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| Booth Templeton (Brian Aherne) and his late wife Laura (Pippa Scott) |
“The Trouble with Templeton”
Season 2, Episode 45Original airdate: December 9, 1960
Booth Templeton: Brian Aherne
Laura Templeton: Pippa Scott
Arthur Willis: Sydney Pollack
Marty: Dave Willock
Sid Sperry: King Calder
Freddie: Larry Blake
Eddie: David Thursby
Barney Flueger: Charles Carlson
Crew:
Writer: E. Jack Neuman
(original teleplay)Director: Buzz Kulik
Producer: Buck Houghton
Associate Producer: Del Reisman
Production Manager: Darrell Hallenbeck
Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Art Direction: George W. Davis and Philip Barber
Set Decoration: Henry Grace and H. Web Arrowsmith
Assistant Director: Lindsey Parsons, Jr.
Casting: Ethel Winant
Editor: Bill Mosher
Sound: Franklin Milton and Charles Scheid
Music: Jeff Alexander
“An Attractive and rather imposing room lived in by a man named Templeton. And like most rooms suggestive really of only a part of the man: the outside part. Our story next week takes off from here. Mr. Brian Aherne lends us his considerable talents in a script by E. Jack Neuman called, “The Trouble with Templeton.” It can best be described as poignant, provocative and a highly diverting trip into the Twilight Zone
Rod Serling’s Opening Monologue:
Booth Templeton, the famous actor, sits alone in his bedroom, his best years so far behind him they seem to have belonged to someone else. Out by the pool his young wife makes her time in the company of the new house guest, which Booth takes to be her new lover. He watches them without contempt for he is too old to be angry and realizes that he no longer loves her and perhaps never did. Templeton is getting dressed for the first rehearsal of his new Broadway play. While dressing, he waxes nostalgically to his assistant about his first wife who died when she was only twenty-five. Now in the twilight of his life he feels like a relic of another time and longs for the brief time when he and his young bride were still together and life still felt fresh. He pulls on his overcoat, steps out the door and makes his way to rehearsal.
Once there, he
walks into an uncomfortable theater where a militant young director recites a
catalog of regulations and commandments to his subjects, the most important of
which, he says, is never to be late, especially on the first day of rehearsal. It is at this moment that he turns his
attention to Templeton standing awkwardly in the doorway. He begins to berate the aging actor for his
tardiness in front of the entire cast and crew.
Shocked and embarrassed, Templeton flees into a nearby alley only to run
into a crowd of people clapping enthusiastically just for him. Befuddled, he stumbles his way through
them. Outside its night while only
minutes before it was daylight.
Templeton notices an
advertisement for a play and realizes that it is for a play that he starred in
more than thirty years ago. An old man
approaches and Templeton asks him what year it is. “1927,” he responds. The old man tells Templeton that his wife
just phoned and asked that he meet her at a bar nearby. Stunned, Templeton races to the bar to see
his long deceased young wife.
When he arrives
Templeton immediately notices faces that he hasn’t seen years. And then he sees Laura, the love of his
life. The love that was taken from him
so many years before. Laura sits at a
table with a young man. Templeton
recognizes him as Barney Flueger, a friend from many years ago. Templeton, now aged and forlorn, looks
severely out of place next to the jubilant twenty somethings in the middle of
the crowded, smoke-filled speakeasy. Laura
and Flueger all but ignore Templeton who pleads with his late wife that they go
somewhere more intimate so they can talk.
Neither Laura nor Flueger acknowledge that is has been ages since they
have seen Templeton nor do they let on that he is now noticeably twice their
age. Laura tells him that she doesn’t
want to leave and that he is ruining the mood.
She ignores him but again he begs her to come with him somewhere
private. Laura begins to fan herself
with a magazine and tries to change the conversation. Templeton, frustrated, rips it out of her
hands. He explains to both of them that
he lives in another world where he has grown older without them. Laura and Flueger seem to find this amusing
and they change the subject once again.
Templeton asks his late wife why she is acting so coldly towards
him. She continues to berate him to the
point of humiliation, calling him a silly old fool. Shocked and humiliated, Templeton gathers up
his self-respect and flees the crowded bar room. Upon his exit the music stops. The faces grow solemn and the lights fade on
the crowd as they stare back silently at the tragic Mr. Templeton as he storms
out of the bar, his heart broken into tiny pieces.
Back inside the
theatre it is 1960. Booth walks into the
room where the rest of the cast awaits his arrival so rehearsal can begin. He reaches into his pocket and finds the
magazine he took from Laura but discovers it isn’t a magazine it’s a play. What to
Do When Booth Comes Back. He flips
through the pages and realizes it’s an exact transcription of the conversation
from the speakeasy. It dawns on him that
Laura and Flueger were only acting. They
were intentionally cold to him so that he would go back to his own time and
live a happier life.
The director
approaches Templeton and wants to know the meaning behind his disappearance. Templeton, now filled with the confidence of
knowing that Laura still cares for him in another world somewhere, fires back
at the young director. He apologizes for
being late but insists that the young man treat him with respect. The director seems pleased by Templeton’s
confidence and the two begin rehearsing for what is sure to be one of Booth
Templeton’s best performances in years.
Rod Serlings Closing Narration
“Mr. Booth Templeton, who shared with most human beings the hunger to recapture the past moments, the ones that soften with the years. But in his case, the characters of his past blocked him out and sent him back to his own time, which is where we find him now. Mr. Booth Templeton, who had a round-trip ticket…into the Twilight Zone.”
Though one might think that this episode came from The Twilight Zone’s regular stock of writers, it is one of the few scripts in the show’s early seasons to be written by an outsider. Though it is E. Jack Neuman’s only contribution to the series, “The Trouble with Templeton” fits perfectly within the atmosphere created by Serling and the other regular writers. The first few times I watched this episode I just assumed that it was penned by Rod Serling because both the tone and the subject matter reflect his craftsmanship. Indeed, it finds its thematic likeness in episodes like “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” and “Walking Distance,” both of which were written by Serling. It also bares a thematic resemblance to a script Serling later wrote for Night Gallery called “They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar.” Neuman’s dialogue here is also quite similar to Serling’s.
Neuman was a
friend of producer Buck Houghton and he submitted the script to Serling at a
time when the show’s popularity was reaching its peak. Serling, Houghton and associate producer Del
Reisman were receiving hundreds upon hundreds of submitted manuscripts a
week. And apparently to no avail because
for first four seasons the majority of the writing was done by only five
people. But Neuman’s script must have
hit a soft spot with Serling because he gave it the go ahead and it turned out
be a fine episode, one that is often overlooked when talking about the high
points of the second season. Neuman’s other credits include creating several
recognizable television series including Police
Story and Dr. Kildare.
To direct this
dream-like episode the producers chose “King
Nine Will Return” director Buzz Kulik.
Kulik had a knack for directing these types of episodes and the
producers would rely heavily upon him throughout Seasons Two and Three. His other credits on the show include
“Static,” “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim,” “A Game of Pool” and “A Quality of
Mercy.” Here his idiosyncratic skill with
a camera lends itself nicely to Neuman’s script. Throughout the episode the atmosphere sways
from the warmth of nostalgia to the unsettling feeling of shock and
embarrassment and back again. While the
script and the performances are all fantastic, this change in mood, which
represents Templeton’s change in mood, is brought to life mostly by Kulik’s direction. The scene in the speakeasy is the centerpiece
of the episode and it is here that Kulik really solidifies the quality of the episode. There is a sequence near the end of the scene
in which the heartbroken Templeton storms out of the club. Until this point the scene has been
jumping with the sounds of roaring jazz music and the raucous laughter of
carefree party-goers. Upon Templeton’s
exit, however, the music stops cold and the lights fade one by one on the bar
patrons as they stare back at Templeton. A similar effect would be used in the aforementioned Night Gallery episode "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar." It is a haunting effect and some of the finest direction to appear on the series. In an interview with The Twilight Zone Companion writer Marc
Scott Zicree, Kulik commented that of the nine episodes he directed for the show "The Trouble with Templeton" was his favorite.
To play the lead
Kulik and the producers cast veteran stage and screen actor Brian Aherne, whose
career spans back to the era of silent films.
Aherne had been a force on the British stage before moving to Hollywood
to appear in films. His noteworthy films
include the comedy Merrily We Live (1938),
Juarez (1939, for which he was
nominated for an Academy Award), The Locket (1946)
and I Confess (1953). Here he is completely believable as the sad,
nostalgic Booth Templeton.
Modern audiences
can also spot a young Sidney Pollack playing the part of the pompous, militant
theater director. Pollack was a friend
of Kulik’s and, in 1960, was still trying to make it as an actor. Kulik claims that Pollack based his
character’s southern accent on an actual stage director that neither one of
them cared for. Pollack later went on to
be an acclaimed director with films like They
Shoot Horses, Don’t They (1969), Tootsie
(1982) and Out of Africa (1982).
Filled with all the imagery and thematic elements that give The
Twilight Zone its unique appeal, “The Trouble with Templeton” is definitely one of
the better episodes of Season Two, which is saying quite a lot. It’s one of a handful of episodes that I
would recommend to viewers who have never seen an episode of the program.
Notes:
-"The Trouble with Templeton" was adapted as a Twilight Zone Radio Drama by Dennis Etchison, starring Michael York.
--Larry Blake appeared in Rod Serling's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's classic story "Cool Air" for Night Gallery.