The Jungle (The Twilight Zone)

"**The Jungle**"
"The Jungle"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 3; Episode 12
Directed by	William F. Claxton
Teleplay by	Charles Beaumont
Based on	"The Jungle"; by Charles Beaumont
Production code	4806
Original air date	December 1, 1961
Guest appearances
	John Dehner ; Emily McLaughlin ; Walter Brooke ; Jay Adler ; Hugh Sanders ; Howard Wright; Donald Foster ;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Still Valley"	Next →; "Once Upon a Time"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 3)
	List of episodes

Last updated April 06, 2024

"The Jungle" is episode 77 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone , and is the twelfth episode of the third season. It first aired on December 1, 1961. This teleplay was written by Charles Beaumont, based on his short story of the same name, and was directed by recurring director William F. Claxton.

Opening narration

The carcass of a goat, a dead finger, a few bits of broken glass and stone, and Mr. Alan Richards, a modern man of a modern age, hating with all his heart something in which he cannot believe and preparing – although he doesn't know it – to take the longest walk of his life, right down to the center – of The Twilight Zone.

Plot

Alan Richards and his wife Doris have recently returned from Africa, where Alan's company is constructing a hydroelectric dam. He discovers she has secretly kept several items given to her by a local shaman for protection. When he confronts her about them, she says she is frightened by the natives opposed to the dam and begs him to stop construction. He burns one of the items and opens the door to leave for work. In the hallway of his apartment building, just outside his door, is the carcass of a dead goat.

Alan attends a board meeting, where they discuss the dam and the fact that, although the natives will benefit from it in the long run, they are upset that they will be displaced in order to build it. He warns that the local witch doctors have threatened to use black magic against anyone associated with the project. When the other board members scoff, he points out their own superstitions: one carries a rabbit's foot, another practices astrology, and even the building does not have a 13th floor.

Later, he is in a bar drinking with a friend, and shows him a lion's-tooth amulet Doris has given him. Supposedly the tooth will protect him against a lion attack. Alan begins to head home but finds his car won't start. He attempts to return to the bar but it is locked and he has forgotten his lion's-tooth amulet inside. He attempts to use a pay phone, but it's out of order. As Alan walks away, the phone rings. He answers it and hears jungle sounds.

He heads home on foot, still hearing the jungles and tribal drums all around him, becoming nervous and agitated. He tries to take a taxi home, but the driver dies suddenly while stopped at a traffic light. Alan meets a bum and asks him about the jungle noises, which the bum claims not to hear. He offers the bum money to escort him through the park, but the bum disappears while Alan's back is turned.

Alan continues on, and finally reaches the safety of his apartment. The noises suddenly stop. Relieved, Alan enters and pours himself a drink. He hears a lion's roar from the bedroom. When he opens the bedroom door, he finds an adult male lion on the bed, as well as his wife's corpse, as the lion leaps toward him consuming his flesh offscreen.

Closing narration

Some superstitions, kept alive by the long night of ignorance, have their own special power. You'll hear of it through a jungle grapevine in a remote corner of the Twilight Zone.

Cast

John Dehner as Alan Richards
Emily McLaughlin as Doris Richards
Walter Brooke as Chad Cooper
Jay Adler as Vagrant
Hugh Sanders as Mr. Templeton
Howard Wright as Mr. Hardy
Donald Foster as Mr. Sinclair
Jay Overholts as Taxi Driver
Zamba the Lion as The Lion (uncredited)

Production

The original short story by Charles Beaumont appeared in If Magazine in 1954^[1]
The soundtrack featured stock from "King Nine Will Not Return" by Fred Steiner, and African tribal music

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References

↑ The Twilight Zone Companion . Bantam. 1982. p. 238. ISBN 0-7607-5634-1.

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
Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

External links

"The Jungle" at IMDb

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[1] The Twilight Zone Companion . Bantam. 1982. p. 238. ISBN 0-7607-5634-1.

[1]

v t e The 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" "Judgment 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" "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"