The Four of Us Are Dying

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“The Four of Us Are Dying”
The Twilight Zone episode

Guest star Ross Martin
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 13
Written by Rod Serling adapted from "All of Us Are Dying", an unpublished story by George Clayton Johnson
Directed by John Brahm
Guest stars Harry Townes : Arch Hammer
Phillip Pine : Virgil Sterig
Don Gordon : Andy Marshak
Ross Martin : Johnny Foster
Peter Brocco : Pop Marshak
Beverly Garland : Maggie
Milton Frome : Detective
Featured music Jerry Goldsmith
Production no. 173-3618
Original airdate January 1, 1960
Episode chronology
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"What You Need" "Third from the Sun"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"The Four of Us Are Dying" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Contents

[edit] Opening Narration

“ His name is Arch Hammer, he's 36 years old. He's been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel-and-dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his conscience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Hammer has a talent, discovered at a very early age. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anything he wants. Mr. Archie Hammer, jack-of-all-trades, has just checked in at three-eighty a night, with two bags, some newspaper clippings, a most odd talent, and a master plan to destroy some lives. ”

[edit] Synopsis

Arch Hammer is a conman who can change his face to make it look like anyone he chooses. He first walks into a night club where he impersonates trumpeter Johnny Foster in order to steal Foster's girlfriend, a sultry singer. Hammer then pays a visit to Mr. Penell impersonating murdered gangster Virgil Sterig in order to extort money out of Penell, the man who had Sterig killed. But Penell figures out the deception and sends his men after him. Trying to escape down an alley, Hammer changes his face to one he sees on a poster of boxer Andy Marshak. But, thinking he is in the clear, he then runs into Marshak's father at a street book stall, who mistakes him for the son who broke his mother's heart, and ruined a young girl's life. Hammer pushes the old man out of the way and returns to his hotel room. A detective comes to the hotel to pick him up for questioning at the police station. When Hammer tries to escape from the policeman in a revolving door, he assumes Marshak's appearance again. But on the street he bumps into Marshak's father again, who pulls a gun on him. Hammer tries to show the old man he is not who he thinks he is, but before he can concentrate and change, the old man shoots him. As Hammer lies dying, his face shifts from one person to another until he dies wearing his own face.

[edit] Closing Narration

“ He was Arch Hammer, a cheap little man who just checked in. He was Johnny Foster, who played a trumpet and was loved beyond words. He was Virgil Sterig, with money in his pocket. He was Andy Marshak, who got some of his agony back on a sidewalk in front of a cheap hotel. Hammer, Foster, Sterig, Marshak—and all four of them were dying. ”

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • “After the first half-dozen stories had been written, part of the hustle was getting an agent. Through those years I found several who would let me use their names, though few cared to sign a contract with me. One of these men, Jay Richards - at the time head of the television department of the Famous Artists Agency, long since absorbed by I.F.A. (International Famous Agency), and since embedded in I.C.M. (International Creative Management), which represents me now in television and movies - agreed to read something. I showed Jay ‘All of Us Are Dying.’ After reading it, he crossed out the title with a ballpoint pen and wrote in ‘Rubberface!’ Then he sent it to Rod Serling, who had a new series that season called the Twilight Zone." —George Clayton Johnson writing in the August 1981 issue of The Twilight Zone Magazine.
  • The end scene of this episodes is referenced in Batman: The Animated Series' episode "Feat of Clay," in which the shapeshifting villain Clayface, once an actor, transforms into his previous film roles before his death, which was ultimately revealed to be an act .
  • During the destruction of the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the antagonist changes into several of the characters that it mimicked throughout the film before finally succumbing to the molten steel, similar to the protagonist of this episode.

[edit] References

  • Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

[edit] External links

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