06 June 2012

In sight

Recent viewing: “Last Night of a Jockey” & “Living Doll” from season 5 of The Twilight Zone; then, “Take-Over” from the Tara King season of The Avengers.

“Jockey” is a one-man show for Mickey Rooney. If not really up there with Serling's best scripts, still very good; and if Rooney's performance perhaps suffers in comparison with Jack Klugman's in “In Praise of Pip” (which is still vivid in memory), is nevertheless impressive that Rooney had this calibre of performance in him.

“Living Doll” is one of the famous episodes which I had heard of, but had never seen, myself. Hardly need any additional praise from me! Sparklingly well written, a notable early performance by Telly Savalas, and (for all that her part is essentially reactive) a nicely nuanced performance by Mary La Roche. The girl, even, plays very well. Just learnt to-day that the voice for Talky Tiny was June Foray, who is my personal hero as Rocket J. Squirrel!

Even before I saw the closing credits roll, my ears had noted the exceptional inventiveness of the score; so it was no surprise to find that it had been supplied by Bennie Herrmann.

Possibly because I viewed it the same evening as “Living Doll,” “Take-Over” was profoundly creepy. If such a story were done to-day, the writers would certainly have had Steed kill the villain at the end. This and “Requiem” so far seem to be my favorites among the Tara King episodes.