The After Hours
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| “The After Hours” | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Publicity photo of Anne Francis in The After Hours |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 34 |
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| Written by | Rod Serling | ||||||
| Directed by | Douglas Heyes | ||||||
| Guest stars | Anne Francis : Marsha White Elizabeth Allen : Saleswoman James Millhollin : Armbruster John Conwell : Elevator Operator Nancy Rennick : Miss Pettigrew Patrick Whyte : Mr. Sloan |
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| Production no. | 173-3637 | ||||||
| Original airdate | June 10, 1960 | ||||||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"The After Hours" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Opening narration
| “ | Express elevator to the ninth floor of a department store, carrying Miss Marsha White on a most prosaic, ordinary, run-of-the-mill errand. Miss Marsha White on the ninth floor, specialties department, looking for a gold thimble. The odds are she'll find it, but there are even better odds that she'll find something else, because this isn't just a department store. This happens to be the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Synopsis
Marsha White, a woman browsing for a gift for her mother in a department store, decides on a gold thimble and is taken by elevator to the 9th floor. During the sales transaction, she grows increasingly puzzled by the comments and actions of both the male elevator operator who transported her to the barren, seemingly deserted floor, and the aloof female salesclerk behind the counter who sells her the thimble. As Marsha rides the elevator back down from the 9th floor, she notices that the thimble is scratched and dented, and is directed by the elevator operator to the Complaints Department on the third floor.
But when she tries to convince Mr. Armbruster, the sales supervisor, and Mr. Sloan, the store manager, that she bought the item on the 9th floor, she is told that the 9th floor doesn't exist. Marsha then becomes distraught after she spots the salesclerk who sold her the thimble and is shocked to discover that the woman isn't really a salesclerk at all; she's one of the department store's display mannequins. While resting in an office following her frightening discovery, Marsha finds herself locked inside in the now-closed store. She attempts to find a way out, and becomes alarmed by mysterious voices calling to her and by some subtle movements made by the supposedly lifeless mannequins around her.
Becoming hysterical, she flees to an elevator, which once again transports her to the unoccupied 9th floor. There, she learns from the others present --mannequins who suddenly come to life and greet her -- that she, too, is a mannequin. Each one of them gets to go out into the world and live among the humans for one month. But Marsha had enjoyed her stay among "the others" so much that she had lost track of her return date and was away from the store for too long; she had forgotten her true nature. But now she realizes that she is back in her proper place, which allows the next mannequin in line -- the female salesclerk who sold her the thimble -- to go out and live among the humans for thirty days. As the other mannequins see her off, a male mannequin approaches Marsha and asks her if she enjoyed her time among the humans. She says she did. As Marsha fondly recalls her brief sojourn out among the humans, she grows rigid and statue-like.
The next day the store supervisor, Mr. Armbruster, is making his morning rounds on the salesfloor and does a sudden double-take upon seeing a faintly familiar-looking mannequin on display.
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | Marsha White in her normal and natural state. A wooden lady with a painted face -who, for one month out of the year- takes on the characteristics of someone as normal and as flesh and blood as you and I. But it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Just how normal are we? Just who are the people we nod our hellos to as we pass on the street? A rather good question to ask, particularly in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Remake
The episode was remade in 1986 for The New Twilight Zone. It starred Terry Farrell as Marsha. The plot is similar but the emphasis is more on suspense.
[edit] Trivia
Outside the libraries of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's California Adventure there is a glass case adjacent to the doors containing a gold thimble accompanied by a card that reads, "Looking for a gift for Mother? Find it in our Gift Shop!" This is a reference to this episode.
