June 22, 2023- numbers 72, 73, 74

Spoilers

“The Grave”

The Twilight Zone returned to the Old West for another story involving Lee Marvin and Roscoe P. Coltrane.

This episode was a creepy tale of fear and revenge. A local rapscallion named Pinto Sykes is gunned down by a crew of townsfolks. The man, Conny Miller, who had been hired by the town to hunt Pinto down, returned to the town to find out that Pinto was already dead and buried.

The townspeople told Conny that Pinto claimed on his deathbed that if Conny ever came to Pinto’s grave, that Pinto would reach up and grab him.

The others in the bar, led by Roscoe (I know his name was not Roscoe, but the actor, James Best, is best known by me for his role as the Sheriff on Dukes of Hazzard), laid wagers that Conny did not have the courage to go and kneel by Pinto’s graveside. Conny made he bet (though honestly, he was not really quick about it).

The next day, Conny was found dead over the grave.

This was very atmospheric and creepy. I liked most of this episode. The only issue I had was that Conny did not end up shooting Pinto, it was someone else in town. We only heard about Conny and Pinto’ relationship and we did not see any of it. Why did Pinto hold such a negative feeling toward Conny? I’m really not sure.

Lee Marvin and Lee Van Cleef appeared in this episode and both men are veterans of Western movies, lending a high level of credibility to the show.

“It’s a Good Life”

A monster story about the worst monster ever… a little boy named Anthony.

“Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there’s a little town there called Peaksville. On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines—because they displeased him—and he moved an entire community back into the dark ages—just by using his mind. Now I’d like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. This is Mr. Fremont. It’s in his farmhouse that the monster resides. This is Mrs. Fremont. And this is Aunt Amy, who probably had more control over the monster in the beginning than almost anyone. But one day she forgot. She began to sing aloud. Now, the monster doesn’t like singing, so his mind snapped at her, turned her into the smiling, vacant thing you’re looking at now. She sings no more. And you’ll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio have to smile. They have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because, once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought, he can feel every emotion. Oh yes, I did forget something, didn’t I? I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He’s six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you’d better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This is the Twilight Zone.”

We spent the episode watching the adults cower to this little boy, telling him how his bad behaviors were the right thing and how they were happy that he just killed thee people or created this three headed animal and then killed it.

I really wanted someone to step up and do something about Anthony. There was a time when one of the dinner party members, drunk as he was, tried to get the others to do something about the boy and he wound up getting turned into a jack-in-the-box and eventually sent to the “cornfield” which was a place Anthony sent all people who had negative thoughts.

Bill Mumy played Anthony after playing Billy in “Long Distance Call.” He was very sinister and unsettling as the little monster. I wish there was some form of resolution to the episode, but it is a well known, iconic episode.

“Deaths-Head Revisited”

One of the most haunting episodes of The Twilight Zone yet. Deaths-Head Revisited is a comment on the horrendous circumstances behind the concentration camps run by the Nazis before and during World War II.

A former Nazi SS captain, calling himself Schmidt, came to Dachau, Bavaria to go back to the Dachau concentration camp, walking around the compound, reveling in the remembrances and nostalgia. He is met by a man whom he takes as a caretaker of the camp. He does recognize the man as Alfred Becker, a former prisoner at the camp.

Becker takes Schmidt around the camp, as frightening sounds continued around. Finally, Becker told him that Captain Lutze (Schmidt’s real name) was to be put on trial for his crimes against humanity. Lutze realizes that Becker had been killed in Dachau years before and that this was a ghost facing him. Lutze wound up going mad, and would end up taken away in the present day to a mnetal instution.

The doctor who examined Lutze said “Dachau. Why does it still stand? Why do we keep it standing?” An answer mentioned in Serling’s closing narration:

“There is an answer to the doctor’s question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes; all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God’s Earth.”

The only criticism I have for this episode, which I found extremely powerful and haunting, was that I wish Lutze was not such a one-note villain. When he returned to Dachau, he was just as sinister, just as sadistic as he had ever been and he was outward about it. I would have like to have seen more than just the mustache-twirling villain that he was. Something with more layers would have made this even more powerful. Even still, this is one of my favorite episodes so far.