Exploring The Twilight Zone, Episode #61: "The Silence"

How long could you go without talking? An hour, a day, a week, a month? Could you go one year without uttering a word, if it meant you'd earn $500,000?

Exploring The Twilight Zone, Episode #61: "The Silence" (original air date: 04/28/61)

The Plot: One gentleman wagers another that he cannot remain silent for one year. He must remain under observation for the entire 12 months. If he succeeds, he will win $500,000.

The Goods: In an elegantly-appointed club room, Colonel Taylor (Franchot Tone), an older man, seethes quietly in his comfortable chair. "The only thing worse than the talking is the transparency," he says about the garrulous young Mr. Tennyson (Liam Sullivan, pictured), holding court on the other side of the room. The Colonel has come to hate the man, believing him to be a weak "ne'er do well," incapable of accomplishing anything.

Offended, Tennyson accepts the wager. (Also, he's lost his fortune, and his wife still loves to shop for luxury items, so his back is against the wall.) But when he demands that a certified check be placed on deposit in his name, it's Colonel Taylor's turn to be insulted; his credit is good, he insists, and the other club members rally to his defense. "It's my courage versus your crdit," Tennyson says, but he goes through with the wager. The younger man is imprisoned in a glass-enclosed room in the basement game room of the gentlemen's club, open to observation by any member of the club.

As the months speed by and Tennyson remains silent, Colonel Taylor begins to play cruelly upon the lonely Tennyson's feelings toward his wife, who has refused to visit him. The episode moves inexorably towards its ending, which delivers not one, but two whammies.

The episode is anchored by the great Franchot Tone, who is magnetic to watch, making his alternately cranky, outraged, devious, and overly proud character an absolute pleasure to watch.

The Trivia: Partway through filming, Tone suffered a facial injury, leaving the left side of his face swollen. Only the right side of his face is exposed to the camera during the scenes where he is taunting Tennyson from outside the glass-enclosed room.

Jonathan Harris, who played a medical doctor in an earlier episode, here plays Colonel Taylor's lawyer, and gets to deliver multiple warnings and rebukes to Taylor. Later, he created his signature character in Lost in Space.

The episode is notable for not having any fantasy or science fiction elements. It's based in part on Anton Chekhov's "The Bet."

On the Next Episode: "Adam Grant is trapped in a recurring nightmare, in which he is sentenced to death and executed."

Catching up: Episodes covered by Twitch | Episodes covered by Film School Rejects.

We're running through all 156 of the original Twilight Zone episodes, and we're not doing it alone! Our friends at Film School Rejects have entered the Zone as well, only on alternating weeks. So definitely tune in over at FSR and feel free to also follow along on Twitter accounts @ScreenAnarhcy and @rejectnation.