Trollheart

Title: “What You Need”
Original transmission date: December 25 1959
Written by: Rod Serling, based on Lewis Padgett’s short story
Directed by: Alvin Ganzer
Starring: Steve Cochran as Fred Renard
Ernest Truex as Pedott
Arline Sax as Girl in Bar
Read Morgan as Lefty

Setting: Earth
Timeframe: Present (at the time)
Theme(s): Greed, hubris, prediction of the future, intimidation
Parodied? Not to my knowledge, no
Rating: A



Serling’s opening monologue


You're looking at Mr. Fred Renard, who carries on his shoulder a chip the size of the national debt. This is a sour man, a friendless man, a lonely man, a grasping, compulsive, nervous man. This is a man who has lived thirty-six undistinguished, meaningless, pointless, failure-laden years and who at this moment looks for an escape—any escape, any way, anything, anybody—to get out of the rut. And this little old man is just what Mr. Renard is waiting for.


A little old man enters a bar selling things on a tray. He approaches a young girl, who off-handedly offers to buy some matches from him, but he tells her she doesn't need matches, and produces instead a bottle of cleaning fluid, guaranteed, he says, to remove any stain. He then heads to the bar where a man sits alone, but this man tells him the old guy doesn’t have what he needs. He used to be a baseball pitcher, it seems, till he hurt his arm and now he just comes in and sits at the bar mourning his loss. After thinking about it, the old man hands him a bus ticket to Scranton, Pennsylvania, telling him this is what he needs.

Just then he gets a phone call, a job to coach a junior league team in… Scranton, Pa! Amazed, he asks the old man how he knew, but the little guy just shrugs. Lamenting the fact that the only jacket he has is stained, the ex-pitcher is further astonished when the girl at the table comes up with her stain remover to help, and suddenly romance is in the air. Watching all this, our protagonist accosts the old man outside the bar, demanding to know what it is he needs, but the old guy seems reluctant, afraid of the guy. He’s quite pushy, and rough, and a lot bigger than the old man. After some thought, the old man hands him a pair of scissors. The guy is not impressed, but takes them anyway, and when he goes back to his hotel has good need of them, as his scarf gets caught in the lift doors as he goes up, and he has to cut it off in order to save himself from being choked to death.

Deciding that the old man has something, Renard goes to his rooms and waits for him, telling him he now has a partner, and they’re - read, he’s - going to make lots of money out of this talent the old guy has. When the old man protests Renard will hear none of it, even the warning that the gift must not be squandered; he demands to know what he needs, and is given a pen, which leaks ink onto a newspaper, onto the name of a horse running in a race the next day. Initially angry at being given the leaky old pen, Renard is ecstatic, and goes off to place the bet.

He wins, but it’s not enough for him, and when he tries to work the same trick again on tomorrow’s paper, no dice. The pen no longer leaks. Furious, he goes to find the old man again, who warns him every gift can only be given once. He tells Renard he can’t give him what the guy most needs - peace, serenity, a sense of humour, patience - and Renard demands more, so he gives him a pair of shoes, but these shoes cause him to slip in the wet street and be run over by a car. Should have listened!


Serling’s closing monologue


Street scene, night. Traffic accident. Victim named Fred Renard, gentleman with a sour face to whom contentment came with difficulty. Fred Renard, who took all that was needed—in The Twilight Zone.


The Resolution

Fairly obvious something nasty was going to happen to the nasty Mr. Renard, though when he takes the shoes you’re not too sure. Nevertheless, when he mentions the soles are leather and cause him to slip, it’s easy to guess what’s coming.

The Moral

If someone helps you, be happy and don’t push for more. Some gifts were meant to be bestowed sparingly, and only to those who need them. Don’t try to monetise Fate.

Personal notes

The barman is less than sympathetic to the ex-pitcher, laughing at his misfortune. It’s hardly the accepted thing for barmen to do, is it? Keep the customer happy, commiserate with him if necessary, but don’t mock him!


Questions, and sometimes, Answers

When Renard’s scarf gets caught in the lift doors, why doesn’t he just take it off? That would be the natural thing to do, but he just keeps pulling at it. It’s not like there’s no way to wind it off his neck.

If the little old guy knew Renard was going to kill him, why did he let things progress to the point where he got the shoes? Was it necessary for Renard to choose the manner of his own death? Or did the pedlar hope his tormentor would somehow realise and manage to change his own fate? Was he giving him a chance?

We assume the ex-pitcher and the girl hook up, but it’s never shown. They don’t leave together, or if they do, we don’t see it. Guess we’re just supposed to come to the obvious conclusion?

Themes

Greed and hubris stand large on this episode; not happy that his life has been saved (when he didn’t even know it would be in danger) Renard sees the old man’s ability as a moneymaking scheme, and if he can’t persuade him to take him on as a partner, he’ll threaten him to do so. His hubris becomes his undoing, as he puts on the slippery shoes and brings about his own end.

The theme of predicting the future is nothing new, but the series would use that again and again; the idea of concentrating such a potentially world-shattering power in one so small and inoffensive, and the power being used for the smallest, most personal things, shows perhaps that the old guy realises what damage could be done if his power was used for darker purposes.

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