The Twilight Zone Goes West--Part 5

Lee Marvin starred in two episodes of The Twilight Zone--both of them excellent and both highlighting just how excellent an actor he was. 

His first foray into TZ was "The Grave," which aired in the show's third season on October 27, 1961. Marvin plays Connie Miller, a man who was hired to hunt down an outlaw named Pinto Sykes, who had been terrorizing the town in which both Connie and Pinto were born.

Connie's been gone for four months, supposedly on Pinto's trail, when the outlaw returns to the town. The townspeople ambush and kill him on their own. When Connie returns, he discovers that Pinto is now buried in the local graveyard.

The bulk of the episode takes place late in the night at the local saloon, as Connie talks to some of the local citizens. It's beautifully written (the script is by Montgomery Pittman, who also directed), with each person in the bar given a definable personality and the conversation highlighting questions about how much effort Connie was putting into finding Pinto and--eventually--whether he would have the courage to visit Pinto's grave at midnight.

Marvin is backed up by wonderful characters actors here--Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef and James Best. (Martin and Van Cleef, by the way, would play along side Marvin in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, released about six months after this episode aired.) Elen Willard, who popped up quite often in various TV shows in the 1960s, gives a very effective performance as Pinto's sister.

The entire episode drips with exactly the right atmosphere to make the story work. Connie eventually decides to visit Pinto's grave at midnight, despite the fact that everyone else literally bets against him. Despite his growing terror, he does arrive at the grave. Then comes the ending, which probably (but not definitely) involves a supernatural occurance.

"The Grave" is an example of an intelligent and effective script being brought to life by superb actors. It is one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, edging out "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" as my favorite among the Western-themed episodes we're examing here.