The Twilight Zone - Dead Man's Shoes

Poor Nate Bledsoe (Warren Stevens) seizes upon the misfortune of a murdered gangster with a snazzy pair of shoes, body dumped in his alley by a mob associate who wanted all the territory they were operating together. Nate rifles through the gangster’s pockets for any loose change (finding keys) and takes his shoes off his dead feet. Nate has no idea what awaits him after putting those shoes on. It seems the shoes, when on the next person’s feet, returns the “presence” of Dane, the dead gangster, and he wants revenge against Dagget (Richard Devon). Nate tries to shake a couple bums wanting the shoes, as they attempt to either use muscle or manipulation to get them, but Dane emerges. Dane is clearly quite different than Dane. Nate seems quite the weakling as the two bums close in on him, and he could easily be seen as barefoot not long after if Dane hadn’t possessed him. Stevens deserves some credit for alternating two different personalities. But we see very little of Nate, unfortunately. We see him at the very beginning, rambling about with no real purpose. He is first ruffling through a garbage bin, before spotting Dane’s body. After popping on the shoes, Nate is still himself up until a certain point, when Dane takes charge and focuses on his revenge. Returning to his apartment for a good suit and a bit of liquor, Dane’s dame, Wilma (Joan Marshall), questions who this guy is just making himself at home. A gun in hand, Wilma wants answers. But Dane takes off the shoes and Nate “reawakens” perplexed and confused, wondering why he’s in this apartment and this woman he doesn’t know is pointing a gun at him. He is quite nervous and quivery, collapsing into a chair as she tells him to “put on the shoes and get out”.

The creative idea is to see both Nate and Dane. In order to see Nate once more the shoes had to come off. And in order to see Dane confront Dagget the shoes had to go back on Nate’s feet. So it was important to take them off and put them back on in the middle of the episode. Yeah, one might balk at the convenience of this scene and how it is arranged…would those shoes really ever return to his feet once they were off? Of course the flimsy device—the shoes of the dead man returning him to possess the next person wearing them—itself is a bit silly, but the plot plays on the spirit of a victim not just going away until revenge is met, and whatever is used to forward that, whether shoes or literal body parts/organs, causing the personality/memory transference, is of less consequence. The shoes are just that, a plot device. In saying that, I was never quite won over by the episode. I do think Nate gets the shaft in favor of Dane, barely available for us to identify with much. Maybe that is unimportant as he was more or less a vagabond, making his bed wherever possible, but those shoes victimize him. He has no control over what happens to him thanks to Dane. What is Nate’s body to Dane? Dane can just occupy the next vagrant that takes his shoes. Ultimately Nate was taking from the dead and the dead took from him…fate just continued to visit upon Nate misfortune.

Dane eventually convinces Wilma that despite seeing Nate it was him behind the new face. When Dane requests the sugar cube in his drink, Wilma knew he might just be. And when he kisses Wilma, she gradually returns the favor, fully accepting that Dane was in there. So Stevens’ performance has the nuances there to tell us that this body has two people. Dane is clearly a dominant personality while Nate has probably spent some time pushed around and kicked about. Dane’s mission, though, was to get Dagget alone and gun him down in similar fashion…poetic justice, so to speak. But Dagget has hired guns on his payroll, hidden in areas of the office…the perfect setup. Dane wasn’t about to let Nate get gunned down from behind, but couldn’t anticipate the gun behind the bookcase. Dagget is issued a warning from Dane as Nate’s body dies: I’ll keep coming, until I get you!

I think the story has some potential but I'm not sure it should have been wasted on a tired gangster story. We run through the same gangster cliches and the end result is no surprise...one rotter kills another. The exception of Nate being unknowingly involved without any say-so is what sets this episode apart. But a better story certainly might have taken the dead shoes and produced something a bit more original.