"Night Call"

 

Ring ring. It's your nightmares.

“Night Call”
Season Five, Episode 139
Original Air Date: February 7, 1964 

Cast:
Elva Keene: Gladys Cooper
Margaret Phillips: Nora Marlowe
Miss Finch: Martine Bartlett
Voice of Brian Douglas: Ken Drake

Crew:
Writer: Richard Matheson (based on his story “Long Distance Call.”)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Bert Granet
Director of Photography: Robert W. Pittack
Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
Art Direction: George W. Davis and Walter Holscher
Film Editor: Richard Heermance
Set Decoration: Henry Grace and Robert R Benton
Assistant Director: Charles Bonniwell, Jr.
Casting: Patricia Rose
Music: Stock
Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip N. Mitchell
Mr. Serling’s Wardrobe: Eagle Clothes
Filmed at MGM Studios

And Now, Mr. Serling:

“Next time out on The Twilight Zone, Richard Matheson provides us with a tour-de-force in suspense and the unexpected with a show called ‘Night Call.’ It stars one of the most eminent actresses of our time, Miss Gladys Cooper, and it poses the kind of question that arises when a telephone keeps ringing and you realize that the caller has not been on Earth for a number of years. I hope this intrigues because I think the show will. Next time out, ‘Night Call.’”

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:

“Miss Elva Keene lives alone on the outskirts of London Flats, a tiny rural community in Maine. Up until now, the pattern of Miss Keene’s existence has been that of lying in her bed or sitting in her wheelchair reading books, listening to the radio, eating, napping, taking medicine and waiting for something different to happen. Miss Keene doesn’t know it yet, but her period of waiting has just ended, for something different is about to happen to her, and has in fact already begun to happen, via two most unaccountable telephone calls in the middle of a stormy night. Telephone calls routed directly through…the Twilight Zone.”

 

Summary:

Elva Keene lives alone in a small house in a rural community in Maine. Wheelchair bound, the elderly Miss Keene is attended to by her caretaker, Margaret, during the day. One night, during a particularly devastating storm, Elva Keene is awoken by the ringing of her telephone. It is two in the morning. She picks up the receiver and hears only static. Figuring it a bad connection, she hangs ups. Seconds later, the phone rings again. She picks it up. Just jumbled static. Confused and shaken, she hangs up.

The next morning, Keene dials the local operator to inquire about the strange phone calls. The operator informs her that it may have just been a faulty connection due to the storm and that, for the moment, the calls are not able to be traced due to the aftermath of the storm. Miss Finch, the operator, tells her that if the calls continue, to let her know. Later that day, she receives another call. Like before, she is unable to hear anyone on the other end. She calls the operator again.

That night, she receives another call. “Hello,” she says. A deep, anguished moaning seeps from the receiver. A man’s voice. “Hello,” she says. “Hello,” the voice responds. Frightened, she drops the receiver. The next morning, she tells Miss Finch about the call but it is apparent that she does not believe her. Miss Finch tells her that she will have someone check the line.

Later that day, Miss Keene receives another call. Margaret tells her to keep the phone off the hook until she needs to make a call. That night, she attempts to take Margaret’s advice, but the dial tone is too loud. She places the receiver back on the hook. The phone rings immediately. She answers it. “Where are you? I want to talk to you?” the voice repeats on a loop. “Leave me alone!” she screams at the voice.

The next day, Miss Finch calls Miss Keene and tells her that they were able to trace the calls to a fallen wire just outside of town. At a cemetery.

Margaret drives Miss Keene to Valley View Cemetery. Keene instructs her where to go. They stop at the grave of Brian Douglas, who died in 1932. There is a fallen phone line spliced open on top of the grave site. Keene then reveals that this is the grave of her fiancé who died in a car accident a week before they were to be married. Keene describes her younger self as a demanding young woman who was very controlling of her fiancé. Against his advice, she was driving the car that night in 1932 when she lost control and smashed into a tree, killing her fiancé and paralyzing herself. She realizes now that Brian is trying to communicate with her. Maybe now she will not feel so alone.

That night, no longer frightened, Elva Keene picks up the receiver, anxious to speak with her long-departed love. After an eternity she hears a voice. “You said leave you alone,” the voice says. “I always do what you say.” The line goes dead. She begs Brian to come back but her efforts are in vain. The line is quiet, and Elva Keene is all alone.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

“According to the Bible, God created the heavens and the Earth. It is man’s prerogative, and woman’s, to create their own particular and private Hell. Case in point, Miss Elva Keene, who in every sense has made her own bed and now must lie in it, sadder but wiser, by dint of a rather painful lesson in responsibility. Transmitted...from the Twilight Zone.”

Commentary:

Writer Richard Matheson’s penultimate episode of The Twilight Zone continues what is arguably his most successful and most productive season of the show’s five year run. Thus far into the show’s final season he had seen his stories, “Steel” and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” made into highly acclaimed episodes of the show, the former being his personal favorite episode of the show, and the latter eventually becoming the most well-known episode of the show, and by extension, one of the most famous moments in television history. With “Night Call” Matheson would get to work with a director he had long admired, Jacques Tourneur, to produce another of his favorite episodes of the show. He would see just one more of his scripts produced on the show, “Spur of the Moment.” It’s perhaps the least affective of his four episodes of the final season but still an enjoyable one with a disturbing twist midway into it. Matheson saw more of his scripts produced during the final season than in any of the previous four seasons. A fifth script, “The Doll,” was purchased by producer Bert Granet and was slated for production but was later cut from the production schedule by incoming producer William Froug after Granet left the show for a position on the CBS series The Great Adventure. “The Doll” was later made into an episode of Amazing Stories in 1986 by director Phil Joanou. It starred John Lithgow as a lonely bachelor who buys a doll for his niece’s birthday but ends up becoming captivated by it. Lithgow won his first Emmy Award for his performance and Matheson received a nomination by the Writers Guild of America for his script. No reason was given for not going forward with the script. It could possibly be that there had already been a highly acclaimed episode called “Living Doll” earlier in the season but, given that Froug also cancelled production on teleplays by writers Charles Beaumont and Jerry Sohl, it’s likely that he simply wanted to bring in new writers and take the show in a different direction. Whether or not Matheson would have continued to submit new teleplays for the show’s sixth season, had it been renewed, is a question lost to history. But with four memorable episodes during its fifth and final season, Matheson would exit the show on a high note.

Famously, “Night Call” was originally slated to air the night of Friday, November 22, 1963 but was postponed, as all scheduled programing on network television was, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas earlier that day. Instead, due to the particularly grim nature of the episode, they bumped it to February 7, 1964.

Matheson originally published this story under the editor-chosen title of “Sorry, Right Number” in the November, 1953 issue of Beyond Fantasy Fiction. It later appeared in his collection, Shock! (Dell, 1961) under his preferred title of “Long Distance Call.” The title was changed again after Matheson’s teleplay was purchased by producer Bert Granet because the show had already aired an episode called “Long Distance Call,” written by Charles Beaumont and Bill Idelson, during its second season. The title was changed to “Night Call,” this time with Matheson’s approval.

The first half of Matheson’s teleplay is faithful to his story almost down to each line of dialogue, but the end of the episode differs significantly from its source material. The stories are the same up until the scene where Elva Keene is informed that the calls are coming from a severed line located at a cemetery on the edge of town. The scene then abruptly ends. The next, final scene sees Miss Keene alone in her bed that night, petrified with fear. Finally, the phone rings and, feeling as if she must, she picks it up. “Hello, Miss Elva,” the voice on the other end says. “I’ll be right over.” End story. There is no fiancé and there is no trip to the cemetery. Miss Keene is never really given any kind of backstory, so the reader is not persuaded into feeling any kind of sympathy for her.

Matheson was well known for not favoring changes to his material but in this instance the change came from Matheson himself. He told editor Stanley Wiater that he felt his original ending was too morbid and that he preferred the ending of the episode because it made the story more of a character study. The ending of the original story is fun and ghastly, à la Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but the updated ending gives the main character a lot more depth and leaves the viewer with a sense of devastation at the loss that she has suffered. Matheson is not simply setting the audience up for a punch at the end of the episode. There is a punch, of course, in the scene in which the operator tells Miss Keene that the call is coming from the cemetery. But this comes only midway through the episode. There is an entire act that follows. Matheson delivers the shock that the audience is expecting early so he can make the real jolt the tragedy that is Elva Keene’s doomed, unhappy existence.

There is debate among fans as to whether Miss Keene deserves her unfortunate fate. Matheson does not appear to insinuate one way or another. He does provide clues throughout the episode that give the audience a glimpse into the kind of life she has lived and into her wants and insecurities. She is a demanding person with an abrasive personality, a trait that she appears to be, at least on some level, ashamed of. She was behind the wheel the night her fiancé was killed because she demanded to be. But she was also permanently injured and has had to live with the knowledge that she was responsible for his death her entire life. One would think that she is entitled to at least some sympathy. But, as it appears, Matheson is implying that sympathy cannot change the past.

“Night Call” was directed by legendary French director Jacques Tourneur, whom Matheson personally requested for this episode. Tourneur had been directing films for thirty years at this point and was noted for his highly atmospheric style, having helped pioneer the black and white aesthetic that would become known as film noir. He was the son of famed director Maurice Tourneur and started working in the industry while still in high school. He and his father moved back and forth between Hollywood and France so Tourneur became familiar with both American and French filmmaking. He first made a name for himself as a director of low-budget horror films for RKO under legendary producer Val Lewton. For Lewton, Tourneur directed the iconic horror film Cat People in 1942 and followed it with I Walked with a Zombie and The Leopard Man in 1943. After this, Tourneur was promoted to A-list pictures at RKO. In 1947, he directed the film noir, Out of the Past, further cementing his reputation as a reliable and creatively ambitious director. He eventually left RKO for a freelance career. His other films include Stars in My Crown (1950), Nightfall (1956), and Curse of the Demon (1957).

When asked by producer Bert Granet which directors he would like to see direct some of his Twilight Zone episodes, Matheson’s only answer was Jacques Tourneur. Granet was initially hesitant because Tourneur was a film director and had limited experience directing episodic television—this was not entirely true as Tourneur had, by this point, directed many episodes of The Californians and several other half-hour episodic series, but he was an older director who was still relatively new to television and so Granet had doubts about Tourneur being able to complete production on time. The two had actually worked together years before on the film Berlin Express in 1948. As it turned out, according to Matheson, Tourneur completed production in less than thirty hours, making “Night Call” one of the shortest production schedules of the entire series. 

Cat People
(1942)

Matheson had been a longtime admirer of Tourneur’s and of Val Lewton’s. As a teenager, he wrote letters to Lewton telling him how much he enjoyed his films, particularly Cat People. When Matheson was brought in to pitch his idea for The Birds to director Alfred Hitchcock he used Cat People as an example of his approach to the script. He felt not showing the birds would make them scarier, as it had with the cats in Tourneur’s film. Needless to say, Hitchcock did not agree with his approach and ended up using over three thousand live birds in his film. To his delight, Matheson got to work with Tourneur twice in less than a year. In 1963, Tourneur directed the Matheson-penned horror spoof, The Comedy of Terrors, for American International Pictures, for whom Matheson had just scripted four films in Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe cycle.

Tourneur brings an overtly noir sensibility to Matheson’s script, with elements of his horror background on display as well. The daytime scenes are shot traditionally with lots of lighting but the night scenes contain lots of interesting atmosphere, including a cool shot of the shadows of branches reflected on Gladys Cooper’s face as they sway in the wind just outside the window. The loud, abrasive ring of the telephone is also a very jarring and affective device. What gives these scenes such an unforgettably disturbing quality is the sound of the voice on the phone (voiced by Ken Drake) which increases in cognizance every time Miss Keene answers the phone. The pacing of these scenes, and the increase in Elva Keene’s dread, is what stays with the audience after the episode is over. It is unfortunate that Tourneur directed only a single episode, his aesthetic fits the show perfectly.

Gladys Cooper returns for the third and final time on The Twilight Zone. She had previously appeared in the season three episode “Nothing in the Dark” giving a most remarkable performance. She also appears in a supporting role in the season four episode “Passage on the Lady Anne.” Cooper rose to fame on stage in London’s West End, occasionally appearing on Broadway and in early British films as well. She moved to Hollywood in 1940 at the age of 52 and found immediate success. Her first role in her new home was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca in 1940. In 1942 she appeared as a dominating matriarch in what is probably her most famous role in Irving Rapper’s Now, Voyager. Other roles include The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Bishop’s Wife (1947), The Secret Garden (1949), and My Fair Lady (1964). She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Her performance here is incredible. Cooper was known for playing strong, often domineering women. Both of her leading roles on The Twilight Zone often showcase this ability although they are also very anxious, frightened characters as well. Her ability to balance both of these emotions is done seamlessly. In contrast, her supporting role in the hour-long “Passage on the Lady Anne” displays a light, amiable side and is just as believable. All three of her episodes concern old age, a subject the show would return to again and again.

Nora Marlowe appeared previously on the show in the season two episode “Back There.” She was often cast as nurses, nuns, and housekeepers. She had bit roles in the films An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and Soylent Green (1973). She was a prolific presence in episodic television of the era but today she is probably best remembered for her recurring role as Flossie Brimmer on The Waltons.

Martine Bartlett was also active in television during the 1960s including a role in the miniseries Sybil in 1976. Her most recognizable role was as Miss Metcalf in Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass (1961). 

Ken Drake was an extra and a bit player in numerous television series including dozens of appearances on Sea Hunt and a short-lived leading role on the crime series Not for Hire opposite Ralph Meeker.

“Night Call” may seem like an atypical episode to some, given its macabre sensibilities, but it’s still an enjoyable one and it’s one of the best offerings of the show’s fifth season. Matheson’s script is trimmed and crafted to perfection, Tourneur’s pacing and atmosphere is highly affective, and Gladys Cooper turns in a remarkable performance as the controlling but insecure Elva Keene. It comes recommended.

Grade: A

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following:

The Twilight Zone Scripts of Richard Matheson, Vol.2, edited Stanley Wiater (Edge Books, 2002)

Richard Matheson: Collected Stories, Vol. 1, edited by Stanley Wiater (Gauntlet Press, 2003)

The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr. (OTR, 2008)

The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree (3rd ed., Silman-James Press, 2018)

Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

Notes:

__Richard Matheson first published this story under the title “Sorry, Right Number” (editor’s title) in the November, 1953 issue of Beyond Fantasy Fiction. It was later collected in his collection of short fiction, Shock! (Dell, 1961), under his preferred title, “Long Distance Call.” It is currently available in his collections Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Tor, 2002) and The Best of Richard Matheson (Penguin Books, 2017).

__Matheson’s script for this episode can be found in Richard Matheson’s The Twilight Zone Scripts, Vol. 2 (Gauntlet Press, 2002) edited by Stanley Wiater.

__Gladys Cooper also appeared in the season three episode “Nothing in the Dark” and the season four episode “Passage on the Lady Anne.”

__Nora Marlowe also appeared in the season two episode “Back There.”

__Ken Drake also appeared in season two’s “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” and season five’s “A Kind of a Stopwatch.”

__“Night Call” was adapted into a Twilight Zone Radio Drama by author Dennis Etchison in 2009. It stars Mariette Hartley and was directed by Carl Amari and Roger Wolski.

 

Brian