Perchance to Dream (The Twilight Zone)
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| “Perchance to Dream” | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Richard Conte in Perchance to Dream |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 9 |
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| Written by | Charles Beaumont based on his story of the same name, published in the November 1958 issue of Playboy | ||||||
| Directed by | Robert Florey | ||||||
| Guest stars | Richard Conte : Edward Hall John Larch : Dr. Rathmann Suzanne Lloyd : Maya/Miss Thomas |
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| Featured music | Van Cleave | ||||||
| Production no. | 173-3616 | ||||||
| Original airdate | November 27, 1959 | ||||||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"Perchance to Dream" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Opening narration
| “ | Twelve o'clock noon. An ordinary scene, an ordinary city. Lunchtime for thousands of ordinary people. To most of them, this hour will be a rest, a pleasant break in the day's routine. To most, but not all. To Edward Hall, time is an enemy, and the hour to come is a matter of life and death. | ” |
[edit] Synopsis
Edward Hall (Conte), a man with a heart condition, believes that if he falls asleep, he'll die. On the other hand, keeping himself awake will put too much of a strain on his heart. He seeks out the aid of psychiatrist Rathmann and explains that he has been dreaming in chapters, as if in a movie serial. In his dreams, Maya, a carnival dancer, lures him onto a roller coster in a funhouse in an attempt to scare him to death. Realizing that Rathmann cannot help him, Hall starts to go, but stops when he realizes that Rathmann's receptionist looks exactly like Maya. Terrified, he runs back into Rathmann's office and jumps out of the window. In reality, this was all a dream: Hall actually came into Rathmann's office, lay down, immediately fell asleep—and then a few minutes later, screamed and died.
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | They say a dream takes only a second or so, and yet in that second a man can live a lifetime. He can suffer and die, and who's to say which is the greater reality: the one we know or the one in dreams, between heaven, the sky, the earth in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- This was the first episode aired that was written by Charles Beaumont (and also the first that was not written by Rod Serling).
- The title of the episode, and the Beaumont-written short story that inspired it, is taken from Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech.
[edit] Episode notes
"Throughout the TV filming, Florey strove for quality. It might have been the most expensive MGM feature. He rooted out the meanings of certain lines, frequently surprising me with symbols and shadings I'd neither planned nor suspected. The set was truly impressionistic, recalling the days of Caligari and Liliom. The costumes were generally perfect. And in the starring role, Richard Conte gave a performance which displays both intensity and subtlety." —Charles Beaumont writing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science-Fiction, December 1959.
[edit] References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
