Many episodes of The Twilight Zone had Classic Noir directors, John Brahm twelve Twilight Zone episodes directed The Locket, Hangover Square, and The Lodger, Joseph M. Newman four episodes directed 711 Ocean Drive, The Human Jungle, Dangerous Crossing, Robert Florey three episodes directed The Face Behind the Mask, Danger Signal, and The Crooked Way, Mitchell Leisen three episodes directed No Man of Her Own, Robert Parrish three episodes directed The Mob, and Cry Danger), Stuart Rosenberg three episodes directed (Murder, Inc.), Robert Stevens two episodes directed (The Big Caper), Christian Nyby two episodes, directed SciFi Noir The Thing from Another World), Don Siegel two episodes directed The Verdict, The Big Steal, Private Hell 36, Riot in Cell Block 11, The Lineup, other Noir directors Ralph Nelson (Transitional Noir Once a Thief), Ida Lupino (The Hitch-Hiker) and Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past, The Leopard Man, I Walked with a Zombie and Cat People) each directed one episode.
Many episodes of The Twilight Zone starred Noir vet actors, who nicely provide a cinematic memory links to not only Noir, but also to Transitional Noir, and future Neo Noir. Vaugh Taylor appeared in five episodes, Burgess Meredith appeared in four episodes, Richard Conte, Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Dana Andrews, Richard Basehart, Dan Duryea, Ann Blyth, Lee Marvin, Robert Cummings, Howard Duff, Ted de Corsia, Franchot Tone, Dane Clark, Neville Brand, Jack Elam, Richard Erdman, Jay Adler, Percy Helton, Earl Holliman, Inger Stevens, James Gregory, Anne Francis, Joe Mantell, John Hoyt, Simon Oakland, John McGiver, Martin Landau, Martin Balsam, Thomas Gomez, Jack Warden, Cecil Kellaway, Claude Akins, Ross Martin, Jack Weston, Ivan Dixon, Jesse White, Arlene Martel, Warren Oates, Rod Taylor, Luther Adler, John Carradine, Fred Clark, John McIntire, Keenan Wynn, Jack Carson, Peter Falk, Dean Jagger, Gary Merrill, Agnes Moorehead, Barbara Nichols, Dean Stockwell, Dennis Weaver, Theodore Bikel, Arthur Hunnicutt, Joseph Wiseman, Barbara Baxley, Dennis Hopper, Mickey Rooney, Telly Savalas, James Whitmore, Robert Keith, Nehemiah Persoff, Gig Young, Vera Miles, Everett Sloane, Charles Bronson, Cloris Leachman, Frank Silvera, Murray Hamilton, Martin Milner, Maxine Cooper, R.G. Armstrong, Lee Van Cleef, Dub Taylor, Beverly Garland, and Seymore Cassel, there are probably a few more that I've missed.
Bernard Herrmann composed season one's moody title theme. Other music contributors for the original television show are Jerry Goldsmith, Leonard Rosenman, Nathan Scott, Fred Steiner, Nathan Van Cleave, and Franz Waxman. Avant Guard composer Marius Constant wrote the well-known theme introduced in the second season.
This list is not a greatest hits list of Twilight Zone episodes. Many other episodes of Twilight Zone do have noir-ish sequences but not enough of them to tip Noir for me.
Season 3, Episode 26 - air date 16 Mar. 1962
Little Girl Lost
Surreal Noir
Directed by Paul Stewart. Written by Richard Matheson. Cinematography by George T. Clemens.
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| lt. to rt. Sarah Marshall as Ruth Miller, Robert Sampson, as Chris Miller, Charles Aidman as Bill |
The episode stars Sarah Marshall as Ruth Miller, Robert Sampson (5 Against the House (1955)) as Chris Miller, Charles Aidman as Bill, Tracy Stratford as Tina Miller.
Night. A baby crying. A dog barking. Chris and Ruth sleeping. The crying awakens Chris. His daughter Tina is crying.
Mumbling to Ruth that he'll take care of it, he gets out of bed and walks into Tina's room. He is astonished to find Tina gone. Gone nowhere to be found but he can still hear her crying like she is right there in the room.
Chris gets Ruth up. She is frantic. She calls out to Tina, and Tina cries out Mommy. The dog barks louder. Tina's "mommies" start to sound further and further away.
Chris lets in the dog from the back yard. The dog runs into Tina's room and disappears. Chris calls his neighbor buddy Bill and tells him to come over. Bill observing the phenomena suspects a tear between dimensions. Bill and Chris move Tina's bed out of the way.
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| An invisible hole a tear between dimensions |
Noirsville
A Dali-esque episode 8/10
Season 3, Episode 31 air date 20 April, 1962
The Trade-Ins
Directed by Elliot Silverstein () Written by Rod Serling. Cinematography by George T. Clemens
The episode stars Joseph Schildkraut as John Holt, Noah Keen (A Face in the Crowd (1957), Girl of the Night (1960), as Mr. Vance, Alma Platt as Marie Holt, Theodore Marcuse as Farraday, Edson Stroll as Young John Holt.
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| Joseph Schildkraut as John Holt and Alma Platt as Marie Holt |
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| Noah Keen as Mr. Vance |
The whole episode mostly takes place in a bizarre Noir-ish "show room" of bodies behind glass like insect specimens, waiting to be animated by folks interested in a renewed life. Another sequence at an illegal poker game. The reviews from IMDb will suffice.
John and Marie Holt in their twilight years have come to New Life Corp. to look for a new beginning. John is in constant pain and its mainly for him that Marie has agreed to make this choice. The catch is that for the two of them the price is $10,000 they only have $5,000.
Reviews from IMDb...
Sweet....
MartinHafer13 June 2010
This is an interesting sci-fi episode of the series. In future, the sick and elderly CAN buy all-new bodies--bodies that will allow them to live another 100+ years. Unfortunately for the sweet old couple who star in the show, they can only afford the procedure for one of them...but which one?! The man (the excellent actor Joseph Schildkraut) has an idea. Perhaps he can win the money they need by playing poker--but he's obviously out of his league with these high-stake players. What happens with these cunning sharks is actually very touching--and came as a nice surprise. I'd say more, but to talk about this AND the ensuing procedure would unfortunately spoil the show for you. Suffice to say, it's very, very well done and worth seeing.
To me the best aspect of this show is not the strange plot (which IS good) but the fine acting. Schildkraut, in particular, is very, very good and this is one of the more memorable episodes because it's so very sweet and beautiful. Well worth seeing.
Poignant episode
Woodyanders26 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
An elderly couple decide to replace their old rundown bodies with new young healthy ones. The only problem is that they only have enough money for a single new body.
Director Elliot Silverstein ably crafts a gentle sensitive tone and relates the absorbing story at a steady pace. Joseph Schildkraut delivers an affecting and dignified performance as John Holt, an aging and ailing man who's desperate for a second chance at life. Alma Platt likewise shines as his sweet and devoted wife Marie. Moreover, there are sound supporting contributions from Noah Keen as charismatic salesman Mr. Vance and Theodore Marcuse as cocky, but humane gambler Farraday. Rod Serling's thoughtful script offers a touching meditation on life, death, loyalty, and mortality, with a simply beautiful final statement on the sacrificial nature of love. A wonderful show.
"The Trade-Ins" attains some emotional depth
chuck-reilly1 October 2009
Warning: Spoilers
In 1962's "The Trade-Ins," an elderly couple, played by Joseph Schildkraut and Noah Keen, decide to trade-in their worn-out old bodies for new and younger ones at a futuristic rejuvenation center. At first they're enamored with the sales manager's pitch as he demonstrates the amazing results of the unique transformation process. Unfortunately, the price is far too high for the pair; even with their life savings, they can only afford ONE rejuvenated body. In desperate need of money so both he and his wife can become young again, Schildkraut enters a high-stakes poker game and tries to gamble his way into a fortune. Alas, he ends up lucky to leave the game with the cash he brought. Schildkraut's understanding wife then suggests that he should be the one to undergo the process while she remains the same. He agrees to do it, but despite his excitement when he gets his new body, the look on his wife's face sends him crashing back to reality. He then turns in his new body for his former one. Growing old together turns out to be the real blessing for the couple after all.
"The Trade-Ins," written by creator Rod Serling, tugs at the heartstrings of viewers with its simplicity and eternal message about the human condition. The story also makes a statement about society's over-emphasis and obsession with the "youth culture." Serling obviously believed it was all unnatural; he wrote many other episodes that showed his scorn for all things "skin deep." "The Trade-Ins" was the perfect vehicle for veteran actor Schildkraut; his long and distinguished career first started in silent movies in films like D.W. Griffith's "Orphans of the Storm." Veteran TV heavy Theodore Marcuse is also in the cast, playing against type as a gambler who lets Schildkraut get "off the hook" without taking his hard-earned cash. Marcuse exhibited some depth of character in this episode that he was rarely allowed in other roles. In retrospect, it's a shame that he was always stuck playing the "bad guy." The episode was directed by TV and Twilight Zone veteran Elliot Silverstein who handles the proceedings with his usual professionalism.
Tender, Beautifully Acted Episode
chrstphrtully24 August 2007
An elderly couple (Schildkraut and Platt) visit a company that specializes in substituting their elderly bodies for younger ones, but find they only have the money needed to substitute one of their bodies.
Serling's tender, beautifully written story of love and the sacrifices we make for it relies less on the sci-fi gimmick than on the exquisite relationship developed between the couple. The husband is wracked with pain, but possessed of a quiet, unflailing dignity and deep, rich love of his wife; Schildkraut's touching work does the part full justice, his gentle personality serving as the perfect defense against the ravages against his body. The wife, incredibly patient and possessed of the same dignity and love, is beautifully played by Platt -- the two do not seem like actors playing a long-married couple, but a couple that really have lived with and loved each other for half a century. The final twist is less a twist, than a wholly believable act growing out of the love these two people share for one another.
Additional mention must made of Theodore Marcuse's performance as a gambler that Schildkraut's character goes to, hoping to win enough money to pay for both substitutions. Rather than play the character as a cipher or a venal shark, Marcuse adds subtle strokes to the performance that make him far more interesting; his idle humming and expression at the end of the card game gives more insight into his character than pages of dialogue ever could.
All in all, one of the series' most charming and beautifully played episodes.
Season 3, Episode 33 air day May 4, 1962
The Dummy
Bizarre Noir
Directed by Abner Biberman (The Price of Fear (1956), Behind the High Wall (1956), The Night Runner (1957)), written by Rod Serling based on a story by Lee Polk. Cinematography by George T. Clemens.
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| Cliff Robertson as Jerry Etherson |
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| Frank Sutton as Frank |
The episode stars Cliff Robertson as Jerry Etherson, Frank Sutton as Frank, George Murdock as Willie,John Harmon as Georgie, Sandra Warner as Noreen, Ralph Manza as Doorkeeper, Rudy Dolan as Emcee, Bethelynn Grey and Edy Williams as Chorus Girls.
Applause! It's a popular act. As we pan the cigarette smoke and our appreciative audience we come at last across our host and creator of this universe. Rod Serling.
He's seated at a lap lit table. The fiberglass shade has a laydown lazy "S" designed cutout. Mid-Century I think, with a brass base. Rod points and tells us....
Rod Serling; You're watching a ventriloquist named Jerry Etherson, a voice thrower par excellent, his alter ego, is sitting on top his lap, is a brash stick of kindling, with the sobriquet Willie. In a moment Mr. Etherson and his knotty pine partner will be booked into one of the out of the way bistros. That small dark intimate place known as The Twilight Zone.
The act finishes. Jerry and Willie go through the curtain. Willie bites Jerrys hand. They pass the next act a Roaring 20s girlie show routine. In the dressing room. Jerry looks at his hand and sees wooden teeth bite marks. WTF?
There's a nice noir-ist staple. This one is a shot of a dressing table, two mirrors, and three views of a confused and baffled Jerry as he is seated in front of it with Willie reflected in the center. When Jerry notices Willie "watching" him. He spins around in his seat. But Willis head is now facing the other way.
Before he can react, Frank the manager comes into the dressing room. Mentioning that it was a small crowd but a happy one he spins Willies head as he passes the dummy. Jerry tells him not to do that.
Then Frank spots the Golden Delight bottle and blows a fuse. Jerry had told him he was off the sauce.
Frank tells Jerry that he doesn't know why he puts up with it. Maybe, he says he has a soft spot in his heart for people who like to commit suicide eight hours a day. It doesn't have to be this way. You give into some bad hooch and you have bad nightmares, it's a simple as that take away the hooch and you take away the nightmares.
Jerry tells Frank that he's got the chronology wrong, its first the nightmares then the hooch. Jerry tells him the shrink called it schizophrenia. Jerry insists though that Willie is alive and not in his schizophrenic imagination.
Frank thinks he's a dipso nut job.
Frank tells him he used to believe in him as a talent but now he's just self indulgent sot with an overactive imagination. He tells him the only thing he likes better that scotch is sympathy. Frank give him 24 hours to straighten himself out.
Jerry again tells Frank that Willie is alive. "Willie is not a dummy." Jerry reaches down and pulls another dummy out of his trunk Goofy. "This is a dummy." Then Jerry thinks that's the answer, he can do a new routine with Goofy.
When Frank leaves Jerry and Goofy do a routine in front of the mirror. Behind their reflection we see Willie watching. When Jerry turns around Willie winks at him. Jerry flings the small mirror and we get another nice shot of a cracked mirror reflecting the face of Willie.
So Jerry locks Willie in the trunk and does the new act with Goofy. It all goes Noirsville when after the show as Jerry the leaves for the night carrying Goofy, he starts to hear Willie talking to him.
He grabs and gropes Noreen out desperation trying to cling to reality. She goes off screaming into the night.
Noirsville
Cliff Robertson is very convincing as schizoid Jerry and Frank Sutton does a great job as the club manager. 10/10
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Season 4
The fourth season of Twilight Zone had the episodes at 51 minutes long.
"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone." (season four & five narration)
Season 4, Episode 1 air date January 3, 1963
In His Image
Existentialist - Replicant Noir before Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
Directed by Perry Lafferty written by Charles Beaumont. Cinematography was by George T. Clemens.
Charles Beaumont was the pseudonym for Charles Leroy Nutt, a Chiagoan occasionally writting under pseudonyms Charles McNutt and E.T. Beaumont.
"...Beaumont was a dynamic and imaginative author and screenwriter of macabre, cautionary tales -- frequently tinged with black humour -- blending the genres of science-fiction, fantasy and horror. With the sole exception of Rod Serling, he was the single most important creative force in the early years of The Twilight Zone (1959), responsible for many classic episodes, including "Perchance to Dream" (adapted from his original story, first published in 'Playboy' magazine in November 1958), "Printer's Devil" (from "The Devil, You Say?", his very first story, published in 'Amazing Stories', January 1951), "The Jungle" ('If' magazine, December 1954) and "In His Image." (from IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis)
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| Gail Kobe as Jessica Connelly and George Grizzard as Alan Talbot |
This episode stars George Grizzard as Alan Talbot / Walter Ryder, Jr., Gail Kobe as Jessica Connelly, Katherine Squire as The Old Woman (as Katharine Squire), Wallace Rooney as Man, George Petrie as Driver, James Seay as Sheriff, Jamie Forster as Hotel Clerk, and Sherry Granato as Girl.
Story
Dark. Early Morning. New York City. 28th Street. Chesterton Hotel. A night shift custodian is hosing down the sidewalk. Out steps Alan Talbot. Light sport coat. No tie. He pauses by the lobby window to check his watch. He walks into a subway kiosk and drops down under the streets.
She's getting worked up. Starts a preachifying. Alan turns away. She's a coat puller. A religious nut job getting wound up, screaming her halleluiahs heavenward.
She stops suddenly and asks Alan
The Old Woman: Do you read the book?
Alan: What book is that?
The Old Woman: Why the good book!
Alan: Oh yes [nodding his head] All the time, [looking down the tunnel]
The Old Woman: You sure you're telling the truth now? We maybe a mile underground but he ears every word.
Alan: Yes it's the truth.
Alan runs out of the station and up the stairs to the street.
Narrator: What you have just witnessed could be the end of a particularly terrifying nightmare. It isn't - it's the beginning. Although Alan Talbot doesn't know it, he's about to enter a strange new world, too incredible to be real, too real to be a dream. It's called The Twilight Zone.
A large apartment. Jessica Connelly. Roasting a picnic chicken for her wedding by some boondocks justice of peace, in Alans home town of Couerville followed by a honeymoon at hot sheet hideaway motel. Doorbell rings.
A dead bolt and a sliding chain lock on door. No peephole. Jessica opens the door as far as the chain will let her. It's Alan.
Alan and Jessica hug and kiss. Its a long kiss. Jessica backs off, telling Alan that there are lines I told you I did not cross. Could she be virginal or just picky? Alans tells her he knows he got to wait until after they get married but he just lost his self control. Quaint times back then in TV land. Any way she's only known Alan for four days. She's horney. She's been paying go and stop too long and her hormones are in overdrive all she's got to do is bring Alan in for the landing.
Anyway Jessica asks Alan why he's forty-five minutes late. He doesn't understand. She lets it go.
1960 Ford Galaxie Sunliner. Tailfins. Alain sleeps. Jessica drives. Alain talks in his sleep. He keeps saying Walter and that it isn't right and send me back. Jessica concerned pulls over. She wakes him. Asks who Walter is? He tells her it's his brother, and that it's a tragic situation and that they keep him locked in the cellar. He's joking.
When they get to Coeurville it starts going Noirsville when the things Alain tells Jessica about the various places in town turn out to be off, or have changed inexplicably in the one week he has been in New York City.
Jessica nervously asks Alain if they could just have a little quick one before she's got to meet the gang. He tells her there is no gang just Aunt Mildred and besides there are no bars in Coeurville. They go for a coffee instead at the hotel restaurant but there isn't one there, and there never was one.
So they decide to drive to Aunt Mildred's. Alan tries his key. it won't work. He bangs on the door hard and a strange man opens it who tells him there is no Aunt Mildred here and that he's lived there for nine years. The man tells Alain to get off his property or he'll all the sheriff. He slams the door in Alain's face. Alain turns away and begins to hear the strange whirring again.
Alan troops over to Mrs. Cook's the neighbor. There a young girl tells Alain and Jessica that Mrs. Cook died three years ago.
They go to the university where Alain supposedly works. Its a bare field behind a fence. He points out the nonexistent four story building where he works. Jessica starts to wonder about Alain's sanity. A four day whirlwind romance with a loony. Even Alain thinks he's nuts after there are no records of himself ever existed.
On their way back to the city, after Jessica suggests he go see a shrink, Alan tells her to stop the car. He hears a voice say Kill Kill Kill. He runs off into the woods and grabs a rock. First he calls out for Jessica to come hold his hand but then, remembering the old lady in the subway warns her off. He tells her to drive back to the city without him. He starts loping towards the car, rock in hand. She drives away in time.
While Alain is standing in the road he gets hit a glancing blow by a passing car. Alain is clutching his right arm. The driver asks him if he's hurt bad. When Alain stumbles over to the cars headlights to look at his wound he gets the big surprise.
Noirsville
Good performances all around and some actual NYC subway footage of a train I used to ride fyi. 8/10
Season 4, Episode 4, January 24. 1963
He's Alive
Neo Nazi Noir
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg written by Rod Serling. Cinematography was by George T. Clemens.
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| Dennis Hopper as Peter Vollmer |
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| Ludwig Donath as Ernst Ganz |
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| Jay Adler as Gibbons |
The episode stars Dennis Hopper as Peter Vollmer, Ludwig Donath as Ernst Ganz, Paul Mazursky as Frank, Howard Caine as Nick, Barnaby Hale as Stanley, Jay Adler as Gibbons, Wolfe Barzell as Proprietor, Bernard Fein as Heckler, and Curt Conway as Adolf Hitler
Night. A Fire Escape. Temperature high 90s. An Old Man and his cat. Sweltering. We hear voice. Down on the sidewalk a tin pot fascist Peter Vollmer, drones. He standing on a ladder. A single torch burns to one side a four man phalanx protects the speaker.
A small crowd jeers at him. He talks about the yellow man, the black man, the Pope, Hispanics and other foreigners. A small fight breaks out, the Nazis wannabe's get beat up, the cops show, and the crowd scatters.
Narrator: Portrait of a bush-league führer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors, he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. The something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon, he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment, Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called The Twilight Zone.
Ernst says sure the same lounge set is there like it always is. Ernst tells him he knows about the hate he pedals. That hate Ernst tells Peter sent him Dachau for nine years. Sent there by a loud Peter Vollmer and the result was twelve million bodies in shallow graves, and it all started with young men in uniforms shouting on street corners.
The man instructs Peter in how to move a mob. "Speak to them as if you were a member of the mob. Speak to them in their language on their level." "Their hate, your hate. If they are poor talk to them of poverty." "If they are afraid, talk to them of their fears." "And if they are angry, give the objects for their anger." "Most important make the mob and extension of yourself."
Use slogans and lines like "They call us hate mongers They say we are prejudiced. They say we are biased. They say we hate minorities. But we are the minority"
The shadow man's instructions make a success of Vollmer.
But it starts to go Noirsville when the shadow man declares that the movement needs an expedient, a martyr. But you Peter must choose the martyr. Someone who has no value alive, make him into a symbol wrap him in a flag. Make his death work for you. They find Nick dead the next day with a note pinned to his uniform "A Good Nazi."
Noirsville
Dennis Hopper and Ludwig Donath are compelling. Jay Adler is great in a cameo as the meeting hall owner who just wants his money. 710
To be continued. . .
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