Twilight Zone Companion (8 page)

Judgment Night is a Flying Dutchman variation involving a Nazi submarine commander, persuasively portrayed by Jerusalem-born Nehemiah Persoff. The episode also boasts a pre-Mr. Novak James Franciscus in a bit role as a nervous lieutenant under Persoffs command, demonstrating for all to hear that a convincing German accent is beyond his reach. Numerous sets are employed from The Wreck of the Mary Deare, a film starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston that Metro had just completed. Authentic footage of a U-boat crew in action was convincingly integrated into the film, as well.

This nautical, fog-enshrouded ghost story, well-written by Serling, was the first episode directed by German-born director John Brahm. Previously, Brahm had directed the movie The Brasher Doubloon, an adaptation of Raymond Chandlers The High Window, as well as The Lodger and Hangover Square, two effectively scary films starring Laird Cregar (Cregars last two films, in fact). It was on the basis of the two Cregar films that Houghton hired Brahm, feeling that the mood he had created in them would be perfect for The Twilight Zone. It was. In all, Brahm would direct twelve episodes for the series, more than any other director.

Judgment Night marked the first (and only reported) case of censorship on The Twilight Zone. In his original script, Serling had the ships first officer (Patrick MacNee, later the inimitable Mr. Steed of The Avengers) order up a cup of tea to the bridge. General Foods, whose Sanka coffee commercials were sponsoring the show, objected to this reference to what they perceived as a competitor. The line was changed to ordering a tray be sent up. (Its fortunate that apparently no one at General Foods realized that on occasion people will drink water, too, or the episode might have had to take place on dry land!)

Serling encountered another problem on Judgment Night, albeit a tiny one, regarding the reading of the narration. One of the first lines I had to say was, Next week, we invite you to take a trip on a tramp steamer. And of course I said, Next week, we invite you to take a trip on a stamp treamer. And of course we had to do it over.

SERLING AS NARRATOR

Serling had more problems in adjusting to his on-camera role than just stumbling over the occasional word. His last acting had been in college, and it hadnt been to an audience of twenty million. During the first season, Serlings narrations were off-camera, his sole on-camera appearance being at the end of each show to announce next weeks program. During the second season, this role was expanded to include an on-camera appearance at the beginning of every show, as well.

Rod was a very nervous man before the camera, explains director Lamont Johnson, who would come on the scene during the second season. When he had to do his leadins he would go through absolute hell. He would sweat and sputter and go pale. He was terribly ill at ease in front of the camera.

Johnson resorted to a number of devious devices in order to relax Serling. Id clown around with him and roll the camera without letting him know and Id say, What was that you said? And he would sort of snap off the thing at me as though, Smart ass, Ill show you. The crew was with me on that; theyd shut up and be quiet, otherwise wed never get a take under those circumstances.

One director who actually enjoyed and felt challenged in directing Serling was Douglas Heyes. With each new episode he would try to think up a novel and surprising way of introducing Serling into the scene. In The Eye of the Beholder we see the bizarre and distorted silhouette of a figure walking behind a screen. When the figure emerges, it is Serling. In

Rod Serling introducing Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

Dust, a weighted bag has a noose fitted around it on a gallows. The trap is sprung, the weight falls and jerks to a halt directly behind Serling. In Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, we see a down-shot of a tiny room looking directly from the ceiling. Serling enters the frameat such an angle that he would have to be standing straight out from one of the walls! (This was accomplished by using rear projection of the room behind Serling.)

The directors werent the only ones to film Serlings spots. In fact, during the fourth season, producer Herbert Hirschman often took on the assignment. Generally, however, the chore would fall to an assistant director.I remember the first time that I directed him, says assistant director Edward Denault. You know, Rod always talked out of the corner of his mouth, and I felt that that didnt look right for camera and I tried and tried, as nicely as I could, to get him to be relaxed and to get him to deliver in such a way that he would open his mouth, because he also talked through his teeth. And I got to the point where I felt that I was beginning to make him nervous because I was trying to change him. So finally, I said, Rod, youve got to do it the way you feel comfortable. So all I did then was try to put him in a comfortable setting and maybe have him walk from one thing to another if the timing looked right or felt right. And he went ahead and he talked the way he talked and did it, and he always did it the same way and it became a trademark, really.

Serling said of being chosen to host The Twilight Zone, [They] looked at me and said, Hell, at least hes articulate and he speaks English, so lets use him. Only my laundress knows how frightened I am!

RICHARD MATHESON

Appearing on camera wasnt the only new consideration Serling had to deal with on The Twilight Zone. Contractually, he was bound to write eighty percent of the scripts; but since it was his show he had to make certain that the other twenty percent were of the same high quality. For the first time, he had the responsibility of hiring other writers.

Initially, he decided to try something new. Before we started out on this show of mine, Id been screaming loudly on behalf of new talent. For years, Id been bellowing about how new talent wasnt getting a chance.

So I opened up the show for unsolicited manuscripts. Come on, fellers, I yelled. Send em in. If you think you have a talent for writing and you know the special demands of this show, lets hear from you.

I got fourteen thousand manuscripts in the first five days. Of those fourteen thousand, I and members of my staff read about five hundred. And four hundred and ninety-eight of those five hundred were absolute trash; hand-scrawled, laboriously written, therapeutic pieces of writing from sick people. Of the two remaining scripts, both of professional quality, neither fitted the show.

Obviously, more traditional methods would have to be used to obtain the needed scripts. A screening of the pilot was held, to which established writers were invited. Out of that screening, two writers were selected who, with Serling, provided all but one of the first seasons scripts.

Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont were men whose work was amazingly similar but who couldnt have been more different as people. Matheson, to this day, is a very private man, soft-spoken, disciplined, very family-oriented. Beaumont, on the other hand, was tremendously outgoigg, energetic, and disorganized. Writer William F. Nolan, co-author of the novel Logans Run and a friend to both, compares the two: Dick was Mr. Dependable, Mr. Resolute, Mr. Solid, Mr. Take-care-of-the-family-on- Sunday, and hes still like that. Chuck was Mr. Will-o-the-wisp. You never even knew if he was in the city or not. He was supposed to be going to dinner with his wife and he was in Chicago or something.

Yet the two, for all their differences, were very close. Chuck Beaumont was my best friend for many years, says Matheson. We wrote together for a period of time when we first went into television (until we decided that we would do better each going solo) and acted as spurs to each other creatively. I had sold my first collection of short stories before Chuck, which spurred him on to get his first collection. We both went into TV at the same time. We both wrote films in the same period of time. There was competition but only of the friendliest sort. We were not jealous of each other but happy for each others success.

Richard Burton Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, on February 20, 1926, the son of Norwegian immigrants. Of his early upbringing, Matheson notes that there was little to turn him toward writing. I believe that environment is less a factor than most in the formation of a writer. I dont think I became a writer because my environment made me introspective. I believe I was born to be introspective for various reasons (among them astrological) and therefore reacted to my environment accordingly. I do not feel it is environmental that the first book I borrowed from the library at age seven was a fantasy novel; that my first poems and stories at age seven were of a fantasy nature. In essence, I was born to be a writer, and probably a fantasy writer predominantly.

Following a childhood in Brooklyn, combat in Germany in World War II (from which experience he wrote his novel The Beardless Warriors), and college at the University of Missouri (majoring in journalism), Matheson emerged determined to have a writing career. But it didnt come easy. After I got out of college, I couldnt get a job on a newspaper or a magazine, he says. Donald Berwick, an editor at Esquire, suggested that I get a night job and work in the daytime since I wanted to write. So I got a night job typing up address plates for magazines at a place my brother ran, then started writing short stories. Within a few months, I sold Born of Man and Woman.

Born of Man and Woman appeared in the Summer 1950 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A gruesome yet sensitive story told first person from the viewpoint of a hideously malformed mutant child kept chained in a basement, it gained Matheson instant notoriety and has come to be recognized as a classic of the field. In succeeding years, Matheson gathered extensive credits, selling to most of the major science fiction magazines, as well as writing numerous film and television scripts. Occasionally, these areas of interest overlapped: what initially brought him out to Hollywood was to adapt his novel The Shrinking Man (Fawcett, 1956) into Universals The Incredible Shrinking Man,.Mathesons stories, particularly his horror stories, were remarkably powerful and their effect was considerable. Writer Stephen King says of Matheson, He was the first guy that I ever read who seemed to be doing something that Lovecraft wasnt doing. It wasnt eastern Europe the horror could be in the Seven-Eleven store down the block, or it could be just up the street. Something terrible could be going on even in a G.I. Bill-type ranch development near a college, it could be there as well. And to me, as a kid, that was a revelation, that was extremely exciting. He was putting the horror in places that I could relate to.

Mathesons approach to writing was one that suited The Twilight Zone perfectly: To me, fantasy at its best (strictly personal, of course) consists of putting in one drop of fantasy into a mixture which is, otherwise, completely factual, realistic. And, once that drop of fantasy has been put into the mixture, I try to forget that I am writing a fantasy and write as realistic a story as I can, recalling, of course, that the springboard has been some offbeat concept.

The transition to writing for The Twilight Zone went very smoothly. Chuck and I pitched ideas and then started writing scripts, says Matheson. For a long time it was just the two of us and Rod.

It should be noted that during the years that Matheson and Beaumont were regular contributors to The Twilight Zone they were also busy writing short stories, novels, teleplays for other series, and screenplays. The films Matheson wrote scripts for during the Twilight Zone years include House of Usher; The Pit and the Pendulum, Master of the World, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors, and (with Beaumont and George Baxt) Bum, Witch, Bum. Beaumonts film scripts include The Intruder, The Premature Burial (with Ray Russell), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (with David R Harmon and William Roberts), The Haunted Palace, and The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao.

THE LAST FLIGHT (2/5/60)

Kenneth Haigh

Written by Richard Matheson

Producer: Buck Houghton

Director: William Claxton

Director of Photography:George T. Clemens

Music: stock

Cast:

Flight Lt. Decker: Kenneth Haigh Major Wilson: Simon Scott General Harper:Alexander Scourby Air Marshal Mackaye:Robert Warwick Stunt Pilot: Frank Gifford Tallman Corporal: Harry Raybould Guard: Jerry Catron Jeep Driver: Paul Baxley Truck Driver: Jack Perkins

Witness Flight Lieutenant William Terrance Decker; Royal Flying Corps, returning from a patrol somewhere over France. The year is 1917. The problem is that the Lieutenant is hopelessly lost. Lieutenant Decker will soon discover that a man can be lost not only in terms of maps and miles, but also in time and time in this case can be measured in eternities

While on a World War I flying mission, Decker experiences a fit of cowardice and deserts his best friend, who is surrounded by enemy planes. In his panic, he flies through a strange white cloudand lands at a modern-day American air base in France. He is immediately taken into custody by a major and led into the office of the bases commanding general. At first, both officers doubt Deckers authenticity, but slowly the major comes to believe his story. In turn, Decker discovers that the man he left to die survived, went on to become a hero in World War II, and is due to inspect the base that very day. Realizing that his trip in time has been for a purposeto give him a second chanceDecker overpowers the major, escapes to his plane and takes off, disappearing into the same white cloud. Later that day, Deckers former friend, now a flight marshal in the RAF, arrives at the base. From him we learn that Decker did return to save himat the cost of his own life.

Dialogue from a play, Hamlet to Horatio: (There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Dialogue from a play written long before men took to the sky. There are more things in heaven and earth, andin the sky, that perhaps can be dreamt of. And somewhere in between heaven, the sky, the earth, lies the Twilight Zone.

The first non-Serling script to go into production was Richard Mathesons The Last Flight. While the episode is thoroughly as effective as anything Serling wrote for the series, it is totally different in its emphasis. Matheson had none of Serlings sentimentality or nostalgia and none of his affection for the little people, those insignificant, slightly eccentric characters so in evidence in many of Serlings scripts. Rather, his strength lay in the power of his plotting, the inexorable way in which his stories unfold. This is particularly evident in such episodes as The Invaders (Agnes Moorhead menaced by tiny spacemen) and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (the gremlin on the wing), but it holds true for The Last Flight, as well. We watch not because of any particular warmth we feel for the characters but because the story is so interesting.