😎War weariness is definitely the subtle sensibility conveyed here Cool Chick. The western hemisphere psychology of conflict and its competitive conduct regarding courage saddled on a "western". Duryea a veteran film noir protagonist/antagonist in character entering a new era of youthful competition and knowing its eventual fate to is be entangled in violent reenactments ; Rod Serling knew as situations progressed after 1957 that the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia would culminate into combat status. The scene where Denton recalls his moment of decision to drown himself in alcohol after gunning down a teenage challenger is undoubtedly a remembrance by Rod of his days in battle and how the cycle is continuous. The " Saloon" girl ; the physical and emotional soother of sanity's sanctuary sought by scarred conformist combatants. Fate giving the same potion to older and younger gunslinger to determine their speed of sense over surrender to senseless silence. The two hands shot simultaneously symbolizing a handshake of understanding and agreement. Social soliloquies Rod would later incorporate into his western series The Loner starring Lloyd Bridges.
I haven't seen The Loner - sounds really interesting! I thought it was also interesting when the new challenger is described to Denton - they could be describing Denton himself, "tall, blond," etc...like the challenger is a youthful version of Denton.
😎👍 ,😄He is! Denton recognizes himself and his facial expression confirms it. Now he must not only save what life he has left but alter the fate of a youthful reflection of himself.
It’s so wild to see Martin Landau here as a genuinely creep/crazy bad guy, as well as the way the story went with the final showdown and how it worked out. It was also so neat to see a young Doug McClure, who I grew up watching on TV and in 70’s movies with Peter Cushing.
I love this episode, and Dan Duryea's performance, eloquently summarized by Sterling's narration as a man who would "give an arm or a leg or a part of his soul to have another chance," brings me to tears. I like the ending very much because it saves both men not only from the threat of the moment but from downward spiral either would have been trapped in had he "won," but I'm reluctant to love it because it clearly could be criticized as deus es machina/divine intervention (it IS "when Fate stepped in" after all) rather than an earned resolution. However I think that might be the point, and when you commented on how bleak is was that it seemed as if the only solution was to mutually disable each other, the apparent inescapability of the cycle of violence and death that Denton which resigns himself as he tells Liz that more gunfighters will come after him could be part of the message of the story.
It really is a very touching performance. Duryea is really outstanding here. I'm still thinking about this episode and the issues it raises. Very powerful stuff.
@@TengyTalksTVMovies I enjoy your breakdown of episodes like this, but I'm looking forward even more to your reaction to episodes seem to fall into the seemingly shallow "That was a shock, but what was the point?" category.
@@waterbeauty85 I'm sure there will be ones I don't get so much out of. There's one in particular that I really didn't enjoy last time around. Not sure what I will say about that one....
Dan Duryea was such an underrated actor. He also did a fantastic episode of Route 66 which is somewhere on UA-cam. His own alcoholism informed his acting in his later career.
I'm sorry to hear he struggled with alcoholism in real life. I can only imagine how widespread a problem it must have been back then, and at a time when seeking help would have been so much harder and more stigmatised. I agree he is very underrated. He knocks it out of the park in this.
4:14 it would not be a stretch at all, you're exactly right. Rod Serling served in WWII and doubtless saw some awful things in the European Theatre. His hatred of Nazis and other violent authoritarian movements also is a major theme in the series (the episode "Death's Head Revisited' explores this very well). PTSD (or at least the name for it) did not exist then, so at most, soldiers were treated for "shell shock," but they did not get anything like the psychological help they needed. In a documentary on the 1960s counterculture revolution, someone was discussing how so many of the kids who ran away to Haight-Ashbury in 1967 were not happy, well-adjusted people; they were mostly psychologically damaged and had WWII veteran fathers who were angry, alcoholics, wife-beaters, child-beaters, because SO MANY of those guys had undiagnosed psychological problems from the war.
Wow, thanks for those very interesting comments, fuzzballzz36, and thank you so much for subscribing! It's very much appreciated. :) It's sad to think of that generation and the horrors they went through, then not being able to acknowledge or seek help for the resulting psychological damage they endured. It's no surprise these issues bubble up in other ways, through drama for example.
@@TengyTalksTVMovies Season 1 for me was the best. By Season 2, some of the mainstay of the production, writing, and music teams had left the show, which had an affect on the quality of the output, although there are still some great episodes in there.
A really good episode I haven't thought about in ages. And it's still relevant in showing the effects of toxic masculinity and how being able to get away from it only improves things.
Martin Landau is always great and I love Dan Duryea, who was always good in westerns and crime drama's. Love that you're doing this series. Maybe you could delve into the long overlooked and short lived TV show Ghost Story aka "Circle of Fear". It ran for only one season from 1972-73. William Castle was the executive producer and it brought us supernatural entities such as ghosts, vampires and witches. Stars such as Martin Sheen, Tyne Daily, Jodie Foster, Angie Dickinson, Helen Hayes, Patricia Neal, Karen Black and many more. Thank you again for all your hard work and bringing us the content you do. You are tops in my book. Have a wonderful weekend Tengy.😊
Thanks so much for your very encouraging comments, James! Much appreciated. :) I haven't seen Circle of Fear but it sounds like a lot of fun. I am thinking of doing reviews of Kolchak: The Night Stalker as well...
Seeing a Western as the 3rd episode in the Twilight Zone (TZ) kind of threw me off when I started watching the series after purchasing it years ago. TZ was always a sci-fi type show to me. It was a nice to experience a different kind of story in the series. What I enjoyed most of this episode was the cinematography. Landau was so great as a relentless villain. Duryea was epic! Seeing Henry J. Fate creepily showing up and lurking about would give one the willies. I wondered if Gene Wilder borrowed Duryea's "16 year old kid" story for his scene in "Blazing Saddles". They were a bit similar. Seeing the gun battle scene and that epic plot twist with the elixir made my eyes bulge and shout out "Whoa!" because it was unexpected. Henry J. Fate surely lived up to his name. Another great TZ reaction Tengy. 📽❤
Thanks John! I did read that the Blazing Saddles bit was inspired by this. They are really mixing the genres so far - something for everyone! Serling really packed a lot of ideas into these half-hours, didn't he? And everyone involved does such a superb job.
Yikes! Doug McClure!! Dan Druyea was a real classy actor, and appeared in quite a few excellent film noirs. Horror westerns? Did somebody mention Billy The Kid Vs Dracula? Another great review Tengy!😼
I have hear of BTKvsD but I've never seen it. I did see a bit of some more recent horror western a year or two back on tv and it looked really interesting. Struggling to recall what it was called. Glad you enjoyed this! :)
@@TengyTalksTVMovies Billy The Kid vs Dracula stars John Carradine, and is uhh different. One film I totally forgot about is, "Curse Of The Undead" from 1959, which is pretty wacky from what I can remember. Oh, and how did I forget "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter" from 1966!🤠
@@TengyTalksTVMovies Yeah..., I agree Tengy. If memory serves me right, Curse Of The Undead, wasn't actually too bad, in a strange way. Writer/Director Carl Hittleman wrote both Jesse and Billy. He was also involved in producing some Buster Keaton stuff as well, but most of his credits appear to be for Western influenced stuff.
I wonder if the showdown between Denton and Grant was in part a metaphor for the "mutually assured destruction" standoff between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., the latter having tested its first hydrogen bomb four years before this episode aired. Denton is given a potion that provides him with incomparable destructive power, and it turns out that his adversary has the same power. The "happy ending" of the episode is a sort of involuntary disarmament pact. It hadn't occurred to me that the character Liz was a lady of the evening, but her humanity is one of the most stirring parts of this episode, as the one character who really cares about Denton and strenuously objects to his self-abasement.
Wow, I love that idea about the disarmanent! And I love that the depth of Serling's writing allows us to find these levels in the story.z I think Liz is the first significant female character we've seen so far. The next ep features the first female leading character. Should be interesting :)
My number 41 episode. Not many episodes here involved guns, but this certainly made you think about the foolishness of it all, especially when used to signify "toughness". Dan Duryea was great. The whole thing was well done but, frankly, I don't even want to think about guns. America in 2024 has become the Wild West 😢
😎War weariness is definitely the subtle sensibility conveyed here Cool Chick. The western hemisphere psychology of conflict and its competitive conduct regarding courage saddled on a "western". Duryea a veteran film noir protagonist/antagonist in character entering a new era of youthful competition and knowing its eventual fate to is be entangled in violent reenactments ; Rod Serling knew as situations progressed after 1957 that the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia would culminate into combat status. The scene where Denton recalls his moment of decision to drown himself in alcohol after gunning down a teenage challenger is undoubtedly a remembrance by Rod of his days in battle and how the cycle is continuous. The " Saloon" girl ; the physical and emotional soother of sanity's sanctuary sought by scarred conformist combatants. Fate giving the same potion to older and younger gunslinger to determine their speed of sense over surrender to senseless silence. The two hands shot simultaneously symbolizing a handshake of understanding and agreement. Social soliloquies Rod would later incorporate into his western series The Loner starring Lloyd Bridges.
I haven't seen The Loner - sounds really interesting! I thought it was also interesting when the new challenger is described to Denton - they could be describing Denton himself, "tall, blond," etc...like the challenger is a youthful version of Denton.
@@TengyTalksTVMovies ua-cam.com/video/mVoyHl5YFJ0/v-deo.html 😂🤣😄
😎👍 ,😄He is! Denton recognizes himself and his facial expression confirms it. Now he must not only save what life he has left but alter the fate of a youthful reflection of himself.
@@anthonyperdue3557 I love how many levels Serling puts into his work. :)
It’s so wild to see Martin Landau here as a genuinely creep/crazy bad guy, as well as the way the story went with the final showdown and how it worked out. It was also so neat to see a young Doug McClure, who I grew up watching on TV and in 70’s movies with Peter Cushing.
Martin Landau really is wild in this one! It's a great performance. He seems really unhinged :)
I love this episode, and Dan Duryea's performance, eloquently summarized by Sterling's narration as a man who would "give an arm or a leg or a part of his soul to have another chance," brings me to tears. I like the ending very much because it saves both men not only from the threat of the moment but from downward spiral either would have been trapped in had he "won," but I'm reluctant to love it because it clearly could be criticized as deus es machina/divine intervention (it IS "when Fate stepped in" after all) rather than an earned resolution. However I think that might be the point, and when you commented on how bleak is was that it seemed as if the only solution was to mutually disable each other, the apparent inescapability of the cycle of violence and death that Denton which resigns himself as he tells Liz that more gunfighters will come after him could be part of the message of the story.
It really is a very touching performance. Duryea is really outstanding here. I'm still thinking about this episode and the issues it raises. Very powerful stuff.
@@TengyTalksTVMovies I enjoy your breakdown of episodes like this, but I'm looking forward even more to your reaction to episodes seem to fall into the seemingly shallow "That was a shock, but what was the point?" category.
@@waterbeauty85 I'm sure there will be ones I don't get so much out of. There's one in particular that I really didn't enjoy last time around. Not sure what I will say about that one....
Dan Duryea was such an underrated actor. He also did a fantastic episode of Route 66 which is somewhere on UA-cam. His own alcoholism informed his acting in his later career.
I'm sorry to hear he struggled with alcoholism in real life. I can only imagine how widespread a problem it must have been back then, and at a time when seeking help would have been so much harder and more stigmatised. I agree he is very underrated. He knocks it out of the park in this.
4:14 it would not be a stretch at all, you're exactly right. Rod Serling served in WWII and doubtless saw some awful things in the European Theatre. His hatred of Nazis and other violent authoritarian movements also is a major theme in the series (the episode "Death's Head Revisited' explores this very well). PTSD (or at least the name for it) did not exist then, so at most, soldiers were treated for "shell shock," but they did not get anything like the psychological help they needed. In a documentary on the 1960s counterculture revolution, someone was discussing how so many of the kids who ran away to Haight-Ashbury in 1967 were not happy, well-adjusted people; they were mostly psychologically damaged and had WWII veteran fathers who were angry, alcoholics, wife-beaters, child-beaters, because SO MANY of those guys had undiagnosed psychological problems from the war.
Wow, thanks for those very interesting comments, fuzzballzz36, and thank you so much for subscribing! It's very much appreciated. :) It's sad to think of that generation and the horrors they went through, then not being able to acknowledge or seek help for the resulting psychological damage they endured. It's no surprise these issues bubble up in other ways, through drama for example.
@@TengyTalksTVMovies you're quite welcome! It is sad that they weren't able to get help for those issues.
Martin Landau also appeared in a couple of episodes of The Outer Limits. One he was in "The Bellero Shield, with Sally Kellerman, is excellent.
I must watch The Outer Limits again - I think I've only seen season 1.
@@TengyTalksTVMovies Season 1 for me was the best. By Season 2, some of the mainstay of the production, writing, and music teams had left the show, which had an affect on the quality of the output, although there are still some great episodes in there.
@@brucster99b2 and let's face - even an average TZ ep is better than most shows are on their best day.
@@TengyTalksTVMovies Too true..., Tengy. These shows aren't called "Classic TV" for nothing.☺
A really good episode I haven't thought about in ages. And it's still relevant in showing the effects of toxic masculinity and how being able to get away from it only improves things.
Rod Serling really seems like he was ahead of the curve in wanting to address this issue. He did a superb job.
As a child I didn't care much for this episode. As an adult, it's a real joy to watch. Fine stuff.
Martin Landau is always great and I love Dan Duryea, who was always good in westerns and crime drama's. Love that you're doing this series. Maybe you could delve into the long overlooked and short lived TV show Ghost Story aka "Circle of Fear". It ran for only one season from 1972-73. William Castle was the executive producer and it brought us supernatural entities such as ghosts, vampires and witches. Stars such as Martin Sheen, Tyne Daily, Jodie Foster, Angie Dickinson, Helen Hayes, Patricia Neal, Karen Black and many more. Thank you again for all your hard work and bringing us the content you do. You are tops in my book. Have a wonderful weekend Tengy.😊
Thanks so much for your very encouraging comments, James! Much appreciated. :) I haven't seen Circle of Fear but it sounds like a lot of fun. I am thinking of doing reviews of Kolchak: The Night Stalker as well...
Hiya Tengy , love the review.Oh love ya hair. All the best from sunny Perth Western Australia 😁.
Thanks Matthew! I hope you're having a good weekend. :)
Same to you . Know you're in Australia? , but where ? .
Seeing a Western as the 3rd episode in the Twilight Zone (TZ) kind of threw me off when I started watching the series after purchasing it years ago. TZ was always a sci-fi type show to me. It was a nice to experience a different kind of story in the series. What I enjoyed most of this episode was the cinematography. Landau was so great as a relentless villain. Duryea was epic! Seeing Henry J. Fate creepily showing up and lurking about would give one the willies. I wondered if Gene Wilder borrowed Duryea's "16 year old kid" story for his scene in "Blazing Saddles". They were a bit similar. Seeing the gun battle scene and that epic plot twist with the elixir made my eyes bulge and shout out "Whoa!" because it was unexpected. Henry J. Fate surely lived up to his name. Another great TZ reaction Tengy. 📽❤
Thanks John! I did read that the Blazing Saddles bit was inspired by this. They are really mixing the genres so far - something for everyone! Serling really packed a lot of ideas into these half-hours, didn't he? And everyone involved does such a superb job.
Whitey Kinc
Whizey Kincaf
Yikes! Doug McClure!! Dan Druyea was a real classy actor, and appeared in quite a few excellent film noirs. Horror westerns? Did somebody mention Billy The Kid Vs Dracula? Another great review Tengy!😼
I have hear of BTKvsD but I've never seen it. I did see a bit of some more recent horror western a year or two back on tv and it looked really interesting. Struggling to recall what it was called.
Glad you enjoyed this! :)
@@TengyTalksTVMovies Billy The Kid vs Dracula stars John Carradine, and is uhh different. One film I totally forgot about is, "Curse Of The Undead" from 1959, which is pretty wacky from what I can remember. Oh, and how did I forget "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter" from 1966!🤠
@@brucster99b2 it does seem like a bit of an odd genre, based on the titles! 😁
@@TengyTalksTVMovies Yeah..., I agree Tengy. If memory serves me right, Curse Of The Undead, wasn't actually too bad, in a strange way. Writer/Director Carl Hittleman wrote both Jesse and Billy. He was also involved in producing some Buster Keaton stuff as well, but most of his credits appear to be for Western influenced stuff.
I wonder if the showdown between Denton and Grant was in part a metaphor for the "mutually assured destruction" standoff between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., the latter having tested its first hydrogen bomb four years before this episode aired. Denton is given a potion that provides him with incomparable destructive power, and it turns out that his adversary has the same power. The "happy ending" of the episode is a sort of involuntary disarmament pact.
It hadn't occurred to me that the character Liz was a lady of the evening, but her humanity is one of the most stirring parts of this episode, as the one character who really cares about Denton and strenuously objects to his self-abasement.
Wow, I love that idea about the disarmanent! And I love that the depth of Serling's writing allows us to find these levels in the story.z
I think Liz is the first significant female character we've seen so far. The next ep features the first female leading character. Should be interesting :)
My number 41 episode. Not many episodes here involved guns, but this certainly made you think about the foolishness of it all, especially when used to signify "toughness". Dan Duryea was great. The whole thing was well done but, frankly, I don't even want to think about guns. America in 2024 has become the Wild West 😢
👍
Another really strong story and such interesting themes in this one...
There are so many good noir films, mostly '46 - mid '60s. I have always found it interesting when men stopped wearing hats; a lost language.
@@davidcoyote8921 Yeah that seemed a shame - hats are so cool!
💛