Night Call
- Episode aired Feb 7, 1964
- TV-PG
- 25m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
2.7K
YOUR RATING
Late-night telephone calls begin to haunt disabled elderly Elva Keene at her sequestered home in rural Maine.Late-night telephone calls begin to haunt disabled elderly Elva Keene at her sequestered home in rural Maine.Late-night telephone calls begin to haunt disabled elderly Elva Keene at her sequestered home in rural Maine.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaElva's phone number is KL-5-2368. The K and the L are both the number 5 on the phone dial. "555" is an exchange number commonly thought to be reserved by the phone companies for use by TV and movies in order to prevent prank phone calls to real people. In fact, only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use, and the other numbers have been released for actual assignment.
- GoofsWhen Elva is sitting in her car at the cemetery, there's a man's face visible to the left of her head, reflected in one of the car windows, and then it's replaced by a hand twisting something. It is unclear what is being twisted, since the camera isn't moving at the time.
- Quotes
[closing narration]
Narrator: According to the Bible, God created the heavens and the Earth. It is man's prerogative and woman's, to create their own particular and private hell. Case in point, Miss Elva Keene, who in every sense has made her own bed and now must lie in it sadder, but wiser by dint of a rather painful lesson in responsibility transmitted from - The Twilight Zone.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Creepiest Twilight Zone Moments (2018)
Featured review
Perhaps not, but it has to be in the top three, if pure tension, terror and mystery are any measure of the best The Twilight Zone had to offer during its relatively short original run. Adapted from the tightly wound short story 'Long Distance Call', penned by the legendary Richard Matheson (who wrote 15 other TZ episodes, most notably 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet'), 'Night Call' packs a wallop of fear. Everyone knows how jarring a phone call can be in the wee hours; the quiet of the evening suddenly jangled out of rest by the ringing we normally find a minor annoyance in the daylight. Our nerves are shot for a moment, and then we begin wondering, before we've gotten out of bed to answer the ring... "Who could it be? Is everything alright?" But to find... no one? Silence? Then, a few rings later... an unearthly moaning? The full meaning of the story only becomes apparent in the last few minutes, as is typical for the average TZ episode, but it also packs a punch, turning fear to pathos. The acting is superb, Ms. Cooper really was a fine actress and was perfectly cast here. Her face is so expressive, her fear so palpable that we have no choice but to 'fear' right along, until we find out who... or what... has been calling. And why. This is my personal favorite, for its subtlety and atmosphere. No aliens, no monsters (well, not conventionally), no spaceships, no end of the world preaching, just a good story well told. One you'd hear (or if you were brilliant enough, tell) around a campfire. Simple, clean, and terrifying.
- grtpmpkin32
- May 15, 2006
- Permalink
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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