Although the hour long episodes in Twilight Zone's lineup are mostly forgettable and have a tendency to rehash plotlines the show has done many times before, one hour episode I will always defend is Jess-Belle. Not to be confused with Jezebel, this tale of Southern romance has much in common with what I consider Bette Davis' most enticing role, as both her and the female protagonist of this episode are victims in their own ways. Jess-Belle begins with a farmer named Billy-Ben (James Best) asking his fiancee Ellwyn (Laura Devon) to marry him. A jealous girl with jet black hair named Jess-Belle (Anne Francis) watches in silent rage. Jess-Belle is Billy's ex, and wants a chance to start over with him, but he doesn't feel the same way. Jess-Belle decides to go to a mysterious old woman whom most people in the town are afraid of because of her habit of brewing strange potions. Granny Hart (Jeanette Nolan) hears the plight of Jess-Belle and says she can make Billy love her so much he'll never be able to be apart from her. However, the potion Granny tells Jess-Belle to drink isn't free and she has to pay. Although she doesn't know it yet, the price of the potion is so great she'll soon wish she never accepted the offer. For the time being, the liquid does its job and when Jess and Billy next meet, they dance right in front of an infuriated Ellwyn and her parents. Billy now wants to marry Jess-Belle, but the latter discovers the price of his affection: she is forced to transform into a leopard every day at midnight. Jess goes back to Granny Hart, upset at being lied to as she thought the potion came with no strings attached. Hart explains that she's a witch and now Jess-Belle is a witch too. Transactions with witches always require a payment, and in this case, it was Jess' soul. Now doomed to become a wildcat every night, Jess tries to convince Billy not to marry her but is unable to tell him why, only confusing him further. Jess-Belle eventually agrees to a wedding, but late one night, a posse tries to look for the leopard that has been rumored to be skulking around the area. Billy and some others find Jess in her cat form and shoot her. Disappearing into a cloud of smoke, no one is sure what to think of Jess' apparent death. A whole year goes by. Billy has forced himself to forget about Jess and decides to get back to Ellwyn. He is visited by Jess-Belle's mother who tells him a witch can't die as they just keep inhabiting more bodies, even if they're animals. On his wedding day, Billy spots a large spider on Ellwyn's dress and crushes it, only to find it goes up in smoke. As he and his new wife arrive home, a white rat suddenly causes a grandfather clock to fall over, nearly hitting Ellwyn. She's left no doubt confused and certainly terrified. Billy, convinced Jess' spirit is unhappy with his marriage, goes to confront Granny Hart. The latter tries to con Billy out of his soul (just like she did to Jess) when he asks how to permanently kill a witch, but he's too smart for her. Billy pays her with actual money, and Hart begrudgingly tells him to acquire a dress formerly worn by Jess and stab it in the heart with silver. Then she will be gone for good. Billy rushes back home. Upon arriving, he finds a possessed Ellwyn in his front yard, who asks him (in Jess-Belle's voice) if he'll dance with her. Billy runs through the front door, locks it, and puts what was supposed to be Jess-Belle's wedding dress on a mannequin. After taking one of her silver hairpins and stabbing it, Jess appears in the dress and then vanishes. Ellwyn then wakes up and is back to normal. Both she and her husband see a comet in the night sky; a sign a witch has died. While I'd be hard pressed to find an episode of the Twilight Zone that genuinely scares me, Jess-Belle doesn't need to be overly frightening to get its point across. If I'm being honest, Anne's character is more likely to make you pity her rather than induce any kind of fear in you. All she wanted was to be with Billy but got ripped off. Granny Hart (played amazingly by Nolan) didn't tell her she'd end up losing her soul to be with him. Even a year after her "death", she won't rest until Billy is her's permanently, so she takes hold of Ellwyn. This episode shows perfectly well how love can create many things, but can also create much anguish. On another note, this is the only TZ episode to not have Serling's voice at the end.
Review of Jess-Belle
