A tall tale all the way, The Grave is one of the best of the Twilight Zones, and surely the best of the western ones. The story revolves around the return of local bounty man Lee Marvin shortly after a group of townsman had taken turns trying to and eventually succeeding at gunning down a notorious desperado.
Aside from the awkward ending,--and I wonder how it could have been otherwise--the build-up is superb, as Marvin's character agrees on a bet to stick a knife into the desperado's grave to prove that he isn't a coward, hence the title. Three men in a bar had been suggesting that he was afraid of the dead man, in life and, perhaps even now, in death.
The tone of this episode is like a cross between Noir and horror. It doesn't particularly feel like a Twilight Zone, which works in its favor, as the story draws the viewer in and even amuses him a little with some barroom banter without any overt suggestion of the supernatural. That comes later.
Aside from the awkward ending,--and I wonder how it could have been otherwise--the build-up is superb, as Marvin's character agrees on a bet to stick a knife into the desperado's grave to prove that he isn't a coward, hence the title. Three men in a bar had been suggesting that he was afraid of the dead man, in life and, perhaps even now, in death.
The tone of this episode is like a cross between Noir and horror. It doesn't particularly feel like a Twilight Zone, which works in its favor, as the story draws the viewer in and even amuses him a little with some barroom banter without any overt suggestion of the supernatural. That comes later.