Cheap The Twilight Zone: Vol. 12 (DVD) (Ida Lupino, Alvin Ganzer, Richard Donner, Allen Reisner, John Rich, William F. Claxton, Ralph Nelson, Bernard Girard, David Greene, Don Medford) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Twilight Zone: Vol. 12

A Star on Sunset Boulevard
The question of what is real and what is illusion is central to my favorite episode on this DVD, "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine." The story concerns a former movie queen who refuses to believe that she is no longer young and in demand, instead spending her days and nights alone with her old films. In an uncanny bit of wish-fulfillment, she finally leaves the "real world" and enters the world of make-believe for good. Ida Lupino gives a formidable "star performance" as the aging actress, and Martin Balsam brings emotional depth to the role of her sympathetic agent. Mention must also be made of the set - the star's Beverly Hills mansion - which is simply beautiful. In short, the script, the acting, and the production values all combine to make "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking episode of The Twilight Zone.

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SECOND CHANCES OF DROOL
Except for the episode "Mr.Denton on Doomsday", these are some of the weakest Zone episodes I have ever seen. "Denton" concerns an ex-gunslinger (Dan Duryen)who has become the town drunk. Martin Landau portrays a leader of a gang that finds its primary entertainment in humiliating Denton, forcing him to sing "How Dry I Am" a couple of times. Then a travelling quack offers him a potion that will restore his former skills. Duryen gives an emotional performance that truly conveys the emotions of shame and learned helplessness of an alcoholic.

"The Trade-Ins" is a overly sentimental tale of an elderly couple who want to continue to live in the froo-froo of their love. So they visit a showroom where you can pick from an assortment of young bodies you can transfer yourself into. The problem is that they only have enough money for one! Joseph Schildkraut plays the old man and his real life wife died during filming of this episode. It didn't help the performance. This episode was weighted down by mush.

"16 Millimeter Shrine" is a blatant rip-off of Sunset Boulevard in which an aging movie star (Ida Lupino) just sets in her room drinking and showing her old films, unable to accept that all things must pass. Martin Balsam, just years away from his greatest performance in "Mitchell", plays her agent boyfriend who is trying to make her live in reality and trying to revive her career. Lupino gives an ugly overacted performance with sweeps of her arms and superficial breakdowns of emotion. It's all too much.

Lastly, we come to the only other half decent episode on the DVD, "The Lateness of the Hour". It's about parents and their suddenly no longer childlike daughter. It seems her father has perfected the safest and most isolated environment to live in. The family stays confined in their lavish mansion and are waited on by robots who look like humans. Except they never make mistakes. The problem is that the daughter, Inger Stevens, wants to see what the rest of the world looks like. She wants to meet a man, have some adventures. This episode felt like a play because it was filmed on videotape, and thereby all of it was shot on the same set. The actors do a decent job.

Overall, a subpar volume in this series

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Four great journeys into the Twilight Zone
I'm a little partial to this dvd because it has "Mister Denton on Doomsday", which is one of the first TZ episodes I ever saw as a little boy and one I actually sat on the floor in front of the tv taping on a tape recorder with my own narration (well before the days of VCR's). Of the four stories on here, three have the telegraphed endings (if you don't see it coming by about ten minutes into the show, you're not watching hard enough). The other one (Mister Denton) is good about keeping you guessing until the end. Still, the fact that you can see the ending coming doesn't stop them from being exciting and worth watching. "The Lateness of the Hour" was filmed on video tape (one of only 6 episodes done that way) and like those others it was limited in the locations it could shoot from. Still, they manage to tell a gripping story in the expanse of two rooms and it's worth watching. "The Trade-ins" is a good sentimental story that has its moments. "The 16mm Shrine" is a creepy tale, but pays off well in the end. And finally, "Mister Denton..." is a good western tale that has an interesting premise and a cool twist at the end. Don't forget to go to the extras on the dvd and read the "Reviews and Credits" section for each episode after you watch it. "The Trade-ins" has an especially tragic side-note that will make you want to go back and watch the episode again to catch the emotion you didn't notice as well before. I give this dvd 4 stars because while the episodes were mostly strong, there were a couple of weak spots during the stories that kept them from being perfect. Still, it's a great one to add to your collection!