Twilight Zone: A Nice Place to Visit (1960)
Reviewed by Geno McGahee
Rocky Valentine (Larry Blyden) is a career criminal, robbing, killing, and calling cops “screws.” I have never been tempted to screw a cop. Unfortunately for Rocky, he gets the bad end of a shoot out and after he is shot about ten or so times, he is helped to his feet by a portly man named Mr. Pip (Sebastian Cabot). Valentine is not a nice guy by any means and constantly refers to Pip as “fatso.” Pip’s got some meat on his bones, but not enough to merit fatso. Chubber would have sufficed.
Pip makes all sorts of promises to Rocky and delivers and before he knows it, he is in paradise. He is in a beautiful hotel suite, has pretty girls all over the place, and cannot lose a bet in the casino. For a while, he is on top of the world and comes to the conclusion that he is in heaven. Mr. Pip does not do anything to convince him that he is not.
As time passes, boredom consumes Rocky. He’s not even interested in getting it on with the three hot chicks that are in his bedroom. He kicks them out and invites Mr. Pip in. Don’t worry people. This isn’t going where you think it’s going.
Rocky tells Pip about his boredom and how he wants to get some kicks, but everything that he does is predetermined. Everything is rigged. There is no excitement. He then says that he doesn’t belong in heaven which makes Pip laugh…and he laughs in a very high pitch, as if he’s a split personality…half 13 year old girl. It was very amusing. I think that it was supposed to be eerie and for the time, it probably was, but I thought it was very funny.
This is a great tale. I love this one. The ending is predictable but the acting throughout is great and the characters are superb.
Ringside Report Rating:: 8/10. Let it Ride Fatso.