Twilight Zone Companion

by Marc Scott Zicree

  Cast as Denton was Dan Duryea, with whom Houghton had worked on China Smith. Years before, Duryea had made his reputation in films playing thoroughly detestable weasel types. Here he had a chance to play a good guy, and he gave a performance of wisdom, strength, and humility (and believabilityDenton genuinely looks like a man at the bottom of the barrel). Ably supporting him were Jeanne Cooper as a Twilight Zone version of Gunsmokes Miss Kitty, Malcolm Atterbury as Fate, and, as two gunslingers who play key roles in the action, a young (and wonderfully sadistic) Martin Landau and a very young Doug McClure. Allen Reisner, director of The Time Element, skillfully guided this episode away from the cliched and maudlin, and as a result Serlings story emerges as truly poignant.

  One for the Angels

  Written by Rod Serling

  Producer: Buck Houghton

  Director: Robert Parrish

  Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

  Music: stock

  Cast:

  Lew Bookman: Ed Wynn Mr. Death: Murray Hamilton Maggie: Dana Dillaway Truck Driver: Merritt Bohn Doctor: Jay Overholts Little Boy: Mickey Maga

  Street scene: Summer. The present. Man on a sidewalk named Lew Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: pitchman. Lew Bookman, a fixture of the summer, a rather minor component to a hot July, a nondescript, commonplace little man whose life is a treadmill built out of sidewalks. And in just a moment, Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survivalbecause as of three oclock this hot July afternoon hell be stalked by Mr. Death.

  Sidewalk salesman Lew Bookman is confronted by Mr. Death, who informs him that he is to die at midnight. A persuasive man, Bookman succeeds in convincing Death to let him stay on Earth until he has had a chance to do his masterpiece, the Big Pitchone for the angels. But Bookman has no intention of ever making that pitch. Realizing he must now take someone in Bookmans place, Death arranges for a truck to hit Maggie, a neighborhood child. The substitution is proceeding nicely; all that remains is that Death must be in the dying girls room at precisely midnight to claim her. Bookman, determined that Death not take Maggie, makes a pitch so enthralling that Death misses his deadline. The child is saved. Having made his one Big Pitch, Bookman leaves with Mr. Death.

  Lewis J. Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: pitchman. Formerly a fixture of the summer, formerly a rather minor component to a hot July. But, throughout his life, a man beloved by the children, and therefore a most important man. Couldnt happen, you say? Probably not in^most placesbut it did happen in the Twilight Zone.

  Just after college, Serling wrote a teleplay entitled One for the Angels, which was aired on The Storm in Cincinnati and later nationwide on Danger. The plot concerned an unsuccessful sidewalk pitchman who tries to save his two-bit punk brother from a couple of hitmen by giving a pitch so beguiling that they will always be surrounded by a crowd. Serling wanted to write a special Twilight Zone for Ed Wynn and he felt that this character would suit him ideally. So he borrowed the main character and title from the earlier work and wove an entirely new and superior story.

  Director Robert Parrishs problems with this episode have already been discussed, but not those of Wynn. Although the episode was written specifically for him, he seems an odd choice for the role of a fast-talking pitchman, what with his lisp and extremely deliberate way of talking.

  It was exactly what Rod thought he could do, says Buck Houghton. And Ed said, My God, I cant say all those words! Rod said, Well, Ed, just concentrate. This is film, you know. We can stop it and pick it up again.

  Despite Serlings assurances, Wynn was unable to overcome his inadequacies as a fast-talker, and as a result what was intended to be a spellbinding pitch comes across as thoroughly unconvincing. Fortunately, Wynns compensatory strengths as an actor make this a moot point, and One for the Angels emerges as a moving commentary on mortality and self-sacrifice.

  As a concession to Wynns age, all of the episodes night scenes were shot during the day. This was accomplished by pulling tarpaulins over the backlot tenement street, giving the illusion of night. But dont let this give the impression that everyone was bending over backwards for Wynn. On the contrary, it was he who extended himself to the fullest. He was outstanding, says assistant director Edward Denault. He was very prompt, knew his lines. I remember his chair was very close to the camera at all times, so it was never, Ill be in my dressing room, or anything like that. You turned around when you were ready and Ed was sitting right there. He was a real joy to work with, a real pleasure.

  JUDGMENT NIGHT (12/4/59)

  Written by Rod Serling

  Producer: Buck Houghton

  Director: John Brahm

  Director of Photography:George T. Clemens

  Music: stock

  Cast:

  Lanser: Nehemiah Persoff Captain Wilbur: Ben Wright First Officer: Patrick MacNee Lt. Mueller: James Franciscus Mr. Potter: Hugh Sanders Maj. Devereaux: Leslie Bradley Barbara: Diedre Owen Bartender: Kendrick Huxham First Steward: Richard Peel Second Steward: Donald Journeaux Engineer: Barry Bernard Nehemiah Persoff Little Girl: Debbie Joyce

  Her name is the S.S. Queen of Glasgow. Her registry: British. Gross tonnage: five thousand. Age: indeterminate. At this moment shes one day out of Liverpool, her destination New York. Duly recorded on this ships log is the sailing time, course to destination, weather conditions, temperature, longitude and latitude. But what is never recorded in a log is the fear that washes over a deck like fog and ocean spray. Fear like the throbbing strokes of engine pistons, each like a heartbeat, parceling out every hour into breathless minutes of watching, waiting and dreading. For the year is 1942, and this particular ship has lost its convoy. It travels alone like an aged blind thing groping through the unfriendly dark, stalked by unseen periscopes of steel killers. Yes, the Queen of Glasgow is a frightened ship, and she carries with her a premonition of death.

  On board the Glasgow is a German named Carl Lanser, with no memory of how he got there, yet with the feeling that hes met all the passengers somewhere before. Things are made even more mysterious by Lansers certainty that an enemy sub is stalking the ship, and by his premonition that something is going to happen at 1:15 a.m. His fear proves correct: at one-fifteen a U-boat surfaces. Peering through binoculars, Lanser sees that its captain is … himself! The U-boat sinks the helpless freighter, then crew members machine-gun the survivors. Lanser sinks beneath the waters. Later, on board the sub, a lieutenant suggests they might all face damnation for their action. Kapitan Lanser discounts this theorynot realizing that he is, in fact, doomed to relive the sinking of that ship for eternity.

  The S.S. Queen of Glasgow, heading for New York, and the time is 1942. For one man, it is always 1942and this man will ride the ghost of that ship every night for eternity. This is what is meant by paying the fiddler. This is the comeuppance awaiting every man when the ledger of his life is opened and examined, the tally made, and then the reward or the penalty paid. And in the case of Carl Lanser, former Kapitan Lieutenant, Navy of the Third Reich, this is the penalty. This is the justice meted out. This is judgment night in the Twilight Zone

  Judgment Night is a Flying Dutchman variation involving a Nazi submarine commander, persuasively portrayed by Jerusalem-born Nehemiah Persoff. The episode also boasts a pre-Mr. Novak James Franciscus in a bit role as a nervous lieutenant under Persoffs command, demonstrating for all to hear that a convincing German accent is beyond his reach. Numerous sets are employed from The Wreck of the Mary Deare, a film starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston that Metro had just completed. Authentic footage of a U-boat crew in action was convincingly integrated into the film, as well.

  This nautical, fog-enshrouded ghost story, well-written by Serling, was the first episode directed by German-born director John Brahm. Previously, Brahm had directed the movie The Brasher Doubloon, an adaptation of Raymond Chandlers The High Window, as well as The Lodger and Hangover Square, two effectively scary films starring Laird Cregar (Cregars last two films, in fact). It was on the basis of the t
wo Cregar films that Houghton hired Brahm, feeling that the mood he had created in them would be perfect for The Twilight Zone. It was. In all, Brahm would direct twelve episodes for the series, more than any other director.

  Judgment Night marked the first (and only reported) case of censorship on The Twilight Zone. In his original script, Serling had the ships first officer (Patrick MacNee, later the inimitable Mr. Steed of The Avengers) order up a cup of tea to the bridge. General Foods, whose Sanka coffee commercials were sponsoring the show, objected to this reference to what they perceived as a competitor. The line was changed to ordering a tray be sent up. (Its fortunate that apparently no one at General Foods realized that on occasion people will drink water, too, or the episode might have had to take place on dry land!)

  Serling encountered another problem on Judgment Night, albeit a tiny one, regarding the reading of the narration. One of the first lines I had to say was, Next week, we invite you to take a trip on a tramp steamer. And of course I said, Next week, we invite you to take a trip on a stamp treamer. And of course we had to do it over.

  SERLING AS NARRATOR

  Serling had more problems in adjusting to his on-camera role than just stumbling over the occasional word. His last acting had been in college, and it hadnt been to an audience of twenty million. During the first season, Serlings narrations were off-camera, his sole on-camera appearance being at the end of each show to announce next weeks program. During the second season, this role was expanded to include an on-camera appearance at the beginning of every show, as well.

  Rod was a very nervous man before the camera, explains director Lamont Johnson, who would come on the scene during the second season. When he had to do his leadins he would go through absolute hell. He would sweat and sputter and go pale. He was terribly ill at ease in front of the camera.

  Johnson resorted to a number of devious devices in order to relax Serling. Id clown around with him and roll the camera without letting him know and Id say, What was that you said? And he would sort of snap off the thing at me as though, Smart ass, Ill show you. The crew was with me on that; theyd shut up and be quiet, otherwise wed never get a take under those circumstances.

  One director who actually enjoyed and felt challenged in directing Serling was Douglas Heyes. With each new episode he would try to think up a novel and surprising way of introducing Serling into the scene. In The Eye of the Beholder we see the bizarre and distorted silhouette of a figure walking behind a screen. When the figure emerges, it is Serling. In

  Rod Serling introducing Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

  Dust, a weighted bag has a noose fitted around it on a gallows. The trap is sprung, the weight falls and jerks to a halt directly behind Serling. In Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, we see a down-shot of a tiny room looking directly from the ceiling. Serling enters the frameat such an angle that he would have to be standing straight out from one of the walls! (This was accomplished by using rear projection of the room behind Serling.)

  The directors werent the only ones to film Serlings spots. In fact, during the fourth season, producer Herbert Hirschman often took on the assignment. Generally, however, the chore would fall to an assistant director.I remember the first time that I directed him, says assistant director Edward Denault. You know, Rod always talked out of the corner of his mouth, and I felt that that didnt look right for camera and I tried and tried, as nicely as I could, to get him to be relaxed and to get him to deliver in such a way that he would open his mouth, because he also talked through his teeth. And I got to the point where I felt that I was beginning to make him nervous because I was trying to change him. So finally, I said, Rod, youve got to do it the way you feel comfortable. So all I did then was try to put him in a comfortable setting and maybe have him walk from one thing to another if the timing looked right or felt right. And he went ahead and he talked the way he talked and did it, and he always did it the same way and it became a trademark, really.

  Serling said of being chosen to host The Twilight Zone, [They] looked at me and said, Hell, at least hes articulate and he speaks English, so lets use him. Only my laundress knows how frightened I am!

  RICHARD MATHESON

  Appearing on camera wasnt the only new consideration Serling had to deal with on The Twilight Zone. Contractually, he was bound to write eighty percent of the scripts; but since it was his show he had to make certain that the other twenty percent were of the same high quality. For the first time, he had the responsibility of hiring other writers.

  Initially, he decided to try something new. Before we started out on this show of mine, Id been screaming loudly on behalf of new talent. For years, Id been bellowing about how new talent wasnt getting a chance.

  So I opened up the show for unsolicited manuscripts. Come on, fellers, I yelled. Send em in. If you think you have a talent for writing and you know the special demands of this show, lets hear from you.

  I got fourteen thousand manuscripts in the first five days. Of those fourteen thousand, I and members of my staff read about five hundred. And four hundred and ninety-eight of those five hundred were absolute trash; hand-scrawled, laboriously written, therapeutic pieces of writing from sick people. Of the two remaining scripts, both of professional quality, neither fitted the show.

  Obviously, more traditional methods would have to be used to obtain the needed scripts. A screening of the pilot was held, to which established writers were invited. Out of that screening, two writers were selected who, with Serling, provided all but one of the first seasons scripts.

  Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont were men whose work was amazingly similar but who couldnt have been more different as people. Matheson, to this day, is a very private man, soft-spoken, disciplined, very family-oriented. Beaumont, on the other hand, was tremendously outgoigg, energetic, and disorganized. Writer William F. Nolan, co-author of the novel Logans Run and a friend to both, compares the two: Dick was Mr. Dependable, Mr. Resolute, Mr. Solid, Mr. Take-care-of-the-family-on- Sunday, and hes still like that. Chuck was Mr. Will-o-the-wisp. You never even knew if he was in the city or not. He was supposed to be going to dinner with his wife and he was in Chicago or something.

  Yet the two, for all their differences, were very close. Chuck Beaumont was my best friend for many years, says Matheson. We wrote together for a period of time when we first went into television (until we decided that we would do better each going solo) and acted as spurs to each other creatively. I had sold my first collection of short stories before Chuck, which spurred him on to get his first collection. We both went into TV at the same time. We both wrote films in the same period of time. There was competition but only of the friendliest sort. We were not jealous of each other but happy for each others success.

  Richard Burton Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, on February 20, 1926, the son of Norwegian immigrants. Of his early upbringing, Matheson notes that there was little to turn him toward writing. I believe that environment is less a factor than most in the formation of a writer. I dont think I became a writer because my environment made me introspective. I believe I was born to be introspective for various reasons (among them astrological) and therefore reacted to my environment accordingly. I do not feel it is environmental that the first book I borrowed from the library at age seven was a fantasy novel; that my first poems and stories at age seven were of a fantasy nature. In essence, I was born to be a writer, and probably a fantasy writer predominantly.

  Following a childhood in Brooklyn, combat in Germany in World War II (from which experience he wrote his novel The Beardless Warriors), and college at the University of Missouri (majoring in journalism), Matheson emerged determined to have a writing career. But it didnt come easy. After I got out of college, I couldnt get a job on a newspaper or a magazine, he says. Donald Berwick, an editor at Esquire, suggested that I get a night job and work in the daytime since I wanted to write. So I got a night job typing up address plates for magazines at a place my brother ran, then started writing short
stories. Within a few months, I sold Born of Man and Woman.

  Born of Man and Woman appeared in the Summer 1950 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A gruesome yet sensitive story told first person from the viewpoint of a hideously malformed mutant child kept chained in a basement, it gained Matheson instant notoriety and has come to be recognized as a classic of the field. In succeeding years, Matheson gathered extensive credits, selling to most of the major science fiction magazines, as well as writing numerous film and television scripts. Occasionally, these areas of interest overlapped: what initially brought him out to Hollywood was to adapt his novel The Shrinking Man (Fawcett, 1956) into Universals The Incredible Shrinking Man,.Mathesons stories, particularly his horror stories, were remarkably powerful and their effect was considerable. Writer Stephen King says of Matheson, He was the first guy that I ever read who seemed to be doing something that Lovecraft wasnt doing. It wasnt eastern Europe the horror could be in the Seven-Eleven store down the block, or it could be just up the street. Something terrible could be going on even in a G.I. Bill-type ranch development near a college, it could be there as well. And to me, as a kid, that was a revelation, that was extremely exciting. He was putting the horror in places that I could relate to.

  Mathesons approach to writing was one that suited The Twilight Zone perfectly: To me, fantasy at its best (strictly personal, of course) consists of putting in one drop of fantasy into a mixture which is, otherwise, completely factual, realistic. And, once that drop of fantasy has been put into the mixture, I try to forget that I am writing a fantasy and write as realistic a story as I can, recalling, of course, that the springboard has been some offbeat concept.

  The transition to writing for The Twilight Zone went very smoothly. Chuck and I pitched ideas and then started writing scripts, says Matheson. For a long time it was just the two of us and Rod.