The fledgling series takes an ugly turn with this ill-conceived episode that attempts to glamorize the dubious undertaking of Nazi hunting.
The cast is acquitted of all blame for the episode's failings. And this cast had a lot to offer fans of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and STAR TREK: Frank Overton, Michael Conrad, Alfred Ryder and Roger C. Carmel. Wasted in cameos were Ed Asner and fearless Zanti-Misfit fighter Bruce Dern.
But the spotlight is on Lew Ayres, playing against type and pulling it off admirably--he's a talented actor. There's nary a hint of kindly Dr. Kildare in his Frank Bartlett aka Daniel Torvald, icy and unsmiling, zealously reading his Old Testament at every opportunity to fuel his eye-for-an-eye ideology. Torvald ignores the commandment not to bear false witness, however, as his entire life as Frank Bartlett is a lie. He goes on to lie about planting the photograph and about his fall from sabotaged planking. Men who strive for virtue but deceive themselves into believing they can cherry pick which virtues or which commandments to live and obey are at best hollow and worst dead men walking.
And in that is the episode's irony: the "villain"--easily discerned by the episode's title--has left behind the ugliness of war, embraced American values, and is living an honest, productive life. Conversely, the "hero" has been wallowing in hate for fifteen years, suffered arrested development as a human being in 1945 and is effectively as dead as the victims he seeks to avenge. Torvald is a victim of the Nazis who didn't stop being a victim when the war ended. He's been drinking poison ever since and hoping the other person will die.
Torvald gets his wish in a silly and unsatisfying ending. Nazi-hunters wanted to relish their captives being tried, vilified, and executed on the world's stage as would happen to Adolf Eichmann in 1961-62. As another reviewer noted, the May 1960 capture of Eichmann surely served as Stirling Silliphant's inspiration for this "torn from today's headlines" episode. But I wonder if Silliphant penned the ending we got with Otto's crazed and ill-fated leap for and inevitable fall from the departing helicopter. I could see network executives insisting on such a pat ending that gave the audience immediate closure. Torvald departing with his captive implying Otto will be tried and executed in Israel may have been deemed too murky.
I wished Tod had stuck to his initial instinct to oppose Torvald after calling him out over the parlor trick with the photograph that subjected a locker room full of innocent men to an awkward and unjust accusation. In their defense, Tod and Buz weren't privy to the later psychological stunts pulled by Torvald--the Hitler speech record that unnerved the innocent cook, or the voodoo doll planted on the pillow of the guilty party. Torvald's reckless stabs in the dark hoping to hit the guilty hit many innocents, but in Torvald's skewed morality ends justify means.
This episode was a misstep in many ways, a whodunit lacking suspense and satisfaction, morality as seen in a funhouse mirror, and a promising cast that was squandered. This was a story celebrating those who look back instead of looking forward. I'm glad Tod and Buz have their eyes set on the road ahead, and I'm eager to join them wherever that road takes them next.
The cast is acquitted of all blame for the episode's failings. And this cast had a lot to offer fans of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and STAR TREK: Frank Overton, Michael Conrad, Alfred Ryder and Roger C. Carmel. Wasted in cameos were Ed Asner and fearless Zanti-Misfit fighter Bruce Dern.
But the spotlight is on Lew Ayres, playing against type and pulling it off admirably--he's a talented actor. There's nary a hint of kindly Dr. Kildare in his Frank Bartlett aka Daniel Torvald, icy and unsmiling, zealously reading his Old Testament at every opportunity to fuel his eye-for-an-eye ideology. Torvald ignores the commandment not to bear false witness, however, as his entire life as Frank Bartlett is a lie. He goes on to lie about planting the photograph and about his fall from sabotaged planking. Men who strive for virtue but deceive themselves into believing they can cherry pick which virtues or which commandments to live and obey are at best hollow and worst dead men walking.
And in that is the episode's irony: the "villain"--easily discerned by the episode's title--has left behind the ugliness of war, embraced American values, and is living an honest, productive life. Conversely, the "hero" has been wallowing in hate for fifteen years, suffered arrested development as a human being in 1945 and is effectively as dead as the victims he seeks to avenge. Torvald is a victim of the Nazis who didn't stop being a victim when the war ended. He's been drinking poison ever since and hoping the other person will die.
Torvald gets his wish in a silly and unsatisfying ending. Nazi-hunters wanted to relish their captives being tried, vilified, and executed on the world's stage as would happen to Adolf Eichmann in 1961-62. As another reviewer noted, the May 1960 capture of Eichmann surely served as Stirling Silliphant's inspiration for this "torn from today's headlines" episode. But I wonder if Silliphant penned the ending we got with Otto's crazed and ill-fated leap for and inevitable fall from the departing helicopter. I could see network executives insisting on such a pat ending that gave the audience immediate closure. Torvald departing with his captive implying Otto will be tried and executed in Israel may have been deemed too murky.
I wished Tod had stuck to his initial instinct to oppose Torvald after calling him out over the parlor trick with the photograph that subjected a locker room full of innocent men to an awkward and unjust accusation. In their defense, Tod and Buz weren't privy to the later psychological stunts pulled by Torvald--the Hitler speech record that unnerved the innocent cook, or the voodoo doll planted on the pillow of the guilty party. Torvald's reckless stabs in the dark hoping to hit the guilty hit many innocents, but in Torvald's skewed morality ends justify means.
This episode was a misstep in many ways, a whodunit lacking suspense and satisfaction, morality as seen in a funhouse mirror, and a promising cast that was squandered. This was a story celebrating those who look back instead of looking forward. I'm glad Tod and Buz have their eyes set on the road ahead, and I'm eager to join them wherever that road takes them next.