Mr. Denton on Doomsday

Written by Rod Serling, directed by Allen Reisner and starring Dan Duryea, Martin Landau, Doug McClure, Malcolm Atterbury and Jeanne Cooper.

The first Western themed Twilight Zone is a cracker, boosted by a great performance by Duryea, it's an episode dealing with that old dangled carrot known as the second chance. Al Denton has lapsed from being a dandy gunfighter into the town drunk, a man forced to sing for his next fix of alcohol offered by the town bully (Landau). But fate is going to play a hand, here in the human/supernatural form of peddler Henry J. Fate (Atterbury).

Story firmly has us feeling for Denton, wondering just how he came to be this way? The sorrow quickly turns to joy but this being The Twilight Zone we know there's going to be a kick in the tale, and when it comes it's a doozy, beautifully set up by Denton's revelation about what drove him to drink to oblivion. It could have ended up sappy but director Reisner ensures that is not the case, and Duryea's two pronged performance gives the story its super emotional fortitude. 8/10

It was nice to see an aging yet durable Duryea once again in a leading role. And he more than holds his own.

I thought it an inspired touch of casting on Serling's part to cast this once uber-villain in a part that could singularly reveal both aspects of this character in one, brief 1/2-hour episode. Martin Landau was effective as the black-clad heavy (a role hauntingly foreshadowing his role in "North By Northwest"), and it was a singular pleasure seeing a nearly post-pubescent Doug McClure in what may qualify as a cameo at the conclusion. Morality tales can be tricky, but once again Serling the supreme storyteller, pulls it off with aplomb.

It always amazes me how these wonderful B&W episodes still hold up after all these years (and multiple viewings) later. I never, ever seem to grow tired of watching them. I noticed that many years later they tried (in vain) to bring back this much venerated series, only to have it fail miserably. When you combine superior writing, inspired directing, and casting the strongest character and leading actors alive into one television program, it's a tough combination to beat.

On my very favorite TZ episode, "Walking Distance," the sound track was actually written by, for my money, the greatest film composer of all time, Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho," Citizen Kane"). That fact, more than just about anything, stands in tribute to the kind of talent that Serling's landmark TV series attracted. After all of the great television I've enjoyed over the years, there is no one series that has engendered the kind of devotion and wonder that these thought-provoking episodes inspire in their loyal following, myself heartily included.

A story about self-esteem and a man about a million miles away from regaining his. Film noir veteran Dan Duryea plays Denton, a washed-up, drunk former gun-fighter. Western scenarios tend to wear less well with time than other TZ's. When Denton tells of turning away from gun-fighting after being challenged by a sixteen-year old I had to chuckle remembering the Waco Kid's version of such an event in 'Blazing Saddles'.

Jeanne Cooper plays the woman urging Denton to find his self respect. Martin Landau plays the mean and nasty gun-slinger. It all adds up to a well-acted, good little yarn that is over-shadowed by so many great episodes in series one.

Dan Duryea was one of the best and underappreciated players of his time on the big and small screen. In this Twilight Zone saga he's a former top gunfighter who has fallen on bad times. Now he's a sodden alcoholic who is bullied conitnually by a young punk who gets a chance to go back to the top.

It comes in the form of satanic like itinerant peddler Malcolm Atterbury who offers him a magic potion that will for a few second return him to his old speed and accuracy.

It does but for an interesting twist and may be another intervention saves his soul and the life of another would be gunfighter Doug McClure.

Dan Duryea is one actor who is good in anything he plays and this saga of the old west from The Twilight Zone is no exception.

Drunken ex-gunfighter Al Denton, after being harassed by local thugs, is approached by a mysterious peddler, who gives him a potion that allows 10 seconds of deadly shooting accuracy.

While the Twilight Zone is best remembered for twist endings, it's best episodes almost always featured richly developed characters and/or sharply delivered plots that set enormously high stakes for those characters. "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" delivers on both in spades. Dan Duryea made his career as a villain throughout the 40s and 50s -- a character with a charming smile and a deadly sneer to match the personality. In this episode, he creates a character wallowing in alcoholic desperation arising from the loss of what he perceives is his greatest gift (his abilities as a gunman), ready to grab at anything that will revive this gift; the real twist in this episode is what his character learns from reviving that gift, a moral lesson delivered by Serling without unnecessary syrup (something many later Serling-written episode would be all too full of).

The performance that Duryea creates hits all of these notes brilliantly, and he is richly supported by the entire cast -- Jeanne Cooper and Ken Lynch as the sympathetic saloon owner and bartender, Malcolm Atterbury as the inscrutable peddler, and Martin Landau as a sadistic thug who terrorizes the Duryea character. Further, Allen Reisner's direction keeps the look as a standard Western, giving the audience a familiar surrounding in which to allow the story to unfold.

This episode is not the one most think of when they think of classic Twilight Zone episodes, but it should be.