Twilight Zone Companion

by Marc Scott Zicree

  YOU DRIVE (1/3/64)

  Written by Earl Hamner, Jr.

  Producer: William Froug

  Director: John Brahm

  Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

  Music: stock

  Cast: Oliver Pope: Edward Andrews Lillian Pope: Hellena Westcott Pete Radcliff: Kevin Hagen Policeman: John Hanek Edward Andrews Woman: Totty Ames

  Portrait of a nervous man: Oliver Pope by name, office manager by profession. A man beset by life’s problems: his job, his salary, the competition to get ahead. Obviously, Mr. Pope’s mind is not on his driving … Oliver Pope, business

  man-tumed-killer on a rain-soaked street in the early evening of just another day during just another drive home from the office. The victim, a kid on a bicycle, lying injured, near death. But Mr. Pope hasnt time for the victim, his only concern is for himself. Oliver Pope, hit-and-run driver, just arrived at a crossroad in his life, and hes chosen the wrong turn. The hit occurred in the world he knows, but the run will lead him straight into the Twilight Zone.

  Pope is determined to keep his guilt a secret even after the boy dies from his injuries and his coworker, Pete Radcliff, is mistakenly identified as the hit-and-run driver. But Popes car has other ideas: late at night, it honks its horn, flashes its lights and blares its radio. When Popes wife takes it out for a drive, it steers itself to the scene of the accident, then stalls. Finally, when Pope decides to walk to work, the car pursues him, coming within inches of running him down. Realizing hes beaten, Pope gets in the car and lets it drive him to police headquarters.

  All persons attempting to conceal criminal acts involving their cars are hereby warned: check first to see that underneath that chrome there does not lie a conscience, especially if youre driving along a rain-soaked highway in the Twilight Zone.

  For Earl Hamner, Jr., You Drive was little more than an extension of his own relationship with such devices. All mechanical things frustrate me. Im like my friend, John McGreevey, the writer, who once cut himself with a sponge. I am afraid of and inept with all mechanical devices. Its kind of a love-hate relationship. I drive a Corvette which I love because it is so at odds with the image of John-Boy Walton as an old man. And of course it is a stunning machine. But at the same time, I do not trust it. It seems to have a life of its own, and sometimes when it will not start I suspect it is because it has some personal grudge against me.

  Although not a particularly effective story, You Drive does have some good effects, such as when the determined automobile follows Edward Andrews (last seen in Third From the Sun) down the street.

  We had a man under the dashboard with a tiny periscope that stuck up through the hood of the car, and he drove with special controls, explains William Froug. I remember watching it, because I was on location when it was filmed, and I was astonished. This car would come driving by and it was spooky, because you couldnt see this little periscope sticking up.

  The most impressive shot occurs in a scene in which the car chasing Andrews increases its speed. Running madly, Andrews stumbles and falls. Cut to a closeup as the car roars to within inches of his headand stops. You do it in reverse, explains director of photography George Clemens.

  Start the car right at him and pull it back. Those things always work well when theyre done right.

  BLACK LEATHER JACKETS (1/31/64)

  Written by Earl Hamner, Jr.

  Producer: William Froug

  Director: Joseph N. Newman

  Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

  Music: Van Cleave

  Cast: Scott: Lee Kinsolving Ellen Tillman: Shelley Fabares Steve: Michael Forest Fred: Tom Gilleran Stu Tillman: Denver Pyle Martha Tillman: Irene Hervey Sheriff Harper: Michael Conrad Mover: Wayne Heffley

  Three strangers arrive in a small town, three men in black leather jackets in an empty rented house. We’ll call them Steve and Scott and Fred, but their names are not important; their mission is, as three men on motorcycles lead us into the Twilight Zone.

  Steve, Scott and Fred are actually part of the first wave of an invasion force from another planet. They set up an antenna to receive instructions, a side effect of which is neighborhood disruption of electricity and radio and TV reception. When neighbor Stu Tillman complains, Steve uses his superior mind to brainwash him into believing that the three are no more than nice boys. A week later, Stus teenage daughter Ellen misses her bus and Scott gives her a ride. A romance soon develops, the result of which is that Scott is considered a traitor by Steve and Fred. When he overhears them receiving orders to poison the water supply, Scott tries to warn Ellen, but he succeeds only in convincing her that hes lost his mind. He then pleads with his leader to spare mankind, but his pleas are wasted. Rushing back to the Tillman house, Scott finds that Stu, worried about Scotts sanity, has called the sheriff, who has brought with him several men in white coats. The men grab Scott and hustle him away. In reality, the sheriff and the men in white coats are aliens and they want nothing to interfere with their plans.

  Portrait of an American family on the eve of invasion from outer space. Of course, we know its merely fiction and yet, think twice when you drink your next glass of water. Find out if its from your local reservoir, or possibly it came direct to you … from the Twilight Zone.

  Black Leather Jackets might more aptly be titled The Wild One Meets It Came From Outer Space The episode is filled with wild im-plausibilities, such as the fact that these creatures, attempting to blend into the background as much as possible so that they can surreptitiously poison the water supply, assume disguises guaranteed to attract the eye of every nervous suburbanite. Then theres the matter of one of them falling in love with a pretty little native girl. Although he has telekinetic powers (with which he can open windows and such), the smitten alien makes no effort to prove his claim that hes from outer space by demonstrating his otherworldly abilities. Naturally, with nothing more than his slightly hysterical word to go by, the young lady assumes hes crazy and our well-meaning but stupid young invader is hauled away.

  THE BEWITCHIN POOL (6/19/64)

  Written by Earl Hamner, Jr.

  Producer: William Froug

  Director: Joseph M. Newman

  Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

  Music: stock

  Cast: Sport: Mary Badham Jeb: Tim Stafford Aunt T: Georgia Simmons Whitt: Kim Hector Gloria: Dee Hartford Tim Stafford, Kim Hector, Gil: Tod Andrews

  Georgia Simmons and Mary Badham Radio Announcer: Harold Gould

  A swimming pool not unlike any other pool, a structure built of tile and cement and money, a backyard toy for the affluent, wet entertainment for the well-to- do. But to Jeb and Sport Sharewood, this pool holds mysteries not dreamed of by the building contractor, not guaranteed in any sales brochure. For this pool has a secret exit that leads to a never-neverland, a place designed for junior citizens who need a long voyage away from reality, into the bottomless regions of the Twilight Zone.

  Jeb and Sport are playing in their back yard, trying to ignore the continuous bickering of their parents, when Whitt, a boy resembling Huckleberry Finn, suddenly appears in their swimming pool. He beckons the children to follow him. Intrigued, they dive in and surface in a swimming hole adjacent to a backwoods paradise populated by happy children. This is presided over by Aunt T, a loving, matronly old woman who tells them that this is a sanctuary for children of unworthy parents. Sport explains that their parents love them. Thinking their arrival has been a mistake, Aunt T sends them back home. But next morning, Jeb dives in the pool and returns to Aunt T. Sport pursues him and convinces him to come back home, but when they return their parents tell them that theyre getting a divorceand the children must decide which parent they want to live with. We dont have to stay with neither one of ya! says Sport, and she and Jeb plunge into the pool, magically returning to Aunt T or good.

  A brief epilogue for concerned parents. Of course, there isn’t any such place as the gingerbread house of Aunt T, and we grownups kno
w there’s no door at the bottom of a swimming pool that leads to a secret place. But who can say how real the fantasy world of lonely children can become? For Jeb and Sport Sharewood, the need for love turned fantasy into reality; they found a secret place in the Twilight Zone.”

  That was my reaction to California, where there seemed to be a startling divorce rate at that time, says Hamner of The Bewitchin Pool, and being somewhat puritanical, I felt that must have a terrible effect on children. And living, as I still do, in the San Fernando Valley, I saw affluence affecting people who were not accustomed to the California lifestyle, transplanted Eastern people who come out and suddenly start making a great deal of money but dont know how to deal with it and dont have social grace; surface kind of people. Then I was struck by the number of swimming pools. Back where I grew up, there was never a swimming pool. We would consider such things sissy. But there were marvelous wide places in the creek that, over generations, had become the traditional old swimming hole. So I put all of those together and thought how marvelous it would be for children not to have to hear parents quarreling if to escape it they could simply come up in the arms of some Earth Mother-type person.

  The Bewitchin Pool had more than its share of problems, though. I didnt like that old woman who played the Earth Mother, says Hamner. There are real Earth Mothers, like Patricia Neal, women who can impart love without it being cloying. I thought that old woman was sort of cute.

  In the lead as one of the children was Mary Badham, fresh from her role as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird (for which she received an Oscar nomination). Unfortunately, in all but her scenes with Aunt T, her voice is actually that of June Foray. We had backlot noise, but that wasnt entirely the trouble, explains William Froug. She had such a thick Southern accent, combined with some bad noise, that between that and the voice levels, we were forced to loop her. It wasnt good. The others we got around, and it was sloppy and we hated it. What remains is a scarred-up version of what was, for which Froug blames the director. I never worked with him again. I just didnt like what he did with her at all. It was all overplayed and corny, I thought, even granted it was a childrens story.

  In coming to the close of Hamners contributions to Twilight Zone, it is interesting to observe that throughout his eight scripts, country folk are generally presented as honest, warm, and well-balanced, while city folk are for the most part bitchy, self-centered, and neurotic. What I was going through was a psychological adjustment to a city that did not seem to care for me, says Hamner. A psychiatrist might say that I was working out some hostility toward city people. But I think that all along in my work, because Im so attuned to country folk, that unconsciously if Im looking for a villain it probably triggers in my mind that the city person would be a more likely candidate to be evil which shows you how provincial I was, and am.

  Number Twelve Looks Just Like You

  Written by John Tomerlin

  Producer: William Froug

  Director: Abner Biberman

  Director of Photography: Charles Wheeler

  Music: stock

  Cast: Marilyn Cuberle: Collin Wilcox Lana Cuberle/Simmons/Doe/ Grace/Jane/Patient/# 12:

  Suzy Parker Uncle Rick/Dr. Rex/Sigmund Friend/Dr. Tom/Attendant: Richard Long Valerie/Marilyn (after operation), #8: Pam Austin

  Given the chance, what young girl wouldnt happily exchange a plain face for a lovely one? What girl could refuse the opportunity to be beautiful? For want of a better estimate, lets call it the year 2000. At any rate, imagine a time in the future when science has developed a means of giving everyone the face and body he dreams of. It may not happen tomorrow but it happens now in the Twilight Zone.

  At the age of nineteen, people in this world of the future undergo the supposedly voluntary Transformation, which makes them beautifully identical to millions of others. But eighteen-year-old Marilyn Cuberle, whose free-thinking father committed suicide after his Transformation, thinks the operation is merely a way of enforcing conformity she wants to keep her own face. Her mother Lana, her Uncle Rick and her friend Valerie all view this as an aberration. Marilyn is sent to a doctor, then to a psychiatristwho puts her in the hospital. Marilyn tries to escape, but finds herself in an operating room with a doctor and nurse waiting for her. She emerges with nothing but joy in her mind, looking and thinking just like Valerie. The Transformation has been a complete success.

  Portrait of a young lady in love with herself. Improbable? Perhaps. But in an age of plastic surgery, body building and an infinity of cosmetics, let us hesitate to say impossible. These and other strange blessings may be waiting in the future which after all, is the Twilight Zone

  Number Twelve Looks Just Like You is a companion piece to The Eye of the Beholder. This is a world where books are outlawed, people drink a cup of Instant Smile when they feel blue, and concerns are only skin-deep. Supposedly, the transformation surgery is entirely voluntary. But it soon becomes clear that it represents far more than the miraculous cosmetic boon of a beneficent society. Rather, it is a rite of passage into a rigid physical and mental conformity. The rebellious girl quotes her father (who committed suicide after the transformation): When everyone is beautiful no one will be, because without ugliness there can be no beauty. … They dont care whether youre beautiful or not, they just want everybody to be the same! But her protests fall on deaf ears.

  Based on Charles Beaumonts short story The Beautiful People (originally published in 1952 in If and included in his collection Yonder), the episode is credited to Beaumont and Tomerlin. By this time, however, Beaumonts mind was failing rapidly. By 1963 he was still able to sell stories, but he was neither conceiving nor writing them, says Tomerlin. The short story, of course, was his, but I wrote the script entirely myself. I wrote it in New York, as a matter of fact, consulting with him on the phone as to deadlines and things of that sort. He just called and said he had an assignment and asked if I would do it, and I said, Sure. I needed the money and was delighted to do it.

  Tomerlins script is an improvement over the original short story, in which the teenager is put on trial and the verdict forces her to submit to the operation. Here, things are more subtle. Everyone seems to be trying to help. Marilyn doesnt want to be beautiful? Unthinkable. She must be ill.

  Playing all of the adults in the episode in multiple roles are Richard Long (previously in Beaumonts Person or Persons Unknown) and Suzy Parker. Suzy Parker was at that time the most famous model in the country, says producer William Froug. She was the superstar of models. She wasnt much of an actress, but she was gorgeous to look at. It was my notion that if you were going to do a show about everybody looking as beautiful as possible to use her.”

  In the lead, Collin Wilcox is excellent. Intelligent, intense, pretty-plain but by no means beautiful, she is ideally suited to the role. Her anguish when she realizes that she is utterly alone, that no one can understand her feelings, seems very genuine. In the end, she emerges looking and thinking exactly like her best friend

  Valerie (Pam Austin). As she stands admiring herself in the mirror, she says, And the nicest part of all, ValI look just like you! She has been utterly crushed by a society intent on conformity. It is a chilling finale, made all the more so by its uncomfortable and deliberate similarity to our own society.

  QUEEN OF THE NILE (3/6/64)

  Written by Jerry Sohl

  Producer: William Froug

  Director: John Brahm

  Director of Photography: Charles Wheeler

  Music: composed by Lucien Moraweck; conducted by Lud Gluskin

  Cast: Jordan Herrick: Lee Philips Pamela Morris: Ann Blyth Viola Draper: Celia Lovsky Krueger: Frank Ferguson Mr. Jackson: James Tyler Maid: Ruth Phillips

  Jordan Herrick, syndicated columnist whose work appears in more than a hundred newspapers. By nature a cynic, a disbeliever; caught for the moment by a lovely vision. He knows the vision hes seen is no dream; she is Pamela Morris, renowned movie star; whose name is a household word and whose face is known to mi
llions. What Mr. Herrick does not know is that he has also just looked into the face of the Twilight Zone

  Arriving at her house to interview her, Herrick finds Pamela Morris as lovely and youthful-looking as when she starred in the 1940 film, Queen of the Nile. Upon leaving, he is confronted by seventy-year-old Viola Draper, a woman he takes for Morris mother but who tells him she is actually her daughter Intrigued, he does some investigating and finds that Constance Taylor a femme fatale from the early years of the century who looked exactly as Morris does now starred in a silent version of Queen of the Nile, then disappeared. Suspecting that, somehow, Morris and Taylor are the same woman, Herrick confronts Pamela. She drugs his coffee, then admits she really was a queen of the Nile in ancient Egypt! Using a live scarab, she drains all of Herricks life force and transfers it to herself. Just then, the doorbell rings. A handsome young man enters soon to be yet another in a long line of victims.

  Everybody knows Pamela Morris, the beautiful and eternally young movie star. Or does she have another name, even more famous, an Egyptian name from centuries past? Ifs best not to be too curious, lest you wind up like Jordan Herrick, a pile of dust and old clothing, discarded in the endless eternity of the Twilight Zone

  The final Twilight Zone script credited to Beaumont was Queen of the Nile, which deals with an immortal movie queen who lures men to her mansion and transfers their life force to herself via an Egyptian scarab. (One curious item that is never explained in the show is why Ann Blyth, as the immortal Queen of the Nile, speaks English perfectly while her daughter [Celia Lovsky, later to play ruler of the planet Vulcan on Star Trek], now an aged woman, speaks with a heavy Viennese accent.)

  Beaumont had already made his statement regarding immortality four years earlier with Long Live Walter Jameson. Why do it all again, and not as well? The answer is that Beaumont had little to do with Queen of the Nile.