Exploring The Twilight Zone, Episode #91: "Little Girl Lost"
Our nightly recaps return -- we're alternating weeks with our friends at Film School Rejects -- with a terrifying tale, a twist on a parent's nightmare: What if your child is crying out to you, pleading for your help, but you can't find her?
The Twilight Zone, Episode #91: "Little Girl Lost" (original air date March 16, 1962)
The Plot: In the middle of the night, six-year-old Tina cries out to her parents. But when her father goes to console her, he can hear her -- but he can't see her!
Chris (Robert Sampson) searches for his daughter, but he can't find her, which simply doesn't make any sense. Ruth (Sarah Marshall) joins him in the search, and they are baffled and terrified together. Amidst their rising hysteria, Chris telephones his friend Bill, a physicist, for help, and then lets their little barking dog into the house. The dog runs under Tina's bed, and then promptly disappears as well.
Bill (Charles Aidman) arrives and is calm and scientific under stress. He attacks the problem with logic and deduction, first moving Tina's bed and searching the few square feet underneath. As the three adults continue to hear the cries of the little girl, as well as the constant yapping of the little dog, Bill begins examining one of the walls.
And then his hand disappears into the wall.
The Goods: This is one of those episodes where you just have to let your mind go, forsaking logic and scientific explanations.
Sure, Bill is the voice of reason, supplying a theory about what has happened that carries the cadence of well-considered observations, but it's a smoke screen. Richard Matheson, the writer, specialized in these kind of "high concept" stories, which is probably one reason why his work lends itself so readily to film adaptations. (He also wrote The Legend of Hell House, which I considered a couple of days ago in 70s Rewind.)
For much of the running time, the episode is reliant on the power of suggestion: three adults, facing increasing panic, as the voices of a girl and a dog remain frustratingly out of reach. When the episode pushes past suggestion into "reality" (of a sort), it's probably a little too fantastical, undermining to some extent what has come before.
But it's still a marvelous, spooky episode, featuring original music by Bernard Herrmann, and good performances by Robert Sampson and Charles Aidman. (Sarah Marshall can't do too much with the "hysterical wife" role, which is more due to Matheson's script than her acting ability.) And I love how the show is resolved.
The Trivia: Reportedly, Matheson based the episode on an incident involving his own young daughter, who fell off her bed and rolled against a wall; her mother was not, initially, able to find her.
Director Paul Stewart was a founding member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre; he appeared in Citizen Kane as Kane's valet, Raymond. He directed TV shows for a decade (1954-64), and always kept acting.
Both Sampson and Aidman enjoyed long careers as reliably good character actors. Aidman appeared as an astronaut in the Season 1 TZ episode "And When the Sky Was Opened" (based on a short story by Matheson), and later narrated the first three seasons of the revived The Twilight Zone from 1985-87.
The voice of Tina was provided by Rhoda Williams, then 32 years of age.
On the Next Episode: You know who you are. But what if nobody else does? I mean nobody -- not your wife, not your colleagues, not even your bartender.
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.
