The Twilight Zone (1959) 1.03

Mr. Denton on Doomsday

starring Dan Duryea, Martin Landau

directed by Allen Reisner

Al Denton (Dan Duryea), a former gunslinger and town drunk, gets a second chance on life. He gets pushed around by Al Hotaling (Martin Landau) until he finds a gun and proves once again that he is the fastest gun in town.

Denton knows what come next. The word will get out that he is back on his feet and challengers will come to town just to try their luck against him, to see if they can out draw him. That's exactly what happens but the outcome of the encounter with the first gunslinger who challenges him doesn't go exactly as he expected it would, thank to the intervention of a traveling salesman named Fate.

Thoughts

This was an interesting episode. I really liked it. It was partly the acting and partly the writing. It wasn't exactly what I expected based on the title of the episode or the setting. It isn't a homerun but it's a good one.

Notes

I've seen Dan Duryea before in a few movies including Sahara (1943), Too Late for Tears (1949), and Silver Lode (1954). This is the only episode of the Twilight Zone in which he appeared. He also appeared in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

I've seen Martin Landau in plenty of other things including Ed Wood (1994) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). I saw probably saw him first in episodes of Space: 1999 when I was young. He was also in some episodes of Mission: Impossible. This is one of two episodes of the Twilight Zone (1959) in which he appeared. He also appeared in episodes of The Outer Limits (1963), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Twilight Zone (1985), and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985).