Music Banter - View Single Post - Trollheart Falls Into The Twilight Zone
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Old 08-04-2021, 05:42 AM   #34 (permalink)
rubber soul
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Okay. I'll do a quick review of the ones you've done up to now with my own rating (I rate A+ to F by the way and I use it by the standard of Twilight Zone episodes)

Where is Everybody- The pilot episode. Has it's good points. Earl Holliman was a quite successful actor in TV and movies, possibly best known for his role in Police Woman (no, he didn't play a woman). Another face you may recognize is James Gregory, an often seen character actor who would do more Twilight Zone's later. Not a bad pilot but I've seen better (Rating: B- ) (Note: I grade harder)

One for the Angels: I think I briefly mentioned this one. Ed Wynn is excellent as Bookman. This is the better of his two TZ appearances and it's a classic performance. Likewise, Murray Hamilton's performance as Mr. Death. Death, of course, is one of several themes Serling explores through TZ's run. I like this episode, it's fairly light-hearted and Mr. Death, while stern, is never cruel. (Rating: A-)

Mr. Denton on Doomsday- Serling also liked to set his Zones in the old west and this is one of the better of that genre. Al Denton (Dan Duryea) is excellent as the town drunk turned gunslinger. Martin Landau (I think you know him) more or less plays the villain in the piece and it's fun to see his young acting chops. Love that the seemingly sinister Henry J. Fate is actually trying to do good in his odd way. Solid episode to be sure (rating: B+ )

The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine- Yeah, this isn't one of my favorites either. Not terrible and I love Ida Lupino. Might note that the Twilight Zone wasn't very kind to actresses in general and even Lupino's performance as a washed up actress seems flat. Anyway, certainly watchable but not something I would jump up and watch at a moment's notice (rating:C)

PS- We're you in the Twilight Zone when you posted this three times?

Walking Distance- Now we definitely differ here. I think this falls more in the psychological vein as Martin Sloan (Gig Young), a middle aged man tired of the pressures of adulthood tries to discover a time when things seemed simpler. Especially liked the talk between him and his father (Frank Overton) who seems to sense that the adult Martin really is his son in the future. This is my favorite episode so far (rating:A)

PS- As for Ron Howard, you also forgot Opie

Escape Clause: Now you're come to my favorite TZ theme, the devil. It's also the first Zone that could be considered a comedy. David Wayne is excellent as the hypochondriac turned murderer Walter Bedeker when he make a deal with the devil (Thomas Gomez). He gets immortality and seems to make a fortune until he accidentally kills his wife and gets life. Given a choice of immortality behind bars and going to the depths of Hell, you can guess which choice he chose. (rating: A)

The Lonely: Corry (Jack Warden) is condemned on a distant asteroid and is given a female robot by a sympathetic captain of a ship that brings him supplies. Unfortunately he falls in love with the robot and the Captain has to shoot her to bring Corry back to reality so he can take him home. John Dehner, who will you see in other Twilight Zones and one of my faves, plays the Captain here and he's excellent. As far as the storyline goes though, well, it's okay, but... (rating: B)

Okay, that's page one. I'll comment on page two tomorrow.
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Last edited by rubber soul; 08-04-2021 at 12:29 PM.
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