One for the Angels

"One for the Angels"

The Twilight Zone episode

Ed Wynn and Dana Dillaway in "One for the Angels"

Episode no.

Season 1
Episode 2

Directed by

Robert Parrish

Written by

Rod Serling

Featured music

Stock (mostly from Bernard Herrmann's "Outer Space Suite")

Cinematography by

Joseph La Shelle

Production code

173-3608

Original air date

October 9, 1959

Guest stars

Ed Wynn – Lew Bookman
Murray Hamilton – Death
Dana Dillaway – Maggie Polanski
Jay Overholts – Doctor

Episode chronology

← Previous
"Where Is Everybody?"

Next →
"Mr. Denton on Doomsday"

List of The Twilight Zone episodes

"One for the Angels" is the second episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Plot summary

A salesman, Lou Bookman, is told by Death that he is to die at midnight. Mr. Bookman argues that his life's work as a salesman is not quite complete, and convinces Death to give him a stay of execution until he can give one last, great sales pitch - "a pitch for the angels", as Mr. Bookman puts it. Once Death agrees, Bookman then announces his intention to quit selling and find another line of work. He is proud of having outsmarted Death and virtually assured himself of immortality.

What Bookman hasn't counted on is that someone has to die at midnight. Because of this, Death has to take one of Bookman's many young friends, a little girl who lives in the same building, who is hit by a truck. As she lies comatose, he comes to claim her. Bookman pleads with Death to take him after all instead of the girl, but Death is adamant; a deal is a deal. However, as they wait for the appointed time, Bookman distracts Death with a sales pitch aimed at him. In fact, he is so compelling that Death is too enthralled to claim the girl, instead purchasing all of Bookman's goods. Midnight passes before Death even realizes that he has missed his appointment.

In saving the girl's life, Bookman has willingly sacrificed his own; he has now made that last great sales pitch - "one for the angels", one that could even persuade Death, thus fulfilling the original agreement. Before leaving with Death, Bookman packs up his case of wares, hopefully remarking that "You never know who might need something up there. Up there?" To which Death replies, "Up there, Mr. Bookman. You made it."

External links

"One for the Angels" at the Internet Movie Database
"One for the Angels" at TV Tome
Full video of the episode at CBS.com

The Twilight Zone

Series	The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) The Twilight Zone (1985–1989) The Twilight Zone (2002–2003)

Key people	Rod Serling Buck Houghton Charles Beaumont Richard Matheson Jerry Sohl George Clayton Johnson Earl Hamner, Jr. Reginald Rose Ray Bradbury Paul Chitlik Jeremy Bertrand Finch

See also	List of The Twilight Zone episodes List of The Twilight Zone guest stars The Twilight Zone (pinball) Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Twilight Zone literature The Twilight Zone (radio series) Night Gallery

Twilight Zone (1959) episodes

Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgement Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"

Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "The Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble With Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"

Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"

Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"

Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander With Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"

One for the Angels

Plot summary

Further readings

External links