Of Late I Think of Cliffordville: Difference between revisions

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{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox TTW season four}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{TTW episode details

|episodetitle=Of Late I Think of Cliffordville

{{Infobox television episode

|episodenumber=116

| series = [[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]

|season=4

| image = Julie Newmar Albert Salmi The Twilight Zone.JPG

|originalday=April 11

| caption = [[Julie Newmar]] as Miss Devlin and [[Albert Salmi]] as William Feathersmith

|originalyear=1963

| season = 4

|writer= [[Rod Serling]], from the short story, "Blind Alley", by [[Malcolm Jameson]].

{{TTW| episode details= 14

|director=[[David Lowell Rich]]

| airdate = {{Start date|1963|04|11}}

|producer=[[Bert Granet]]

| production = 4867

|music=

| writer = [[Rod Serling]]

|director of photography=[[Robert W. Pittack]]

| based_on = {{based on|"Blind Alley"|[[Malcolm Jameson]]}}

| director = [[David Lowell Rich]]

| guests =

*Feathersmith: [[Albert Salmi]]

*Ms Devlin: [[Julie Newmar]]

*Deidrich: [[John Anderson (actor)|John Anderson]]

*Hecate: [[Wright King]]

*Guy: [[RaymondGuy GibbonsRaymond]]

* [[John Harmon (actor)|John Harmon]]

*Cronk: [[Hugh Sanders]]

| music =

| season_article = The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 4)

| episode_list = List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes

| prev = [[The New Exhibit]]

| next = [[The Incredible World of Horace Ford]]

}}

"'''Of Late I Think of Cliffordville'''" is the 116th episode of the American television [[anthology series]] ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]''. It originally aired on April 11, 1963, on [[CBS]]. In this episode, an elderly business tycoon buys the opportunity to enjoy amassing his fortune a second time.

==Opening narration==

{{cquote|Witness a murder. The killer is Mr. William Feathersmith, a [[Robber baron (industrialist)|robber baron]] whose body composition is made up of a refrigeration plant covered by thick skin. In a moment, Mr. Feathersmith will proceed on his daily course of conquest and [[Wiktionary:calumny#Pronunciation|calumny]] with yet another business dealing. But this one will be one of those bizarre transactions that take place in an odd marketplace known as the Twilight Zone.}}

==CastPlot==

{{spoiler}}

William J. Feathersmith, the 75-year-old president of a major corporation, is a ruthless businessman who has built his wealth by exploiting others. One night, a drunken Feathersmith confesses to the [[janitor]], Mr. Hecate, that having reached the height of success, he is left feeling empty and purposeless, and dreams of returning to his small hometown of Cliffordville, Indiana, to start life anew. Hecate says that Cliffordville happens to be his hometown, as well.

Attempting to go home for the night, Feathersmith is instead taken by the elevator to the 13th floor, where he finds a travel agency that was not there the day before. The agency's increasingly two-horned head, "Miss Devlin", is revealed to be the [[Devil]]. Devlin offers to fulfill his wish to return to 1910 Cliffordville, agreeing to his terms that he will look the same as he did then, but retain all memories of his first life, in exchange for almost all his liquidated worth, leaving him with $1,412. As he knows which investments have succeeded and which have failed in the last 50 years, Feathersmith agrees.

==Cast==

*Feathersmith: [[Albert Salmi]]

*Ms Devlin: [[Julie Newmar]]

*Deidrich: [[John Anderson (actor)|John Anderson]]

*Hecate: [[Wright King]]

*Guy: [[Raymond Gibbons]]

*John: [[Harmon Clark]]

*Cronk: [[Hugh Sanders]]

Back in 1910 Cliffordville, Feathersmith uses $1,403 to buy 1,403 acres of land which he knows to contain deposits of oil. He tries to woo the daughter of a bank owner, but is startled that rather than being the charming girl he remembers, she is plain, plays the piano poorly, chatters incessantly, and insists on entertaining guests with her shrill singing. He forgets, however, that the drill needed to access oil so far beneath the ground will not be invented until 1937. He tries to "invent" devices such as a self-starter for automobiles, but does not know how to design them. The townspeople ridicule this, which causes Feathersmith to suffer [[palpitations]]. He realizes that following the strict letter of his terms, Devlin has made him ''appear'' 30, but he is still biologically 75. When Devlin appears, Feathersmith accuses her of altering the past, even though she says that all is as it was, and that he just remembered it differently. She needles him for living off the work of others and being unable to create anything himself.

He pleads with Devlin to send him back to 1963, even after she warns him that his actions in 1910 have changed things, and it can no longer be the 1963 he knew. She agrees to fulfill his wish for just $40. Having no money left, Feathersmith hastily sells the deed to his land to Hecate for the $40.

In the altered 1963, Hecate is the president of the corporation, having amassed his fortune with the money earned from the oil dug up in 1937, while Feathersmith now works as the building's janitor. Hecate mocks Feathersmith for having been in his position for over forty years.

==Closing narration==

{{cquote|Mr. William J. Feathersmith, tycoon, who tried the track one more time and found it muddier than he remembered, proving with at least a degree of conclusiveness that nice guys don't always finish last, and some people should quit when they're ahead. Tonight's tale of iron men and irony, delivered [[FOB (shipping)|F.O.B.]] from the Twilight Zone.}}

==Cast==

*[[Albert Salmi]] as William Feathersmith

*[[Julie Newmar]] as [[Satan|Miss Devlin]]

*[[John Anderson (actor)|John Anderson]] as Dietrich

*[[Wright King]] as Mr. Hecate

*[[Guy Raymond]] as Gibbons

*[[John Harmon (actor)|John Harmon]] as Clark

*[[Hugh Sanders]] as Cronk

==SynopsisProduction==

In the scene in which Feathersmith negotiates his way out of Cliffordville, several crates in the alley are marked "This End Up", which were used as shipping crates for the wax figures in the previous episode, "[[The New Exhibit]]".{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

The president of a large corporation is bored with success. He talks with the janitor who comes from the same town he grew up in, Cliffordville. The president dreams of returning to Cliffordville and starting life anew.

In a published version of Twilight Zone stories, "Blind Alley", this story is somewhat different—it takes place during World War II, although Feathersmith is still a self centered sadistic bore—but is also a very sick elderly man . He makes a deal with the Devil to go back in 1910 to his hometown of Cliffordsville, Texas (instead of Indiana). Like in the show, he fails to make any fortune as he realizes too late that the equipment for drilling deep oil hasn't been invented yet. He forgets to ask for the restoration of his health and youth and dies after a week in the past.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

He meets the devil in the elevator (a Miss Devlin), and agrees to sell his soul for the chance to start life over again. Unfortunately, since he's already driven so many people to suicide with buying out their factories and various other things, his soul is already the devil's legal property. The president bargains his entire liquidated worth and ends up with around $500 and his own twenty-year-old body.

==References==

Back in Cliffordville, he spends his last money on land which he knows to contain deposits of oil. He forgets, however, that high-power drills have not been invented. To make matters worse, he realizes his insides are still the same age as before, Ms. Devlin has only promised to make him ''look'' twenty again.

*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. {{ISBN|978-1-59393-136-0}}

*Grams, Martin. (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-9703310-9-0}}

==External links==

Ms. Devlin, feeling a pang of sympathy, gives him the chance to go back to the future (by train) as it would ensue from this past. To buy his ticket, he quickly sells the land to a boy who otherwise would be his janitor, in the future.

*{{IMDb episode|id=0734605|episode=Of Late I Think of Cliffordville}}

{{The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes}}

He boards the train and is whisked away into this new future, where he and the janitor have changed places. The new president speaks as the old one did, repeating the scene which begins the episode.

|episodetitle={{DEFAULTSORT:Of Late I Think ofOf Cliffordville}}

==Trivia==

[[Category:1963 American television episodes]]

*In the orginal story Feathersmith goes back in time as an old man and dies.

[[Category:The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) season 4 episodes]]

[[Category:Works based on the Faust legend]]

[[Category:Television episodes about time travel]]

[[Category:Television episodes written by Rod Serling]]

[[Category:Fiction set in 1910]]

[[Category:Fiction set in 1963]]

[[Category:Television shows based on short fiction]]

[[Category:Television episodes set in Indiana]]

[[Category:Fiction about the Devil]]

[[Category:Television episodes set in the 1910s]]

[[Category:Television episodes set in the 1960s]]