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How An Actor's Real-Life Injury Made One Twilight Zone Episode Even Creepier
Sometimes you have to improvise, and in one case that meant a very creepy Twilight Zone style choice.
The visual sensibilities of The Twilight Zone (regularly airing on SYFY) across its entire, legendary run go a long way to explaining why the series is still so beloved today. Yes, creator Rod Serling's smart plotting and presentation were the driving force behind much of its success, but the show also looked like nothing else on TV at the time, and is still capable of unnerving and even shocking modern audiences.
Which is all the more impressive when you consider that at least some of its best style choices happened completely by accident.
A key example of this is "The Silence," a Season 2 episode written by Serling and directed by Boris Sagal. The first thing you might notice about this episode is that it's a rare Serling story without any sci-fi or fantasy elements at all. Its plot is purely psychological, which both creates a tension all its own and sets up a shockingly human twist by the end.
For More on The Twilight Zone:
How the Trial of Real Nazi War Criminal Inspired a Twilight Zone Episode
The 10 Best Twilight Zone Twist Endings
The Only Twilight Zone Episode With Its Own Sequel
The Twilight Zone's "The Silent" Explained
The story follows a stuffy man named Archie Taylor (Franchot Tone) who grows tired of another man, Jamie Tennyson (Liam Sullivan), who's making too much noise and constantly talking in the exclusive gentlemen's club they both attend. Frustrated and eager to psychologically devastate this pest in his life, Taylor makes a bet with Tennyson: If he can be silent for an entire year, he gets half a million dollars. Tennyson agrees, and Taylor leads him into the club's basement, where a battle of wills ensues as the imprisoned Tennyson becomes determined to win the money from Taylor, who is himself determined to break the other man's spirit at all costs.
It's a very juicy premise, and the psychological interplay between Tone and Sullivan provides all the requisite tension, but after the first day of shooting, the production ran into a very unexpected problem: Franchot Tone didn't show up for work. According to The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree, the crew waited for hours for their star to turn up before finally getting in touch with Tone's agent. The actor had been in an accident, and was "in a clinic" for treatment.
Zicree went on to explain that there were multiple stories explaining Tone's injuries, from a fight in a parking lot to a fall at a party, but the result was clear: one half of the actor's face was left "raw" and scraped. Because the crew had already filmed key scenes for the episode, replacing Tone wasn't really an option, so Serling opted for something a little more direct.
"I said, 'So be it. Come on in, Franch, and we'll shoot the other side of your face,' which we did," the creator recalled, according to The Twilight Zone Companion.
Because the episode's opening and closing scenes were shot before Tone's injury, that meant all the scenes in the basement of the club, in which Tennyson is imprisoned by Taylor, were the scenes filmed with only half of the star's face in frame. Tone is shot in profile, or with one side of his face hidden, all as he tries to psychologically torture Sullivan's character into talking and, thus, losing the bet. Despite the unexpected necessity of the technique, the episode actually succeeds in part because we only see half of Tone's face for these scenes. It adds a certain visual intrigue, as well as a psychological depth to the story, and even helps add more dimensions to the twist ending.
The Twilight Zone airs regularly on SYFY. Check the Schedule for more details.
