The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Dead Man's Shoes (1962) User Reviews

If the shoes fit, wear 'em. But beware of the consequences.

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 4 May 2018]

Down and out bum Nathan "Nate" Bledsoe (an excellent performance by Warren Stevens) takes the shoes off a man that he finds dead in an alley. This enables Bledsoe to literally step into the deceased man's life. The only problem is that said dead man was a hoodlum who was murdered by his no-count cohorts.

Director Montgomery Pittman keeps the enjoyable and engrossing story moving along at a snappy pace as well as adroitly crafts a cool brooding film noir mood. Charles Beaumont's clever script presents a colorful array of lowlife characters and a neat "it ain't over yet!" ending. Joan Marshall offers sturdy support as loyal moll Wilma while Richard Devon exudes suave menace as smooth mobster Dagget. The sharp black and white cinematography by George T. Clemens provides a crisp stylish look. A fun episode.

Mickey Spillane meets Henry James in hardboiled tale of ghostly revenge

[mlraymond · 8/10 · 15 January 2007]

A simple, but clever premise ,makes this episode fun to watch. The fine acting of Warren Stevens creates two completely different characters, when the nervous bum puts on the shoes, and is transformed into the cold blooded gangster who used to own them.

For trivia buffs, it's fun to see a very glamorous and sexy Joan Marshall as the girlfriend. She is best known for her unusual role in William Castle's gimmicky chiller Homicidal.

I've never seen this acknowledged anywhere, but I feel this teleplay bears a strong resemblance to a 1940 Universal movie called Black Friday. Boris Karloff surgically transplants part of a gangster's brain into the skull of a college professor who's dying. Karloff hypnotizes the professor to obey him, and remember nothing. They go to New York, where Karloff suspects the gangster has hidden his stolen fortune. Periodically, something will cause the mild mannered professor to actually physically transform into a tough gangster, who goes around terrorizing his former friends and enemies, who were responsible for his death. At one point, he visits the gangster's girlfriend, and scares her with his knowledge of things only the dead man could have known. There's even a scene in the luxury apartment, where he orders her to make him a drink. The gangsters speculate as to who this guy might be, since "Red" Cannon, the former gang leader, is dead and buried. They guess it might be someone Cannon hired to impersonate him, having told him lots of things before dying. The truth is too bizarre for them to guess, though they get unnerved at his success in bumping them off, one by one.

There are so many similar ideas, right down to specific scenes, that I wonder if Charles Beaumont saw this on the late show one night, and it became lodged in his subconscious.

Soles Of A Killer

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 28 October 2014]

Warren Stevens stars as a hobo named Nathan Bledsoe, who one day sees a car dump a corpse in a nearby alley. He goes over to it in hopes of rifling its pockets, but instead decides to take his nice pair of shoes, which mostly fit. However, the murdered man turns out to be an underworld figure whose soul has somehow latched onto the soles of his shoes, compelling poor Nate to avenge his death by whatever means possible, no matter how long it may take... Stylish episode has a good central idea at its center. Though it isn't a total success(Who does the viewer root for after all, since they are all criminals?) this still remains an appealing effort.

If the Shoe Fits, Don't Wear It

[dougdoepke · 26 June 2006]

Grubby transient (Warren Stevens) steals flashy shoes from dead man named Dane. Trouble is, these are size 9's from the twilight zone, which have the magical effect of replacing weak, cringing persona of the transient with strong, criminal personality of the dead man. This sets up interesting sequence in which Dane now occupies Stevens' body, and returns to old haunts to unnerve mistress and gang rival, who hear Dane but see stranger. Fun to watch icy mistress (Joan Marshall) gradually come unglued.

Neat idea, but filmed in straightforward style that adds little to the plot. Stevens does convincing job of altering personality whenever the shoes fit. Good script, even though climactic office scene is disappointing. On the whole, a solid entry.

Odor eaters not included

[darbski · 10/10 · 17 July 2017]

**SPOILERS** Cheap hoods, sleezy dives, back alleys, sexy babes, well, one. Add it up and whatttaya get? A dead dirtbag with expensive shoes, and human refuse just in time to start the story. What story you ask? Not the one the other reviewers have done such a good job of critiquing Kudos to all, by the way.

Nope, I'm talking about the OTHER story. YOU KNOW... the one that lets us become the person needed to payback the dirty tricks and treatment dumped on us by the creepy finks that life has cursed us with. Remember now? You bet you do. Because the message here is that usually, to exact the revenge that we surely are entitled to, we MUST become somebody else; somebody tougher, more ruthless, more like the person that wrecked it for us. Yeah...just callous enough to make sure they know it came from US, right? You know I am.

Who should I root for?

[ericstevenson · 8/10 · 2 August 2018]

Here we have a homeless guy who finds a dead body left by the mob. He learns what it's like to be in his shoes. That is literally. He wears his shoes, gains all of his memories and is possessed by him or something. It only happens when he wears the shoes. He seeks revenge against the mob boss who had him killed.

He does manipulate an innocent homeless man. It was hard to tell who was supposed to be sympathetic in this episode. The victim still had to take over an innocent person's life. At least it's implied he'll succeed eventually. Just don't hurt homeless people. It's a pretty unique idea. ***

If at first you don't succeed try and try again

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 4 June 2010]

***SPOILERS*** After being rubbed out by his business partner Bernie Dagget Dane's body is dumped in the skid row section of town where Nate Bledsoe one of the homeless people living there spots it.

Cold and hungry Nate goes through the dead man's pockets finding his home keys which he has no idea what lock they'll open but does notice his very cool looking loafer that he tries on which are a perfect fit. Almost at once Nate becomes a new man and indistinctly goes to the late Dane's penthouse luxury apartment when he meet's Wilma Dane's girlfriend. Acting as if nothing is wrong with him Nate goes to the liquor cabinet and helps himself to a swig of bourbon to the shock and surprise of Wilma who has no idea who the guy is!

It's later when Nate momently takes his new found shoes off that he become's Nate, the homeless bum, again and starts to act the part by getting on his knees and begging for his life when Wilma pulls a gun on him! With his magic shoes back on Nate calmly and coolly disarms Wilma who starts to sense that there's something weird and strange in Nate's behavior. It's that Nate seems to know all about her boyfriend Dane to the point where he's becomes Dane himself! Down to knowing what Dane's favorite drink is: A shot tequila with a lump of sugar! With Dane, through his loafers, controlling Nate's body he shoot down to his favorite gin joint where he runs into Dagget and his boys who had earlier did him in that evening.

***SPOILER*** In an attempt to even the score with Dagget Nate talks him into letting him into his office where he plans to repay him for what he did to him. Nate does in fact knock off one of Dagget's henchmen who tried to ambush him from behind like he in fact did to Dane earlier but ends up getting killed anyway in a deadly crossfire with Dagget's men. With disposing Nate like he did Dane, in skid row, and feeling that whoever Nate was and who sent him are now history the magic loafers are spotted by another homeless drunk who after trying them on his body & soul is taken over by the deceased Dane! And with that he plans to give Dagget an unexpected visit where this time around he'll have more success in whacking him!

The sort of twists and fanciful ideas that made this series so compelling...

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 2 October 2009]

This is a neat episode--one that shows just what sort of bizarre ideas the show was able to come up with and make work...and work well.

The show starts with a bum stumbling upon a dead man. Well, not wanting to waste perfectly good shoes on a stiff, the guy steals the shoes and replaces his old beat up shoes (is it stealing if they are dead?). Oddly, however, in true "Twilight Zone" tradition, this starts a bizarre chain of events. It seems that upon putting on the shoes, the bum is suddenly possessed by the spirit of the dead man--and the dead man wants revenge. So the guy now seeks out those who killed him--confronting them and wanting what is by all rights his. The folks he approaches are baffled, however, as he looks nothing like the dead man...yet he knows things only the corpse could know!! This episode has a particularly good ending, but the story idea is pretty cool as well. No complaints or changes I'd make to the show--this is one good episode.

By the way, it's not a serious error but Merrill talks about "hypnotism". This term, though created just before the war was not widely known or in widespread use. If anyone were referring to hypnosis, they might term it "mesmerism" back in 1863--not hypnosis.

"They do feel a little funny".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 28 May 2010]

They say shoes make the man, so Rod Serling takes that premise and runs with it in this episode of The Twilight Zone. Street bum Nathan Bledsoe (Warren Stevens) wrests a set of fancy footwear from a body dumped in an alley, and begins to take on the character of the gangster who wore them before he got whacked. The story builds on the foundation of a Season I episode, #1.12 - 'What You Need'. Here, Nate turns into a hood named Dane, so wrapped up in his new persona that he puts the squeeze on gal pal Wilma (Joan Marshall) back at the swank apartment he used to call home. As often happened in these stories, it's never explained why Wilma simply didn't just get her butt out of there. She wasn't even a blonde.

This is one of those TZ episodes that leave you with the idea that the story could go on ad infinitum, passing the pair of shoes from one tragic victim to another. It's the kind of irony the series was noted for, and here it worked pretty well. I for one though had to ask myself - 'Who in their right mind would be caught dead in THAT pair of shoes'?

Say, keep an eye on that scene when Nate first encounters the body in the alley. When he takes the corpse's pulse, the dead victim's fingers move!

If you're catching this episode on the Twilight Zone Definitive Edition box set, take note of Rod Serling's closing commercial hawking Chesterfield cigarettes. He obviously switched brands, because in Season II, Oasis (which didn't last long), was his choice of smoke at the close of #2.24 - The Rip Van Winkle Caper'. A few stories later, the three armed alien started to light up an Oasis in #2.28 - 'Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?'

What you need...

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 2 September 2019]

"What You Need" was a first season "Twilight Zone" episode where a fancy pair of shoes was a major prop for leading man Steve Cochran, the type of prop that ties into the happenstance of one man's destiny. Now it's Warren Stevens in those shoes, stolen from a corpse dumped mysteriously in an alley. With the shoes come the dead man's memory, and along with that, all of his troubles. It's obvious that the dead man was dumped for a reason, and for Stevens, that may mean finding his own zone on more than one occasion.

Stevens, initially seen as a homeless man, dresses up really nice, and soon, his character has gone down Steve Cochran/Richard Conte/Dane Clark/Ray Danton territory as the dead character's persona is revealed through "reunions" with old colleagues. Joan Marshall is the old girlfriend, with Richard Devon and Ben Wright as the "colleagues". It's an entrance to a zone that appears to have no exit.....as long as there are homeless men around who can fit into a pair of size 9 shoes.

Gangster's soul seeks revenge.

[darrenpearce111 · 7/10 · 9 January 2014]

For me this one lives in the shadow of the 1985 reworking that starred Helen Mirren called 'Dead Woman's Shoes'. The original is a fair fantasy about a homeless man who takes on the personae of a dead mobster. Warren Stevens is more convincing when acting as the mobster's personality whose shoes are now literally filled by the homeless guy. The first transformation is gradual, but after meeting the dead man's girlfriend ,Wilma (Joan Marshall), the shoes cause instant changing when taken off and put back on. The fact that he doesn't look like the dead man puts him in a strong position to go out for revenge on his killer.

Average TZ, generally well carried by Stevens.

Joan Marshall played Herman's wife in the pilot episode of 'The Munsters'.

Fancy Shoes

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 1 December 2008]

A transient pulls a pair of shoes from a gangster, dumped in an alley. He then takes on the personality of the guy and continues his evil ways. Unfortunately, in the Twilight Zone, you can't get away with this. His actions are so much the same that he finds himself facing the same things that got him killed the first time. There is a pretty cool twist at the end, especially the expression on the new wearer's face as he puts the shoes on. The weakness of the episode is the same old gangster schtick that has been done a thousand times; that Hollywood gangster accent and the whole works. But the story is still quite intriguing.

Don't take shoes off dead bodies

[Calicodreamin · 7/10 · 16 June 2021]

As a common rule, leave dead men lie. Solid storyline and a decent execution. Acting was good from the whole cast.

Yes, but not enough.

[bombersflyup · 5/10 · 7 October 2019]

Dead Man's Shoes has its qualities, though left unfinished. A following act, with the next bum to put on the shoes, necessary for this to be of any significance. Good acting present and Joan Marshall's alluring in her brief role as Wilma.

shower

[kmalle558 · 31 October 2013]

Spoiler alert!

I love this episode.I especially love the music. Still I have a question. How did the bum take a shower? I mean once the shoes came off wouldn't he be confused and scared again? It seems he would never be able to take off the shoes. This means he would have to get dressed as the confused bum before he put on his socks let alone shoes. I still love this one. It has a gritty feel, The girlfriend was prefect for the part. Good story. good twist. All of actors were good. I even like the shoe style.

Fairly large plot hole though.

My Favorite Episode of the Twilight Zone!!!

[briancurb · 9/10 · 6 November 2022]

As someone born in the late 1980s I have always half heartedly loved the Twilight Zone. Looking back in time some of these episodes aged really well and some where junk. But this Episode I remember first seeing on Cable TV in the late 1990s during the XMas/New Years marathons. Even the 1980s version of Dead Woman's shoes did it justice and the 2002 version was ok. This is one of the handful of Twilight Zone Episodes that is absolutely timeless and classic!!! I really can't recommend this episode enough. Probably on the rate side even though I am now in my mid 30's that people not of this era hold it in such high regard. Watching this never gets old for me!!!

If the Shoes Fit, Wear It

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 22 July 2023]

The bump Nathan 'Nate' Bledsoe is sleeping in an alley. Out of the blue, he sees a body dumped in the alley and steals his shoes and his keys. When he wears the pair of shoes of the dead man, he acquires the life of the deceased gangster. He goes to his apartment where he meets his girlfriend, Wilma. Then he looks for his clothes and weapon, and goes chasing his former partner Dagget, who killed him, seeking revenge. What will happen in this encounter?

"Dead Man's Shoes" is a great tale of revenge in "The Twilight Zone". The plot is intriguing and also funny, with the deceased gangster using a homeless guy to seek revenge. The conclusion with his promise and another homeless man finding the shoes is also funny. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Sapatos de Outro Mundo" ("Shoes from Other World")

One of these days his shoes are gonna walk all over you...

[Coventry · 6/10 · 28 August 2020]

"Dead Man's Shoes" is not a great, but nonetheless very competent and enjoyable "Twilight Zone" episode. The credits list the name of the almighty Charles Beaumont as writer, but the plot seems based - or, at least, heavily inspired - by the legendary Maurice Renard novel "The Hands of Orlac". This classic horror story already got adapted into a handful of genre milestones (including the silent "Orlac's Hände" starring Conrad Veidt and "Mad Love" starring Peter Lorre), and revolves around a talented pianist who loses both his hands in an accident. Via a medically ground-breaking transplant operation, he receives a new pair of hands, but they belonged to an executed murderer and gradually force the new owner to commit horrible crimes.

Although uncredited, this episode is a slick variation on the same plot. The homeless Nate witnesses how mobsters dispose of a dead body in a dark alley. The corpse wears brand new and funky shoes, and Nate isn't too shy to try them on. As soon as he wears the shoes, however, Nate somehow becomes the dead gangster - Dale - and remembers where he lived, what his favorite drink was, and who killed him. The shoes naturally force their new owner to seek revenge. There's nothing extraordinary about "Dead Man's Shoes", but the performances are good, and the end-twist is fairly original and unexpected.

You can kill the man, but you can't kill the idea

[shermandemetrius · 9/10 · 2 April 2022]

That's an old saying, I believe, and I always took it to be the point of this story. The episode is a good film noir gangster picture with shoes symbolic of a grand idea that men will always have--- an idea that could have just as easily been about the need to create transportation other than a horse and so on.

Are all bums a size 9?

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 2 April 2022]

Dead Man's Shoes lacks that magical je ne sais quoi of a classic The Twilight Zone episode, but it is still a reasonably entertaining tale, helped by a solid turn from Warren Stevens, who is transformed from wretched hobo to cool-as-a-cucumber tough man after he half-inches a pair of shoes from a stiff in an alleyway.

Possessing Bowery bum Nathan Bledsoe, the shoes' original owner, gangster Dane, sets about trying to get even with the man who killed him: his greedy business partner Bernie Dagget (Richard Devon). Unfortunately for Dane, Dagget isn't easily fooled, his men killing the gangster for a second time. But when Bledsoe's body is dumped in an alleyway, another tramp takes a shine to those fancy shoes...

One imagines that Dane's next attempt to take revenge will be successful (how many times can he be caught out by a hidden gunman?), but if it isn't, will Dagget eventually cotton on and destroy those loafers? These questions and more await the curious in The Twilight Zone.

Correction

[CherCee · 10/10 · 7 December 2022]

@blanbrn states that the dead man was Dagget, but it was Dane who was murdered. Dagget was the guy who had Dane killed. It was Dane's spirit that went into the shoes that took over Nate Bledsoe. This was a good episode with lots of spooky atmosphere (Nate knowing where Dane lived, what he liked to drink, where the bedroom was and where the closet was to get fresh clothes from). The interactions between Wilma and Nate and Dagget and Nate were well-done and interesting to watch. I was really hoping that Nate/Dane would kill Dagget, but the twist at the end was great, it made you wonder how many men it would take to finally get Dagget.

Addition: Reviewer Coventry calls Dane 'Dale'.

If A Dead Man's Shoes fits that can be another life for someone .

[nicholasfiumara · 10/10 · 2 May 2020]

If you pick up a Dead Man's Shoes you have to set yourself up that someone may recognize them but not you. If it fits than your have to expect the unexpected no matter how many times things happen. You never know who can explain why but how will it happen again.

Would Be Interesting If It Wasn't So Slow

[Samuel-Shovel · 5/10 · 1 June 2020]

I'm "Dead Man's Shoes" a homeless man takes the shoes from a dead gangster's body and has his body inhabited by the ghost of the dead man whose out for revenge.

The pacing is abysmally slow here. That's my main complaint. The idea itself is fine but we waste the majority of the episode in the apartment waiting for a drink. It takes far too long and leads nowhere...

Walk a mile in my shoes, and if the shoe fits take on new identity!

[blanbrn · 10/10 · 23 June 2020]

This "TZ" episode from 1962 season 3 called "Dead Man's Shoes" is an excellent tale one of an identity theme that changes. The story is simple a dead body is dumped in a city alley by some mob gangsters and found and discovered by a bum and homeless man named Nate Bledsoe(Warren Stevens). The greatest gift found and taken is a pair of fancy shoes. Slowly bit by bit Nate takes over the body and identity role of the dead guy who he later learns to be Dagget from the dead's girlfriend. So now it's a life of whiskey, guns, and mob meetings only as one knows good things don't last forever as you will see with this episode. The shoes might be stylish with identity power, yet they have a downside of risk and danger as each new individual will find out when coming in possession of the pair. Overall great excellent episode that was clever as it was compelling and interesting the way it showed death and identity transformation.

HOW TO BREAK IN SOME NEW SHOES!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 14 March 2024]

An incredibly imaginative story written by Charles Beaumont, whose style was in the same league as Rod Serling. If this episode doesn't make you think twice... what will? In a way, it's a campy take-off on the old observation, "I'd like to be in your shoes!" Really?

Warren Stevens is perfect as a homeless man who discovers an expensive pair of shoes on the dead body of a gangsta'. So why not try 'em on? He does and becomes the mobster --via some extraordinary TZ magic -- visting his old haunts, his gal pal (played by Joan Marshall) and the man (Richard Devon) who killed his alter ego. Simply Amazing!

It may not be that far from the truth, paranormally speaking, considering the wave of eerie real life ghost adventures on tv this very day, and the dire warnings NOT to touch certain objects that may bring doom, gloom and death. Sound familiar?

The ending with the hidden guns, not to be missed, and may have been borrowed from the UNTOUCHABLES.

Excellent direction on the part of Montgomery Pittman, enormously popular director and writer at Warner Brothers/ABC tv, whose career was cut short due to cancer. Devon was a staple in many top shows, such as BONANZA and PERRY MASON, also in cult films, such as MACHINE GUN KELLY. Likewise, Joan Marshall is perhaps best known for her appearance in the William Castle camp classic, HOMICIDAL, a year earlier.

10 Stars all the way, and with a touch of Hitchcock dark humor for sure. SEASON 3 EPISODE 18 remastered.