Customer Reviews

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 37

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

 

 

This is not one of the better volumes in the Twilight Zone collections, but I still enjoyed it. In the first story, "Hocus-Pocus And Frisby"(good title), Andy Devine plays Frisby, a big blowhard whose boasts force aliens to kidnap him. In the second story, "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville", Albert Salmi plays William Feathersmith, a financier who the Devil(a very fetching Julie Newmar) sends back in time to 1910 to start over. In the final story, "Mr. Garrity and the Graves", John Dehner plays Mr. Garrity, a con man who claims he can bring back the dead. But the townspeople pay him, not to resurrect the dead, but to unresurrect them. There was only one episode I didn't like here: "Of Late..." wasn't a good story; it was predictable and I didn't like the age makeup, it wasn't convincing enough. However, I enjoyed the two other stories. "Hocus Pocus and Frisby" was a comedy/fantasy that had a good ending, similar to "the boy that cried wolf". "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" was funny, too. John Dehner's performance was really marvelous. I give this set a 3 because I didn't like the music they used in the two episodes "Hocus-Pocus" and "Mr. Garrity" because I don't enjoy "Old-Western" harmonica.

..."Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" is the reason for this DVD to be sought after...Julie Newmar of course steals the show, though Albert Salmi is not without interest (but it is his weakest TZ episode...see "A Quality of Mercy" for his best TZ performance [there were three total]). Unfortunately "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" and fifth season "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" are not as commendable. However, like almost all TZ episodes, they are of great merit in comparison to the vast majority of things being aired on television then or now. The hour long episode DVD's are especially valuable because these fourth season episodes are rarely shown at all in syndication (and of course TZ is always cut in syndication anyway).

HOCUS-POCUS AND FRISBY is a science fiction story starring Andy Devine. Howard Near, famous for his roll of Floyd the Barber in the Andy Griffith show, has a minor part in this story. The story is a fine one. It is not a great story, but it is fun watching over and over, in view of the abundantly likeable Andy Devine. In a nutshell, Mr.Devine is the owner of a small shop in a country village, some time in the present era (early 1960s). Some aliens drive up in an automobile, and they request a fill up. The aliens look like ordinary businessmen, but they are really aliens. Their goal is to confirm that the man they met is really Andy Devine. This goal arose from their intelligence sources who informed the aliens that Mr.Devine is the smartest human being on earth. This information arose from the fact that Mr.Devine had a habit of bragging of his remarkable accomplisments in the fields of science, politics, and the humanities. At any rate, the aliens make a mistake in thinking Mr.Devine to be the most intelligent man on earth, and they then kidnap him. Their spaceship is the same, exact flying saucer seen in the famed T.Z. episode, TO SERVE MAN. But the aliens in HOCUS-POCUS AND FRISBY are not the same aliens as in TO SERVE MAN. In HOCUS-POCUS AND FRISBY the aliens look more like frogs. At any rate the surprise ending takes the form of Andy Devine's unusal technique in escaping from the flying saucer. The storyline is not much to speak of, but the local color, and Andy Devine's splended mannerisms and character, are what keep this story humming with charm.

OF LATE I THINK OF CLIFFORDVILLE features Albert Salmi, who plays a business executive who engineers the takeover of smaller companies, with the goal of destroying careers of upper management in the target companies. This kind of scenario happens to dozens of companies per year (or perhaps more) in the United States of America. But since this is a T.Z. episode, there is a slight twist. The Devil pays Mr.Salmi a visit one night, and they make a deal. The deal is that Mr.Salmi can go back in time by about 50 years and retain everything he knows. Mr.Salmi eagerly agrees, since he knows the location of natural resources, such as oil, and a general knowledge inventions, such as engines, motors, and pharmaceuticals. But when Mr.Salmi goes back in time, he is in for a rude surprise. First, all of his business colleagues, including the janitor (actor Wright King), have counterpart citizens in the town back in time. Secondly, Mr.Salmi discovers that simply knowing that a particular invention will be invented some day, is not quite enough to actually having somebody build it. The most delightful part of this story is when Mr.Salmi strikes a business deal with two businessmen, and where the two businessmen delight in the fact that they had tricked Mr.Salmi. As part of this delightful trick, Mr.Salmi gets stuck with the ugly daughter of one of the businessmen. One of the business partners, actor John Anderson, has been in about 40 movies, and in hundreds of television episodes.

The plot of CLIFFORDVILLE is one of the better T.Z. plots. My only complaint is that Mr.Salmi has a grating voice, and he is not such a pleasant actor. Mr.Salmi is in a couple of other T.Z. plots, A QUALITY OF MERCY (where his acting is just right) and in EXECUTION (where his grating quality is way over the top, and gets on ones nerves).

MR. GARRITY AND THE GRAVES is one of the greatest of the T.Z. stories. John Dehner plays the main character. Mr. Dehner has starred in dozens of movies, often as a villain. Fans of cowboy movies from the 1960s will be glad to see Percy Helton as one of the minor characters. Percy Helton is renowned for his raspy voice (along with actor John Fiedler), and for acting in many cowboy movies, such as Ride the High Country, 4 for Texas (with Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Gunsmoke, as well as in various thriller films and detective movies. At any rate, John Dehner plays a charlatan who convinces people that he can bring dead people to life. This particular town, which is a frontier town in the wild west, is distinguished in that many of the former residents are dead. What also distinguishes the dead people, is that their living relatives hate them, and prefer that they remain dead. Mr.Dehner's scheme, which is a complete success, is to collect bribe money from all of the living relatives, where the goal of the bribe is to prevent Mr.Dehner from bringing the deceased back to life. MR.GARRITY AND THE GRAVES is one of the greatest T.Z. stories for several reasons. First, the acting of the "character actors" is superb. The term "character actors" is a term of the genre, meaning people who are exceptionally skilled at playing a certain type of character, such as a bartender, and play this type of role in many, many movies. Second, there are few people who can resist watching a little story occurring in a little frontier town in the wild American west. Third, the scriptwriter was in total command of the story from start to finish. There is not one line that is out of place. And fourth, there is an excellent surprise ending.

I have a whole stack of episodes from this series.I wouldn't say every episode is brilliant,but some realy leave you thinking.Here is a good selection from the series.Makes me wonder at times where they got the ideas for these episodes.There is nothing quite like it on Tv these days,they rely too much on special effects rather than a good script and fine acting.The twists and turns to each episode keep you interested.