“The Twilight Zone” is one of the most influential creations in the history of entertainment. 2024 marks Rod Serling’s centennial. It was a pioneer in the horror genre and brought us some pre-slasher era Scream Queens. Here are my Top 6:
6(66) – Julie Newmar in Of Late I Think of Cliffordville
A megastar since the 1950s, Julie Newmar plays the Devil (Miss Devlin) in a wasted season 4 episode. She’s the antagonist of the scares, albeit in a more comical role. But her beauty transcends the screen – even with devil horns.
5 – Barbara Nichols in Twenty-Two
Nichols is the main star of this episode, portraying a woman with a recurring nightmare that takes her to a hospital morgue. Nichols’s ear-piercing scream is enough to send chills down your spine. Jamie Lee Curtis was doubtless inspired.
4 – Anne Francis in The After Hours
Great episode that exacerbated my fear of mannequins. Anne Francis plays Marsha, a woman stuck in a department store overnight. She wanders around the darkness, hearing voices, and finally seeing mannequins come to life. Her descent into fright is superbly acted.
3 – Vera Miles in Mirror Image
Vera Miles plays Millicent Barnes, a woman waiting at a bus depot late one night. The scares are subtle as Millicent experiences strange things occurring at the station. It gets real when she sees her doppelganger in a washroom mirror.
2 – Inger Stevens in The Hitchhiker and The Lateness of the Hour
Inger Stevens was a great actress and a truly breathtaking beauty who was lost far too soon. She appeared in 2 TZ episodes, both favorites of mine. In The Hitchhiker, she plays a character driving cross country who is stalked by an ominous man on the side of the road who keeps appearing. In The Lateness of the Hour, she plays the daughter of a reclusive couple who live amidst the eeriness of robot servants. Stevens had a trajectory that should have seen her as an all-time great. Sadly, Hollywood got to her, but her legacy will live on in The Zone.
1 – Lois Nettleton in The Midnight Sun
I fell in love with Lois Nettleton – more accurately her character Norma – when I first watched The Midnight Sun as a teen. It’s a great episode, and Nettleton’s stunning beauty adds frosting to the top. Ironically, she appeared in an episode of Seinfeld 33 years later and still looked great.
