Dead Man's Shoes

As a common rule, leave dead men lie. Solid storyline and a decent execution. Acting was good from the whole cast.

Grubby transient (Warren Stevens) steals flashy shoes from dead man named Dane. Trouble is, these are size 9's from the twilight zone, which have the magical effect of replacing weak, cringing persona of the transient with strong, criminal personality of the dead man. This sets up interesting sequence in which Dane now occupies Stevens' body, and returns to old haunts to unnerve mistress and gang rival, who hear Dane but see stranger. Fun to watch icy mistress (Joan Marshall) gradually come unglued.

Neat idea, but filmed in straightforward style that adds little to the plot. Stevens does convincing job of altering personality whenever the shoes fit. Good script, even though climactic office scene is disappointing. On the whole, a solid entry.

Here we have a homeless guy who finds a dead body left by the mob. He learns what it's like to be in his shoes. That is literally. He wears his shoes, gains all of his memories and is possessed by him or something. It only happens when he wears the shoes. He seeks revenge against the mob boss who had him killed.

He does manipulate an innocent homeless man. It was hard to tell who was supposed to be sympathetic in this episode. The victim still had to take over an innocent person's life. At least it's implied he'll succeed eventually. Just don't hurt homeless people. It's a pretty unique idea. ***

Warren Stevens stars as a hobo named Nathan Bledsoe, who one day sees a car dump a corpse in a nearby alley. He goes over to it in hopes of rifling its pockets, but instead decides to take his nice pair of shoes, which mostly fit. However, the murdered man turns out to be an underworld figure whose soul has somehow latched onto the soles of his shoes, compelling poor Nate to avenge his death by whatever means possible, no matter how long it may take... Stylish episode has a good central idea at its center. Though it isn't a total success(Who does the viewer root for after all, since they are all criminals?) this still remains an appealing effort.

Dead Man's Shoes lacks that magical je ne sais quoi of a classic The Twilight Zone episode, but it is still a reasonably entertaining tale, helped by a solid turn from Warren Stevens, who is transformed from wretched hobo to cool-as-a-cucumber tough man after he half-inches a pair of shoes from a stiff in an alleyway.

Possessing Bowery bum Nathan Bledsoe, the shoes' original owner, gangster Dane, sets about trying to get even with the man who killed him: his greedy business partner Bernie Dagget (Richard Devon). Unfortunately for Dane, Dagget isn't easily fooled, his men killing the gangster for a second time. But when Bledsoe's body is dumped in an alleyway, another tramp takes a shine to those fancy shoes...

One imagines that Dane's next attempt to take revenge will be successful (how many times can he be caught out by a hidden gunman?), but if it isn't, will Dagget eventually cotton on and destroy those loafers? These questions and more await the curious in The Twilight Zone.