Long Live Walter Jameson

If Sci-Fi cinema taught us just one thing, it's most certainly that craving for immortality is a big and sad mistake! Many movies and TV show episodes have brought forward protagonists, mainly scientists but also regular folks that somehow saw their wish granted but then spent the rest of eternity regretting it! Their motivation to live forever is usually that they think one lifetime is too short to fulfill their hopes and dreams, but they don't realize that their loved ones around them continue to age normally and die. Melancholic vampires also often struggle with this issue. The most famous and legendary tale regarding immortality is undoubtedly Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which got turned into a couple successful and less than successful movie adaptations already. This TZ-episode, written by specialist Charles Beaumont, brings a nice variation on the same theme. Walter Jameson has allegedly lived long enough already to have known Plato and serve as a Major in the Civil War, but he always kept a low profile and now poses as a history teacher at university. He's about to marry headmaster Kittridge's ravishing daughter Susanna, but Professor Kittridge has unmasked Walter. At the same time, someone's from Walter's more recent past has discovered his whereabouts. "Long Live Walter Jameson" isn't the most memorable episode of the show, or even the wonderful first season, but benefices from an intelligent script & dialogues as well as stellar performances. The climax is intense and original, as I don't recall ever having seen an immortal person standing face-to- face with an ex-wife who's now almost twice the age he is. The special effects during the finale (the archetypal accelerated ageing process) are excellent and Kevin McCarthy (star of the 1956 milestone "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") gives a very mature and engaged performance in the titular role. McCarthy died in 2010 at age 96. Not quite immortal just yet, but a beautiful age nevertheless.

Kevin McCarthy is quite good as popular college history professor Walter Jameson, whose lectures have the distinct air and sound of authenticity to them, especially when a mysterious diary of an unknown soldier is read from the American Civil War, which arouses the suspicions of a fellow professor whose daughter he is set to marry, even though Walter's past is soon to catch up with him in a long overdue fashion... Strong and compelling(if just a bit contrived) episode takes a familiar premise and makes inspired use of it, with seldom a dull moment or misstep. Good makeup F/X too in fondly remembered entry.

Kevin McCarthy and Estelle Winwood became the oldest active actors in

the Screen Actors' Guild decades after appearing in "Long Live Walter Jameson" on THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

That was always uncanny, given the storyline.

But it's even eerier now that Kevin McCarthy has just died. And why? Well, one of the things in "Long Live Walter Jameson" that some people have noticed in recent years was the reference in his diary to the city being destroyed on "Tuesday, September 11th", 42 years before the 9/11 attacks.

So now McCarthy's death date of Septemeber 11th seems equally odd.

If you could live forever, would you really want to? To remain the same age while all those you love grow old and die? These are the questions posed by this episode of The Twilight Zone, which stars Kevin McCarthy as history professor Walter Jameson, whose future father-in-law Sam Kittridge (Edgar Stehli) comes to suspect that Jameson's in-depth knowledge of the past is down to first-hand experience.

Long Live Walter Jameson is a very talky episode, mostly consisting of scenes of dialogue between McCarthy and Stehli, but that doesn't stop it from being a very entertaining tale, thanks to the excellent script by Charles Beaumont, which keeps the viewer intrigued throughout, and fine performances from the two male leads.

Others here on IMDb have mentioned TV shows and films that might have been influenced by this episode. I'd like to add '80s fantasy classic Highlander to the list, Russell Mulcahy's film exploring very similar territory.

William Tuttle, the first makeup specialist to win an Oscar, did an outstanding job with guest star Kevin McCarthy. In all, he was behind twelve TZ classics.

Definitely, you need an abundance of makeup for this creepy tale. McCarthy plays a young up and coming professor who apparently has nine lives and was actually in the Civil War? Could he be a warlock?

Wait and see.

A work of art by writer Charles Beaumont, whose scripts were strikingly similar to that of Rod Serling.

The professor's future father in law ( played by Edgar Stehli) uncovers the truth. Best is veteran actress Estelle Winwood who turns out to be his wife, or at least one of them from decades past. A camp tale, no other way to describe it, truly hits the macabre bullseye.

The ending transformation is memorable; William Tuttle works his makeup magic. One of the most rerun TZ episodes, always at the top of the list. It (may) have inspired DARK SHADOWS to a degree, at least a few very similar episodes where vampire Barnabas Collins also "loses" his youth.

William Tuttle not surprisingly worked on ONE STEP BEYOND and was makeup director for several Elvis Presley's films. Good trivia question for movie buffs.

10 STARS. SEASON 1 EPISODE 24 remastered. Classic First Season box set.