Customer Reviews

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 9

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

 

 

THE PRIME MOVER from the Second season aired on March 24, 1961 and was written by Charles Beaumont and is an episode that deserves repeated viewing. Dane Clark and Buddy Ebsen operate a small diner. When Clark discovers that Ebsen has telekinetic powers he drags him off to Vegas to make a killing at the casinos. This is a good-natured episode as opposed to THE FEVER on the allure and pitfalls of gambling. What really makes this episode so repeatedly viewable are the performances of Dane Clark and Buddy Ebsen. It's like water and oil. Clark is the "fly by the seat of your pants - happy go lucky guy" who will try anything for a dime. Ebsen stands for reason and patients. Ultimately we learn to use the tools we are given with a sense of responsibility tempered with passion. This is an excellently conceived and delivered episode. IT'S A GOOD LIFE from the Third season aired on November 3, 1961. It was written by Rod Serling and is one of the most famous episodes of the series. Serling's introduction, which leads up to Billy Mumy's wide-eyed stare into the camera, is an indelible and disturbing image. The jack-in-the-box scene is also unforgettable and equally disturbing. Even Serling's dialogue is so memorable and conjures up images of fear. Just the mention of "the cornfield" sends chills down the back. Anyone who has seen this episodes knows what I am referring to. Anyone who has not must see it! The excellent cast includes John Larch, Cloris Leachman, Tom Hatcher and we must not forget Billy Mumy. Director Jim Sheldon really captured the fear and terror of the captive inhabitants of this rural community. NICK OF TIME from the Second season aired on November 18, 1960 and was written by Richard Matheson. Traveling newlyweds William Shatner and Patricia Breslin stop in a luncheonette while their car is being repaired. While in a booth an ever-confident Shatner puts a coin into a fortune-telling machine adorned with the bobbling head of a smiling plastic devil. Each question and answer begins to make Shatner question his fate to the point that he becomes unraveled about his future. Thematically this is similar to THE FEVER where just one more coin in the machine may give you solace. This is a fascinating episode that bears repeated viewing just to observe the ease at which one can be drawn in. However, the denouement makes the morality of the story clear. THE MIND AND THE MATTER directed by Buzz Kulik from the Second season aired on May 12, 1961 and was written by Rod Serling. Clerk, Shelly Berman eliminates people from the face of the earth by using the power of thought that he mastered from a book given to him. He soon repopulates the planet with people who look exactly like him with disconcerting results. Though lighthearted in nature this episode attempts to reveal life as others view each of us. Be careful of what you wish for. Volume 9 is a good well-balanced representation of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Not one of the best, but a very fun one. "Nick of Time" stars a young William Shatner. In that one, he gets hooked on a machine that gives you fortunes.

"The Prime Mover" stars Buddy Ebsen as Jimbo Cobb. He can move things with his mind, so he and his partner Ace set out for Las Vegas to win a million bucks.

"The Mind and the Matter" is a black comedy with Shelly Berman. He learns how to use mind powers, and eliminates every man and woman on earth.

"It's a Good Life" is one of the greatest episodes ever made. It stars Billy Mumy as Anthony Fremont, who has mind control. When someone thinks something bad about him, he'll wish that person into the cornfield. One of the best, with John Larch and Cloris Leachman as co stars.

This is one of the few DVD's in the collection that you could actually consider conceptual: somehow all episodes deal with the powers of the mind. Who wants to know the future? William Shatner's character does, but does he realizes the price? Find out in "Nick of Time" (Season 2). "The Prime Mover" (Season 2), is about telekinesis at the service of a gambler... and that equals risky business. "It's a Good Life" (Season 3), stars a very young Billy Mummy with incredible and dangerous powers. Finally "The Mind and the Matter" (Season 2) shows a guy how the power of thought can create his perfect world.

"The Mind and the Matter" stars comedian Shelley Berman. Serling wrote the script for a few comedian in mind, before settling with Berman. The scene with Berman as a woman in the elevator was Berman's idea -- Serling went home and rewrote the scene that evening so the next day they were able to film that. "It's a Good Life" is a classic. Jack Harris was responsible for the stop-motion animation for the dinosaurs in this episode. The original script called for Dan Hollis' head to be sewed onto a snake -- not a jack in the box.

The stock footage of the car rolling on the transistors originated from the movie THUNDER ALLEY. "Nick of Time" was one of Richard Matheson's favorite episodes. Like many of his stories, it plays in real time (24 - 25 minutes).

Trivia above supplied not from the DVD, but from the book, "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic" because the 800 plus page book is a P-E-R-F-E-C-T companion to the DVD. Before or after you watch an episode, you can use the book to uncover the in-jokes, bloopers and trivia that make viewing these episodes fun. Both are available on Amazon.

I just got this DVD for Christmas and two out of the four are some of my favorite episodes!
I remember being scared watching "It's a Good Life". How could a little boy wish people into a cornfield? and "Nick of Time" was a favorite because...well, William Shatner (need I say more).
I wouldn't suggest TZ to younger kids now a days but for us older;) folks I'd say this disc a definitely worth buying.

Two classics and two whimsical pieces are found on Volume 9 in "The Twilight Zone" DVD series. William Shatner makes his first appearance in the Zone as Don Carter in "Nick of Time," a classic written by Richard Matheson. On his honeymoon with Pat (Patricia Breslin), the happy couple stop in Ridgeview, Ohio to have their car repaired. While waiting they go to the local diner where the superstitious Don becomes convinced that the table top fortune telling machine is really predicting the future (Just think of the Magic 8 Ball from Hell). One of Matheson's best stories and a nice restrained performance from Shatner. "The Prime Mover" was written by Charles Beaumont based on an unpublished story by George Clayton Johnson. Buddy Ebsen plays Jimbo Cobb, who has telekinetic powers. When his friend Ace Larsen (Dane Clark) learns Jimbo's secret, they go on a very successful gambling spree until Jimbo's mind blows a fuse.

"It's a Good Life" written by Rod Serling and based on Jerome Bixby's short story, is one of the most memorable and frightening episode in the series history. Billy Mumy is Anthony Fremont, a six-year old boy who is absolutely in charge of Peaksville, Ohio. Cloris Leachman is among the terrified adults who have to consider everything little Anthony does to be a "good thing." Mumy's performance is outstanding and the episode features the longest introduction by Serling in the show's history. This is one of the episodes that was redone, to lesser effect, in "The Twilight Zone: The Movie." "The Mind and the Matter" tells a slightly similar but different tale about Archibald Beechcroft (Shelley Berman), who hates people so much he reads a book on mind power and makes everybody else disappear. Then he repopulates the world with people just like him and discovers he does not like them very much. The first and third episodes on this DVD are "Twilight Zone" classics, good enough to warrant 5 stars for this particular volume.

I hate in the ep Stopover In A Quiet Town when they are panning to Rod Serling you can see the studio background showing the house Bob and Millie Frazier are in is really a studio. They pan in a similar way in the ep about the old lady getting the strange phonecalls, too. Other than the eps are usually great (unless they're sappy like Kick The Can).About Adam West (Batman). Yes he was never on the original TZ and what a pity! He was perfect for the TZ. In one ep Caesar and Me, Stafford Repp (later Chief O'Hara on Batman with Adam West) was in it. There is a character in Caesar and Me named Jonathon WEST! Also the name in the title Caesar, a Dummy (like Caesar Romero who played the Joker on Batman!) and this Caesar tells jokes! Was the writer of Caesar and Me psychic? I believe so! If there are alternate universes I feel there Adam West was on The Twiight Zone!