The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (4 Mar. 1960)
"The Twilight Zone" The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (original title)

On a peaceful suburban street, strange occurrences and mysterious people stoke the residents' paranoia to a disastrous intensity.

Director:

Ron Winston

Writer:

Rod Serling

Stars:

Rod Serling, Claude Akins, Barry Atwater

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Rod Serling	...	Narrator (voice)
Claude Akins	...	Steve Brand
Barry Atwater	...	Les Goodman
Jack Weston	...	Charlie Farnsworth
Jan Handzlik	...	Tommy
Amzie Strickland	...	Woman
Burt Metcalfe	...	Don Martin
Mary Gregory	...	Sally
Jason Johnson	...	Man
Anne Barton	...	Myra Brand
Leah Waggner	...	Mrs. Goodman (as Lea Waggner)
Joan Sudlow	...	Old Woman
Ben Erway	...	Pete Van Horn
Lyn Guild	...	Mrs. Farnsworth
Sheldon Allman	...	Alien

Storyline

On a peaceful suburban street, strange occurrences and mysterious people stoke the residents' paranoia to a disastrous intensity.

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Plot Keywords:

paranoia | car trouble | voice over narration | fear | animate object | 

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 March 1960 (USA)

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cayuga Productions, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A graphic novel version was published by the Savannah College of Art and Design along with with Walker & Co.

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Goofs

The street sign in the beginning is all wrong, it faces the camera rather than the street where the story takes places. In a typical American city, street signs are almost always placed in the direction of the street they are indicating, so traffic on the other street in the intersection know what they are turning onto or passing. In other words, the story is not set on Maple Street. Maple Street is the intersecting street at the end of the road the story is set on.

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Quotes

Narrator: [Closing Narration] The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.

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Connections

Referenced in Angel: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (2000)

User Reviews

My Neighbor is a Monster

Strange happenings drive ordinary neighbors into a frenzy of suspicion.

Serling takes on mob psychology in this cautionary tale about an ordinary American neighborhood with average looking people (a well-chosen cast for that effect), going about normal activities. An unusual noise followed by mysterious electrical stoppage soon has these same normal families in the street looking for those among them who may be disguised space monsters. Premise plays pretty well, considering production crew only has twenty-plus minutes to unravel a whole community, which they do, especially with a series of montage close-ups to convey the mounting hysteria. First one neighbor falls under suspicion, then another, as the most innocent daily activities suddenly become suspicious in the climate of fear, which is probably the most unnerving part of the story. The script does a good job of showing how the most ordinary pursuits can be reinterpreted as sinister undertakings once mob psychology takes over. No doubt, those familiar with the 50's will see a subtext paraphrasing the anti-communist hysteria of the time. However you take it, the theme remains an important and timely one.