The Twilight Zone/Escape Clause/Additional
The first Devil in an episode of Twilight Zone is quite the smooth talker. He reminds me of a snake oil salesman with quite the pitch...granted his mark is such a strong candidate for such an offer. The poor wife, though, is stuck with such an overbearing stick in the mud, and her fate is thought very little of by him. Credit to a review on the IMDb user comments who made a valid point about the lead: if he couldn't die why didn't he just flee the courtroom and be shot? It isn't like he would be killed. Strong plot hole and a good point made by the reviewer. Gomez really shines in the episode, "Dust", but he remains my favorite part of "Escape Clause". I admit that "Escape Clause" meant more to me in the 90s when I first started watching The Twilight Zone, but in the last 20+ years, so many other episodes have surpassed it. In fact, I can recall the episode was more of a marathon favorite in the 90s than it is in the last ten or so years. Just the same, Gomez as a clever Satan is a hoot. Wayne is suitably deserved of all our scorn. Christine's devotion to him should have been offered to someone worthy of it.
Walter Bedeker (David Wayne) fears dying and is always whiny and griping about being ill, even as his weary doc tells him he's the healthiest patient he visits and his long-suffering wife dotes on him exhaustively. In comes Ole Scratch with a proposition: for just his soul he can live thousands of years! Well, Walter tires of trying to find satisfaction in plunging himself in front of a train, gulping down poison, or getting in the middle of a subway crash. It is all just so boring not feeling anything remotely thrilling when you can't kill the body. When he plans to take a giant leap from the roof of his apartment complex, the wifey (Virginia Christine) tries to prevent her hubby from doing, falling off herself! What does Walter do? He takes credit for killing her so he can hopefully get the chair!
Walter is a really deplorable, rancid character but Payne makes the rube bearable. Christine plains down for the role of put-upon spouse contending with an irksome husband. I asked myself what on earth made him attractive to her. Thomas Gomez as "Cadwallader", the conman from hell, is a real hoot, nailing that mischievous grin and twinkle-eyed glee as he attempts to notch another soul on his belt. He talks a good game, too. So Walter winds up getting the life without parole sentence and a trusty escape clause is designed by Gomez to capitalize on that one mistake certain to gain him his desired soul...In other words, Walter gets what's coming to him. -- January 5th, 2017
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