4th of July Twilight Zone -- Afternoon Block

 

Rod Serling introduces The Hunt

Yeah, I can see this as an episode that doesn't age well for newer viewers, but it is an old favorite of mine. I have commented aplenty on it. I do remember the last time SYFY did a marathon on the 4th of July, "The Hunt" was the episode that I tried badly to stay awake for. I read on Twitter from a fellow Twilight Zone fan that the last marathon on Independence Day was 2017. "The Hunt" was on later, and I can recall doing my best to keep my eyes open but my brain was sadly tired. And I didn't get to really enjoy the marathon at all in 2017, because we were busy that day. To be honest, 4th of July has often been one of the busiest holidays for me, but this year my mother lost her sister to a prolonged illness so I'm home just lounging around. This would actually be a year perfect for a Twilight zone marathon. I have Paramount+ in use, just making it up my own for the time being before my daughter decides when we watch "Jaws" (1975). Hyder and his dog, Rip, having drowned while hunting a raccoon...I assume today's audience would cheer for the raccoon and boo the hunter after an animal. Anyway, lots of backwoods locals "speak" and another variation on death, afterlife, and heaven all through the Twilight Zone's own use of where the character lives and is accustomed to. 

I almost used this for my 4th of July thread pic

"The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" has become my favorite comedy episode among Twilight Zone's more humor-based episodes. While I think "A Most Unusual Camera" is another I enjoy marathon time while not so much during the year. James Best, I had just watched him in one of my favorite episodes, "The Grave", but in "...Jeff Myrtlebank" he is the lead of the episode. And Jeff rising from the coffin during his funeral is a hell of a catchy way to kick off The Twilight Zone. The locals, including his parents and fiance, all fear he might not be the same Jeff now as he was before he "died". And the episode sort of plays on there being something a bit off about Jeff. A rose dies in his hand after picking it, or how he could pummel his girlfriend, Comfort's bullying brother in fistifcuffs, with relative ease. But that the doc pronounced him dead and spends the episode convincing others that there was no breath fogging the glass and he had no pulse, his mother mentioning to his pa how different he acts in regards to eating habits and the gusto he now has for work/chores, and the town gossip stirring up rumors about his unusual behavior...it was bound to have a mob meeting Myrtlebank at his fence wanting to confront him about the danger he poses to them. I thought how Jeff handles the situation is a real treat...and how they back off, especially. Comfort decides she just loves him and that is what matters. And then the final image of a fence closing on its own (or the flame produced to light his cigarette) as Jeff tells Comfort he doesn't have any powers, that they have nothing to worry about. It all has a certain bit of macabre fun, with the backwoods setting by Monty Pittman giving it all that extra bit of flavor. These kinds of characters might seem alien to suburbanites, but Pittman thought his characters, clearly those he loves, could use some Twilight Zone spin.

Night Call

There is nothing like that line of dialogue that reveals a wild twist regarding something specific during the Twilight Zone. To me few episodes hit me with those goosebumps like that reveal in "Night Call" when Miss Keene realizes that her creepy voiced calls trying to talk to her come from a fallen wire near the grave of someone she knew in the past. Margaret, Miss Keene's loyal and dedicated helper, really is quite a confidante and friend. Though, Miss Keene (once again, a magnificent Gladys Cooper) feels ever so alone. Brian, even from the hereafter (or the beyond) trying to talk to her, always listened to what she said. She told him to leave her alone. He will do so. And she lies in bed realizing she'll never get to talk to him.

Mr. Goldsmith walks among the dead, having tried and failed to get them not to listen to Major French

I do wonder why "The Old Man in the Cave" has sort of went dormant in reputation over the last twenty or so years. I think in the 90s and perhaps earlier, it was an episode of certain interest. It has a very powerful final moment where Mr. Goldsmith (John Anderson, a TZ vet who starred in four episodes) walks among a body of townspeople he's help keep alive for ten years. It has been a miserable survival of eating what is available "after the bomb", as Jason (John Marley) and the town balk and gripe while Goldsmith is away getting instructions from a machine he has been keeping contact with for those ten years. The information is fed through the machine (I'm thinking some kind of AI keeps it alive, but I'm not sure about maintenance and how well this kind of computer system could remain active and in functioning order inside a cave; that's not the point, though) and Goldsmith takes what is told him, going back to the town with orders on how to live a little longer. The machine has allowed them to eat on whatever the ground can produce, even if what they do get to survive on isn't exactly the most delicious or tasty. Meanwhile, they have a cache of canned goods (supposedly "pre-war") and bottled liquor that sits ready to be opened, though Goldsmith tells them it is not wise to partake. All that work is undermined by Major French (James Coburn) and his men, equipped with machine guns and a jeep, riding into town ready to round them up and organize all of them into a unit to govern and command. Goldsmith is French's specific problem...since he has been in charge of the town for ten years. And the "Old Man" often referred to just irritates French, because whatever that "great mind" is, he wants that out of the way so he can supplant himself as the law and order. And with French, Goldsmith loses control of Jason and the others...and Jason and the others fully embrace French's influence to take part in a feeding frenzy, thoroughly enjoying the canned good and bottles of liquor at their disposal. And the "Old Man", as far as it goes, French is bound and determined to find out what that is since Goldsmith has used that device's knowledge to remain alive.

I honestly believe some might side with Coburn's brash, defiant, bullying forceful officer since those living under the orders of the Old Man are clearly miserable. Yes, as Jason points out, they have survived but is that what one considers living? Major French brings up the point that he has been responsible for their enjoying an actual meal and drink, having a good time, really living it up after ten years of frustrating survival. Every day a pain that Goldsmith points out is not his or the machine's fault. But French rides in on his jeep and torpedoes everything. And all Goldsmith is left with is the exploded remains of the machine that kept them all alive, and no one else. He walks away to an uncertain but probable demise since that knowledge provided by the Old Man is dead. What a grim and downer of an episode!

With "Probe 7, Over and Out", I always felt some disappointment because it just feels like this is the beginning of a television series about two aliens (Basehart and Bower) from two other planets, having to co-exist (and even find romance?) on a brand new world. Basehart is from an earth on the brink of nuclear devastation (sound familiar?), with superiors tied to the space program that sent him outward in search of another habitable world communicating to him that the end is nigh. I guess another grim story about the fall of planet earth to nuclear annihilation in the fifth season of Twilight Zone just felt standard. I just watched "The Old Man and the Cave" from two episodes back dealing with the same thing. And I find it hard not to see "Two" all over this episode as well. But Basehart is such a captivating actor, that I can still get pulled in since his weariness and frustration is understandable. His probe having crashed, irreparable and his former home planet soon to have billions dead...because of hate. Hate is quite an emotion and there's plenty of it.

Since I started watching "Perry Mason" on the regular, it is so much fun when I watch an episode of Twilight Zone that has members of the cast who had been featured in stories that eventually led to cases defended by the great attorney. This episode has plenty of such faces. This episode will conclude my afternoon block on the 4th. My evening will go as SYFY often did: the most popular will get the primetime, I guess. Just a cafe in the middle of nowhere...and a Martian takes the form of a grouchy Boston businessman whose cantankerous attitude is toxic, with Elam's clown quite a fun counterpoint to him. Funnily enough, Hoyt's Martian doesn't know what wet is but understands what the gestapo is and the word "kerplunk". If this is on rotation on Pluto TV, I can watch it right before I go to sleep. It is one of my treasures of the Twilight Zone.