The baton returns to ScreenAnarchy for our alternating coverage with Film School Rejects of the original "Twilight Zone" series, as we dive straight back to the first episode of 1962, with Robert Redford as a wounded policeman seeking help from an old lady who fears he is Mr. Death.
The Twilight Zone, Episode #81: "Nothing in the Dark" (original air date January 5, 1962)
The Plot: Wanda Dunn (Gladys Cooper), a little old lady, is sleeping in tiny apartment on a snowy night. Noises outside wake her up; she hears shots fired, and then there's a knock at the door. A man claiming to be a policeman (Robert Redford) asks for help, but she refuses to open up, believing him to be somebody else. Rod Serling appears, telling us that she has 'fought death a thousand times,' and is certain that it is Mr. Death calling once again.
The young man is so attractive, however -- c'mon, it's Robert Redford, age 25! -- and Wanda's compassion moves her to unlock her door and check on him after he passes into unconsciousness. Touching him and not dying, as she would expect if he were really Mr. Death, she helps him into her bed to rest and recover.
Wanda opens up to the young man, expressing her fierce desire to live, to the point that she has remained in her one-room apartment for years, refusing all callers, all out of fear that she must not allow Mr. Death to touch her. Her neighbors in the apartment building have all moved out, and a man who says he is a contractor (R.G. Armstrong) keeps calling, but she doesn't want to let him in. And then he makes another appearance ...
The Goods: Nicely staged by director Lamont Johnson from a script by George Clayton Johnson, "Nothing in the Dark" draws most of its power from the performance by Gladys Cooper, who turned 73 a couple of weeks before the original air date. She is splendid in conveying the fear of death that most everyone shares; no one really wants to die, even if it seems inevitable. (Even people in extreme pain just want the pain to stop, not life itself.)
Wanda clings to life with all her might, and if we haven't faced a life-or-death scenario ourselves, surely we know someone who has, and that makes the episode universally relatable, and powerful in its simplicity.
Redford doesn't need to do much more than look pretty and remain quiet and soft-spoken, and he does that just fine. We see him through Cooper's eyes, and then we look into her eyes, and we see all we need to know about her character, about her determination, and about her life.
The Trivia: Cooper's career stretched back to the silent days of movie making; she debuted in Hollywood as a supporting player in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca and earned Academy Award nominations for her work in Now, Voyager, The Song of Bernadette, and My Fair Lady. She would go on to make appearances in two more TZ episodes.
It would be three more years before Redford began landing lead roles in feature films. Until that happened, he was busy with guest appearances in television shows.
On the Next Episode: A rich man really wants apologies from three people who he feels wronged him in the past, so he stages a phony nuclear war. Yes, the rich are different from you and me.
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.