The Rip Van Winkle Caper

I was just doing a review of the show in general And listed in it my dozen favorite episodes. I did not include this one, But it was close. This to me is an episode that like some others falls just just outside that elite group. It's a very fine episode. The plot is good, intriguing, suspenseful, a good science fiction idea. The characters-Really just two-Are interesting ones. I want to know what happens to them, and Their interaction is very watchable. The cast as usual is taken from the best that was available, quality "character" actors when not outright stars. Key to the show is the ending twist, And this one does not disappoint. I'd have no problem including this one in my second dozen best episodes of the series :)

Seemingly at first sight this episode sound silly or contradictory, nevertheless it was part of Rod Serling's basis concept of The Twilight Zone, it's a fictional offer, after a successful gold robbery a quartet of thieves hidden in a cave all Gold's bars, leading by the genius Farewell (Oscar Berege) who planned the whole operation, to avoid to be arrest in that time, they will be preserved in a sort of sealed boxes by some kind of gas on suspended animation for next hundred years, in the future they'll wake up completely forgot by the men's law, just three survives along the century, but the world evolved surprising, what a arty story, it's has a strong The Twilight Zone's trademark, deliver the unknown, the unnatural, the unthinkable, how much weird is better, it gives us a wings to "beyond of imagination" (That is the Brazilian's name of this series), fantastic!!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / DVD / Rating: 8.25

This is one of my favorite Twilight Zones because of the thought of jumping ahead 100 years is a wonderful daydream. However, there are silly plot holes as others have mentioned, but it still makes for a fun 30 minutes. It's clear these guys don't trust each other, and how did the genius leader get mixed up with the other three losers? So - here's what I would have done. If I were one of the four people involved at the beginning, the instructions were to count to ten and then press the button to release the sleeping gas. I would be the only one NOT to press my button. Then wait ten minutes or so, and then jump out of my box. Now I have all the gold, the truck, and goodbye to those other three dopes.

Simon Oakland, Oscar Beregi, Lew Gallow, and John Mitchum play four thieves who have successfully made off with 1 Million dollars worth of gold bullion, and one of them has invented four suspended animation capsules for them to hide in for about a hundred years, where they will no longer be wanted men(So they think). The plan works, and they do wake up a century in the future, but one of them has died in an accident, and the other three learn that there is no honor among thieves... Entertaining episode despite some glaring plot holes and oddities(like why they didn't get rich from selling the suspended animation technology itself!) Still, a good cast makes a big difference.

Considering the accomplishments of the principle character, this is so idiotic. Three idiots and a scientist grab a million dollars in gold bullion and decide to take it forward in time. One of them has developed a means of putting them in suspended animation. Of course, because they are all idiots, they do the most base, stupid things imaginable, including wrecking the truck that will be used to transport the gold. Just like the guys in Von Stroheim's "Greed," the two survivors end up in a grab fest for the little water they have taken with them. These guys don't think five minutes ahead, considering they have gone a hundred years into the future. Did I mention they are a pack of idiots?