Customer Reviews

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 31

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

 

 

This DVD features "Miniature" with Robert Duvall as Charley Parks. This one is such a sweet episode because he falls in love with this doll!

"The Jeopardy Room" is the best one on this DVD. It features Martin Landau trapped in a room with a ticking bomb and a gun pointing at his head. It's a great episode and I love it.

"Stopover in a Quiet Town" is one of the most remembered episodes of the series. It's when two people go to this town but everything is fake. There's no sign of anyone, except the evidence of the laughter of a little girl.

It's the best one released so far next to More Treasures, two, and fifteen.

The 4th and 5th seasons of the "Twilight Zone" always seem to get poor marks for originality and production values. This DVD can testify to the contrary. `MINIATURE' written by Charles Beaumont is a tour-de-force of underplaying a role by Robert Duvall. This is a beautiful story of an introverted man that escapes the real world into a fantasy one when he becomes intrigued by a museum's miniature replica of life in the 1890's. `THE JEOPARDY ROOM' written by Rod Serling and directed by Dick Donner seems more akin to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" but is a good play on words and strategies between Martin Landau and John VanDreelen with it `cold war' views and interpolations. It is still a story of the individual who must emerge from a society that would suppress personal freedoms. `STOPOVER IN A QUIET TOWN' is one of the most memorable episodes from the series. The Earl Hamner, Jr. story starring Barry Nelson and Nancy Malone as the stranded couple who wake up in a deserted middle class neighborhood returns back to the very origins of the series with a quite innovative ending. These are all well produced episodes and are very representative to the theme of the series.

The three episodes featured in this volume of The Twilight Zone are either from the fourth or fifth seasons of the Zone, arguably the 2 worst seasons of the series.
"Miniature" hails from the hour-long episode season (the fourth). It tells the tale of a young man (Robert Duvall) obsessed with what he believes to be a living doll (Claire Griswold) residing in a doll house. While good, it, like most of the hour episodes, could probably been written to be shorter. I should state however, that it succeeds more than most of the hour episodes.
The last 2 episodes on the disc are from the fifth season.
"Stopover In a Quiet Town" stars Barry Nelson (James Bond in the TV adaptation of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale) and Nancy Malone as a squabbling couple who wake up after a late night party (where the booze apparently flowed freely) and find themselves in a small town that seems to be devoid of life. A somewhat spooky atmosphere is destroyed by the creative ending (creative until you think about it for a minute, that is). Despite this, it's still fun. It feels similar to Rod Serling's superior "Where Is Everybody?" (the series' pilot episode).It was written by the guy who wrote The Waltons.
The last (though not least) episode is entitled: "The Jeopardy Room" (but Alex Trebek is nowhere to be seen!) and stars Martin Landau (North By Northwest, X-Files: Fight The Future, Ed Wood) as Major Ivan Kuchenko, a man desperately trying to escape into the West. He is put through a fiendish test by Commissar Vassiloff, an agent assigned to kill him. This is a good thriller (if but a little too simple) remenisant of Hitchcock's style. It was directed by Richard Donner, later to become famnous for directing Superman: The Movie and the Lethal Weapon series.
All three episodes are enjoyable, though none are really extraordinary. 3 stars is a fair rating in my book.

I love this Twilight Zone! I can watch it over and over and Never get bored! lol about all the Twilight zones are my favorites! Thank You out there for having these DVD's for me to watch! I am a disabled stay at home mom that really enjoys Tv shows, movies and many other various activities I enjoy! outside of the house! :D Have a good day! Keep up the good Sells!

Three more greats from Rod Serling and THE TWILIGHT ZONE, including the "lost" episode, entitled "Miniature". Caught up in legal red tape for many years (which prevented it's inclusion in the show's original syndication package), "Miniature" tells the story of a shy young man, suffocated by his mother and misunderstood by co-workers, who finds an unexpected friend in a local museum - the tiny doll inside an antique doll's house. Robert Duvall, in one of his early starring performances, brings many layers to his role; and the supporting cast includes Pert Kelton, Claire Griswold and Barbara Barrie. Part of the hour-long fourth season, "Miniature"'s spellbinding story benefits from the extended running time. Two thumbs up from me.

The ZONE's familiar fantasy/sci-fi elements take a backseat in "The Jeopardy Room", a suspenseful story with action and political intrigue, about a Soviet defector (played by Martin Landau); whilst the show revisits "Where Is Everybody?" territory in the chilling "Stopover in a Quiet Town"--with one heck of a twist ending!

Episodes:

"Miniature" (Season Four, Episode #8) - Charley Parkes (Robert Duvall) is a shy bachelor who discovers a miniature doll, apparently alive, inside a 19th century dollhouse. Fascinated, he whiles away the hours peering into this little world, and wishing he was a part of it.

"The Jeopardy Room" (Season Five, Episode #29) - In a deadly game of cat and mouse, Soviet defector Major Ivan Kuchenko (Martin Landau) has three hours to escape from a room with a ticking time-bomb and a gun pointing at his head.

"Stopover in a Quiet Town" (Season Five, Episode #30) - Bob and Millie Frazier (Barry Nelson and Nancy Malone) awaken to find themselves in a strange town, where everything appears to be fake. There are no other people, though they can hear the giggling of a little girl...

Extras are the same as on the other TWILIGHT ZONE volumes (short essays on the featured episodes, a season-by-season breakdown of the show, and Rod Serling's bio).

This episode is my favorite of all the Twlight Zone series. However, I was disappointed the dialogue is missing. I got a replacement from Amazon and the same condition exists. Maybe there was a bad production run, but it is surely frustrating.