Night Call

Gladys Cooper, the grand dame of The Twilight Zone, is quite brilliant in her third and final appearance. Jacques Tourner (Night Of The Demon, I Walked With A Zombie) brings his usual excellent atmospheric direction to the Zone. Probably the only TZ set in England (I realize 'Passage On The Lady Anne' begins at Southampton), it's by far and away one of the most creepy and chilling.

Besides Gladys Cooper, the so recurring theme of loneliness is probably the only other typical TZ factor. The story is good for a chilly ghost story but somewhat severe in nature for this normally more warm-hearted series.

I was 10 years-old when Twilight Zone ran it's first episode: "Where Is Everybody", and I was hooked!!! In it's time there was nothing like it on television. TZ remains the best show ever on network t.v. as far as I'm concerned. I was 15 in 1964 when "Night Call' aired, and it spooked the Hell out of me!! I watched it recently, late at night with the lights off and it still was scary to watch. The hair stands up on the back of my neck just thinking of this episode. If you like being frightened by your mind and not special effects, then this is the TZ episode for you!!! There will never be another writer like Sterling and his TZ pals or another show quite like the Twilight Zone. PS-This episode takes place in the state of Maine, New England, USA, and NOT in England across the pond.

...i would recommend "Consider Her Ways", an episode in season III of "Alfred Hitchcock Hour". I saw that episode maybe 20 years ago, but seeing Gladys in tonight's TZ episode reminded me of "Consider Her Ways". After 2 decades, I remember Gladys from a single Hitchcock Hour episode? yea, it is that good.

It was startling, frightening, and perverse.

and Gladys Cooper was amazing in that show, too, as in "Night Calls". She was very convincing.

im sorry, this is not a review as much as my trying to share a gem of classic television.

Gladys Cooper might does not hold the record for appearances in episodes of "The Twilight Zone", though she comes close with three appearances (I think that would be Jack Klugman with four). "Night Call" represents her final appearance, though my favorite is still "Nothing in the Dark".

This episode consists of an old lady that is wheelchair-bound who is receiving creepy phone calls. It's not what is said as much as how the unknown person sounds--almost like someone who is half-dead. Again and again he calls and each time, Cooper becomes more scared--she just wants the calls to stop. Then, in a final act of desperation, she makes them stop...but is this what she REALLY wants? Much of what is good about this episode isn't the plot but how it is handled. The story idea is very simple but combining the cinematography, music, acting and direction, it all becomes amazingly tense and creepy.

Once upon a time, before cells and mobile phones there was something called a party line, which was a cost effective way for low income people to maintain telephone service without having to pay a lot. The solution was simple: share the expenses (and the monthly charge) with someone else. The only problem would be that one could not make or receive calls if the other person was on the line.

In this Twilight Zone episode, Night Call, the elderly, invalid Elva Keene, who lives alone, cared for only by a nurse, starts to receive phone calls from someone who sounds far away. It's a man's voice but she can't quite hear what he's saying. He tends to call her late at night, when she's alone, and these calls frighten her. As we learn a thing or two about Miss Keene's past we begin to understand her, as we come to realize that she has a bad conscience, and for good reason. These unsettling phone calls are bringing back memories, as she recalls experiences from her youth; and hers is not a party line.

This is one of the few entries in the Twilight Zones series that plays like a pure horror from start to finish. Not a violent or gruesome horror; more like a ghost story. Written and directed by masters, Richard Matheson and Jacques Tourneur, splendidly acted by Gladys Cooper in the lead role, it ends on a note of sheer terror. No axes come crashing through doors, there are no vampires, werewolves or monsters, just an image and no more. Those who keep their phones next to their beds might want to think twice about leaving them on after watching Night Call.