Category: Twilight Zone

individual reviews of all the Twilight Zone series episodes

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.

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 16 – Nothing in the Dark

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A very old woman lives alone in a condemned building in a run-down area of a city.  And she is afraid of every one she meets so she won’t open her door to anyone.

Outside her apartment she sees a policeman in the alley so she hides in her room.  Shots are fired and a car speeds away.  She hears the voice of a man crying for help.  She tells him to go away and leave her alone.  He tells her that he’s been shot and his name is Officer Harold Beldon and he needs a doctor right away.

The old woman is in a panic.  She is frightened to death of the man but she is moved to help an injured person.  She overcomes her fear and goes to him.  When she touches his shoulder, she is amazed.  She says aloud, “how am I still alive?”  The old lady helps the Officer into her apartment and tries to make him comfortable on the bed and makes him some tea.  Now that she is safe back in her room, she tells the Officer about herself.  She says that one time on a bus she saw a man come up to a very old woman and in the course of picking up something she dropped, he touched her hand and a little while later she died.  At that point she concluded that the man was actually Death there to take the old woman away.  The old woman tells the Officer that a few more time she saw Death take away old people.  Now she avoids everyone because Death can take any form.  But she is miserable.  She loves the sunlight but now lives always in darkness.

Later on, a knock comes at the door and she refuses to open it.  The man at the door says he is a contractor responsible for demolishing the condemned buildings that include the one the old lady lived in.  When she refused to open the door, he brakes it down.  When he enters the room the old lady collapses to the floor.  When she comes to, she is once again amazed that Death has not gotten her.  The contractor tries to comfort her and explains that his job is not evil.  He’s clearing the ground so new homes can be built to replace the worn-out buildings.  The old lady asks Officer Beldon to help her explain to the contractor that she needs to stay inside but the contractor is confused by her words and leaves warning her she must go.

When she thinks about what happened she realizes that the contractor couldn’t see the Officer.  Beldon tells her to look in the mirror and when she does, she can’t see him in the mirror.  Now she knows that he is indeed Death.  In confusion she asks him why he did not kill her when she let him in.  He explains to her that he is not there to hurt or frighten her.  He is only there to guide her to the next phase of her existence.  He implores her lovingly to take his hand and after initial fear she does.  When nothing seems to happen, she is relieved and she asks him when she will die and he asks her to look at the bed.  There she sees her own body in repose.  And now Death says to her, “What you feared would come like an explosion is like a whisper. What you thought was the end is the beginning.”  Death leads the old lady out of the darkness into the sunlight.

Gladys Cooper as the old lady and Robert Redford as Death are very good.  The drama is sentimental and emotionally charged but effective.  I enjoyed it.  B+

The Twilight Zone – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 15 – A Quality of Mercy

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In the last days of the WW II a platoon of exhausted American GIs is performing surveillance on a mortar team trying to destroy an enemy position inside a cave in the Philippines.  Sgt. Causarano and his men are discussing the weakness of the Japanese force in the cave.  They approximate it to be twenty men most of whom are injured and therefore unlikely to mount any offensive operations against the Americans.  In addition, because of their good defensive position extracting them will definitely require American casualties.  They decide the best strategy is to bypass this target and move onto a more dangerous force that is less difficult to assault.

At this point a new officer arrives to take command of the patrol.  Lt. Katell informs Causarano that he is going to run things by the book and the first order of business is a frontal attack on the cave.  The Sgt. respectfully advises the Lt. that at this late stage of the war a frontal attack on a target that isn’t a threat is overzealous and a waste of American lives.  Katell states that in a war killing the enemy continues from the beginning of the war right until the very end.

The men reluctantly prepare for the assault but just as he is preparing to call the charge Katell drops his binoculars and as he is looking down at them a confusing change occurs.  Instead of being night it is broad daylight and instead of Causarano, the sergeant picking up the binoculars is in a Japanese uniform and is addressing Katell as Lt. Yamuri.   Panicking, Katell (who looks and is dressed as a Japanese officer) bolts away from the Japanese encampment and runs toward a cave.  But as he approaches it an American soldier inside the cave sprays machine gun fire toward him and is answered by a Japanese machine gunner firing back at the cave.

In the next scene Katell/Yamuri is trying to understand what is happening but he is very confused.  He learns from the Sgt. that the year is 1942 and the scene is near the battle of Corregidor in the Philippines.  At that point a senior Japanese officer appears and admonishes Yamuri for not finishing off the American force in the cave.  He tells Yamuri that it is a small force of twenty men, most wounded and would be easily overwhelmed by a frontal assault.  Now it is Yamuri (Katell) trying to convince an officer that bypassing the cave would be prudent.  But the officer accuses him of cowardice or battle fatigue.

As they prepare to storm the cave, the scene shifts back to the American camp in 1945.  But before Katell can get his bearings a messenger announces the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb and orders to suspend hostilities.  After his disorienting experiences Katell seems greatly relieved not to have to pursue the attack he earlier demanded.

As we’ve noted earlier, Rod Serling served in an infantry outfit in the Philippines during WW II.  His disdain for needless loss of human life probably matched the feelings of many men who had served in the war.  The acting in this episode is very good.  I especially enjoyed the characterization of Sgt. Causarano.  His war weary but professional attitude was very appealing.  Dean Stockwell as the Lt. was also good.  Of interest is a cameo as one of the soldiers by Leonard Nimoy in his pre-Spock era.  B+