The Most Underrated Episodes of the Twilight Zone

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Me-TV took a look at their choices for The Most Underrated Episodes of the Twilight Zone.  The article is no longer posted but here are their choices and my ratings for each.

  • “THE SHELTER”  Season: 3  Episode: 3  My Rating: A+

  • “SHADOW PLAY”  Season: 2  Episode: 26  My Rating: C

  • “THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD”  Season: 3  Episode: 37  My Rating: C

  • “AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE”  Season: 5  Episode: 22  My rating: B

  • “THE HOWLING MAN”  Season: 2   Episode: 5  My Rating: A+

  • “A WORLD OF HIS OWN”  Season: 1  Episode: 36  My Rating: A

  • “THIRD FROM THE SUN”  Season: 1  Episode: 14  My Rating: A

  • “BLACK LEATHER JACKETS”  Season: 5  Episode: 18  My Rating: C

  • “IN HIS IMAGE”  Season: 4  Episode: 1  My Rating: C

  • “VALLEY OF THE SHADOW”  Season: 4  Episode: 3  My Rating: B

 

Mister Roberts (1955) / Z-View

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Mister Roberts (1955)

Director: John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy , Joshua Logan (uncredited)

Screenplay: Frank S. Nugent and Joshua Logan based on the play by  Thomas Heggen and
Joshua Logan from the novel by Thomas Heggen

Stars:  Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon, Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond, Nick Adams, Ken Curtis, Harry Carey, Jr. and Patrick Wayne

The Pitch: “Let’s turn the Broadway Play ‘Mister Roberts’ into a movie!’”

Tagline: The Six-Year Stage Smash on the Screen!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Easy-going Lt. Roberts (Fonda) has done such a great job acting as a buffer between the tyrannical Captain Morton (Cagney) and his men that every attempt to get into the action of WWII has been stopped.  Yet the fallout from the men’s last leave may finally get Roberts his wish.

Mister Roberts is one of those movies that most folks like better than me, so as always, your mileage may vary.

Rating: 3 of 5 stars.

Journey Into Fear (1943) / Z-View

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Journey Into Fear (1943)

Director: Norman Foster, Orson Welles (uncredited)

Screenplay: Joseph Cotten from the novel by Eric Ambler

Stars:  Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dolores del Rio and Agnes Moorehead

The Pitch: “Let’s bring back Welles and Cotten and try for another ‘The Third Man!’’”

Tagline: Welles and Del Rio together! as Terror Man vs. Leopard Woman–for possession of a mysterious stranger in the powder-keg Middle East…a man with a military secret worth more than his love and his life!…It’s menace melodrama thrilled with mighty mystery and suspense…SEE IT!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Howard Graham (Cotten) finds himself pursued by Nazi agents out to kill him.  In an effort to shake them, Graham ends up on an old frieghter heading out to sea… and discovers that the Nazis are also on board.

Welles has a small but important role. Cotten is more than capable of carrying the film.  The cat and mouse chase on the high ledge during a torrential downpour is classic.

Rating:

Across the Pacific (1942) / Z-View

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Across the Pacific (1942)

Director: John Huston, Vincent Sherman (uncredited)

Screenplay: Richard Macaulay

Stars:  Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet

The Pitch: “Bogart, Astor and Greenstreet with Huston directing.’”

Tagline: None

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

After a dishonorable discharge, Rick Leland (Bogart) finds himself on a Japanese ship headed to the Orient.  On board Leland meets Dr. H.F.G. Lorenz (Greenstreet), a man with a shady past and
Alberta Marlow (Astor), a woman with a possible shared future.  As in many Bogart movies, all is not what it seems on the surface.

 

Rating:

Saboteur (1942) / Z-View

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Saboteur (1942)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenplay: Peter Viertel & Joan Harrison & Dorothy Parker

Stars:  Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings and Otto Kruger

The Pitch: “Hitchcock want to make ‘Saboteur’”

Tagline: You’d like to say – IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE!… but every jolting scene is TRUE!!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

After an aircraft manufacturing plant is destroyed by sabotage, an innocent worker, Barry Kane (Cummings) finds himself on the run from authorities who believe he was saboteur.  Kane’s efforts to clear himself lead him to a bigger plan of sabotage.  Can he prove his innocence and convince authorities of the next planned attack before it is too late?

Priscilla Lane and Robert Cummings make a great couple!

Rating:

Tarantula (1955) / Z-View

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Tarantula (1955)

Director: Jack Arnold

Screenplay: Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley from a story by Jack Arnold and Robert M. Fresco.

Stars:  John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll and Clint Eastwood

The Pitch: “Let’s make a giant spider movie!”

Tagline: Bullets Can’t Stop It! Dynamite Can’t Kill It!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Scientists working with experimental growth formulas accidently create and release on the world a giant spider!

Look for Clint Eastwood in one of his first roles.

Rating:

Crime of Passion (1957) / Z-View

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Crime of Passion (1957)

Director: Gerd Oswald

Screenplay: Jo Eisinger (original story and screenplay)

Stars:  Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr and Faye Wray

The Pitch: “Let’s make a film about a couple where one’s ambitions and lack of morals destroy them, but we’ll flip it so the female lead is the bad ‘guy’!”

Tagline: The stripped-of-shame story of a cop’s wife who committed one sin too many!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Kathy (Stanwyck) is an ambitious newspaper columnist who falls for LA detective, Bill Doyle (Hayden), in a whirlwind romance that leads to marriage.  Soon enough Kathy realizes her husband is content with his rank and has no desire to rise to the top.  Kathy becomes jealous and envious of others and begins to plot a way to change the status quo.  That it involves infidelity and murder matters little to her.

Rating: