Twilight Zone Companion (61 page)

AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE (2/28/64)

Written and Directed by Robert Enrico

Producer: Marcel Ichac

Director of Photography: Jean Boffety

Music: Henri Lanoe

Cast: Confederate Spy: Roger Jacquet with Anne Cornaly, Anker Larsen, Stephane Fey, Jean-Francois Zeller,Pierre Danny and Louis Adelin

Tonight a presentation so special and unique that, for the first time in the five years weve been presenting The Twilight Zone, were offering a film shot in France by others. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival of 1962, as well as other international awards, here is a haunting study of the incredible, from the past master of the incredible, Ambrose Bierce. Here is the French production of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

It is the American Civil War. Union soldiers stand on a railroad bridge, preparing to execute a Confederate spy. They set a plank out from the bridge, stand the man upon it, make the noose tight around his neck. The plank is pulled out from under him, he falls through spacebut miraculously, the rope breaks! Dodging bullets, the man swims for his life. Reaching the shore, he manages to evade the enemy troops. He has one goal in mind: to get home. Struggling over the terrain, he eventually reaches his plantation. His wifebeautifully dressed, every hair in place, seemingly untouched by warcomes running toward him. But as her hands go round his neck, he seizes up. In an instant, he is back at Owl Creek Bridge, hanging by his neckand very much dead.

An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgein two forms, as it was dreamed, and as it was lived and died. This is the stuff of fantasy, the thread of imagination … the ingredients of the Twilight Zone.

With thirty-five episodes completed and one left to go, William Froug found Twilight Zone significantly over budget. The solution he came up with was unique.

Some time previously, he had seen An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a French film that had won first prize for short subjects at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. Based on the story by Ambrose Bierce, it told the story of a condemned Confederate spy who, during the instant that hes falling before the rope breaks his neck, imagines an involved and successful escape.

It was almost entirely silent, Froug recalls of the film. There were maybe a half-dozen lines in it, and there was one brief balladin English, of all things. CBS was very reluctant A French film on television? Who ever heard of such a thing? but I convinced them, because we bought all TV rights for $10,000. With that one airing, we immediately took care of the whole years overage. It brought us out at the end of the year under budget.

The film was shortened by several minutes and an introduction by Serling was added. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was aired February 28, 1964, and repeated September 11, 1964. (It was shown as a Twilight Zone episode only these two times and was not included in subsequent syndication packages.) A coup for the show, it was well-received. Variety’s reaction was typical: This French short film, which has been nominated for an Oscar, undoubtedly received more exposure than any such candidate in Oscar history when aired on Rod Serlings Twilight Zone Friday. A fascinating and eerie Ambrose Bierce tale … it fits perfectly into the Zone format.

Subsequently, the film won its Oscar another first for Twilight Zone.

At the end of January, 1964, CBS announced its fall schedule. Twilight Zone was not included.

For one reason or another, Jim Aubrey [then president of CBS] decided he was sick of the show, says William Froug. He claimed that it was too far over budget and that the ratings werent good enough. In truth, Twilight Zone was still rating well, although not in the top ten, and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge had put the show back under budget.

Nevertheless, on February 5, Daily Variety reported that Serling considered the odds of a sixth season unlikely. Serling: I decided to cancel the network.

Serlings agent, Ted Ashley, felt that since the shows ratings werent bad he might be able to sell it to a rival network. NBC passed, but Tom Moore, president of ABC, was interested. Since CBS had rights to the title Twilight Zone, Moore proposed a new name for the show: Witches, Warlocks, and Werewolves (taken from Rod Serlings Triple W: Witches, Warlocks, and Werewolves, a 1963 paperback anthology edited by Serling).

This did not sit well with Serling. On March 11, he submitted a proposal for a series more to his liking. It began:

ROD SERLINGS WAX MUSEUM

We would open the series in the following manner:

A helicopter shot of Heart Island with a series of slow dissolves to a closer angle of Boldt Castle. The latter is the haunted house of the world. It is a vast multispired stone mausoleum with hundreds of bare rooms (its construction was stopped three quarters of the way through completion and never recommenced). The camera moves closer to the Castle in a series of dissolves until finally were inside its gigantic echoey front hall. Lining the long stairway are a series of shrouded figures that extend into the darkness. Down the steps walks Serling past these figures and ultimately past the lens of the camera to a vantage point (now we are on a stet Metro set) where stands another shrouded figure. Serling removes the wrapping and we are looking at a wax figure of that particular episodes leading character.

serling: A hearty welcome to my wax museum. For your entertainment and edification we offer you stories of the weird, the wild and the wondrous; stories that are told to the accompaniment of distant banging shutters, an invisible creaking door, an errant wailing wind that comes from the dark outside. These are stories that involve the citizenry of the night.

In short, this museum is devoted to … goose flesh, bristled hair and dry mouths.

(He moves over to the wax figure now uncovered)

Now this gentleman is …

NOW SERLING LAUNCHES INTO A BRIEF BACKGROUND COMMENT ABOUT  TONIGHTS EPISODE)

Moore, however, was still locked-in to his Triple W concept. On March 18, the two men met. Things apparently did not go well, for the next day Serling told Daily Variety that Moore seems to prefer weekly ghouls, and we have what appears to be a considerable difference of opinion. I dont mind my show being supernatural, but I dont want to be hooked into a graveyard every week. He added that he thought Moores conception of the series would result in walking dead and maggots … I dont think TV can sustain C-pictures every week.

The next day, Moore, after reading Serlings comments, told the papers (with apparently no pun intended), We have buried the project.

Twilight Zone had reached the end. After five years and 156 episodes ninety-two of them scripts by SerlingCayuga Productions closed its doors.

In 1962, when it looked like The Twilight Zone was about to be cancelled, Serling summed up his participation for a newspaper article. He said, We had some real turkeys, some fair ones, and some shows Im really proud to have been a part of. I can walk away from this series unbowed.

Two years later, his words were just as appropriate.

VIII / AFTER THE TWILIGHT ZONE

over the eleven years following the demise of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling was a busy man.

Shortly after the series went off network, Serling sold his rights to CBS for a considerable lump sum. One reason that my husband ultimately sold out, notes Carol Serling, was that the show often went over budget and CBS said they would never recoup the costs. Needless to say, they have, many, many times.

Even more regrettable to Serling was having to watch what was done to

Props set up at Cayuga Productions farewell party, following the cancellation of Twilight Zone.Twilight Zone in syndication. Catching Walking Distance on a local station, he commented, You wouldnt recognize what series it was. Full scenes were deleted. It looked like a long, protracted commercial separated by fragmentary moments of indistinct drama.

Serling, however, didnt have time to dwell on Twilight Zone. In 1964 he won his sixth Emmy, for Its Mental Work, an episode of Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre starring Lee J. Cobb as the owner of a bar who has a heart attack, Harry Guardino as a bartender and Gena Rowlands as a cocktail waitress.

In 1965, Serling embarked on another series. The Loner; an extremely nonconformist Western, starring Lloyd Bridges as a former Union cavalry officer. With its emphasis on character and motivation rather than gunplay, the series was generally well-received by the critics, who particularly applauded Serlings unconventional scripts.

Not so pleased were the higher-ups at CBS, and Serling began to get pressure from above to tailor The Loner to the measure of Westerns that had gone before it. Serling went to the newspapers, charging that the CBS vice president in charge of programming had demanded he put in more violence. In response, the V.R countered that he had meant action chases, running gun battles, runaway stagecoaches,
etc.

Serling was not happy with the end product. Some weekends I wish Friday would move into Sunday and skip Saturday so there wouldnt be any Loner he said. Halfway through the season, The Loner was cancelled.

In the years that followed, Serling was involved in an amazing variety of projects. He served a two-year term as President of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, overseeing the 1965 and 1966 Emmy Awards. A popular celebrity, in 1969 he presided over the game show The Liars Club; in 1970 he served as host for Rod Serlings Wonderful World of … , a local Los Angeles program examining such human failings as prejudice, gluttony, snobbery and so forth; and in 1973 his mellifluous voice could be heard presenting Zero Hour; a syndicated dramatic radio show. In addition, he narrated the Jacques Cousteau specials, as well as a number of programs dealing with ancient astronauts, UFOs and similar speculative subjects. He acted as spokesman for dozens of products on television and radio.

And, of course, there was the writing: in 1968, Certain Honorable Men, a political drama starring Van Heflin, Peter Fonda, Pat Hingle and Will Geer; in 1969, the debut script of The New People, a short-lived ABC TV series; in 1970, A Storm in Summer on Hallmark Hall of Fame, detailing the confrontation between an elderly Jewish delicatessen owner (Peter Ustinov) and a black youth (NGai Dixon, son of Ivan Dixon). Although A Storm in Summer received extremely mixed notices, it won Emmys for Ustinovs performance and as best dramatic program.

There were also a number of screenplay adaptations, including Planet of the Apes (1967), based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. Serling wrote the first three drafts of the script which, like the book, depicted a technologically-developed ape society. When it was decided that this would be too expensive to produce, Michael Wilson was hired to rewrite Serlings script to present a more primitive simian world. Wilson and Serling shared onscreen credit.

Serlings work was in evidence on big screens and little screens. His face and voice were everywhere. But he was far from satisfied.

Rod was much less than a happy and contented man in the last ten years of his life, I think theres little doubt of that, says his close friend, producer Dick Berg. His own self-esteem had deteriorated. I dont think this depressed him, but I do think it made him less comfortable here and somewhat disenchanted with the business. Because you must understand that he enjoyed an exalted status in those first three to five years, it was a rarefied situation. Serling and Chayefsky were the two major names from the golden era of television. And to move from that to becoming a member of the army of working journeymen writers was a great comedown. In Hollywood, he was a guy taking assignments. Quite frustrating, particularly for a man of such spirit.

Serling was a man being pulled in many different directions, trying to fill many roles: serious writer, TV star, media commodity. Often, his decisions left him with ambiguous feelings, particularly regarding his work on commercials. How could I turn those offers down? he asked a reporter rhetorically. I spend eleven months on a screenplay but get about the same money for a one-minute commercial.

Serling also had mixed feelings about his writing. Although still capable of skillful, incisive writing, he was aware that often his work fell well below his own standardsa fact he acknowledged with honesty and humor. Every now and then, you write something that you think at the moment is quite adequate and then many years later you suddenly realize you have given birth to a turd, he once said.

Some things, however, could not be viewed with humor. On December 13, 1966, NBC aired The Doomsday Flight, a TV movie written by Serling. The plot concerned a mentally-disturbed former-airline mechanic (Edmond OBrien) who plants a pressure bomb set to explode below 4,000 feet aboard a commercial airliner. Ultimately, the scheme is foiled when the planes pilot (Van Johnson) lands the aircraft in Denver, which is situated at a height of 5,300 feet. To all initial appearances, the show was a tremendous success, gathering the second-highest rating of the 1966-67 season (surpassed only by the network showing of The Bridge on the River Kwai).

The first bomb threat came at 10:45 P.M., while the show was still onthe air. In the days that followed, TWA, Eastern, American, Pan Am and Northwest Airlines all received similar threats. Within six days, the total rose to eightand each of these had to be taken seriously.

Serling was devastated. I wish to Christ I had written a stagecoach drama starring John Wayne instead, he told the papers. I wish Id never been born.

Fortunately, The Doomsday Flight was the low point for Serling. Other projects might disappoint him, but none would equal this for nightmarishness.

On November 8, 1969, NBC aired Night Gallery, a TV movie consisting of a trio of bizarre stories by Serling, two of which were adapted from his 1967 book The Season to be Wary. (These were The Escape Route, about a former Nazi [played on the show by Richard Kiley] hiding out in Buenos Aires, and Eyes, about a wealthy blind woman [Joan Crawford] who ruthlessly tries to purchase another persons sight. Eyes, incidentally, marked the professional directorial debut of Steven Spielberg.) A pilot for a possible series, it was the highest-rated program of the evening. For his writing, Serling was awarded a special Edgar Allen Poe award by the Mystery Writers of America. NBC gave the show the go-ahead.