Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the next Light and Shadow, my systematic and possibly suicidal attempt at going episode by episode through one of the best scripted shows to ever be beamed to idiot boxes, THE TWILIGHT ZONE. This installment features episodes 1.13 (“The Four of Us Are Dying” starring Harry Townes), 1.14 (“Third from the Sun” starring Fritz Weaver) and 1.15 (“I Shot an Arrow into the Air” starring Dewey Martin). Enjoy!
1.13 – “The Four of Us Are Dying”
Directed by John Brahm
Written by Rod Serling, based on a story by George Clayton Johnson
Original Airdate: January 1st, 1960
His name is Arch Hammer. He's 36 years old. He's been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel-and-dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his conscience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Hammer has a talent, discovered at a very early age. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anything he wants... Mr. Archie Hammer, jack-of-all-trades, has just checked in at three-eighty a night with two bags, some newspaper clippings, a most odd talent, and a master plan to destroy some lives.
His name is Arch Hammer. He's 36 years old. He's been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel-and-dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his conscience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Hammer has a talent, discovered at a very early age. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anything he wants... Mr. Archie Hammer, jack-of-all-trades, has just checked in at three-eighty a night with two bags, some newspaper clippings, a most odd talent, and a master plan to destroy some lives.
1.14 – “Third From the Sun”
Directed by Richard L. Bare
Written by Rod Serling, based on the story by Richard Matheson
Original Airdate: January 8th, 1960
Quitting time at the plant. Time for supper now. Time for families. Time for a cool drink on a porch. Time for the quiet rustle of leaf-laden trees that screen out the moon. And underneath it all, behind the eyes of the men, hanging invisible over the summer night, is a horror without words. For this is the stillness before storm. This is the eve of the end.
Quitting time at the plant. Time for supper now. Time for families. Time for a cool drink on a porch. Time for the quiet rustle of leaf-laden trees that screen out the moon. And underneath it all, behind the eyes of the men, hanging invisible over the summer night, is a horror without words. For this is the stillness before storm. This is the eve of the end.
1.15 – “I Shot an Arrow into the Air”
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Written by Rod Serling, based on a story by Madelon Champion
Original Airdate: January 15th, 1960
Her name is the Arrow One. She represents four and a half years of planning, preparation and training and a thousand years of science and mathematics and the projected dreams and hopes of not only a nation, but a world. She is the first manned aircraft into space and this is the countdown, the last five seconds before man shot an arrow into the air.
Her name is the Arrow One. She represents four and a half years of planning, preparation and training and a thousand years of science and mathematics and the projected dreams and hopes of not only a nation, but a world. She is the first manned aircraft into space and this is the countdown, the last five seconds before man shot an arrow into the air.
