I hate to use the word “old” to describe it, but also didn’t want to make the title too wordy.
By old I’ll say anything made from 1930-1990, even though 1990 isn’t that terribly long ago.
Not sure if this is the sort of thing you mean by "vibe," but how about The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1963)? It does have an unexpected ending. (If you haven't seen it, I don't want to give it away by describing it.)
shareGreat choices so far guys! Because they at minimum fit my criteria and I haven’t seen any of the ones mentioned so far except Dead of Night, which was tremendous. I’ll definitively check out the other three mentioned so far :)
shareRe TDMIE, be careful about reading reviews that reveal the ending. Also, those who dislike it generally refer to it as "talky" because there is indeed a lot of talking and a lack of "action" such as shooting ray guns at people. However, I don't think TZ fans feel such a need for that sort of thing.
shareNot exactly sure what you mean by a TZ vibe since the tone varies by episode but these are some old black and white paranormal/sci-fi movies:
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Innocents
The Uninvited
Scream of Fear
Portrait of Dorian Gray
Portrait of Jennie
Rebecca
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Search for Bridey Murphy
Shoot-- you hit all the ones I would have listed (including my namesake!). Good job!
Here are some more:
Outward Bound
Between Two Worlds
Strange Cargo
Stairway to Heaven (this was the US title. The British Title was "A Matter of Life and Death.")
Thanks! I’ll have to check your list out.
I’d also add 13 Ghosts (1960) and Burnt Offerings.
Now I think about it, don't you think "It's a wonderful Life" has a Twilight Zone vibe to it?
shareyes definitely
shareAgreed. That one just slipped my mind.
shareNo, Toots, Twilight Zone has "It's a Wonderful Life" to it. The film came first. Serling ripped off everything from
films (1943's "Flesh and Fantasy", among others) to authors such as Oscar Wilde.
Gary,
The question at the top of the thread said films from the 1930's-1990's. The majority of films cited are pre-Twilight Zone.
Cheers,
Jennie
The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's very relevant today.
shareIt Came from Outer Space - 1953
shareThe original Planet of the Apes, for obvious reasons!
shareGood call, Planet had a textbook TZ twist.
In the meantime, here's something for you high-brows who enjoy musical theater and Planet of the Apes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2E1m90YSpA
Nightmare Alley, sort of. The tone and some of the plot elements, less so the main story. That it was, despite being a grim looking black and white movie, a vehicle for superstar Tyrone Power somewhat works against it feeling like a TZ.
Some Noirs of the late Forties: Crack-Up, with Pat O'Brien, in one such.
Many scenes in the 1949 boxing picture The Set-Up, especially the specifically sports and crime related stuff. If it was about pool it might have made a good Zone project for Jack Klugman.
Also Zoney at times, the 1950 Mickey Rooney crime pic, sort of Noir, and quite good: Quicksand. The down dirty air of paranoia makes it feel like a TZ at times.
The 1951 William Cameron Menzies directed thriller, The Whip Hand, plays like a TZ some of the time. As with most of the other pictures I've named here, the paranoia, quite intense in this one, helps.
A good little 1952 MGM picture, Talk About A Stranger, has many Zone vibes.
Also Metro, the 1951 pic, The Tall Target, about a detective named John Kennedy (I'm not making this up) trying to prevent an assassination of Abraham Lincoln,--and who succeeds, (!) --based on a true story about events that actually occurred prior to Lincoln's first inaugural. It's a nice little period piece, unpretentious, and for what it is, effective.
I'll definitely have to check some of those out! Thank you for all the suggestions.
In particular I'm intrigued by The Set-Up because in addition to being a Twilight Zone fan, I love combat sports. So a lot of boxing movies interest me.
Also, The Tall Target sounds fun just based on that weird coincidence involving the protagonist's name. It almost sounds like a low key time traveler dropped a hint in that movie prior to the JFK assassination. Yeah, sounds like ;)
You're welcome. The Set-Up's a bit of a stretch but for its style. There's no magic or supernatural in it, yet its protagonist, like so many of TZ's, needs a big lift.
Forbidden Planet, form 1956, made at MGM, features many costumes, sets and actors one sees in many Twilight Zones, from Anne Francis to Earl Holliman to Warren Stevens. The spaceship turns up in several Zones, as do shots of it from the movie itself (flying, landing, etc.).
Also worthy of honorable mention: the 1952 O'Henry's Full House, a movie adaptation of several O. Henry stories, with a strong, sentimental "Little Old New York" ambiance to some of them. Rod Serling owed more than a thing or two to O.H. as a writer, on which point I believe Mr. S would himself wholeheartedly concur.
Yes, isn't Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet? Wasn't "he" also in the TZ episode "Uncle Simon"?
I also think "Night of the Hunter" is rather like TZ.
I hadn't thought about "Talk About a Stranger" in years. I saw it when i was very young and it had a great impression because it had a good lesson.
Another film that could be like TZ is "The Boy with the Green Hair."
Yup. I forgot about "Robbie" in Uncle Simon.
Agreed on Night Of The Hunter might actually have worked as a TZ, an hour long, with some supernatural "tweaking". As it is it has a rustic Zone vibe, with Jimmy Gleason filling in for Hank Patterson, Lillian Gish for Jeanette Nolan. In the Mitchum role, I dunno. Simon Oakland maybe (Claude Akins would be too obvious a choice IMO). Maybe Betty Garde for Shelley Winters. Constance Ford might have worked well, too.
Yet another early Fifties MGM pic comes to mind: Dial 1119, a good little Noir style picture; more as to its tone, the people trapped not in a snowbound diner but in a bar, by a psycho with a gun. Throw in a Martian, a Good Martian, and you've got a Zone.
I agree also on The Boy With Green Hair, thematically especially, as it wears its heart on its sleeve. Stylistically, the movie doesn't feel like a Zone to me, but it has possibilities.
An excellent little Louis Hayward Noir, and with supernatural trappings, Repeat Performance, from 1947; Eagle-Lion, with music by George Antheil. It's a very good, modestly budgeted picture. The story is somewhat convoluted but it pays off.
Then, from the same year, there's Miracle On 34th Street, which, if it hadn't been a movie I can imagine as an hour long Zone, with Edmund Gwenn's real life cousin, Cecil Kellaway, as Kris Kringle. Rod Serling liked Christmas stories, and was fond of stories about children getting what they want. The movie is in these aspects rather like a Zone.
Hi Jennie: as it so happened, last night Robbie was prominently featured in the late in the fifth season episode The Brain Center At Whipple's. The last scene is his.
shareWow! So it is. Robbie has also had an interesting retirement: https://www.avclub.com/some-nerd-bought-robby-the-robot-from-forbidden-planet-1820694401
shareThanks for the link, Jennie. Fascinating how props and sets got recycled in the studio days. RKO used stuff from Son Of Kong and Top Hat when making Citizen Kane! Universal kept using some sets that went back to the silent era till well into the Sixties.
shareThanks. Occasionally, TCM shows "B" movies. There's always a nightclub scene where the actress wears a gorgeous black gown (As often as not, it is Lucille Ball, who was known a the "Queen of the B movies"). Those gowns where used in so many films where all they do change is the trim or jeweled detail. It's very interesting.
I've been to memorabilia auctions-- entirely as a spectator. To be a collector you need: (1) Passion; (2) Money and (3) tons of storage space. I just can't see the point of wanting this stuff
Neither can I, Jennie. Access, yes. I'd love to see a lot of that old Hollywood memorabilia, not sure about owning it, any of it, even if I won the Powerball.
If you want to see a lot of RKO sets from not too long after Desilu bought the studio and began using it to film their TV series, The Untouchables offers some fascinating glimpses of a bygone studio, features many set you'll recognize from movies, and in one scene,---I swear--a mural, thirty years after the earliest film I've seen it in.
As to older movies with a TZ vibe, I'd say just about any entry in the Lew Ayres Dr. Kildare B series of the late Thirties and Forties. Not the films themselves as to story and subject matter but the vibe; the feelgood New Deal vibe inspired by FDR, in ACTION, as seen in Blair General Hospital. Rod Serling, who grew up in those years, was himself a liberal in the FDR tradition, so this is no stretch. The familiar MGM super-duper clean sets help this along.
This isn't an old movie but you might say it has the Twilight Zone Vibe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIF2Hoh__7g
To reply to my own question I’ll throw out one that I haven’t seen mentioned here for others interested.
Poor Devil (1973), a TV movie aired on NBC that failed to get picked up as a regular series. It’s more in line with the weaker comedy episodes of the Twilight Zone or that one Night Gallery segment where a hippie gets sent to Hell.
It even co-stars Twilight Zone alum Jack Klugman as a down on his luck accountant. A demon (also on a losing streak) played by Sammy Davis Jr. tries to get Klugman to sell him his soul to appease Lucifer player by Dracula era Christopher Lee. Adam West is also featured as Klugman’s jerk co-worker.
If you Google Poor Devil (1973) you should be able to find the whole thing on YouTube and elsewhere. Definitely recommended if you don’t mind cheesy comedy from the 1970’s.