The Thirty-Fathom Grave

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The Twilight Zone Original series Season four (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) January 1963 – June 1963 List of The Twilight Zone episodes
Episodes: In His Image The Thirty-Fathom Grave Valley of the Shadow He's Alive Mute Death Ship Jess-Belle Miniature Printer's Devil No Time Like the Past The Parallel I Dream of Genie The New Exhibit Of Late I Think of Cliffordville The Incredible World of Horace Ford On Thursday We Leave for Home Passage on the Lady Anne The Bard

“The Thirty-Fathom Grave” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

Episode number: 104
Season: 4
Original air date: January 10, 1963
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Perry Lafferty
Producer: Herbert Hirschman
Director of photography: George T. Clemens

[edit] Cast

Chief Bell: Mike Kellin
Captain Beecham: Simon Oakland
Doc: David Sheiner
McClure: John Considine
OOD: Bill Bixby
Ensign: Conlan Carter
Crewman: Vincent Baggetta

[edit] Synopsis

In 1963, a U.S. Navy destroyer is on a routine patrol just off Guadalcanal when sonar picks up the sound of metallic clanging beneath the waves. It's soon discovered that a submarine is on the ocean floor, where it's probably been since the great naval battles of World War II. The joking suggestion that the sub may be haunted sends fearful Chief Bell into a frenzy of bizarre behavior, including fainting spells. The destroyer's commander, Captain Beecham, orders divers to investigate the sub below. They find out that it is an American submarine from WWII...and there is definite hammering coming from inside! "Who could be inside that sub?" wonders a crewman. Beecham replies, "Somebody who dies damn hard!" The discovery that the sub is a U.S. relic sends Chief Bell into even greater neurosis. Bell once served aboard that sunken submarine and was the only survivor when it was shelled. Now he feels that the spirits of his former crewmates are calling for him to join them...

[edit] Trivia

The ship's hull number in the opening, exterior shot is different from the one shown immediately thereafter in the opening scene. The opening shot is stock footage of the U.S.S. Mullinnix, but in the very next shot, the ship nimber on the wall-mounted life preserver designates the ship as the U.S.S. Edson. Both ships were Forrest Sherman-class destroyers.