The Twilight Zone ( TV Series (1959–1964)) -- The Noir Episodes (Part 6)

 

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.

S4, Ep11 14 Mar. 1963 

The Parallel

Parallel Time Noir

Directed by Alan Crosland Jr. Writing Credits Rod Serling

The episode stars Steve Forrest as Major Robert "Bob" Gaines, Jacqueline Scott as Helen Gaines, Frank Aletter as Colonel William Connacher, Paul Comi as Psychiatrist, Shari Lee Bernath  as Maggie Gaines, Morgan Jones as Captain, William Sargent as The Project Manager, and Philip Abbott as General Stanley Eaton.

Steve Forrest as Major Robert "Bob" Gaines

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Jacqueline Scott as Helen Gaines

Shari Lee Bernath as Maggie Gaines

Bob Gaines. Married to Helen. Has a daughter, Maggie. Major. Air Force. Astronaut. 

Night of launch. Helen and Maggie can't sleep. They get up and watch the early morning countdown.

Blast off! All goes well until it doesn't. On fifteenth orbit Ground Control looses communication and all radar contact.

Ground Control to Major Bob.

Bob meanwhile hears strange noises and sees a bright light.

Narrator: [Opening Narration] In the vernacular of space, this is T minus one hour, sixty minutes before a human being named Major Robert Gaines is lifted off from the Mother Earth and rocketed into the sky, farther and longer than any man ahead of him. Call this one of the first faltering steps of man to sever the umbilical cord of gravity and stretch out a fingertip toward an unknown. In a moment, we'll join this astronaut named Gaines and embark on an adventure, because the environs overhead - the stars, the sky, the infinitive space - are all part of a vast question mark known as the Twilight Zone.

We see floating in the darkness a hospital bed.

Bob is in that bed. He wakes up. Surrounded by brass and hospital personnel. Has no memory of anything.

General Stanley Eaton: Just one last question, please. Bob, there's only one way you could head back towards us, just spiral in and head for water. Your spacecraft was found intact, forty six miles from where you were launched, intact Bob, with out a scratch. Now there is no evidence of any damage, not even a dent. Now, Some how, some way, you brought that spacecraft in and you landed her, tell me how? Would you please explain to me how you performed an absolutely impossible act?

Major Robert "Bob" Gaines: I didn't. I had nothing to do with it. I blacked out General. I simply blacked out.

Bob also states that something must have taken over for him. So everything becomes highly classified. Bob thinks that maybe the malfunction is between his ears. His buddy Colonel William "Bill" Connacher tells him to stop talking like that and to sleep it off.

Frank Aletter as Colonel William Connacher

Out in the hallway Eaton asks Bill how could he disappear for six solid hours where nobody in the world could find him?

It starts going weird when Bob, just getting home from the hospital, mentions to Helen, so that's what you did for therapy did while he was gone for the week, put  up a fence. Helen looks at him perplexed and says that it was there when they bought the house.

Other things begin to be different. He never takes sugar in his coffee but his daughter Maggie is ready to put some in his cup. 

She tells him he's different. He is a Colonel instead of a Major. He asks Helen how long has he been a Colonel. She says since last March. Something's wrong. He tells her it must be a delusion, a distortion, like that fence outside the house. When he embraces Helen and gives her a kiss she backs off strangely. Maggie tells him that something's wrong. Helen tells him that he's not the same somehow. 

Bob is despondent he tells Helen that he'll turn himself in for psychological evaluation. The topper (and the twist) is the psychologist tells Helen, General Eaton. and Bill is that he thinks the president of the United States is someone called John Kennedy. 

They start to believe him when the builder of the space capsule tells General Eaton that the capsule that Bob came back in is not the same one they sent off

Noirsville

Good performances by Forrest, Scott, and Bernath with accompanying Noir stylistic cinematography. SciFi Noir. 7/10 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SEASON 5

The fifth season of Twilight Zone had the same intro as season four and episodes were back to half hour in length

"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 5, Episode 1 air date September 27, 1963 

 In Praise of Pip

Drama/Fantasy Noir

Directed by Joseph M. Newman Written by Rod Serling.

This episode stars, Jack Klugman as Max Phillips, Connie Gilchrist as Mrs. Feeney, Bobby Diamond as Pvt. Pip, Bill Mumy as Young Pip, Russell Horton as Georgie Reynold, S. John Launer as Racketeer  Moran and Kreg Martin as Gunman. 

Jack Klugman as Max Phillips

Bobby Diamond as Pvt. Pip

Bill Mumy as Young Pip

Connie Gilchrist as Mrs. Feeney

The Story

Flop, Boarding house. Max Phillips. Bookie. Ubiquitous Amusement Park parasite. Denizen of Coney Island, Ocean Park, Atlantic City, or anyplace, USA. He wakes up screaming from a Vietnam nightmare.

He turns on a nightstand lamp. On a bureau cluttered with a paperback, cologne bottle, hairbrush, Statue of Liberty tchotchke, coffee cup and a racing form, we see framed photos of his son Pip. At ten and as a Army private. 

A knock at the door. Mrs. Feeney. Landlady. Bringing in fresh towels along with a fresh cup of coffee. She hands the cup to Max, switches out the towels and tells him there is a kid downstairs. 

Max asks if there was any mail from Pip. She tells him no, and then spots a pint of booze in an open bureau draw. She tells Max that, "that won't do him any good." Mrs. Feeney leaves the flop.

Soon another knock at the door and Georgie comes in, he tells Max that his horse lost. Complains to Ma that you told me that he ran good on a wet track. Georgie is worried cause he "borrowed" the money from work. Max tells him he's going to jail. 

 

Jump to a fleabag Residence Hotel. Moran is at a table counting up book money. Max stops in to drop off the racketeer's skim. 

Moran tells Max he hasn't seen him in five days. Tells Max that he welched on him with Georgie's $300 bet. Moran opens the door and his muscle drags in Georgie. Moran tells Max that he had to roughen him up. Max's good deed turns sour.

The phone rings its Mrs. Feeney. Moran's gunman hands Max the phone. A telegram. Department of the Army. Max tells Mrs. Feeney to read it. Max hears what she reads and says brokenly, "No." Then he tells her he's alright. 

He hangs up the phone and get up off the couch. He walks to a window and looks down the amusement parks midway. He announces that "Pip is dying. My kid is dying. In a place called South Vietnam. There isn't even supposed to be a war going on there. But my son is dying. Its a laugh, I swear its a laugh" Moran walks over and tells Max that he's sorry.

John Launer as Moran with Max

Max mentions to Moran that he used to take Pip to the amusement park whenever he wasn't too drunk or conning people for you.

Max gabs $300 off the table and tosses it to Georgie, he tells Moran that he should have spit in his eye twenty years ago. The Muscle walks over to block the door, and starts reaching into his jacket for a gun. 

Max pulls out a knife. Max tells The Muscle that if he's reaching for cigarettes don't cause the smoke bothers him, and if he's reaching for a gun he'll cut his heart out before he halfway reaches it and then, he says to Moran, then I'll go to work on you. 

Then Ill go to work on you

The Muscle pulls his gun. Max kicks the table over as the Muscle gets off a shot. It hits Max, but his adrenalin keeps him going and he  slams into the Muscle jabbing him with his knife. Max then Karate chops Moran to the ground and then both Georgie and Ma run out of the room.

Both Georgie and Max flee the hotel. Max mortally wounded staggers to the closed amusement park gate. He begs god for just an hour with Pip.

Juxtaposed with the tableau above are scenes in an army Mash unit of Pip being brought in wounded, being operated on and a final comment by a physician that if Pip can survive the next hour he may have a chance. 

Noirsville

A nice sequence at the amusement park recalls Film Noirs, Woman on the Run, Man in the Dark, and others, also the noir-ish house of mirrors segment in Lady from Shanghai. 

A Fever Dream? Delirium? A Prayer? 10/10 

Season 5 episode 5 air date 25 Oct., 1963

The Last Night of a Jockey

Fantasy Noir lite

Director Joseph M. Newman. Written by Rod Serling. Cinematography by George T. Clemens

Staring Mickey Rooney

This one barely makes the grade. A one time champion now has been jockey named Grady (Mickey Rooney), is on the verge of getting suspended from racing. He's at the point where he's making enough for a flop, stable rent, and eating money for man and beast. 

The racing commission is checking his horse for any doping and investigating into whether he's involved with race fixing. Sort of like the current situation with Medina Spirit who tested positive in 2021 for betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory pain-killing, steroid. A performance enhancer. 

Anyway Grady, faced with the prospect of loosing his livelihood has a serious conversation with himself. Joining in, is his Twilight Zone Guardian "Angle," a genie of the booze bottle.

Grady's one wish is to be big again. Its granted to him, fate's cosmic joke. It's just not in the way he was thinking about it. A noir-ish fairy tale for adults, with a punch line twist.

Noirsville

This is just one long monolog by Rooney that sputters along mostly on site gags a one trick pony with enough style to just get by. A similar setup was used in Nervous Man is a Four Dollar Room, to much better effect. 6/10 

For a superior Serling work with Rooney in an ensemble performance see Requiem For a Heavyweight with Jackie Gleason, Anthony Quinn, Julie Harris, and Madame Spivy,

Season 5, Episode 14 air date January 3. 1964 

You Drive

Supernatural Noir

Directed by John Brahm  (The Brasher Doubloon (1947), The Locket (1946) Hangover Square (1945) The Lodger (1944)) Written by Earl Hamner Jr. Cinematography was  by George T. Clemens, and Music by Jerry Goldsmith.

Starring Edward Andrews (The Phenix City Story (1955), The Harder They Fall (1956), The Tattered Dress (1957), Elmer Gantry (1960), as Oliver Pope, Helen Westcott (Flaxy Martin (1949), Backfire (1950), Whirlpool (1950), Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)), as Lillian Pope, Kevin Hagen as Pete Radcliff, Totty Ames as John Hanek as Policeman.

In 1954, Earl Hamner wrote "Hit and Run," an episode of the legal drama Justice. He replicated that story in You Drive. You Drive and possibly Twilight Zone's  A Thing About Machines (1960) (written by Rod Serling), are both probably the precursors to both Steven Spielberg's TV movie Duel (1971) and Steven King's Christine (1983) both films about haunted vehicles. 

The Story

Rainy day. Early evening. Oliver Pope. Middle management. Distractedly driving home from work. At a suburban intersection, Oliver cuts a corner. He hits a newspaper boy on his bike. Oliver starts to drive away, but he stops. Oliver gets out walks back to gawk at the boy and the bent bike. Panicking, Oliver runs back to his car and drives off. A woman who witnessed the hit and run runs to the accident sense. She screams for Oliver to stop. Oliver speeds off. 

Edward Andrews as Oliver Pope

Narrator: Portrait of a nervous man: Oliver Pope by name, office manager by profession. A man beset by life's problems: his job, his salary, the competition to get ahead. Obviously, Mr. Pope's mind is not on his driving... Oliver Pope, businessman-turned killer, on a rain-soaked street in the early evening of just another day during just another drive home from the office. The victim, a kid on a bicycle, lying injured, near death. But Mr. Pope hasn't time for the victim, his only concern is for himself. Oliver Pope, hit-and-run driver, just arrived at a crossroad in his life, and he's chosen the wrong turn. The hit occurred in the world he knows, but the run will lead him straight into - the Twilight Zone.

When Oliver arrives at his home he is visibly upset but mentions nothing to his wife. His conscious bothers him a bit to make him uncomfortable but his 1956 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan is another thing entirely.

Noirsville

Helen Westcott as Lillian Pope

Kevin Hagen as Pete Radcliff

Narrator: All persons attempting to conceal criminal acts involving their cars are hereby warned: check first to see that underneath that chrome there does not lie a conscience, especially if you're driving along a rain-soaked highway in the Twilight Zone.. 

A lot of on location Culver City in the rain sequences are a highlight. 7/10.

So in conclusion for me, 29 episodes or about 18.5% of the 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone had enough of the visual and story elements to tip them Noir for me. I tend to give the visual elements more weight. There were a few more that were just on the cusp. 

There are even more episodes that do have additional short visually Noir-ish sequences included and if the story told in the episode is subjectively dark enough for the viewer (the darkness is within the characters), then of course, it can also tip story-wise Noir for them. 

Twilight Zone as a series to this 7 year old in 1959, was a wonderment. I first saw it on a spring Friday night. No school the next day so us kids would be playing tag out in the streets. The adults were all socializing outside keeping an eye on us, but it was usually around 9:30PM when we'd be all told to go inside. So we watched TV and it always was The Twilight Zone, until the folks finally told us to go to bed. Twilight Zone aired at 10PM (EST).

This was a satiric anthology series that was smarter, darker, and "noir-er" (I'd bet hardly anyone in the US was familiar with the term noir in 1959) than most of the entertainment fare available on the tube to me.  Hollywood was shedding its B units, the artists and studio craftsmen were either retiring or segueing into Independent films or Television productions. The episodes exposed a gritty reality to us in a SciFi/Supernatural/Fantasy and occasionally Noir-ish tilted world. Something different, magical,  intelligent, and intriguing to think about as we fell asleep. 

Rod Serling admitted that several of the episodes - including some of his own - could have been better, saying "I guess a third of the shows are pretty damned good. Another third are passable. Another third are dogs".