Noirsville bonus - Twilight Zone ( TV Series (1959–1964)) The Noir Episodes *Update

While watching part of the annual SYFY Twilight Zone marathon found an omission to the pieces I wrote about the Noir Episodes of Twilight Zone so I will include it now here.

The opening of the original series discussing season one. 

"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone." (season one opening narration)

Those of us that were of a certain age in 1959 were entertained by the eerie opening monologue above, illustrated with "Dali-esque" surreal landscapes that were also accompanied by music of Bernard Hermann. I was enthralled. I was also at roughly the same time first introduced to the power of the visual Noir stylistics, not only from the original films of what we now consider Noir's Classic Hollywood Era but the same Noir style in a number of the episodes of the Twilight Zone that closely reflected and built upon the various non Crime genre tangents that Noir exploited in film during the lead up to the 1959-1968 Transitional Noir Era. 

Noir was transitioning/morphing into Neo Noir. With the end of studio "B" film production and the weakening of the Motion Picture Production Code, Classic Noir unraveled. Crime stories were siphoning off to TV.  Poverty Row, Independent, and other low budget film creators were taking more artistic liberties, and making films targeting certain demographics. So those Film Noir that went too far over the line depicting violence started getting classified as Horror, Thriller (even though they were just say, showing the effects of a gunshot wound, or dealing with weird or kinky serial killers, maniacs, and psychotics, etc.). Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) notoriously opened that tangent.

Noir-ish films that delved into the fantastic, were labeled Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Those films that went too far depicting sex, drugs, addictions, torture, juvenile delinquency, etc., in story lines and situations were now being lumped into, or classed as various Exploitation flicks, (even though they are relatively tame comparably to today's films). The noir-ish films that dealt with everything else, except Crime, concerning the human condition were labeled Dramas and Suspense. Those that tried new techniques, lenses, etc., were labeled Experimental films.

A few episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) and more in The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) represented this Transitional Noir Era with it's themes and visuals on television, with almost all the variations listed above except notably sex and violence, and probably reaching far more people than the original (one or two weeks in a theater and then gone) films ever did. Us "Twilight Zone-ers," so to speak, were well schooled in all the possibilities that Noir offered well before the current Film Noir nostalgia fad.

Season One, Episode 9 - aired Nov 27, 1959

Perchance to Dream

Directed by Robert Florey (The Crooked Way (1949). Written by Charles Beaumont. The episode stars Richard Conte (Classic Noir vet) as Edward Hall, John Larch (Classic Noir vet) as Dr. Eliot Rathmann, Suzanne Lloyd as Maya and Eddie Marr as Girlie Barker.

Richard Conte as Edward Hall

John Larch as Dr. Eliot Rathmann

Suzanne Lloyd as Maya

Edward Hall has a problem. He believes that if he falls asleep he dies. He been diagnosed with a bad heart. He's been going on for four days without sleep with the aid of pep pills. At his wits end, he decides to visit the psychiatrist Dr. Eliot Rathmann that he was referred to by his GP doctor. 

Edward tells Rathmann that he dreams in serials that end in cliffhangers. In his first dream he was driving down the highway at night. He gets the uneasy feeling that someone is sitting in the back seat. Soon he see's a woman's face looking at him in the rear view mirror. In another dream he is introduced to Maya a girlie show performer. Maya the Cat girl is a sort of guide to the dreamscape he must negotiate.The dreams progress with increasing peril, and he knows that if he falls asleep this last time he wont wake up. When the doctor asks him to explain the tale goes into a flashback of the dream sequences he's been having. These sequences are wildly stylistic, with dark lighting and  Dutch angles and most have a Carny / Amusement Park theme.

Noirsville

In the totality of Twilight Zone Episodes it's one of the average ones story-wise but Richard Conte gets to do a lot of emoting and his fans will enjoy it. 6-7/10

From IMDB 

Maya the Cat: every man's dangerous theme for a dream

"Perchance to Dream" is most definitely one of the more ambitious, complex and intriguing episodes of "The Twilight Zone" that exist, but unfortunately the atmosphere of mystery and fright is too often undercut by the slow-pacing and rather dull narrative structure. If it weren't for the too many dull moments, "Perchance to Dream" would – at least according to yours truly – be one of the most fabulous episodes of the entire five-season series. Unlike most episodes in the series (as well as 90% of all movies in the world) this tale's biggest trump is unpredictability. We don't know what's troubling the obviously exhausted Edward Hall when he enters the office of psychiatrist Dr. Rathmann. He hasn't slept for 87 hours straight and claims that he will die in case he does fall asleep. Gradually, Edward Hall explains to the shrink that he dreams in chapters and he has strong reasons to believe that the next chapters will be the one of his death. His dreams recurrently feature the irresistibly beautiful but lethal Maya; a cat woman working at the town's fair. The flashback dream sequences are compelling and atmospheric, but also a bit too tedious and repetitive. Richard Conte, star of "The Godfather" but also many terrific Italian Poliziotteschi movies, gives a very intense performance as Edward Hall, but the show is indisputably stolen by the ravishing and ultimately seductive Suzanne Lloyd. Powerful climax, too.