A Quality of Mercy

A good TZ episode. Especially good acting by Albert Salmi. I won't rehash the plot. Serling served in the Philippines during the later part of WW2 and saw some heavy combat with the Japanese Army. It is interesting that several episodes take place there. Also kind of surprising that he takes a merciful and humane view of his enemy that he personally fought in such a hellish experience.

This is to his credit. I've read that soldiers in combat for long periods will come to regard their enemies more often than not as fellow victims of the same evil- war itself.

I have to disagree with the poster who wrote that Dean Stockwell doesn't look remotely Japanese. It was great casting, as Stockwell's eyes didn't require that much makeup to look Asian, and the work that was done on them was done extremely well. In fact, I caught this episode on TV in the middle and thought that they had cast a Japanese actor in the second part! The episode itself falls prone to Serling's not uncommon habit of hitting you over the head with his point. The American Stockwell and the Japanese commander are so extreme as to be cardboard cutouts. But I guess subtlety wasn't really the point of "The Twilight Zone".

On 06 August 1945, an American platoon keeps under siege a group of about 20 or 30 Japanese wounded and starving soldiers in a cave under the command of the veteran Sgt. Causarano. Unexpectedly, the rookie Lt. Katell arrives and orders that the platoon shall attack the Japanese. His orders are questioned by Sgt. Causarano and his men that tells that all those deaths will not make the allied win the war, but Lt. Katel is resolute in his decision to kill the enemy. Out of the blue, the situation reverts and Lt. Katel is a Japanese lieutenant and the American team is trapped in the caves. What will happen next?

"A Quality of Mercy" is an intriguing episode of "The Twilight Zone" with Dean Stockwell very young in the lead role. Leonard Nimoy has also a minor participation in this show in the role of a GI. The intriguing plot teaches the meaning of the word mercy with one weird situation only possible in the Twilight Zone. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Valor da Piedade" ("The Value of Mercy")

An anti-war message from WW2 hero Rod Serling. Set in the Philippines where he served comes a drama of two halves about an ambitious young Lieutenant called Katell (Dean Stockwell). In the first half Katell takes over a platoon in August 1945 and clashes with his Sergeant (Albert Salmi). The war experienced Sergeant Causarano hopes his weary soldiers will not have to attack a cave where the enemy is holed up. Katell is lacks the Sergeant's battle experience and 'hasn't been shot at yet'. He wants to prove his manhood by leading an attack in the last throes of war. Sergeant Causarano hopes the necessary job of war is done without many more men having to die-on either side.

There is a 'Quantum Leap' for Dean Stockwell as he gets to see war from another perspective. If that's not TZ enough, well, Leonard Nimoy is one of the soldiers.

I think Serling is suggesting we would be better off if the whole world could see each other as humans and not see some others as a hated entity that has to die just to satisfy the ambitions of leaders. See what you think?

A Quality of Mercy was the episode that provided the blueprint for Vic Morrow's segment in The Twilight Zone: The Movie. Dean Stockwell plays U. S. Lieutenant Katell, who arrives in the Philippine Islands at the end of WWII to take command of a war-weary squad of soldiers, led by Sgt. Causarano (Albert Salmi). Keen to prove himself by killing a few of the enemy, Katell instructs his men to launch an attack on a unit of injured Japanese soldiers holed up in a cave. However, before he can lead the assault, Katell suddenly finds himself as a soldier in the Japanese army, part of a unit about to launch an attack on some injured Americans.

Having seen both sides of the coin, Katell realises the error of his ways, and tries to convince his Japanese superior to abort the attack.

This is another one of Serling's anti-war tales, this time showing us how dehumanising the enemy can lead to further meaningless death and destruction. Such idealism is all well and good, until you wind up facing a foe who still sees you as nothing more than a target for their rifle, at which point survival is the name of the game. War is indeed hell.

I think the concept worked much better with the central character as a bigot -- shame that Morrow didn't live to finish the story how it was intended.