The Twilight Zone - Printer's Devil

***/****

Burgess Meredith had up until Printer’s Devil primarily been memorable for his everyman characters we could have sympathy for on the Twilight Zone. Most of them are victims of circumstance, mistreated by events seemingly beyond his control or because of fate’s mishandling of him. But as “Mr. Smith”, Meredith gets to operate with that demonic twinkle in his eye, Cheshire cat grin, mischievous smiling face, and snarling puff-puff-puff on a well-bent cigar as Ole Scratch. Later Meredith would return to the Devil (for me, most memorably in the Amicus omnibus treat, Torture Garden), but in Printer’s Devil I think his introduction to the series’ regular (I just recently watched that fetching, delish Newmar take a crack at the Devil in Of Late I Think of Cliffordville) was especially a delight. Seriously, in Printer’s Devil, Meredith appears to be having the time of his life. He’s not losing his glasses, getting belittled by Don Rickles, or blown up because he reads books so for Meredith this is probably the role on the Twilight Zone that actually treats him with kid gloves! To me, there’s no doubt Meredith is the whole show. Oh, the work of Robert Sterling and Pat Crowley as the editor of a failing, fledgling paper and secretary respectively are quite good as the dramatic chess pieces Smith orchestrates around the board to his own amusement, but Meredith just has the time of his life and it is too fun to watch.

Sterling is Douglas Winter, the down-on-his-luck editor of The Courier, in debt and nearly defeated by a monster paper, The Gazette, that has financial resources and prestigious backing he just doesn’t have available to him. When he loses his linotype operator to the competition, Winter realizes he’s about finished, deciding to possibly take a dive off a bridge in order to spare himself any more disappointment in career and life. He does meet seemingly a godsend (yes, the irony) named Mr. Smith who wants to come work for him as not only the linotype machine operator but as a reporter (he tells Winter he has the “green nose”). When Smith proves to be a substantially talented linotyping machine, busting out the print with quick fingers that dance across the keys like Mozart on a piano, it does appear to Winter that he has found rescue from the doldrums. But Crowley’s Jackie, loyal to Winter and obviously in love with him, doesn’t trust Smith, considering him suspect, particularly when he seems to find headlines right as they happen, beating the almighty Gazette to the punch. Smith will print up the headlines on his “altered” linotype machine (specifications particular to his needs), present them to Winter and Jackie, and out they go to the public before the Gazette can even catch wind of these “disaster stories”. Soon Smith wants to have a talk with Winter over a deal they need to consider or he’ll leave the Courier to its own devices, once again to fail. A “deal with the devil”, so to speak, as Smith proposes to Winter future success in favor of his immortal soul! Winter doesn’t believe in the devil and this whole “soul bargaining ploy” is considered a joke. But it is no joke…

Of course, the Twilight Zone had used this “Beezlebub bargains” plot in the past, so it is all about how to revamp the formula and keep it from feeling repetitive, same ole/same ole, and similar. Sometimes it is just casting that can take care of that. Each actor that takes on the role of the devil just seems to be having a blast, as if this nefarious, sneaky, opportunistic trickster is the kind of character that allows them to conjure their inner darkside for a bit and let it play. For Meredith, it was a chance to slide into a character that victimizes instead of suffering indignity. His relish as he hits that linotype machine while a man drowns from his fishing boat or a building high rise crumbles conveys a Meredith clearly reveling in the character’s puppetry of disastrous events strictly for headlines. Eventually both Winter and Jackie realize that this price for success isn’t worth it, but that “contract” dictates a heavy burden that Smith certainly plans to capitalize on. That scene where Smith puts this contract before Winter, exploiting his unbelief by assuaging its importance as an eccentric old man’s plaything, is Meredith at his best. Why would Winter consider the contract anything but a farce? That is what Satan anticipates. What Smith doesn’t anticipate is Winter’s wily use of the linotype machine against him…that was a clever bit of escape for Winter. Charles Beaumont really did know how to brew modern industry (competing news) and the supernatural (in this case, the devil) into this unique concoction so suitable for the Twilight Zone.

I personally didn’t find the added length of this fourth season episode as tiresome as usual, mainly because I was enjoying Meredith so much, but also the use of Big Capitalism pummeling the mom and pop local paper made a nice setup for the devil to arrive as some false savior, only lending a helping hand so the whipping boy at the end of his rope could give him what he truly desires in return…the soul of a decent man, desperate and in need of a break. You see Winter going to the liquor bottle to try and drown in his sorrows but even that was difficult due to the running tab he can’t afford to settle. Yet Jackie, so loyal and true, remains right there for him…until he decides Smith is too valuable to lose. As could be expected, Jackie is the centerpiece in Smith and Winter’s ultimate rivalry…how will Winter be able to salvage his own soul and somehow save Jackie’s life when Smith puts his linotype soothsaying machine to use in order to predetermine the fates of them both? It is quite a plot development that gives the ending quite a nice bit of tension. Smith driving the car with Jackie in the passenger seat and the gun left behind for Winter to take action if he wants her to live. Then Beaumont including the ace up his sleeve by allowing Winter to put his own linotype skills to the test. The fourth season doesn’t always necessarily receive much attention as compared to the others but there are gems just the same.