On 3/23/2024 12:55 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
The Twilight Zone S4E14 'Of Late I Think of Cliffordville' - DVR
A wealthy businessman (Albert Salmi) stikes a deal with Satan and
relives his past. With Julie Newmar, John Anderson. (Comcast)
Aging tycoon William Feathersmith is bored with life and makes
arrangements through a devilish travel agency to return to the
Cliffordville of his youth and start all over again. (IMDb)
I think I remember this one. Of course the Devil cheats him. And the
plot would sort of be recycled in "There Will Be Blood."
Trivia: Ms. Devlin's Travel Offices are on the 13th floor. This is
unusual in the US (and suitable to her nature) as most buildings before
the 1980's skip the 13th floor when numbering floors in their buildings.
The number 13 has long been considered unlucky.
Based upon the novelette "Blind Alley" by Malcolm Jameson, which was
first published in the June 1943 issue of the pulp magazine Unknown Worlds. Albert Salmi (who was nearly 36) had 'old-age' makeup playing 75
year-old Feathersmith, but he however had no makeup (nor any attempt to appear young) when playing the character 22 years-old.
Quote:
   Feathersmith: ...It's odd how our lives seem to criss-cross, isn't it? I remember vividly one afternoon, when you called me into your
office. You said, "Bill Feathersmith. I like your style, boy. I want you
in with me." You remember that afternoon, don't you, Mr. Deidrich?
   Deidrich: Only too well, Mr. Feathersmith. I have pondered it, and cursed myself for it, greatly ever since.
   Feathersmith: You never did like me, did you?
   Deidrich: I wouldn't say that I never liked you, Mr. Feathersmith.
I have disliked you, even detested you, with cordiality tempered with passion. I have found you to be - from the moment you came into my
office, increasingly over the years, even by the cutthroat standards of
our mutual trade - a predatory, grasping, conniving, acquisitive animal
of a man... Without heart, without conscience, without compassion, and without even a subtle hint of the common decencies. Shall we go on from there?
What Did You Watch?
I watched:
3 Body Problem (Netflix) I binged through 3 episodes. The show is
really good. SPOILERS Follow!
SPOILER SPACE
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"Red Coast" Episode 2 - The show continues to jump between a mystery in
the present where scientists are seemingly committing suicide for no
reason and jumping to the past where a Chinese political prisoner is
working on a secret government project. It turns out the project she's
working on is a pretty standard search for extra terrestrial life
project. But she figured out a way to boost the signal. It's all
pretty standard until one day when no one else is around she's
monitoring the station and receives a reply. The message is a warning
that she's lucky the person who intercepted her transmission is a
pacifist. A repeating message translates as "Do not reply!" If their
people learns of Earth's existence they will come and conquer your
planet. She pauses and thinks about it for a moment, then types a reply
then hovers over the keyboard before hitting send. Her response was to
please come. "I'll help you conquer the planet." Roll credits.
"Destroyer of Worlds" Episode 3 and "Our Lord" Episode 4 - I was binging
so the episodes ran together. These episodes take place mostly in the
present. In the present a group of scientists have been experimenting
with a "game" that mysteriously appeared in their homes. They also are
well aware that this is the same game their fellow scientists were all
playing before they committed "suicide." The game itself is a virtual
reality game but the reality of the game is indistinguishable from real
life. There are different levels where the player has to solve a world
ending problem to move to the next level. It's basically a test to weed
out the smartest people on the planet. The game also reveals the
meaning of the show's title. 3 bodies refers to 3 suns that a planet
orbits. Due to the chaotic nature of the orbit the civilization on the
planet is always wiped out. The purpose of the game is to create a
solution.
"Auggie" played the game a little in the first couple of episodes but
quickly put two and two together that whoever sent the game is obviously connected with whoever blinked out the stars in episode 1 and swore off
the game. However, her two friends played by John Bradley and Jess Hong
(I think) keep playing the game and advance to the end. Once they reach
the end they are greeted by the aliens who explain their world is the
world caught by the three suns and their civilization is relocating to
Earth. They ask for help. Jess' character says yes while John's
character politely declines and accepts the offer to leave in peace.
Also during this time Benedict Wong's character has been spying on them
for the government to track down the unknown threat. So everything they
learn, he learns. Episode 4 ends with Wong's character outside of
Bradley's apartment keeping an eye on things while inside a human
assassin who works for the aliens is able to bypass all security and
cameras, murder Bradley in cold blood all while Wong is right outside
not able to perceive anything that is happening.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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