Customer Reviews

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 23

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The four episodes collected on Volume 23 of "The Twilight Zone" DVD series do not share a similar theme, although two deal with the supernatural search for justice while the other pair feature the problem having too much time can cause love. So you can see two pairs of episodes from the celebrated television anthology series created by Rod Serling without stretching too far.

Episode 24, "Long Live Walter Jameson" (Written by Charles Beaumont, First aired March 18, 1960) features the familiar face of Kevin McCarthy ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers") in the title role. Jameson bought the gift of immortality two thousand years ago from an alchemist and has seen all of his wives, children and friends grow old and die over and over again. Now he wants it all to be over. This first season episode features some nice special effects work with makeup as Jameson ages rapidly at the end.

Episode 83, "Dead Man's Shoes (Written by Beaumont and OCee Ritch, First aired January 19, 1962), begins with Nate Bledsoe (Warren Stevens) putting on a pair of expensive shoes taken from a murdered gangsters. The dead man's spirit takes over Bledsoe's body and tracks down his killer, refusing to be denied vengeance. Rather straight forward this is an average "Zone" at best. However, if you were watching the second version of "The Twilight Zone" in 1985, you might have caught the remake of this episode as "Dead Woman's Shoes."

Episode 134, "You Drive" (Written by Earl C. Hamner, Jr., First aired January 3, 1964) tells of Oliver Pope (Edward Andrews), who kills someone in a hit-and-run accident and then discovers that his car will not let him forget what he has done. A nice little chiller from the man who created "The Waltons," who usually wrote the kindler, gentler episodes of the "Zone." The result is what you would call an average episode.

Episode 135, "The Long Morrow" (Written by Rod Serling, First aired January 10, 1964) features a fine performance from Robert Lansing as Commander Douglas Stansfield. Before leaving for deep space Stansfield meets Sandra Horn (Mariette Hartley). The two fall in love, but Stansfield's mission will take 30 years, during most of which he will be kept in suspended animation. After he leaves, Sandra has herself put into hibernation. But you know the course of true love never runs smooth in the Zone. You can see the O. Henry ending coming, but still a nice episode. No classics this time around, but certainly a solid collection of "Zone" episodes none the less.

I bought this for "Long Live Walter Jameson" and "The Long Morrow." They're still great after 30+ years. These DVD's are a great bargain.

The original Twilight Zone is my all-time favorite TV series, ahead of Seinfeld and the original Star Trek. And this volume contains one of my Top 5 TZ episodes of all time (Long Live Walter Jameson).

Long Live Walter Jameson - Absolutely first rate and fascinating story of a 2000 year-old man (brilliantly played by Kevin McCarthy of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers) with amazing special effects for a show produced in the 1960's.

Dead Man's Shoes - Interesting story with a solid performances.

You Drive - An average TZ episode with a nice morality twist.

The Long Morrow - Touching love story with an ironic ending.

I wonder and I keep wondering why there is no order in this collection. It could have been season by season, or according to the episode numbers, to the air dates or even conceptual (horror, time travel, extraterrestrials, etc). In this DVD, you can find a little bit of everything (different seasons and subjects). First we have an episode from season one ("Long Live Walter Jameson), which is -by far- the best episode found here: a history expert is actually an immortal being. From the third season we have "Dead Man's Shoes", gangster's shoes actually, with a terrible curse. Both of these shows were written by Charles Beaumont. After that we get two episodes from the fifth and final season, "You Drive", a highly probable inspiration for Stephen King's Christine or "The Car", and "The Long Morrow" -the only story here written by creator Rod Serling- with a space sci-fi plot... The extra features in the DVD are cool

First and foremost, these all have great ideas (the Shoes and Walter Jameson, at least), but all are horribly done. Bad dialogue, (which is one of the main reasons I watch TZ) saturates everything, not to mention the shifty acting.

Long Live Walter Jameson is the reason I bought this DVD. Being a huge fan of TZ and owning several DVD's I must say this is the weakest set of episodes I have seen yet.

Long Live Walter Jameson was much worse than I remember it being after seeing it on tv. Sure, the idea is brilliant, but the dialogue is weak, and quite simply, again, bad acting.

Ok, so Walter Jameson is the best on the DVD and I would give it a 2 1/2. The Shoes, a 2 the other two, -1's...

Sorry guys, but this is a dud, I was so blown away by how bad they were that I had to write this.