The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”
The Twilight Zone episode

Scene from "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 22
Written by Rod Serling
Directed by Ronald Winston
Guest stars Claude Akins : Steve Brand
Barry Atwater : Les Goodman
Jack Weston : Charlie
Amzie Strickland : Woman
Anne Barton : Mrs. Brand
Jan Handzlik : Tommy
Burt Metcalfe : Don
Mary Gregory : Sally
Jason Johnson : Old man
Leah Waggner  : Mrs. Goodman
Joan Sudlow : Old woman
Ben Erway : Pete Van Horn
Sheldon Allman : First alien
William Walsh : Second alien
Featured music Original score by Rene Garriguenc, conducted by Lud Gluskin
Production no. 173-3620
Original airdate March 4, 1960
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"Mirror Image" "A World of Difference"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Originally aired when memories of the Second Red Scare were still fresh in the minds of viewers, the episode is often presented commercial-free as part of the Cable in the Classroom series, to teach kids about the dangers of prejudice and hysteria. The question of whether the monsters of the title are the suspected aliens or the prejudiced residents of Maple Street is open to interpretation.


Contents

[edit] Opening narration

“ Maple Street, U.S.A., late summer. A tree-lined little road of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice-cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 p.m. on Maple Street. . . . This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon, in the last calm and reflective moment — before the monsters came. ”

[edit] Synopsis

It is mid-evening in September and the street is full of playing children and adults talking. A shadow passes overhead and a loud roar is heard, accompanied by a flash of light. Later, after it has gone dark, the residents of Maple Street find that the telephones no longer work, and there is no power. They gather together in the street to discuss the matter. One of them, known as Pete Van Horn, volunteers to walk out of the neighborhood to see if the problem is widespread.

Steve wants to go into town but Tommy, a boy from the neighborhood, tells him not to. His reasons being; he read in his comic/action hero books that an alien invasion is taking place, and it is a family that looks like humans, but isn't.

Meanwhile another resident, Les Goodman, tries unsuccessfully to start his car. He gets out and begins to walk back towards the other residents when the car starts all by itself. The bizarre behavior of his car makes Les the object of immediate suspicion. The residents begin to discuss his late nights spent standing in the garden looking up at the sky. Les claims to be an insomniac. His problem becomes worse when the lights in his house come on, and the rest of the neighborhood remains in the dark. Suspicion then suddenly switches to Steve when he tries to defuse the situation and prevent it from becoming a witch-hunt. Charlie, one of the loudest and most aggressive residents, pressures Steve about his hobby building a radio that no one has ever seen.

A man is seen walking along Maple Street through the dark, towards the gathered crowd. Panic begins to build, and Charlie grabs a shotgun and kills the man. When the crowd reaches the fallen man, they realize that it is Pete Van Horn, returning from his scouting mission.

Suddenly the lights in Charlie's house come on and he panics, realizing how it looks. He is now the subject of the suspicion. He makes a run for his house while the other residents begin to chase him and throw stones. Terrified, Charlie attempts to deflect suspicion onto Tommy, the boy who originally brought up the idea of alien infiltration. Lights begin turning on and off in different houses; lawn mowers and cars start up for no apparent reason. A riot begins and the hysterical residents smash windows, fight and switch blame from one person to another with little justification.

The episode ends with two Martian observers watching the rioting on Maple Street and discussing how easy it was to create paranoia and panic, and let the people of Earth destroy themselves, one place at a time. One of them tells the other:

"Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines, their telephones, their lawnmowers, throw them into darkness for a few hours, and then sit back and watch the pattern."

"This pattern is always the same?"

"With few variations. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find.... and it's themselves. All we need do is sit back and watch."

"I take it that this place...this Maple Street...is not unique."

"By no means. Their world is full of Maple Streets, and we'll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves."

[edit] Closing narration

“ The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own; for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone. ”

[edit] Remake

A remake of the episode was created in the latest re-adaptation of The Twilight Zone, but it was renamed "The Monsters Are On Maple Street". The difference between the two is that the remake is more about the fear of terrorism in America and how it drives people apart. When the power surge happens in the remake, it is not caused by aliens but by the government, experimenting on how small towns react to the fear of terrorism. In the end, the neighborhood takes out its anger and frustration on a family who never left their house after the power surge occurred, thinking that they caused it since they still have power.


[edit] References

[edit] External links

Languages