[Eerie music]
You unlock this door with the key of imagination.
Beyond it is another dimension...
A dimension of sound,
a dimension of sight,
a dimension of mind.
You're moving into a land of both shadowand substance,
of things and ideas.
You've just crossed over into...
The twilight zone.
[Meows]
Man: The economy of our world, now, then, and forever,
have always found
the insidious breed of international bankers.
These are the worshippers of the purse.
[Laughs]
Their religion is monetary gain.
Their shrine is gold.
Their loyalties, first,
foremost, and primarily,
deal with money.
What's wrong with that?
Examine the phenomenon of foreign control.
You examine it,
and you will note with absolute clarity
that the lines lead directly to Palestine!
They lead directly to Africa!
They lead directly...
To the Vatican!
Uh, um...
So, so, there we are!
There it is!
There is a conspiracy!
There's a insidious, enveloping conspiracy!
A conspiracy personified by the yellow man...
By the black man...
And by foreigners who come in
and infiltrate into our economic structure.
Oh, there'll come a morning, yes, there will,
there will come a morning
when these men have taken over your home,
they've taken over your daughters...
And they'll be sitting right there on your doorstep.
If anybody's sitting on your doorstep, buddy,
he's a man in a white coat.
And you better just go with him, quietly.
You think that's funny, don't you?
You think it's funny your country can be sold out.
That they can sell out your flag and your birth rights.
That's funny, huh?!
Well, maybe you oughta do something about it, punk.
You're such a big tiger,
why don't you come down here and do something about it?
Let me tell you something right now.
Someday this country's going to wake up.
And when they find out how Izzy sold them out,
and how rastus sold them out and how pancho sold them out,
they're going to make up a list
of all the people that get paid back.
And you know where you'll be? Right on the top of that list!
Right on the top!
[Jeering laughter]
Speaken come here, I'll fix...
Man: Come here! Come here!
What's the matter, punk?
No more big speeches?
No more big talk, huh?
You know what you're gonna see when you get home
and look in the mirror tonight?
A scrawny little kook with a big mouth.
A big hater so long as you got a couple of punks
standing in front of ya.
[Sirens wailing]
[Horns honking]
Problems, fellas, huh?
The communists, the communists did this.
Which ones?
All of 'em, all of 'em are communists.
What about some names, Jack?
If you press charges, we'll need names.
Just forget about it. We can handle this ourselves.
You need medical attention?
We don't need any.
Okay, Jack.
Hey, Jack.
You forgot your, um,
your flag.
There'll come a day when guys like you
will crawl on your belly just to salute this.
There'll come a day.
Let me know the date, Jack.
That morning, I'll cut my wrists.
Hey, Pete.
Pete, I'm glad you're okay.
Boy, there must've been eight, ten guys on top of me.
I had all I could do to get away.
You get a mean crowd, Pete.
Get a hot night, you get a mean crowd. I told you guys that.
Every time you get a hot night,
you get a couple of stiffs in the crowd
and they swing at all the wrong way.
Remember when I was telling you that?
Remember how I was telling you every time you get a hot night.
It's all right. It's done. It's done.
Sure, Pete, sure.
Why?
I tried so hard.
I tried so hard out there tonight, I...
I couldn't... get through.
I couldn't get through to any of them.
I knew what I had to say to them,
I knew what I had to tell them, and I just could...
I couldn't.
I couldn't get it out.
I couldn't find the words.
Someday, they're going to have to listen.
Someday they're gonna cheer!
Someday they will, Pete.
They will.
Portrait of a bush-league fuhrer named Peter vollmer.
A sparse little man who feeds off his self-del usions
and finds himself perpetuall y hungry
for want of grea tness in his diet.
And like some goose-stepping predecessors,
he searches for something to explain his hunger
and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting.
The something he looks for, and finds, is in a sewer.
In his own twisted and distorted lexicon,
he calls it faith, strength, truth.
But in just a moment Peter vollmer
will ply his trade on another kind of corner...
A strange intersection in a shadowland called
the twilight zone.
[Cello playing]
[In German accenz']: Wash your face.
[Sighs]
It's not a mortal wound.
I think you'll survive.
When you get home, put some iodine on it.
Want a cup of coffee?
A drink?
May I have a drink, Ernst?
I have wine, you want some?
One sips wine, Peter. This is not medicine.
Well, I'll keep that in mind for next time.
For the next time?
Just how many next times do suppose a human being has
in the scheme of things?
Don't lecture me, Ernst.
I'm sick and I'm tired, and I don't need to be lectured.
Can I stay here tonight?
It remains here for you, as usual.
You're a good friend, Ernst.
You're a good friend.
A man does what he believes in.
A man usually does.
Well, I believe certain things.
Is that a fact?
Yes, well, what difference does it make
if we don't think alike about the same things?
I mean, we're friends.
You've known me since I was a kid.
[Sighs deeply]
And when you were a little kid, Peter,
and I used to find you crying at my door late at night...
I could pity you then.
And now?
What do you think?
Now you peddle hate on street corners
as if it were popcorn.
It's not hate, it's, uh, it's a point of view,
it's a philosophy.
Ah, I know the philosophy.
I know it quite well.
Nine years in a place called dacha...
Do you know who put me there?
Peter vollmer.
A lot of Peter vollmers.
Frustrated men...
Sick men...
Angry men.
But the result,
the effect...
Never mind the cause...
12 million bodies in shallow graves.
And it all started
with young men in uniform talking on street corners.
You let me come here.
You letme come here; You never sent me away.
No, I never did.
I never do.
That's the weakness you scream about on your street corners.
Sentimentality, softness,
the weakness that makes a man his brother's keeper.
Oh, I must be one of the worst of your criminals, Peter.
Sentimental...
Soft!
And very preoccupied with my brother.
I should close the door on you.
Perhaps this is my sickness.
I only see the boy...
Not the man.
Sleep on the couch.
Look. Why don't you understand?
You're like a father.
You're the only thing in the world that I've ever loved.
What have I ever had to love?
What?
A drunken father who used to slam me against the wall?
An old lady...
Who had no marbles in her head?
She didn't even recognize me half the time.
That's why I used to come here, because...
Because you were gentle with me, and you talked to me,
and you feed me. And you took care of me.
Ernst...
Ernst, you're my father.
That's the boy again speaking.
The little boy with so much fear in him.
Rest.
Rest well.
Who's out there?
Who is it?
[In German accenz']: A friend, Mr. Vollmer.
A friend?
You have need of friends, allies.
Come down, Mr. Vollmer.
Come down, and we will talk, you and I.
Hello, Mr. Vollmer.
Who are you? How did you know where I was?
[Laughs]
I simply followed your tears, Mr. Vollmer.
You said that you had something to talk about.
I do, I do indeed.
I have you to talk about, and the things you believe in,
which are the things ibelieve in, as well.
Your success, Mr. Vollmer, will be mysuccess.
Go on.
Good.
Let us start by your learning
what are the dynamics of a crowd.
How do you move a mob, Mr. Vollmer?
How do you excite them?
How do you make them feel as one with you?
I-I don't know. How?
Join them first, Mr. Vollmer.
Join them?
Yes, when you speak to them,
speak to them as if you were a member of the mob.
Speak to them in their language, on their level.
Make the/r hate your hate.
If they are poor, talk to them of poverty.
If they are afraid, talk to them of their fears.
And if they are angry, Mr. Vollmer,
if they are angry,
give them objects for their anger.
But most of all,
the thing that is most of the essence, Mr. Vollmer,
is that you make this mob an extension of yourself.
Say to them things like...
Things like...
"They call us hatemongers.
"They say we're prejudiced.
"They say we're biased.
"They say we hate minorities... minorities.
"Understand the term, neighbors:
"Minorities.
"Should I tell you who are the minorities?
"Should I tell you?
"We...!
We are the minorities!"
That way, Mr. Vollmer.
Start it that way.
I... understand.
I think I understand.
[Weakly]: Neighbors...
[More confidentl y]: N e I g h b o rs.
They call us...
Hatemongers.
They say...
[Even more confidently]: We're prejudiced.
They say...
We're biased!
They say that we hate the minorities!
The minorities.
Understand the term, neighbors.
The minorities.
Shall I tell you who the minorities are?!
We, we, we...!
We are the minorities!
Because patriotism...
Is a minority.
Because love of country...
Is the minority.
Because to live in a free, white america
seems to be of a minority opinion!
Let me tell you something, neighbors.
I want you to dwell on this,
just dwell on it.
We had the atom bomb,
and suddenly...
The Russians had it.
We wanted to send men into space!
But it was the Russians who got there first!
We had the hydrogen bomb!
It was the Russians who exploded theirs.
Who gave them the bombs?
Who sold us out? Who stabbed us in the back?
Well...
If it's a minority opinion
that we have to survive,
then we are the minority.
And this minority
will not stop
until it is the majority!
This minority will not give up the fight!
This... is the promise
and this, this is the legacy!
[Applause and cheers]
Pal, we're in there now, huh? No more street corners?
Oh, boy, are we going now, huh?
Congratulations.
Congratulations. Thanks.
- Nice speech. - Thank you.
Look, I'm not gonna wait much longer, you understand?
If I don't get paid, you don't have the hall
- tomorrow night. - Gibbons, will you cool it?!
Can't you see we're busy?
Look, I'm not gonna wait another five minutes!
I want it settled now. I told you,
no dough, no rental.
No dough, no use of the hall tomorrow night.
I'm not running this place just for pleasure.
What seems to be the problem?
This is a very hungry man here.
He got to have his shekels,
got to have his little old money.
I told you guys you were three weeks back in rent.
You said you'd give me it a week ago.
And all I did get was cigarette butts on the floor.
Am I to understand that you're gonna lock us out of this hall
because of a couple weeks' rent?
You understand right.
$200 due, $200 that I ain't received.
We happen to be a young movement.
We're still struggling. We need time to grow.
But I don't rent time...
I just rent the hall.
It's the money
or you build a platform in the street.
Whew.
What are we gonna do, Pete? We got to do something.
I don't see why we walk tiptoe with this guy.
Why don't I educate him? I can do it.
- I guarantee it. - Yeah.
- Somebody left this for you. - Who?
Nobody saw him. It was left at the back door
your name is on it.
Two c's!
Hey, how about that, huh? We needed 200 bucks' for rent,
and there it is!
- Did you see who left this? - No, I didn't.
The message was just for you to get it, that's all.
Gibbons, come and get it.
[Laughing]
Where'd the dough come from? Do you have any idea?
You were great tonight, Pete.
You were really something.
I can't describe how it sounded.
You had them...
Just like that, you had them.
We're gonna make it now, frank.
Now we're really going to make it.
You bet your life.
An excellent performance, Mr. Vollmer.
Very effective.
You learn quickly.
Thank you.
I'd like to know who I'm thanking.
It does not make very much difference.
I am just pleased I could help.
You learned the style very well.
You delivered the speech exactly as I told you.
I'm very obliged.
The money?
Oh, it was the least I could do.
We could not very well have you thrown out into the streets.
I happen to feel your work is very important.
Are you one of us?
One of you, Mr. Vollmer?
You might say I am you.
Now, I have some suggestions.
I will continue to give you advice.
But there is a matter of great importance
that must be taken care of.
What is it?
An expedient, Mr. Vollmer.
Oh, you might call it a, uh...
A ca use oel ebre.
Something to cement the organization together.
- I don't understand. - A martyr.
The organization needs a martyr.
A martyr? How do you find a martyr?
You do not find one, Mr. Vollmer.
You choose one.
You take one of no value, and you make him into a symbol.
You wrap him in a flag,
and you make his death work for you.
Find a man who is of no value while he's alive
but who can serve you when he's dead.
Is there such a one?
[Footsteps approaching]
- We're waiting, Pete. - I'll be right there, Nick.
Sure, Pete.
You talking to somebody, Pete?
You tell frank to come in here.
Alone.
Sure thing, Pete.
Right away.
Excellent, Mr. Vollmer.
An excellent choice.
I was just thinking...
There must be some other way.
Another way?
There is no other way, Mr. Vollmer.
And if you soften up,
if you weaken now,
there is no point in going on.
Now...
When frank comes back,
tell him you have discovered an informer.
Tell him the informer has done you irreparable damage.
Tell him the informer must be put out of the way.
But...
Put out of the way cleverly, Mr. Vollmer.
Put out of the way subtley.
Put out of the way so that there is some question
as to who is responsible.
Nick's, uh, been with us from the beginning.
From the beginning?
Oh, no, Mr. Vollmer.
None of you were there at the beginning.
None of you.
Nick's a friend of mine.
This is an act of friendship.
We are allowing him to serve the cause.
[Footsteps approaching]
Nick said you wanted to see me.
We've got a stoolie in the group, frank.
A stoolie?
Nick.
Nick's been talking.
I think he's been hired by the police.
Nick?! Nick has done that?
I know it for a fact.
Everything we've done and everything we've said...
Nick's told.
What do we do, Pete?
Get rid of him. Get rid of him.
Make it look like somebody else did it.
Make it look like somebody who hates us did it.
I understand.
I understand, Pete.
You call it...
You've got it.
[Sirens sounding]
Cross off the fat one.
Anything else?
Right.
We now, all of us, have a martyr.
We have a martyr!
Announcen twilight zone will continue after sta t/on ident/f/ca t/on.
- It's a good crowd. - Right up to the ceiling.
What's the matter, Stanley?
It's nothing, Pete.
- Then why the look? - It's nothing,
it's nothing at all.
Ah, now, come on. You can tell me, Stanley.
What's the matter?
Nick was my friend, Pete. He was a nice guy.
Imiss him.
Do you want me to really tell you what Nick was?
Would you really like a rundown?
He was a fat pig!
With no guts.
He was a greasy bigmouth
who copped out at every turn.
He was a nickel-and-dime Judas,
and he got exactly what he deserved.
So don't mourn for Nick.
Because he doesn't rate mourning...
Not that pig.
[Whistles and cheers]
A man of honor died last week.
A decent, courageous fighter
for the cause of freedom
gave his life.
He gave his life for us!
Some skulking... assassin
murdered him!
But friends,
and neighbors,
and co-fighters...
Nick bloss did not die in vain.
They stilled his great heart...
But they could not stifle his memory.
They could not...
Obliterate his courage.
They could not...
Wipe away his honor.
He lives in you,
and he lives in me.
He lives deep in the gut
of every human being
who wants to see
the United States of America be free.
Nick bloss
died for this.
And you and I...
We must live for this!
[Cheers and whistles]
Vollmer: And let somebodyelse concern themselves
with the lifeblood of a nation...
He's got a voice on him.
I knew it when it was just a whimper.
That's a bad kid, that one.
Used to be, used to be people would laugh at him.
But lately, he gets the crowds,
and not many people laugh either.
You've know him a long time, haven't you?
Since he was a child.
A silent, little boy with very little to say.
[Vol/mer continues orating in background]
Vollmer: We're overdue to cut away the cancerous...
I've seen it before.
I've seen it all before.
That was another time, Mr. Ganz.
Another place, another kind of people.
That doesn't go here.
And that's what we said, too, they were brown scum.
Temporary insanity, part of the passing scene...
Too monstrous to be real.
So, we ignored them
or laughed at them.
Because we couldn't believe
that there were enough insane people
to walk alongside of them.
[Sighs]
And then one morning,
the country woke up from an uneasy sleep...
[Vol/mer continues orating in background]
And there was no more laughter.
The Peter vollmers had taken over.
The wild animals had changed places with us in the cage.
Vollmer: This nation of ours is being beaten to death!
Just as sure as the almighty
made communists, catholics, and Jews.
There's no time to stand around,
scratch our heads, and pull our beards,
and twiddle with our earlobes...
But not again.
It mustn't happen again.
We can't let it.
We simply can't let it happen again.
All, all that nightmare.
Vollmer: Violence happens to be the only way to be violent...
Oh, no...
No, not this time.
Vollmer: We do not want to be pushed.
Now, I want to ask you a few questions.
You just answer yes or no to the following.
Do you want...
The United States of America
to remain free?
All: Yes!
Do you want your homes infected
with the vermin from foreign shores?
All: No!
Now, listen to this one.
Do you want a bunch of mongrels
[crowd murmuring] To come over here...
Go on, Mr. Vollmer.
You were saying?
I can tell them what you were saying.
I've heard it before.
I've heard it a thousand times before...
In Munich, in Berlin...
On a hundred different street corners.
It was drivel then,
and it is drivel now.
You've got to stop, Ernst.
Well, what is this one here?
The new model?
A 1963 fuhrer right off the assembly line?
Well, this one is not so new.
He's not so fresh.
This one is nothing but a cheap copy!
We've got to do something. We're losing the audience.
Let me get rid of him.
- Let me get rid of him. - Just leave me alone.
Ganz: Well, let me tell you about this one.
About the breed, the species.
They're all alike,
they are all alike.
Problem children...
Sick, sad, neurotics,
who take applause like a needle.
That's enough, Ernst.
Please...
Please?
Listen to me, Peter,
and let them listen.
Or else I'll tell them about a quaking, whimpering boy
who cried on my couch;
who still cries on my couch.
[Whispering]: Please don't. Please, Ernst, please don't.
Don't let him do this. Put him down. Put him down.
Yeah, put me down, put me down. Shut me up!
Stifle me... why don't you?
[Quieter]: Why can't you?
Because this is your courage right here.
This is your strength.
This...
And the torchlights, and the crowd,
and the sieg heil!
[Slaps]
[Shocked murmurs]
The rebuttal.
The only sort of answer your kind knows how to give.
This is your fuhrer.
He's yours.
I give him to you.
A gift from the sewers.
Man: Mr. Vollmer.
You see...
The way it is?
I knew him. I knew the old man.
Is that a fact, Mr. Vollmer?
For such a long time.
I've known him for so long.
He cheapened you, Mr. Vollmer.
He tore you to pieces!
Your voice is that of a lion,
your instincts are those of a rabbit.
And you...
What are you?!
You direct traffic from the darkness!
You plan the battles, and you're never there when they're fought!
Why don't you come out in the light?
Why don't you come up here alongside of me?
Why don't you give me a name...
And a face...
And a reason why?
Mr. Vollmer.
I was making speeches before you could read them.
I was fighting battles
when your only struggle was to climb out of a womb.
I was taking over the world
when your universe was a crib!
And as for being in darkness, Mr. Vollmer,
I invented darkness!
[Dramatic music plays]
[Gasps]
[Panting]
You... you picked me.
You picked me.
I did not pick you, Mr. Vollmer. You picked me.
You chose my ideas,
you invoked my name, you stole my slogans.
So now, you must take whatever else comes with it.
In the past, I have given you suggestions.
Now I give orders!
And from now on, you must be built of steel.
Steel, Mr. Vollmer.
No soft gaps of sentiment.
Like we handled Nick.
Like we handled the mobs. Like we made the speeches.
And bit by bit, gradually,
we shall forge a force...
First an idea, then a force.
Just as I did it before, Mr. Vollmer,
with my own hands!
With my own hands!
The old man, the Jew, he'll be back again,
tomorrow night, the next night. I know him, I know the type.
We sent them into the ovens, but always,
there was a handful left to point a finger.
His kind, Mr. Vollmer,
his kind are dangerous.
They talk, they think, they plant a seed.
They hold us back!
Kill him!
Kill the old man!
Kill him? Kill Ernst?
Yes, tonight. Now.
He'll be in his room.
All right, I'll do it.
I'll do it right now.
And Mr. Vollmer...
When you come back, we will have much to talk about.
Plans, campaigns, ideas...
The first steps.
This is only the beginning, Mr. Vollmer.
This is just the dawn.
It will be a long, long day!
[Dramatic music plays]
You wouldn't listen to me, Ernst.
You wouldn't pay attention.
On the contrary.
I listened to you all I could stand.
I couldn't even begin to tell you what's happened, Ernst.
It's too incredible, too unbelievable.
There's no stopping us now.
No stopping you, Peter.
An old man stopped you tonight, with a few words.
He stopped you with the truth.
No, you're wrong, Ernst.
It's not just me anymore.
There's someone else behind us.
Someone that you'd tremble at.
He'd have to be a very imposing figure, Peter.
More imposing than you.
More imposing than that, too, Peter.
That's only because you don't think I'll use it.
Which shows you don't know me very well, Ernst.
I know you, Peter.
I know you.
From a ravaged little boy wanting love...
To a torn man
craving respect, identity, pride.
Peter... I don't fear you,
so you may do what you have in mind at any time you wish.
For this last one reminder to you.
You can never kill an idea with a bullet, Peter.
Never.
I'm all steel now.
Ernst, I'm made of steel.
No sentiment, no softness.
Just purpose and will.
Then shoot.
Kill.
Destroy me.
[Dramatic music plays]
[Groans]
All steel...
All strength.
But at the expense of the thing most other men have.
Some... fragments of decency
to tell them right from wrong...
[Coughs]
Make them feel guilt at dishonor...
That make them...
That make them love.
Yes, Peter...
You have steel...
But you have no heart.
Hitler: Mr. Vollmer!
Sentimentality?
None.
S teel tonight?
Steel.
And no regrets?
None.
Wha t did you des tro y tonight?
Only a disease.
A growth that was on our flesh that had to be removed.
Nota man?
No, hardly a man.
How did it feel?
It felt...
It felt like I was immortal.
Mr. Vol I mer!
We are immortal!
You Peter vollmer?
We have a warrant for your arrest.
Charge is complicity in murder.
Victim's name was Nicholas bloss.
That should be familiar to you.
Throw that gun away.
Walk toward us with your hands up.
There's something very wrong here.
You've made a terrible mistake.
I'm made out of steel.
Don't you understand that I'm made out of steel?
Where will he go next,
this phantom from another time,
this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare...
Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, fl orida,
vincennes, Indiana, Syracuse, New York?
Anypla ce, ever ypla ce, where there's ha te,
where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry.
He's alive.
He's alive so long as these evils exist.
Remember that when he comes to your town.
Remember it when you hear his voice
speaking out through others.
Remember it when you heara name called,
a minority a tta cked,
any blind, unreasoning assa ul t
ona people or any human being.
He's alive because through these things,
we keep him alive.
The talented author Richard Matheson
pays a return visit to twilightzone
with a story called "mute."
It provides an exceptional challenge to the acting talents
of Barbara baxley, frank overton
and an unusual 72-year-old by the name of Ann jill/an.
Is she burned?
(Man): She's alive.
Are you all right?
She's in shock, Harry. Bad off.
Can't talk, can't cry,
can't do nothing.
She's not burned, though.
How could she get out of that house without being burned?
[Children chattering]
Don't push, children.
Be careful.
I want you to know you're not fooling me for one moment.
I know exactly what you are.
I know... because my father tried to force me
into the same thing when I was your age.