They say shoes make the man, so Rod Serling takes that premise and runs with it in this episode of The Twilight Zone. Street bum Nathan Bledsoe (Warren Stevens) wrests a set of fancy footwear from a body dumped in an alley, and begins to take on the character of the gangster who wore them before he got whacked. The story builds on the foundation of a Season I episode, #1.12 - 'What You Need'. Here, Nate turns into a hood named Dane, so wrapped up in his new persona that he puts the squeeze on gal pal Wilma (Joan Marshall) back at the swank apartment he used to call home. As often happened in these stories, it's never explained why Wilma simply didn't just get her butt out of there. She wasn't even a blonde.
This is one of those TZ episodes that leave you with the idea that the story could go on ad infinitum, passing the pair of shoes from one tragic victim to another. It's the kind of irony the series was noted for, and here it worked pretty well. I for one though had to ask myself - 'Who in their right mind would be caught dead in THAT pair of shoes'?
Say, keep an eye on that scene when Nate first encounters the body in the alley. When he takes the corpse's pulse, the dead victim's fingers move!
If you're catching this episode on the Twilight Zone Definitive Edition box set, take note of Rod Serling's closing commercial hawking Chesterfield cigarettes. He obviously switched brands, because in Season II, Oasis (which didn't last long), was his choice of smoke at the close of #2.24 - The Rip Van Winkle Caper'. A few stories later, the three armed alien started to light up an Oasis in #2.28 - 'Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?'
This is one of those TZ episodes that leave you with the idea that the story could go on ad infinitum, passing the pair of shoes from one tragic victim to another. It's the kind of irony the series was noted for, and here it worked pretty well. I for one though had to ask myself - 'Who in their right mind would be caught dead in THAT pair of shoes'?
Say, keep an eye on that scene when Nate first encounters the body in the alley. When he takes the corpse's pulse, the dead victim's fingers move!
If you're catching this episode on the Twilight Zone Definitive Edition box set, take note of Rod Serling's closing commercial hawking Chesterfield cigarettes. He obviously switched brands, because in Season II, Oasis (which didn't last long), was his choice of smoke at the close of #2.24 - The Rip Van Winkle Caper'. A few stories later, the three armed alien started to light up an Oasis in #2.28 - 'Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?'