Amazon.com video review:
Three episodes dealing with dreams, with two excellent forays into
Zone-ishness and one clunker. Also on the disc are special hidden zones
that contain the isolated music score for each program and a few of the show's
original ads.
"A Stop at Willoughby"
"A Stop at Willoughby" is Rod Serling in top form, using one of his
favorite themes of escaping to a simpler time. James Daly is a businessman
frazzled to the breaking point by an insensitive, demanding wife and a
blubbery plutocrat of a boss who importunes him to "Push! Push! Push!" On
the train ride home, he begins to dream of an idyllic town called
Willoughby, not on the map or train schedule, but perhaps more than just the
stuff of imaginings. Ah, Willoughby! Still relevant after all these years.
"Twenty-Two"
"Twenty-Two" is one of the show's six episodes shot on videotape, but
still achieves a rare degree of eeriness due to its strong concept and
acting. Barbara Nichols stars as a stripper who's checked into a hospital
with nervous exhaustion, where she begins having precognitive dreams about
deadly doings in the hospital's basement, an exotic nurse leading her there with
the foreboding phrase, "Room for one more, honey."
"I Dream of Genie"
"I Dream of Genie" shows the strain of TZ's change from half-hour to
full-hour format. A nebbish accountant (Howard Morris) acquires a
magical lamp whose genie grants him one wish. The only highlight of this
not-too-funny humoresque is the genie, played by veteran character actor
Jack Albertson in a brief cameo, smoking a fat cigar and cracking wise. All
else is drawn-out Walter Mitty-style fantasy sequences of said
nebbish imagining the results of his prospective wish. Oh, and that signpost up
ahead? Boredom. --Jim Gay
Amazon.com video review:
"Static"
Dean Jagger turns in a finely tuned performance as an
aging curmudgeon who eschews the picture tube for the old-time radio. But
the radio in question tunes in only to the past, where Jagger might make
amends for lost opportunities. The fact that Rod Serling repeatedly
revisited this subject matter in episodes like this one and "A Stop at
Willoughby" suggests a deep-seated penchant for romanticism--or that he
was greatly overworked. One of only six episodes shot on
videotape, the downgrade in visual quality lends a chamber-drama quality to the
episode's return-to-simpler-times theme.
"Four O'Clock"
A lone bigot holed up in his little apartment with a
vast card catalog of "subversives" has come up with the answer to all the
"evil" people in the world: At four o'clock he will make them all two feet
tall! Only--as so often happens on TZ--the biter gets bitten and comes up
a little short himself. Theodore Bikel plays the paranoiac with
relish.
"The Parallel"
Bearing a striking resemblance to the classic 1969 film Journey to the Far
Side of the Sun this is one TZ episode that
deals strictly with science fiction, in this case the possibility of
parallel universes. Steve Forrest plays an astronaut returning from a space
mission only to find himself in a world askew, where everything looks the
same but small differences keep cropping up (JFK isn't president, for example).
Space exploration and the depths of the unknown make familiar bedfellows in this
hour-long piece from the fourth season that earns every minute of screen
time. --Jim Gay
Amazon.com video review:
"The Chaser"
Based on a story by John Collier, this comic tale of ill-gotten love features a
spurned lover (George Grizzard) gaining the affections of his phlegmatic
coquette (Patricia Barry) through the agency of a love potion--with not quite
the delightful outcome he had expected. The bookish, wizened dealer in potions
is played with crusty effectiveness by John McIntire.
"The Rip Van Winkle Caper"
A criminal mastermind (Oscar Beregi) and his ruthless accomplice (Simon Oakland)
steal a fortune in gold bullion, then go into suspended animation so they can
enjoy their take a hundred years hence. Only the desert in which they wake up
makes water more precious than gold. Splendidly acted by the two leads, though
the episode's ironies are too easily anticipated.
"The New Exhibit"
This tale of murder and madness stars Martin Balsam as Martin Lombard Senescu,
curator of a wax museum's murderer's row and soon-to-be inheritor of his
charges' indecent fame. When the museum closes, Senescu houses the waxy
simulacra in his air-conditioned basement, and eventually his obsession with the
likenesses of Jack the Ripper and Landru causes them to act out his unconscious
yearnings. Although credited to Charles Beaumont, the script is actually by
science fiction writer Jerry Sohl, one of several friends who ghosted for
Beaumont when he suffered from near-senile dementia toward the end of his life.
As a result, the episode lacks the slick elegance and grim humor that marked
Beaumont's best work, but it is nevertheless funny.
When you stumble onto this disc's hidden features, you'll find isolated music
tracks, original ads, and program bumpers for the three episodes. --Jim
Gay
Amazon.com video review:
"Hocus-Pocus and Frisby"
Cracker-barrel loudmouth and teller of tall tales, Mr. Frisby (Andy Devine) gets
his comeuppance and a real-life tall tale to tell when he's abducted by aliens
who mistake his bragging for the truth. Raspy-voiced Devine is perfect as the
fabricating Frisby. Howard McNear (Floyd the barber from The Andy Griffith
Show) is part of his long-suffering audience.
"Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"
An hour-long--and overlong--episode from the fourth season that mixes a
deal-with-the-Devil story with a yearning to return to a simpler place and time, two
of the series' favorite themes. The corrupt plutocrat Feathersmith (Albert
Salmi) trades his fortune to Satan (Julie Newmar) to return to the place of his
youth, Cliffordville in 1910, where his knowledge of the future should make him
a bigger fat cat than he was before. But the biter-bit ending is a very
predictable turnabout. Notable for Julie Newmar sporting a pair of cute horns
that make her look like Catwoman from TV's Batman.
Mr. Garrity and the Graves"
No one could make the Old West weirder than Rod Serling. Mr. Garrity (John
Dehner) saunters into Happiness, Arizona, one day and claims to be able to
resurrect the dead in this grim comic gem. Only the townsfolk like their dead
where they are. Happiness, Arizona: it's just asking for it.
This disc has a twilight zone of its own, holding hidden features such as
the original ads and program bumpers, and isolated music tracks for the
first two episodes. --Jim Gay
Amazon.com video review:
How's this for a Twilight Zone kind of irony? The movie
version of Rod Serling's landmark sci-fi TV series turns out to be
less memorable than the episodes upon which it was based. Despite the
presence of four of-that-moment directors, the film--based on three TV
episodes and one original idea--is remembered more for its prologue
(starring Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks) and for its offscreen tragedy
(the death of star Vic Morrow and two children when a helicopter
crashed while filming a key scene). Otherwise, the film's high-gloss
production values only serve to mire the old, solid stories. The best
segment of the film centers on John Lithgow as a deliriously
overexcited airline passenger, whose very active fear of flying is
embodied in the gremlin he (and only he) sees on the plane's wing,
wreaking havoc with the film's engine. --Marshall Fine
Amazon.com video review:
Volume 14 of The Twilight Zone on DVD is a wall-to-wall
tribute to series creator Rod Serling. All four TV episodes represented
here are original ideas scripted by Serling himself, with his strengths--and
some of his weaknesses--on display. "One for the Angels" was the second episode broadcast in the series and demonstrates Serling's sentimental streak: an
aging street peddler (former vaudevillian Ed Wynn) is confronted by Death
(Murray Hamilton, bearing a curious resemblance to Serling), but
strikes a clever deal to forestall his demise. Ah, but there's always a
catch... "The Man in the Bottle" is a variation on the old genie-in-a-magic-lamp number, except that this time the elegant genie comes out of an ordinary
wine bottle. Luther Adler plays a bitter antique store owner who learns his
lesson in four short wishes. Not much of an episode, really, but the punch line to the third wish is one of those startling twists that stuck in the collective imagination of Zone fans everywhere. The eerie "Arrival"
indulges Serling's fondness for aviation stories, as a DC-3 pulls into a hangar with not a soul aboard--not even the pilot. Like many of Serling's tales, it
follows the theme of regret, which also hangs heavy in "In Praise of Pip,"
the opening episode of the series' fifth and final broadcast year, 1963.
A two-bit bookie (Jack Klugman) reflects on his wasted life when he learns
that his son is near death on a Vietnam battlefield. Although the episode is
derivative of Serling's previous efforts on the same topic, this one does
provide a glimpse of two actors who appeared frequently on the Zone,
Klugman
and kid actor Billy Mumy. Klugman's anguished aside about Vietnam ("There
isn't even supposed to be a war going on there, and my kid is dying") may
well be American popular culture's first, hesitant questioning of a war
that would soon bloom into a national nightmare. --Robert Horton
Amazon.com video review:
At least one of the episodes collected on volume 15 of The Twilight
Zone DVD
offerings is an all-time classic--if by classic we mean the kind of show
that still produces a shudder of recognition years after viewing. This is
"The Midnight Sun," an apocalyptic tale in which a cosmic event has hurled
the earth toward the sun, sending the thermometer to 120 degrees and the
population into despair. Aside from the twist ending and the attractive
sweating of Lois Nettleton, what's likely to be remembered from this
episode, is the haunting image of an oil painting melting with the heat.
Other episodes in this collection, all scripted by series creator Rod
Serling, emphasize bravura acting. In "Escape Clause," gracefully directed
by Hollywood pro Mitchell Leisen, the whimsical David Wayne plays a
hypochondriac whose anxious life is changed by the arrival of Death
(veteran heavy Thomas Gomez). Soon the indestructible hero is courting exotic ways of
destroying himself, just to alleviate his boredom: "Let's give the
electric chair a little whirl," drawls the blithely curious Wayne. The
claustrophobic
"Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" takes on technical challenges typical
of The Twilight Zone. It never leaves the confines of a tiny, shabby
hotel room and
leading man Joe Mantell plays much of the dialogue with a mirror image of
himself. The point of the episode is somewhat monotonous, but Mantell's
performance, as a loser facing his last chance at decency, is fully juiced.
"A Kind of Stopwatch" shows what happens when a loudmouth pest (Richard
Erdman, the annoying personification of the can-do man with ideas) comes
into possession of a watch that can stop the whole world in mid-motion. Justice eventually is meted out, per the usual scales of The Twilight Zone.
--Robert Horton
Amazon.com video review:
Rod Serling was definitely in the Zone when he penned these two Twilight Zone classics. Attention shoppers! Available for the first time on video, The After Hours stars Anne Francis as a department store shopper who is shocked to be informed that the floor on which she bought a defective item that she wishes to return does not exist. And why does that mannequin bear an eerie resemblance to her missing saleswoman? This video also contains another must-own first-season episode, Time Enough at Last, starring Burgess Meredith in a signature series role as a bespectacled, henpecked bookworm who survives a nuclear blast and finds himself alone at last with his precious books. The ending seems unduly cruel, but it's one that all Zone aficionados rave about when they compare notes (see Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks in Twilight Zone: The Movie). This is the first of three Twilight Zone collectibles: tape 2 contains Living Doll, one of the series' scariest episodes, and the thoughtful Serling-penned gem The Eye of the Beholder. Tape 3 features the alien-in-a-diner puzzler Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up and To Serve Man, which TV Guide rightfully ranked as one of TV's top 100 episodes of all time. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Living Doll, one of The Twilight Zone's scariest episodes, written by Charles Beaumont, stars Telly Savalas as a mean-spirited man who makes a pint-sized enemy in his stepdaughter's new and very protective doll, Talky Tina (June Foray, the venerable Queen of Cartoons, who is best known as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel). He thinks after tossing her in the garbage can that he's seen the last of Tina. But then the telephone rings: "My name is Talky Tina ... and I'm going to kill you." This video also includes one of Rod Serling's best episodes, the thoughtful The Eye of the Beholder, in which unseen plastic surgeons labor intensively to make their desperate female patient look "normal." This is one of three must-own volumes of vintage Twilight Zone episodes released to commemorate this timeless series' 40th anniversary. Tape 1 features the video premiere of The After Hours (the one with the mannequins) and Time Enough at Last starring Burgess Meredith as the post-apocalyptic bookworm. Tape 3 features the alien-in-a-diner puzzler Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up, as well as the signature episode To Serve Man, which TV Guide rightfully ranked as one of TV's top 100 episodes of all time. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com Essentials:
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up is a Rod Serling-penned favorite from The Twilight Zone's second season. Tracks from a frozen pond where a UFO is reported to have landed lead into a diner where stranded travelers wait out a snowstorm. There were six on the bus. Now there are seven, ranging from an oblivious honeymoon couple to an impatient businessman and a grizzled old coot. Which is the Martian? It is a testament to this series' greatness that knowing the fiendishly funny surprise ending does not mar enjoyment of repeat viewings, as witness To Serve Man, the second classic episode included on this video. TV Guide rightfully ranked this as one of TV's top 100 episodes of all time. That's Richard Kiel (Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me) as an ambassador of the Canamites, a race of nine-foot-tall super-evolved aliens who offer to transform Earth into a peaceful Eden. But what do they really have cooked up for us? The episode's title is a macabre clue. This is one of three must-own volumes of vintage Twilight Zone episodes released to commemorate this timeless series' 40th anniversary. Tape 1 features the video premiere of The After Hours (the one with the mannequins) and Time Enough at Last starring Burgess Meredith as the post-apocalyptic bookworm. Tape 2 boasts Rod Serling's The Eye of the Beholder and Living Doll, one of the series' all-time scariest episodes. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
In 1959 Emmy Award-winning playwright Rod Serling transported viewers to "a fifth dimension ... as vast as space and as timeless as infinity ... and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge." It was an area he called The Twilight Zone.
One of television's greatest series (it's still the pop-culture reference point for the weird and bizarre), this series is well represented by this three-tape collection of six classic episodes, three of which are making their video debuts. "The After Hours," on tape 1, stars Anne Francis as a confused shopper who discovers she shares a close bond with the store's mannequins. "Living Doll," on tape 2, is one of the Zone's scariest episodes. Telly Savalas stars as a mean-spirited man who makes a pint-sized enemy in his stepdaughter's new and very protective doll, Talky Tina. "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up," on tape 3, poses the question, Who among the stranded travelers in a remote roadside diner is really an alien?
Also included in this boxed set are three quintessential Zone episodes, the thoughtful "Eye of the Beholder"; "Time Enough at Last," in which a cruel fate awaits post-apocalyptic bookworm Burgess Meredith; and "To Serve Man," in which visiting aliens have something special cooked up for us earthlings. It is a testament to this series' greatness that knowing the surprise endings enhances rather than dulls the enjoyment of repeat viewings. Each tape is also available individually. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Twilight Zone, Vol. 22 kicks off with "A World of Difference," a
memorable episode written by frequent contributor Richard Matheson. The
story gives Howard Duff a rare opportunity to prove his underrated talent,
playing an average businessman who arrives at his office only to discover
that
he's actually an actor on a soundstage. "Back There" is decidedly less
effective, featuring hammy
overacting by Russell Johnson (who would soon be cast as the Professor in
Gilligan's Island) as a man cast backward in time to the day of
Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He can't alter history, so the ending is a
foregone
conclusion, but the segment is noteworthy for its scoring by composer Jerry
Goldsmith, then in the early stages of his stellar career.
"One More Pallbearer" offers a variation on the classic episode "Time
Enough
at Last," combining Rod Serling's concern with nuclear warfare with a
twisted tale of revenge. Joseph Wiseman (best known for playing James Bond
nemesis Dr. No) plays a multimillionaire who devises a simulated nuclear
attack and invites three people who wronged him (a teacher, an Army
colonel,
and a priest) to his bomb shelter to extort them into apologizing. The
twist
on this Serling-penned episode is pure TZ gold, but Wiseman is so
good that his character is unintentionally sympathetic. "Ring-a-Ding
Girl" is a fifth-season curio in which a Hollywood star receives an
unusual ring that
foresees her fateful future. Maggie McNamara is fine as a
faux Audrey Hepburn, but the episode's twist is strictly routine for
TZ fans. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
An above-average edition in the Twilight Zone DVD collection,
Volume 23
begins with "Long Live Walter Jameson," starring Kevin McCarthy as a
Methuselah-like history teacher whose lessons are based on personal
experience--but his secret of longevity is discovered with fateful results.
McCarthy's climactic aging scene marked a milestone in TV makeup effects,
and it's still dramatically effective. The same can't be said for "Dead
Man's Shoes," a typical episode in which a Bowery bum (Warren Stevens)
steals
the shoes off the body of a murdered gangster, and instantly assumes the
dead man's identity, thus assuming his role in a deadly cycle of fate. It
was a good idea in 1962, but the pulpy plot and characters were hokey even
then.
"You Drive" is an enjoyable fifth-season episode starring stalwart
character
actor Edward Andrews as a hit-and-run driver who is relentlessly badgered
by
his driverless car, which honks its horn, chases him, and wreaks havoc with
the man's guilty conscience. A precursor to Stephen King's
Christine,
this offbeat episode offered ample proof that the latter-day Twilight
Zone still had a knack for capitalizing on simple ideas. Likewise "The
Long Morrow" offers a tragic twist on the effects of long-term space
travel.
Removing himself from deep freeze, spacefaring astronaut Robert Lansing
ages normally while his Earthbound lover (Mariette Hartley) awaits his
return in suspended animation. Thanks to some subtle acting by '60s TV
veterans Lansing and Hartley, the episode's payoff is still poignantly
effective; ironically, CBS announced The Twilight Zone's
cancellation
shortly after this episode aired. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
The four episodes included on The Twilight Zone, Vol. 26
focus on characters who inevitably pay a price for their tragic flaws. In "The
Big Tall Wish," an aging boxer (Ivan Dixon, later to costar in TV's Hogan's
Heroes) can't comprehend the influence of a little boy's magical wish that
brought him a surprise victory--a victory that's sacrificed to the fighter's own
cynicism. (The twist is nothing new for TZ fans, but the episode's mostly
black cast was a noteworthy breakthrough for 1960 television.) "Showdown with
Rance McGrew" is an amusing send-up of pampered actors, in this case a
milquetoast TV cowboy whose comeuppance arrives in the form of the real Jesse
James--in a real Western town--whose attitude toward phony cowboys is anything
but tolerant.
Fine performances by Barry Morse and Joan Hackett highlight "A Piano in the
House," in which a sadistic critic uses a magical player piano to expose the
hidden truths of several party guests, only to be himself revealed as more
pathetic than any of his victims. "Night Call" is a classic episode combining
terror and human weakness in the story of an elderly woman (Gladys Cooper) who
receives phone calls from beyond the grave, realizing too late that the caller
might have brought happiness to her final days. When viewed together, these four
episodes demonstrate how The Twilight Zone often recycled themes and
basic plots with admirable ingenuity, thus defining the series' overall mission
as set forth by Rod Serling. Some episodes work better than others, but they all
illuminate the complex faults, foibles, and grand ambitions that make
Twilight Zone characters so timelessly appealing. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
"He's Alive"
Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider, Blue Velvet)
turns in a very powerful and charismatic performance as an
American neo-Nazi, Peter Vollmer, bent on doing what he has to do in order
to get his message of hatemongering across to the public. But there are
some weaknesses in his past that need exorcising, it seems, when a shadowy
Shickelgrüber begins to instruct the fledgling fascist in the ways of
oratory, politics, and self-destruction. This is one of the one-hour
episodes from the fourth season, but it never lags as some of the others do.
Directed ably by Stuart Rosenberg, who went on to direct Cool Hand Luke,
and featuring film director Paul Mazursky as one of the Nazis.
"From Agnes--with Love"
Comical episode starring Wally Cox as a computer programmer in charge of the
world's most powerful electronic computer, Agnes. When the poor egghead's love
life isn't going so hot, Agnes begins giving advice to the lovelorn. Only Agnes
seems to have an ulterior motive. Cox is perfect as the nerdy scientist driven
mad by a computer scorned. Directed by Richard Donner (Superman,
Lethal Weapon).
"Spur of the Moment"
Beautifully told gothic horror tale written by Richard Matheson, who wrote a
total of 14 Twilight Zone episodes. Whether one can change one's own past
is the theme of this one. Out horseback riding, young Anne is chased by a
black-clad figure (also on horseback), who lets out a bloodcurdling screech. The
figure is Anne in her decrepit future, doomed to chase her younger self with a
warning that will never be heard. --Jim Gay
Amazon.com video review:
Volume 20 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection opens with "Elegy," a
first-season episode in which three astronauts are forced to land on an
Earthlike asteroid where all of the people seem frozen in time. The only
exception is an elderly "caretaker" (Cecil Kellaway), who explains that the
asteroid is actually a cemetery where the dead are posed in the posthumous
fulfillment of their fondest wishes. This was the third episode written by
the prolific TZ contributor Charles Beaumont, and it ends with the
requisite twist.
"The Thirty-Fathom Grave" is from the fourth season,
when episodes were expanded to one-hour length. The cast includes such TV
stalwarts as Simon
Oakland and Bill Bixby, but the standout is Mike Kellin, who plays Chief
Bell, a crewman on a present-day Navy destroyer who's haunted by visions of
crewmates who drowned in a World War II submarine 20 years earlier. When the destroyer investigates a mysterious
noise heard from inside the derelict sub, Bell suffers a nervous
breakdown, and it remains unclear whether the submarine specters were real
or figments of Bell's survivor-guilt-ridden imagination. Although it
suffers from slow pacing, the episode is redeemed by Kellin's intense
performance.
"A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" is a fifth-season entry starring
Patrick O'Neal as the aging husband of a ruthless gold digger (Ruta Lee).
He's hopelessly in love with this unbearable harridan (a dreadful lapse of
dramatic logic), so he begs his scientist brother to be the first human to
test a dangerous youth serum. The potion works too well, however, and the
shrewish wife gets an unexpected comeuppance that's as deserved as it is
dramatically unsatisfying. It's far from a classic episode, but TZ
collectors take note: this is one of the few episodes to be withheld from
syndication, so it's a relative rarity. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
Volume 21 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection is a real keeper,
beginning with "Mirror Image," a classic first-season episode starring Vera
Miles as a woman whose
sense of reality is shattered when she encounters her exact double in a bus
station. Her fear of being "replaced" reaches a fever pitch, despite the
efforts of a fellow passenger (Martin Milner) to calm her frenzied nerves.
As the woman is taken away for psychiatric examination, her terror turns
out
to be entirely justified--emphasizing paranoia as one of Rod Serling's
favored themes. The second-season entry "Dust" is pale by comparison--a
lethargic tale of magic in the Old West that redeems a man about to be
hanged for drunkenly running over a little girl with his wagon. He's saved
from the noose by a bit of "magic dust," but the true pardon has come, of
course, from the Twilight Zone.
"Five Characters in Search of an Exit," scripted by Serling, is a
third-season highlight in which the titular characters--clown, hobo, ballet
dancer, bagpiper, and army major--are trapped in a giant cylinder, with no
understanding of how they got there. The truth provides the kind of O. Henry
twist that was Serling's specialty, and the performances by William Windom
and Murray Matheson (as the belligerent major and carefree clown,
respectively) offer a delightful study in dramatic contrast. Finally,
"Ninety Years Without Slumbering" is a casualty from TZ's fifth
season--a badly rewritten story (originally scripted by acclaimed series
contributor George Clayton Johnson) starring veteran screen comedian Ed
Wynn as an old man who's convinced he will die if his treasured grandfather
clock ceases to tick. Robbed of its dramatic impact by a soft ending that
compromises Clayton's original idea, the episode remains entertaining on
the strength of Wynn's endearing performance. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
"Cavender Is Coming"
Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling fashioned this episode as a pilot for a possible series about a guardian angel (jowly veteran Jesse White) who must earn his wings by aiding a hapless human. It is abundantly clear why this premise did not take flight, for this was one of Serling's typically lumpish flings at comedy. The only source of interest is Carol Burnett, cast as a klutz who can't keep a job. This one's a virtual remake of an earlier Zone episode, "Mr. Bevis."
"Passage on the Lady Anne"
An hour-long episode from the fourth season, with Joyce Van Patten and Lee Philips as a couple trying to save their sour marriage via a transatlantic cruise. All the other passengers just happen to be extremely elderly; no points for guessing the Lady Anne might be on her way to an otherworldly port. A familiar but appealing set-up, with gobs of foggy atmosphere and a fun supporting cast (including mischievous Wilfrid Hyde-White). The businessman husband is yet another opportunity for TZ to criticize its era's obsession with material success and the Organization Man.
"The Brain Center at Whipple's"
Produced near the end of the series' run, this episode is out of gas. Richard Deacon, a comic actor with a pronounced resemblance to a large bald penguin (and a cherished mainstay of The Dick Van Dyke Show), plays a company executive who decides to replace his workers with computers. The payoff is entirely predictable, although sci-fi fans will be pleased by the "actor" who appears in the final shot. --Robert Horton
Amazon.com video review:
Anyone wishing to collect the best of The Twilight Zone would
find
this DVD a
splendid place to begin. Four episodes from Rod Serling's epochal fantasy
TV
series are represented here; three of them are Zone masterpieces,
and the
other is an eerie time-travel goof. Two of the best are Serling scripts
from
the show's first season, 1959-60: "Time Enough at Last" and "The Monsters
Are Due on Maple Street," both examples of Serling's taste for irony and
social comment. In "Time Enough," Burgess Meredith plays a bookworm who
survives a nuclear holocaust, an episode memorable not merely for its
gotcha
ending but for the way it demonstrates how good pulp fiction creates a
portrait of its society--in this case, a caustic portrait. That view is
also
on display in "Monsters," in which neighbors on a white-picket-fence street
turn against each other in a paranoid witch hunt--possibly Serling's
comment
on the Hollywood blacklist, possibly a more general parable about lynch-mob
mentality. The other gem is "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," a delicious example
of
scriptwriter Richard Matheson's ability to take a simple idea and spin a
classic. Airline passenger William Shatner becomes convinced that a gremlin
is messing about on the wing of his jetliner---but nobody else sees the
creature (whose cheesy makeup is the only mark against this episode).
Years
later, "Nightmare" was remade by director George Miller as part of
Twilight
Zone: The Movie. Finally, "The Odyssey of Flight 33" stays in flight,
as
a
Boeing 707 goes off course... way, way off course. The special effects are
extremely modest, but like most Twilight Zone installments, the
ideas still
tantalize. --Robert Horton
Amazon.com video review:
From the tinkling avante-garde drone of the opening theme, The
Twilight Zone promises a journey into the unknown. The mix of science
fiction, the macabre, and O. Henry twists compel viewers to this day, and
decades after Rod Serling's acclaimed CBS-TV series left the air it
remains one of the great cult
classics of all time. Treasures of the Twilight Zone presents a
collection of
rarities that were frequently excluded from the show's syndication package.
The pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?" stars Earl Holliman
wandering through an empty ghost town seeking someone, anyone, to break his
isolation. The volatile, edgy study in racism, "The Encounter," with Neville
Brand and George Takei was pulled from syndication after its initial
showing. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the show's memorable swan
song, was the only episode created outside of Serling's production company
and his creative control, an award-winning short film from France by Robert
Enrico. The
real treasures of this Twilight Zone DVD, however, remain two of its
compelling supplements. A thoughtful 1959 interview with Rod Serling (from
the TV show The Mike Wallace Interview) cuts through the usual small talk
to get to the business of writing for TV, from the creative process to
commercial compromises and sponsor-driven censorship, and the original
"pitch" film made for sponsors features Rod Serling using simple props in
brilliantly inventive ways to explain his vision for the series. --Sean
Axmaker
Amazon.com video review:
The second collection of Twilight Zone "Treasures" features three
quintessential examples of the show at its metaphorical, ironic best,
allegories and morality plays disguised as thrillers and science fiction
tales. "The Masks" (directed by Ida Lupino) stars Robert Keith as a dying
patriarch with a death-bed Mardi Gras surprise for his petty family. John
Carradine stars as a secretive monk with a mysterious prisoner locked in
his
hidden monastery in "The Howling Man." "Eye of the Beholder" is perhaps the
most famous episode of the series, played almost completely in a twilight
fog as the camera takes a behind-the-bandages view of a recovering plastic
surgery patient until the startling revelation at the conclusion.
Panasonic's package features the same supplements as the first
Treasures
collection, most notably a TV interview with Rod Serling conducted by Mike
Wallace and an industrial film starring Serling to "pitch" potential
advertisers for the in-production series, both from 1959. In addition a
number of brief text presentations (taken from Mark Scott Zicree's
definitive book The Twilight Zone
Companion) offer historical
background on the series
and the individual episodes. The menu is designed around the floating
eyeball from the series's credits sequence--just roll the gazing eyeball
around to the item
of your choice! --Sean Axmaker
