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<\/a>By William Kozy<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cOne More Pallbearer\u201d could indeed have used a few more voters to carry it up from the near-depths of the survey results to the question: \u201cWhat is your favorite episode of the original Twilight Zone series?\u201d Receiving only 3 votes, it was tied with 6 other episodes for 133rd thru 139th place. I think it deserved a bit better than that. It\u2019s got some sharp dialogue by Rod Serling and an expertly performed quartet of performances by the small cast.<\/p>\n
Now, in the very enjoyable book \u201cThe Twilight Zone Companion,\u201d Marc Scott Zicree writes, \u201cJoseph Wiseman plays his role as the neurotic millionaire with such vulnerability and the others their roles with such unfeeling coldness that we cannot help but feel pity for him and contempt for the others.\u201d <\/p>\n
While it\u2019s of course impossible to agree with everything Mr. Zicree writes in his fine book, I\u2019d like to use this opportunity to vehemently disagree with his perspective on this one episode, only because it\u2019s the one that I have the most directly opposing opinion of, and not just a minor one. Firstly, I should say that Wiseman\u2019s performance is a very good one, and I think Mr. Zicree would probably agree on that point. But he makes the mistake of extrapolating from the actor\u2019s good, solid work, and assigning an overly sympathetic view of the character. And somehow, I\u2019m not sure why, but he also finds \u201cunfeeling coldness\u201d in the other cast members? That\u2019s mysterious to me, particularly in the case of Katherine Squire\u2019s portrayal of the school teacher who punished Wiseman\u2019s Paul Radin when he was her student.<\/p>\n
But allow me to back up. The premise of this episode has filthy rich Paul Radin summon three people from his past to come to his company\u2019s building for the purpose of confronting them about what he feels were injustices perpetrated against him. He has set up a prank of sorts\u2014constructed a sort of bomb shelter below the depths of the building, and arranged for some special effects on a screen and on loudspeakers to simulate an Armageddon-like bomb explosion. He seeks to frighten these three visitors into begging his forgiveness and apologizing for the past. He wants them to beg him to allow them to stay there in the shelter.<\/p>\n
One \u201cguest\u201d is Colonel Hawthrone, Radin\u2019s commanding officer who had Radin court-martialed for refusing to carry out an order which caused a delay and wound up getting fellow soldiers in the battalion killed in World War II. Portrayed by Trevor Bardette, I loved his reactions as he recalls his association with Radin. Hawthorne\u2019s reaction to Radin\u2019s reminding him of how his testimony got Radin dishonorably discharged, is admittedly the most unforgiving of the three visitors: \u201cYou were fortunate Mr. Radin. Were I to have been able to dictate the sentence, I would\u2019ve had you shot.\u201d Perhaps that seems unfeelingly cold but I would remind one to consider all those young men that got slaughtered because of Radin. All those mothers who will be visited on their front porch by a messenger to tell them their babies won\u2019t be coming home. Think about that and then ask yourself if you yourself wouldn\u2019t want to slap Radin\u2019s perpetual smirk right off his face. Again, this is not a criticism of Wiseman\u2019s performance, in fact I praise it instead, for making him so detestable. It is Radin who seems the most unfeeling, grinning so very smugly throughout, even when confronted with the horrors of his actions.<\/p>\n
And there is Mrs. Langford, the teacher. The scene between Radin and her features some outstandingly written dialogue by Rod Serling, swatting the ball back and forth in the court of audience opinion, playing with our viewpoint on righteousness until finally Mrs. Langford wins the point, and we see the fuller picture of Radin\u2019s dastardliness: \u201cYou flunked me Mrs. Langford. Dressed me down before an entire class, called me names, humiliated me.\u201d For the time being we consider that. No child should be humiliated, isn\u2019t that right? Radin calls Mrs. Langford \u201cthat staunch and intrepid educator that looks so out of place without her severe spectacles, covering severe eyes, looking out of her severe face, and possessing that vast prerogative that comes from the local school board and the vast courage that comes with pitting all her wits and instinct against captive children.\u201d We begin to get the notion that it is Radin who seems the more likely to wield humiliation as his weapon of choice. Mrs. Langford fires back and really sets the moral compass of the characters properly:<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right Paul, let\u2019s talk about humiliation\u201d. She pauses, and explains to the others that Mr. Radin was caught cheating on an exam. \u201cNot a crime of course\u201d she concedes, \u201cbut perhaps a bit indicative of the character of the person who does it. And when he was accused of this act\u201d he \u201ctried to plant his crib sheets on an innocent student.\u201d<\/p>\n
She tells them that she stood Radin up and told him what he was, to which Radin stirs our sentiments with, \u201cBut no room was there then, Mrs. Langford, for a moment of compassion. For an iota of sympathy for a poor, frightened desperate boy?\u201d Touche. But the strong, sturdy and wise Langford counters: \u201cMr. Radin, I\u2019ve dealt with frightened and desperate children all my life, and it may surprise you to know that I\u2019ve lent them more of sympathy and of compassion than I\u2019ve lent them of knowledge. But neither sympathy nor compassion can be handed out wholesale like cheap bubble gum. The recipient must be worthy of them. And you never were.<\/p>\n
You were a devious, dishonest troublemaker. And in spite of all your millions, it\u2019s my guess you are still devious, you are still dishonest, and I have no doubt, even now you\u2019re a troublemaker.\u201d Game, set, match. And Wiseman\u2019s take on Radin, his reactions let us know he\u2019s irredeemable. He has teeny tiny little glimpses of regret perhaps, it\u2019ll take rewatching to pin them down, but it is a performance light years away from a display of \u201csuch vulnerability\u201d as to make us feel like he was bullied by these other three characters. In fact, any sort of sign of vulnerability from Radin is based more on a selfish ego trip in which he\u2019s disappointed he didn\u2019t win the point, and not because he has any sort of genuine compassionate regret.<\/p>\n
Radin accuses the Reverend, Mr. Hughes as having destroyed his reputation years ago, but the Reverend relates how Radin drove a young girl to suicide with his dishonorable treatment of her. It\u2019s this accusation that apparently most gets under Radin\u2019s skin, as he rises abruptly and angrily out of his chair, \u201cYou can go to the devil, Reverend.\u201d He drops his smug smile and starts in with the threats. He unveils to them that he knows the world is coming to an end. But instead of pleas from them he is only faced with their willingness to leave him immediately and brave the disastrous end that awaits them so they can be with their loved ones. Radin tries accusing them of being more concerned with their \u201cprecious hide\u201d their \u201csanctified flesh.\u201d That, after all is what Radin would be thinking about, so it\u2019s easy to see how he couldn\u2019t possibly imagine actual humaneness.
\nRadin tells them that the price to stay is to beg his pardon, to ask for his forgiveness. It\u2019s a sign of Radin\u2019s inhumanity that he not only make that stipulation, but that he can\u2019t even see as we do that in a million years they would never acquiesce to such a thing. Mrs. Langford puts it best: \u201cIf I am to spend my last quarter-hour on Earth I\u2019d rather spend it with a stray cat.\u201d They insist on leaving, and Radin can\u2019t take it; inexplicably he allows them to exit, and throws a temper tantrum in his shelter before heading up in the elevator.<\/p>\n
Some of this episode \u201cdoesn\u2019t work\u201d as Mr. Zicree puts it, but it is not at all due to the portrayals. Those are in fact the strongest point. The ending I\u2019d say isn\u2019t quite believable; that\u2019s what I\u2019d quibble with. Watching this episode provides a valuable lesson to those studying acting\u2014observe how all the players pace the dialogue with a kind of swiftness that avoids \u201coverplaying\u201d the emotions. This approach provides a believability because nobody\u2019s forcing the situation down our throats, as if they needed to. The words in the dialogue spark memorably enough without having actors \u201cpush\u201d it. That would have killed \u201cOne More Pallbearer.\u201d<\/p>\n
I rate this episode a 7.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n [si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [AdSense-A] By William Kozy \u201cOne More Pallbearer\u201d could indeed have used a few more voters to carry it up from the near-depths of the survey results to the question: \u201cWhat is your favorite episode of the original Twilight Zone series?\u201d Receiving only 3 votes, it was tied with 6 other episodes for 133rd thru 139th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24738],"class_list":["post-97889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-the-twilight-zone-review-one-more-pallbearer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97889"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}