Reading Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, Part 13

In which we take a closer look at each issue of the magazine. For our capsule history, go here.

Volume 2, number 1 (April, 1982) 

First Anniversary Issue

Cover art: Kevin Larson

TZ Publications, Inc.

President & Chairman: S. Edward Orenstein

Secretary/Treasurer: Sidney Z. Gellman

Executive Vice-Presidents: Leon Garry, Eric Protter

Executive Publisher: S. Edward Orenstein

Publisher: Leon Garry

Associate Publisher/Contributing Editor: Carol Serling

Editorial Director: Eric Protter

Editor: T.E.D. Klein

Managing Editor: Jane Bayer

Assistant Editors: Steven Schwartz, Robert Sabat

Contributing Editors: Gahan Wilson, Robert Sheckley

Design Director: Derek Burton

Art and Studio Production: Georg the Design Group

Production Director: Stephen J. Fallon

Controller: Thomas Schiff

Administrative Assistant: Doreen Carrigan

Public Relations Manager: Jeffrey Nickora

Accounting Manager: Chris Grossman

Circulation Director: William D. Smith

Circulation Manager: Janice Graham

Eastern Circulation Manager: Hank Rosen

Western Newsstand Consultant: Harry Sommer

Advertising Manager: Rachel Britapaja

Advertising Production Manager: Marina Despotakis

Advertising Representatives: Barney O’Hara & Associates, Inc.

Contents:

--Publisher’s Letter by Carol Serling

--In the Twilight Zone: One Year Older by T.E.D. Klein

--A Reunion in the Twilight Zone

--Other Dimensions: Books by Robert Sheckley and T.E.D. Klein

--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson

--Other Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan

--TZ Interview: Rod Serling: The Facts of Life

--“I’ll Be Seeing You” by W.G. Norris

--“The River Styx Flows Upstream” by Dan Simmons

--“The Seed” by Joseph Bocchi

--TZ Screen Preview: Cat People by Robert Martin

--“The Thing from the Slush” by George Alec Effinger

--“Old Fillikin” by Joan Aiken

--The Essential Writers: William Hope Hodgson by Mike Ashley

--“The Voice in the Night” by William Hope Hodgson

--“Snakes & Ladders” by Ramsey Campbell

--“Djinn, No Chaser” by Harlan Ellison

--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone, Part Thirteen by Marc Scott Zicree

--Looking Ahead: In the May TZ

Note: this is the first issue which does not present a Rod Serling teleplay.

--Publisher’s Letter by Carol Serling

-Carol Serling returns to the pages of the magazine with another occasional, informal editorial. The occasion this time is the magazine’s first annual short story contest. Serling congratulates the winners, offers encouragement to those who did not win, and promotes the next short story contest offered by the magazine, including a few suggestions for stories inspired by then-current headlines.

--In the Twilight Zone: One Year Older by T.E.D. Klein

-Klein spends most of his editorial space detailing the logistics of the magazine’s first annual short story contest, including some photos and a humorous cartoon by Jason Eckhardt (right) displaying the overwhelming nature of receiving two thousand plus submissions. Klein gives his thoughts on the winners, including the reason there was a tie for first place, which apparently resulted from the fact that the contest judges (Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson, Peter Straub, and Carol Serling) were allowed to split their votes (a situation Ellison described as a technicality in his introduction to Dan Simmons’ short story collection Prayers to Broken Stones). Klein spends the remainder of the editorial space in his usual manner, providing capsule biographies of the magazine’s contributors alongside thumbnail images.

--A Reunion in the Twilight Zone 

-This two-page feature is a photographic record of a party given at the home of author Marc Scott Zicree to celebrate the completion of his book The Making of ‘The Twilight Zone,’ which was published by Bantam as The Twilight Zone Companion later in the year. Attendees of the party included such Twilight Zone alumni as directors Alvin Ganzer and Douglas Heyes, writers Jerry Sohl, Richard Matheson and John Tomerlin (right), actors John Anderson, Charles Aidman, Nehemiah Persoff, Murray Matheson, and George Takei. The final image presented is of Carol Serling and Marc Scott Zicree holding a Twilight Zone cake. This is a wonderful look at a time when many of the people who made the series were still alive and able to attend events and give interviews.

--Other Dimensions: Books by Robert Sheckley and T.E.D. Klein

-Book review duties are split this issue between Sheckley and Klein. This issue marks the end of Sheckley’s brief tenure (three issues) as books reviewer, giving way to Thomas M. Disch with the May, 1982 issue. Here’s a brief look at the books under review this issue:

Sheckley:

The Keep by F. Paul Wilson: “It’s a good tale with plenty of suspense and thrills. My only complaint is with the human side of the book. The characters are typical rather than individual, and suffer a loss in believability. I kept on feeling that this well-constructed novel should have come alive for me more than it did.”

Masques by Bill Pronzini: “There’s really a double ending, one the solution to the mysteries Giroux has been going through, the other a direct outcome of Giroux’s helpless and passive character. The second ending is even scarier and more true to life than the first.”

Klein:

Creature Features Movie Guide by John Stanley: Klein gives a long review of this first of many editions authored by San Francisco-based horror movie host Stanley. Klein finds fault with much of the production, including the lack of detailed cast and crew listings, the author’s conservative tastes, the use of puns, and the various typos and errors in the listings. Klein also manages to pass on one of the book’s errors, stating that William F. Nolan was the screenwriter on the exploitation film I Dismember Mama (1972) which was actually written by William W. Norton. Klein provides a look at artist Kenn Davis’ stylized letters which head each alphabetical chapter, generously quotes from Fritz Leiber’s introduction to the book, and cautiously recommends the volume for its exhaustive nature and plethora of startling facts. 

--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson

-The film on tap this issue is Ghost Story (1981), adapted by screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen from Peter Straub’s 1979 bestseller about an ancient evil which terrorizes a group of old men, The Chowder Society, who guard a dark secret from their collective past. The film’s all-star cast includes Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., John Houseman, Patricia Neal, Craig Wasson, and Alice Kringe as the evil entity’s human form, Eva Galli. The film was directed by John Irvin, photographed by Jack Cardiff, and featured the special makeup effects of Dick Smith. Robert Sheckley favorably reviewed Straub’s novel in the March, 1981 issue of the magazine.

-As usual, Wilson begins his review with a humorous anecdote, this time about the humors and horrors of advanced film screenings. Of Ghost Story he writes: “For one thing, Universal, why’d you change the basic idea of the book? It makes me wonder about you moviemakers sometimes, it really does, why you spend all that money for a book and then trash its best parts.” Wilson praises the cast (especially Fred Astaire and Alice Kringe) and the makeup effects of Dick Smith but faults the film for changes made from the source material, particularly that of making Eva Galli an actual ghost rather than the undefined, ancient entity of Straub’s novel. He concludes his review this way: “But the best thing, Universal, the high point in your movie, is the look Fred Astaire gives the dying monster – a look unique, I think, in all the long history of dying monsters in the movies and the looks given them by their destroyers. Not triumph, this time, not horror, but pity. A long, regretful look of pity.” 

--Other Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan 

-Genre historian Jack Sullivan, author of Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood (1978) and editor of The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural (1986), returns with another installment in his essay series on macabre music. The series will run all the way through the August, 1981 issue. This continues to be a unique and impressive series and displays the magazine’s ambitions to be more than a fiction magazine or a movie review magazine. It is difficult to imagine another mass-market genre publication at the time which would run this series, much less at the length Sullivan is allowed in the pages of Twilight Zone. If you have any interest in the dark side of classical music, I highly recommend consulting this series.

-This installment finds Sullivan looking at macabre music from composers not generally known for such work. Here is a quick list of the music Sullivan covers:

The Libation Bearers by Darius Milhaud

Fourth and Sixth Symphonies of Ralph Vaughn Williams

Riders to the Sea by Ralph Vaughn Williams

“Four Sea Interludes” by Benjamin Britten

The Planets by Gustav Holst

Fourth Symphony of Jean Sibelius

Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith

Concert Music for Strings and Brass by Paul Hindemith

String Quartet by Ruth Crawford Seeger

Early Symphonies of Prokofiev

Sixth and Seventh Symphonies of Mahler

-Sullivan also suggests recordings for each selection. Next issue he moves closer to the contemporary by focusing on the eerie composers of the postwar period. 

--TZ Interview: Rod Serling: The Facts of Life by Linda Brevelle 

-This final interview of Rod Serling was conducted a mere four months before the writer’s untimely death on June 28, 1975. It first appeared in different form in Writer’s Digest Magazine (1976) and was included in the 1977 Writer’s Digest Yearbook. It was further reprinted in the Writer’s Digest book On Being a Writer (1989). The interview can be read in full at the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation.

-This is Rod Serling’s most famous interview as it has been quoted from endlessly in books, documentaries, blogs, podcasts, and on social media. Reading it again it struck me is how terribly tired and depressed Serling sounded. Here was a beloved writer, a genuine American icon, who appeared to have little perspective on his cultural value as he is repeatedly self-effacing and humble to a fault. I think this quality of the interview will pain those who admire Serling as one would like to believe he left this mortal coil fully aware of how beloved a figure he was. Nevertheless, the interview does contain many memorable candid moments from Serling, who gives his thoughts on everything from his genesis as a writer, his favorites among his works, the key to working with producers, awards, the ways in which television has changed since the days of live performance, as well as a number of other topics. Sadly, The Twilight Zone is little discussed, only garnering a mention in the context of television censorship. Though it may be painful to read Serling’s self-deprecating thoughts on his works, this is essential reading for fans. 

--“I’ll Be Seeing You” by W.G. Norris (Tie-first place short story contest)

Illustrated by Bruce Waldman 

“The past was almost close enough to touch, hidden from him by the thickness of a sheet of paper”

-A grieving widower discovers a portal to his past in the panels of a newspaper comic.

-This meditation on grief and the past is quite effective though too ambiguous to be entirely successful. The supernatural aspect is never explained even though a large portion of the story is given over to the main character’s attempt to unravel the mystery. The ending comes like a swift punch and concludes the story on a note which can alternately be interpreted as hopeful or horrible. It appears as though W.G. Norris never published another story, though “I’ll Be Seeing You” was reprinted in the annual volume Great Stories from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine (1982). T.E.D. Klein describes Norris this way: “A native of Boston, where his story is set, he’s studied at Bates and the University of Hamburg, has lived in Geneva, Paris, Washington, and (for five years) Nigeria, and speaks six foreign languages including Persian, Arabic, Hausa, and Fulani, Today he teaches African, Asian, and European cultural studies at a high school in Suffolk County, Long Island.” 

 --“The River Styx Runs Upstream” by Dan Simmons (Tie-first place short story contest) 

Illustrated by Frances Jetter

“It was good to have mother home again, at first. You could almost make believe she wasn’t dead.”

-In a society where the dead can be returned to life, a family struggles to adjust to the return of the mother, who returns missing her essential humanity.

-This was my third time reading this short story and it loses none of its power with repeat readings. The strength lies in Simmons’ writing, as the story is heavy on suggestion, peppered with small, devastating statements which illustrate the insidious effects of the mother’s return. Many of the most unsettling moments of the story are Simmons’ suggestions that the mother may be responsible for various “accidental” deaths which occur in the town, as well as the deaths within the family which occur in the wake of her return. Fans of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary will especially enjoy this one.  

-Simmons (b. 1948) first presented the story at the Clarion Writers Workshop in 1981 and was encouraged by Harlan Ellison and Edward Bryant to revise it and submit it for publication. It launched Simmons’ highly successful career as a writer of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction. Simmons has won a shelfful of awards and has recently been flush with the success of the AMC adaptation of his 2007 novel The Terror. Although I enjoyed “I’ll Be Seeing You” by W.G. Norris it is easy to see why the tie between that story and Simmons’ obviously superior piece of fiction baffled so many. For those interested, both Harlan Ellison and Simmons discuss the genesis of the story in Simmons’ 1991 short fiction collection Prayers to Broken Stones.

-“The River Styx Runs Upstream” has been reprinted several times. It appeared in the annual volume Great Stories from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine (1982) as well as the premier issue of the magazine’s sister publication Night Cry. It has been reprinted in such anthologies as Midnight Graffiti (1992) and Angels of Darkness (1995). 

--“The Seed” by Joseph Bocchi (Second place short story contest) 

Illustrated by Ahmet Gorgun

“It was planting time – and the midget knew that Sally was the most fertile ground of all”

-A midget is offered room and board at a couple’s boarding house in exchange for work but quickly comes to disturb the wife to the point of obsession and terror.

-This strange story, which is graced with perhaps the most suggestive tagline of any story in the magazine, is quite an effective tale of a terror and obsession. Largely written in a David Lynchian style of suggestive and disordered prose, it contains a number of disturbing and disorienting scenes, including an ending which would feel at home in the early horror fiction of Ray Bradbury or EC Comics. The highlight of the tale is an extended dream sequence with perfectly captures the feeling of a nightmare. Bocchi even changes the tense of the prose from third person to first person in order to make the dream sequence more intimate and frightening. Despite being essentially a mood piece with a ghoulish ending I can see how this was awarded the second place prize in the magazine’s short story contest as it has a way of staying in the reader’s head well after it has been read. Unfortunately, the story appears never to have been reprinted and Bocchi never to have written another story. It’s a shame since this story displayed a unique imagination and a skill with the atmosphere of terror. 

--TZ Screen Preview: Cat People by Robert Martin 

-Martin talks to screenwriter Alan Ormsby about teaming with director Paul Schrader to reimagine the 1942 film Cat People, directed by Jacques Tourneur (director of Richard Matheson’s fifth season episode “Night Call”) and produced by Val Lewton. Ormsby, also known for his makeup effects work on such films as Deathdream (1974) and Deranged (1974), discusses the challenges of updating the story for a modern audience who, he feels, would reject the deliberate pacing and suggestive horrors of the earlier film. Ormsby discusses the writing process, location scouting, makeup effects, and casting. Makeup artist Tom Burman is also briefly interviewed. The film stars Nastassja Kinski (pictured) and Malcolm McDowell. 

--“The Thing from the Slush” by George Alec Effinger 

Illustrated by Randy Jones

“This story’s totally ridiculous, of course, and we were going to reject it out of hand. But then we figured: ‘Why take chances?’”

-A first reader at a genre fiction magazine discovers ominous patterns in the stories submitted for publication.

-Effinger (1947-2002) presents us with a tale of the slush pile, that ever-increasing pile of manuscripts submitted by amateur writers to professional publications. From this he spins an unnerving tale of the strangeness of knowing someone only through reading their repeated efforts to find publication. Although the twist in the tale has been done many times before (L.P. Hartley’s “W.S.” comes to mind) it has a satisfying ring a familiarity to it. The story is one of a number to feature the character of Sandor Courane, a series which began with “Strange Ragged Saintliness” (1978) and ran another ten stories through “The Wicked Old Witch” (1993). “The Thing from the Slush” was reprinted in the second issue of Night Cry and collected in The Old Funny Stuff (1989). 

--“Old Fillikin” by Joan Aiken 

Illustrated by Annie Alleman

“Surely teacher was right, and Grandma was wrong. Surely numbers never lied, and folk tales were for children. And surely there was nothing in the well like . . .”

-A young boy struggling with his school work accidentally summons a destructive creature of legend.

-This tale is classic Joan Aiken (1924-2004): exploring the world through the fearful lens of childhood and examining the ways in which myths and legends shape the way we see and think about the world around us. Aiken juxtaposes the ordered world of mathematics with the disordered world of legends and folk stories. The story is filled with pleasantly familiar characters: the struggling young boy, the strict teacher, the wise, eccentric grandmother, and, of course, the monstrous Old Fillikin, a small but terribly destructive creature which dwells at the bottom of water wells. Once Old Fillikin has been inadvertently freed and caused a terrible death, the story ends on a pleasingly dreadful note: “Where – he could not help wondering – was Old Fillikin now?”

-“Old Fillikin” was first published in Ghostly Encounters in 1981 and collected in A Whisper in the Night (1982). Aiken was a prolific author best remembered for her works for children (The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, etc.) but also wrote many tales for adults. The majority of her fiction was cast in a Gothic or fantastic mode. Her 1958 story “Marmalade Wine” was adapted for the second season of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery by writer/director Jerrold Freeman. Aiken was the daughter of the American poet and story writer Conrad Aiken (1889-1973), who’s 1932 tale “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” was also memorably adapted for Night Gallery by writer/director Gene Kearney, featuring Orson Welles. 

--The Essential Writers: William Hope Hodgson by Mike Ashley

Illustrated by Stephen E. Fabian

-This excellent series of essays and story selections from the classic masters of the supernatural tale continues with Mike Ashley’s informative essay on William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918), examining Hodgson’s upbringing, his years upon the sea, his pioneering efforts in physical culture and body building, and his tales of nautical terror and the psychic detective Carnacki. This is an excellent primer for those unfamiliar with Hodgson’s work and surely contains a nugget or two of unknown information for the aficionado. Ashley discusses Hodgson’s contentious meeting with Harry Houdini, his early experiments with fiction, his unrivaled tales of terror on the sea, and his strange and tragic death at age 40 on the battlefields of WWI. Ashley selects Hodgson’s 1907 tale “The Voice in the Night” to represent the author at the height of his powers. In 1981 Ashley published William Hope Hodgson: A Working Bibliography and also wrote the introduction to the 2008 Dover reprint edition of arguably Hodgson’s greatest work, The House on the Borderland (1908).

--“The Voice in the Night” by William Hope Hodgson 

Illustrated by D.W. Miller

“Required Reading: The classic tale of terror on the sea”

-On a dark, foggy night in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, two members of a small vessel are accosted by an unseen figure in small craft. The figure in the boat asks for supplies and relates the harrowing tale of what befell him and his fiancé.

-I am reluctant to give many details even on a story which is over a hundred years old due to the fact that “The Voice in the Night” is one of those great tales which is best experienced as blindly as possible. The power of the story lies in what is suggested rather than what is explicitly shown, and also in Hodgson’s remarkable ability to suggest the strange, unknown terrors of the vast waterways of the world. The story was loosely adapted as the controversial Japanese film Matango (1963), alternately known by the more exploitative title Attack of the Mushroom People. It was first published in the November, 1907 issue of Blue Book magazine and collected in Men of the Deep Waters (1914). It has been reprinted many times, including in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do on TV (1957). “The Voice in the Night” is among my favorite tales of terror and I have collected illustrations of the tale, a couple of which I will share at the bottom of this post. 

--“Snakes & Ladders” by Ramsey Campbell 

Illustrated by Brad Hamann

“They called it a game – but there weren’t any winners, and the penalty for losing was death”

-A skeptical journalist challenges the abilities of a folk healer with dire consequences.

-Ramsey Campbell (b. 1946) returns to the pages of the magazine after his appearance with the harrowing story “Again” in the November, 1981 issue. This time he presents a sleek tale of terror concerning a skeptical journalist who is forced to defend himself from the terrifying machinations of a folk healer and those who have gathered in her service. This story displays all of Campbell’s remarkable strengths as a horror writer, particularly his uncanny ability to create an atmosphere of terror and disorientation. Campbell’s stories can often feel like bad dreams and frequently possess the logic of such. “Snakes & Ladders” concludes on a particularly ghoulish note, typical of Campbell’s output, but feels even more paired down and streamlined than his usual style. A little research uncovered that this story was an early version of Campbell’s 1988 tale “Playing the Game.” Though “Playing the Game” has been reprinted multiple times following its appearance in Lord John Ten: A Celebration, “Snakes & Ladders” was not reprinted until the 2008 volume Inconsequential Tales, a volume which collected many of Campbell’s fugitive pieces. Still, “Snakes & Ladders” works just fine on its own as a fast-paced tale of terror which will appeal to fans of supernatural pursuit in the mold of Charles Beaumont’s “The Jungle” or Rod Serling’s “Mirror Image.” 

--“Djinn, No Chaser” by Harlan Ellison 

Illustrated by Marty Blake

“Ellison launched TZ’s premier issue with a story about the Holy Grail. Now he returns, in a distinctly lighter vein, with this tale about a certain magic lamp . . .”

-A young married couple stumbles upon a magic shop inside of which they purchase a magical lamp inhabited by a particularly nasty genie.

-I was surprised to learn that this story won the 1983 Locus Award for Best Novelette, not because I think it is a bad story but because it is basically a punchline story in which a genie who has been tormenting the young couple is finally brought around to being nice by being freed from the lamp by a can opener. It is Ellison in humorous mode and contains plenty of witty banter and showy examples of esoteric knowledge. The story was collected in Stalking the Nightmare (1982) and adapted for the first season of Tales from the Darkside by Ellison’s friend, writer Haskell Barkin (as by Haskell Smith), whose story from the December, 1981 issue of Twilight Zone, “All A Clone by the Telephone,” was also adapted for the first season of Darkside. “Djinn, No Chaser” was reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 9 (1983) as well as in Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison (2015).  

--Show-by-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone: Part Thirteen 

by Marc Scott Zicree

-Zicree continues his guide to the original series of The Twilight Zone with a listing of the cast, crew, opening and closing narrations, and summary of the following fourth season episodes: “Mute,” “Death Ship,” “Jess-Belle,” and “Miniature,” all of which we have reviewed here in the Vortex.

--Looking Ahead: In the May TZ

-Next month looks like another great issue. We have Thomas M. Disch’s first column as books reviewer, an interview with director Terry Gilliam, a set visit to George Romero’s Creepshow, a look at Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal, stories by Peter Straub, Kit Reed, Connie Willis, Chet Williamson, and George Clayton Johnson’s “All of Us Are Dying,” which was adapted by Rod Serling for the first season episode “The Four of Us Are Dying,” the teleplay of which is also presented. Looks like a good one, see you back next time.

-JP 

Bonus illustrations for William Hope Hodgson’s “The Voice in the Night”:

Illustration by Gordon Laite from More Tales to Tremble By (1968):

Illustration by Diane and Leo Dillon from Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror (1982):

"Printer's Devil"

From left: Robert Sterling, Burgess Meredith, Patricia Crowley

“Printer’s Devil”

Season Four, Episode 111

Original Air Date: February 28, 1963

Cast:

Douglas Winter: Robert Sterling

Jackie Benson: Patricia Crowley

Mr. Smith: Burgess Meredith

Mr. Franklin: Ray Teal

Andy Praskins: Charles Thompson

Landlady: Doris Kemper

Molly: Camille Franklin

Crew:

Writer: Charles Beaumont (based on his story, “The Devil, You Say?”)

Director: Ralph Senensky

Producer: Herbert Hirschman

Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens

Associate Producer: Murray Golden

Film Editor: Richard W. Farrell

Art Direction: George W. Davis & John J. Thompson

Set Decoration: Henry Grace & Don Greenwood, Jr.

Assistant Director: John Bloss

Assistant to the Producer: John Conwell

Music: stock

Sound: Franklin Milton & Joe Edmondson

Mr. Serling’s Wardrobe: Eagle Clothes

Filmed at MGM Studios

And Now, Mr. Serling:

“Some rather special ingredients to a bizarre brew served up next on The Twilight Zone, an oddball printing press, an editor with a stringer from the lower regions. They’re just a few as we bring you Robert Sterling, Patricia Crowley, and special guest star Burgess Meredith in Charles Beaumont’s ‘Printer’s Devil.’”

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

“Take away a man’s dreams, fill him with whiskey and despair, send him to a lonely bridge, let him stand there all by himself looking down at the black water, and try to imagine the thoughts that are in his mind. You can’t, I can’t, but there’s someone who can and that someone is seated next to Douglas Winter right now. The car is headed back toward town but its real destination is The Twilight Zone.”

Summary:

            Douglas Winter is the struggling owner/editor of the Dansburg Courier. He is drowning in debt due to the fact that not much happens in Dansburg as well as the recent arrival of the syndicate newspaper the Gazette. When his longtime linotype operator, Andy Praskins, leaves to find work at the Gazette, the writing becomes clear on the wall: the Dansburg Courier is finished. Despite the pleadings of his girlfriend Jackie Benson, Doug is prepared to throw in the towel. 

            Doug soon gets to drinking. He drives to the outskirts of town and stops his car on a bridge. He gets out and stands near the edge looking down at the water, contemplating taking his own life by jumping. Suddenly, a voice is heard behind him. It is a small, older man asking for a light for his cigar. The man is odd and begins teasing Doug about his uncertain method of suicide. The man convinces Doug to give him a ride back into town.

            Over drinks Mr. Smith (as the man introduces himself) informs Doug that he, Smith, is an expert reporter and a skilled linotype operator. Mr. Smith offers to go to work for Doug and revive the Courier but does not divulge what he expects to receive in return.

            Doug brings Mr. Smith back to the newspaper office and asks for a demonstration of Smith’s skills. Smith is lightning fast on the linotype machine, amazing Doug and Jackie, though Jackie takes an immediate dislike to the man and his gruff manner. Soon, business picks up tremendously for the Courier. Mr. Smith is the first to report increasingly strange happenings around town and his skill on the linotype machine (to which he has added some unique alterations) means that the papers are out on the street unbelievably fast.

            When the building which houses the rival paper the Gazette burns to the ground, Doug begins to suspect Mr. Smith of more than just reporting the news. Jackie has noticed something as well. Doug’s attitude and behavior are getting worse. He’s sullen and surly and allows Smith to run the newspaper while Doug drinks and naps in his office. Jackie confronts Doug about this and receives indifference in return.

            Doug finally confronts Mr. Smith and forces Smith to admit who he really is: the Devil. Mr. Smith produces a contract and induces Doug to sign away his immortal soul for the continued success of the newspaper. Doug is at first an unbeliever until Smith demonstrates that he knows the news before it happens. Finally understanding the gravity of his situation Doug tries unsuccessfully to renege on his contract with Smith.

            Mr. Smith is in a hurry and eager to gather Doug’s soul. Using the linotype machine, he writes a news story: Jackie will be grievously injured in a car wreck a few hours hence. Smith informs Doug that the alternations he made on the linotype machine allow to pass whatever is written there. Smith produces a gun and states that if Doug does not kill himself by the time of the accident Jackie will die from her injuries. Doug tries to use the gun on Smith without success. Smith tips his hat and leaves.

            Doug frantically searches for Jackie but cannot find her. As the time until her accident draws near he decides he has only one other option. He returns to the office of the Courier and sits down at the linotype machine. He begins to write a news story.

            Meanwhile, Jackie has agreed to give Mr. Smith a ride to the airport as he has surprisingly agreed with her request to leave Dansburg forever. Mr. Smith offers to drive. Once on the highway, however, Smith begins driving too fast toward a head-on collision with another motorist.

            At the last moment Jackie is able to wrench the wheel from Smith’s hands and avoid the greater severity of the accident. Smith has vanished from the driver’s seat. Doug used the linotype machine to write the Devil away. He immediately has the machine taken away. But is Mr. Smith out of their lives forever?

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

“Exit the infernal machine and with it His Satanic Majesty, Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, otherwise known as Mr. Smith. He’s gone but not for good. That wouldn’t be like him. He’s gone for bad. And he might be back with another ticket to The Twilight Zone.” 

Commentary: 

            Immediately following “Miniature,” perhaps his finest script for the series, Charles Beaumont countered with this darkly humorous take on the deal-with-the-Devil tale. Although Rod Serling, Richard Matheson, and Earl Hamner produced fine work for the fourth season, Beaumont flourished writing hour-long episodes. He saw an opportunity to revisit previously published material and to expand upon ideas and themes prevalent in his fiction. Beaumont never seemed comfortable with the twist-in-the-tale formula the show found itself falling into time and again. Although Beaumont was more than capable of crafting a satisfactory twist-ending tale, “Perchance to Dream” and “Shadow Play” come to mind, few of his other efforts in this regard, such as “Elegy,” “A Nice Place to Visit,” “The Jungle,” or “Dead Man’s Shoes,” are among the show’s highly regarded episodes. The hour-long format generally alleviated the need for this sort of story and Beaumont produced some of his finest work writing in a narrative format with which he was more comfortable. The result was that he produced more scripts for the fourth season than for any of the previous three seasons, made tragically ironic by the fact that during the fourth season Beaumont began to suffer the effects of the disease which eventually took his ability to write and then his life. Even an episode for which Beaumont provided the story and which was ghostwritten by Jerry Sohl, “The New Exhibit,” is an expertly sustained one-hour dramatic narrative. Beaumont’s only misstep during the fourth season was “Shadow of the Valley,” a tale which simply did not have enough story to propel it fifty plus minutes.

            Devil stories were common enough on the series to approach the subject from different angles, from the humorous in “Escape Clause” to the horrifying in Beaumont’s “The Howling Man” to the poignancy of “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville.” An earlier, and less regarded, Beaumont episode is “A Nice Place to Visit” from the first season. This was a typical Twilight Zone twist-ending tale but it allowed Beaumont to give the Devil, played by Sebastian Cabot, plenty of clipped dialogue, thus allowing for the type of wordplay and tongue-in-cheek humor he would display to greater effect in “Printer’s Devil.”

            Beaumont’s Devils may employ humor but the characters are never played for laughs. Outside of the obviously malevolent performance of Robin Hughes in “The Howling Man,” Sebastian Cabot in “A Nice Place to Visit” and Burgess Meredith in “Printer’s Devil” are both seemingly harmless characters who eventually show the dark side to their nature. Meredith’s performance in particular must be singled out for its expert combination of cranky humor and lecherous unease. Meredith understood that the Devil could be funny but he must also make the audience uncomfortable, and few audience members are not uncomfortable with the way Mr. Smith runs his fingers across Jackie Benson’s cheek in a particularly creepy moment; or the way in which Mr. Smith lecherously describes Molly, the waitress. Meredith’s cigar chomping caricature may be over-the-top but he never becomes a teddy bear of a Devil the way Thomas Gomez did in the first Devil episode of the series, “Escape Clause.”

            Beaumont’s original story “The Devil, You Say?” was the author’s first professional sale. It appeared in the January, 1951 issue of Amazing Stories. Beaumont apparently liked the idea enough to revisit it for Twilight Zone but made significant alterations which indicated he was not entirely satisfied with the original story. Oddly, “The Devil, You Say?” was not included in any of the collections of Beaumont’s fiction compiled during his lifetime. The story was reprinted in the UK edition of Amazing Stories in May, 1952 but was not collected in book form until The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories (1985), a volume which collected most of the source material for the series. The story was reprinted in the definitive retrospective of Beaumont’s fiction, Charles Beaumont: Selected Stories, published by Dark Harvest in 1988. An interesting aspect of that volume is that many of the stories included introductory essays from Beaumont’s friends and colleagues. “The Devil, You Say?” featured an introduction from Howard Browne, editor of Amazing Stories at the time of the story’s publication. “The Devil, You Say?” was sold to Amazing Stories by Beaumont’s then-agent Forrest J. Ackerman, who became famous as the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine but worked for many years as a literary agent. Beaumont later signed with the Don Congdon Agency, which also represented Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson. 
            Another interesting note on "The Devil, You Say?" is that Hollywood's Dracula envisioned himself in the role of the Devil in a film adaptation of the tale. Bela Lugosi read Beaumont's story and contacted Forrest J. Ackerman to express the desire that Beaumont write a film treatment to resurrect the dire conditions not only of Lugosi's career but of his life. It is probable that Ackerman brought the story to Lugosi's attention as a possible comeback role for the ailing actor.  Beaumont spent a day with Lugosi in 1952 and drove Lugosi to a film studio where Lugosi assured Beaumont there was a friendly producer who would be interested in financing the film. Unfortunately, it was wishful thinking on Lugosi's part and they were unable to secure any funding for the proposed film adaptation. Beaumont details the day spent with Lugosi in the December, 1956 installment of his column "The Science Screen" for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Lugosi died in August of that year). The essay was reprinted as "The Undead" in Beaumont's 1963 nonfiction collection Remember? Remember? (Macmillan) and again, as "Lugosi: The Compleat Bogeyman," in P.S. magazine for April, 1966. 

            Beaumont used the opportunity of adapting his first published story to make a number of changes to the narrative. Some of these changes are superficial, dealing with names and appearances which do little to alter the course of the narrative. The town in which the original story takes place is called Danville, and the newspaper the Danville Daily Courier. Beaumont changed the town to Dansburg and the newspaper to the Dansburg Courier for the episode. The editor of the newspaper is Richard Lewis in the story, changed to Douglas Winter for the episode. The Devil is Mr. Jones in the story and Mr. Smith in the episode. The appearance of the Devil is altered as well. In the story Beaumont writes: “An old boy who must have been crowding ninety stood in front of the desk, staring at me. And I stared right back. He was dressed in the sporty style of the eighteen nineties, with whiskers all over his face and a little black derby which canted jauntily over his left eye.” The cigar is a prominent prop in both story and episode.

            A more significant change from the story is in the female lead. In Beaumont’s original story the romantic relationship develops quickly when a reporter from a city newspaper arrives in Danville to interview Richard Lewis. Lewis and the reporter, named Elissa Traskers, hit it off immediately and conspire to outwit the Devil. The romance serves an ironic ending as Lewis forgets to include his relationship with Traskers when he uses the diabolical linotype machine to write the Devil away. When Lewis tracks her down later and attempts to rekindle their relationship she does not remember him and rejects his advances.

            Beaumont did make changes to the structure and course of the narrative. The story includes an odd narrative framing device in which a larger story is told by a newspaper reporter which switches to Richard Lewis’ story when the newspaperman encounters Lewis in a bar. This framing device also serves an ironic ending as Mr. Jones makes his return: “I was about to start the laughter when I saw something that cut it off sharp. I saw a very old gentleman, with derby, spats and cane, leaning against the bar and winking at me. It didn’t take me long to get home.” Beaumont wisely scrapped this awkward way of telling the story. Also, the suicide angle is new to the episode. In the original story, Lewis decides simply to skip town when it becomes clear that he will not be able to repay his creditors. Mr. Jones, who reveals himself as the Devil much sooner than in the episode, appears to Lewis in this time of need because Lewis’ father, the deceased original owner of the newspaper, struck a deal with the Devil many years ago to ensure prosperity for himself and his son. Lewis’ father has inadvertently cursed him. Also, the news items in the original story have more of a National Enquirer flavor than the tragic news stories in the episode. Examples of headlines from the original story include: Mayor’s Wife Gives Birth to Baby Hippopotamus, and Farmer Burl Illing Complains of Mysterious Appearance of Dragons in Back Yard.

            Beaumont incorporates a good amount of humor and wordplay in the episode. Notable instances include a reference made by Mr. Smith to the Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini, a musician so prodigiously talented that it was suggested he made a deal with the Devil. The term printer’s devil refers to a position of apprenticeship in a printing shop. Mr. Smith also makes a reference to a need for “a touch of the creature” in reference to whiskey when he prepares to reveal his true nature to Douglas Winter. Interestingly, A Touch of the Creature was the proposed title of a fourth Charles Beaumont collection from Bantam Books tentatively scheduled for publication in 1964. Negotiations for the volume eventually fell through and the book never saw publication during Beaumont’s lifetime. A volume of Beaumont’s unpublished fiction later appeared under the title A Touch of the Creature in 2000 from Subterranean Press.

            Burgess Meredith (1907-1997) is the most recognizable performer in the episode and perhaps the most recognizable performer on the series. He appeared in a lead role in four episodes, “Time Enough at Last,” “Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” “The Obsolete Man,” and “Printer’s Devil,” a feat matched only by Jack Klugman. “Printer’s Devil” is probably the least familiar of Meredith’s episodes despite the actor’s strong performance and the overall quality of the play. This is likely due to the fact that it is an hour-long fourth season episode which is rarely seen in syndication relative to the half-hour episodes. Nevertheless, for viewers who do not have an aversion to the hour-long format, “Printer’s Devil” offers a wealth of interesting and engaging material, prime among which is Meredith’s performance as the devilish Mr. Smith. Meredith’s long and fruitful acting career frequently took him into the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres. He appeared in two episodes of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, including Serling’s adaptation of Cyril Kornbluth’s “The Little Black Bag” and Serling’s original script, “Finnegan’s Flight.” Meredith also found opportunity to occasionally play Devils and demonic characters throughout his career. Meredith played the Devil in the framing narrative of the 1967 Amicus horror anthology film Torture Garden, written by Robert Bloch based on his short stories. He was supremely creepy as a demonic neighbor who terrorizes a fashion model in a New York City brownstone in the 1977 film The Sentinel, based on Jeffrey Konvitz’s 1974 bestseller. Meredith also appeared in the 1976 haunted house film Burnt Offerings, adapted by writer William F. Nolan and writer/director Dan Curtis from Rober Marasco’s 1973 novel. Meredith is probably best known for playing the boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky films, the first performance of which earned the actor an Academy Award nomination. Meredith also portrayed Ammon in Clash of the Titans (1981). The actor has various other connections to the series and the writers of The Twilight Zone. He appeared in an episode of Lights Out, “The Martian Eyes,” based on a story by Henry Kuttner, coauthor of the story “What You Need,” adapted by Rod Serling for the first season of The Twilight Zone. Meredith narrated two of Ray Bradbury’s tales, “There Will Come Soft Rains” and “Marionettes, Inc.,” for vinyl record in 1962. Meredith also provided the voiceover narration for the 1983 film Twilight Zone: The Movie. Meredith’s long and varied career saw the actor play an incredible variety of roles, from historical figures such as Thomas Edison to the voice of Puff the Magic Dragon. Among his most treasured and well-remembered performances is as the doomed Henry Bemis in Rod Serling’s unforgettable adaptation of Lyn Venable’s “Time Enough at Last” for the first season of The Twilight Zone.

            Robert Sterling (1917-2006) was born William Sterling Hart, he signed with Columbia Pictures in 1939 and changed his name to avoid confusion with actor William S. Hart, the foremost star of silent western films. The advent of television offered Sterling a wealth of opportunities in a variety of series. He crossed paths with the horror and suspense genres via appearances on The Clock, Lights Out, Climax!, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, in the episode “House Guest,” adapted by Henry Slesar from a novel by Andrew Garve (Paul Winterton), an episode which also featured child actor Bill Mumy, who appeared on The Twilight Zone in “Long Distance Call” and, unforgettably, “It’s a Good Life.”

            Patricia Crowley (b. 1933) is another new face to the series. Although she appeared in several films, most of Crowley’s work was on television and she was for many years a recognizable face on the small screen, amassing dozens of credits in a fifty-plus year career. Crowley appeared on such mystery and suspense series as The Web, Suspense, Inner Sanctum, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Tales of the Unexpected, the short-lived 1977 series not to be confused with Roald Dahl’s long-running UK series of the same title. Crowley’s most recent credit is for the independent romantic comedy film Mont Reve (2012).

            Director Ralph Senensky (b. 1923) is also new to the series with “Printer’s Devil,” his only work for the show. The episode was Senensky’s second directing credit after working as a production designer and assistant to the producer on such series as Playhouse 90 and Dr. Kildare. Senensky bounced around television series for decades working in the director’s chair on a variety of shows such as Route 66, Kraft Suspense Theatre, The Fugitive, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, The Waltons, and many, many more. He directed the second season Night Gallery episode which included the segments “The Miracle at Camafeo” and “The Ghost of Sorworth Place.” Senensky retired from directing in 1986 after a stint on The Paper Chase but returned to direct the 2013 short film The Right Regrets.

           

            Despite its hour length and derivative subject matter, “Printer’s Devil” succeeds enormously as a darkly humorous tribute to Devil tales in the vein of Stephen Vincent Benét’s American classic, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1936). It possesses a unique setting in the offices of a small town newspaper, some neat special effects, and features fine performances from the cast, particularly Burgess Meredith, who steals the show as Mr. Smith. One of the more remarkable aspects of the episode is that it moves quickly, a quality the hour-long fourth season episodes consistently struggled to maintain. Charles Beaumont was able to revisit his earliest short story and greatly enhance its charms and correct its missteps. The script also manages to approach some very dark subject matter, such as suicide and sexual harassment, in the context of a dark comedy or fantasy. It is an underexplored and underrated aspect of Charles Beaumont’s work in general. The result is yet another enjoyable fourth season episode which dispels the persistent notion among a certain segment of viewers that nothing good came out of the hour-long episodes. This one comes recommended. It is a solid, above-average offering from one of the show’s best writers and a fun, diabolical good time with a perfect mixture of humor and horror.           

Grade: B

Grateful acknowledgment to:

The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com)

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (isfdb.org)

Wikipedia (Wikipedia.org)

Notes: 

--Charles Beaumont’s original short story, “The Devil, You Say?” was first published in the January, 1951 issue of Amazing Stories. It was reprinted in the UK edition of Amazing Stories for May, 1952. The story was first collected in book form for The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories (1985), edited by Richard Matheson, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. It was included in Charles Beaumont: Selected Stories (1988), edited by Roger Anker with an introduction to the story by Amazing Stories editor Howard Browne.

--Ralph Senensky also directed the second season Night Gallery episode which included the segments “The Miracle at Camafeo” and “The Ghost of Sorworth Place.”

--Burgess Meredith also appeared in the first season episode “Time Enough at Last” and the second season episodes “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” and “The Obsolete Man.” Meredith appeared in two segments of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: “The Little Black Bag” and “Finnegan’s Flight.” Meredith also narrated the 1983 film Twilight Zone: The Movie.

--“Printer’s Devil” was adapted as a Twilight Zone Radio Drama starring Bobby Slayton.

Original magazine illustration by Enoch Sharpe (Amazing Stories, Jan, 1951)

-JP