Come Wander with Me

When I first saw this episode during a Thanksgiving marathon on KTLA, I could not stand it. It made zero sense to me and I thought it was so far off being a Twilight Zone episode that I totally disregarded it. Now, 42 years later, I am watching it for probably the 8th time and with each viewing, it has grown on me to the point that it is actually an excellent episode. There is a particularly creepy essence when Floyd is wandering through the woods trying to find the voice of "Come Wander With Me" when you see in the back ground the woman in black in a pose that is truly disturbing. Just like any other episode, there are many layers that you may not see on it's first viewing but you catch them on other viewings. What a dark, disturbing and wonderful episode.

Bonnie Beecher was best known for being Bob Dylan's teenage girlfriend who helped him write some of his early hit songs. Gary Crosby does some singing too, almost as good as his famous dad. It seems his character, after stopping to cross a shaky bridge, is doomed to a feud with Mary's jealous engaged suitor, it's her song for him he wants to buy. His attempt to escape, stopping to fight too often, wasn't very instinctive. But he seems to be cursed by Mary's song for a violent death from the start. Buddy Holly died in an unanticipated plane crash the same year this was filmed, so the end was a strange departure from what people might expect.

Gary Crosby plays a hilarious and believable part as a jaded rockabilly star in search of new material in the backwoods. His character is too self-centered to comprehend the bigger picture of the strange situation he finds himself in. (To be fair,I doubt that anybody would understand it or handle it much different than Crosby's character does). Anyway, the whole thing is a weird and rather creepy episode. Crosby plays a hilarious part as a guy used to having his way that has had the tables turned on him in a strange way. Crosby nails his part. The mysterious girl songwriter-singer and her haunting song are a main part to the creepy story. Not the best but still pretty darn good!

To start off with a couple of positive "notes"; I really like the idea about the lyrics of a tear-jerking torch song coming true while they're being sung! That was a nice and original touch for one of the last episodes in the overall derivative and disappoint final season of "The Twilight Zone". Secondly, debuting actress Bonnie Beecher is ideally cast as the cherubic, innocent, and naïve Mary-Rachel. And if that's her real singing, she also sounds like an angel! That's it for the good aspects, I'm afraid, as sadly "Come wander with me" is another typically structured and predictable episode with an unconvincing protagonist and an inconclusive ending.

This is a decent ghost story. Gary Crosby, the forgotten son of Bing Crosby, is in quest of a folk song. Somehow he has been given directions to a music store in the woods. He parks his car, proceeds on foot, and find himself in the presence of an old man who us utterly uncommunicative. Apparently, this guy is a rockabilly star and normally gets what he wants. He is verbally abusive to those around him and driven to feather his nest. He throws money on the counter and grabs an old guitar, heading for the woods. While there, he hears someone singing a beautiful song. Sensing someone behind him, he turns and sees a pretty young woman in a sort of peasant dress. She teaches him her song which begins to parallel his activities, though he is too dense to catch the drift. She warns him that she is taken, but he misunderstands. He gets romantic with her but only because he feels he can get the rights to her song. She lets him know that the only way this will happen is if he promises to love her and take care of her. And, naturally, there is a guy who is bound to show up and he isn't going to be happy. The strength of this episode is in the beautiful melody that evolves as the story does, Crosby's selfish, obnoxious character, and an oppressive setting that the bewildered rocker can't figure out. Things get a little predictable at the conclusion and the slang is really dated now, but it's a pretty tight little story.