“The Old Man in the Cave”
Season Five, Episode 127
Original
Air Date: November 8, 1963
Cast:
Major
French: James Coburn
Crew:
Writer:
Rod Serling (based on “The Old Man”
by Henry Slesar)
And Now, Mr. Serling:
“Next
on Twilight Zone a journey into a future moment, a nightmarish, frightening moment in
time, when man sits in his own rubble and surveys the legacy he’s left to
himself. James Coburn and John Anderson star in “The Old in the Cave,”
recommended viewing for the more imaginative amongst you, on The Twilight
Zone.”
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
“What
you’re looking at is a legacy that man left to himself. A decade previous he
pushed his buttons and, a nightmarish moment later, woke up to find that he had
set the clock back a thousand years. His engines, his medicines, his science
were buried in a mass tomb, covered over by the biggest gravedigger of them
all: a bomb. And this is the Earth ten years later, a fragment of what was once
a whole, a remnant of what was once a race. The year is 1974, and this is The Twilight Zone.”
Summary:
Ten
years after The Bomb, in the rubble of what was once an American town, a group
of weary, hungry survivors gather to await the return of Mr. Goldsmith, who will
bring word from the old man in the cave on whether or not they can safely eat a
store of canned goods. The survivors lament their situation, their inability to
grow healthy crops, their lack of edible food, and desperately hope this food
was canned before The Bomb, and is free of radiation. They hold out for word
from the old man in the cave, who has kept them alive with the knowledge of
where to plant crops and what food is safe to eat.
Goldsmith reads a printed message from the old man in the cave and returns to deliver the information. The canned food is not safe to eat. This news is met with groans of despair. The survivors notice the approach of a vehicle. Within are four men in military outfits carrying rifles. The leader introduces himself as Major French of Central State Command and informs those gathered that they will now be under his authority in an effort to unify survivors.
Goldsmith
tells the soldiers that they should move on, as their authority is not recognized
here. Major French first tells Goldsmith that he doesn’t have a choice and then
strikes the man, knocking him down. When Major French observes the malnourished
condition of the survivors, he asks why no one is eating the canned goods. He
is told of the old man in the cave.
Major
French demands to see the old man and forces Goldsmith to lead him to the cave,
while the soldiers and survivors follow along. They arrive at the cave to find
it blocked by a strong door. Major French attempts to blow open the door with a
hand grenade. This has no effect on the door. Major French yells to the old man
inside the cave that this is only the beginning of their efforts to get through
the door. This draws a fit of laughter from some of the survivors.
Returned to the settlement, Major French further challenges Goldsmith’s authority by opening a can of food and eating the contents. When the survivors see that no immediate ill effects befall Major French, they give in to their hunger and tear into the food supply that the old man in the cave determined was not safe to consume. At the soldiers’ bidding, a store of liquor is opened and enjoyed by all. Only Goldsmith resists partaking of the food and drink.
Later that night, Goldsmith confronts Major French, calling him a murderer and holding him responsible for the eventual deaths of the survivors from eating the food the old man in the cave deemed unsafe. Major French scoffs at this and stands on the back of his vehicle to make a proclamation. “There is no old man in the cave,” he tells the survivors. Again, Major French forces Goldsmith to the cave while the others follow behind. This time, French threatens Goldsmith’s life if Goldsmith doesn’t open the door that seals the cave. Reluctantly, Goldsmith opens the door with a lever hidden beneath a rock at the base of the cave.
The
survivors rush into the cave. They stop suddenly, stunned by the sight which
confronts them. Before them is a large computer, alive with paneled lights.
Major French tells the gathered survivors that they must kill this thing and
free themselves from its control. In a fit of drunken madness, the survivors
rush forward with fists and stones to strike at the computer. Goldsmith can
only watch as they destroy the “old man” in the cave, who has kept them alive
this long.
Later,
Goldsmith walks amid the fallen bodies of the dead, spread out across the
ground. The food and drink was not safe to consume and has claimed the lives of
the soldiers and survivors. Goldsmith is now alone, the only remaining
survivor.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
“Mr. Goldsmith, survivor, an eye witness to man’s imperfection, an observer of the very human trait of greed, and a chronicler of the last chapter, the one reading ‘suicide.’ Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been The Twilight Zone.”
Commentary:
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| Henry Slesar (via Wikipedia) |
Producer Bert Granet and series creator Rod Serling were likely drawn to the work of writer Henry Slesar by the successful adaptations of Slesar’s stories on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as by Slesar’s numerous appearances in science fiction and mystery magazines of the time. Slesar’s stories, notable for their ironic and convention-defying twist endings, began appearing in 1957 during the third season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, occasionally with scripts by Slesar. Slesar's initial episode was “Heart of Gold,” scripted by James P. Cavanagh from Slesar's story "M Is for the Many," which originally appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Slesar's association with Hitchcock's television programs continued with forty-six additional episodes through the second season of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1964. Readers interested in more information about Slesar’s association with Hitchcock’s television programs are encouraged to visit the Bare Bones E-Zine, where Jack Seabrook has reviewed Slesar’s episodes for the Hitchcock series in detail.
Slesar’s stories also
frequently appeared in the pages of Alfred
Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, beginning also in 1957, as well as in Alfred Hitchcock book anthologies and in other books
associated with Hitchcock. Examples of the latter include collections of Slesar’s
stories, which often featured the famous director's name more prominently than Slesar's, such as Alfred Hitchcock Hand-Picks
and Introduces: A Bouquet of Clean Crimes and Neat Murders (Avon, 1960), Alfred Hitchcock Introduces: A Crime for
Mothers and Others (Avon, 1962), and Death
on Television: The Best of Henry Slesar’s Alfred Hitchcock Stories, edited
by Francis M. Nevins, Jr. and Martin H. Greenberg (Southern Illinois University
Press, 1989). Slesar also wrote the introduction to Hitchcock in Prime Time, an anthology of stories adapted on
Hitchcock’s television programs, including one from Slesar, also edited by
Nevins, Jr. and Greenberg (Avon, 1985).
Slesar contributed to hundreds of television scripts for a variety of series, including anthology programs such as Circle of Fear, Tales of the Unexpected, and the revival series of both Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. Much of his television work included writing soap operas such as Search for Tomorrow, Somerset, and The Edge of Night, the latter of which netted Slesar a Daytime Emmy Award in 1974.
Slesar was born Henry
Schlosser (later legally changing his name) in Brooklyn in 1927, the son of
Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. He began publishing science fiction and mystery
stories in 1955 and won an Edgar Award in 1959 for his first mystery novel, The Gray Flannel Shroud, a novel colored
by Slesar’s career in advertising. Slesar’s output of science fiction and fantasy
stories are mostly from early in his career (many can be freely read on Project Gutenberg) but he continued to write mystery stories and novels for
decades, including such novels as Enter
Murderers (1960) and The Thing at the
Door (1974), considered by many to be his finest novel, as well as story
collections such as Acrostic Mysteries (1985)
and Murders Most Macabre (1986). Slesar’s
soap opera work informed his novels The
Seventh Mask (1969), adapted from a storyline from The Edge of Night, and Murder
at Heartbreak Hospital (1993). Slesar also produced work for other mediums
such as radio (over 40 scripts for CBS
Radio Mystery Theatre) and stage production. He died in 2002.
Martin Grams, Jr., in his book The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic, reports that Slesar’s story “The Old Man” was brought to the attention of Rod Serling by Sybil S. Gurner of Los Angeles, presumably through the copious correspondence the series received from its viewers. What ultimately drew Serling to adapt the story for The Twilight Zone was the opportunity to craft a tale of group dynamics juxtaposed with an event that threatens the survival of the group, a story type featured in several episodes written by Serling, including some of his best.
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| via Ebay |
Slesar’s story, the
“short-short story” selection for the September, 1962 issue of Diners’ Club Magazine (pictured), tells of a
society depopulated by an atomic war in which a cabal of “Governors” house and maintain
the “old man,” a computer, in a stone house on a hill. The Governors created
the myth of the old man to disguise the truth about the computer’s existence
while using the machine’s computations to instruct the lives of the villagers
who dwell in the valley below. Tango, a spy for the Governors, reports back from
a village meeting with news of unrest among the villagers, who rebel against
the benign control of the Governors and the “old man.” The old man has existed
for generations, leading to questions in the minds of the villagers about the
old man’s real age, and the mental decline that accompanies advanced aging. Why
should they go on listening to what the old man says they should do, asks Sierra,
a farmer’s son with a withered arm, who leads the villagers in a charge on the
stone house on the hill. The villagers batter their way inside, killing Tango
and the Governors. When the mob discovers the computer in an upstairs room,
they destroy it as well. Without the computer’s information, the villagers soon
die out.
Slesar’s story
presented the foundation upon which Rod Serling built the story he wished to
tell, one imbedded with a strong warning in an era of high political tensions.
As such, “The Old Man in the Cave” is an episode less instructively compared to
the story on which it is based and better compared to thematically related
episodes of the series written by Serling.
“The Old Man in the
Cave” is frequently compared to Serling’s first season episode “The Monsters
Are Due on Maple Street,” and for obvious reasons. Both episodes concern the
growing power struggles within a group of individuals fighting for survival
against an unknown or immeasurable threat, as well as the death and destruction
that results from the collapse of rational decision-making within the group.
Both episodes also contain moments of mob violence. Another episode that offers
a comparison, and also contains an unnerving sequence of mob violence, is
Serling’s “The Shelter,” from the third season. This episode could serve as a
prequel to “The Old Man in the Cave,” in that “The Shelter” examines group
dynamics during an imminent threat of The Bomb, while “The Old Man in the Cave”
examines group dynamics after The Bomb has fallen.
Unlike these earlier
episodes, however, in which the struggle for power within a group is dispersed
among several individuals, “The Old Man in the Cave” is primarily concerned
with the conflict between two central figures of authority, the benevolent Mr.
Goldsmith and the violent and commanding Major French. In this way, “The Old
Man in the Cave” closely resembles Rod Serling’s fourth season episode “On
Thursday We Leave for Home,” which also concerns a group of isolated survivors
under a seemingly benevolent leader whose authority is challenged by the
arrival of military officials.
“The
Old Man in the Cave” can be viewed as the inverse of “On Thursday We Leave for
Home,” serving as a way for Serling to explore the results of a role reversal
between the primary figures of authority. In the earlier episode, the power and
control established by the leader of the survivors, Captain Benteen, is threatened
by the arrival of Colonel Sloane, the leader of a mission to rescue the
survivors. Replace the names Benteen and Sloane with Goldsmith and French,
respectively, and you essentially have the story again with “The Old Man in the
Cave.” However, the role reversal between these authority figures leads to different
and problematic results.
Captain Benteen is
ultimately driven to madness and ensures his own premature death through an
inability to relinquish his authority as leader of the survivors. Colonel
Sloane is the figure of hope, sanity, and rationality in the episode, able to
save the survivors but forced to abandon Benteen to his chosen fate.
Conversely, in “The Old Man in the Cave,” Goldsmith is presented as the voice
of reason forced to contend with madness and premature death brought on by
Major French and his men. The viewer is entirely encouraged to sympathize with
Goldsmith and to reject the methods of Major French, who attempts to seize
control of the survivors through intimidation and bravado. These changes, both
from the original story and from Serling’s thematically related episode,
ultimately serve the twist ending retained from Henry Slesar’s original story,
pithily expressed by the author as: “Then they killed the old man, the
computer. It didn’t take the people long to die.”
By the end of the
episode, Goldsmith is delivering such dialogue directed to the dead Major
French as: “When we talked about the ways that men could die, we forgot the
chief method of execution. We forgot faithlessness, Major French.” Dialogue
like this, coupled with the messianic figure of Goldsmith and the deity-like
existence of the old man in the cave, result in the episode playing like a
religious allegory, in which a faith healer is challenged by a figure of secular
authority. Though unlikely a direct influence, there are also shades of Ray
Bradbury’s “The Man,” a 1949 story collected in The Illustrated Man (1951), in
which the brash and skeptical leader of a planet-hopping space crew denies the
existence of a messianic figure despite evidence of the man’s good works. As author
Marc Scott Zicree wrote in his review of “The Old Man in the Cave” for The Twilight Zone Companion:
“. . . there are several issues raised by the episode that are hard to ignore. For instance, Goldsmith views the computer as a deity-like authority, and when the people demand to know the identity of ‘the Old Man’ and disregard his instructions, this is considered the ultimate act of faithlessness – the punishment being death. But, in actuality, a computer is not a god, it is a man-made tool, and the townsfolk’s insistence to know the true nature of their leader seems less an act of faithlessness than a natural human curiosity for vital information, a desire for democracy, for self-determination.”
Other
problematic aspects of the episode result from retaining certain features of
Slesar’s story while jettisoning the narrative details that provide context to
the events of the story. For instance, it is never revealed why the computer in
the cave is called the “old man.” This is explained in Slesar’s story but left
unexplained in the episode. Is it a purposeful deception by the computer or by Goldsmith,
as it is with the Governors in the original story? If so, deception is hardly
an ethical foundation for faith. Also, as pointed out by Zicree in his review,
it is never explained by what means the computer receives the power needed to
operate in this decimated world. How did the computer get into the cave in the
first place? These are trifles, perhaps, but they display the problems that arise
in retaining only the barest structure of the source material while also
attaching a strong moral message to the narrative.
The work of Henry Slesar was again adapted for the fifth season of The Twilight Zone for “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross,” scripted by Jerry McNeely and directed by Don Siegel from Slesar’s story published in the May, 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story tells of the titular rough-hewn loser, played by Don Gordon, who discovers that he can trade attributes with another person through a simple agreement. Ross makes a number of “trades” in an effort to land the girl of his dreams, played by Gail Kobe, but commits a fatal error when he seeks to gain the quality of compassion from the girl’s father, played by Twilight Zone veteran Vaughn Taylor.
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| "Examination Day" |
Another of Slesar’s short-short stories, “Examination Day,” from the February, 1958 issue of Playboy, was adapted for the first season of the first revival Twilight Zone series in 1985. Slesar’s bleak story was faithfully scripted by series producer Philip DeGuere and directed by Paul Lynch for the opening segment of the sixth episode. It tells of a future society in which children are forced by the government to take an intelligence test at the age of twelve. Christopher Allport and Elizabeth Norment portray Richard and Ruth Jordan, who anxiously await the results of their son’s test. Their son, Dickie, played by David Mendenhall, is a bright child and his parents are horrified to learn that the government test has determined that Dickie is too intelligent and that the boy will be euthanized.
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| John Anderson |
“The Old Man in the Cave” includes some notable and familiar faces among its collection of character actors. Mr. Goldsmith is played by John Anderson, who appeared in three previous episodes of the series. Anderson (1922-1992) was a versatile performer specializing in everyman characters who excelled in eliciting sympathy from the audience. Anderson portrayed the angel Gabriel opposite Jack Klugman’s suicidal trumpet player Joey Crown in Rod Serling’s first season episode “A Passage for Trumpet.” Anderson later portrayed Captain Farver on a doomed flight lost in time in Serling’s second season episode “The Odyssey of Flight 33.” In the fourth season, Anderson appeared in a highly sympathetic role opposite Albert Salmi in “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville,” Rod Serling’s adaptation of Malcolm Jameson’s story “Blind Alley.” Anderson was a hugely prolific actor who appeared in many favorite television series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Outer Limits, and The Sixth Sense, a series packaged in syndication with Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.
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| John Marley |
The character in the episode who most represents the everyman, however, is Jason, as portrayed by John Marley. Marley (1907-1984) previously appeared on the third season of the series as Mr. Cox, the supervisor of Sunnyvale Rest Home, where the elderly residents play a magical game of “Kick the Can,” as scripted by George Clayton Johnson. Marley was an equally prolific character actor whose television credits go back to the early days of the medium with appearances on Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Marley later appeared on such series of interest as One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
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| James Coburn |
Perhaps the
most notable cast member is James Coburn (1928-2002) as the gruff
Major French. Coburn’s career was much too long and varied to effectively summarize here
except to say that he studied acting at UCLA before beginning his professional career on the New York stage. He appeared in several early television series such
as Studio One, Suspicion, and General Electric Theater before he found
an enduring niche in television westerns and crime dramas. Coburn appeared in
two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock
Presents, “The Jokester,” alongside the aforementioned Albert Salmi, and in an
adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Coburn’s film
career began in earnest with the 1960 film The
Magnificent Seven. Notable film roles include the James Bond-inspired Our Man Flint (1966), and its sequel In Like Flint (1967), as well as an
Academy Award-winning supporting role late in his career in Affliction (1997). Also of interest is Coburn’s role as host of the short-lived horror anthology series Darkroom, which ran on ABC for seven
episodes in 1981-1982. The series featured scripts and stories by such notable
writers as Robert Bloch, William F. Nolan, Fredric Brown, Cornell Woolrich,
Davis Grubb, Robert R. McCammon, and Alan Brennert, a writer and story
consultant on the first revival Twilight
Zone series.
Despite
fine acting and excellent characterizations, the narrative inconsistencies,
lapses in logic, and questionable moralizing in “The Old Man in the Cave”
reduce the impact of the episode. Rod Serling brilliantly explored the dramatic
possibilities of similar material in three previously mentioned episodes, all
of which come highly recommended. The well is here beginning to run dry,
however, and the results are further diluted when filtered through the work of
another writer. Like much of the material from the final season of the series,
a return trip over familiar ground results in diminished returns. Ultimately, “The
Old Man in the Cave” remains an engaging yet minor entry in the series.
Grade:
C
Next Time in the Vortex: A deep dive into the November/December, 1983 issue of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine. Thanks for reading!
Acknowledgments:
--The
Twilight Zone Companion (3rd
ed.) by Marc Scott Zicree (Silman-James, 2018)
--“Henry Slesar” by Frances McConachie (Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers
(3rd ed.), edited by Lesley Henderson (St. James Press, 1991))
--The
Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction by Mike Ashley (Carroll & Graf, 2002)
--The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com)
--“Henry Slesar” (Wikipedia (Wikipedia.org))
Notes: 
--“The
Old Man” by Henry Slesar was first published in the September, 1962 issue of Diners’ Club Magazine. The story was included in The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories, edited by Richard Matheson, Martin H.
Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh (1985).
--John
Anderson also appeared in the first season episode, “A Passage for Trumpet,”
the second season episode, “The Odyssey of Flight 33,” and the fourth season
episode, “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville.”
--John
Marley also appeared in the third season episode, “Kick the Can.”
--“The
Old Man in the Cave” was adapted as a Twilight
Zone Radio Drama starring Adam Baldwin.
-JP
Additional Images:
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| Cover art by Jim Bramlet |
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| James Coburn hosting Darkroom |