Speaker 1: You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond
Speaker 1: it is another dimension, a dimension of sound, and a
Speaker 1: dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into
Speaker 1: a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas.
Speaker 1: You just crossed over into the twilight zone.
Speaker 2: In sixteen seventy four, Marjorie Halcrowes Kind of Chanside in
Speaker 2: Scotland died and was buried in a shallow grave by
Speaker 2: a grave digger who planned to read that night to
Speaker 2: steal her jury. But when he returned to do the
Speaker 2: dastardly deed, he attempted to cut off her finger and
Speaker 2: steal her ring. But she woke up. But not only
Speaker 2: did she wake up, she went on to live for
Speaker 2: many more years and even gave birth to two sons
Speaker 2: in that time. In the eighteen fifties, a young girl
Speaker 2: visiting family in South Carolina died of diphtheria, and this
Speaker 2: was a time when containment of the disease was paramount,
Speaker 2: so she was intered in the family mausoleum to stop
Speaker 2: the spread of the disease from her corpse. Some years later,
Speaker 2: when one of the family's sons was killed in the
Speaker 2: American Civil War, the door of the tomb was opened
Speaker 2: in order that he could be laid to rest there,
Speaker 2: and what they found was the girl's tiny skeleton lay
Speaker 2: on the floor just behind the door. The British Medical
Speaker 2: Journal of eighteen seventy seven document a case in Naples
Speaker 2: where a woman was buried in a communal grave. At
Speaker 2: that time, people couldn't necessarily afford to have their own graves,
Speaker 2: so multiple people would be buried in the same one.
Speaker 2: The woman was laid to rest, but some days later,
Speaker 2: when the grave was opened to receive another body, they
Speaker 2: found that the closer had covered this poor woman, had
Speaker 2: been torn to pieces, and that she had even broken
Speaker 2: her limbs trying to escape from her tomb. So cases
Speaker 2: of people being buried alive were more uncommon. In eighteen
Speaker 2: ninety six, T. M. Montgomery, who supervised thisintainment and moving
Speaker 2: of remains at the Fort Randall Cemetery, reported that nearly
Speaker 2: two percent of those exhumed were no doubt victims of
Speaker 2: premature burial. Undoubtedly, as is the way with people, these
Speaker 2: stories grow with the retelling, and truth gets mixed up
Speaker 2: with fiction and becomes legend, which also becomes inspiration. So
Speaker 2: keep that in mind when we place a call to
Speaker 2: miss Elva Keene.
Speaker 3: Hello.
Speaker 2: If you are of a nervous disposition, perhaps for the
Speaker 2: next hour you should take the phone off the hook. Hello,
Speaker 2: because like Elva Keen, you might just receive a night call.
Speaker 1: Elva Keen lives alone in the outskirts of London Flats,
Speaker 1: a tiny rural community in Maine. Up until now, the
Speaker 1: pattern of miss Keane's existence has been that of lying
Speaker 1: in her bed or sitting in a wheelchair, reading books,
Speaker 1: listening to her radio, eating, napping, taking medication, and waiting
Speaker 1: for something different to happen. Miss Keane doesn't know it yet,
Speaker 1: but her period of waiting has just ended, for something
Speaker 1: different is about to happen to her, has in fact
Speaker 1: already begun to happen via two most unaccountable telephone calls
Speaker 1: in the middle of a stormy night, telephone calls rooted
Speaker 1: directly through the Twilight's on.
Speaker 2: Face. Broadcast on February seventh, nineteen sixty four, written by
Speaker 2: Richard Matheson and directed by Jacques Tornaire, So quite an
Speaker 2: expository open a narration by Rod sailing this time and
Speaker 2: with the use of the pretty much ever present whippan
Speaker 2: that seems to be a part of every opening narration. Now,
Speaker 2: again we aren't treated to Rod sailing in the scene here,
Speaker 2: but I do like it for what it is. This
Speaker 2: is an episode that is about suspense, and I think
Speaker 2: this sets things up quite nicely.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 2: This episode originally was set to air on November twenty second,
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty three, but like all programming on that date,
Speaker 2: it was canceled for news coverage of President Kennedy's assassination,
Speaker 2: and our writer tonight with his second to last can
Speaker 2: you Believe it? His second to last Twilight Zone is
Speaker 2: of course Richard Matheson. Now, the main piece of trivia
Speaker 2: around this episode is that not only is it based
Speaker 2: on a Richard Matheson short story, but it was originally
Speaker 2: featured in the November nineteen fifty three issue of Beyond magazine,
Speaker 2: and it was originally called Sorry Right Number, which was
Speaker 2: a play on the title of the famous radio play
Speaker 2: Sorry Wrong Number, which starred Twilight Zone alumni Agnes Moorehead
Speaker 2: as a bedridden woman who overhears a Mader plot on
Speaker 2: a cross line. Now, Mattison wasn't particularly fond of the
Speaker 2: title Sorry Right Number, and when it was republished in
Speaker 2: his short story collection Shock. It was retitled to Long
Speaker 2: Distance Call, but of course there's already been a Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone episode called long Distance Call, that Ultra Dark season
Speaker 2: two episode starring Bill Murmey. And Tonight's director is Jacques Tornaire,
Speaker 2: who was born in nineteen oh four in Paris, France,
Speaker 2: and he ventured to Hollywood with his father, the renowned
Speaker 2: director Maurice Tornaire, about nineteen thirteen. Now initially working as
Speaker 2: a script clerk and editor for his father's films, Jacques
Speaker 2: gradually transitioned to direct in short films under the suit
Speaker 2: him of Jack Turner in both France and the United States,
Speaker 2: and he made his mark in Hollywood as the second
Speaker 2: unit director for David O'selznik's A Tale of Two Cities
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty five, a project that introduced him to
Speaker 2: Val Luton, and when Luton was appointed to head RKO's
Speaker 2: new horror unit in nineteen forty two, he chose Jacques
Speaker 2: as his first director, resulting in the critically acclaimed and
Speaker 2: commercially successful Cat People in nineteen forty two. Now, I
Speaker 2: think when we speak about Cat People these days as
Speaker 2: a master class in suspense, it's the producer Val Luton
Speaker 2: whose name is usually attached to it, but it was
Speaker 2: Jacques Tornaire who was behind the camera, and Jacques's directorial
Speaker 2: prowess spanned various genres, consistently demonstrating his mastery of mood
Speaker 2: and atmosphere. Despite an initial attempt at acting in Hollywood,
Speaker 2: he returned to directing with his debut All That's Not
Speaker 2: Worth Love, a French language movie, and then he relocated
Speaker 2: permanently to Hollywood, and his diverse filmography includes second unit
Speaker 2: work on Marie Antoinette and stars in My Crown, a
Speaker 2: western featuring his former high school classmate Joel McCrae. Now reportedly, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: Jacques's career was marred by alcoholism, which caused significant production
Speaker 2: problems on some of his projects, which caused his career
Speaker 2: to wane in the late nineteen fifties. And this is
Speaker 2: of course speculation, but it's possibly why we have him
Speaker 2: directing an episode of The Twilight Zone here his one
Speaker 2: and only, because he's quoted as saying, largely, I hate
Speaker 2: to in television. It's horrible, It's against everything I believe in.
Speaker 2: If you don't bring some of your individuality and some
Speaker 2: of your experience and censer activity to bear on a
Speaker 2: subject you don't get more than a mechanical result. But
Speaker 2: whether he hated doing television or not, if this episode
Speaker 2: shows us anything, it's that Jacques still had a talent
Speaker 2: for atmosphere and suspense, which we'll come back too later
Speaker 2: on Now. Apparently it was Richard Matheson who wanted him
Speaker 2: to direct this one, and in the Twilight Zone companion,
Speaker 2: Richard Matheson says there was some doubt at the time
Speaker 2: as to whether to use Tonair because they thought he
Speaker 2: was a movie director and couldn't handle the scheduling. As
Speaker 2: it turned out, he to my knowledge, shot the shortest
Speaker 2: shooting schedule for a half hour. I think it was
Speaker 2: twenty eight hours. And then in Unlocking the Door to
Speaker 2: a Television Classic, Martin Graham's Junior reprints part of an
Speaker 2: interview with Tom Weaver where Richard says I was a
Speaker 2: fan of his from way back. I wrote letters to
Speaker 2: Val Luton when I was seventeen about cap People. I'd
Speaker 2: always been a tremendous fan of Tournier. As a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, even before Comedy of Terrors, I had talked
Speaker 2: with Bag Granitt about hiring him to do one of
Speaker 2: my Twilight zones. They said the one reason they didn't
Speaker 2: want him was because he was a movie director and
Speaker 2: it would take him too long. Well, they hired him anyway,
Speaker 2: and Tornair was so organized that he shot the shortest
Speaker 2: twilight zone shooting. So after she was rudely awakened in
Speaker 2: the night by a couple of phone calls, Elvia Keene
Speaker 2: is laying in bed trying to make sense of it
Speaker 2: all when she is visited by her nurse, Margaret, who
Speaker 2: drives up to the house. Now, one of the things
Speaker 2: I noticed when I watched this episode is how isolated
Speaker 2: Elvia Keane's house actually looks when Margaret drives up to it.
Speaker 2: It seems to be at the end of a long,
Speaker 2: dirty road, and depending on what media you are watching
Speaker 2: this on, because of the black and white visuals, they
Speaker 2: can obscure that there is actually a front lawn on
Speaker 2: the house, but the shot just makes it appear as
Speaker 2: if it's in the middle of nowhere, just surrounded by debt.
Speaker 2: And this sense of isolation is a crucial element of
Speaker 2: the story, adding layers of tension and vulnerability. Elva Keane's
Speaker 2: house is truly in the middle of nowhere, and she
Speaker 2: is a mobile if there is a threat on the
Speaker 2: other end of the phone, all she can do is
Speaker 2: sit and wait for it to arrive. Now, if you
Speaker 2: record the short story on which this is based early on,
Speaker 2: we hear that this is tracking very close to that story,
Speaker 2: even to the point of the dialogue being almost weird
Speaker 2: for weird at times.
Speaker 3: Oh, Miss Hinch, this is elba Kean speaking.
Speaker 5: Yes, Miss King, can I help you you care?
Speaker 3: Last night, about two am, my telephone rang. I answered it,
Speaker 3: but no one spoke. I didn't even hear the receiver
Speaker 3: being put down, not even the tone, just silence. Well, miss,
Speaker 3: and the same thing happened a few moments later.
Speaker 5: Well, I'll tell you, Miss King, that storm last night
Speaker 5: just about ruined our service. We've been flooded with complaints
Speaker 5: about fallen wires and bad connections. I'd say you're pretty
Speaker 5: lucky your telephone is working at all.
Speaker 3: Would do say then, that someone was trying to call
Speaker 3: me and the connection was bad because of the storm.
Speaker 6: That's as good.
Speaker 5: An explanation as any. Right now, Miss King, I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: I wish I could be of more help, but oh
Speaker 5: the way things are right now.
Speaker 2: So in this all female cast, we only really have
Speaker 2: a couple of supporting characters. One of them is Margaret
Speaker 2: Elva King's care or housekeeper, whatever you want to call her,
Speaker 2: and she's played by Nora Marlow, who we have actually
Speaker 2: seen before in the Twilight Zone, although you will be
Speaker 2: forgiven for not remembering it because she was in the
Speaker 2: episode back there as the chamber made and I suppose
Speaker 2: she had a kind of presence to her. Would mean
Speaker 2: that she was often cast in these kind of parts.
Speaker 2: If you look down here resume, you will see that
Speaker 2: often she has cast as a maid, or a hostess
Speaker 2: or a nurse, those kind of service or caring roles.
Speaker 2: And Nora was born in nineteen fifteen in Worcester, Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: and her television and film career began in the early fifties.
Speaker 2: And it started, as it would mean to go on,
Speaker 2: with a role as a nurse in nineteen fifty five's
Speaker 2: I'll Cry Tomorrow starring Susan Hayward. Then she was a
Speaker 2: maid in An Affair to Remember in nineteen fifty seven,
Speaker 2: and while she was mostly a one and done supporting player,
Speaker 2: occasionally she would take more long term roles, and perhaps
Speaker 2: her most famous role is in Elhamner Juniors show The Waltons,
Speaker 2: where she played missus Flossi Brimmer in twenty seven episodes
Speaker 2: between nineteen seventy three and nineteen teen seventy seven, which
Speaker 2: was to be her last credited part.
Speaker 5: Oh m hm.
Speaker 3: Hello, Oh h what.
Speaker 7: Who's there?
Speaker 3: Who's on the line?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 5: Who is it?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 7: Who's there? Hello?
Speaker 5: Hello?
Speaker 2: Now note the lack of music here. Like he doesn't
Speaker 2: cat people, Tournair employs silence as his secret weapon. No music,
Speaker 2: no jump scares, just a barely audible, unsettling voice making
Speaker 2: unintelligible noises until it says hello, and then torna Air
Speaker 2: pulls back to a beautifully composed wide profile shot of
Speaker 2: elve Kene's bed, again highlighting how isolated and alone she
Speaker 2: is now. As we know, for the most part, this
Speaker 2: episode is very faithful to Richard Matheson's short story until
Speaker 2: the end, and what both share is that the voice
Speaker 2: on the phone starts out just as a mumbling or
Speaker 2: a memo, and as it goes on it becomes easier
Speaker 2: to understand. It's as if that this person who has
Speaker 2: risen from the dead needs to learn again how to speak,
Speaker 2: and the effect here in the episode is wonderfully creepy.
Speaker 2: Just this barely audible disembodied sound, another example of how
Speaker 2: torn are used understatement to maximum effect.
Speaker 5: Miss Keane, are you sure it was someone saying hello?
Speaker 5: It could have been.
Speaker 3: I tell you it was someone, the same one who
Speaker 3: kept listening to be saying hello over and over again
Speaker 3: without answering back, the same one who kept making those
Speaker 3: horrible noises.
Speaker 5: You have no idea whether it was a man or
Speaker 5: a woman.
Speaker 3: I've already told you there's no way of knowing it
Speaker 3: might be either one.
Speaker 5: And you're positive it wasn't someone on your party line?
Speaker 3: Or don't you think I don't know the people on
Speaker 3: my pardet line?
Speaker 5: Oh? Sure you do, miss Keane, Of course you do. Well,
Speaker 5: I'll I'll have a man check your line as soon
Speaker 5: as possible. Ah, The crews are pretty busy right now
Speaker 5: on a kind of a storm.
Speaker 3: But but what am I to do with this person
Speaker 3: calls again?
Speaker 5: Try to get their name if you can. If you
Speaker 5: do that, why we can take immediate action.
Speaker 2: You see. Yes, So, as Elva Keine tries to get
Speaker 2: to the bottom of what's going on, let's meet the
Speaker 2: woman who played often we talk about our multiple episode
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone leading men like merediths and Clubmen, And while
Speaker 2: we certainly give Gladys Cooper credit for Nothing in the Dark,
Speaker 2: I feel like a contribution as a whole is sometimes
Speaker 2: not quite considered in the same way. Perhaps it's because
Speaker 2: his second episode, Passage on the Lady Anne, is a
Speaker 2: season four one, which tend to slip through the cracks
Speaker 2: quite often in people's analysis of the show. And then
Speaker 2: we have Night Call here which is well regarded, what
Speaker 2: sits in season five, where everyone's appreciation of this season
Speaker 2: seems to be quite different. But all this to say,
Speaker 2: this is the third and final episode of Gladys Cooper's
Speaker 2: three episode Twilight Zone run now in Passage on the Lady,
Speaker 2: and she is a bit more of a supporting player,
Speaker 2: but she's definitely the lead in her other two episodes,
Speaker 2: So she is an important Twilight Zone player. And she
Speaker 2: did all of this while she was in her early
Speaker 2: to mid seventies, and her career would go on for
Speaker 2: another seven years from here. In the same year as
Speaker 2: this episode, she played one of her most memorable roles,
Speaker 2: Miss Higgins, in My Fair Lady, and she continued taking
Speaker 2: guest roles in television shows like The Girl from Uncle,
Speaker 2: even taking a recaring part in the British TV show
Speaker 2: Doctors in nineteen seventy one, where she played Harriet Vay
Speaker 2: for ten episodes, and then finally a guest spot in
Speaker 2: the Roger Moore and Tony Curtis it C show The Persuaders,
Speaker 2: also in nineteen seventy one. So Gladys Cooper truly did
Speaker 2: wait until the end, because sadly she passed away on
Speaker 2: November seventeenth, nineteen seventy one, at the age of eighty two. Now,
Speaker 2: considering that she wrote her self titled biography in nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty one, it's good to know that there was still
Speaker 2: another forty years of story that was left to be written.
Speaker 2: And it's rumored that on her deathbed she said, if
Speaker 2: this is what pneumonia does to one, I really don't
Speaker 2: think I shall bother to have it again. So for
Speaker 2: your services to the Twilight Zone and film and television
Speaker 2: from its inception day, Gladys Cooper, Commander of the Order
Speaker 2: of the British Empire, we salute you.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 2: This is actually going to be quite a short episode
Speaker 2: of the twilight Zone podcast because there's really not too
Speaker 2: much trivia about this one, and I think there's not
Speaker 2: much point in just recapping the story. We know how
Speaker 2: it goes, the multiple phone and Miss Elva becoming more
Speaker 2: and more distressed as she goes on. But where there
Speaker 2: is a genuine point of interest is the ending. So
Speaker 2: let's do a little compare and contrast, because the short
Speaker 2: story ending goes like this. In the black silence of
Speaker 2: her bedroom, a crippled maiden lady lay waiting her nurse
Speaker 2: would not remain for the night. Her nurse had patted
Speaker 2: her and scolded her and ignored her. She was waiting
Speaker 2: for a telephone call. She could have disconnected the phone,
Speaker 2: but she had not the will. She lay there, waiting, waiting,
Speaker 2: thinking of the silence of the ears that had not heard,
Speaker 2: seeking to hear again, of sounds bobbling and muttering, the
Speaker 2: fierce stumbling attempts at speech by one who had not spoken,
Speaker 2: how long?
Speaker 8: Of hallo, hallo?
Speaker 2: Face greeted by one long silent of where are you?
Speaker 2: Of that which made her lie so rigidly, The clicking
Speaker 2: and the operator speaking her address, of the telephone ringing,
Speaker 2: a pause, ringing, the rustle of a nightgown in the dark,
Speaker 2: The ringing stopped listening, and the telephone slipping away from
Speaker 2: the white fingers, the eyes staring, the thin heart beats
Speaker 2: slowly pulsing outside, the cricket rattling night inside, the word
Speaker 2: still sounding in her brain, giving terrible meaning to the heavy,
Speaker 2: choking silence.
Speaker 3: Hello, miss Alva, I'll be right.
Speaker 2: Over, And then the television episode ends like this.
Speaker 3: It's him, Miss King was the matter? It's him?
Speaker 7: Ryan?
Speaker 3: Who what are you talking about? Ryan? My Fuanca you're
Speaker 3: He died a week before we were in erried. We
Speaker 3: were in a car together. I insisted upon driving. I
Speaker 3: was always insisted upon everything, determined to have my own
Speaker 3: way dominating him. He always did what I said always.
Speaker 3: I lost control of the car. I drove straight into
Speaker 3: a tree, brown went right through the wind shoe. He's
Speaker 3: cut to pieces. I was crippled, and now he's trying
Speaker 3: to reach me. Now he's trying to reach me.
Speaker 9: M talk him.
Speaker 3: I won't be lonely anymore. M Brian, Brian, are you there, Brian, Brian,
Speaker 3: if you're there, speak to me. It's ever elver. Please
Speaker 3: speak to me.
Speaker 6: It's over.
Speaker 3: Please say you said leave you alone.
Speaker 1: I always do what you say, Brian.
Speaker 3: I didn't know it was you, I thought, Bron. Please
Speaker 3: please don't leave me, please speak to me.
Speaker 2: But there is also another version, and then I think
Speaker 2: is worthy of a mention, not because it's wildly different.
Speaker 2: It basically uses the television ending, but because of who
Speaker 2: is in it.
Speaker 10: Oh, someone calling at this hour? Hello, I'm sorry I
Speaker 10: didn't hear the thunder.
Speaker 7: Hello. Hello.
Speaker 2: Now, if you don't recognize that voice playing Alva Keine,
Speaker 2: it's actually Twilight z Own alumni Marriott Hartley, who, if
Speaker 2: you remember, played Sandra Horn to heartbreaking effect in the
Speaker 2: underappreciated The Long Morrow from season five, and she actually
Speaker 2: does a really good job of playing Alva Quene. She
Speaker 2: doesn't seem quite as crotchety is the gladys Cuper version,
Speaker 2: and overall comes across as a bit more sympathetic. So
Speaker 2: it's not as easy to imagine a being this controlling
Speaker 2: woman that she says she is or was in the episode,
Speaker 2: but I think overall it still works.
Speaker 7: Oh, this is ridiculous. Now that I want you to
Speaker 7: call Brian, Brian, are you there? Can you hear me?
Speaker 10: It's Elva Elva.
Speaker 7: Oh Brian, Brian, My dear Brian, where are you? Where
Speaker 7: are you? Brian? Can't you hear me at all? Brian?
Speaker 7: Are you there, Brian. If you are, please speak, it's Elva. Elva.
Speaker 7: You can speak to me now. I I didn't know
Speaker 7: it was you. I thought, Brian, Please, I know you're there.
Speaker 7: It's Elva. Talk to me, Brie. Please, I beg you.
Speaker 5: You shirt.
Speaker 7: You alone? No, but I didn't mean I.
Speaker 1: Alwes.
Speaker 8: Do what you say.
Speaker 2: At the beginning of the show, I discussed the historical
Speaker 2: prevalence of premature burial, and this issue became so concerning
Speaker 2: that it led to the invention of various devices, such
Speaker 2: as coffins equipped with breathing tubes and bells, designed to
Speaker 2: aid people buried alive in surviving and elating others. And then,
Speaker 2: with the advent of the telephone, some people went as
Speaker 2: far as installing telephones in family crypts, and it's this
Speaker 2: concept that saved as inspiration for Richard Matheson when he
Speaker 2: riged wrote the story. Consider the scenario where you receive
Speaker 2: a phone call from someone who had been recently laid
Speaker 2: to rest prematurely because they've had a phone installed in
Speaker 2: their crypt, and initially their speech may be unclear due
Speaker 2: to the effects of their recent apparent death, but as
Speaker 2: time progresses, they become increasingly coherent, revealing that they are
Speaker 2: in fact the individual you believe to be dead, But
Speaker 2: isn't so to make this a Twilight Zone twist instead
Speaker 2: of the callers simply being someone mistakenly thought to be dead,
Speaker 2: imagine receiving a call from someone who is dead now
Speaker 2: when it was looking around for a general feel about
Speaker 2: this one, Most people praise Gladys Cooper's performance, and most
Speaker 2: people enjoy the creeping suspense of the episode, but it's
Speaker 2: the ending that seems to split people the most. So again,
Speaker 2: it's inspired by true stories of premature burials and the
Speaker 2: lengths that people went to to stop themselves from being
Speaker 2: buried alive, and in the short story that evolves into
Speaker 2: someone dead contacting someone living seemingly at random. But when
Speaker 2: he adapted it for television, Matheson has to add a
Speaker 2: bit of meat to the bones, so he adds into
Speaker 2: the Twilight Zone version that the person who is contacting
Speaker 2: Miss Elva is here deceased partner in unlocking the Door
Speaker 2: to a television classic. Martin Graham's Junior features a quote
Speaker 2: from Richard Matheson in which he said, the idea just
Speaker 2: occurred to me that some disabled old lady was getting
Speaker 2: phone calls from a dead man. I ended the story
Speaker 2: with a very dark note where he says I'll be
Speaker 2: right over, which leaves the reader with the feeling of
Speaker 2: just what is coming over to her house. But it's
Speaker 2: a flat ending. I thought the new ending I put
Speaker 2: on it for the twilight tone was a lot better.
Speaker 2: I thought it made much more sense because her personality
Speaker 2: was so abrasive that for it to turn out that
Speaker 2: she had caused this man to die in the first place,
Speaker 2: and now she wanted them more than ever. And he
Speaker 2: just said, you told me not to come over. I
Speaker 2: always do what you say. I thought that was much stronger.
Speaker 2: It made much more of a character study. I think
Speaker 2: everyone's mileage with this one is going to be a
Speaker 2: bit different. And I have to say I actually preferred
Speaker 2: the short story version. I think there's a simplicity to
Speaker 2: that one. In that classic twist in the tail mode,
Speaker 2: it's the escaped lunatic holding a severed head on top
Speaker 2: of the car that you're being told to walk away from.
Speaker 2: That classic punchy horror ending that is half chills or
Speaker 2: half delight at being scared by it. But it actually
Speaker 2: also works on a couple of levels. On the one hand,
Speaker 2: it's just a tail well told, but if you want
Speaker 2: to take it fairther, there is a subtext there that
Speaker 2: you can latch onto if you want to. In the
Speaker 2: twilight years of her life, Elva Keen is alone, She's
Speaker 2: in ill health. Death is not far away. You could
Speaker 2: even say it's stalking her. With every phone called, her
Speaker 2: voice becomes clearer, it becomes more pronounced, until it finally says,
Speaker 2: I'll be right over. The voice is not only from
Speaker 2: a dead person, but it represents the approaching death of
Speaker 2: Elvia Keen. But in changing it to what we get
Speaker 2: in the episode, it becomes about a relationship that she
Speaker 2: had with a partner where she mistreated him, and we
Speaker 2: have to kind of catch up on that in the
Speaker 2: space of a few lines at the end. It's a
Speaker 2: partner that we'd not heard a thing about up until now.
Speaker 2: And I just don't feel it's as elegant as that
Speaker 2: original story that said it's not a deal breaker. I
Speaker 2: still think it's a fine tale in its current form,
Speaker 2: and it completes Gladys Cupa's Twilight Zone trilogy of death.
Speaker 2: Her first episode, Nothing in the Dark, tells us that
Speaker 2: death need not be a scary thing. It's just part
Speaker 2: of the process. Her second episode, passage on the Lady Anne,
Speaker 2: shows us a group of people who, knowing when their
Speaker 2: time is up, face death with love and togetherness. And finally,
Speaker 2: night Call is the ante. Nothing in the dark here.
Speaker 2: Death is scary, it's lonely, and it's on its way,
Speaker 2: or at least it was in the short story.
Speaker 1: According to the Bible, God created the heavens and the earth.
Speaker 1: It is men's prerogative and woman's to create their own
Speaker 1: particular and private hell. Case point miss elvi Qin, who
Speaker 1: in every sense has made her own bed and now
Speaker 1: must lie in it, sadder but wiser by the end
Speaker 1: of a rather painful lesson and responsibility transmitted from the
Speaker 1: Twilight Zone.
Speaker 2: Okay, that was Night Call. Kind of felt a bit
Speaker 2: short that one, although it turned out to be a
Speaker 2: bit longer than I expected. Bought man. The trivia at
Speaker 2: this late stage just doesn't seem to be as much
Speaker 2: for a lot of these episodes. Now, occasionally it's not
Speaker 2: too bad, but then you get one like this where
Speaker 2: there isn't a huge amount, but hopefully you enjoyed what
Speaker 2: we had. Now, let's go over to our friends in
Speaker 2: the After Hours Club, which is the Patreon of the
Speaker 2: twilight Zone podcast at patreon dot com slash twilight Zone podcast,
Speaker 2: where the members of the club vote on whether it's
Speaker 2: a top, middle or bottom tier episode. Now, this one
Speaker 2: was kind of tight, So bottom tier four percent, middle
Speaker 2: tier forty seven percent, and top tier forty nine percent,
Speaker 2: So a pretty even split between middle and top tier.
Speaker 2: And you know, I can kind of see it. You know,
Speaker 2: if someone said to me that it was middle tier,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't fight them on it. If someone said it
Speaker 2: was top tier, I wouldn't fight them on that either,
Speaker 2: So I can kind of see both points of view
Speaker 2: on that. Now our members also leave their comments. Aaron
Speaker 2: Lawrence said top tier, great acting from an all female
Speaker 2: cast and an almost night gallery creepy twist at the end.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Aaron. Then Matt Walder says bad ending. Aside,
Speaker 2: this is one of the creepiest Twilight Zone episodes in
Speaker 2: my opinion, alongside The After Hour's Mirror Image and The Hitchhiker.
Speaker 2: I wish there were a few more episodes in this tone,
Speaker 2: especially as a horrifying growing up upper middle tier. Thank you, Matt.
Speaker 2: John Hayes says night Call is a fascinating concept of
Speaker 2: a deceased loved one speaking to the living similar long
Speaker 2: distance call, well in more ways than one. John actually
Speaker 2: with the original name, but as good as glad as
Speaker 2: Cooper is, she must carry the entire episode, unlike her
Speaker 2: other episode where she worked off Robert Redford Middle Tier.
Speaker 2: Thank you John, our old friend Chad Boyken from job
Speaker 2: A house Press. Now, I don't want to give the
Speaker 2: game away or I've heard rumblings. Of course, Chad is
Speaker 2: the author of the Twilight Zone high Q. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I've heard rumblins from Joba house Press that there might
Speaker 2: be something interesting in the future coming down the pipeline
Speaker 2: that will be of interest to us Twilight Zone fans.
Speaker 2: Chad says, points for the creepiness and suspense. But I
Speaker 2: do what you tell me, and you told me to
Speaker 2: stop calling before you figured out who I was, so
Speaker 2: I can't talk to you anymore despite you telling me
Speaker 2: to talk to you now, meaning I am now not
Speaker 2: doing what you say. Okay, this get on complicated, Chad,
Speaker 2: despite ostensibly always doing what you say, is a nonsense
Speaker 2: ending for me. Also, the come uppings for the old
Speaker 2: woman seems to be because she was a sayt of it,
Speaker 2: even killed the guy. This is a misogynistic message to
Speaker 2: fall short of the general equity and the humanism the
Speaker 2: series are its best demonstrated. So mixed bag. Great acting,
Speaker 2: great atmosphere and menace, some real horror elements, but there
Speaker 2: are too many bugs in the software. Thank you, Chad.
Speaker 2: Champagne Drum says, quite a standard episode, but overall well
Speaker 2: done and the lady does a great job. Nothing to
Speaker 2: criticize or necessarily remember. A bit quaint seeing a phone
Speaker 2: used as a plot character. Also, party line is mentioned.
Speaker 2: I actually grew up with da in the eighties in
Speaker 2: rural Canada. Thank you, Champagne Drum. Michael Fahnback says top
Speaker 2: tier for me. Love the atmosphere and setting. I don't
Speaker 2: love the reason the corpse gives for not sticking around.
Speaker 2: And it's sad to know that Glad Cooper got a
Speaker 2: brief glimmer of hope only to be returned to her loneliness.
Speaker 2: The one consolation is she could go back to his
Speaker 2: grave and try to ask him to reconsider. Who knows,
Speaker 2: maybe he'll hear her. Thank you, Michael. Our friend cerebral
Speaker 2: p says definitely a middle of the top tier. It's
Speaker 2: geared the hell out to me as a kid on
Speaker 2: late night TV, still chilling to this day. Another example
Speaker 2: of Matheson at his best and a treat to see
Speaker 2: television work by Jacques Tournaire, though it would be interesting
Speaker 2: to see the use of Matheson's original short story ending,
Speaker 2: perhaps better suited for a night gallery in an alternate world.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Cerebral p Our friend Dalshadzma says, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Gladys Cooper is great, of course, and there are some
Speaker 2: nice creepy moments, particularly in the progression of the phone
Speaker 2: calls from static to a ghostly where are you? It's
Speaker 2: Elvia's domineering attitude and here fiance submission to it that
Speaker 2: causes his death. And we still see examples that here
Speaker 2: domineering ways continue so that it feels like long overdue justice.
Speaker 2: When here leave me Alone, command condemns her to loneliness,
Speaker 2: but it's never quite worked for me. Is Brian's spiteful
Speaker 2: seeking revenge? If not, if he genuinely wants to talk
Speaker 2: to Elva, I can't imagine that one panicked command would
Speaker 2: deter him. That and the telephone wire in the grave
Speaker 2: which has always seemed a bit silly, puts it solidly
Speaker 2: in the middle tier for me. You know, yeah, there's
Speaker 2: a few. I mean the the wire landing on a grave. Wow,
Speaker 2: what are the chances of that? Our old friend Joe Mayer,
Speaker 2: fellow Twilight Zone podcaster, says this is a largely enjoyable episode,
Speaker 2: mostly because it is always a pleasure to watch an
Speaker 2: actor like Gladys Cooper do so much with such a
Speaker 2: simple premise. I think this is one of those episodes
Speaker 2: that is aided by Sailing's monologues. In the beginning, he
Speaker 2: tells us that Elva is waiting for something new. However,
Speaker 2: we learn that she has spent her life developing a
Speaker 2: closed system of existence, one from which spontaneity simply can't emerge.
Speaker 2: In fact, it's so closed that it requires the Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone to create even a slight opening. Many people understandably
Speaker 2: focus on the rather sad ending, and with good reason. However,
Speaker 2: this is one of the handful of episodes where the
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone is actually trying to do some good. It
Speaker 2: created this new space for her to enjoy her final years,
Speaker 2: but she was still so stubborn that she was even
Speaker 2: able to close that off. Sailing's final words about God,
Speaker 2: Heaven and Earth are a nice closing nod to this
Speaker 2: idea that ordered undiscipline in life are important, but we
Speaker 2: miss valuable opportunities in life if we don't. Least Cracker Door,
Speaker 2: The episode falls to the middle tier for me because
Speaker 2: the way she executes her stubbornness telling Robert to stop
Speaker 2: calling when she doesn't know it's him, is actually a
Speaker 2: bit too reasonable. Who would falter for that? They go,
Speaker 2: Thank you, Joe. You can see why he is a
Speaker 2: great podcaster. Joshua Heired says one I try to watch
Speaker 2: at night to maximize the creepy factor, but in the
Speaker 2: same way the black Leather Jackets feels more like the
Speaker 2: Outer Limits. This feels more like Alfred Hitchcock Presents than
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone. I have had endless fun doing the Hello
Speaker 2: I always do what you say to my wife. Though
Speaker 2: an enjoyable mid tier story, Thank you, Joshua. Jordan Dollock
Speaker 2: says the comparison to Sorry Right Number is one I
Speaker 2: hadn't considered but is very apt. I've had a hard
Speaker 2: time getting into this one, but I should probably give
Speaker 2: it a more attentive viewing. Thank you, Jordan. Our old
Speaker 2: friend Vera b. Says this is a top tier episode
Speaker 2: until the very end. The direction is reminiscent of Sorry,
Speaker 2: Wrong Number. It's one of the few truly scary Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone episodes, but the way it ended, while tragic, just
Speaker 2: mister Mark for me, very high mid tier. Thank you, Vera.
Speaker 2: Our friend Whitley Bieler says, poor Alva Keene, she will
Speaker 2: certainly regret the actions of her past for the rest
Speaker 2: of her life. It's a good thing she's already so old.
Speaker 2: This mostly two person play is pretty creepy, especially when
Speaker 2: Elva answers the phone. It's also got a mean twist.
Speaker 2: Gladys Cooper is great as Elva. There's also some nice
Speaker 2: spooky directions from Jacques tornare Definitely top tier for me.
Speaker 2: I'd put it in my personal favorite top thirty episodes.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Whitney. Our friend Mark D says this is
Speaker 2: a personal favorite of mine. I just love the dark
Speaker 2: and stormy nights story and Gladys Cooper is stella as always.
Speaker 2: Thank you Mark. And finally, our old friend Uncommon Nasa says,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's mathematically top tier for me,
Speaker 2: it'd be at the bottom of the top tier. But
Speaker 2: it's a great episode. It's shot really crisply. I think
Speaker 2: the direction and cinematography of a semi bottle episode really
Speaker 2: stands out, certainly one of the better overtly creepy episodes.
Speaker 2: Love seeing the old style phone service and thank you
Speaker 2: for that uncommon NASA. So as we are in the
Speaker 2: final stretch of the podcast, I think, you know, like
Speaker 2: I've always said, it's still going to take a while,
Speaker 2: it's going to be over a year. I would imagine
Speaker 2: it's going to be nice to get a bit of
Speaker 2: conversation going on these last episode. So to try and
Speaker 2: help that along, I'm going to go back to commenting
Speaker 2: on any clips that I receive. So with that in mind,
Speaker 2: why don't we take a listen to Nick Wakeling, who
Speaker 2: has some thoughts on Nate Call.
Speaker 4: Hi Tom. It's Nick calling from Melbourne, Australia. Longtime listener
Speaker 4: and a first time caller and I moved to comment
Speaker 4: on the Towilet Zone episode Night call Back in nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty four. As a teenager, I saw this episode on
Speaker 4: TV and it had a significant impact on me, and
Speaker 4: so much so that obviously led to me, like so
Speaker 4: many other listeners chasing twilet zoning down the proverbial rabbit hole,
Speaker 4: and to think if I had seen another Toilet Zone
Speaker 4: episode of less equality, I may not have become a
Speaker 4: fan of this great show. Over the years, I've bought
Speaker 4: videovercook tapes as well as the DVD series, and been
Speaker 4: listening to this program for many years for the work
Speaker 4: that you do. Seen many episodes numerous times, but have
Speaker 4: not seen Nightcall in forty one years, and so I
Speaker 4: first watched it, and in fact, I've been waiting to
Speaker 4: see this episode when you reached it as part of
Speaker 4: your programming. It'd be interesting to see if forty one
Speaker 4: years later the show has the same impact as it
Speaker 4: did on me as a teenager. Keep up the great work,
Speaker 4: and we all appreciate the work that you do for
Speaker 4: our community.
Speaker 2: Nick, thank you so much, and I really appreciate you
Speaker 2: holding on to watch Nag Call again so you could
Speaker 2: watch it in tandem with the podcast. Like I said,
Speaker 2: I feel like this one was a little late, but
Speaker 2: you know, I guess that's the way it goes sometimes.
Speaker 2: But you bring up a good point about how the
Speaker 2: first episode of the Twilight Zone we watch it really
Speaker 2: could go either way. I mean, for the most part,
Speaker 2: it's probably going to be a positive experience. But could
Speaker 2: you imagine if the first ones you saw were like
Speaker 2: the Bard and I Dream of Genie or something. I know,
Speaker 2: if that double Bill was on, you will probably never
Speaker 2: watch the watch the show again. So that's a really
Speaker 2: good point you bring up, Nick, So thank you so
Speaker 2: much for writing in, and I hope you enjoyed at
Speaker 2: checking out. Night Call again. Okay, we heard him at Christmas.
Speaker 2: Let's hear him again. It's Josh Chambers with some thoughts
Speaker 2: on Night Call.
Speaker 11: Greetings Tom, and to all my Twilight Zone friends, a
Speaker 11: hearty hello and happy twenty twenty five. So Night Call
Speaker 11: all the elements of a classic horror film, told simply
Speaker 11: and economically about twenty five minutes. We have the requisite
Speaker 11: dark and stormy night. We have an infirm and elderly
Speaker 11: woman with mobility issues, alone and afraid. He introduced the
Speaker 11: device of the distant voice becoming more distinct, and we're
Speaker 11: all in for the ride. I think Richard Matheson's script
Speaker 11: here gives us some real chiller moments and some legitimate pathos,
Speaker 11: but not too much so that we aren't shattered by
Speaker 11: that conclusion. I think we can all admit we're enjoying
Speaker 11: a bit of schadenfreude. That was miss Keane's punishment warranted.
Speaker 11: Perhaps I don't think the punishment isn't so much terror,
Speaker 11: but it's more the sadness factor. She's finally understanding the
Speaker 11: unintended consequences of her words many many years later. Not
Speaker 11: so much about story, pretty simple, almost campfire story, but
Speaker 11: it did come with some some fun production elements and
Speaker 11: some notes here the stock music. Obviously, it's season five,
Speaker 11: it has to be stocked for the most part. Unlike
Speaker 11: other season five episodes where it really sticks out, and
Speaker 11: I mean it caused my ear to return to previous
Speaker 11: episodes and many times far superior episodes, I didn't mind
Speaker 11: it here. It didn't stick out. I mean, it was familiar,
Speaker 11: but it wasn't obtrusive. Seem to have a problem with
Speaker 11: accents now, I mean, unless I'm mistaken. The episode is
Speaker 11: set in Maine, and I don't hear any New England accents.
Speaker 11: Everyone seems to have congregated there except actual New Englanders.
Speaker 11: But I'll forget the die like this was when it
Speaker 11: especially comes to Gladys Cooper and just what a phenomenal actress,
Speaker 11: and it was interesting. I just happened to do a
Speaker 11: little Google and found out she was appointed Dame Commander
Speaker 11: the Order of the British Empire in nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 11: at the tender age of seventy nine. So what a
Speaker 11: storied career and just bless her soul. Was anyone else
Speaker 11: wondering why there was a night call in the middle
Speaker 11: of the day. I thought that was a little strange,
Speaker 11: but okay, that's all right, got to keep the tension going.
Speaker 11: Another funny moment happened when I mean the static and
Speaker 11: the mumbles on the line finally give way to clearly
Speaker 11: definable words. My wife and I both turned to each
Speaker 11: other and cracked a few linel ritchie jokes. I hope
Speaker 11: you did too. Oh, speaking of that phone, some of
Speaker 11: us are old enough to remember mixing letters and numbers
Speaker 11: together to reach somebody, definitely in the States. Not sure
Speaker 11: how that worked across the pond, Tom, but k L
Speaker 11: five two three six eight today would be one of
Speaker 11: those Hollywood five five five phone numbers, you know. Two
Speaker 11: doors away from Marty mcflys, Squeeze Jennifer, maybe a blockover
Speaker 11: from Jim Rockford's place on the beach. It's just always
Speaker 11: fun to see those those pop up in films. And
Speaker 11: when what was the kl exchange short for claw tu
Speaker 11: the world will never know? Oh. In the cemetery, I
Speaker 11: this is where I just could not stop laughing. The typeface, font,
Speaker 11: whatever you want to call it, on the headstones. It
Speaker 11: seemed to be the same serve that provided the tombstones
Speaker 11: for Plan nine from Outer Space, the Edward D. Wood
Speaker 11: Junior Classic. It's just too funny. But for all the
Speaker 11: little things like that that had me laughing, I truly
Speaker 11: think at its core, this is a very fine you know,
Speaker 11: it's upper tier, lower upper tier, and not just for
Speaker 11: season five, you know, I think I think we tend
Speaker 11: to have that measurement, you know. Oh it's good for
Speaker 11: season five, but I think across all the seasons this
Speaker 11: one really worked, and especially the way they ended it.
Speaker 11: Rod's closing narration and that gorgeous shot of the wheelchair
Speaker 11: and the easy chair sort of facing off. That's just
Speaker 11: a visual chef's kiss and it's quite a memorable entry
Speaker 11: in our favorite anthology series. Thanks again for keeping this going, Tom,
Speaker 11: and take care.
Speaker 2: Thank you Josh for your comments about Night Cole. I've
Speaker 2: got to pick up on something you said about, you know,
Speaker 2: the phone numbers where it was combined with letters, so
Speaker 2: you would have these companies spelling out words to make
Speaker 2: their phone numbers memorable. Now, obviously I spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time in the States when I was younger, and
Speaker 2: also caught a lot of American television over here, and
Speaker 2: it was it was just something that never happened in England.
Speaker 2: I guess we just didn't really. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: I saw some phones with the letters printed like underneath
Speaker 2: the numbers and so on, but it just never really
Speaker 2: was a thing here. So I think the first time
Speaker 2: I heard a TV advertisement saying like call five five
Speaker 2: five movie or whatever, it was like, what what are
Speaker 2: they doing? You know, I didn't really know what it was,
Speaker 2: but obviously over time I did, so I think it was, yeah,
Speaker 2: an American thing is it never really caught on over here.
Speaker 2: So that was Josh voice actor, extraordinary. Thank you Josh.
Speaker 2: And next up we have our old friend Joe Brown.
Speaker 2: Take it away, Joe.
Speaker 12: Hey, time, Joe Brown here, just calling in with some
Speaker 12: thoughts about Night Call.
Speaker 8: You know, when the episode starts.
Speaker 12: One of the things I noticed that the French director
Speaker 12: Jacques Tornay is the director in this episode, and you
Speaker 12: can tell right away the atmosphere that he has set.
Speaker 8: It's a stormy night when the.
Speaker 12: Maid shows up, the housekeeper i should say, arrives. The
Speaker 12: car's got leaves all over it. You could tell that
Speaker 12: she comes the next morning after the storm. That they
Speaker 12: dressed the set so it looks like a continuation of
Speaker 12: the night before. I thought that was a really cool touch,
Speaker 12: and also mentioned that the dirt roads that the housekeeper
Speaker 12: had to travel on to arrive at Elvi Keane's house,
Speaker 12: you know. And then when we see through the first
Speaker 12: part of the episode, it establishes that she's alone, and
Speaker 12: you know, she's obviously elderly, she has no spouse because
Speaker 12: it's not really mentioned, you know. And then we start
Speaker 12: getting these phone calls and we start trying to figure out,
Speaker 12: all right, who's calling Elva in the middle of the night.
Speaker 12: She doesn't know, we as the viewer, don't know, and
Speaker 12: she tries these different approaches. She tries to be nice.
Speaker 12: I mean, obviously the first time is like hello, Hello,
Speaker 12: she's stern, she's concerned. Then one other times she answers
Speaker 12: and she tries to be nice on the phone, emotional
Speaker 12: on the phone, different ways to try to get whoever
Speaker 12: it is.
Speaker 8: To call her to answer.
Speaker 12: And then you know, I think it does a real
Speaker 12: good job of setting up a loneliness feeling with Elva,
Speaker 12: you know, her being elderly and in this home. And
Speaker 12: I think that what it's doing is that it further
Speaker 12: establishes when the housekeeper says, hey, just leave the receiver off.
Speaker 12: Elva does that, but she can't leave it off. And
Speaker 12: I believe that's for two reasons. She can't leave the
Speaker 12: receiver off because obviously she thinks the phone calls are
Speaker 12: going to come in again. But I think deeper than that,
Speaker 12: it gives her a sense if somebody wants her, tries
Speaker 12: to get a hold of her.
Speaker 8: And she feels like she's needed again.
Speaker 12: So it kind of diminishes that loneliness that she's been experiencing.
Speaker 12: I mean, the housekeeper is a paid attendant, so the
Speaker 12: housekeeper does give Elva some kind of comfort or person
Speaker 12: to talk to. But here's someone that she doesn't know,
Speaker 12: and I think her anxiety starts to increase over this.
Speaker 12: And then I think what they also do is, you know,
Speaker 12: a person might say, well, why can't she just leave
Speaker 12: the receiver off the phone. Well, they use the dial
Speaker 12: tone trope to say the noise is so bad that
Speaker 12: she puts the receiver back on because of the dial tone.
Speaker 12: But I think it's really because the dial tones is
Speaker 12: for the viewer, But really she wants that phone to ring.
Speaker 12: So then when the phone does ring and she finally
Speaker 12: establishes there's a man on the other line, and then
Speaker 12: she realizes when they go to the cemetery after being
Speaker 12: told that the wire is down. The questions that started
Speaker 12: to come in my mind was, you know, has Brian
Speaker 12: always wanted to call Elva and being connected with her
Speaker 12: since his passing, because the tombstone says nineteen thirty two,
Speaker 12: Well that's twenty nine years before or twenty or thirty
Speaker 12: years before the episode was created. So has Brian been
Speaker 12: waiting for an opportunity to get in touch with Elva?
Speaker 8: Has she?
Speaker 12: Obviously she's concerned and is always in the back of
Speaker 12: her mind, But it's strange when she explains that the
Speaker 12: housekeeper this is a this is something that she has
Speaker 12: dreaded her whole life and doesn't talk about it a
Speaker 12: whole lot.
Speaker 8: So when I think.
Speaker 12: About the episode, is it a good Twilight Zone. I'm
Speaker 12: not so sure it is Twilight Zone. I think it's
Speaker 12: more of a horror story type situation that might be
Speaker 12: better her on thriller with Boris Carloff, or you know,
Speaker 12: maybe maybe even something ghostly like Alfred Hitchcock presents twilight Zone.
Speaker 8: Yet, we could put it in that bucket.
Speaker 12: But I'm not so sure that it is a Twilight
Speaker 12: Zone episode by what we've come to known as the
Speaker 12: Twilight Zone, because really, is there justice being served for
Speaker 12: Elva to get these phone calls because she was a
Speaker 12: domineering person. I mean she even stated she was driving
Speaker 12: the car when he died in nineteen thirty two. I
Speaker 12: mean during those years, the man usually drove the car
Speaker 12: and for Elva to take over and drive the vehicle,
Speaker 12: that's saying that she's really in control of that relationship.
Speaker 12: But is this something that she has to endure? Because
Speaker 12: Rod even says in the end, you know, Elva has
Speaker 12: made her bed and now she must sleep in it.
Speaker 12: So is that the story be careful or is that
Speaker 12: the message be careful of what you know, how your
Speaker 12: behaviors are, because we reap what we sew. Maybe it is,
Speaker 12: but I thought it was a first class a horror
Speaker 12: story or a ghost story. As far as Twilight zones,
Speaker 12: I put it up in the mid tier.
Speaker 2: Thanks Tom, Thank you Joe. Some good good stuff to
Speaker 2: latch onto them. So yeah, the isolation really was a
Speaker 2: big part of it for me this time, and I
Speaker 2: think my takeaway from it, maybe I'm getting this more
Speaker 2: from the short story, like I mentioned, was really a
Speaker 2: kind of sad commentary on what it is to die alone,
Speaker 2: because in a sense, we all die alone, but a
Speaker 2: lot of the times we see, you know, people around
Speaker 2: us go and then we all left. And yeah, sorry
Speaker 2: to get some modeling on this one, but but the
Speaker 2: phone call was yes, it was a dead person calling,
Speaker 2: but it was really a representation of you know, death
Speaker 2: is coming, you're alone, it's on its way, and it'll
Speaker 2: be right over, you know, eventually. And I think that's
Speaker 2: probably why I prefer the short story end, and because
Speaker 2: the TV version, I don't know you can kind of
Speaker 2: get that theme maybe, But I think Joe alluded to
Speaker 2: it before Joe Mayo when he said, well, you know,
Speaker 2: it's perfectly understandable then if someone is calling you and
Speaker 2: you don't know who it is, and it's like a
Speaker 2: weird voice. Of course you're going to tell them to
Speaker 2: stop calling, so it doesn't really scan that. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: you've made your own bed, now you have to lie
Speaker 2: in it, because she was just telling a corpse not
Speaker 2: to call her. And then there's this whole thing like
Speaker 2: Al mentioned about the while landing on the grave. So
Speaker 2: these things kind of unravel a bit. But I do
Speaker 2: generally still enjoy it, and it is in that area
Speaker 2: between bottom top tier or top middle tier. But I
Speaker 2: think you make a great point about is it really
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone. Yes, there's precedent for this, you know, with
Speaker 2: things like the thirty five and Grave. Just a spooky story,
Speaker 2: but it's probably not bringing us the elements of some
Speaker 2: of the best Twilight zones, I think, and that that
Speaker 2: uniquely Twilight Zone thing. So I get completely where you're
Speaker 2: coming from. Thanks for that, Joe. Okay. And finally we
Speaker 2: go over to our old friend Harold Clark calling in
Speaker 2: from Budha, Texas.
Speaker 6: Hey there, Tom Harrow Clark reporting in from but to Texas,
Speaker 6: talking about night call.
Speaker 9: So, you know, as I've gotten.
Speaker 6: Older, when I watch twilights on episodes again, I'm trying
Speaker 6: to define the meaning, you know, you know, I do
Speaker 6: try and put.
Speaker 9: On my spirits, your glasses to see if there's anything there.
Speaker 6: But you know, there are some episodes that you know,
Speaker 6: you put the spiritual glasses on and there's there's nothing.
Speaker 6: That doesn't mean that the episode's bad or if there's not,
Speaker 6: you know, just other lessons to be learned, such as, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, will the real Martian please stand up?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 9: You know, try to.
Speaker 6: Find some sort of spiritual parallel. But it's just a
Speaker 6: fun episode. So you know I did that with night
Speaker 6: coll you know, watching it and trying to figure out, well,
Speaker 6: you know what, you know, what can we pull out
Speaker 6: of this episode?
Speaker 9: You know, where's the you know, where's the meat on
Speaker 9: the bone.
Speaker 6: And you know, I thought, you know, it could be
Speaker 6: maybe you can have a discussion about you know, addiction
Speaker 6: or something like that, because you know, she's well addiction
Speaker 6: or obsession. You know, she's obsessed with this phone, you know,
Speaker 6: and and you know people are telling her, hey, just
Speaker 6: take take the phone off the hook, and then you
Speaker 6: know you won't have this worry, you know, so you
Speaker 6: could dive into there. I mean that's you know, that's
Speaker 6: kind of a similar idea to uh, you know, Nightmare.
Speaker 9: You know, twenty thousand feet with you know, just you.
Speaker 6: Know, keep the keep the shade closed, and then you
Speaker 6: don't have to worry about it, you know. But again,
Speaker 6: I'm sitting here watching this episode, and I mean, at
Speaker 6: the end of the day, I'm like, I don't I
Speaker 6: don't know if it says much of anything other than
Speaker 6: you know, being maybe just a.
Speaker 8: I don't more.
Speaker 6: It felt more like a spooky ghost story kind of,
Speaker 6: and you know, at the end, you.
Speaker 9: Just get some goofball twist. I say, goofball, but you know,
Speaker 9: you get.
Speaker 6: A twist that you don't really have any context for
Speaker 6: until like really four minutes left in the episode, you know.
Speaker 9: I mean it's you don't know.
Speaker 6: You know, you don't know anything about her past, and
Speaker 6: you know, she mentions just a little bit, you know,
Speaker 6: about driving and all this stuff, and you know, okay,
Speaker 6: but you know, I mean, she's not the worst person
Speaker 6: on the face of the earth, you know. So you know,
Speaker 6: when you talk about the whole idea of this cosmic
Speaker 6: justice happening and now she's all alone and it's made
Speaker 6: her own hell.
Speaker 9: I'm like, I don't know. I mean, you know, and.
Speaker 6: You know the reasoning behind the husband, you know, you know,
Speaker 6: basically saying, oh, well you said this, you said this before,
Speaker 6: so hey, I'm going to follow you. I can't hear
Speaker 6: anything you're saying now. Sorry blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 9: I don't know, you know.
Speaker 6: So for me, this is this is lower your bottom tier,
Speaker 6: I should say. I mean, it's just one of those
Speaker 6: episodes where you walk away from it and you go, well,
Speaker 6: you know what, what what is.
Speaker 9: There to talk about?
Speaker 8: Now? You know.
Speaker 6: They do they do mention about you know, they have
Speaker 6: the interaction between you know, the old woman and the
Speaker 6: and the telephone you know operator, and then then the housekeeper,
Speaker 6: and there's this there's a little bit about you know, ah,
Speaker 6: you know, nobody believes you know, everybody thinks I'm an
Speaker 6: old biddy.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 6: Now, you know that's something you know that you can
Speaker 6: kind of grasp on to, you know, the idea of
Speaker 6: you know, not believing someone just because you think, ah,
Speaker 6: you know, they're too old, they're senile.
Speaker 9: Things like that.
Speaker 6: I mean, that's that's something. But they just didn't, I
Speaker 6: don't know, they just didn't really flesh that out.
Speaker 9: Now.
Speaker 6: What this did remind me of is a movie that
Speaker 6: came out in twenty twenty called The Vast of Night.
Speaker 6: So it's a quick, little it's a super The budget
Speaker 6: on the film I think was like seven hundred thousand
Speaker 6: dollars or something. But cinematography is fantastic. It's a great
Speaker 6: little story hour and a half, breezy, little, breezy little story.
Speaker 6: Don't read anything about it. I mean, it's a it's
Speaker 6: a it's a science fiction, you know movie. That's about
Speaker 6: all I'll say. But but it brings up some you know,
Speaker 6: that movie brings up some points to go, ah, let's
Speaker 6: talk about this, you know, and and you know about
Speaker 6: you know, maybe old people and the perception of this
Speaker 6: and the perception of that.
Speaker 9: That movie gives.
Speaker 6: You a little bit more you know too uh to
Speaker 6: dive into. So anyway, that's uh, that's what I got,
Speaker 6: Like said, night Call. You know, it's just one of
Speaker 6: those forgettable episodes. It's a you know, I mean this
Speaker 6: this almost felt like it should be like a night
Speaker 6: Gallery episode.
Speaker 9: I don't watch a whole lot of night Galleries.
Speaker 6: But from what I understand, they could be whatever link
Speaker 6: they want, and this could have been a this could
Speaker 6: have been a five minute story, you know, you know,
Speaker 6: to have the little twist and okay, here you go,
Speaker 6: but nah, I don't know, it felt like a little
Speaker 6: it's dragged a little bit, you know, for twenty two minutes,
Speaker 6: and again you get most of the story in the
Speaker 6: last literally last four minutes. So eh, not one of
Speaker 6: my favorites, but you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 6: So anyway, curious to hear what everybody else has to say,
Speaker 6: and we will talk at you later.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Harold. I think you're tapping into something that
Speaker 2: we've been building towards with a lot of this feedback.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of people are just generally happy
Speaker 2: with an atmospheric kind of episode, but when we start
Speaker 2: to pick it apart a bit, it just doesn't quite
Speaker 2: fit with you know, you're talking about the cosmic justice.
Speaker 2: It doesn't really kind of have that elegance to it
Speaker 2: that the best twilight zones do, where you know, people
Speaker 2: get their come up and some sometimes it's someone who
Speaker 2: doesn't look like they really deserve something to happen to them,
Speaker 2: but it's, you know, just a lesson on maybe that
Speaker 2: life is unpredictable sometimes and so on, and you're trying
Speaker 2: to unpick this, but nothing really quite makes sense, and
Speaker 2: I think, you know, when we think of the comments
Speaker 2: that people like the two Joes, al Shehadzman and so
Speaker 2: on has said, and Chad as well, you know, it
Speaker 2: just doesn't quite hang together in that way. And again,
Speaker 2: I don't want to repeat myself, but I kind of will.
Speaker 2: I think the short story. I don't know whether it
Speaker 2: was actually Matheson's design that it be, you know about
Speaker 2: these calls being representative of the approaching death of Alva Keene,
Speaker 2: but it's certainly my interpretation of it. And while I
Speaker 2: wouldn't strictly call it Twilight Zone, it at least made
Speaker 2: sense within its own thing. You know that randomly the
Speaker 2: wire had landed on a grave and not the grave
Speaker 2: of the the guy who was killed in a car
Speaker 2: thirty years ago or something. You know, we'll believe that
Speaker 2: a guy called her who was dead, but we won't
Speaker 2: believe that the while I'll landed on that particular grave.
Speaker 2: But you know, that's the way it goes. But I've
Speaker 2: enjoyed the conversation, I've enjoyed everyone's clip, So I thank
Speaker 2: you all for doing it. Like I said, I think
Speaker 2: we might have about eighteen episodes to go. If you've
Speaker 2: always wanted to say something on the twilight Zone Podcast.
Speaker 2: Then now is the time to do it, really, So
Speaker 2: let's see if we can keep this conversation going. And
Speaker 2: thank you to my four night callers tonight. There you go,
Speaker 2: and if you want to get your thoughts onto the show,
Speaker 2: then send a clip of about five minutes or less
Speaker 2: to Tom at the twilight Zone podcast dot com. Now,
Speaker 2: normally I would send you over to Rod's Sailing to
Speaker 2: find out what is coming up next, but unfortunately there
Speaker 2: isn't a sailing close out on this one. But the
Speaker 2: episode that we'll be looking at is from Agnes with
Speaker 2: Love and I'll speak to you then