![]() ![]() Gann will be in for a big surprise when she finds this under Jenny's pillow, because Mrs. Rod Serling holds up a photograph of a handsome young man, noting that the photo shows Old Ben's true appearance and that when Jenny grows up, she will become his queen. Following a plan whispered to him by Jenny, Ben transforms into her exact duplicate, forcing the men to take both of them along since they cannot tell one from the other. The two men say this is forbidden, but allow Old Ben a moment alone with Jenny to say goodbye after he promises not to run away. Jenny insists that if Old Ben cannot stay with her, she will go with him. The strangers tell Jenny that Old Ben's people love him as much as she does they want him to return and continue his 5,000-year reign. Old Ben admits to Jenny he is not a criminal, but the king of his planet Ben fled because he was fed up with most of his authority and control being overridden by "the Council". The two men approach and address Old Ben as "Your Majesty". Old Ben comes back to Jenny's room and makes her well again. One of the men uses a device to make Jenny deathly ill, using her as bait for Ben. They recognize Old Ben's handiwork, but Jenny refuses to tell them anything. The two strangers run into Jenny walking down the stairs without her brace. Old Ben says he must flee to another planet, but before departing he uses a device to heal Jenny's leg. Old Ben tells Jenny that he is an alien from another planet, and that his appearance is only a disguise, as he is a fugitive from justice. Jenny takes the "mouse" back to her room. Old Ben takes on the form of a mouse, fooling the men into thinking he has left his apartment. Jenny overhears the conversation and limps upstairs to Old Ben's apartment to warn him. They enter the apartment building, identify themselves as police, and question Agnes about Ben. ![]() This phenomenon is observed by two men who are watching the house from across the street. As they approach the row house, Ben causes his roller skates to dematerialize. Old Ben carries her to her home, where she lives with her shrewish and unsympathetic aunt, Agnes Gann. Old Ben's favorite of the children is Jenny, who walks with a leg brace. The kids are accustomed to Old Ben's supernatural abilities, referring to them as his "magic". ![]() When they play " Spaceman", Old Ben takes on the form of a shelled monster. When it is Old Ben's turn at bat, he hits the ball over the fence and out of sight. Plot Īt a public park, a group of children are playing softball with Old Ben, an elderly but playful gentleman. What would you have if you put these two different things together? Well, you'd have an old man named Ben who knows a lot of tricks most people don't know and a little girl named Jenny who loves him - and a journey into the heart of the Twilight Zone. It's been said that science fiction and fantasy are two different things: science fiction, the improbable made possible fantasy, the impossible made probable. " The Fugitive" is episode 90 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. She was doing lots of television directing in the mid-sixties, on shows as disparate as The Fugitive, Gilligan’s Island, and Honey West, when she wasn’t acting.The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 3) I was interested to see that “The Masks” was directed by Ida Lupino, who had starred in the memorable Zone installment “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine” back in season one. As with many other stories we’ve watched, this one got a pronouncement of “creepy!” I think our kid enjoyed it more than he has many others. At least these jerks deserved their fate, which isn’t always the case in this show. With more time available, the characterization could have been more subtle and the twist more delicious. I think this one could have benefited from being made in the previous season as an hour-long episode. It helped that the rotten children and grandchildren were so obviously rotten, drawn in absurdly broad strokes to make the twist work. So I was pleased that our son was able to follow along no matter how florid the language became, and he laughed at the insults. The story is structured so that almost all of the exchanges are variations on Keith telling his awful family “You’re all terrible people,” and the ungrateful kin politely replying “Please don’t say such awful things.” They have to be polite. He died almost three years after this first aired in March of 1964. ![]() Almost all of the story’s weight is placed on the shoulders of the family patriarch, played by Robert Keith in his final screen role. In “The Masks,” he never uses two words when ten would do. Sometimes, it’s fair to say that Rod Serling’s prose could get very purple. ![]()
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