A World of Difference

Howard Duff plays successful businessman Arthur Curtis, who is one day in the office talking to his wife, when he discovers to his astonished bewilderment to find himself on a film set, and that his "real" name is Gerry Reagen, and that Arthur Curtis was a character he was playing in a film! Defiant and scared, Curtis leaves only to discover his loving wife there is a grasping, greedy harridan here, who wants to divorce him and take his money. How can Arthur convince people of his true identity, and get back home? Highly effective episode is quite provocative in its premise, and pushes age-old fears of identity and sneaking modern paranoia that perhaps we're all actors without knowing it too...

Man finds his role in a play more real than his life as an actor. 6

Who is Howard Duff? Is he the actor in the play Gerry Reagan, or is he the character in the play Arthur Curtis? He thinks he's Curtis; but the production crew says he's Reagan, and what's worse, he's gone bonkers. Talk about an actor losing himself in a part! Clearly, he's better off as Curtis, without Reagan's shrewish wife who's going to nail him for everything he's got, (Eileen Ryan in a role that's got to give every married man the terminal shudders).

Concept is more interesting than eerie or frightening, especially when Ryan is the scariest part of the episode. Probably, the most interesting feature is the behind-the-scenes look at a sound stage during a movie shoot. I expect many of the technicians and stage hands are actual members of the crew. It's amusing to watch one of them walk across the set and cast a shadow across the Los Angeles skyline! All in all, an entertaining half-hour, but nothing special.

One of the best of Twilight Zone sagas involved actor Gerry Reagan being so caught up in a role he's playing that somewhere he morphed into that character. It's some squeaky clean TV family drama, I'm imagining something like the Andy Hardy series from film.

Howard Duff is actor Gerry Reagan who insists he's Arthur Curtis the character he plays. No one can tell him any different and the shrew of a woman Eileen Ryan he married is looking to clobber him with alimony. I might look for any way out even jumping worlds.

Duff does a magnificent job with his terribly troubled character, it is one of the best roles he ever played.

The concept of amnesia and conflicting identities has been explored before a million times in media, but of course by sheer class. The Twilight Zone leaves us with a refreshing take on a tired topic. An actor with a broken career and marriage pines to be a character he's playing. Maybe in that one sentence synopsis you can spot the ironies alone. What you gotta love is that this story is good literally or in an analytical context. The interesting divergence in terms of what it does with the concept is the fact that Jerry could've choose either personality and the open-ended interpretation. Who are we really, and where does "life" begin or stop.

Absolutely excellent episode. Howard Duff is superb as Arthur Curtis (or is it Jerry Reagan?) Eileen Ryan plays one of the most hateful characters in television history. There is also an appearance by David White (or is it Larry Tate?) No, wrong show! White was a great actor, equally adept at comedic or dramatic roles. This episode illustrates how thin the line between reality and fantasy can be. We're never quite sure how real (or not real) anything here is. Superlative story; engrossing and thought-provoking. Too bad that this was Duff's only appearance in the Twilight Zone.