Escape Clause
- Episode aired Nov 6, 1959
- TV-PG
- 25m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
4.7K
YOUR RATING
A hypochondriac man sells his soul to the devil, exchanging it for several thousand years of immortality.A hypochondriac man sells his soul to the devil, exchanging it for several thousand years of immortality.A hypochondriac man sells his soul to the devil, exchanging it for several thousand years of immortality.
Rod Serling
- Narrator
- (voice)
Nesdon Booth
- Guard
- (as Nesden Booth)
George Baxter
- Judge Cummings
- (uncredited)
Paul E. Burns
- Janitor
- (uncredited)
Allan Lurie
- Subway Guard
- (uncredited)
Robert McCord
- Man in Subway
- (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey
- Onlooker in Subway
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- Rod Serling(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAt the time this series first aired, it was commonly believed that a frequent cause of hypochondria was a desperate need to find something to occupy one's mind, a combination of boredom and a lack of imagination about how to counter that boredom. Several TV series of the time had episodes involving a one-off character whose hypochondria was cured by finding something else of interest to replace the hypochondria.
- GoofsWhen Mr. Cadwallader first appears, Walter Bedeker looks to the screen's left and he is laying on the left side of the bed from the camera's point of view, with Cadwallder to the left of the bed. In the next shot, Walter is on the right side of the bed and Mr. Cadwallader is standing on the right side of the bed. However, the first shot was shown through a mirror, so this was not actually a continuity error.
- Quotes
Ethel Bedeker: Walter, please come back to the apartment. I'll make you potato pancakes. Remember, you always used to love potato pancakes.
Walter Bedeker: Ethel, *you* are a potato pancake. You're as tasteless as a potato pancake.
- ConnectionsEdited into Twilight-Tober-Zone: Escape Clause (2020)
Featured review
A slick, entertaining immortality tale
You're about to meet a hypochondriac. Witness Mr. Walter Bedeker (David Wayne), age forty-four, afraid of the following: death, disease, other people, germs, draft, and everything else. He has one interest in life, and that's Walter Bedeker. One preoccupation: the life and well-being of Walter Bedeker. One abiding concern about society: that if Walter Bedeker should die, how will it survive without him?
'Escape Clause' is, for some strange reason, one of the least respected episodes of the early 'Twilight Zone' episodes. This is a baffling notion seeing how entertaining, disturbing, and well written it is. The episode, which is quite definitely one of the darkest of the series, features a fantastic performance by David Wayne ('House Calls') as Walter Beddeker, the self-absorbed hypochondriac who can't get through a day without his doctor by his side treating his nonexistent illnesses. His world is changed when Cadwaller (Thomas Gomez) appears in his room offering the ultimate gift: Immortality. The only stipulation? Beddeker must forfeit his soul to an eternity in Hell.
Beyond the fine performance David Wayne and the solid direction by Mitchell Leisen, Rod Serling's telescript is extremely interesting. Perhaps the only real issue comes from something beyond the control of the crew. Due to the short runtime and limited resources, it is a bit disappointing not to have a larger scope of the story or more focus on the deaths & legal proceedings. Perhaps as a feature-length film, the story would have been able to fully show the great story and experiment more with the pacing. However, as a single television episode, it is still very entertaining, very thought-provoking, and very well done.
-AP3-
'Escape Clause' is, for some strange reason, one of the least respected episodes of the early 'Twilight Zone' episodes. This is a baffling notion seeing how entertaining, disturbing, and well written it is. The episode, which is quite definitely one of the darkest of the series, features a fantastic performance by David Wayne ('House Calls') as Walter Beddeker, the self-absorbed hypochondriac who can't get through a day without his doctor by his side treating his nonexistent illnesses. His world is changed when Cadwaller (Thomas Gomez) appears in his room offering the ultimate gift: Immortality. The only stipulation? Beddeker must forfeit his soul to an eternity in Hell.
Beyond the fine performance David Wayne and the solid direction by Mitchell Leisen, Rod Serling's telescript is extremely interesting. Perhaps the only real issue comes from something beyond the control of the crew. Due to the short runtime and limited resources, it is a bit disappointing not to have a larger scope of the story or more focus on the deaths & legal proceedings. Perhaps as a feature-length film, the story would have been able to fully show the great story and experiment more with the pacing. However, as a single television episode, it is still very entertaining, very thought-provoking, and very well done.
-AP3-
helpful•255
- Shattered_Wake
- Nov 19, 2010
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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