Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, page 33

November 5, 2024: Amazing Covers!

A few that caught my eye this week…

Ultimates #6 – cover art Leinil Yu

Absolute Superman #1 – cover art by Rafael Sandoval

Batman #155 – cover art by Bjorn Barends

Birds of Prey #15 – cover art by Leonardo Romero

Plastic Man No More #3 – cover art by Martin Morazzo

Poison Ivy #27 – cover art by Puppeteer Lee

So, which were YOUR favorites?

The post November 5, 2024: Amazing Covers! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

November 5, 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 25-28!

Season 5, Episode 25, “The Masks”

This episode first aired March 20, 1964.

This was the only Twilight Zone episode to be directed by a woman. Ida Lupino, who previously appeared on the series as Barbara Jean Trenton in “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” assumed the directing reins on this one. On working on both sides of the camera, Lupino once remarked: “Directing is much easier than acting. The actor deals in false emotions, produced on cue. The director has his problems, but they are all normal. He doesn’t have to smile into a camera while suffering through an early morning grouch.”

Actress Brooke Hayward who played Paula Harper, recalled: “They had to do a life mask with the cast in advance. After we were done filming, Ida Lupino told us we could keep the masks, because they would not be needed. I used to have my mask for many years but I don’t recall what happened to it since. Rod Serling was on the set much of the time. He was involved with a lot of what was filmed on stage. He was terrific, a really nice man.”

“The Masks” would mark actor Robert Keith’s final acting role before his death at the age of 76.

Definitely among the best this season has to offer. Despite its somewhat predictable ending, it nevertheless delivers on its eerie final twist. The script delivers a wonderfully suspenseful build, and Lupino’s direction is all-around marvelous.

Season 5, Episode 26, “I Am the Night – Color Me Black”

This episode first aired March 27, 1964.

This episode was filmed entirely in studio. Earth was blown around the set to help convey a sense of the outdoors necessitating the crew and off-camera actors to wear nose-mouth filters.

Actor Michael Constantine, who played Sheriff Koch, is perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of the Windex-obsessed Gus Portokalos”in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). He reflected back on this episode: “I think I was most impressed not so much by my part, or the story, though they were good ones, but with seeing Rod Serling come down to the set and do his opening speech, which always, of course, ends with the line “The Twilight Zone.” I was already impressed with Serling because of his many great TV and film shows but assumed that he would simply read this opening speech from a cue card. Well, not Mr. Serling. He delivered the speech looking straight into the camera and did it all in one take. Then he smiled and went back up to his office. I was an actor who had worked for much of my career on the stage. I tended to frown on people who used cue cards. If I could memorize a whole play, why couldn’t they memorize a few sentences or paragraphs? My respect for Serling zoomed.”

Paul Fix, who played newspaper editor Colbey, is best remembered for his portrayal of “Marshal Micah Torrance” on the TV series The Rifleman (1958). He was a good friend of John Wayne and apparently suggested Wayne adopt his trademark rolling gait to set himself apart from other actors.

George Lindsey, who played Deputy Pierce, played the character of Goober Pyle”on the The Andy Griffith Show (1960), replacing Jim Nabors who took himself (and his character) to his own show Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964). Lindsey was apparently a good friend of actor Ernest Borgnine who battled depression and credited Lindsey with saving his life. He was apparently Gene Roddenberry’s first choice to play Spock, but he turned down the role.

Ivan Dixon, who played the Reverend, previously starred in “The Big Tall Wish” (1960).

Not quite as egregious as some of his comedic episodes, or quite as offensively ham-fisted as He’s Alive, but certainly not one of Serling’s better efforts. In the end, the biggest strike against it is that it’s quite dull.

Season 5, Episode 27, “Sounds and Silences”

This episode first aired April 3, 1964.

Shortly after this episode aired, a writer who had submitted a similar script idea with the same title two years earlier threatened a lawsuit. It was settled for $3500 but the litigation prevented this episode from being shown in syndication.

Serling, by this point, weary of the seemingly endless claims of intellectual theft and no doubt regretting his decision to open the show to unsolicited submissions early in the show’s run, had this to say: : “I can tell you quite unequivocally that I have never, in the course of some seventeen years of writing, ever, repeat, ever deliberately, knowingly or overtly taken another man’s work and substituted it as my own. In all areas of science fiction, and this is my experience after five years on the air, it is rare that we do a show in which at least ten people do not accost us, waving material of their own, and accuse us of plagiarism, conscious or otherwise. There is no question but that when you deal in this kind of storytelling, you automatically handle certain ideas in precisely the same manner that other science fictionaries do. It’s unhappy and unfortunate but I think it’s to be quite expected.”

Actress Penny Singleton, who played Mrs. Flemington, is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Blondie Bumstead in the Blondie! movies of the 30’s and 40’s. She was also the voice of Jane Jetson on The Jetsons (1962).

While not a particularly strong episode, I really did like John McGiver’s inspired performance and I did find a couple of instances quite funny – the squeaky shoes scene and the fact Roswell kept referring to his wife as “Madam”.

Season 5, Episode 28, “Caesar and Me”

This episode first aired April 10, 1964.

This was the only Twilight Zone episode written by a woman. The writer, Adele T. Strassfield, was the secretary of producer William Froug who joined the show in its fifth season. According to Froug: “She “was an exceptionally bright woman, and she said to me, ‘I can show you I’m a writer. I want to write a “Twilight Zone.”‘ So she came up with a notion. She’d never written a script before and has never written once since. In effect, I sort of wrote it with her. I wanted her to have the credit, and she got a great thrill out of it.”

Froug comes across as a little condescending in the aforementioned quote, and then downright inept in this one: “I didn’t know it, but the story had been done before, about a magician whose dummy comes to life and murders him. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have given her an OK to write it — it had been produced three years before — but since nobody had remembered it, it didn’t matter.” He didn’t know the show he was producing had already done a talking ventriloquist episode? And, according to him, nobody remembered it? What nonsense is this?

Strassfield’s television-writing career was short-lived. She followed Froug to Gilligan’s Island where she received a credit on an episode where Russian cosmonauts visit the island. After that, she had only one more writing credit. She died in 1977 at the age of 53.

The ventriloquist’s dummy featured in this episode was re-use from the earlier similarly-themed episode, “The Dummy”.

Across Morgan Brittany, who makes her third and final Twilight Zone appearance in this episode as the bratty Susan, recalled: “I had so much fun playing a bad girl. The director, Robert Butler, would work with me and he really encouraged me to be this mean girl. In one scene where I’m listening at Jackie Cooper’s door and I get busted, he told me to get right up in Jackie’s face and stand my ground.“

She reflected back on working with Jackie Cooper: “Jackie was great to work with. He had been a child actor so he knew exactly how to relate to me. We had a ball. It’s wonderful when you can work with people like that – when you have such a connection, which we really did.”

As for that creepy dummy: “The dummy didn’t freak me out because the guy who was doing the voice was sitting over on the side – he was a funny old dude who made me laugh between shots when he’d make noises or tell jokes in the dummy’s voice.”

According to Brittany, script revisions (tracked by colored pages) were rare on The Twilight Zone: “The other thing I distinctly remember was the lack of colored pages in the script. Over the years, I’ve worked on a lot of shows where we had all the colored script revisions – pink, blue, yellow, green, etc. On The Twilight Zone, you got maybe one or two colored pages. That was it. They knew what they were doing.”

And finally, Brittany reflected fondly back on Serling’s on-set presence: “Rod would come down to the set sometimes, but he would sit in a high director chair, usually under one of the arcs lights with the steam rising out of the top. And he would be in total silhouette. He had his legs crossed, he ws smoking a cigarette, and he never said anything.”

When I first saw the synopsis for this episode, I was a little leery, assuming it would just be a knock-off of “The Dummy” and, while it wasn’t anywhere near as great as that episode, it was different enough to set it apart – and Morgan Brittany’s performance as the devilish little girl really elevated this episode for me. Cooper’s Irish accent was…a little suspect…but I still did feel sorry for how it all turned out for him. And I especially loved the ending, knowing the evil dummy is going to lead that kid to ruin.

The post November 5, 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 25-28! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

November 5 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 25-28!

Season 5, Episode 25, “The Masks”

This episode first aired March 20, 1964.

This was the only Twilight Zone episode to be directed by a woman. Ida Lupino, who previously appeared on the series as Barbara Jean Trenton in “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” assumed the directing reins on this one. On working on both sides of the camera, Lupino once remarked: “Directing is much easier than acting. The actor deals in false emotions, produced on cue. The director has his problems, but they are all normal. He doesn’t have to smile into a camera while suffering through an early morning grouch.”

Actress Brooke Hayward who played Paula Harper, recalled: “They had to do a life mask with the cast in advance. After we were done filming, Ida Lupino told us we could keep the masks, because they would not be needed. I used to have my mask for many years but I don’t recall what happened to it since. Rod Serling was on the set much of the time. He was involved with a lot of what was filmed on stage. He was terrific, a really nice man.”

“The Masks” would mark actor Robert Keith’s final acting role before his death at the age of 76.

Definitely among the best this season has to offer. Despite its somewhat predictable ending, it nevertheless delivers on its eerie final twist. The script delivers a wonderfully suspenseful build, and Lupino’s direction is all-around marvelous.

Season 5, Episode 26, “I Am the Night – Color Me Black”

This episode first aired March 27, 1964.

This episode was filmed entirely in studio. Earth was blown around the set to help convey a sense of the outdoors necessitating the crew and off-camera actors to wear nose-mouth filters.

Actor Michael Constantine, who played Sheriff Koch, is perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of the Windex-obsessed Gus Portokalos”in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). He reflected back on this episode: “I think I was most impressed not so much by my part, or the story, though they were good ones, but with seeing Rod Serling come down to the set and do his opening speech, which always, of course, ends with the line “The Twilight Zone.” I was already impressed with Serling because of his many great TV and film shows but assumed that he would simply read this opening speech from a cue card. Well, not Mr. Serling. He delivered the speech looking straight into the camera and did it all in one take. Then he smiled and went back up to his office. I was an actor who had worked for much of my career on the stage. I tended to frown on people who used cue cards. If I could memorize a whole play, why couldn’t they memorize a few sentences or paragraphs? My respect for Serling zoomed.”

Paul Fix, who played newspaper editor Colbey, is best remembered for his portrayal of “Marshal Micah Torrance” on the TV series The Rifleman (1958). He was a good friend of John Wayne and apparently suggested Wayne adopt his trademark rolling gait to set himself apart from other actors.

George Lindsey, who played Deputy Pierce, played the character of Goober Pyle”on the The Andy Griffith Show (1960), replacing Jim Nabors who took himself (and his character) to his own show Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964). Lindsey was apparently a good friend of actor Ernest Borgnine who battled depression and credited Lindsey with saving his life. He was apparently Gene Roddenberry’s first choice to play Spock, but he turned down the role.

Ivan Dixon, who played the Reverend, previously starred in “The Big Tall Wish” (1960).

Not quite as egregious as some of his comedic episodes, or quite as offensively ham-fisted as He’s Alive, but certainly not one of Serling’s better efforts. In the end, the biggest strike against it is that it’s quite dull.

Season 5, Episode 27, “Sounds and Silences”

This episode first aired April 3, 1964.

Shortly after this episode aired, a writer who had submitted a similar script idea with the same title two years earlier threatened a lawsuit. It was settled for $3500 but the litigation prevented this episode from being shown in syndication.

Serling, by this point, weary of the seemingly endless claims of intellectual theft and no doubt regretting his decision to open the show to unsolicited submissions early in the show’s run, had this to say: : “I can tell you quite unequivocally that I have never, in the course of some seventeen years of writing, ever, repeat, ever deliberately, knowingly or overtly taken another man’s work and substituted it as my own. In all areas of science fiction, and this is my experience after five years on the air, it is rare that we do a show in which at least ten people do not accost us, waving material of their own, and accuse us of plagiarism, conscious or otherwise. There is no question but that when you deal in this kind of storytelling, you automatically handle certain ideas in precisely the same manner that other science fictionaries do. It’s unhappy and unfortunate but I think it’s to be quite expected.”

Actress Penny Singleton, who played Mrs. Flemington, is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Blondie Bumstead in the Blondie! movies of the 30’s and 40’s. She was also the voice of Jane Jetson on The Jetsons (1962).

While not a particularly strong episode, I really did like John McGiver’s inspired performance and I did find a couple of instances quite funny – the squeaky shoes scene and the fact Roswell kept referring to his wife as “Madam”.

Season 5, Episode 28, “Caesar and Me”

This episode first aired April 10, 1964.

This was the only Twilight Zone episode written by a woman. The writer, Adele T. Strassfield, was the secretary of producer William Froug who joined the show in its fifth season. According to Froug: “She “was an exceptionally bright woman, and she said to me, ‘I can show you I’m a writer. I want to write a “Twilight Zone.”‘ So she came up with a notion. She’d never written a script before and has never written once since. In effect, I sort of wrote it with her. I wanted her to have the credit, and she got a great thrill out of it.”

Froug comes across as a little condescending in the aforementioned quote, and then downright inept in this one: “I didn’t know it, but the story had been done before, about a magician whose dummy comes to life and murders him. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have given her an OK to write it — it had been produced three years before — but since nobody had remembered it, it didn’t matter.” He didn’t know the show he was producing had already done a talking ventriloquist episode? And, according to him, nobody remembered it? What nonsense is this?

Strassfield’s television-writing career was short-lived. She followed Froug to Gilligan’s Island where she received a credit on an episode where Russian cosmonauts visit the island. After that, she had only one more writing credit. She died in 1977 at the age of 53.

The ventriloquist’s dummy featured in this episode was re-use from the earlier similarly-themed episode, “The Dummy”.

Across Morgan Brittany, who makes her third and final Twilight Zone appearance in this episode as the bratty Susan, recalled: “I had so much fun playing a bad girl. The director, Robert Butler, would work with me and he really encouraged me to be this mean girl. In one scene where I’m listening at Jackie Cooper’s door and I get busted, he told me to get right up in Jackie’s face and stand my ground.“

She reflected back on working with Jackie Cooper: “Jackie was great to work with. He had been a child actor so he knew exactly how to relate to me. We had a ball. It’s wonderful when you can work with people like that – when you have such a connection, which we really did.”

As for that creepy dummy: “The dummy didn’t freak me out because the guy who was doing the voice was sitting over on the side – he was a funny old dude who made me laugh between shots when he’d make noises or tell jokes in the dummy’s voice.”

According to Brittany, script revisions (tracked by colored pages) were rare on The Twilight Zone: “The other thing I distinctly remember was the lack of colored pages in the script. Over the years, I’ve worked on a lot of shows where we had all the colored script revisions – pink, blue, yellow, green, etc. On The Twilight Zone, you got maybe one or two colored pages. That was it. They knew what they were doing.”

And finally, Brittany reflected fondly back on Serling’s on-set presence: “Rod would come down to the set sometimes, but he would sit in a high director chair, usually under one of the arcs lights with the steam rising out of the top. And he would be in total silhouette. He had his legs crossed, he ws smoking a cigarette, and he never said anything.”

When I first saw the synopsis for this episode, I was a little leery, assuming it would just be a knock-off of “The Dummy” and, while it wasn’t anywhere near as great as that episode, it was different enough to set it apart – and Morgan Brittany’s performance as the devilish little girl really elevated this episode for me. Cooper’s Irish accent was…a little suspect…but I still did feel sorry for how it all turned out for him. And I especially loved the ending, knowing the evil dummy is going to lead that kid to ruin.

The post November 5 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 25-28! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

November 4, 2024: Recent Yes/No’s – Best and Worst!

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Surf ‘n Turf Empanada…

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Pickled Glasswort…

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Grilled Molejas…

BEST: Absolutely without a doubt the Portuguese Bacon Pudding

WORST: A lot to choose from but it’s hard to beat that maggot cheese.

The post November 4, 2024: Recent Yes/No’s – Best and Worst! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

November 3, 2024: Sharky Sunday!

Out and About – Time for his annual checkup!

Taste-testing steak!

Exploring…

Snacking on salmon…

Crappy carrot…

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November 2, 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 21-24!

Season 5, Episode 21, “Spur of the Moment”

This episode first aired February 21, 1964.

The initial title for this episode was “Pale Rider”.

Writer Richard Matheson reflected back on this episode: “I liked that story. The only thing I didn’t like was that, I thought, in the beginning they gave it away. You should not have seen her face when she was chasing the young girl. It should have been just a a scary figure in black, in the background.”

Director Elliott Silverstein also had mixed feelings about this episode: “The lesson I learned from that one is never ask an actor if he or she can ride a horse. I said to her “Diane, can you ride a horse?”. She replied “Yes, absolutely.” It’s the stock answer that any actor will give. And much to my frustration and shock, when the time came to get her up on the horse with the camera running alongside, she didn’t even know what side of the horse to get up on. We had to fake the whole. thing.”

Diana Hyland , who played Anne Henderson, was 27 when she played Anne Henderson at ages 18 and 43. She was cast opposite Dick Van Patten in Eight is Enough (1977), but passed away from breast cancer after filming only four episodes.

Marsha Hunt, who played Mrs. Henderson, had her career scuttled after being branded a communist for signing a petition in support of free speech. She supported civil rights causes and died at the age of 104.

Philip Ober, who played Mr. Henderson, appeared in I Love Lucy (1951) with his wife Vivian Vance. He was apparently physically abusive with her and, one day, when Vance showed up on set with a black eye, Lucille Ball confronted Ober and threatened that if he didn’t divorce Vance, she (Ball) would.

Roger Davis, who played David Mitchell, landed the lead role in the series Alias Smith and Jones (1971) when his friend, and initial series lead, Pete Duel, died of a self-inflicted gunshot while drunk.

Robert Hogan, who played Robert Blake, portrayed Reverend Tom Winter in the popular soap opera Peyton Place (1964) and Police Sergeant Ted Coppersmith in The Rockford Files (1974). Bob Crane’s Colonel Hogan in Hogan’s Heroes was apparently named after Robert Hogan.

This was a solid episode that, honestly, would have been great had the director not dropped the ball and, as Matheson pointed out in his critique, tipped the twist by revealing Anne as the woman in black on horseback right off the top. I thought Diana Hyland pretty terrific though.

Season 5, Episode 22, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

This episode first aired February 28, 1964.

This episode/short film was based on the short story of the same name, written by Ambrose Bierce. It was first published by the San Francisco Examiner in 1890.

Bierce often drew on his own Civil War experiences for his writing.

Near the end of production for The Twilight Zone’s fifth season, Rod Serling attended a French film festival where he saw this short film. He was so impressed that he purchased the rights for a one-time U.S. network broadcast of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” for $20 000. It may have seemed like a pricey purchase at the time but the decision ended up saving the show approximately $100 000 on the production of a new episode.

This French short won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Short Subject as well as the 1962 Golden Palm (Palme d’Or) for best short subject at the Cannes Film Festival.

Shortly after “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” was acquired for broadcast, ABC offered to pick up The Twilight Zone for a sixth season, but Serling turned down the offer because the network wanted the show to lean more heavily into horror. As a result, this proved to be the show’s fifth and final season. Serling, meanwhile, went on to produce the horror-themed Night Gallery (1970) years later.

Gorgeously atmospheric, this beautifully directed episode is bolstered by a haunting score and a final, devastating twist that is trademark Twilight Zone while not actually being Twilight Zone.

Season 5, Episode 23, “Queen of the Nile”

This episode first aired March 6, 1964.

This was the final writing credit for Charles Beaumont who died three years after this episode aired. Like his previous late Twilight Zone episodes, “Queen of the Nile” was ghostwritten for him, in this particular case by longtime friend and collaborator Jerry Sohl. On his inspiration for this episode, Sohl stated: “I had a scarab ring many years ago, and knew that the scarab ring was the symbol of fertility and immortality in Egyptian times. … After about half an hour we had the story worked out. I just went home and did it, sent it in, and they shot it the way I wrote it.” He would later reflect: “That one was a lot of fun to do, and I think they did a great job on it.”

In the original first draft, Pamela is visited by a handsome young policeman investigating the disappearance of Jordan Herrick. Pamela starts flirting with him and we are left with the suggestion that she has found her next victim…

Actress Ann Blyth, who played Pamela Morris, was an accomplished singer who started her acting career at age 16. Her breakout role was opposite Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945) for which she received an Oscar nomination. On the heels of the movie’s release, she was vacationing in Lake Arrowhead when she broke her back while sledding. The accident had her laid up for six months before she resume her career in musical theatre, film, and television.

I thought this one a pretty good episode with a delightfully macabre ending. I’m sure there will be viewers who felt bad for poor Jordan, but I felt little sympathy for the nosy, romantically-aggressive rube.

Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with…

Season 5, Episode 24, “What’s in the Box”

This episode first aired March 13, 1964.

William Demarest, who played Joe Britt, got his start in vaudeville but gained fame as retired sea captain Uncle Charley on My Three Sons (1960), replacing actor William Frawley when he fell ill. He earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in The Jolson Story (1946).

Joan Blondell, who played Phyllis Britt, debuted with Ziegfeld Follies before graduating to Broadway. She starred opposite James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931) and Blonde Crazy (1931) in addition to other films. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in The Blue Veil (1951).

Sterling Holloway, who played the TV repairman, debuted in silent films but was able to find success in talkies due to his distinct voice. A director once judged him “too repulsive” for the screen so he quit acting for five years, but returned to in order to make money after the stock market crash of 1929. He played Uncle Oscar on Adventures of Superman (1952) and voiced Winnie the Pooh among other Disney characters.

So basically “A Most Unusual Camera” right down to the accidental plunge out the high-rise window, but with less interesting performances. Ho-hum.

The post November 2, 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 21-24! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

November 1, 2024: Finally, a good book!

It’s been ages since I’ve read a truly great book, and Annie Bot by Sierra Greer finally gives me a read to recommend. If you love androids as much as I do, you’ll enjoy the hell out of this one.

Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the cute outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.

She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?

Back in Montreal, mom finally had the epidural and while she has seen some improvement in her pain levels, it hasn’t resolved the major issues.  Still, she is finally on the move, walking with the assistance of a walker.  The doctor see enough improvement to allow her to go home, but therein lies another problem as sis and I are worried about her being alone, especially at night.  Mom, of course, insists she’ll be perfectly fine, but we’re not so sure we can trust her NOT to attempt any stairs.  So we’re looking at our options.

Had a zoom presentation today.  Next week (and the week after) I’ll be pitching the island mystery series while firming cup the pitch for the adaptation of that Golden Age classic sci-fi novel.

And, meanwhile, officially 550 shows into this Crime Binge.  Thinking I may tap out when I hit 1000.

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October 31, 2024: Suji and Lulu Snack! Blast from the Past! And the 13 Days of Halloween concludes!

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Best of The 13 Days of Halloween… Creepy Copper goes too…

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The First Omen A surprisingly compelling prequel to the 1976 classic. Sinister Silver goes to…

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Strange Darling A clever twist on the serial killer tale. And Ghoulish Gold goes to…

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Oddity Weird, wonderful, and delightfully creepy. Also check out the director’s first film, Caveat. So, what were your Top 3?

The post October 31, 2024: Suji and Lulu Snack! Blast from the Past! And the 13 Days of Halloween concludes! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

October 30, 2024: Amazing Covers!

A few that caught my eye this week…

Captain America #14 – cover art by Dan Panosian

Nyx #4 – cover art by InHyuk Lee

Batman: The Long Halloween – The Last Halloween #2 – cover art by Tim Sale

Poison Ivy/Swamp Thing: Feral Trees #1 – cover art by Ashley Wood

So, which were YOUR favorites?

The post October 30, 2024: Amazing Covers! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

October 29, 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episode 17-20! And the 13 Days of Halloween countdown continues with…Terrifier 3!

Season 5, Episode 17, “Number 12 Looks Just Like You”

This episode first aired January 24, 1964.

This episode is based on Charles Beaumont’s short story, “The Beautiful People”, which first appeared in the September 1952 issue of the science fiction magazine “If”.

This episode was ghost written by longtime Beaumont collaborator John Tomerlin who was admittedly not a fan of the finished product – even though he never watched it: “I never saw “Number 12 Looks just Like You”. I have to try to explain. If it had come on while I was watching, I would have watched it… It was for me associated with such a a painful experience in my mind. There was a purity of Chuck’s story, of our many collaborations, of our lives together, that I didn’t want to see anybody else tamper with it, even Rod Serling as good as he was I never wanted to write television. Television killed my darling, which was radio – and I haven’t quite forgiven it.”

This episode was, apparently, the inspiration for Scott Westerfield YA sci-fi series “Uglies”. Black Mirror creator Charlie Booker admitted that the episode inspired the episode of his series titled “Fifteen Million Merits”.

All of the female characters in this episode were named after beautiful starlets of the day: Marilyn (Monroe), Grace (Kelly), and Lana (Turner).

Actor Richard Long, making his second Twilight Zone appearance following “Person or Persons Unknown”, plays four different roles – that of the sympathetic Uncle Rick, the colorful Dr. Rex, the ponderous Professor Sigmund Friend, and a friendly orderly named Tom. The “pinkie to his lips” gesture he makes as Dr. Rex was later borrowed by Mike Myers for his portrayal of Dr. Evil.

Colin Wilcox Paxton, who played Marilyn Cuberle, won acclaim as young Mayella in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). She and co-star Brock Peters were heavily involved in the Civil Rights movements of their day.

There’s a point in this episode where mom (Lana) shows Marilyn a photo of herself when she was her age. This was actually a photo of Colin Wilcox Paxton at age 18.

Suzy Parker, who played Lana Cuberle, was the world’s first supermodel, and the first model to make $100 an hour and $100 000 a year. Even though she played Colin Wilcox’s mother, she was only 2 years older than her onscreen daughter.

Pamela Austin, who played Valerie, was known as The Dodge Girl for her appearance in several Dodge commercials. The campaign earned her several bit roles and, eventually, a lead role in The Perils of Pauline (1967).

This one was great and could be my favorite of the show’s fifth season. Reading the synopsis, I feared this would be a retread of Eye of the Beholder, but it truly sets itself apart. Loved the far future conceit and having the same actor play multiple roles. Richard Long was terrific. And the ending…well, it’s certainly ambiguous. Did the process of changing Marilyn’s physical appearance also, in some way, alter her mind as well? Or did she come around after seeing her beautiful new self in the mirror? Thoughts?

Season 5, Episode 18, “Black Leather Jackets”

This episode first aired January 31, 1964.

When it entered production, this episode was originally titled “Love Story”.

In an interview with the Archive of American Television in 2003, writer Earl Hammer Jr. declared “Black Leather Jackets” a bad episode and considered it his worst for the series.

The street is the same as the one in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”.

In the first draft of the script, the alien leader is referred to as “The Mask” and described thusly: “Over the heads of the three men we see the screen where a being of some kind is visible. It is a head, a metallic mask with slits for eyes, a nose and lips.”

Actor Lee Kinsolving, who played Scott, got his start on Broadway before graduating to film and television. But he grew frustrated with the industry and retired from acting at the age of 28. He owned art galleries and spent much of his days sailing before dying of a heart attack at the early age of 36.

Shelley Fabares, who played Ellen Tillman, was a teen idol during the five seasons she played young Mary Stone on The Donna Reed Show (1958). She enjoyed a #1 Billboard hit with the song “Johnny Angel” and, in later years, earned two Emmy nominations for her work opposite Craig T. Nelson’s wife on Coach (1989).

Denver Pyle, who played Stu Tillman, was originally cast to play Matt Dillon Gunsmoke (1955) before James Arness took the role. He is perhaps best remembered for his turn as Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979).

Michael Conrad, who played Sheriff Harper, is best known for his portrayal of Sgt. Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues whose trademark “Let’s be careful out there.” would become synonymous with the series.

Meh. I thought this one a middling episode that, given the premise, would have probably worked better had it explored the humor of its fish-out-of-water scenario. As it stood, the story was too straight-forward and the performances too wooden to warrant consideration as a potential Top 10 episode for this season.

Season 5, Episode 19, “Night Call”

This episode first aired February 7, 1964.

“Night Call” was originally scheduled to air on November 22, 1963, but it was pre-empted by coverage of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

A week after this episode aired, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour aired an episode titled “Night Caller”, about a woman receiving mysterious anonymous phone calls at night.

Writer Richard Matheson based this episode on his short story “Sorry, Wrong Number” (aka Long Distance Call) published in the November 1953 issue of Beyond Fantasy Fiction. Matheson preferred the title “Long Distance” but because the show had already aired an episode with a similar title, it was decided to go with “Night Call”.

Matheson reflected back on the differences between his short story and the episode: “The idea just occurred to me that some disabled old lady was getting phone calls from a dead man. I ended the story on a very dark note, where he says “I’ll be right over.” Which leaves the reader with the feeling of just what is coming over to her house? But it’s a flat ending. I thought the new ending I put on it for the Twilight Zone was a lot better. I thought it made much more sense because her personality was so abrasive that, for it to turn out that she had caused this man to die in the first place, and now she wanted him more than ever. And he just said, “You told me not to come over. I always do what you say.” I thought was was much stronger. It made much more of a character study.”

The director of this episode, Jacques Tourneur, gained fame for the movie Cat People which he directed in 1942. According to Matheson: “I’d always been a tremendous fan of Tourneur’s. As a matter of fact, even before Comedy of Terrors, I had talked with Bert Brandt about hiring him to do one of my Twilight Zones. They said the one reason they didn’t want him was because he was a movie director, and it would take him too long. Well, they hired him anyway, and Tourneur was so organized that he shot the shortest Twilight Zone shooting schedule ever. I think he had done it in like 28 hours.”

Actress Gladys Cooper, who played Elva Keene, makes her third and final Twilight Zone appearance following “Nothing in the Dark” and “Passage on the Lady Anne”.

I liked “Night Call” a lot and found it one of the show’s most creepily effective episodes. Great performances, superb direction, and a suspenseful build. I must admit to being a little disappointed with the ending that, to be honest, felt a little silly to me (“No, no. You told me to go away so I’m going away…”). She told him to stop calling days earlier and he didn’t, so him deciding to suddenly take her at her word feels a tad petty. And plot convenient. I was especially disappointed after doing my research for this episode and discovering the original ending of the short story. Despite Matheson’s insistence that the scripted ending is superior because it goes to character (And, I mean sure it does. In the most obvious, ham-fisted way.), I feel there was a missed opportunity here to deliver one hell of a shocker of an ending.

Season 5, Episode 20, “From Agnes – with Love”

This episode first aired, appropriately enough, on Valentine’s Day, February 7, 1964.

Like a few other of Sterling’s terrible comedic episodes, this one was intended as a pilot for a new series – that was, not surprisingly, never picked up.

Wally Cox, who played uber-nerd James Elwood, was an accomplished character actor and roommate of Marlon Brando. He died at the age of 49 as a result of what many claim was an accidental overdose of sedatives but friend Marlon Brando attributed to a heart attack.

Sue Randall, who played Millie, died at the same age of lung cancer.

Ralph Taeger, who played Walter Holmes, did mostly bit parts in film and television, but his career floundered as a result of rumors that he was difficult to work with.

Ray Bailey, who played the Supervisor, is of course best known for his portrayal of skinflint banker Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies.

This was the last acting credit for Nan Peterson, who played the beautiful secretary in the hallway. She quit acting in favor of other pursuits.

This episode was, in a word, awful. Definitely the worst of season 5 to date and probably among the show’s bottom five. I did feel sorry for poor Millie who clearly was looking to get laid but tried hooking up with the wrong guy

And our 13 Days of Halloween Countdown continues with…

Movie #12: Terrifier 3

The kills are inventive, savely over-the-top, and as pitch-black humorous as you can get, and Art the Clown is his gruesomely riotous self, but his sidekick this outing, the way-too-chatty Victoria, is a huge step down from Terriifer 2’s scene-stealing Little Pale Girl. This movie delivers the promised gore but, at the end of the day, it feels like it’s just marking time between its superior predecessor and Terrifier 4.

3/5 Jack o’ Lanterns

The post October 29, 2024: Our Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episode 17-20! And the 13 Days of Halloween countdown continues with…Terrifier 3! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.