User Reviews

What in the world made her wait 12 years for this dud of a guy? Why did she agree to wait for a year after his mom died before they got married, after their already long courtship? She couldn't see how doomed their relationship was by then?

Man, what Alfred Hitchcock could have done with this story. Alex Nicol and Phyllis Thaxter are newlyweds who return to the home where Nicol and his late mother spent their lives. They're leaving on their honeymoon and Thaxter is anxious to sign the house over to the brokers and get going. She loves Nicol and wants her own home where she can love him and take care of him for the rest of his life. My kind of woman.

But Nicol's mother, who died a year ago, seems to have cast a spell over the place. Photographs of her stern face are scattered about. The new groom begins to reminisce about the old days, when Mom listened to "The Lady in Red" on the old ten-ton radio, now broken, and when she read her movie magazines. He begins to have doubts about selling the house as he rummages through his box of childhood books and toys. "Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar!", he exclaims. (I read that and it wasn't so hot.) He digs out the clothes of his youth -- knickers and high socks. "Strong socks make a strong man," as his Mom used to say.

Meanwhile, as Nicol is gradually being sucked back into the past, Thaxter senses what's going on and is hurrying around, anxious to get the hell out of there. But mysterious goings on take place. The broken grandfather clock begins working. The radio begins playing "The Lady in Red." The telephone changes form from modern to 1930s.

Eventually, Mom appears at the top of the stairs and so does Nicol, who has now changed into a twelve-year-old boy and tells her to go away.

It's a little ambiguous. Thaxter had been telling Nicol that his mother had destroyed him and made him weak. But Mom, despite her frown, doesn't seem particularly domineering. When Thaxter accuses the specter, the reply is a simple, "This is not my doing." And it isn't, really. Nicol has simply refused to grow up. They leave Thaxter, hand in hand, both of them glowing.

It's not the vicious kind of spook you might expect. Hitchcock would have turned her into the most subtle kind of ghoul. And actually Nicol's penchant for the past is understandable if he led so happy a life as he's convinced us he had. Mom never beat him with a belt or anything. So, why not -- except that Phyllis Thaxter is so sweet, and Nicol is no longer going to be able to grab her when he wants.

Virginia and Alex just got married. And, you'd assume Alex's mind would be focused on one thing (need I say what it is?) but instead he acts like a drip when he and his bride go to his childhood home. It seems his mother has recently died and all the guy wants to do is reminisce about old times and talk about his mother! There aren't too many romance killers worse than sitting around talking about your mommy! Normally, you might assume Virginia married a gay man by mistake, but instead they are just in the Twilight Zone.

Ostensibly they are at the house to make arrangements to sell the place and then go on their honeymoon. Instead, Alex changes his mind and decides to hold on to the place...for now. As things unfold, you learn that dumb old Virginia has been waiting 12 years for this guy--as he always had a reason NOT to marry her and the reason always involved his mommy. But Virginia has enough promises...and she's starting to get awfully fed up with the guy.

Oddly, however, a lot of unusual things start occurring around the house. Things from years past appearing--as if the mother is alive and only in the next room. Could Alex be doing this? Not likely, as the changes start getting more and more extreme. What's next? Will Virginia FINALLY get Alex? Will Alex come out once and for all? Tune in and see the twist.

The best thing going for this show is Phyllis Thaxter's acting. She does a very nice job. As far as the story goes, it did a nice (though expected) twist and was well worth seeing--especially if you, too, married a mama's boy!

Young Man's Fancy is Rod Serlings take on letting go of your childhood and moving on with life. The story has been done many times before but the difference in this episode is that instead of the mother trying to hang on to her son ,it's the son who wants to stay with his mother. The show is worth watching for Phillis Thaxter's performance. Her presence adds pathos to a run-of-the-mill plot and is interesting to see the actress years before she would become Superman's mom in ,'Superman the Movie.' The third season of the 'Zone' had some clunkers in it and only because it's the 'Zone' do I rate it an eight but the twist in the tail is predictable as would happen from now on to different varying degrees. Still even in the most average 'Zones' there is still something that stands out and in this case it's Thaxter's performance.

How does Virginia Walker divorce her husband of a day when he's suddenly twelve again or however old he is? Can she get the marriage annulled? Probably some kind of grounds for it. Maybe the marriage license just vanished?

I do agree Phyllis Thaxter can convey nerves on the edge like few others. Her voice can sound exasperated , desperate and on the verge of an outburst or breakdown.

Edit: I think I was too harsh and some of my comments and feel it's really the twist that it's Alex not the mother that wants to return to what he remembers . That time in his life that for him was perfect. Virginia had always focused on the mothers hold on him but that's not what it was. Maybe she shouldn't have waited so long but she was confident he would want a new life. He didn't.

I always liked that line from the real estate agent, he uses it repetitively and it's so antiquated today. Episode shoulda been titled, "You can go home again." But wow, Phyllis Thaxter worked a lot during this era, which explains why she plays her part to perfection. So where were we? We label our leading man a momma's boy but isn't he just a product of his environment? He seems to have been raised without a Dad, or without siblings, which are enormous crosses to bear. He is truly unwilling or maybe unable to detach from the wonderful times of growing up spoiled. He truly is not healthy husband material except for women who forever need to be a mommy figure to their mates, much less willing to wait 12+ years for it. 12 years! He obviously is educated enough to hold a job but you'd think he was about to come into an inheritance! My favorite part of the episode was when big Alex actually shows some backbone and declares his change of mind in selling the house. He was finally starting to talk like a man! And doncha just love the look on the realtor's face? Great early American interior furnishings and appliances are pleasing to the eye but the episode took a mean turn when little Alex angrily tells his soon-to-be ex-wife, "Go away, lady, we no longer need you!" True, she should have chosen more carefully and made wiser life's choices but she (or any woman) didn't deserve to be treated like that. He could have said it kinder without the episode losing its point. I don't know, I could be wrong.

How'd they ever get married. This is the story of a man huge issues. He has a fixation on his mother and can't separate from them. He drives his wife to distraction. He becomes so fixated on this connection that he literally becomes the child again. Serling manipulates this nicely and subtly at first, but then the loony tunes of the subconscious begin to emerge from the basement. I think of the nutty behavior of Jack Nicholson in The Shining as he loses his grasp on reality and is taken over by that hotel. The poor wife does all she can, but she is dealing with the graspings of a lost youth and a fixation that ain't going to get fixed. This kind of show always makes me comfortable. The mamma's boy is really quite an archetype.

This might be the first Twilight Zone episode where Rod Serling actually starts things off with his soliloquy before any of the action has started. Serling often used the 'You Can't Go Home Again' theme, but this time out, instead of striking a healthy note of nostalgia for things past, the story takes a creepy one eighty and delves into one man's (Alex Nicol) obsession with a childhood he's unwilling to let go. A fine time to think about it too, right on the eve of his honeymoon to the new Mrs. Walker (Phyllis Thaxter). For her part, Virginia Lane Walker probably should have seen it coming. Unlike the grandmother in Season II's 'Long Distance Call', Henrietta Walker (Helen Brown) was one deceased relative who wasn't willing to let go. In that regard, she was talked into it by dear old son Alex, unlike the aforementioned story in which a father sought a second chance for his own son against the wishes of the grandmother who passed on.

This is another of those TZ episodes that I had to watch right up until the finale to realize that yes, I had actually seen it before. It's those quirky endings that one's subconscious mind buries away for all the years since first seen, and grapples to remember as an unfamiliar story unfolds. Most of the time though, one comes away with a sense of wonder at the way the picture plays out. This one however left me feeling disappointed with the principal characters, each coming away a victim instead of starting out on the road to a new life.

Why would a woman like Virginia be fighting for such a non-entity as Alex? Does she really think she can "fix" him, as she indicates to the ghostly apparition of her mother-in-law?

I've always enjoyed watching Thaxter but, really, her character is as much to blame as the other two for her unsatisfactory marriage, and her attempt to force her husband to sell the house smacks of resentment and jealousy. If she was aware that Alex was tied to his mother's apron strings, why even marry him?

Meek mama's boy Alex Walker (a solid performance by Alex Nicol) and his sweet and perky, but no-nonsense new wife Virginia Lane Walker (a vibrant and touching portrayal by Phyllis Thaxter) return to Alex's childhood home in the wake of getting married. However, Alex finds himself being pulled back to his days as a kid and to his deceased widowed mother who raised him.

Director John Brahm relates the engrossing story at a deliberate pace as well as ably crafts a gentle sentimental mood tinged with gloom and sadness. Richard Matheson's thoughtful script makes a poignant and pertinent point about the potential peril intrinsic to clinging too much to one's past and how this can deter one's ability to move on in life. The downbeat ending packs a devastating punch. A lovely and affecting show.

This is the perfect companion to the earlier "Twilight Zone" episode "Long Distance Phone Call" we're a true loving grandmother contacted grandson Billy Mumy from beyond the grave. Here, it's actually mummy, coming back to claim her son from his new wife, and in the process, his wife begins to fear that their plans to sell his childhood home will go up in smoke. Is a mother who loves too much ever really dead? Is a son too tied to the apron strings ever really free?

Phyllis Thaxter is terrific as the justifiably paranoid new wife whose unseen relationship with the still possessive mother-in-law is the stuff that new bride's nightmares are made of. There's a confrontation between two determined women that is ghostly with a ghastly twist. Alex Nicol is the epitome of a brainwashed mama's boy. The twist at the end is filled with irony, as well as a few questions, such as what will happen with the struggling marriage that obviously has no future.

So a clock and a radio going on and off and a ghostly time warp, it's all cheap stuff and lacks any talking point, but prior to and apart from these things she's overreacting to him wanting to live there. It shouldn't matter where, your house is your house. Do what you want and if you have no say in anything, then it's probably not going to work anyway. The problem's that this show's too child friendly, she could instantly have snapped him out of it and shown him they're now adults.

Young Man's Fancy is rather slow and uneventful for the most part, but it has an incredibly unsettling atmosphere and a most unexpectedly bizarre ending that, for me, makes it one of the more effective stories of the third season.

Newlywed Alex Walker (Alex Nichol) and his wife Virginia (Phyllis Thaxter) arrive at the home of Alex's late mother Henrietta (Helen Brown) to settle the estate. Alex begins to reminisce about his childhood days, when he and his mother would listen to the radio together. While her husband is in his old room, happily digging out his toys and books, Virginia begins to feel the presence of Henrietta, and suspects that the domineering dead woman is exerting control over her son from beyond the grave, unwilling to let him leave and live his life with another woman. The truth, and the twist, is that Alex's behaviour is not Henrietta's doing: it is Alex who desperately wants to be a little boy again, back with dear old mom.

The final act, in which Alex gets his wish, turns into a child and sends poor Virginia packing is The Twilight Zone at its most freaky. I dug it!