"One More Pallbearer", Poll and discussion thread

An eccentric multimillionaire (Joseph Wiseman) invites three enemies to share his bomb shelter.
Originally aired January 12, 1962.

List of musical cues

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Let the discussion begin!

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"8" I like this one. Always have. I was confused at the ending before. I thought the dude was all alone. But then I realized he was just a loon! lol

Leen

I gave it a 7. Above average, very intersting episode. This is going to seem kind of twisted,

SPOILER POSSIBLY




but I was actually hoping the bomb would have gone off, killing all life on the planet except for Radin, and then Radin regretting having let his past tormentors out since at some point, he'd have actually enjoyed their company, essentially doing a 180 from the start of the show as to how he felt about them. This would have made a great 1 hour episode where you kind of make Radin crazier and more demented with his thoughts, throwing in some flashback sequences showing the actual injustices he suffered and so forth and then ending it sort of like it did end, OR a variation of w/ some more nagst added on like I kind of went into just now...

A solid '8' for me. I enjoy the setting and circumstances of the story, the acting, Radin's eccentricity and psychosis, and the twist ending.

A good episode, I like it. Love how his plan backfires on him.

Joseph Wiseman is probably better known for playing another creep--the James Bond villain Dr. No.

But The Twilight Zone had the good taste to cast him as a caucasian.

The last 60 seconds always send a chill down my spine. Am I the only one?

very nice one i wouldn't wann be that man thinking the world was going to end

Just saw this one this morning for the first time.
I think Wiseman plays the part so perfectly. There was several ways this one could have ended but I didn't quite see this one coming.
I didn't think I would have any real good surprises left in the remainder of Season 3 but this one was excellent IMO.
People on this board seem to think that the quality of eps goes down in the latter seasons but after seeing this, I know there are some gems still to come.
I give this one a solid 9.
To be honest, I am surprised at the lack of attention this episode gets here.

Thank you and good night.
TZ DZ Fan

greatest episode!

So I saw this episode this morning (meaning 1:30 am) and I'm a little confused, my mind is not exactly at its sharpest at 1:30 am. Did he imagine the whole thing or something? Seems like a cheap ending. Pardon my ignorance.

SPOILER








He imagined that the world was destroyed when it actually wasn't.

This is an ep that makes me vehemently disagree with Zicree. He calls the major, priest, schoolteacher cold and heartless and Radin sympathetic. Nonsense! Radin was a whiny little excuse for a human being, and I feel absolutely no sympathy for him whatsoever. The others, especially the priest, were absolutely correct in the judgements they passed on him in the past.

Sir Rhosis

I completely agree with you.

I'll agree as well. Are we really expected to have any sympathy for Radin? I'd like to know exactly what he did to earn the wrath of the Rev. Hughes. The details go unsaid, but I have to believe:

1. Radin impregnated the girl.

2. Abortion was not yet legal.

3. Unable to live with what would have caused far more shame in 1962 than today, she committed suicide.

4. Rod left all of the above unsaid, except that it ended in suicide, because he didn't think he could get it past the censors.

Just a little clarification: The Rev. Hughes must be Protestant, not a Catholic priest, since he refers to his wife, Mary.

So DH, out of curiousity how would you rank this ep?


Thank you and good night.
TZ DZ Fan

Since you ask, I guess a 6, but I've done very little episode rating so far.

Zicree says about this episode: "Joseph Wiseman plays his role as the neurotic millionaire with such vulnerability and the others their roles with such unfeeling coldness that we cannot help but feel pity for him and contempt for the others." Yes, Radin seems very vulnerable here, and on an emotional level I do feel a natural sympathy for him, even though on an intellectual level I agree that he was dead wrong. As far as the other actors are concerned, I think the problem may not have been their own "coldness" so much as the limitations imposed on them by the stilted dialogue that Serling wrote for their characters.

I think the covert theme of this episode is courage and the absence of courage, and that everything Radin does wrong is, or could be, an example of cowardice. He panics in the schoolroom. He doesn't want to acknowledge that he got the young woman pregnant. He doesn't carry out his officer's orders. In the episode,
***SPOILER***




naturally he expects the others to show the same regard for their own skin that he would in the same situation. They don't, and show that they are better people than Radin. But I wouldn't want to be confined in a bomb shelter with some of those people, either.

Dan Hollis wrote.........

Since you ask, I guess a 6, but I've done very little episode rating so far.
=====================================================

Not to stray off-topic.....but I noticed this myself a while back.
Most of the regular posters here do have a tendency to "rate" the eps.
(Well, not everyone, but the ones that rate a few, seem to rate a majority anyways)
You seem to talk about most of the eps here, but I guess you just seem to stay away from rating them.
I wonder why......
Everyone seems to have different "scales" or look at things differently.
But its interesting to me nonetheless.
I remember talking with Bevis a while back about a possible "flaw" in the way we
rate these anyways. (I can't recall the thread)
The "flaw" I found is that people seem to vote for the more IMPORTANT TO THEM episodes. By that I mean it doesn't have to be their particular favorites, but ones that stand out for a variety of reasons. Possible reasons for voting: Favorite eps, least favorites, most boring , a specific actor,etc. etc.
That would explain why we don't see many votes where people say that its just "average" unless they are provoked for comment or compelled for some other reason.
I hope you understand what I'm saying.

Thank you and good night.
TZ DZ Fan

okay my two cents on radin.

i feel no sympathy towards him at all. his vulnerability comes from his thinking that people will react the way he would. if he did elicit an apology from the three people he invited.. would it be a true apology or just a way to save themselves?

Part of this is attributable to laziness, I have to admit. Nevertheless, I also have mixed emotions about many episodes. I think I could rate them impartially, but these grades could significantly differ from my level of enjoyment.

Just to clarify, I meant the general emotional vulnerability that he seems to have during much of the episode, not his specific vulnerability to a breakdown, which indeed wouldn't have happened if he hadn't underestimated his three invitees. I agree about the apology. Then again, maybe what he really wanted deep down was to see them give in to their own fears, not so much an honest apology.

4
This is no favorite of mine.
The ending is impressively twisted, but the characterizations--save for Radin, who comes across more like 007 than anyone else--are B-L-A-N-D.

And no, I didn't feel any sympathy for Radin. He was a jerk.

radin is alone.. even in a city full of people

This episode has the most twisted end! I have two solutions.

1. The practical joke went too far and now he got insane and live in his own reality.

2. He is a drunkard and lives in his dreams. He blames the three people and wants to punish them for making him into what he is. In the dream he is the guy he really wished to be like. A guy that has power over others. But the dream doesn't end the way he wants.

he was trying to put the three of them in his nightmare but they left and his nightmare turn on him.

How do we know the nightmare he created for them was real?

it was for them.

You are probably right. But then it became less fascinating. Still some good acting though.

he was trying too scare them so badly to hear them say im sorry but it didn't work out the way he planed.

Actually I think it was for Radin himself. Yes he wanted to scare them so they would be forced to apologize. He figured wrong.

I've been thinking if any of them had apologized and begged him to stay in the shelter then would he have said, "The joke's on you. There is no bomb."?

In the end he'd have to say something like that, but undoubtedly he'd first let the entire simulation play through, for otherwise he'd have no reason to have arranged it. I can imagine their sitting underground for a few days while the supposed radiation was dying down.

Actually, I wonder whether Radin even thought that far ahead. Maybe he wasn't considering anything beyond the apologies he was certain were coming.

I love this episode for the psychological aspect of it.
Radin only saw the bad things these people did to him. If they hadn't "Motivated" him in such a way, he may have never accomplished anything in his life. He was a multimillionaire, after all. Unfortunately, his obsession about being wronged out-weighed the good they actually did for him. Shame Radin didn't spend some much needed couch time and get the therapy he needed to see the truth and not his feelings. These people did more good for him than he could ever comprehend. But, then again, by the time of the episode, it was already too late. The ending was perfect - utterly complete and self destructive. Not to seem callus or cold - but I know a few Radin's I would wish this most befitting psychosis on.

9!

DrM

Another one that I was never fond of. I read some place that Joseph Wisemen, made this one around the time he filmed Dr. No.

You are not the only one.

I gave it a 7.

I gave this one a 3 I'm just not that crazy about it but how the characters are viewed is interesting to me.I find Radin sympathetic up to a point.I think my problem with him is that while he did suffer somewhat so did the girl he got into trouble and the student he he tried to pin the cheating on etc. He only sees things from his point of view and no on else as if he suffered they didn't.The teacher,the minister and his commanding officer did show compassion to those he wronged but he only sees himself as the injured party that seems to me the big main problem with him.

Upon first viewing, I also wasn't completely enthralled by the episode, but later viewings boosted my enjoyment. I don't remember what I rated it, probably a 7 or 8. I love the ending, but I also love the 'solitary confinement setting' inside the shelter he built. Radin is such a scumbag, a pitiful scumbag, but a scumbag nonetheless. I enjoy the interactions with the 3 people he felt scorned by, and it's just a smooth transition to the end of the episode IMO.

The ending is powerful I watched it just the other night and I must say I didn't hate it maybe in time my ranking of it will go up.Yes scumbag and pathetic fit him.The thing I dislike about him the most is he only sees what he suffered and what was done to him he never seem to care anything about or feel guilty over the suffering he caused.

Correct IMO, you are never really supposed to feel sympathy for Radin. The way it is written and setup, you are hoping that his conceited and perverse sense of fair catches up with him - again. He has no remorse for anything that he did and accepts no responsibility for his actions. Mrs. Langford's description of him was just as true of Paul 20 years later. Hopefully this episode will grow on you, TZONE.

This is one of the few epiosdes I haven't seen much of so maybe it will grow on me I do think Radin's emotional growth was stunted he hadn't gained an once of humanity in 20 years!