The Lateness of the Hour

Episode aired Dec 2, 1960
TV-PG
25m

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

2.6K

YOUR RATING

John Hoyt, Inger Stevens, and Irene Tedrow in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Drama Fantasy Horror

The daughter of an inventor objects to their "perfect" home where they are waited on by mechanical servants.The daughter of an inventor objects to their "perfect" home where they are waited on by mechanical servants.The daughter of an inventor objects to their "perfect" home where they are waited on by mechanical servants.

See production, box office & company info

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

2.6K

YOUR RATING

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Photos17

John Hoyt and Inger Stevens in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Rod Serling and James Turley in The Twilight Zone (1959)

John Hoyt, Valley Keene, and Inger Stevens in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Inger Stevens in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Mary Gregory, John Hoyt, Inger Stevens, and Irene Tedrow in The Twilight Zone (1959)

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The first of six The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes to be shot on video tape, which was pushed by the network to reduce costs. The short-lived experiment resulted in editing and quality issues, and it was ultimately scrapped.

Goofs
After Jana (the daughter) finishes banging her fist on the staircase handrail, a shadow moves behind her. As it moves, it appears to be an arm shadow, but not from Jana.

Quotes
Narrator: [Opening Narration] The residence of Dr. William Loren, which is in reality a menagerie for machines. We're about to discover that sometimes the product of man's talent and genius can walk amongst us untouched by the normal ravages of time. These are Dr. Loren's robots, built to function, as well as artistic perfection. But in a moment, Dr. William Loren, wife, and daughter will discover that perfection is relative, that even robots have to be paid for, and very shortly will be shown exactly what is the bill.

Crazy credits
"Twilight Zone" end credits always play over a still photograph representative of the episode. The end credits of "The Lateness of the Hour" play over video of a working clock mechanism.

Connections
Edited into Twilight-Tober-Zone: The Lateness Of The Hour (2021)

Soundtracks
Twilight Zone Theme
(theme song)
Composed by Marius Constant
(seasons 2-5)

User reviews34

Review

Featured review

7/10

as old as the first machine.

Like many episodes of this series, this one tells an interesting story. It peeks into one of the yearning questions that bothers men as science progresses and somehow seems to escape the stiff control of the human being. The story has haunted people since our early days: The creation that revolts against the creator has one of its classic takes on Frankenstein, so maybe the variations of the theme shouldn't surprise us anymore; nevertheless it still has the force to impress us. But what is startling is that this episode was shot 47 years ago, but it has aged well. The question haunts us today as it has for 200 years. Nowadays we not only talk about robots, but we speak about cloning human beings. So our fears not only haven't diminished, but they have increased geometrically. To add to the interest of this episode is the acting of Inger Stevens as the daughter. Not only is she one of the most beautiful presences of the screen, but she carries quite well the drama of the story. Her acting subtly conveys the predicaments of the confrontation of men against the machine. This combination of great acting skills in such an attractive creature is rarely seen today.

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