Spur of the Moment (The Twilight Zone)

Last updated
"Spur of the Moment"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.Season 5
Episode 21
Directed by Elliot Silverstein
Written by Richard Matheson
Featured musiccomposed by Rene Garriguenc, conducted by Lud Gluskin
Production code2608
Original air dateFebruary 21, 1964 (1964-02-21)
Guest appearances
Diana Hyland: Anne Henderson
Robert J. Hogan: Robert Blake
Philip Ober: Mr. Henderson
Marsha Hunt: Mrs. Henderson
Roger Davis: David Mitchell
Jack Raine: Reynolds
Episode chronology
 Previous
"From Agnes—With Love"
Next 
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 5)
List of episodes

"Spur of the Moment" is episode 141 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone . In this episode, a young woman is set upon by a mysterious and terrifying woman dressed in black just hours before her engagement. Alternating between scenes set 25 years apart, the episode explores themes of regret and the danger of yielding to passion.

Contents

Opening narration

This is the face of terror. Anne Marie Henderson, 18 years of age, her young existence suddenly marred by a savage and wholly unanticipated pursuit by a strange, nightmarish figure of a woman in black, who has appeared as if from nowhere and now, at driving gallop, chases the terrified girl across the countryside, as if she means to ride her down and kill her, and then suddenly and inexplicably stops to watch in malignant silence as her prey takes flight. Miss Henderson has no idea whatever as to the motive for this pursuit. Worse, not the vaguest notion regarding the identity of her pursuer. Soon enough, she will be given the solution to this twofold mystery, but in a manner far beyond her present capacity to understand, a manner enigmatically bizarre in terms of time and space - which is to say, an answer from... the Twilight Zone.

Plot

On June 13, 1939, 18-year-old Anne Henderson rides a horse across her family's property. Up on a ridge, a fierce woman dressed all in black on a stallion screams at her, incomprehensibly. Anne, petrified, races towards her home with the strange woman in fast pursuit before breaking off the chase. When Anne arrives home, her parents and her investment banker fiancé, Robert, are waiting for her there. She tells them of her frightful experience and that she believes the woman wanted to kill her. Her parents and Robert calm her down and talk of the upcoming marriage. However, Anne is plainly uncomfortable with Robert, who is stiff and makes insensitive jokes.

Her former fiancé, David Mitchell, whom she has known since childhood, appears at the door. Arrogantly forcing his way inside past an elderly retainer, David pleads with Anne to call off her wedding and be with him. David and Robert have words, and David knocks Robert down but does not cause any serious harm. Anne can't bring herself to answer David's question or to look him in the eye as he challenges her to do. Anne's father tells David to consider her silence the answer and then forces him to leave the house at gunpoint.

Twenty-five years later, Anne is a miserable alcoholic. She tells her mother her recollection of what happened up on the ridge, pointing out that there is a saying, "Go chase yourself," and she realizes she has been doing just that. Her mother, having received another phone call from an otherwise unidentified lawyer, is devastated about losing the estate in a pending dispossession and seems uninterested in her daughter's metaphysical time-traveling marvel. Anne disparages her now deceased father for spoiling her and not allowing her to earn anything or learn such things as judgment and discrimination. Her mother slaps her for "debasing" her father's memory, and Anne slaps her back, declaring her mother's comments to be "cornball". Anne asks her mother if she remembers that night, 25 years earlier, when she came home terrified after riding her horse. Anne now realizes she was pursuing her younger self on horseback, trying to warn herself not to marry the wrong man. She notes that her dissolute and abusive husband has bankrupted the estate through mismanagement. However, her husband is not Robert but the arrogant, pushy, mercurial David, with whom Anne eloped from her engagement party 25 years ago.

The older Anne leaves the house for another ride on horseback. She again approaches the ridge line and sees her younger self down below. She pursues the young Anne with her warning, and her words are now audible: "Anne...wait...come back!" but the younger Anne still cannot hear her, and the older Anne is still unable to catch her.

Closing narration

This is the face of terror. Anne Marie Mitchell, 43 years of age, her desolate existence once more afflicted by the hope of altering her past mistake - a hope which is unfortunately doomed to disappointment. For warnings from the future to the past must be taken in the past. Today may change tomorrow, but once today is gone, tomorrow can only look back in sorrow that the warning was ignored. Said warning as of now stamped 'Not Accepted'- and stored away in the dead file, in the recording office... of the Twilight Zone.

Related Research Articles

"The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine", starring Ida Lupino, is episode four of the American television series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on October 23, 1959, on CBS. The title is a reference to 16 mm film.

"Walking Distance" is episode five of the American television series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on October 30, 1959. The episode was listed as the ninth best episode in the history of The Twilight Zone by Time magazine.

The Hitch-Hiker (<i>The Twilight Zone</i>) 16th episode of the 1st season of The Twilight Zone

"The Hitch-Hiker" is the sixteenth episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone which originally aired on January 22, 1960, on CBS. It is based on Lucille Fletcher's radio play The Hitch-Hiker. It is frequently listed among the series' greatest episodes.

"Eye of the Beholder" is episode 42 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on November 11, 1960, on CBS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladys Cooper</span> British actress (1888–1971)

Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television.

<i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i> 1983 American science fiction horror anthology film

Twilight Zone: The Movie is a 1983 American sci-fi horror anthology film produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis. Based on Rod Serling's 1959–1964 television series of the same name, the film features four stories directed by Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante, and George Miller. Landis' segment is an original story created for the film, while the segments by Spielberg, Dante, and Miller are remakes of episodes from the original series. The film's cast includes Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, and Kathleen Quinlan. Original series cast members Burgess Meredith, Patricia Barry, Peter Brocco, Murray Matheson, Kevin McCarthy, Bill Mumy, and William Schallert also appear in the film, with Meredith assuming Serling's role as narrator.

"Night Call" is a 1964 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone directed by Jacques Tourneur. The story follows an elderly woman, played by Gladys Cooper, who receives persistent disturbing phone calls from an anonymous caller. The episode is based on Richard Matheson's short story "Sorry, Right Number" which appeared in the November 1953 issue of Beyond Fantasy Fiction. The title was changed to "Long Distance Call" when the story was anthologized. The story ends differently than the TV episode.

"Caesar and Me" is episode 148 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone starring Jackie Cooper as a ventriloquist. It is not to be confused with a similar episode "The Dummy", starring Cliff Robertson as a ventriloquist.

<i>Racing Stripes</i> 2005 American film

Racing Stripes is a 2005 American sports comedy family film directed by Frederik Du Chau. The film was produced by Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Lloyd Phillips and Edward L. McDonnell, based on a script written by David Schmidt, Steven P. Wegner, Kirk DeMicco and Du Chau.

<i>Runaway Bride</i> (film) 1999 film by Garry Marshall

Runaway Bride is a 1999 American screwball romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall, and starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The screenplay, written by Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon, is about a reporter (Gere) who undertakes to write a story about a woman (Roberts) who has left a string of fiancés at the altar.

"I Sing the Body Electric" is episode 100 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The 1962 script was written by Ray Bradbury, and became the basis for his 1969 short story of the same name, itself named after an 1855 Walt Whitman poem. Although Bradbury contributed several scripts to The Twilight Zone, this was the only one produced.

"Nothing in the Dark" is episode 81 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, originally airing on January 5, 1962. This is one of two episodes that were filmed during season two but held over for broadcast until season three, the other being "The Grave".

"Young Man's Fancy" is episode 99 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

"Queen of the Nile" is episode 143 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a journalist becomes romantically involved with a dangerous, secretly immortal movie star.

Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics is a 1994 American made-for-television fantasy supernatural horror film consisting of two stories by Rod Serling. The film was co-produced by Serling's widow Carol Serling. Reportedly, she found the two pieces in a trunk in the family's garage.

<i>Do You Like Hitchcock?</i> 2005 multi-national TV series or program

Do You Like Hitchcock? is a 2005 made-for-TV giallo film directed by Dario Argento. The film is a homage to the acclaimed thriller film director Alfred Hitchcock.

<i>Dreamkeeper</i> 2003 television film directed by Steve Barron

Dreamkeeper is a 2003 film written by John Fusco and directed by Steve Barron. The main plot of the film is the conflict between a Lakota elder and storyteller named Pete Chasing Horse and his Lakota grandson, Shane Chasing Horse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Chase</span> American serial killer and cannibal

Richard Trenton Chase was an American spree killer, cannibal, and necrophile who killed six people in Sacramento, California, from December 1977 to January 1978. He was nicknamed The Vampire of Sacramento because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains.

Seymour "Buzz" Kulik was an American film director and producer. He directed 72 films and television shows, including the landmark CBS television network anthology series Playhouse 90 and several episodes of The Twilight Zone. Kulik went on to direct made-for-TV movies, such as Brian's Song.

"The Girl I Married" is the second segment of the thirty-fifth episode and the twentieth episode of the second season (1986–87) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

References