The Twilight Zone: Vol. 11

Rating:
Summary: One of the very best Volumes in "The Twilight Zone" series!
Review: An elderly couple wins a contest for 3 days in Las Vegas, though the man morally hates gambling - at first, then he gets "the Fever".

In "Dummy", ventriloquist Cliff Robertson and his side-kick change places.

In "The After Hours", Anne Francis has a hard time finding good assistance in a department store.

In "Living Doll", Telly Savalas argues with a back-talking doll.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best of all the Twilight Zone Volumes
Review: For those of you who are being selective in which Twilight Zone volumes you're buying; and, you plan on watching this DVD more than once, this is the best. This volume includes (1) Living Doll (Talking Tina) with Telly Savales, (2) The Fever (a taunting slot machine), (3) The After Hours, with Anne Francis, who is left in a department store after the store closes and all the people have left. (4) The Dummy (a ventriloquist). The first 3 are great, the Dummy is OK, but again the first 3 are worth the cost alone. Also, the fact that you don't have those annoying commercials anymore makes watching Twilight Zone that much better.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best of all the Twilight Zone Volumes
Review: For those of you who are being selective in which Twilight Zone volumes you're buying; and, you plan on watching this DVD more than once, this is the best. This volume includes (1) Living Doll (Talking Tina) with Telly Savales, (2) The Fever (a taunting slot machine), (3) The After Hours, with Anne Francis, who is left in a department store after the store closes and all the people have left. (4) The Dummy (a ventriloquist). The first 3 are great, the Dummy is OK, but again the first 3 are worth the cost alone. Also, the fact that you don't have those annoying commercials anymore makes watching Twilight Zone that much better.

Rating:
Summary: Twilight Zone!
Review: I began collecting volumes of the Twilight Zone after watching the Twilight Zone Marathon over the New Year's holiday. Though the volumes (which are much more affordable) only consist of individual episodes and not the chronological order episodes that are found on collective editions (which are more costly), have some of the best episodes on just one volume. To me, Volume 11 was the best especially the episode with the Talky Tina Doll, where she kills the mean, unloving stepfather simply because he didn't care for the doll or his stepdaughter.

Another great episode on this volume is The After Hours. This episode tells the tale of a shopper who buys a gold thimble on an empty floor of a department store. Unbeknownst to her, this is the floor where they keep the store mannequins when they are not in use. Of course she doesn't find this out until the end when it is revealed to her that she is really a mannequin. This volume is a must have in the movie collection


Rating:
Summary: Three good, one bad episode
Review: I did not care for "The Fever", as I found it to have bad acting, and it was implausible - the husband was so anti-gambling, yet, agrees to go with his wife to Las Vegas for a short vacation. Why else go there?

The other eps were good, with well-done TZ material.

I'm being generous with 4 stars (assuming 3 eps were perfect, it would max out at 3/4 of five stars, or 3-1/2 stars overall).

Rating:
Summary: Inhuman things start acting human in The Twilight Zone
Review: Inanimate objects that act a bit too human are the common thread in the four episodes collected on Volume 11 of "The Twilight Zone" DVD collection. "The Dummy" features Cliff Robertson as ventriloquist Jerry Etherson, who is convinced his knotty-pine partner is not only alive but pretty much evil incarnate. Rod Serling wrote this script, based on an unpublished story by Lee Polk, which features one of the most memorable final shots in the history of the Zone. Serling's story "The Fever" stars Everett Sloane as Franklin Gibbs, a dour man who is not pleased when his wife (Vivi Janiss) wins a trip for two to Las Vegas. But once he starts playing a slot machine, Franklin becomes totally obsessed. Telly Savalas as Erich Streator is threatened by the "Living Doll" in this episode writen by Jerry Sohl. Erich does not like the Talky Tina his wife has bought for Christie, his step-daughter. However the doll, voiced by the great June Foray (the voice of Rocky J. Squirrel), tells Erich she hates him too. A gripping episode since Talky Tina never talks when anybody else is around. Poor Erich. "The After Hours," another Serling script, features Anne Francis in the memorable role of Marsha White who finds herself locked in a department store at night. Marsha might be insane, but it seems the manikins are talking to her. "The After Hours" is the best episode on this disc.

Rating:
Summary: Inhuman things start acting human in The Twilight Zone
Review: Inanimate objects that act a bit too human are the common thread in the four episodes collected on Volume 11 of "The Twilight Zone" DVD collection. "The Dummy" features Cliff Robertson as ventriloquist Jerry Etherson, who is convinced his knotty-pine partner is not only alive but pretty much evil incarnate. Rod Serling wrote this script, based on an unpublished story by Lee Polk, which features one of the most memorable final shots in the history of the Zone. Serling's story "The Fever" stars Everett Sloane as Franklin Gibbs, a dour man who is not pleased when his wife (Vivi Janiss) wins a trip for two to Las Vegas. But once he starts playing a slot machine, Franklin becomes totally obsessed. Telly Savalas as Erich Streator is threatened by the "Living Doll" in this episode writen by Jerry Sohl. Erich does not like the Talky Tina his wife has bought for Christie, his step-daughter. However the doll, voiced by the great June Foray (the voice of Rocky J. Squirrel), tells Erich she hates him too. A gripping episode since Talky Tina never talks when anybody else is around. Poor Erich. "The After Hours," another Serling script, features Anne Francis in the memorable role of Marsha White who finds herself locked in a department store at night. Marsha might be insane, but it seems the manikins are talking to her. "The After Hours" is the best episode on this disc.

Rating:
Summary: Some of the very Best Episodes
Review: THE FEVER from the First season aired on January 29, 1960 and was written by Rod Serling. Everett Sloane is brilliant as a married man who continually lectures his wife on the pitfalls of gambling after winning a trip to Las Vegas. Goaded into it Sloane puts a coin into a slot machine, wins and the cycle begins. This is an interesting episode, not necessarily against gambling but one that addresses the nature of obsession and the lengths of self-destruction that it can lead to. It also addresses a familiar TWILIGHT ZONE theme about man and his confrontation with the machines that he creates. THE DUMMY from the Third season aired on May 4, 1962 and was written by Rod Serling. Cliff Robertson plays a down-and-out ventriloquist who has dilutions that his mannequin may be getting the better of him. This is an interesting study into the mind of man and the manmade with a denouement that is riveting. THE AFTER HOURS remains just as fresh and effective as when it was first aired on June 10, 1960 and its lingering haunting imagery remains engraved into one's subconscious. Who can ever forget Anne Francis as Marsha. Her impeccable performance and exquisite face are indelible. "Marsha" that very name and the way it was repeated over and over was so eerily unsettling sending chills down one's spine. This episode when compared to WALKING DISTANCE demonstrates the great versatility of Rod Serling as a writer. WALKING DISTANCE is probably the best prose that Serling ever penned where every bit of dialogue was so heartfelt and moving. In THE AFTER HOURS Serling gives us a more visual tale where the storytelling is more dependent on the images. Serling gives us a story of two strikingly opposite worlds that co-exist within a department store. The vivid contrast and the realistic depiction of those two worlds is at the core of this story that has a strange tinge of melancholy about it. Thanks to effective lighting, production design, photography, Douglas Heyes' Direction and impeccable acting it succeeds on all levels and is one of the definitive episodes of the series. Your heart kind of goes out for Telly Savalas in LIVING DOLL. As much of a no-good creep of a stepfather Savalas is, you just gotta feel bad for this guy as he gets outdone by a doll, Talky Tina. The doll is almost as evil as he is and this becomes very evident in the final scene at the bottom of the living room staircase. A lot of the viewers' ambiguous feelings are the result of Bermard Herrmann's innovative score. It has a childlike quality that taunts and teases both Telly Savalas and the viewer. This is an excellent episode written by Charles Beaumont from the Fifth season and is one of the best and most memorable from the entire series. This is an excellent volume.

Rating:
Summary: !!DOLLS GONE WILD!!
Review: To the best of my knowledge there's no specific theme to any of the Twilight Zone DVD's, but this one does, and it's --DOLLS GONE WILD!
The first episode contains the classic ventriloquist corrupted by his dummy tale ("Magic", "Dead of Night"). It stars Cliff Robertson, who looks like a puppet to begin with.
The third episode is the legendary Talking Tina story where she tells Telly "Kojak" Savalas how she's going to kill him, and accomplishes the deed.
The final episode stars Anne "Honey West" Francis as a girl trapped in a department store who gets an earful from a bunch of creepy, chatty mannequins.
The animated menu with the TZ title eyeball is classic TZ mind-bending psycho-delia. The episodes themselves are as clean as early 60's televideo can get. The sound quality ranges from good to muddy, but overall the content of these shows make up for their technical shortcomings.
Tell 'em Jerry Mahoney sent you.

Rating:
Summary: One of the very best Volumes in "The Twilight Zone" series!
Review: When I looked at the lengthy list of "Twilight Zone" DVD volumes this one stuck out more than any of the others. In my opion, it has three of the most outrageously entertaining(yet still quite frightening)episodes "The Twilight Zone" has ever made. "The After Hours" is about Marsha White(Anne Francis), a simple woman who is merely looking for a gold thimble in a department store. However, when she steps into the elevator, she is guided to the 9th floor of the the 8 story building! On this supposed floor she meets odd people who turn out to be even odder when(on one of the regular floors)she sees on of them..........in manicane form! This is one of my favorite episodes of "The Twilight Zone"! Partly because of the completely unexpected ending. "Living Doll" is another shocker! Erich Sleater is a man who feels that his step-daughter is spoiled with too many dolls. So, you can imagine how he feels when his wife and daughter come home with an extremly expensive doll! You can also only imagine how he feels when(after everyone leaves the room)the doll starts saying things like "I hate you!" & "I'm going to kill you!". This is another classic that had me biting my nails to the very end of the show. I also enjoy Rod Sterling's ending words that seem to make the story feel a little too realistic. "The Dummy" is about a ventrilogoust that has an evil Dummy named Willie! Everyone thinks he's crazy but somehow he knows he's not. The only way to stop the crazieness is to get a new dummy, which the man does. However, Willie does not accept the replacement! This is a great one too but the ending doesn't really make sense. "The Fever" is by far the worst episode on the disk. It's about a man who doesn't enjoy gambling at all but while in Las Vegas a slot machine calls his name and then it seems he can never stop! The story was a little too limited for my liking and too unreal. After all, it's weird than the guy just started gambling after he hated it. Again, this is one of the best Volumes in the entire "Twilight Zone" set!