Ringside Report The Twilight Zone Review: Black Leather Jackets

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By William Kozy

“What is your favorite episode of the original Twilight Zone series” was the question posed to writers in the fantastical/horror/sci-fi genres and to Facebook fan pages of the “Twilight Zone.” Many thanks to the over 3,000 respondents, as I count down to the #1 episode, we sort through the discount rack of TZ episodes and come to “Black Leather Jackets” which we will try on for this essay.

Now, make no mistake about it. This is indeed one of the poorest episodes of the series as any cursory investigation of Facebook Twilight Zone polls asking that question will reveal. This one comes up. A lot. As reflected by my survey, it only received two votes, putting it in a tie with ten other episodes for 139th thru 149th place.

As I watched the episode four times in a row, the odd thing that struck me was that instead of finding more and more to find fault with about, I acquired a very slight taste for it. Not that I ever felt it was good. No, no, but the feeling crept over me that it wasn’t completely terrible.

As Marc Scott Zicree describes in his “The Twilight Zone Companion”, the episode opens with a shot of three black leather jacket-clad, motorcyclists cruising down a suburban street a la the 1953 film “The Wild Ones”, and as the story unfolds we get a mash-up of that film and “It Came from Outer Space” also from 1953. Although I think that same year’s “Invaders from Mars” makes for a better analogy since the aliens in that film also wished to destroy humanity and colonize Earth, whereas the aliens in “It Came From Outer Space” crashed here accidentally and were simply trying to repair their ship to fly away, leaving us in peace.

This trio, riding their 1964 Harley Davidson panheads, and wearing the same odd sunglasses that were worn by characters in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode “The Old Man in the Cave” stop in front of the R. C. Jones real estate shop and head inside. During their ride through town, they caught the attention of every single pedestrian, who all turn on their heels and gawk at this gang. Which makes their choice of disguise a rather illogical one since they sought to blend in inconspicuously as they go about their subterfuge.

Next thing you know they drive up to a house with the R.C. Jones realtors sign posted into the lawn (telephone number advertised as 485-412. Try calling that number. You’ll be on the line waiting forever). They pull up the post having just taken ownership, and walk inside. Pretty teen beauty Shelley Fabares, the next door neighbor though has pulled open her curtains to watch them. She smirks with kittenish curiosity. I smell an ill-advised, disapproving teen romance on the horizon! And dig that jazzy groovy score throughout this montage by Van Cleave, who also scored “Robinson Crusoe on Mars” the same year.

On another trip arriving to their new home, Ellen Tillman’s (Fabares) father now sees them as he’s mowing the lawn. He stops to eyeball them suspiciously and then Ellen comes prancing out gleefully, making no attempt to hide how smitten she is. He asks if she knows them, and then warns her, “Strange type for this neighborhood. And you stay away from them, young lady.”

The furniture men carry in their crates and after they leave, the leader of the trio, Steve (Michael Forest) uses his alien telekinetic power by lowering the window shade without touching it, and then opens a door using only his mind. The three walk out into another room. (Get up close to your TV screen and look hard—you can see the camera operator in the reflection of the shiny brassy doorknob!)

Cue the Opening Monologue:

“Three strangers arrive in a small town, three men in black leather jackets in an empty rented house. We’ll call them Steve and Scott and Fred, but their names are not important; their mission is, as three men on motorcycles, lead us into The Twilight Zone.”

That night mother and father Tillman are enjoying a comedy on the TV when suddenly all the electrical fixtures in the house go on the fritz. When the father opens the window to follow his TV line, he sees that the motorcycle fellas next door have a convoluted structure of TV antennae on top of their roof. He figures that they’re ham radio operators and their signals are messing things up. He goes next door to see if they even have a license to operate ham radios.

He knocks, but no answers, so naturally he just opens the door himself and walks inside. He calls out and they enter the room, acting all tough-like in the way that toughies were acted by actors in the fifties, using words like “Big daddy-O”. Daddy-O explains that his reception next door has suffered and he asks if they’re operating ham radios. They laugh at him and so he asks “Who are you boys anyway?” They surround him, teasing him with “We came from outer space!” and “hold it Daddy-O or I’ll disintegrate you with my ray gun!” (Oh man they totally gave away who they are!)

But they then start pushing him back and forth, one to the other, laughing and taunting. It’s very unruly behavior for such a race of aliens that claim later about us, “They’re a stupid race as our research told us. An inferior breed given to killing, hatred, making war, greed, and cruelty to one another.”

He breaks away from them and threatens to call the police, whereupon they perform another telekinetic trick on him, making him forget the whole visit.

It’s nighttime, and Ellen rushes to try and catch a bus but misses it. At the same time alien Scott rides his motorcycle out of the driveway and stops in the curb next to Ellen. “Trouble?” he asks. (Is that an offer? Heh heh).

She explains, “Did you see that bus? It pulled right away. It’s like a game with them. They just like to make people suffer.”

And it’s from this point onward that this episode really starts to show its shortcomings. As the romance between these two characters blossoms, the dialogue gets clunkier and clunkier. The acting appears to get increasingly juvenile as well, perhaps due mostly to having to work with such amateurish writing.

It’s a combination of problems. The dialogue is not only high-school level, writer Earl Hamner also fails to create a believable system of what these aliens would know about the language they were copying. Their grammar is perfect and they have an advanced vocabulary, but also importantly, they have acquired a grasp on the vernacular, on idioms and slang and such. But then we’re asked to believe Scott would be puzzled when Ellen says, “Just thank your lucky stars you don’t have to depend on buses to get around.”

“Stars are luck” he asks crinkling his brow. In any event, he offers her a ride. I do like the juxtaposition of not only the parents looking out from the living room and disapproving, but also the other two aliens peering out and also shaking their heads.

As our lovebirds flirt in a gazebo, Ellen mentions that she should get going before the library closes. Surreptitiously, Scott telekinetically moves the hands of her wristwatch 45 minutes earlier. Which raises the question when you get to the climax of the episode, “Why doesn’t Scott simply offer a display of his telekinetic abilities when he is confronted by the family?” He had confessed to Ellen that he and the other two were from another planet and they were here to colonize Earth. Ellen of course thinks he’s lost his mind, and she tells that to her parents. When Scott rushes in to tell her family about the danger they’re all in, the family thinks he’s having a breakdown and they call the sheriff. All Scott had to do was say, “Look if you don’t believe me, watch what I can do…”

But anyway, meanwhile back at the alien house they contact their leader who asks where their brother is. They tattle, “He’s formed an attachment here with one of the people…He’s with a young girl in spite of our orders.’

Told to proceed with their orders, we learn that there are “other units” around, and that a “second wave has landed successfully and is concealed as planned. With the landing of the third wave” they will hold key positions throughout the country.

Scott and Ellen have resumed their clandestine meetings, lying on a blanket in the park. “Do you know the word “love”? he asks. Oh brother. Even Earl Hamner himself has said he didn’t like this episode as he mentioned in 2003 In an interview with the Archive of American Television. He admitted it was bad and that he wasn’t as proud of it as most of the other episodes he wrote for the series.

After Scott and Ellen have a tiff, Scott finds himself back at the house of his brothers. Scott is being telekinetically pinned up against the wall as they question him? His big brother Steve laments that he allowed Scott to come; he told the leaders Scott was too young and would lose his head. Scott insists that he’s done no harm. Steve asks, “You didn’t tell her a thing?” But a few seconds earlier didn’t Steve just tell Scott, “You think I don’t know [what he’s been doing]? I’ve been watching you every minute.”

A new report is made to Fearless Leader and we learn that they plan to poison the water supply. “Within 30 hours, we should witness 50% fatalities.” We learn also that it should be 48 hours before complete extermination. But apparently Scott never knew this was the plan. Really?! We see him behind a door frame eavesdropping in on the plan and he looks dismayed. Scott bolts from the house as Steve calls after him. So Scott really didn’t know the plan? Why indeed would they risk sending him without telling him the plan? Did they not tell him the plan ahead of time for fear of his not agreeing with it? But if that’s the case why send him at all if there was that possibility once he got here and found out the plan? God, the plotting of this episode is just so stupid.

Scott races to Ellen’s home, and she opens her second window he calls up to her to come down. Steve and Fred ride by and Scott looks out at them as he hides behind a tree. They call out “You’re making a mistake, Scott. These people aren’t worth it.” Scott remains hidden as they ride off.

Ellen comes out of the house and this time Scott unravels the whole cockamamie plan to her. She is so unnerved by the idiocy of what he tells her that she breaks away and runs into her house. He father switches on the light and asks her what’s going on. She tells her father about the lunatic things Scott told her and Daddy very kindly says “We better get him some help.” I suppose it’s a nice unexpected reaction, different from the cliché we expected of the suburban father protecting Daddy’s little girl and getting a gun to shoot that black leather jacketed hooligan.

Sheriff Harper (Michael Conrad of “Hill Street Blues”) answer Stu Tillman’s phone call, and he tells the sheriff about this young man who needs help before e harms himself or others. As Harper hangs up, we see him handling a talisman in his hand mischievously—the trinket bears the insignia of the aliens, although I don’t know if I’d really have known that for sure without seeing the episode again. It’s not like it was a hugely noticeable thing. And besides that, why have that corny bit of business anyway. It would be a much better directorial choice to have the shock surprise come later.

Back at his house, Scott pleads with Fearless Leader to spare the Earthlings: “It’s true they murder and hurt one another and are subject to unreasonable hate and prejudice (Please take a lesson in how to do a good court summation Scott or you’ll have a us killed!), but these are only the brutes, and you find them in any race. Most of these people have the capacity for love.”

But it’s no use. Scott is branded a traitor.

Sheriff Harper arrives at the Tillmans, and before he can ask them much about what happened, Scott also arrives at the house banging frantically at the door and racing in. Scott tells the family not to listen to Harper because “he’s one of us, he’s with the advance unit!” But how would Scott know that? He only just heard that evening of the plan, and he’s never met this Sheriff before. Sigh. Aren’t there script meetings for these episodes?

Three men in white jackets come in and take hold of Scott. And yeah, this is where Scott should have said, “Okay time out, I’m an alien with telekinetic powers just like I told you and here’s the proof.”

But instead they haul Scott off.

Closing Monologue:

“Portrait of an American family on the eve of invasion from outer space. Of course, we know it’s merely fiction – and yet, think twice when you drink your next glass of water. Find out if it’s from your local reservoir, or possibly, it came direct to you – from The Twilight Zone.”

I rate this episode a 4 out of 10.

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