Boris Karloff Hosts Thriller - The Twisted Image

Businessman, Alan Patterson, fails to realize until it is too late that a female employee just starting at his firm, smitten with him, and a male mailroom employee, who has been taking items inside the building, are both desiring something from him. Lily wants to be with him romantically and Merle wants to just be him. Meanwhile, Alan's wife starts to grow more suspicious of possible infidelity while he insists that nothing of an affair ever took place, that Lily fails to accept that he's happily married with a daughter. Matters get worse when Merle keeps tabs on Alan, later pursuing Lily. Even worse, Merle's sister visits, instigating further mental deterioration.

I must admit that “The Twisted Image” plays so much like a Lifetime psycho thriller or any number of film noir that came decades before this first episode of the Boris Karloff-hosted anthology series (which lasted two seasons), Thriller. I liked the casting quite a bit, though. Constance Ford (the tormented daughter in the Twilight Zone episode, “Uncle Simon”) has a brief but memorable part as tormenting sister of mentally unbalanced Merle, mocking him for his weak nature and inability to be successful (she says she would tell the folks back home of his job in the mailroom).  Trundy as not-willing-to-take-no-for-an-answer obsessive employee (the eyes for which Karloff emphasizes at the beginning of the episode are hers and sets up the episode rather nicely), Lily Hanson, of Nielsen’s company is quite a nagging, troublesome nuisance to Alan Patterson, and even sends his wife, Judy (Dianne Foster) a letter wanting to meet her so she could reiterate their imaginary love she has convinced herself is real. But George Grizzard, as the unstable Merle Jenkins who so desperately wants Alan’s life he convinces himself that he is Alan Patterson, steals the episode. He wants to live in the fancy digs, have the perfect family and job, make all the green but life hasn’t exactly ingratiated Merle with that kind of good fortune. Stealing from the company (items of less consequence but eventually he does take Alan’s wallet and money, even intruding upon his home, kidnapping the daughter, fleeing into a pawn store), eyeing a romantic evening with Lily, having to buy cheap wine instead of imported champagne. Eventually Lily wants Merle to leave, wholly confidant that Alan will be all hers soon, too delusional to realize that he wants nothing at all to do with her, just wishing she’d stop calling. Of course, with Lily making her supposed relationship with Alan out to be more than it ever was, Judy questions her husband’s loyalty, confronting him quite assertively about just what is going on between them. What seemed innocuous and much ado about nothing soon spirals out of control when Alan goes to Lily’s apartment and receives a wine bottle across the back of his head by Merle. This sets in motion Merle going about claiming to be Alan, once Lily making sure he understands that he would never be. A dance with a hostess at a bar doesn’t go much better, although at least Merle doesn’t strangle her, imagining her to be his sister. A shattered mirror when going to hit Alan awakens him out of his psychomania. I don’t think the plot, from beginning to end, has very many surprises. It just has this overt familiarity to it. Still, Nielsen equips his Alan with a forward mission to calm the unrest in his life but two of the emerging human problems thwarting his happiness don’t make that easy. The marital upheaval was to be expected; their playful banter about it soon turns volatile thanks to Lily’s phone calls and letter. Many will know Grizzard from the Twilight Zone episode, “The Chaser”. 2.5/5

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...just for fun, I had some time to kill and watched a recording of the Twilight Zone episode, You Drive, from Syfy early Tuesday morning. Many remember Edward Andrews perhaps more for his excellent work in "Third From the Sun", while in this episode he's a selfish dick who hits a kid on a bike with his car, leaving the scene of the crime, even allowing a young man that works at his firm to take the wrap after a woman that was there accidentally identified the wrong person. Andrews’ car starts to torment him, the radio playing news reports, honking, lights always blinking, even stopping in the middle of the street where the hit and run took place while his wife is driving it during an errands run. The witty ending has the car chasing Andrews down, forcing him to ride shotgun, literally taking him to the police station! Andrews, suspicious of the colleague at work, basically accuses him of trying to steal his job, later smirking and giddily remarking when the guy is incorrectly arrested that his job was safe…he’s a real piece of work. 3/5.