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| Sam Forstmann (Ed Wynn) with his grandfather clock |
“Ninety Years Without Slumbering"
Season Five, Episode 132
Original Airdate: December 20, 1963
Cast:
Sam Forstmann:
Ed Wynn
Marnie Kirk:
Carolyn Kearney
Doug Kirk:
James Callahan
Dr. Mel Avery:
William Sargent
Carol Byron:
Carol Chase
Policeman: John
Picard
Mover #1: Dick
Wilson
Mover #2: Chuck
Hicks
Crew:
Writer:
Teleplay by Richard De Roy, story by George Clayton Johnson (credited to Johnson
Smith)
Director: Roger
Kay
Producer:
William Froug
Director of
Photography: Robert Pittack, a.s.c.
Production
Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
Art Direction:
George W. Davis and Malcolm Brown
Film Editor:
Richard Heermance, a.c.e.
Set Decoration:
Henry Grace and Robert R. Benton
Assistant
Director: Charles Bonniwell, Jr.
Casting:
Patricia Rose
Music: Bernard
Herrmann
Sound: Franklin
Milton and Joe Edmondson
Mr. Serling’s
Wardrobe: Eagle Clothes
Filmed at MGM
Studios.
And Now, Mr.
Serling:
“Next time a new author joins the ranks of the elves and gremlins who supply the imaginative material on The Twilight Zone. His name is Richard De Roy and his story is in the best tradition of the program. It stars one of the gentlest and certainly the most able of America’s actors. A beloved little figure on the American scene named Ed Wynn. Next time on The Twilight Zone, Ed Wynn stars in ‘Ninety Years Without Slumbering.’”
Rod Serling’s
Opening Narration:
“Each man
measures his time. Some with hope, some with joy, some with fear. But Sam
Forstmann measures his allotted time by a grandfather clock, a unique mechanism
whose pendulum swings between life and death, a very special clock that keeps a
special kind of time…in the Twilight Zone.”
Summary:
Sam Forstmann, a former clockmaker, owns a grandfather clock that has been in his possession since the day he was born. He cleans and maintains it constantly. He lives with his granddaughter, Marnie, who is heavily pregnant, and her husband, Doug. Forstmann’s family is worried about his preoccupation with the clock as he spends the majority of his time working on it. They suggest he visit a psychiatrist.
At the psychiatrist’s office, Forstmann, who doesn’t trust “headshrinkers,” keeps deliberately trying to change the subject. He eventually reveals that he believes that if the clock stops ticking, he will die. The doctor tells him that he should get rid of the clock.
Back at the house, Forstmann hires movers to move the clock from his room on the second floor to the living room on the first floor to appease his family. Once the clock is situated, Forstmann believes he sees it stop ticking and he faints. After regaining consciousness moments later, he finds that the clock is still ticking the way it should be. When Marnie and Doug return home later, they remind him that the psychiatrist, a friend of Doug’s, says that Forstmann should get rid of the clock.
The next day, Forstmann gives the clock to Marnie’s neighbor, Carol, who promises to allow him to come and see it as much as he wants. A few days later, Carol and her husband go out of town for the weekend without telling him. The clock will wind down before they return. Panicked, Forstmann tries to break into their home to wind the clock but is apprehended by the police before he can do so.
Back in his bed
later that night Forstmann sees a vision of his spirit who tells him that his
time has come and that the clock has finally stopped ticking forever. Forstmann
tells his spirit that he is not ready to die and that he no longer believes
that his fate is tied to the clock. He wants to live to see his grandson grow
up. The spirit vanishes. Marnie enters his room to check on him. Forstmann
tells her that the clock has stopped ticking and that he feels just fine. From
now on he is going to focus on more important things. He takes her gently by
the arm and walks her to the kitchen to fix her a snack.
Rod Serling’s
Closing Narration:
“Clocks are made by men. God creates time. No man can prolong his allotted hours, he can only live them to the fullest, in this world, or in the Twilight Zone.”
Commentary:
“Ninety Years Without Slumbering” would see The Twilight Zone bid a less than harmonious farewell to one of its most talented and specific voices, writer George Clayton Johnson. Johnson saw eight of his stories appear on the show, four written by himself and four adapted by others. This makes him the fifth most prolific writer for the show after Serling, Beaumont, Matheson and Earl Hamner, Jr. While his output might have been less than that of his peers, the quality of his storytelling made his contributions to the show invaluable. Among his credited episodes of the show are acclaimed favorites “A Game of Pool” “Nothing in the Dark” and “Kick the Can,” the last of which was remade into a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) directed by Steven Spielberg. Johnson’s work had been appearing on the show since the first season when Serling adapted his story “Execution.” Although he had encountered grievances with the show before such as not receiving screen credit when “The Prime Mover” was first broadcast, Serling rewriting the ending to “A Game of Pool,” and producer Buck Houghton buying his story “Sea Change” and then having to sell it back to him when they weren’t able to produce it, Johnson had mostly maintained a good relationship with the show due likely to his close friendship with Beaumont and Matheson. However, when William Froug took over as producer during the show’s fifth season he attempted to take the show in a different direction and canned a handful of scripts already slated for production, including a script written by Johnson and William F. Nolan called “Dream Flight” that Houghton bought before he left the show. Froug also hired Richard De Roy to rewrite another script Johnson had sold to previous producer Bert Granet originally called “The Grandfather Clock” and later retitled “Tick of Time.” After seeing the numerous changes to his script, now titled “Ninety Years Without Slumbering,” Johnson took his name off of it. And with that, George Clayton Johnson’s involvement with the show ended. In the ensuing decades, Johnson would give numerous interviews and write many articles discussing his work on the show and how proud he was of it. However, his dissatisfaction with “Ninety Years Without Slumbering” remained a negative topic for him for the rest of his life.
William Froug has received his share of criticism over the years for his handling of The Twilight Zone’s final days. But in fairness, Froug inherited a series, midseason, that had been on the air for nearly five years, had already been canceled once, and was declining creatively. He also saw its two most prolific writers suffering from severe fatigue, one of which, Charles Beaumont, with an illness that would later claim his life. So it makes sense that Froug would want to take the show in a different direction with new writers and directors in an attempt to revitalize it. Froug was a talented producer and screenwriter and is remembered by many who worked with him as being a kind and easy going person to be around. Before becoming a producer on The Twilight Zone, he had worked on over a dozen television series either as a producer or a writer or both. After The Twilight Zone ended he went on to produce a handful of successful series including Bewitched and Gilligan’s Island. He also sold scripts to numerous television series including Quincy, M.E., Big Hawaii, and Charlie’s Angels. Froug knew the medium very well but he, and the writers that he brought on board in the second half of the fifth season, seemed to be at odds with what worked on The Twilight Zone, a show with a very specific energy and viewpoint, one that is not easily definable.
It’s not known exactly why Froug, and likely Serling also, chose to rewrite Johnson’s script or why they chose an outsider to do so. It’s possible that they wanted a more uplifting ending as opposed to the very upsetting one in Johnson’s script, although the complete pendulum swing in the other direction has been met with criticism over the years. The original script starts in much the same way as the one that ended up being broadcast. There is a married couple expecting a baby—named Connie and Foster in this version—and there is Connie’s grandfather, who is obsessed with his grandfather clock. It belonged to his grandfather and was given to him the day he was born. The room he lives in will soon become the nursery when the baby is born, so Grandfather is moving to the den. To consolidate space, he agrees to sell all his furniture except for the clock. Foster tries to persuade him to sell it as well as there is no room for it. Connie argues that her grandfather should be able to keep it. Grandfather tells them that he can't sell it. If the clock stops ticking, he will die. After an impassioned argument, Grandfather gives in and agrees to sell it to an antique dealer. At this exact moment Connie goes into labor. Foster reluctantly leaves the old man and takes her to the hospital. Grandfather calls an antique dealer and has the clock picked up. Later, as the movers deliver the clock to the antique shop, they almost dropped it causing the pendulum to nearly stop ticking. Grandfather feels it instantly. He regrets selling the clock and begins walking to the antique shop at once. He is overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of heavy afternoon traffic, panting as he races to the ship. He finally makes it there and buys the clock back, realizing that he does not have a way to transport it back to his house. He bribes a kid with a small wagon to let him use it to move the huge clock. They stand it upright inside the wagon so it does not stop ticking. They maneuver it along the sidewalk, the old man looking tired and winded. Eventually they need to cross the street but cannot get the wagon across. Foster leaves the hospital to check on Grandfather and finds him in the middle of a crosswalk about to be run over, looking frail and out of breath. The clock loses its balance inside the small wagon and tips over into the street, glass and wood shattering. Grandfather collapses to the ground and dies in Foster’s arms. At that moment, his grandchild is born. The script ends in the nursery as the camera pans across the baby and to the newly refurbished grandfather clock.
Johnson’s original script differs drastically from De Roy’s. Johnson’s script focuses on the relationship between the old man and Foster rather than the old man and Connie. The second act is completely different, with the old man dying and his grandchild being born at the end of it. This changes not just the plot of the story but the theme of it as well. Johnson’s story seems to focus on the circle of life, the idea that everyone eventually gets old and new generations take their place. De Roy’s script is much more optimistic with an emphasis on not letting obsession and fear rule your life. According to Twilight Zone Companion author Marc Scott Zicree, Johnson’s main frustration with the episode that eventually aired is Forstmann’s complete and abrupt surrender of a belief system that he has spent his entire life obsessing over. While De Roy’s happy ending is a bit absurd and it panders to the audience, it doesn’t completely ruin the story. You still care about the characters and the storytelling gives the episode a high rewatch value.
Perhaps the single thing that keeps this episode, which is very good, from being truly great is the bedroom scene where Forstmann sees a vision of himself, and that this single event appears to be the reason for his sudden new outlook on life. It is poorly written and is absurdly silly in an otherwise serious episode. It also comes very late the episode, and its drastically different tone slightly derails the rest of the story.
Aging is a theme that runs throughout The Twilight Zone’s five seasons. Every regular writer for the show contributed at least a script or two that dealt sensitively with the acceptance of getting older. “The Trade-Ins,” “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine,” “Static,” “The Trouble with Templeton,” and “Passage on the Lady Anne” are just a few examples of an empathy for the elderly from writers who were mostly in their 30s at the time. But it seemed to be a theme that George Clayton Johnson had a sensitivity to specifically as three of his eight episodes—"Kick the Can,” “Nothing in the Dark,” and “Ninety Years”—dealt directly with old age and dying.
This is Richard De Roy’s only script for the show, despite being mentioned by name in Serling's promo spot for this episode. He got his start in television the way most writers of the time did, submitting scripts to live anthology dramas. He won a Writers Guild Award for his Alcoa Premiere episode “Jeeney Ray.” He would later go on to be a writer and producer for the popular prime-time soap opera, Peyton Place. He also wrote scripts for sitcoms like The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family. Later in his career he became a writer and producer for the 1980s detective series, Remington Steele. One of his only forays into feature films was his 1973 screenplay for the Robert Wise film, Two People, which starred Peter Fonda. In an interview with Stephen W. Bowie, De Roy says that he also tried to sell Froug an original script for The Twilight Zone about a patient in a mental hospital with amnesia, but Froug passed on it.
All three working titles for this episode— “The Grandfather Clock,” “Tick of Time,” and “Ninety Years Without Slumbering”—are taken from the 1876 song “Grandfather’s Clock” written by Henry Clay Work. The song became a popular folk standard among pop and country artists in the early twentieth century. Johnny Cash recorded a popular version of it in 1959. The song is said to be where the term “grandfather clock” originated. The song is sung from the viewpoint of a grandson about his grandfather’s longcase clock. The clock was purchased the day his grandfather was born and has kept a record of his grandfather’s life. At the end of the song the clock stops ticking and his grandfather dies. Johnson modeled the premise of his script to adhere to the song, while De Roy’s script obviously changes the ending. Johnson’s final title of “Tick of Time” was likely scrapped due to the fact that the show already had an episode called “Nick of Time” which aired during its second season.
This is Bernard Hermann’s final original score for the show. Hermann contributed a total of seven original scores to the series. He also composed the original opening theme that was used in the show’s first season before being replaced by the familiar intro by Marius Constant at the beginning of the second season. Hermann is, of course, a giant of American cinema and a list of his credits is far too lengthy to mention here. This final score, which consists of woodwinds playing soft and somber renditions of Work’s song, might be his best work for the show, and it’s a fine send-off from such a talented artist. It is, I think, my favorite piece of music in the entire series.
This is director Roger Kay’s only episode of The Twilight Zone. Kay worked mostly in episodic television starting at the dawn of the medium in the early 1950s into the early 1970s. Aside from this episode of The Twilight Zone, Kay is best remembered for directing the 1962 film The Cabinet of Caligari which was written by Robert Bloch. Although the film is credited as a remake of the much more famous German film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and was marketed as such, the two films share few similarities. There is also debate over how much of the finished script was written by Bloch as Bloch and Kay had a falling out during the writing process and Bloch abruptly quit. Regardless, neither was happy with the version of the film that was eventually released. Kay’s direction in “Ninety Years Without Slumbering” is not flashy but is still very good. Each scene is crafted specifically to put the emotional state of the characters on full display, which he does very well.
Ed Wynn is one
of the most recognizable faces to appear on the show and a list of his credits
is also too extensive to mention here. He had already enjoyed a decades long
career as an actor and comedian and was a universally known performer when he
appeared in the second episode of the show’s first season, “One for the Angels”
in 1959. Wynn and Serling had, of course, worked together before that in
Serling’s groundbreaking Playhouse 90 drama “Requiem for a Heavyweight” in
1956. This experience not only catapulted Serling into stardom as a writer but
it also gave audiences a glimpse into Wynn’s talents as a dramatic actor,
something the vaudevillian performer was initially very nervous about. The
director of Requiem for a Heavyweight, Ralph Nelson, later co-wrote and
directed an episode of The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse in 1960 called “The
Man in the Funny Suit” about Wynn’s experience making Serling’s famed boxing
drama. In it, the entire cast, including Serling, play fictional versions of
themselves.
The success of "Requiem" is likely why Houghton and Froug sought Wynn for dramatic roles on The Twilight Zone and not comedic ones. It may be entirely coincidental that the themes of Wynn’s two episodes are so similar but he is still convincing in both of them. Both stories are about confronting one’s own mortality and both feature protagonists who want desperately to stay alive in their old age. In “One for the Angels” Lew Bookman, at first determined to defy death, eventually sacrifices his life in order to save the life of someone he cares about. Sam Forstmann learns to let go of his fear of dying and just live life. Both men learn to accept death as an inevitable part of life, a theme Johnson had explored before in “Nothing in the Dark.”
Carolyn Kearney makes her only appearance on The Twilight Zone here although she had a small role in the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse production of Rod Serling’s “The Time Element” in 1958 which was the unofficial pilot of The Twilight Zone that Serling used to get the show greenlit. Kearney enjoyed a modest career in television throughout the 1950s and 60s as well as roles in a handful of independent films.
The rest of the supporting cast may be familiar to some viewers. James Callahan enjoyed a successful career as a working television actor. Today he is best remembered for his role as the family patriarch in Charles in Charge. This was his only appearance on The Twilight Zone. Carol Byron also makes her only appearance on the show in this episode. She acted steadily throughout the 1950s and 60s and then appears to have retired. William Sargent was also active in the early days of episodic television. Genre fans will know him from episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible. Sargent also appeared in the season four episode “The Parallel.” John Pickard was an amazingly prolific bit player throughout his five decade career, appearing in pretty much every western series imaginable. After trying to make it in the NFL, Chuck Hicks became a legendary stuntman and stunt coordinator for film and television. During his lengthy career, he choreographed stunts for hundreds of films and television shows including Cool Hand Luke (1967), Stark Trek II & III, (1982, 1984) and Dirty Harry (1971). He would also occasionally snag acting roles, most notably in Dick Tracy (1990), The Enforcer (1976), and Shock Corridor (1963). The most recognizable face here is probably that of Dick Wilson. After a decades-long career as a working television actor, Wilson became the face of Charmin, appearing as Mr. Whipple in hundreds of commercials, spanning twenty-five years.
The Twilight Zone was an important part of George Clayton Johnson's career as a writer and it is the thing for which he is best remembered. His contributions helped to shape the tone of the show while the show, and the close-knit community of writers it fostered, helped him find a voice as a writer and build connections in the industry. Outside of The Twilight Zone, George Clayton Johnson wrote the original screenplay for the 1960 version of Ocean’s 11, the first episode of Star Trek, co-wrote the 1967 novel Logan’s Run with William F. Nolan, and also wrote or co-wrote episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Route 66, Kung Fu, and Honey West. He also published numerous short stories during this time, many of which are collected in All of Us are Dying and Other Stories (Subterranean Press, 1999). He also wrote comics and had a hand, along with Ray Bradbury, in creating the first San Diego Comic Con in 1970. In the 1960s he formed a screenwriting company with Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson, and Jerry Sohl called The Green Hand. Their goal was to pitch quality speculative fiction programs to networks in which they would be in control. They were hired by MGM and given an office on the MGM lot. Johnson served as president. After several years of pitching series ideas with no luck, they dissolved the company. One of the programs they pitched was a Twilight Zone-like anthology series called A Touch of the Strange.
While it is disappointing that Johnson's final interaction with the show was a negative experience, his voice can still be felt in the story and the end result is still a good episode. The characters, even the supporting roles, are filled with a unique empathy and concern for Sam Forstmann, and Ed Wynn's dramatic skills have never been better. Great direction from Kay and Hermann's deeply moving score help to make this one of the highlights of the fifth season.
Grade: B
Next up in the Vortex, we take a look at the glamorous life of Bunny Blake in Earl Hamner, Jr.'s "Ring-a-Ding Girl." See you then!
Grateful
acknowledgement to the following:
The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr. (OTR, 2008)
The Twilight Zone Companion (3rd ed.) by Marc Scott Zicree (Silman-James, 2018)
George Clayton Johnson: Twilight Zone Scripts and Stories (1996, Streamline Pictures Press)
Richard De Roy interview with Stephen W. Bowie (2007); classictvhistory.com
Internet Movie Database
Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Wikipedia
Notes:
__Ed Wynn also
appeared in the season one episode “One for the Angels.” Before this he appeared
in Serling’s Playhouse 90 drama “Requiem for a Heavyweight.”
__William
Sargent also appeared in the season four episode “The Parallel.”
__Dick Wilson
also appeared in the season one episode “Escape Clause.”
__Chuck Hicks also appeared in the earlier season five episode "Steel."
__George
Clayton Johnson wrote a total of eight episodes of the show:
__ “Execution” (story by)
__ “The Four of Us are Dying”
(story by)
__ “A Penny for Your Thoughts”
(original teleplay)
__ “The Prime Mover” (story by)
__ “A Game of Pool” (original
teleplay)
__ “Nothing in the Dark”
(original teleplay)
__ “Kick the Can” (original
teleplay)
__ “Ninety Years Without
Slumbering” (story by)
__Johnson also
co-wrote an adaptation of his script “Kick the Can” with Richard Matheson and
Melissa Mathison for a segment of Twilight Zone: the Movie (1983). His episode “A
Game of Pool” was adapted for an episode of the 1980s revival of The Twilight
Zone during its third season. The adaptation uses Johnson’s original ending not
featured in the original series episode.
__The story treatment for "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" was first published in George Clayton Johnson: Twilight Zone Scripts and Stories (1996, Streamline Pictures Press). His original script, "The Grandfather Clock," was first published in The Bleeding Edge: Dark Barriers, Dark Frontiers edited by Jason V. Brock and William F. Nolan (2009, Cicatrix Press).
__In addition to writing the original season one opening theme, Bernard Hermann composed original scores for seven episodes of the show:
__"Where is Everybody"
__"Walking Distance"
__"The Lonely"
__"Eye of the Beholder"
__"Little Girl Lost"
__"Living Doll"
__"Ninety Years Without Slumbering"
__"Ninety Years Without Slumbering" was adapted into a Twilight Zone Radio Drama by author Dennis Etchison, starring Bill Erwin (2010, Falcon Picture Group)
Henry Clay Work's "Grandfather's Clock." First published in 1876:
My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy.
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
My grandfather said that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time, and had but one desire —
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place — not a frown upon its face,
And its hands never hung by its side.
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
It rang an alarm in the dead of the night —
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight —
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life seconds numbering,
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
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| George Clayton Johnson (1929 - 2015) |
Brian
