The Twilight Zone

Amazon.com

Volume 21 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection is a real keeper, beginning with "Mirror Image," a classic first-season episode starring Vera Miles as a woman whose sense of reality is shattered when she encounters her exact double in a bus station. Her fear of being "replaced" reaches a fever pitch, despite the efforts of a fellow passenger (Martin Milner) to calm her frenzied nerves. As the woman is taken away for psychiatric examination, her terror turns out to be entirely justified--emphasizing paranoia as one of Rod Serling's favored themes. The second-season entry "Dust" is pale by comparison--a lethargic tale of magic in the Old West that redeems a man about to be hanged for drunkenly running over a little girl with his wagon. He's saved from the noose by a bit of "magic dust," but the true pardon has come, of course, from the Twilight Zone.

"Five Characters in Search of an Exit," scripted by Serling, is a third-season highlight in which the titular characters--clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and army major--are trapped in a giant cylinder, with no understanding of how they got there. The truth provides the kind of O. Henry twist that was Serling's specialty, and the performances by William Windom and Murray Matheson (as the belligerent major and carefree clown, respectively) offer a delightful study in dramatic contrast. Finally, "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" is a casualty from TZ's fifth season--a badly rewritten story (originally scripted by acclaimed series contributor George Clayton Johnson) starring veteran screen comedian Ed Wynn as an old man who's convinced he will die if his treasured grandfather clock ceases to tick. Robbed of its dramatic impact by a soft ending that compromises Clayton's original idea, the episode remains entertaining on the strength of Wynn's endearing performance. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Episodes: "Mirror Image" (Ep. 21, February 26, 1960) - When Millicent Barnes (Vera Miles) spies her exact double at a bus station, she becomes convinced that the double is trying to take her place. Fellow passenger Paul Grinstead (Martin Milner) thinks she's crazy--at first. "Dust" (Ep. 48, January 6, 1961) - A man is about to be hanged for drunkenly running over a little girl in a decaying town. But when the girl's anguished father (Vladimir Sokoloff) flings "magic dust" into the air, a change comes over the squalid village. "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (Ep. 79, December 22, 1961) - A clown, a hobo, a ballet dancer, a bagpipe player and an army major are trapped together in an enormous cylinder. They don't know who they are or how they got there. But when the major tries to escape, they finally learn the truth. "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" (Ep. 132, December 20, 1963) - Sam Forstmann (Ed Wynn) believes that he will die if his grandfather clock stops. When the clock does begin to wind down, Sam must face his deepest fear.

Customer Reviews:

Very Good!.......2003-10-15

All of the episodes on this DVD are fine, especially the surreal "Five Characters in Search of an Exit." "Ninety Years without Slumbering" is a charming script, even if the ending is a little weak. Ed Wynn is superb throughout as an elderly gentleman who suffers from a delusion involving an heirloom grandfather clock. I wouldn't want to reveal the endings of any of the episodes, so you'll just have to trust me that they are three good ones. In short, you can't go wrong with this DVD.

Five Stars in Search of a Review..........2000-07-07

... just kidding. "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" is one of the best Twilight Zone episodes ever, and it is included in this DVD. Written by series creator Rod Serling, it is obviously based on "Six Characters in Search of an Author", a 1921 theater play by italian Luigi Pirandello, which also inspired Paul Sartre's "No Exit". It's a claustrophobic story about a soldier, a ballet dancer, a clown, a musician and a wonderer trapped in a cilinder shaped room with no doors... the outcome is sorpresive, incredibly original and terrifying. Vincenzo Natali, a canadian filmmaker, also took a very similar ground for his sci-fi movie "The Cube"... The other episodes included are "Mirror Image" (Season 1) where a woman finds a "double" of herself (scary), "Dust" (Season 2) about a man's execution and "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" (Season 5), about a man that believes that his life depends on his grandfather's clock . This last episode is the only one not written by Serling on this DVD.

DVD:

DVD

DVD