He's Alive
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“He’s Alive” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
[edit] Details
- Episode number: 106
- Season: 4
- Original air date: January 24, 1963
- Writer: Rod Serling
- Director: Stuart Rosenberg
- Producer: Herbert Hirschman
- Director of photography: George T. Clemens
- Music: uncredited
[edit] Cast
| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Peter Vollmer | Dennis Hopper |
| Ernst Ganz | Ludwig Donath |
| Adolf Hitler | Curt Conway |
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Introducton Naration
"Portrait of a bush-league fuehrer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness 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. That 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."
[edit] The Story
The leader of a small Nazi group, Peter Vollmer, is visited by a shadowy figure who teaches him how to enthrall a crowd. He is successful at first, but is later done in when the elderly Jewish man he lives with interrupts a speech and denounces him. The man in the shadows reveals himself to be the ghost of Adolf Hitler and orders Peter to kill the old man, which he does. When the police arrive to arrest Peter for the crime, he is shot and killed while fleeing the scene. The 'shadow' of Hitler leaves, off to look for another worthy candidate.
[edit] Closing Narration
"Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare - Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami, Florida; Vincennes, Indiana; Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, 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 hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive."
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"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!!" -Adolf Hitler
[edit] Trivia
This episode reportedly produced more hate mail than any other installment of The Twilight Zone:
- “Within a week after the telecast, Serling and his staff received four thousand letters for which the designation “hate mail” was much too mild. Communications were received from the followers of the prominent anti-Semite Gerald L.K. Smith, from the disciples of faith-healer/politicizer Billy Jo Hargis, from such august concerns as “The White Citizen’s Councils” and “Christian Anti-Communism Schools.” Serling and company were addressed as “commie bastards” by some, while other literary wits characterized the Twilight Zone people as “kike lovers” and “nigger lovers.” An organization called “Geo Politics” offered the novel suggestion that “Jews should be put in gas ovens and niggers shipped back to Africa.” —Hal Erikson, excerpt from “All the Little Hitlers” published in the October 1986 edition of The Twilight Zone Magazine.
Despite this less then enthusiastic reception, Serling sought to bring his story to an even larger audience:
- “To Rod Serling, “He’s Alive!” was far more than just another sausage from the Twilight Zone grinder. He felt that the play was the best he had written for the 1962-63 series and had hopes for its development beyond the hour-long format. Distressed that producer Herbert Hirschman had edited the film to conform to time restrictions, eliminating a nightmarish sequence in which Dennis Hopper, suddenly terrified at the prospect of meeting Hitler face-to-face, runs through the deserted city streets only to be confronted by swastikas, Nazi propaganda posters, and copies of Mein Kampf on every street corner. Serling suggested that two versions of “He’s Alive” be prepared in the editing room. One, the shorter of the two, would be telecast; the other would be expanded into a theatrical feature film. (Serling had been developing a Twilight Zone motion picture since 1960, only to be thwarted by uninterested or skeptical producers at every turn.) To this end, Serling started writing additional scenes, expanding the characters of Dennis Hopper’s three followers (one of whom was played by Paul Mazursky, the future director of such films as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Moscow on the Hudson) and adding, as a normal “sympathetic” protagonist, the character of a dedicated FBI man who is investigating Hopper’s fascist movement. Because Twilight Zone’s already conservative budget had been stretched to the breaking point, Hirschmann turned down Serling’s suggestions.” —additional excerpt from “All the Little Hitlers”
[edit] References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
