Mr. Denton on Doomsday
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“Mr. Denton on Doomsday” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
[edit] Details
- Episode number: 3
- Season: 1
- Production code: 173-3609
- Original air date: October 16, 1959
- Writer: Rod Serling
- Director: Allen Reisner
- Producer: Buck Houghton
- Music: stock
[edit] Cast
- Al Denton: Dan Duryea
- Henry J. Fate: Malcolm Atterbury
- Hotaling: Martin Landau
- Liz: Jeanne Cooper
- Charlie: Ken Lynch
- Leader: Arthur Batanides
- Cowboy: Bill Erwin
- Doctor: Robert Burton
- Pete Grant: Doug McClure
[edit] Synopsis
Washed-up gunslinger Al Denton is given another chance by a mysterious man by the name of Henry J. Fate, who offers him a potion guaranteed to make him the fastest gun in the West for ten seconds. Facing a young gunfighter who rode into town looking for a duel, Denton downs his vial of the potion only to find his opponent holding an identical bottle. Each man shoots the other in the hand, causing injuries that will never allow them to use a gun again. Afterwards, Denton tells his young opponent that they have both been blessed.
[edit] Trivia
- The title character was named after a childhood friend of Serling's, Herbert Denton.
- The following is an excerpt from Rod Serling's pitch to potential sponsors of his new show, The Twilight Zone. It was included as an extra on "Twilight Zone's" DVD release, and was transcribed by Matthew Cregg.
"A parenthetic note here: on The Twilight Zone there'll be a variety of stories, and this is a variety that covers not only story type but time, locale, the nature of the people. For example, this is a western called Death, Destre and Mr. Dingle. And this is the principal character in the story. It's a Colt .45. There's a schoolmaster named Dingle who picks up this gun one day finding it in a school yard. Quite accidentally, it goes off on a couple of occasions. First it hits a rattlesnake between the eyes at fifty yards, then it knocks the gun out of a desperado's hand. And while it's all quite accidental, the various onlookers make an assumption that Mr. Dingle's a pretty fast gun. And they start to build not only a reputation for this spindly little dude but also almost a reverent tradition. And, as in the classic western mold, every top gun in and out of the territory converge on the town ready to invite Mr. Dingle, poor little Mr. Dingle who really doesn't know how to use a gun, to a showdown. So, Mr. Dingle buys himself a little vial full of liquid that's simply out of this world because it comes with a money-back guarantee. Simply that it will make him the fastest gun in the west for ten seconds. It's this vial he carries into a saloon one night ready to meet at gunpoint a gentleman named Dirty Dan Destre. A fast gun in his own right. So fast he makes Hugh O'Brien look like Charles Coburn. But when the two men face one another and Mr. Dingle drinks his liquid with the money-back guarantee, he suddenly sees in the hand of his opponent a very familiar vial, identical with his own. I won't tell you the ending except that it's reasonably happy if unexpected."
[edit] References
- Sander, Gordon F.: Serling: The Rise And Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
