The Twilight Zone - Vol. 1 DVD

In 1959 screenwriter Rod Serling first opened the door to the "dimension of imagination" that is The Twilight Zone, a show quite unlike anything that had gone before, and better than much that has followed in its wake. This original and daring television series ran for a magnificent five seasons from 1959 to 1964 and still looks as fresh as ever, particularly on DVD. What distinguished the series (and still does) is the quality of the scripts, many of which were penned by Serling, but with significant contributions from veteran sci-fi authors and screenwriters such... as Richard Matheson. Actors of the calibre of Robert Redford, Burgess Meredith, Lee Marvin and William Shatner gave some of their best small-screen performances, while an unforgettable main title theme by Bernard Herrmann and musical contributions from young turks such as Jerry Goldsmith underlined the show's attraction for great creative talent both behind and in front of the cameras.What's immediately apparent on watching Volume 1 is the quality of the scripts, proving that great writing is timeless. Of the three episodes on this first disc, the screenplays are by Serling himself (episode 47, "Night of the Meek"), Richard Matheson (episode 51, "The Invaders") and Zone regular George Clayton Johnson (episode 81, "Nothing in the Dark"). The acting does full justice to the writers' high standards. Art Carney as the alcoholic department store Santa Claus in "Night of the Meek" provides a theatre-sized one-man masterclass, his close-up performance conveying all the character's desperation then new-found joy. Veteran Agnes Moorehead (who made her screen debut as Charles Foster Kane's mother in Citizen Kane) faces an unusual challenge in Matheson's almost entirely wordless "The Invaders", in which she plays a frightened old woman who is attacked by tiny aliens (when the mystified Moorehead first read the script, which had no dialogue for her at all, she asked "Where's my part?"). In the claustrophobic two-hander "Nothing in the Dark", a fresh-faced Robert Redford is more than usually charming as Gladys Cooper's unwanted visitor who might or might not be Death himself.On the DVD: A neat animated menu with a winking eye guides the viewer "Inside the Twilight Zone", which consists of digests of background information on the individual episodes, as well as a general history of the show, season-by-season breakdown and a potted biography of Serling. --Mark Walker [show more]

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