can maybe he can be young again too.  Ben tells him not to go soft in the head and that he should maintain some dignity in his declining years.  He warns Charles that trying to act young is only going to get him hurt doing things his body isn’t capable of anymore.

But Charles ignores his friend and starts running around the grounds acting like a kid.  When he decides to start running through the lawn sprinkler, the Doctor and the Nurses restrain him and take him inside to put on dry clothes and rest.  The Doctor informs Ben that the next morning he intends to have Charles confined to a restricted area where he can’t hurt himself.  Ben tells this to Charles and in desperation to prevent this from happening he hatches a plan.  He recruits the other old men and women.  After dark while they are supposed to be asleep, they will set off firecrackers as a distraction and escape onto the front lawn to play kick the can.  At the last-minute Charles begs Ben, his oldest friend to join them.

But Ben rejects the idea and when the firecrackers go off, he goes to tell the Doctor that Charles has staged an escape with the other patients.  The two of them rush outside and as some boys and girls run past them we can hear Charles counting off the beginning of the game, “five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty.”  Then we hear a young boy’s voice continue, “forty-five, fifty, fifty-five, sixty.”  And by the time his count is over we see a little boy run past Ben and the Doctor to catch up to the other kids we’ve seen run by.  The Doctor chases after the other kids but the boy who is “it” stops and looks at Ben.  And Ben recognizes his boyhood friend Charlie and asks him if he recognizes his old friend Bennie.  Then Ben begs Charlie to take him with him but Charlie is no longer a part of the world that Ben has clung to and he runs into the night free of the weight of old age and mortality.  And Ben sits on the steps holding the can and regretfully contemplating his fate.

I have to admit, hearing the kids recite the sing-song count at the beginning of the game brings me back to being ten years old with a vividness that verges on magic.  Playing tag, freeze tag and hide and go seek on a warm summer evening were some of the fondest memories of childhood even if it was on the mean streets of 1960s Brooklyn.  This episode conjures that up and as I get older, I fully understand that childhood joy is a magic formula that even the old can share in, even if less miraculously than in the story.

This one gets a full A.

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 20 – Showdown with Rance McGrew

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Rance McGrew is the star of a cowboy show on TV.  He makes the rest of the crew and cast miserable with his pettiness and his overbearing and selfish behavior.  During one particular scene of the production, the actor playing Jesse James is supposed to attempt to shoot McGrew in the back.  The actor objects saying that the real Jesse James would never have stooped to a cowardly act like shooting a man in the back.  McGrew flies into a rage and belittles Jesse James compared to himself.

Suddenly the saloon that McGrew is standing in becomes a real Old Western saloon and McGrew shouts out that the whiskey he was drinking really is whiskey instead of ginger ale.   A man runs into the saloon and tells McGrew that Jesse James is coming into town.  Rance thinks that it’s the scene they’ve been practicing.  But when Jesse James shows up, he is a large powerful and intimidating man and he isn’t acting.  He tells Rance that in the afterlife the outlaws that McGrew is regularly running down and representing as cowards are very unhappy with him and have sent Jesse James to teach him a lesson.

Now Jesse drags McGrew out onto the street and tells him they are going to have a shoot out.  Rance hides but eventually he is cornered and when Jesse outdraws him McGrew begs the outlaw to spare him.  Jesse says he’ll do it on the condition that Rance will change his ways and respect the honor of the Old West legends he’s been besmirching.  When he agrees, he suddenly finds himself back on the television production set and preparing for the Jesse James scene.  But just before it’s shot an extra comes in and tells Rance that his agent is outside and needs to talk to him.  Of course, it’s Jesse James dressed as a Hollywood agent.  He tells Rance that instead of shooting Jesse, the outlaw will escape by throwing Rance through the saloon window and instead of a stunt double it will be McGrew himself.  And reluctantly Rance accepts the inevitable and comes flying through the window.  And Jesse and Rance go driving off in his Cadillac convertible into a sunset of historical western accuracy.  We’re left assuming this is the beginning of a beautiful but painful friendship for Rance.

Well, not too bad.  B-

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 19 – The Hunt

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This is a simple story and easy enough to tell.

An old man named Hyder Simpson and his hound-dog Rip are going on a nighttime coon hunt.  His wife Rachel warns him that she’s had premonitions and that he shouldn’t go but he tells her not to fret and heads out after supper.

During the night, Rip trees a coon but the varmint escapes into the creek and even with Hyder warning the dog off, Rip jumps in the creek where he is dragged under by the raccoon.  Hyder jumps in to save Rip but neither of them resurfaces even after we see the coon swim away and escape.

The next morning, we see Simpson and Rip sleeping on the bank of the creek.  Hyder doesn’t remember much of the night but tells Rip they’re both going to catch hell from Rachel.  While heading home they reach two of his neighbors burying a box on Simpson’s property.  He questions them about it and even threatens them with his rifle but they seemingly ignore him and talk about the dog they are burying and how he will be missed.  Hearing that they are burying a beloved dog he assumes they are overwhelmed with grief and unable to speak to him so he moves on toward home.

When he gets back to his cabin, he finds Rachel in her mourning dress and the local parson trying to comfort her over Hyder’s death.  Simpson can’t make them hear him and soon we see the pallbearers removing his coffin from the bedroom and heading out toward the church yard.  Hyder follows behind them to find out what is going on.  But suddenly he finds himself and Rip separated from the funeral procession by a wooden fence that he’s never seen before.  He follows the fence to find a way around it to the churchyard.  After following it for a long while he reaches a gateway in the fence with a guard building.  He calls out and an attendant approaches and starts asking Hyder some questions.  Hyder answers them casually but when the man asks Hyder how he died, they get into a dispute.  Simpson tells him that he’s certainly not dead and the man tells him that if he weren’t dead, he couldn’t be where he is now and that this was the gateway to the Elysian Fields.  Hyder asks him why he can’t hear the singing and the harp music and the man says that he’ll hear it once he crosses the gateway.  Looking in Hyder can see some smoke coming around a curve in the road.  The gatekeeper invites him to come in but when Hyder tries to get a reluctant Rip to enter with him the gatekeeper tells him that dogs are not allowed.

Hyder protests and says he won’t go anywhere where Rip isn’t welcome and he questions how they can have coon hunts in heaven without dogs.  The gatekeeper says there aren’t any coon hunts in heaven.  This settles things and Hyder says that he’s not going in and will continue down the road.  The gatekeeper tells him that there is nothing down the infinite road to nowhere.  But Hyder moves on.

A way down the road Hyder sits down with Rip and talks about his confusion at their predicament.  Coming down the road from the direction they were heading is a young man dressed as a country cousin to Mr. Simpson.  He asks for Simpson and Rip by name and explains that he is an angel sent to find him and bring him to the gates of heaven.  When Hyder tells him about his recent experience at the gate the angel tells him that wasn’t heaven it was hell.  And the reason that they don’t allow dogs is because dogs can smell the brimstone and refuse to enter.  “He tells Hyder, “A man will walk into Hell with his eyes open but even the Devil can’t fool a dog.”  Heading now to Heaven he asks the angel if they have coon hunts and is told that there will be one that night right after the square dance.  When Hyder says he wishes Rachel could attend the angel tells him not to worry, that she would be there soon and that she wouldn’t have any trouble avoiding Hell.

Hyder is played by Arthur Hunnicutt, an Arkansan who made a career in Hollywood playing hillbillies.  This is a sentimental fantasy that plays on the heartstrings of anyone who ever had a favorite dog, especially a hound.  It’s one of the goofy ones but I’m a sucker for dog stories.  B+

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 18 – Dead Man’s Shoes

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A few gangsters dump a body out of their car into an alley.  The body, wearing a pair of fancy two toned shoes, belongs to a recently deceased partner in crime of theirs named Dane.  The car takes off and a bum named Nate Bledsoe, who was sleeping on a fire escape, comes down and sees the body.  He takes the fancy shoes and puts them on.  Later, walking down the street, his fellow winos notice his fancy shoes and start demanding a share in his good fortune.  Suddenly Nate’s timid attitude changes and he menacingly, warns them to back off.  Now Nate walks determinedly toward a destination.

In the next scene he walks into a swank apartment where a woman in flashy clothes named Wilma is waiting for the missing Dane.  She yells at the derelict who has broken into her apartment and shouts for him to leave.  But Nate answers her in the familiar mannerisms and diction of the gangster Dane and orders her to make him a drink, at which she is somewhat cowed.  He goes into the bathroom to clean up and decides to shave.  When he appears ready to take a shower, he removes the shoes and becomes confused.  Suddenly he is Nate Bledsoe again and doesn’t know where he is or how he got there.  He walks out of the bathroom with the shoes in his hands and is confronted by Wilma with a revolver pointed at him.  She threatens to shoot him unless he explains where he got Dane’s shoes.  He tells her he found them in an alley but really can’t make a coherent story out of it.  She tells him to put on the shoes and get out before Dane returns and kills him.

But as soon as he puts the shoes back on his feet, he’s Dane again.  Smiling he takes the gun from Wilma and tells her to make his favorite drink, tequila with a sugar cube in it.  She is utterly confused by his knowledge of Dane’s personal details and even allows him to kiss her until it frightens her too much and she runs from him.  He takes the gun and heads out from the apartment.

In the next scene he shows up at the bar where his old partner and recent murderer Bernie Dagget is holding court.  Nate orders his trademark drink and sits watching Bernie until he gets called over to Dagget.

Nate tells Dagget that he has a message from an unnamed party that Dagget knows well.  They go into a private office after Dagget’s boys frisk Nate and take his revolver.  Sitting facing Bernie’s desk he comments on how the rug doesn’t even show the blood that was all over it just a few hours ago.  When Dagget feigns ignorance of what he means Nate tells him all the details of the murder.  At that point a gunman appears behind Nate’ s back but he quickly and skillfully pulls a second gun from his ankle and shoots the gunman down.  He looks at Bernie and says, “you didn’t think the same trick would work twice?”  But as he says it a gun flash comes from a bookcase behind Bernie’s desk and Nate slumps to the floor.  Bernie grabs Nate’s gun but as Nate lies dying, he says to Bernie that he’ll be back again and again until he finally gets Bernie.

In the next scene it looks like Bernie and the boys are dumping Nate in the same alley where they dumped Dane.  One of the two winos that accosted Nate earlier in the show finds his body and takes his shoes and of course we know how that will end.

This is a goofy fantasy with an easily predictable plot and stereotyped characters.  But I must confess I enjoyed it quite a lot.  Maybe it’s the film noir set up and swift action.  More likely I enjoyed the style of the main character.  Nate was played by Warren Stevens who I remember as the ship’s physician from Forbidden Planet.  Even as the gangster Dane he has an easy style that is fun to watch.  B+

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 17 – One More Pallbearer

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Paul Radin is a very rich man with a NYC skyscraper with his name on it.  In the sub-basement of this building (300 feet below the surface) he’s built a nuclear bomb shelter with eighteen-inch-thick concrete walls encased in six inches of lead.  And he’s installed an audio-visual system that can mimic the experience of a nuclear explosion outside of the bunker.  Mr. Radin is a devious man who has conquered the business world without any need for honor or a conscious.

He has invited three people to his shelter.  They are one of his old high school teachers, Mrs. Langsford, his former pastor Mr. Hughes and his commanding officer from the war, Col. Hawthorne.  When they arrive, he reminds each of them of the time when each had humiliated him.  His teacher had berated him for cheating and then trying to blame the incident on someone else.  Col. Hawthorne had him court-martialed for refusing to follow a direct order to join a battle.  And Mr. Hughes had exposed the fact that a girl committed suicide over Radin.

Then Radin reveals why they were invited.  He claims that he has classified information that a Russian nuclear attack will occur in a few minutes and New York will be obliterated, all except him in his shelter.  And he has invited them to share his bomb shelter and survive.  The proviso is that each beg his forgiveness for the offenses they committed against him.  When they ask to leave, he demands that they stop the pretense and realize that as soon as they leave, they will panic and come running back.  They leave undeterred and when he holds open the elevator door to give them one last chance the school teacher basically tells him that he is the one to be pitied because he will be trapped with himself.

After they leave, Radin feels the detonation of the nuclear bomb.  He takes the elevator to the surface and sees that the city is in rubble.  He breaks down and mourns for his own loneliness in the empty world that is left.  But then we see that all of this scene is in his imagination and that the city is untouched.  Radin is lying by the fountain in front of his building crying hysterically.  He’s gone insane from frustration and fear.

Between this episode and the earlier third season episode called “The Shelter,” I get the idea that Rod Serling is miffed that some people had bomb shelters.  I suppose he felt it wasn’t egalitarian that some would survive.  All that aside, this is a pretty weak episode.  It doesn’t seem very likely that a narcissist would crack up because some people didn’t like him.  I’ll go with a C.