The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross
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| “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross” | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Don Gordon as Salvadore Ross |
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| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 136 |
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| Written by | Jerry McNeely (Based on the story by Henry Slesar.) |
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| Directed by | Don Siegel | ||||||
| Guest stars | Don Gordon : Salvadore Ross Gail Kobe : Leah Maitland Vaughn Taylor : Mr. Maitland |
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| Featured music | Stock | ||||||
| Production no. | 2612 | ||||||
| Original airdate | January 17, 1964 | ||||||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Opening narration
| “ | Confidential personnel file on Salvadore Ross. Personality: a volatile mixture of fury and frustration. Distinguishing physical characteristic: a badly-broken hand which will require emergency treatment at the nearest hospital. Ambition: shows great determination toward self-improvement. Estimate of potential success: a sure bet for a listing in Who's Who--in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Synopsis
Salvadore Ross is a brutal, ambitious young man who loves an idealistic social worker named Leah Maitland. Leah has great affection for Ross, but she could never marry a man so lacking in compassion. Moreover, Leah's father detests Ross. Telling him that the relationship is finished, Leah slams her door in his face, and Ross slams his fist into the door, necessitating a trip to the hospital because of a broken hand.
Ross's roommate is an elderly man with a respiratory infection. Ross sarcastically suggests that he'd like to trade ailments with the old man, who jokingly accepts the trade. The next morning, as if by magic, the old man has a broken hand, while Ross has a mild cold.
Ross comes to realize that he has a supernatural power to make magical trades with other people. In exchange for a large amount of cash and a penthouse apartment, Ross sells his youth to an elderly millionaire. As a result, Ross is now very rich but very old. But he finds an easy way to regain his youth: he offers a large number of young men (beginning with a hotel bellboy) a small amount of cash for just one year of their lives. The boys accept the money, thinking Ross is just crazy (and since none of them feels any different after aging just one year, none thinks anything has really happened). In short order, Ross is young again, and still rich.
With his new-found wealth, he attempts to win Leah's hand again, and again, she refuses. She wants a man with a heart, a man with the compassion her father possesses.
Frustrated, Ross approaches Leah's father, and offers to make him financially secure for the rest of his life. When the father skeptically asks how, Ross says hesitantly, "Well, it's kind of hard to explain..."
Sometime later, we see that Ross has become a warm, compassionate fellow who has won Leah's heart. Ross, in consideration of Mr. Maitland's feelings, meets with him in private and asks his assent to the marriage. However, he's failed to reckon with one thing: Leah's father, who'd despised Ross to begin with, no longer has any kindness or mercy in his heart, since he'd traded it all to Ross! Incensed at Ross's impertinence, the compassionless old man pulls out a gun and kills him.
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | The Salvadore Ross program for self-improvement. The all-in-one, sure-fire success course that lets you lick the bully, learn the language, dance the tango and anything else you want to do--or think you want to do. Money-back guarantee. Offer limited to...the Twilight Zone. | ” |
