"The Twilight Zone" He's Alive (1963)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Stuart Rosenberg

Writers:

Rod Serling (creator)
Rod Serling (written by)

TV Series:

"The Twilight Zone" (1959)

Original Air Date:

24 January 1963 (Season 4, Episode 4)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Around 1960, a tiny neo-Nazi organization struggles pathetically to succeed in a big city. A mysterious figure begins to ruthlessly guide a young, insecure U.S. Nazi leader, and the group begins to draw more attention. |

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Neo Nazi | Failure | Advice | Nazism

Cast

Dennis Hopper	...	Peter Vollmer
Ludwig Donath	...	Ernst Ganz
Paul Mazursky	...	Frank
Howard Caine	...	Nick
Barnaby Hale	...	Stanley
Jay Adler	...	Gibbons
Wolfe Barzell	...	Proprietor
Bernard Fein	...	Heckler
Curt Conway	...	Adolph Hitler

Runtime:

51 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Cayuga Productions

Trivia:

The only episode to exclude the words "The Twilight Zone" in the closing narration.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the opening scene, Peter Vollmer is hit with a tomato or other vegetable in the face which splatters along the left side of his head, hair, neck and left shoulder part of his shirt. He has no residue at all on any of those areas after he briefly fights with the heckler immediately after getting hit by the vegetable. Shortly later, when he returns home after the brief fight, the opposite side of his shirt (the right side which did not get splattered) has several spots evenly spread over that side...more spots than he could have gotten by falling in the street during his brief fight.

almost great

The most chilling thing to me in watching this episode is that now, more than 40 years after this episode first aired, all of the things that Peter Vollmer says in his speeches are heard on talk radio and several TV commentators now in the USA. Even the phrasing is the same. I would love to know the source of the item in the trivia section, that claims this episode generated more hate mail than any other episode -- what did people hate about it? This episode is almost great; I'm sure the identity of the man in the shadows was a big surprise to audiences of the time, but for those of us who have been raised on Serling-type surprises, you know what's coming. Why the episode is not great is the ending; it just kind of washes out. Still, Hopper's performance is frightening and believable, and this episode is must-see.