Product Details

• Actors: Rod Serling, Robert McCord, Jay Overholts, Vaughn Taylor, Jack Klugman
• Writers: Rod Serling
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 3, 2001
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305772509
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,129 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #42 in	Movies & TV > Television > Classic TV > Twilight Zone DVDs
  #43 in	Movies & TV > Horror > Series & Sequels > The Twilight Zone

• This is item 20 in The Twilight Zone Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Volume 20 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection opens with "Elegy," a first-season episode in which three astronauts are forced to land on an Earthlike asteroid where all of the people seem frozen in time. The only exception is an elderly "caretaker" (Cecil Kellaway), who explains that the asteroid is actually a cemetery where the dead are posed in the posthumous fulfillment of their fondest wishes. This was the third episode written by the prolific TZ contributor Charles Beaumont, and it ends with the requisite twist.

"The Thirty-Fathom Grave" is from the fourth season, when episodes were expanded to one-hour length. The cast includes such TV stalwarts as Simon Oakland and Bill Bixby, but the standout is Mike Kellin, who plays Chief Bell, a crewman on a present-day Navy destroyer who's haunted by visions of crewmates who drowned in a World War II submarine 20 years earlier. When the destroyer investigates a mysterious noise heard from inside the derelict sub, Bell suffers a nervous breakdown, and it remains unclear whether the submarine specters were real or figments of Bell's survivor-guilt-ridden imagination. Although it suffers from slow pacing, the episode is redeemed by Kellin's intense performance.

"A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" is a fifth-season entry starring Patrick O'Neal as the aging husband of a ruthless gold digger (Ruta Lee). He's hopelessly in love with this unbearable harridan (a dreadful lapse of dramatic logic), so he begs his scientist brother to be the first human to test a dangerous youth serum. The potion works too well, however, and the shrewish wife gets an unexpected comeuppance that's as deserved as it is dramatically unsatisfying. It's far from a classic episode, but TZ collectors take note: this is one of the few episodes to be withheld from syndication, so it's a relative rarity. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description
Episodes: "Elegy" (Ep. 20, February 19, 1960) - Three astronauts land on a remote asteroid where everyone is frozen in place in the midst of their activities. The only one who moves is the caretaker (Cecil Kellaway), who reveals that they are in an exclusive cemetery where the deceased's greatest wishes can come true. "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" (Ep. 104, January 10, 1963, 50 min.) - A mysterious clanging sound is heard within a submerged submarine--20 years after it was sunk by the Japanese during World War II. A sheared periscope? Or ghosts of the drowned crewmen? Chief Bell (Mike Kellin) reveals a guilty secret that has tormented him ever since that horrible event. "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" (Ep. 131, December 13, 1963) - An aging man (Patrick O'Neal) desperate to keep up with his much younger wife (Ruta Lee), tries a highly experimental youth serum. To his wife's delight, he is restored to vigorous young manhood, but the worm soon turns when the serum continues its work...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great trip to another dimension!, April 12, 2002

By	Brian Reaves (Anniston, AL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This DVD has 3 great episodes on it. "30 Fathom Grave" would have been one of those classic episodes that people keep quoting (Like "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" or "Time Enough At Last"), but it was a 30 minute episode that was stretched to an hour. If they had edited this as a half-hour episode, it would have been perfect, but it suffers from too much padding. It's still a good story though. The other two stories are great ones too, though "Elegy" is just a little predictable. Well worth owning though.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An excellent group of stories--no disappointments here., January 25, 2008

By	Tom Brody (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Volume 20. Three episodes occur on this disc, one of them being a 1-hour episode.

ELEGY. The story begins with a phony looking rocket landing on an asteroid. Obviously, the rocket is just a drawing on a piece of glass, moving across a background of painted stars. Anyway, the interior of the rocket ship is convincing enough, as the control panel has a number of fascinating switches and gizmos. The ship lands and when the door opens and the ladder flips out, we see a farmyard. The three astronauts check a monitor that measures the atmosphere's content of oxygen and nitrogen, and they climb down the ladder to explore the asteroid. They encounter a dog, farmer, fisherman, and townspeople, all frozen.

The avid Twilight Zone consumer will also find frozen-person motif in other episodes, as it occurs in A KIND OF STOPWATCH (vol. 15), THE AFTER HOURS (vol. 11), and STILL VALLEY (vol. 18). In all these episodes, there is no blinking at all, though one can see occasional movement of the frozen people. Of these, A KIND OF STOPWATCH is the best of these stories.

The astronauts encounter a brass band, mayor, and townspeople, all frozen. They also encounter a beauty pageant, with the contestants all frozen. One of the astronauts screams, "What's wrong with you? What's wrong with everybody in this crazy place? Can't you talk? Answer me." This monologue will be familiar to those familiar with the rock'n'roll group, SKINNY PUPPY. SKINNY PUPPY has a song called, "200 Years," containing a sample from this same Twilight Zone episode. While I am not a big SKINNY PUPPY fan, I do like their song called, HARSH STONE WHITE. The purpose of the scene with the brass band and mayor, is so that the deceased person can enjoy running for mayor (throughout eternity). The purpose of the beauty pageant scene is so the deceased person (a dumpy fat lady) can enjoy winning first prize in a beauty pageant throughout eternity.

An astronaut speculates, "Maybe we're being made to see and hear what we want to find." Another astronaut speculates, "Or it could be that time is suspended here." Eventually, one of the persons on the asteroid makes himself known. He is a caretaker of the place, which is actually a cemetery. THREE STARS.

THE THIRTY-FATHOM GRAVE. This hour long episode goes by quickly. The story takes place on a navy ship. The ship encounters a sunken submarine, a WWII submarine that had been resting for 20 years. When the navy ship approaches and becomes aware of the submarine, one of the men, a reliable veteran of the navy, begins to hallucinate. As it turns out, the man had been aboard the same submarine when it was sunk and strafed by the Japanese. The acting and character development are first rate. In particular, what is excellent is the veteran's guilt feelings for escaping from the sunken submarine (all his shipmates having perished), and the captain's excellent response, a response intended to remove the man's guilty feelings. FOUR STARS.

A SHORT DRINK FROM A CERTAIN FOUNTAIN. An aging man finds himself too tired to keep up with the faster life style of his young wife, a girl in her twenties. She is a hottie who likes to party. The man's brother, a physician, sympathizes with the man's problems, and reluctantly administers an experimental youth serum. The story has an excellent surprise ending.

My complaints are as follows. The aging man really does not much appear old. Although his makeup shows that his skin to be wrinkled, the director should have put bags under his eyes, given him thick glasses, given him arthritis pains, given him a stooped appearance, and should have thinned his hair. The director should also have done a better job at depicting the wife's fast life style, e.g., by having her receive phone calls from younger men. THREE STARS

If you want a better disc, I would recommend any one of the following volumes: volume 2 (Time Enough at Last; Nightmare at 20,000 Feet), volume 3 (Kick the Can; Steel), volume 8 (To Serve Man), volume 9 (Nick of Time), volume 32 (Printer's Devil), volume 29 (Penny for Your Thoughts), or volume 39 (Mister Bevis; The Silence). Volumes 2 and 3 might be the greatest of them all.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More twisted tales from Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone", June 5, 2001

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

You will not find a common theme to the three episodes form "The Twilight Zone" on Volume 20 of the DVD collection. "Elegy," written by Charles Beaumont from his short story, finds three astronauts landing on an asteroid and discovering the place looks just like Earth, with buildings and people, except none of the people move. It is like being in a giant wax museum. Then they discover the one animate figure in the place, Jeremy Wickwire (Cecil Kellaway), the "caretaker," who explains the asteroid is a cemetery where people get to realize their greatest wish after they die. He then asks the astronauts what their greatest wish might be. A nice little tale, with Kellaway's performance making it work just fine. "The Thirty-Fathom Grave," an hour-long episode written by Rod Serling, a destroyer finds a sunken sub from which clanging sounds are coming. A diver investigates and hears tapping in response to his signals. Meanwhile, Chief Bell (Mike Kelin), is having a nervous breakdown and finally tells Captain Beecham (Simon Oakland), that he is the reason that sub was sunk during World War II. Bell insists he sees the ghosts of his dead crewmates and that they are beckoning him to join them. Like most episodes from that fourth season, this one would have been twice as good if it were half as long. "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain," written by Serling and based on an idea by Lou Holtz, finds millionaire Harmon Gordon (Patrick O'Neal) using an experimental youth serum invented by his brother (Walter Brooke) so that he can keep up with his gold-digger wife Flora (Ruta Lee). The serum works and Harmon starts getting younger, and younger, and younger. Even given the Twilight Zone, there is a nice twist to the end of this one. All in all, this volume is a slightly above average one in the series.