Printer's Devil

"Printer's Devil"

The Twilight Zone episode

"HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL EXPOSED AS BIGAMIST!"

Episode no.

Season 4
Episode 111

Directed by

Ralph Senensky

Written by

Charles Beaumont (Based on his story "The Devil, You Say?")

Featured music

Stock from "The Big Tall Wish" and "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" by Jerry Goldsmith

Production code

4864

Original air date

February 28, 1963

Guest stars

Burgess Meredith: Mr. Smith
Robert Sterling: Douglas Winter
Pat Crowley: Jackie Benson
Ray Teal: Mr. Franklin

Episode chronology

← Previous
"Miniature"

Next →
"No Time Like the Past"

List of Twilight Zone episodes

"Printer's Devil" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The title comes from the profession printer's devil, an apprentice in the industry.

The plot line, though with a different ending, borrows heavily from the classic American short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster", and echoes a plot device in Jack Finney's 1952 short story "Behind the News."

Synopsis

Douglas Winter, the editor of The Courier, a failing newspaper, feels there is nothing to live for after a number of employees quit, including the Linotype operator. Drunk, at a bridge, he looks down into the inviting water below. When he is going to commit suicide, he is approached by one "Mr. Smith", who comments that it's a short fall and probably wouldn't do a very good job. He then asks Doug for a light, and, if he wasn't quite ready, a ride into town. Amused, forgetting all about suicide, Winter gives him a lift to a café, where Mr. Smith agrees to provide the editor with money to pay off debts and continue the operation of the newspaper. Mr. Smith also signs up to replace the linotype operator and be the sole reporter. With nothing to lose, Doug agrees to the proposition.

The first scoop is a large bank robbery. Business booms for the little newspaper, as Mr. Smith out-scoops other reporters from the rival Gazette on dramatic news stories, many involving disasters. The Courier becomes a success as its stories hit the streets seemingly minutes after the events happen. It is so successful that a man from The Gazette, Mr. Franklin, tries to buy up the little newspaper. Winter is now in a position to say "No!" with confidence. Not many days later, there is a fire at The Gazette, and they accuse someone at The Courier of arson.

With all the success the newspaper is having, Mr. Smith asks the editor to humor him by signing a contract guaranteeing continued success in exchange for his soul, pointing out that it doesn't mean much; "it's almost like an appendix these days, not really necessary," and besides, since the devil is not real, Winter shouldn't have a problem with it. Winter hesitates, but Mr. Smith goads him by saying, "Imagine a grown man believing in the devil!" More importantly, Mr. Smith has modified the newspaper's linotype machine, so that whatever is set in type subsequently happens.

Eventually, Mr. Smith makes a pass at Miss Benson, who sternly rebuffs him. Mr. Smith vows that Benson will pay the price. In retaliation for this, and trying to turn the screws on Winter, he writes a story that has the editor's girlfriend gravely injured in an auto accident. The editor concludes that Mr. Smith is in fact the devil, and he discovers the story that has his girlfriend dying. Smith demands that Winter kill himself to fulfill his part of their bargain, or Jackie dies. In desperation, Winter uses the linotype machine to change the story so his girlfriend survives the crash (Mr. Smith himself the catalyst behind the steering wheel, trying to destroy Jackie as well), but also writes it so that Mr. Smith's contract is void, and he must leave. When the car is found, Jackie is safe, but Mr. Smith has completely disappeared. Winter decides to run the newspaper fairly, and to destroy the infernal linotype machine- after hauling it away.

References

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

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"