"The Twilight Zone" Mr. Denton on Doomsday (1959)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Allen Reisner

Writer:

Rod Serling (writer)

TV Series:

"The Twilight Zone" (1959)

Original Air Date:

16 October 1959 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

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

Plot:

The town drunk in the old-west faces his past when Fate lends a hand. |

Plot Keywords:

Fate | Old West | Narration | Narrator | Magic Potion

Cast

Rod Serling	...	Narrator (voice)
Dan Duryea	...	Al Denton
Martin Landau	...	Dan Hotaling
Jeanne Cooper	...	Liz
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Henry J. Fate
Ken Lynch	...	Charlie
Arthur Batanides	...	Leader
Bill Erwin	...	Man
Robert Burton	...	Doctor
Doug McClure	...	Pete Grant

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Cayuga Productions

Trivia:

One of three episodes to include an eye, not a spiral, at the introduction.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: TV antennas can be spotted in the distance.

Quotes:

Al Denton: I was good. I was real good. I was so good that once a day, someone would ride into town to make me prove it. And every morning, I'd start my drinkin' a few minutes earlier. Until one morning, the guy that asked me to prove it turned out to be sixteen years old...

"Doomsday" episode with hidden meaning

Over the years, I noticed many comments on this episode and no one seems to understand the gist of it at all. The story is really about the Mutual Destruction policies of the Cold War. Al Denton (Duryea) is a former gunslinger now reduced to being the town drunk. A mysterious potion from a mysterious traveling stranger helps him to regain his former proficiency. It also miraculously cures him of his need for alcohol. How any of this happens is never explained to the viewer. Anyway, to ensure that he wins his gunfights, all Denton has to do is drink the potion beforehand. At the climactic duel, Denton drinks his potion but notices that his opponent (Doug McLure) is taking a drink of the same stuff. The end result is that they merely wound each other and the duel ends in a stalemate. It was an obvious analogy of the stalemate between the US and the USSR during the turbulent years of the Cold War. What is surprising about this is that most viewers of the episode have taken the story literally without giving it much thought. Also in the cast is a very young Martin Landau as a loud-mouthed wannabe-gunslinger. He gets his very deserved comeuppance from Denton (Duryea) in a well-played scene.