The Night of the Meek (23 Dec. 1960)
"The Twilight Zone" The Night of the Meek (original title)

After a derelict Santa Claus is fired on Christmas Eve, he finds a mysterious bag that gives out presents. With this bag he sets out to fulfill his one wish - to see the less fortunate inherit the bounties of Christmas.

Director:

Jack Smight

Writers:

Rod Serling (creator), Rod Serling

Stars:

Art Carney, John Fiedler, Robert P. Lieb

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Art Carney	...	Henry Corwin
John Fiedler	...	Mr. Dundee
Robert P. Lieb	...	Flaherty
Val Avery	...	The Bartender
Meg Wyllie	...	Sister Florence
Kay Cousins Johnson	...	Irate Mother (as Kay Cousins)
Burt Mustin	...	Old Man

Storyline

Henry Corwin is a down and outer who is normally unemployed and who definitely drinks too much. Every year however, he works as a department store Santa Claus. This year however, he's spent just a little too much time in the bar and is quite drunk by the time he shows up for work. He's fired of course and deeply regrets what he's done. In fact, Henry has a big heart and worries not only about the children he's disappointed at the store but about all of those children who will not get what they've asked for Christmas. When he comes across a large bag of gifts, everything changes for the kids and for himself as well.

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Plot Keywords:

bag | christmas eve | sadness | arrest | cat | 

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 December 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

The second of six episodes of Twilight Zone to be videotaped.

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Goofs

Corwin and the man in the street sit on "snow" on one of the steps as though it were a prop and not actually there, though a moment later a child does dust it off the sleigh.

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Quotes

Narrator: [Closing Narration] A word to the wise to all the children of the twentieth century, whether their concern be pediatrics or geriatrics, whether they crawl on hands and knees and wear diapers or walk with a cane and comb their beards. There's a wondrous magic to Christmas, and there's a special power reserved for little people. In short, there's nothing mightier than the meek, and a merry Christmas to each and all.

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Connections

Remade as The Twilight Zone: Night of the Meek/But Can She Type?/The Star (1985)

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Soundtracks

"Jingle Bells"
(uncredited)
Written by James Pierpont
Playing as the story begins.

User Reviews

The twilight zone at Christmas time...

Night of the Meek is certainly a unique twilight zone episode, coming off more like a family Christmas classic than the typical stuff we have come to expect from Rod Serling, things about other worlds and aliens and mysterious happenings. There is, of course, a lot of that in this episode, but it's couched in a story that resembles A Christmas Carol than anything else.

A drunk stumbles late back to his seasonal job as Santa Claus at a local mall, and on the way a cat screeches and knocks over a bag of garbage, which suddenly turns into a bag overflowing with toys and gifts. The drunken Santa suddenly becomes a real Santa, eagerly snatching up the bag and distributing to anyone he can find their heart's desire.

This is a great way to show what people's true heart's desire may be, and I love the way it makes us think about our own heart's desire. It seems to me that the purpose here is to call attention to how trivial a lot of our desires may be. When offered the opportunity to have anything they want, the people in the show ask for meaningless things like sweaters and pipes.

There is a moving scene in the episode where Henry, the drunk Santa, says that if he could have anything he wanted, he would want to do this same thing every year. It's a wonderful illustration of what I think is our inherent desire to do good things for other people. Alcoholism is a terrible affliction, but it is immediately forgotten about when Henry suddenly finds himself in the position to bring so much happiness to so many people.

It gets a little cheesy at the end, like so many of them, but is still a great example of the twilight zone presenting a story that captures the spirit of the season.