Twilight Zone - Twenty-Two *

 

My daughter really wanted to watch Jaws (1975), so I only got in one episode so far, that being "Twenty Two", starring Barbara Nichols as a "dancer" (her agent, played by Fredd Wayne, blurts out "stripper" when she had to correct him) resting in a hospital due to "fatigue and overwork". Wayne, according to Nichols, just loves his 10% commission, so he's all encouraging and talky, but when she talks of a recurring dream, meeting a nurse with an ominous face and presence (Arlene Martel), always saying "Room for one more, honey", he clearly dismisses it with his eyes and expression. Her doctor, played by Jonathan Harris (of "Lost in Space"), and that unnerving giggle, thinks it is psychological...and can be cured. This shot-on-video quality will always be brought up as a nuisance...because it was. It hurt the show. But I still think for this one episode, there is a certain grimy, tainted, unpolished look that seems to enhance the nightmare and in the bowels of the hospital, right to the morgue with 22 right above the doorway, as Martel emerges asking if Babs would like to join the dead...it just works. That airplane crash later would seem to indicate this is a premonition. Twilight Zone does give characters that indication something is off...something isn't right. Thankfully for Babs, she listened to that when Martel, the flight attendant, asks her if she would like to board the plane. Luckily for Babs, she decided to listen to her fear. Harris as the weird doctor who seems to be quite a fan of Babs (bringing up her Miami gig and how he will probably be there, hoping for a wink from her) is just all kinds of sleazy, while Wayne is typical greedy agent with the mouth that wants to keep his client on the up-and-up and better so he can reap off any future success. But the nurse and morgue and "Room for one more, honey", he wants no part of that...he wants her to cut that out. His eyes certainly say so. A solid 3/5 episode to me.