May 29, 2025 • 43 mins
Jimbo and 80's E continue their journey thru the original Twilight Zone episode by episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
There's a podcast that lies between the imagination of two
simple minded Earthlings. Travel with these two longtime friends, Jimbo
and eighties E as they attempt to explore the fifth dimension.
Follow along with them as they take the key and
unlock the door to the vast space between shadow and substance.
(00:24):
This podcast is one of trivia, of insight, and of
sounds and ideas from one of the greatest television shows
ever produced. You are embarking on a timeless journey. There
is your signpost up ahead. You are entering the Tragedy
of Cinemas Twilight Zone. Mister Fitzgerald, fortune theater critic and
(00:51):
synegate Leich on his way to a birthday. Buddy, if
he knew what is in store for I mean, you
probably wouldn't go. Because before this evening is over, there
cranky old piano is going to play those piano roll
blues with some effects that could happen only in the
Twilight Zone.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
All right, guys, welcome back to the Tragedy of Cinema
of the Twilight Zone series.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I am your host, Jimbo, and I'm your co host
eighty Z eighty Z.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Here we are tonight on Election Night, twenty twenty four,
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's a election night explosion.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And although we don't know when this will be released,
since we have like four or five in the can
that Eric has to Edity.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
This might be the next election before it comes out.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So but every mind a little bit before we get
started with this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I do have a question for you, all right, Eric,
did you ever play any musical instruments besides the recorder
that we all took in like third or fourth grade
and the bell choir.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, I played the piano.
I took a few piano lessons when I was I
don't know, fourth, fifth, sixth grade, maybe somewhere.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
In there exactly. I did too. I had I had
the one concert. Who was your teacher, Deamer? Was it
that Diane Brown or whatever?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Wow? You remember I think that was like, I think
that was her? Yeah, I think it was her.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, And I remember the only thing I remember remember
about taking piano lessons was we had that concert recital
and I was dressed like a milkman.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
All white with the red bow tie.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
My mom has a picture of me still.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But uh, did you ever play any like band instruments
or anything, No, I did.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Did you ever want to?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah? I kind of always.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Do you remember when they used to come to the
school and they bring all the instruments in there?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh wow, I'd like to play that. Probably the saxophone,
to answer your question. Probably the saxophone would have been
something that I, you know, a smooth jazz saxophone was
pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I always wanted to play the trumpet.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I think that would have been cool too.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, but well it's been a while, so why don't
you go ahead and take it away?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, hopefully I'm not too rusty with this. This episode
entitled A Piano in the House. This is the Twilight
Zone season number three, episode number twenty two. It comes
in at an IMDb rating of seven and a half.
We'll see where we end up. It might be like
(03:18):
this election might start I end really low. I don't know.
We'll have to wait and see. It's a toss up, right,
We'll see what happens. So this particular episode, I've got
my notes out of order here, But this particular episode
premiered or original air date for the episode was February
the sixteenth, nineteen sixty two, And that brings us to
(03:41):
our favorite segment in the episode, the segment that we
like to call on this day in history. All right,
we've joined heavens Gates, and now we're to look at
February the sixteenth, nineteen sixty two, is when this episode aired,
(04:04):
and we're gonna look at, you know, on this day
in history. We're gonna look at some things that happened historically.
We're gonna mix into little sports, a little TV in film,
and then I've even got a little birthdays, oh mixed
in here, so some famous birthdays. So let's go all
the way back to nineteen thirty eight on February sixteenth,
(04:25):
and a little movie, Jimbo, I don't know if you guys,
I don't think you've covered it, but I think you
have it saved on your fandango. It's a little movie
in nineteen thirty eight called Bringing Up Baby. It was
a film directed by Howard Hawks and it starred Catherine
Hepburn and Carrie Grant. It was released on February sixteenth,
(04:46):
nineteen thirty eight. So there's a little TV in film
continuing in that vein nineteen forty eight, on February sixteenth,
we have the first newsreel telecast So that was released
by twentieth century Fox Movie Tone, Movie Tone News, and
it was shown on NBC, not MTV. MTV wasn't around
(05:08):
for many decades later. So a newsreel telecas cast would
be like you know those old newsreels that they had
in like World War Two, and they would show like
before a feature presentation of a movie or whatever. Those
were called new newsreel telecasts. February the sixteenth, nineteen fifty,
we have the longest running primetime game show, its inaugural
(05:33):
season on February the sixteenth, nineteen fifty, Jebo, you want
to take a guess at what that game show would
have been?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Is this still going on?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
No, I don't believe.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Let's go with nineteen you say nineteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes, Actually they may have revived it in the early
two thousands. I'm not exactly sure, but I'll go with
the Gong show the Gongs. That would have been a
good guess. But in actuality, it's what's my line? It begins.
It began in nineteen fifty on CBS, and I think.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That's whose line is it?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Any way?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
You're thinking of?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right? Oh? Well, yeah, I don't know if that's two
different game shows.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Then, well, yeah, what's my line? Whose line is it? Anyway?
It's not even the same.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Name, right, but I thought maybe it was revived under
a different name. I don't know. I'm not familiar with
either one. So but according to this.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
You still remember whose line is anyway?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
With Drew Carey and Lolady and I am familiar with that. Yeah,
So nineteen fifty, let's skip ahead a few years, about
nine years. In a February sixteenth, nineteen fifty nine, Fidel
Castro becomes the sixteenth Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing
Fudulencio Battista So nineteen fifty nine. Nineteen sixty three, North
(06:54):
Carolina forward Billy Cunningham grabs twenty seven rebounds for a
wreck high in a game versus Clemson. And that was
February sixteenth, nineteen sixty three, nineteen sixty four. One year later,
the famous Beatles make their second appearance on The Ed
Sullivan Show, live from the Duallville Hotel in Miami, Florida.
(07:18):
I'm not pronouncing that right, brom You like you like
the Beatles? Eric? Oh yeah, love the Beatles. Broadcast this broadcast.
It's important to note it drew about seventy million viewers,
and this was their second appearance in nineteen sixty four.
And then finally on the historical part, and then we'll
move on to the birthdays. February the sixteenth, there's another
(07:41):
sports trivia. February sixteenth, nineteen seventy two, Wilt Chamberlain of
the Los Angeles Lakers becomes the first player in NBA
history to reach the career mark of thirty thousand points.
He did it in a loss a one ten one
oh nine law to the Phoenix Suns. So nineteen seventy two.
(08:03):
Wilt Tamberlin the first two thirty thousand points. Who's better
Wil Tamberlin.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Or Lebron James Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That should be the answer to any of the NBA questions.
All right, birthdays? This lady was born in February sixteenth,
nineteen twenty one. Her name is Vera Ellen. She was
an American actress and she was most notably known for
the movie White Christmas. She played Judy Haynes, one of
(08:36):
the sisters, and she was born in Norwood, Ohio, in
nineteen twenty one. Another famous birthday, February sixteenth, nineteen thirty five, one.
Sonny Bono, American musician vocalist of famous for the Sonny
and Cheery gay Games show I Got You Babe. He
(08:57):
was a songwriter. He also was an actor, politician, He
did it all. And he was born in Detroit, Michigan,
February sixteenth, nineteen thirty five. And in February sixteenth, let's
see what year, nineteen eighty nine, we have Elizabeth Olsen,
younger sibling of the Olson twins. She was also an
(09:18):
actress and been in Benderfeld WMBA Yeah, Scarletwitch Yeah. And
she was born in Los Angeles, California, in nineteen eighty nine.
And then finally with the last famous birthday, February sixteenth,
nineteen fifty nine. John McEnroe. He's an American tennis player.
Won many US Open seventy nine, eighty eighty one, eight,
(09:40):
on and on we could go. He won Wimbledon titles,
Grand Slams, Davis Cups. He was born in Wisebaden, Germany,
so he was actually born in Germany nineteen fifty nine.
All right, moving on to our episode. This will conclude
our on this day in history. A few little facts
(10:01):
about this episode in front of us. This is season
three episode twenty two. As I think I mentioned before,
this is the episode is directed by David Green, and
I believe this is his solo performance as director. I
don't think David Green made a any other appearances in
the Twilight Zone as a director to my knowledge, as
(10:23):
far as I can tell. And this episode was written
by Earl Hamner Junior. This is the second episode in
his stint of I think eight or nine episodes that
he wrote. We did The Hunt several episodes ago. I
can't remember now, but that was the first episode that
he wrote, was The Hunt. This was the second. The
(10:45):
total production cost for this episode comes in around forty
eight hundred and thirty three dollars, so kind of kind
of low. Really. I think our benchmarks shooting around fifty grand,
so they were reasonably you know, budget friendly with this episode.
Dates of rehearsal October fourth and fifth. Two days of
(11:07):
rehearsal October fourth and fifth of nineteen sixty one, so
that would have been the prior year obviously, and then
three dates of filming October six, nine, and ten of
nineteen sixty one. Jimbo tell us about our starstud cast
for this episode.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, there's not really too many the cast lists not
so very long. Even though there was more people in
the episode, they didn't even list them. So I'm just
gonna give the top ones that they actually credited. So
first off, we have the main character, Barry or sorry
Barry Morris. He's playing Fitzgerald Fortune. He does a really
(11:46):
good job. He looks creepy, but he was in a
movie called The Changeling. Eric, you ever seen The Changeling? No,
I don't think I have really good and you check
it out.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Then you had Eric's favorite of this episode, Joan Hackett.
She played Esther of Fortune, who was Fitzgerald Fortune's wife.
You had a much younger wife much Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And they had Don Durant. He played Gregory Walker.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You come to find out in this episode that he
may be a little sweet on Esther.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Did you have Muriel Landers She played Marge More and
I believe this is the heavier set lady that likes
to dance. Really good job. Maybe one of the best
ones of the episode. But she was in Doctor Doolittle
in the movie in nineteen sixty seven. And John Hackett
(12:42):
and Donder and also had a bunch of like westerns
and TV shows. I didn't want to name them all.
So you also had Philip Coolidge, he played Throckmorton. He
was in movie you may have seen Eric north By Northwest,
the Great Off for Hitchcock. And he was also in
the thriller of the Tingler. And then we have mister
Cyril Delevante. He played Marvin the Butler. If you've listened
(13:06):
to us long enough, this guy's been in probably three
or four episodes.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Off the top of the cuff, veteran of the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Veteran, Yes, he was in movies Soiling Green. He was
in bed Knobs and Broomsticks. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Or Ben Knobs and Bruce Angela Ans came up, oh
the first time, Delevante like, but I haven't seen you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And then last, but not least, we do have the
late great Rod Serling, the narrator and the self host
of the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
All right, let's talk about a plot for this episode.
It's uh a theater critic, Fitzgerald Fortune is looking to
buy a different sort of gift for his wife's birthday.
In a curio shop, he buys an old player piano.
It's delivered to his home and when he starts it up.
It has a strange effect on his man servant. Why
(13:58):
they call him a man servant in this plot summary,
But what would butler? Maybe? Yeah, that's what Marvin Butler. Yeah,
Marvin the butler. So it has a strange effect on
his man servant and normally dour man who breaks into
mind or mirthful laughter when he plays another song, this
(14:20):
time for a guest. The man breaks down and admits
his love with Fortunes with Fortune's wife Esther. He decides
to have fun with his party guests that evening, but
Esther decides to turn the tables on him. So we'll
start out and act one. Act one is you know,
(14:41):
I just want to mention early off too. There are
some great cinematography shots.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And especially in the opening scene.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, as he's walking through the curio shop, there's one
in particular where I'll just make a notation about the mirror. Yeah,
the mirror was really cool, the reflection of the shop owner.
Because as well, he's called Gerald, he's called Fortune. He's
called by different names throughout the episode, but he's our
main character. And he enters and he can't find the shopkeeper, right.
(15:13):
He's calling for him several times and It's interesting to
note two as this plays in with a key theme.
One of the things that stuck out to me in
this early part of the episode were the as the
shopkeepers on the ladder dusting or doing some work. Did
you catch the two masks that he was dusting, Well,
(15:33):
I was one was happy and like one was.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Something else I was gonna say is I was trying
to look and I couldn't find any verification of this
if any of those props in the Curio shop had
been used in any of the other Twilight zones that
we've covered, because I was maybe thinking about seeing what's
the stupid devil box thing, you like, the wishing right,
the fortune teller machine, or any of the masks that
(15:59):
we've seen. I couldn't spot anything, but I'd be curious
to see later on in future Twilight's own episodes if
any of those masks come up to play later.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, that would be interesting. The shopkeeper, I'm trying to
look up his name now, I forget his name. Is
he listed in the.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Is it Throckmorton? Is it Philip Coolidge? I think maybe,
or see the.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I don't know. So nevertheless, it's it's not important, but
he's he's on a ladder and he's dusting. He's really
short and kurt with Oh, by the way, this is
another thing that stuck out to was the dialogue was like,
it's really well written as well, like as far as
(16:43):
just this man's place in life, Gerald his place in life.
We meet him and we come to find out that
he's like, what was he like a player? It wasn't
a player. He was a critic, a playwright, critic or whatever.
And so he's has, you know, a higher education. He's
very smart, and so the dialogue SYNCD up really well.
(17:08):
So he has an exchange with the shopkeeper. He explains
that he wants to to buy his wife a birthday present,
and she's basically taken up piano. She wants to learn
how to play the piano. And this theater critic he
takes you find out he takes pleasure and cruelty to
his fellow man, and he wants to buy a self
(17:31):
playing piano. Does he say at first that he wants
a piano specifically? I think he did. He wasn't looking
for he wanted a piano specifically for his wife.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So and then the shopkeepers like, well, I got a
self playing one, but I don't even know if it works.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Right, which that thing was in really good shape for
old and not. You know, it reminds me one of
those pianos used to stay in the Old West. Rinds
of it.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
They go into the bar and.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Exactly. Yeah. So we find out also in this early
exchange that his wife is much younger than he is.
She's only twenty six, and I would say Fitzgerald's probably
like in his late forties, early fifties. Maybe that's probably
what I would guess him to be age wise. So
(18:19):
again in these opening scenes, there are clues of this
piano's magical effects on, you know, on people. Because the
shopkeeper turns from a dour I forget what name he
calls him. He calls him a specific I thought I
wrote it down, and I guess I didn't. He basically
calls him a person who hates people. I can't think
(18:44):
of the word, but he used a big two dollars
word to describe him that way. Again, that just goes
back to the excellence of the writing. But another clue
again we talked about, is the masks that as the
junk store shopkeeper, he's those on the ladder. We kind
of get an idea of kind of where the episode's going,
(19:04):
and some of the magical effects of the playing of
the piano is that this curmudgeon of a shopkeeper, all
of a sudden he hears the song I'm in the
Mood for Love, I think, is a song that plays
on the piano, and they're on these big long scrolls, right,
and they're loaded into the player piano, and all of
(19:26):
a sudden, he's just the nicest guy in the world.
He asks about Fitzgerald's relationship with his wife, and he's like, oh, yeah,
I'm sure you're going to take out your wonderful wife
for her birthday and you're gonna have a magical time,
all while you know, this song is playing. And so
as Fortune exits the store, we have the introduction and
(19:50):
into the camera sort of sweeps as Fortune walks out
the front door, and we sweep sweep our pans across
the rod and he sitting in the storefront window kind
of behind a counter or a desk, and he delivers
his opening narration, and then an act too is primarily
(20:17):
in the apartment, if you will, I think the rest
of the episode actually is shot inside of the apartment
of Fitzgerald, and I believe it's the same set as
they used in the mirror about the Cuban. Yeah. Yeah,
I think that's the exact same set. I believe I
(20:38):
read somewhere that that's one that's reused. Believing that everyone
has two faces, one we wear and the other what
we keep hitting. Fortune takes advantage of his butler and
later the guests that are attending his wife's birthday party.
So he's going to throw this big birthday party. But
before he does that, he let me just point out
(21:00):
one thing. So arrangements were made. Let me back up
to the first scene. That the piano, well they Fortune
paid two hundred dollars for it and that it was
to be delivered. Well, the piano. Now as he enters
his apartment, it's nicely positioned in the corner and there's
like this mask or did you notice that thing fixed
(21:23):
to the mask on the uprighte of the piano is
like a face, like a mask thing, so that it
has again just reinforcing that like special powers that the
piano has to turn people. And Fitzgerald was like one
of the first people to he really uses the piano.
I'm getting ahead of myself. But he really uses the
(21:44):
piano as a weapon. He finds people's weaknesses. He's like
one of the he's the first to discover basically the
piano's powers. Well would you use it if you could?
I don't know. I would hope not, but not for
how cruelly is And we we realize here in these
opening scenes of the of the apartment, the cruelty that
(22:07):
he has not only for his wife, but the other
people that are going to be attending the party. He's
very condescending toward his wife, basically implying that she has
no musical talent while demanding an enthusiastic thank you for
his birthday. Yet right, he's like, I don't want to
(22:28):
spend a whole bunch of money on a real piano
only to find out that your talentless hacked. Basically I'm
paraphrasing so and that was a good piece of acting
too by esther. Like when he's basically demanding that she
thank him for the piano, she's just like, okay, thanks,
(22:51):
Like she looks down at the ground and like, you know,
you can tell that he's basically bullied her. Their whole
really relationship and Marvin the Butler. He's the second victim,
if you will, of the piano, It says from this
(23:13):
is taken straight from the dialogue. Marvin the Butler goes
from lugubrious looking or sounding sad or indismal to a giddy,
lighthearted man under the spell of the piano. He turned
his frown literally upside down. So Marvin the Butler, you know,
he's just downtrodden, sour looking butler, never smiles. But when fortune,
(23:41):
I forget what song he plays, it's in my trivia.
He plays the song, and all of a sudden, the butler.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Is he's happy, jovial.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, exactly. He's dancing, you know, flipping, doing twirls and
like flipping down onto the couch. So Gerald puts another
music roll on as the song begins to play, the
truth about Esther's feelings toward him pour out. So Esther's
(24:15):
like the third target of Gerald, and she as she
is pouring out what she really feels about him, she says,
I was a stupid child when I married you. I
thought you were a great man, but you aren't. You're
just a sadistic fiend. You take pleasure in humiliating me.
(24:36):
In front of your clever friends. And now I have
a question.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Did the scrolls have something written on the house side
or some sort of marking to decide while would be
played and who it would target.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I couldn't tell that.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Because because what I'm saying is if he put that one,
the first one in for the butler, right, why didn't
she interact.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
To you know what I mean? Or does he have
to say that sort of that was unclear? Like like
I think the particular song only affects the person that
he is targeting. Everyone else is unaffected, right because esther
when he played the verse song, she was unaffected. So
(25:20):
I'm just I'm guessing that the writer because whatever the
opposite whatever, whatever opposite characteristic that they were concealing. Right,
So he's sad.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But but what I'm saying is the only reason I
say that it's confusing is because that the the last
person that is going to be the subject of this
magic if you will. The lady changes the sheet, sheet.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Music, changed member memory.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
He says, put this in, We're gonna call out the
devil or whatever, and she sets it back on the
shelf and she pulls a different one off.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, So as Esther turning the tables on you.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
So is whoever puts the paper in the machine gets
to choose the target.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, I would say that's probably true. So she
must have caught on because yeah, he gave her one
roll to put in, but she put in something else,
so she must have figured out the I'm guessing this
is like it is kind of unclear as you're watching.
(26:35):
It's a little disjointing, but whatever that person is concealing, right,
because that that was like the main theme of the
Fortune basically says something to the effect of, like people
have two sides, and he's, you know, by using this
piano as a weapon, I'm going to pull out what
they're really thinking, what they're trying to conceal. And I
(26:57):
think the Esther catches on to that at the end
and then turns it on and we're getting ahead of ourselves.
She turns it on Fitzgerald himself. So but Fitzgerald Fortune,
he congratulates Esther on her performance after she after it comes,
everything comes pouring out when she hears her song, and
(27:21):
then he says they're off. They're gonna have a really
interesting evening. So in Act three, we move. We're still
in the apartment, but all of the party guests start
to come in, and one young man who comes in early.
His name is Greg, and he reveals his affections for
Fortune's wife, Esther. And then a heavy set woman imagines
(27:42):
herself as a little girl, a little girl that she
never was. And then the never smiling servant laughs and
cheers out of contempt. We already covered him, the butler.
And then Esther, we talked about this a little bit.
She switches the music sheets to throw of the same
ploy onto her husband, who reveals at the end that
(28:03):
he's afraid of the dark. And I'm just summarizing those
last scene here, and then Fortune is nothing more than
a frightened boy who hurts others because he envies those
who embrace the world in ways that he doesn't. He
covets the talents of other playwrights, hurting them in his reviews.
And after having a brief taste of his own medicine,
mister Fitzgerald, Fortune loses the respect of his friends and
(28:25):
his wife. So let's back up and talk about Greg.
Greg is like this handsome, strapping you know, young He's
like me, Yeah, exactly like, right, yeah, so Greg is
I think he's a playwright. Also because you know, fortune
It says makes a comment at the end about giving
(28:45):
him negative reviews whenever he had really good plays, gave
him a really good one. So, but he's in love
with Esther. He's a tender hearted kind of guy, but
you know, he hides his mask of you know, he
shows respect towards fitzger Old and I guess apparently they
met on some trip, like she went away on a
(29:05):
vacation and they bumped into each other. And all of
this comes out during the playing of the piano and
then the heavy set. Lady what's her name? Marge? She
wants to be a dancer. She's very self deprecating, right,
She's always trying to deflect. She's really conscious about self
(29:25):
conscious about her weight. And so when her song plays,
and again I'll try to find these in my trivia
notes what songs were actually played, she's like, I'm a butterfly, right,
it's kind of weird in a way. Yeah, she goes
back to childhood and says her my name is not Marge,
(29:49):
It's Tina or something like that, or I forget. She
even changes her name and it sort of projects herself
to be what she envisions herself to be during her song.
Here she is coming in the door. What you know,
she's very I don't know how to describe it, now,
(30:13):
very outgoing.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Was she dating?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I don't know, Greg, is that what you've got from that? Ya?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
She's like, haven't heard from me a while or talk
or whatever?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Right, And she said and she says, well, I better
not find out who this other woman is or I'm
gonna like scratch her eyes out or something like that. Yeah.
So I thought she did a great job acting what
I thought everybody's I thought it was a well acted episode.
It just was a little bit disjointed in the effect
of the music. You know, it was unclear to me,
(30:47):
at least on first viewing the episode, like why is
this having it? Like what kind of what you said?
Why is this having an effect on some people and
not other people? And so you have to go back
and kind of rewatch it to see that each song
is tailor made to the person that they're trying to target.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Well, then I have another question because that brings up
Remember I said, whoever fed the sheet music? Again at
the beginning, did the shop owner put the music in himself.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I think he did, and then that kills right, so
never mind. Yeah, So the continuity kind of issue with
the writing might have been a little bit you know, suspect,
I guess, But the acting overall, I thought was it
was pretty well done. So now there's this big party
(31:35):
of people and Fitzgerald is holding cord and he's you know,
he's targeting his people, and we've already covered sort of
been broad strokes each person that sort of got targeted,
Greg and Marge and then and Esther obviously his wife.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
The shopkeeper yep. And now he wants to find out
who the devil is.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, and so it's it's turned on Fortune himself. Esther
turns it on him and he it's actually a lullaby
that's played, and then he basically is transported back to
being afraid, scared little boy who is afraid of the dark,
who always feels lesser than others. So that's why he
(32:18):
attacks people personally. He tries to put them down and
belittle them, and he wants dominance over him because in reality,
he has an inferiority complex really about others, and in
order to make himself feel better, he has to put
down other people, thus the whole piano incident and targeting
all the people in the party. And that's kind of
(32:39):
where we land with the episode. Anything else that you
wanted to throw in, anything, well.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
No, just when they all started leaving. This is one
thing I noticed that I didn't see any of us
when they all start leaving. If you watch the lampshade,
they hit it. Somebody hits the lamp shade and it
starts shaking like. I don't know if that's like a goof,
It's just something I notice at the end of the episode.
I thought it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
You know, March for being when we're looking at this scene,
for being a heavier woman, she's pretty light on her
feet when she's doing those turls. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, she did a great job.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I don't know if she was trained in the dance
and theater art, but she did a really good job
overall acting. Let's get onto some trivia notes you got
do you have any tripping?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
You got nothing. There wasn't a whole lot here. Only
have a few points and I'm just going to hit
those highlighters the high let me find so when Mars
arrives at the party, Fitzgerald comments on her weight, to
which she replies, I've been on more diets than our
Currow horses. Eddie Arcurrow was a Hall of Fame jockey
(33:50):
who won more classic races than any other jockey in history,
and the only jockey to win the US Triple Crown twice.
Our Currow retired from ray sing in nineteen sixty two,
the year that this teleplay first aired. So that was
an inside joke about horse jockey. On the front of
the piano face we talked about this maybe briefly. The
(34:14):
face that's on the masts of the piano. It's called
a New Zealand marory Tiki Mao ri i moory Tiki.
So that's what that is. The musician responsible for scoring
this episode, and this is really the crux of the episode.
(34:35):
The musician responsible for scoring the episode shows the right
pieces to represent each of the characters who are subjected
to reveal the emotion they hide from the outside world
and themselves. So there's the paradigm, right, this is what
they're the emotion that they're trying to hide from the
world and themselves. So every time the player piano is used,
(34:56):
the emotions of the listener reflect whatever song is playing.
When the grouchy shopkeeper listens to I'm in the Mood
for Love, he briefly becomes sentimental and generous. When Marvin
the fortune sour Butler he hears smiles that was the
title of his song, he begins smiling and admits that
(35:18):
he's more lighthearted than he lets on. When the usually
cool headed Esther listens to Sabre Dance, a musical number
where ballet dancers dance with swords, she goes on a
rant about unhappy and frustrated she is with her uncaring husband.
When the mild mannered playwright Greg hears the Foolish Things
(35:39):
Remind Me of You, he reveals that he's deeply in
love with Esther and that they had a tryst. When
an enthusiastic and self deprecating party guest Marge listens to
Claire de Lune, she reveals her deepest and most heartfelt dreams. Finally,
(35:59):
when Jerry hears lullaby, I see they call him Jerry
Gerald Fitzgerald, so Jerry would be Gerald. So When Jerry
hears Lullaby, he reveals his lack of emotion and maturity
and acts in a childlike manner. So here's the way.
(36:20):
Let me I just thought of another question. So, according
to that paradigm, Marvin is really happy inside, but he
puts on a dour, sour face just as a butler
to be around.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Well, because he tells he tells his boss. He's like,
I'm always happy on the inside or whatever, I just
don't show it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I don't know if I've ever met one person in
my life that's really been happy and joyful on the
inside and then they hit it from the I don't know.
That's that's kind of odd, but all right, for the
sake of the story, I guess it has to work.
Let's talk about one trivia about Joan Hackett. Here she
says it's not hard to be an actress. Joan Hackett
(37:07):
commented in an interview for TV Guide, it's not even
hard to be a good one if you care about
it and you try. The hard part is persuading yourself
that things you do are of value. And Hackett just
a little side note. She was born in New York's
Harlem District, the second child of an Italian mother and
an Irish father, and I believe she died she apparently,
(37:33):
I guess a lot of other actors found her kind
of difficult to work with too. I guess she was
like really a perfectionist, just digging in a little bit
about her life, and I guess it prevented her from
getting other roles because a lot of actors didn't want
to work with her because she was such a perfectionist.
(37:57):
Oh there's one goof here, let me throw that in.
There was our blooper when I'm in the mood for
love finishes playing in the junk shop. An observant television
audience can catch the lyrics to these foolish things on
the piano. So I guess that wasn't even the right
song that was loaded in, So some sharp watchers caught
(38:19):
that little goof anything else that you have questions observations
with your overall rating. I don't think I really cared
for this episode.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
I get what they were trying to do with everybody
has two faces, especially at the beginning showing the two
masks and then playing the song and changing their mood,
if you will, just an okay episode in my eyes.
I think Marvin did a really good job, and I
think Fitzgerald he's pretty creepy. I think he does a
(38:56):
really well job in this too.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Yeah, this is a pretty highly trained theater actor.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, It's just to me it was missing something, maybe
explaining a little bit the lore of the piano.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
And I like piano music.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I mean, you know, my wife's been playing the piano
since she was three years old, so yeah, she's pretty good.
So I do like piano music. But to me, if
I'm going to rate this out of a ten, let
it come in at a six for me.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
So Eric, yeah, I'm probably gonna ring in maybe a
little better. I thought the acting was good. I thought
that it was obviously the musical score was good. Even
some of the cinematography was really good, especially in the
first scene and how that was like a wide moving
shot with the mirror and all that. So, I mean,
(39:49):
it gets some points there, but not to you know,
to be very critical of Hammner, but it just felt
like the story was a little bit disjointed. It just
like it was the puzzle pieces didn't fit together really well,
and it took I'm slow anyway, Like it took me
(40:09):
a while to figure out the corresponding paradigm with those
those songs and how the piano was used as a
target specifically to bring out things that wasn't It wasn't
super evident in the first scene, and maybe I don't know,
maybe I just missed it, but so yeah, i'd probably
bring it in about six and a half. It's not
(40:32):
it's not as seven and a half as I AMDB
in my opinion, I just think there was a lot
left there on the tables. As far as writing, I
was pretty broad strokes really how he was writing it,
and just kind of disjointed. I did have one another note.
I missed this earlier, with the dates of filming being
(40:54):
the October sixth, ninth, and tenth of nineteen sixty one,
the rehearsals for this so we're conducted on October fifth.
Just some dates of note in involving the five major characters,
but not Delevante, who was playing the butler. The entire
episode was filmed on Stage nineteen, including the junk shop,
(41:14):
Fortunes New York apartment, and the white walls surrounding the
room were most where most of the story takes place,
where the same featured in the mirror. So I think
I mentioned that earlier and I thought it was so
it was the same kind of set and it was
all a shot apparently on one stage. So that's pretty
much it. Jimbo, you want to well shout us down. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
If you like What's Heart, we are the Tragedy of
Cinema podcast, you can find us pretty much every week
really send an episode with Kyle and I doing the
main feed, and then Eric every once in a while
hopping in with the Twilight Zone series as well as
the I can't believe that was a movie series with
my dad Art toast. If you like a little fun
and s B movies, definitely hear some of our toasts
(42:00):
greatest hits from his childhood where he went trigger treating.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Out at a bar for the drunk.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Drunk people would would drunk, people would throw out change
to himself.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
He could just kept walking by.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
So but with that being said, I think this episode
is coming to a clothes and that's wrap and cut.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Mister Fitzgerald Fortune a man who went searching for concealed
persons and found himself in the Twilight Zone.
There's a podcast that lies between the imagination of two
simple minded Earthlings. Travel with these two longtime friends, Jimbo
and eighties E as they attempt to explore the fifth dimension.
Follow along with them as they take the key and
unlock the door to the vast space between shadow and substance.
(00:24):
This podcast is one of trivia, of insight, and of
sounds and ideas from one of the greatest television shows
ever produced. You are embarking on a timeless journey. There
is your signpost up ahead. You are entering the Tragedy
of Cinemas Twilight Zone. Mister Fitzgerald, fortune theater critic and
(00:51):
synegate Leich on his way to a birthday. Buddy, if
he knew what is in store for I mean, you
probably wouldn't go. Because before this evening is over, there
cranky old piano is going to play those piano roll
blues with some effects that could happen only in the
Twilight Zone.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
All right, guys, welcome back to the Tragedy of Cinema
of the Twilight Zone series.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I am your host, Jimbo, and I'm your co host
eighty Z eighty Z.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Here we are tonight on Election Night, twenty twenty four,
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's a election night explosion.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And although we don't know when this will be released,
since we have like four or five in the can
that Eric has to Edity.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
This might be the next election before it comes out.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So but every mind a little bit before we get
started with this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I do have a question for you, all right, Eric,
did you ever play any musical instruments besides the recorder
that we all took in like third or fourth grade
and the bell choir.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, I played the piano.
I took a few piano lessons when I was I
don't know, fourth, fifth, sixth grade, maybe somewhere.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
In there exactly. I did too. I had I had
the one concert. Who was your teacher, Deamer? Was it
that Diane Brown or whatever?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Wow? You remember I think that was like, I think
that was her? Yeah, I think it was her.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, And I remember the only thing I remember remember
about taking piano lessons was we had that concert recital
and I was dressed like a milkman.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
All white with the red bow tie.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
My mom has a picture of me still.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But uh, did you ever play any like band instruments
or anything, No, I did.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Did you ever want to?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah? I kind of always.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Do you remember when they used to come to the
school and they bring all the instruments in there?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh wow, I'd like to play that. Probably the saxophone,
to answer your question. Probably the saxophone would have been
something that I, you know, a smooth jazz saxophone was
pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I always wanted to play the trumpet.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I think that would have been cool too.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, but well it's been a while, so why don't
you go ahead and take it away?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, hopefully I'm not too rusty with this. This episode
entitled A Piano in the House. This is the Twilight
Zone season number three, episode number twenty two. It comes
in at an IMDb rating of seven and a half.
We'll see where we end up. It might be like
(03:18):
this election might start I end really low. I don't know.
We'll have to wait and see. It's a toss up, right,
We'll see what happens. So this particular episode, I've got
my notes out of order here, But this particular episode
premiered or original air date for the episode was February
the sixteenth, nineteen sixty two, And that brings us to
(03:41):
our favorite segment in the episode, the segment that we
like to call on this day in history. All right,
we've joined heavens Gates, and now we're to look at
February the sixteenth, nineteen sixty two, is when this episode aired,
(04:04):
and we're gonna look at, you know, on this day
in history. We're gonna look at some things that happened historically.
We're gonna mix into little sports, a little TV in film,
and then I've even got a little birthdays, oh mixed
in here, so some famous birthdays. So let's go all
the way back to nineteen thirty eight on February sixteenth,
(04:25):
and a little movie, Jimbo, I don't know if you guys,
I don't think you've covered it, but I think you
have it saved on your fandango. It's a little movie
in nineteen thirty eight called Bringing Up Baby. It was
a film directed by Howard Hawks and it starred Catherine
Hepburn and Carrie Grant. It was released on February sixteenth,
(04:46):
nineteen thirty eight. So there's a little TV in film
continuing in that vein nineteen forty eight, on February sixteenth,
we have the first newsreel telecast So that was released
by twentieth century Fox Movie Tone, Movie Tone News, and
it was shown on NBC, not MTV. MTV wasn't around
(05:08):
for many decades later. So a newsreel telecas cast would
be like you know those old newsreels that they had
in like World War Two, and they would show like
before a feature presentation of a movie or whatever. Those
were called new newsreel telecasts. February the sixteenth, nineteen fifty,
we have the longest running primetime game show, its inaugural
(05:33):
season on February the sixteenth, nineteen fifty, Jebo, you want
to take a guess at what that game show would
have been?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Is this still going on?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
No, I don't believe.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Let's go with nineteen you say nineteen fifty.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes, Actually they may have revived it in the early
two thousands. I'm not exactly sure, but I'll go with
the Gong show the Gongs. That would have been a
good guess. But in actuality, it's what's my line? It begins.
It began in nineteen fifty on CBS, and I think.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That's whose line is it?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Any way?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
You're thinking of?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right? Oh? Well, yeah, I don't know if that's two
different game shows.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Then, well, yeah, what's my line? Whose line is it? Anyway?
It's not even the same.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Name, right, but I thought maybe it was revived under
a different name. I don't know. I'm not familiar with
either one. So but according to this.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
You still remember whose line is anyway?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
With Drew Carey and Lolady and I am familiar with that. Yeah,
So nineteen fifty, let's skip ahead a few years, about
nine years. In a February sixteenth, nineteen fifty nine, Fidel
Castro becomes the sixteenth Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing
Fudulencio Battista So nineteen fifty nine. Nineteen sixty three, North
(06:54):
Carolina forward Billy Cunningham grabs twenty seven rebounds for a
wreck high in a game versus Clemson. And that was
February sixteenth, nineteen sixty three, nineteen sixty four. One year later,
the famous Beatles make their second appearance on The Ed
Sullivan Show, live from the Duallville Hotel in Miami, Florida.
(07:18):
I'm not pronouncing that right, brom You like you like
the Beatles? Eric? Oh yeah, love the Beatles. Broadcast this broadcast.
It's important to note it drew about seventy million viewers,
and this was their second appearance in nineteen sixty four.
And then finally on the historical part, and then we'll
move on to the birthdays. February the sixteenth, there's another
(07:41):
sports trivia. February sixteenth, nineteen seventy two, Wilt Chamberlain of
the Los Angeles Lakers becomes the first player in NBA
history to reach the career mark of thirty thousand points.
He did it in a loss a one ten one
oh nine law to the Phoenix Suns. So nineteen seventy two.
(08:03):
Wilt Tamberlin the first two thirty thousand points. Who's better
Wil Tamberlin.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Or Lebron James Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That should be the answer to any of the NBA questions.
All right, birthdays? This lady was born in February sixteenth,
nineteen twenty one. Her name is Vera Ellen. She was
an American actress and she was most notably known for
the movie White Christmas. She played Judy Haynes, one of
(08:36):
the sisters, and she was born in Norwood, Ohio, in
nineteen twenty one. Another famous birthday, February sixteenth, nineteen thirty five, one.
Sonny Bono, American musician vocalist of famous for the Sonny
and Cheery gay Games show I Got You Babe. He
(08:57):
was a songwriter. He also was an actor, politician, He
did it all. And he was born in Detroit, Michigan,
February sixteenth, nineteen thirty five. And in February sixteenth, let's
see what year, nineteen eighty nine, we have Elizabeth Olsen,
younger sibling of the Olson twins. She was also an
(09:18):
actress and been in Benderfeld WMBA Yeah, Scarletwitch Yeah. And
she was born in Los Angeles, California, in nineteen eighty nine.
And then finally with the last famous birthday, February sixteenth,
nineteen fifty nine. John McEnroe. He's an American tennis player.
Won many US Open seventy nine, eighty eighty one, eight,
(09:40):
on and on we could go. He won Wimbledon titles,
Grand Slams, Davis Cups. He was born in Wisebaden, Germany,
so he was actually born in Germany nineteen fifty nine.
All right, moving on to our episode. This will conclude
our on this day in history. A few little facts
(10:01):
about this episode in front of us. This is season
three episode twenty two. As I think I mentioned before,
this is the episode is directed by David Green, and
I believe this is his solo performance as director. I
don't think David Green made a any other appearances in
the Twilight Zone as a director to my knowledge, as
(10:23):
far as I can tell. And this episode was written
by Earl Hamner Junior. This is the second episode in
his stint of I think eight or nine episodes that
he wrote. We did The Hunt several episodes ago. I
can't remember now, but that was the first episode that
he wrote, was The Hunt. This was the second. The
(10:45):
total production cost for this episode comes in around forty
eight hundred and thirty three dollars, so kind of kind
of low. Really. I think our benchmarks shooting around fifty grand,
so they were reasonably you know, budget friendly with this episode.
Dates of rehearsal October fourth and fifth. Two days of
(11:07):
rehearsal October fourth and fifth of nineteen sixty one, so
that would have been the prior year obviously, and then
three dates of filming October six, nine, and ten of
nineteen sixty one. Jimbo tell us about our starstud cast
for this episode.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, there's not really too many the cast lists not
so very long. Even though there was more people in
the episode, they didn't even list them. So I'm just
gonna give the top ones that they actually credited. So
first off, we have the main character, Barry or sorry
Barry Morris. He's playing Fitzgerald Fortune. He does a really
(11:46):
good job. He looks creepy, but he was in a
movie called The Changeling. Eric, you ever seen The Changeling? No,
I don't think I have really good and you check
it out.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Then you had Eric's favorite of this episode, Joan Hackett.
She played Esther of Fortune, who was Fitzgerald Fortune's wife.
You had a much younger wife much Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And they had Don Durant. He played Gregory Walker.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You come to find out in this episode that he
may be a little sweet on Esther.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Did you have Muriel Landers She played Marge More and
I believe this is the heavier set lady that likes
to dance. Really good job. Maybe one of the best
ones of the episode. But she was in Doctor Doolittle
in the movie in nineteen sixty seven. And John Hackett
(12:42):
and Donder and also had a bunch of like westerns
and TV shows. I didn't want to name them all.
So you also had Philip Coolidge, he played Throckmorton. He
was in movie you may have seen Eric north By Northwest,
the Great Off for Hitchcock. And he was also in
the thriller of the Tingler. And then we have mister
Cyril Delevante. He played Marvin the Butler. If you've listened
(13:06):
to us long enough, this guy's been in probably three
or four episodes.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Off the top of the cuff, veteran of the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Veteran, Yes, he was in movies Soiling Green. He was
in bed Knobs and Broomsticks. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Or Ben Knobs and Bruce Angela Ans came up, oh
the first time, Delevante like, but I haven't seen you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And then last, but not least, we do have the
late great Rod Serling, the narrator and the self host
of the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
All right, let's talk about a plot for this episode.
It's uh a theater critic, Fitzgerald Fortune is looking to
buy a different sort of gift for his wife's birthday.
In a curio shop, he buys an old player piano.
It's delivered to his home and when he starts it up.
It has a strange effect on his man servant. Why
(13:58):
they call him a man servant in this plot summary,
But what would butler? Maybe? Yeah, that's what Marvin Butler. Yeah,
Marvin the butler. So it has a strange effect on
his man servant and normally dour man who breaks into
mind or mirthful laughter when he plays another song, this
(14:20):
time for a guest. The man breaks down and admits
his love with Fortunes with Fortune's wife Esther. He decides
to have fun with his party guests that evening, but
Esther decides to turn the tables on him. So we'll
start out and act one. Act one is you know,
(14:41):
I just want to mention early off too. There are
some great cinematography shots.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And especially in the opening scene.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, as he's walking through the curio shop, there's one
in particular where I'll just make a notation about the mirror. Yeah,
the mirror was really cool, the reflection of the shop owner.
Because as well, he's called Gerald, he's called Fortune. He's
called by different names throughout the episode, but he's our
main character. And he enters and he can't find the shopkeeper, right.
(15:13):
He's calling for him several times and It's interesting to
note two as this plays in with a key theme.
One of the things that stuck out to me in
this early part of the episode were the as the
shopkeepers on the ladder dusting or doing some work. Did
you catch the two masks that he was dusting, Well,
(15:33):
I was one was happy and like one was.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Something else I was gonna say is I was trying
to look and I couldn't find any verification of this
if any of those props in the Curio shop had
been used in any of the other Twilight zones that
we've covered, because I was maybe thinking about seeing what's
the stupid devil box thing, you like, the wishing right,
the fortune teller machine, or any of the masks that
(15:59):
we've seen. I couldn't spot anything, but I'd be curious
to see later on in future Twilight's own episodes if
any of those masks come up to play later.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, that would be interesting. The shopkeeper, I'm trying to
look up his name now, I forget his name. Is
he listed in the.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Is it Throckmorton? Is it Philip Coolidge? I think maybe,
or see the.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I don't know. So nevertheless, it's it's not important, but
he's he's on a ladder and he's dusting. He's really
short and kurt with Oh, by the way, this is
another thing that stuck out to was the dialogue was like,
it's really well written as well, like as far as
(16:43):
just this man's place in life, Gerald his place in life.
We meet him and we come to find out that
he's like, what was he like a player? It wasn't
a player. He was a critic, a playwright, critic or whatever.
And so he's has, you know, a higher education. He's
very smart, and so the dialogue SYNCD up really well.
(17:08):
So he has an exchange with the shopkeeper. He explains
that he wants to to buy his wife a birthday present,
and she's basically taken up piano. She wants to learn
how to play the piano. And this theater critic he
takes you find out he takes pleasure and cruelty to
his fellow man, and he wants to buy a self
(17:31):
playing piano. Does he say at first that he wants
a piano specifically? I think he did. He wasn't looking
for he wanted a piano specifically for his wife.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So and then the shopkeepers like, well, I got a
self playing one, but I don't even know if it works.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Right, which that thing was in really good shape for
old and not. You know, it reminds me one of
those pianos used to stay in the Old West. Rinds
of it.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
They go into the bar and.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Exactly. Yeah. So we find out also in this early
exchange that his wife is much younger than he is.
She's only twenty six, and I would say Fitzgerald's probably
like in his late forties, early fifties. Maybe that's probably
what I would guess him to be age wise. So
(18:19):
again in these opening scenes, there are clues of this
piano's magical effects on, you know, on people. Because the
shopkeeper turns from a dour I forget what name he
calls him. He calls him a specific I thought I
wrote it down, and I guess I didn't. He basically
calls him a person who hates people. I can't think
(18:44):
of the word, but he used a big two dollars
word to describe him that way. Again, that just goes
back to the excellence of the writing. But another clue
again we talked about, is the masks that as the
junk store shopkeeper, he's those on the ladder. We kind
of get an idea of kind of where the episode's going,
(19:04):
and some of the magical effects of the playing of
the piano is that this curmudgeon of a shopkeeper, all
of a sudden he hears the song I'm in the
Mood for Love, I think, is a song that plays
on the piano, and they're on these big long scrolls, right,
and they're loaded into the player piano, and all of
(19:26):
a sudden, he's just the nicest guy in the world.
He asks about Fitzgerald's relationship with his wife, and he's like, oh, yeah,
I'm sure you're going to take out your wonderful wife
for her birthday and you're gonna have a magical time,
all while you know, this song is playing. And so
as Fortune exits the store, we have the introduction and
(19:50):
into the camera sort of sweeps as Fortune walks out
the front door, and we sweep sweep our pans across
the rod and he sitting in the storefront window kind
of behind a counter or a desk, and he delivers
his opening narration, and then an act too is primarily
(20:17):
in the apartment, if you will, I think the rest
of the episode actually is shot inside of the apartment
of Fitzgerald, and I believe it's the same set as
they used in the mirror about the Cuban. Yeah. Yeah,
I think that's the exact same set. I believe I
(20:38):
read somewhere that that's one that's reused. Believing that everyone
has two faces, one we wear and the other what
we keep hitting. Fortune takes advantage of his butler and
later the guests that are attending his wife's birthday party.
So he's going to throw this big birthday party. But
before he does that, he let me just point out
(21:00):
one thing. So arrangements were made. Let me back up
to the first scene. That the piano, well they Fortune
paid two hundred dollars for it and that it was
to be delivered. Well, the piano. Now as he enters
his apartment, it's nicely positioned in the corner and there's
like this mask or did you notice that thing fixed
(21:23):
to the mask on the uprighte of the piano is
like a face, like a mask thing, so that it
has again just reinforcing that like special powers that the
piano has to turn people. And Fitzgerald was like one
of the first people to he really uses the piano.
I'm getting ahead of myself. But he really uses the
(21:44):
piano as a weapon. He finds people's weaknesses. He's like
one of the he's the first to discover basically the
piano's powers. Well would you use it if you could?
I don't know. I would hope not, but not for
how cruelly is And we we realize here in these
opening scenes of the of the apartment, the cruelty that
(22:07):
he has not only for his wife, but the other
people that are going to be attending the party. He's
very condescending toward his wife, basically implying that she has
no musical talent while demanding an enthusiastic thank you for
his birthday. Yet right, he's like, I don't want to
(22:28):
spend a whole bunch of money on a real piano
only to find out that your talentless hacked. Basically I'm
paraphrasing so and that was a good piece of acting
too by esther. Like when he's basically demanding that she
thank him for the piano, she's just like, okay, thanks,
(22:51):
Like she looks down at the ground and like, you know,
you can tell that he's basically bullied her. Their whole
really relationship and Marvin the Butler. He's the second victim,
if you will, of the piano, It says from this
(23:13):
is taken straight from the dialogue. Marvin the Butler goes
from lugubrious looking or sounding sad or indismal to a giddy,
lighthearted man under the spell of the piano. He turned
his frown literally upside down. So Marvin the Butler, you know,
he's just downtrodden, sour looking butler, never smiles. But when fortune,
(23:41):
I forget what song he plays, it's in my trivia.
He plays the song, and all of a sudden, the butler.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Is he's happy, jovial.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, exactly. He's dancing, you know, flipping, doing twirls and
like flipping down onto the couch. So Gerald puts another
music roll on as the song begins to play, the
truth about Esther's feelings toward him pour out. So Esther's
(24:15):
like the third target of Gerald, and she as she
is pouring out what she really feels about him, she says,
I was a stupid child when I married you. I
thought you were a great man, but you aren't. You're
just a sadistic fiend. You take pleasure in humiliating me.
(24:36):
In front of your clever friends. And now I have
a question.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Did the scrolls have something written on the house side
or some sort of marking to decide while would be
played and who it would target.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I couldn't tell that.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Because because what I'm saying is if he put that one,
the first one in for the butler, right, why didn't
she interact.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
To you know what I mean? Or does he have
to say that sort of that was unclear? Like like
I think the particular song only affects the person that
he is targeting. Everyone else is unaffected, right because esther
when he played the verse song, she was unaffected. So
(25:20):
I'm just I'm guessing that the writer because whatever the
opposite whatever, whatever opposite characteristic that they were concealing. Right,
So he's sad.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But but what I'm saying is the only reason I
say that it's confusing is because that the the last
person that is going to be the subject of this
magic if you will. The lady changes the sheet, sheet.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Music, changed member memory.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
He says, put this in, We're gonna call out the
devil or whatever, and she sets it back on the
shelf and she pulls a different one off.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, So as Esther turning the tables on you.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
So is whoever puts the paper in the machine gets
to choose the target.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, I would say that's probably true. So she
must have caught on because yeah, he gave her one
roll to put in, but she put in something else,
so she must have figured out the I'm guessing this
is like it is kind of unclear as you're watching.
(26:35):
It's a little disjointing, but whatever that person is concealing, right,
because that that was like the main theme of the
Fortune basically says something to the effect of, like people
have two sides, and he's, you know, by using this
piano as a weapon, I'm going to pull out what
they're really thinking, what they're trying to conceal. And I
(26:57):
think the Esther catches on to that at the end
and then turns it on and we're getting ahead of ourselves.
She turns it on Fitzgerald himself. So but Fitzgerald Fortune,
he congratulates Esther on her performance after she after it comes,
everything comes pouring out when she hears her song, and
(27:21):
then he says they're off. They're gonna have a really
interesting evening. So in Act three, we move. We're still
in the apartment, but all of the party guests start
to come in, and one young man who comes in early.
His name is Greg, and he reveals his affections for
Fortune's wife, Esther. And then a heavy set woman imagines
(27:42):
herself as a little girl, a little girl that she
never was. And then the never smiling servant laughs and
cheers out of contempt. We already covered him, the butler.
And then Esther, we talked about this a little bit.
She switches the music sheets to throw of the same
ploy onto her husband, who reveals at the end that
(28:03):
he's afraid of the dark. And I'm just summarizing those
last scene here, and then Fortune is nothing more than
a frightened boy who hurts others because he envies those
who embrace the world in ways that he doesn't. He
covets the talents of other playwrights, hurting them in his reviews.
And after having a brief taste of his own medicine,
mister Fitzgerald, Fortune loses the respect of his friends and
(28:25):
his wife. So let's back up and talk about Greg.
Greg is like this handsome, strapping you know, young He's
like me, Yeah, exactly like, right, yeah, so Greg is
I think he's a playwright. Also because you know, fortune
It says makes a comment at the end about giving
(28:45):
him negative reviews whenever he had really good plays, gave
him a really good one. So, but he's in love
with Esther. He's a tender hearted kind of guy, but
you know, he hides his mask of you know, he
shows respect towards fitzger Old and I guess apparently they
met on some trip, like she went away on a
(29:05):
vacation and they bumped into each other. And all of
this comes out during the playing of the piano and
then the heavy set. Lady what's her name? Marge? She
wants to be a dancer. She's very self deprecating, right,
She's always trying to deflect. She's really conscious about self
(29:25):
conscious about her weight. And so when her song plays,
and again I'll try to find these in my trivia
notes what songs were actually played, she's like, I'm a butterfly, right,
it's kind of weird in a way. Yeah, she goes
back to childhood and says her my name is not Marge,
(29:49):
It's Tina or something like that, or I forget. She
even changes her name and it sort of projects herself
to be what she envisions herself to be during her song.
Here she is coming in the door. What you know,
she's very I don't know how to describe it, now,
(30:13):
very outgoing.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Was she dating?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I don't know, Greg, is that what you've got from that? Ya?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
She's like, haven't heard from me a while or talk
or whatever?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Right, And she said and she says, well, I better
not find out who this other woman is or I'm
gonna like scratch her eyes out or something like that. Yeah.
So I thought she did a great job acting what
I thought everybody's I thought it was a well acted episode.
It just was a little bit disjointed in the effect
of the music. You know, it was unclear to me,
(30:47):
at least on first viewing the episode, like why is
this having it? Like what kind of what you said?
Why is this having an effect on some people and
not other people? And so you have to go back
and kind of rewatch it to see that each song
is tailor made to the person that they're trying to target.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Well, then I have another question because that brings up
Remember I said, whoever fed the sheet music? Again at
the beginning, did the shop owner put the music in himself.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I think he did, and then that kills right, so
never mind. Yeah, So the continuity kind of issue with
the writing might have been a little bit you know, suspect,
I guess, But the acting overall, I thought was it
was pretty well done. So now there's this big party
(31:35):
of people and Fitzgerald is holding cord and he's you know,
he's targeting his people, and we've already covered sort of
been broad strokes each person that sort of got targeted,
Greg and Marge and then and Esther obviously his wife.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
The shopkeeper yep. And now he wants to find out
who the devil is.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, and so it's it's turned on Fortune himself. Esther
turns it on him and he it's actually a lullaby
that's played, and then he basically is transported back to
being afraid, scared little boy who is afraid of the dark,
who always feels lesser than others. So that's why he
(32:18):
attacks people personally. He tries to put them down and
belittle them, and he wants dominance over him because in reality,
he has an inferiority complex really about others, and in
order to make himself feel better, he has to put
down other people, thus the whole piano incident and targeting
all the people in the party. And that's kind of
(32:39):
where we land with the episode. Anything else that you
wanted to throw in, anything, well.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
No, just when they all started leaving. This is one
thing I noticed that I didn't see any of us
when they all start leaving. If you watch the lampshade,
they hit it. Somebody hits the lamp shade and it
starts shaking like. I don't know if that's like a goof,
It's just something I notice at the end of the episode.
I thought it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
You know, March for being when we're looking at this scene,
for being a heavier woman, she's pretty light on her
feet when she's doing those turls. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, she did a great job.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I don't know if she was trained in the dance
and theater art, but she did a really good job
overall acting. Let's get onto some trivia notes you got
do you have any tripping?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
You got nothing. There wasn't a whole lot here. Only
have a few points and I'm just going to hit
those highlighters the high let me find so when Mars
arrives at the party, Fitzgerald comments on her weight, to
which she replies, I've been on more diets than our
Currow horses. Eddie Arcurrow was a Hall of Fame jockey
(33:50):
who won more classic races than any other jockey in history,
and the only jockey to win the US Triple Crown twice.
Our Currow retired from ray sing in nineteen sixty two,
the year that this teleplay first aired. So that was
an inside joke about horse jockey. On the front of
the piano face we talked about this maybe briefly. The
(34:14):
face that's on the masts of the piano. It's called
a New Zealand marory Tiki Mao ri i moory Tiki.
So that's what that is. The musician responsible for scoring
this episode, and this is really the crux of the episode.
(34:35):
The musician responsible for scoring the episode shows the right
pieces to represent each of the characters who are subjected
to reveal the emotion they hide from the outside world
and themselves. So there's the paradigm, right, this is what
they're the emotion that they're trying to hide from the
world and themselves. So every time the player piano is used,
(34:56):
the emotions of the listener reflect whatever song is playing.
When the grouchy shopkeeper listens to I'm in the Mood
for Love, he briefly becomes sentimental and generous. When Marvin
the fortune sour Butler he hears smiles that was the
title of his song, he begins smiling and admits that
(35:18):
he's more lighthearted than he lets on. When the usually
cool headed Esther listens to Sabre Dance, a musical number
where ballet dancers dance with swords, she goes on a
rant about unhappy and frustrated she is with her uncaring husband.
When the mild mannered playwright Greg hears the Foolish Things
(35:39):
Remind Me of You, he reveals that he's deeply in
love with Esther and that they had a tryst. When
an enthusiastic and self deprecating party guest Marge listens to
Claire de Lune, she reveals her deepest and most heartfelt dreams. Finally,
(35:59):
when Jerry hears lullaby, I see they call him Jerry
Gerald Fitzgerald, so Jerry would be Gerald. So When Jerry
hears Lullaby, he reveals his lack of emotion and maturity
and acts in a childlike manner. So here's the way.
(36:20):
Let me I just thought of another question. So, according
to that paradigm, Marvin is really happy inside, but he
puts on a dour, sour face just as a butler
to be around.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Well, because he tells he tells his boss. He's like,
I'm always happy on the inside or whatever, I just
don't show it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I don't know if I've ever met one person in
my life that's really been happy and joyful on the
inside and then they hit it from the I don't know.
That's that's kind of odd, but all right, for the
sake of the story, I guess it has to work.
Let's talk about one trivia about Joan Hackett. Here she
says it's not hard to be an actress. Joan Hackett
(37:07):
commented in an interview for TV Guide, it's not even
hard to be a good one if you care about
it and you try. The hard part is persuading yourself
that things you do are of value. And Hackett just
a little side note. She was born in New York's
Harlem District, the second child of an Italian mother and
an Irish father, and I believe she died she apparently,
(37:33):
I guess a lot of other actors found her kind
of difficult to work with too. I guess she was
like really a perfectionist, just digging in a little bit
about her life, and I guess it prevented her from
getting other roles because a lot of actors didn't want
to work with her because she was such a perfectionist.
(37:57):
Oh there's one goof here, let me throw that in.
There was our blooper when I'm in the mood for
love finishes playing in the junk shop. An observant television
audience can catch the lyrics to these foolish things on
the piano. So I guess that wasn't even the right
song that was loaded in, So some sharp watchers caught
(38:19):
that little goof anything else that you have questions observations
with your overall rating. I don't think I really cared
for this episode.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
I get what they were trying to do with everybody
has two faces, especially at the beginning showing the two
masks and then playing the song and changing their mood,
if you will, just an okay episode in my eyes.
I think Marvin did a really good job, and I
think Fitzgerald he's pretty creepy. I think he does a
(38:56):
really well job in this too.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Yeah, this is a pretty highly trained theater actor.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, It's just to me it was missing something, maybe
explaining a little bit the lore of the piano.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
And I like piano music.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I mean, you know, my wife's been playing the piano
since she was three years old, so yeah, she's pretty good.
So I do like piano music. But to me, if
I'm going to rate this out of a ten, let
it come in at a six for me.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
So Eric, yeah, I'm probably gonna ring in maybe a
little better. I thought the acting was good. I thought
that it was obviously the musical score was good. Even
some of the cinematography was really good, especially in the
first scene and how that was like a wide moving
shot with the mirror and all that. So, I mean,
(39:49):
it gets some points there, but not to you know,
to be very critical of Hammner, but it just felt
like the story was a little bit disjointed. It just
like it was the puzzle pieces didn't fit together really well,
and it took I'm slow anyway, Like it took me
(40:09):
a while to figure out the corresponding paradigm with those
those songs and how the piano was used as a
target specifically to bring out things that wasn't It wasn't
super evident in the first scene, and maybe I don't know,
maybe I just missed it, but so yeah, i'd probably
bring it in about six and a half. It's not
(40:32):
it's not as seven and a half as I AMDB
in my opinion, I just think there was a lot
left there on the tables. As far as writing, I
was pretty broad strokes really how he was writing it,
and just kind of disjointed. I did have one another note.
I missed this earlier, with the dates of filming being
(40:54):
the October sixth, ninth, and tenth of nineteen sixty one,
the rehearsals for this so we're conducted on October fifth.
Just some dates of note in involving the five major characters,
but not Delevante, who was playing the butler. The entire
episode was filmed on Stage nineteen, including the junk shop,
(41:14):
Fortunes New York apartment, and the white walls surrounding the
room were most where most of the story takes place,
where the same featured in the mirror. So I think
I mentioned that earlier and I thought it was so
it was the same kind of set and it was
all a shot apparently on one stage. So that's pretty
much it. Jimbo, you want to well shout us down. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
If you like What's Heart, we are the Tragedy of
Cinema podcast, you can find us pretty much every week
really send an episode with Kyle and I doing the
main feed, and then Eric every once in a while
hopping in with the Twilight Zone series as well as
the I can't believe that was a movie series with
my dad Art toast. If you like a little fun
and s B movies, definitely hear some of our toasts
(42:00):
greatest hits from his childhood where he went trigger treating.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Out at a bar for the drunk.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Drunk people would would drunk, people would throw out change
to himself.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
He could just kept walking by.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
So but with that being said, I think this episode
is coming to a clothes and that's wrap and cut.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Mister Fitzgerald Fortune a man who went searching for concealed
persons and found himself in the Twilight Zone.
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