Title: “One For the Angels”
Original transmission date: October 9 1959
Written by: Rod Serling
Directed by: Robert Parrish
Starring:
Ed Wynn as Lewis J. “Lew” Bookman
Murray Hamilton as Mr. Death
Dana Dillaway as Maggie Polanski
Setting: Earth
Timeframe: Present (at the time)
Theme(s): Arrogance and sacrifice
Parodied? Not to my knowledge, no
Rating: C-
Serling’s opening monologue
Street scene: summer, the present. Man on the sidewalk named Lew Bookman, sixtyish, occupation: pitchman. Lew Bookman, a fixture of the summer, a rather minor component to a hot July; a nondescript, commonplace little man to whom life is a treadmill, built out of sidewalks. But in just a moment Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survival, because as of three o’clock this hot July afternoon, he’ll be stalked by Mr. Death.
Lew Bookman, as described above, a nobody who scratches a meagre living trying to sell knick knacks, cheap toys and items from a collapsible stall is interviewed by a man in a dark suit who seems very interested in him. Turns out he’s Death, and our Mr. Bookman is due to shuffle off this mortal coil at midnight. Trying to forestall his “departure”, as “Mister Death” - yeah, that’s what he calls him, give me a break - refers to his imminent demise, Bookman tells him that he’s always wanted to do the perfect pitch - one for the angels. Intrigued, Death agrees. But Bookman believes he has fooled Death, intending, having gained the stay of execution, as it were, never to pitch again, and so not have to die.
Death is not happy. He tells Bookman that there will be consequences, and indeed there are. Maggie, a little child who lives in his building, is run over, and Death shows Bookman that if he thinks he’s so smart, trying to cheat him, he’ll find he doesn’t know who he’s messing with. When it becomes clear that Maggie can see Death - and Death has informed him that only those who are to die can see him - Bookman realises what he has done. He tries to go back on the deal, offer himself in Maggie’s stead, but that ship has sailed.
When he is told by Death that he has to be in Maggie’s room at precisely midnight, Bookman delays him by, well, pitching for the angels. At the end of his pitch he offers himself as a servant to Death, and that’s it really: he interests Death so much in his stock that the Reaper forgets about Maggie and misses his appointment. The girl will live, and Bookman is happy to go with Death in her place.
Serling’s closing monologue
Lewis J. Bookman, age sixtyish, occupation: pitchman. Formerly, a fixture of the summer, formerly a rather minor component to a hot July. But throughout his life a man beloved by the children, and therefore a most important man. Couldn’t happen, you say? Probably not, in most places. But it did happen in the Twilight Zone.
The Resolution
One word: ridiculous. How anyone could believe that the personification of death would be remotely interested in such mundane items as ties, ribbon and string, certainly to the extent that he would neglect his charge and forget the time, is unthinkable.
The Moral
The only one I can think of is when it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go.
Oh, and don’t drink seven bottles of Johnnie Walker Black before trying to write, Rod!
Those clever little touches
One of the first things we see - almost the first - on Bookman’s tray is a toy Robbie the Robot, the movie that would go on to gain a cult following and be hailed as one of the most important science fiction films of all time,
Forbidden Planet, having been released a mere three years previously.
Bookman asks Mr. Death (really?
) if he is a census taker? In a way, yes he is: the ultimate census taker.
Questions, and Sometimes, Answers
Only one really: how could a writer of Serling’s calibre write such unadulterated crap? Also, considering he too was pitching his series, how could he expect that this could stand as a second episode, after the far superior pilot? And how did the series not get cancelled (thankfully) when the execs saw this? Okay that’s three questions: wanna fight about it?
Themes
Although Bookman is seen as a fairly sympathetic, even pathetic man, we soon learn that he is devious and cunning, as he outwits Mr. Death by fooling him into allowing an extension to his intended date of death and then cites his intention to do all he can to avoid meeting the terms of the contract. It’s pretty arrogant of him; he thinks he’s really smart and clever, but Mr. Death has the last laugh when he then substitutes the young Maggie to go in his stead, and Bookman has to back down. By now though it is too late and so we see his skills as a pitchman (look, just let me get through this, okay? It’s painful enough as it is) used to delay Mr. Death and cause him to miss his appointment to take Maggie, then sacrifice himself, which kind of is no real sacrifice as he was slated to go anyway. One would think that, with his failure to reap Maggie, the contract would have reverted back to Bookman? Maybe not, but I think it might have done.
Anyway, that’s all the time I wish to spend on this blight on an otherwise superb series. Consign it to the trash bin of history, and let’s move on.