The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Thirteen “The Four Of Us Are Dying”

Original Air Date: January 1, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling (based on “All Of Us Are Dying” or “Rubberface” by George Clayton Johnson)
Director: John Brahm

This notable noir-esque episode features four different actors playing one single character –a remarkable feat! It is about a man who can mold his face to appear in the image of anyone else he wishes. Based on the short story “The Four Of Us Are Dying” by George Clayton Johnson, this episode was met with challenges in pre-production to figure out how to have four different visages appear in one person. The crew attempted to accomplish this through different make-up styles but that plan was soon scratched. It would have required a significant amount time in the make-up chair for the actor. Thus they hired four separate actors.

“His name is Arch Hammer, and he’s 36 years old. He’s been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel and dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his consience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Hammer has a talent, discovered at a very early age. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anything he wants. Mr. Archie Hammer, jack of all trades, has just checked in at three-eighty a night, with two bags, some newspaper clippings, a most odd talent, and a master plan to destroy some lives.”
-Rod Serling

Arch Hammer (played by Harry Townes) is a schemer and a con man with one unique power: he can change his facial appearance to look like other people. In one night he plans to assume the visage of several different people. First, he changes himself into a recently deceased trumpet player named John “Johnny” Foster (Ross Martin) in order to seduce his girlfriend who sings in a hazy nightclub. Next, he changes into a murdered criminal named Virgil Sterig (played by Phillip Pine) in order to extort a gangster hitman named “Mr. Pennell” (played by Bernard Fein who went on to appear in Hitchcock shorts as well as co-create Hogan’s Heroes) but soon mobster thugs chase Sterig down the street until he is cornered in an alley. In a split second he spots the photo of a boxer on a wall. The boxer’s name is Andy Marshak (Don Gordon) and he escapes the mob this time by quickly transforming into the boxer.

The many lives he has exploited start to catch up with him. He becomes embroiled in a familial conflict with the boxer’s father (played by Peter Brocco of Spartacus and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest fame) who is angry at what his son did to his mother and another young girl. Hammer escapes but is soon picked up by the police in connection to the mafia troubles. In a delightful scene, he escapes in a revolving door by transforming back into Marshak. But Marshak’s father is waiting for him on the street. He pulls a gun and shoots, believing he has killed his son. As Hammer dies in an alley, the camera blurs between the four different people until he finally dies as Arch Hammer. Each person’s life is immensely complex, and the thought of mere exploitation always bears a great burden.

“He was Arch Hammer, a cheap little man who just checked in. He was Johnny Foster, who played a trumpet and was loved beyond words. He was Vergil Sterig, with money in his pocket. He was Andy Marshak, who got some of his agony back on a sidewalk in front of a cheap hotel. Hammer, Foster, Sterig, Marshak- and all four of them are dying.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts on “The Four Of Us Are Dying”

As in the writings of Herodotus and Plato (particularly in the story of the “Ring of Gyges” found in The Republic), in “The Four Of Us Are Dying” we are asked to consider the relationship between visibility and justice. If someone can disappear or at least conceal himself by appearing to be someone else, can he ever truly face justice? Will he live like a tyrant? Rod Serling seems to suggest that grifters like Arch Hammer will most assuredly become unjust, but Serling also offers this story to show that justice, or perhaps at least retribution, will eventually prevail.

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Credits:

• Director: John Brahm
• Written by: Rod Serling (based on “All of Us Are Dying” or “Rubberface” by George Clayton Johnson)
• Music: Jerry Goldsmith
• Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and William Ferrari
• Film Editor: Joseph Gluck
• Assistant Director: Edward Denault
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Rudy Butler
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Jean Valentino
• Casting Director: Mildred Gusse
• Starring:
  • Harry Townes…..Arch Hammer
    • Harry Townes (1914-2001) was an American actor who later became an Episcopalian minister. he appeared in shows like Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun Will Travel, and others. He appeared in the Star Trek episode “The Return of the Archons” as Reger.
  • Ross Martin…..Hammer as Johnny Foster
    • Ross Martin (1920-1981) was best known for portraying Artemus Gordon on the CBS Western series The Wild Wild West. He was the voice of Doctor Paul Williams in 1972’s Sealab 2020, additional characters in 1973’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, and additional character voices in 1978’s Jana of the Jungle. He appeared in two Twilight Zone episodes – “The Four Of Us Are Dying” and “Death Ship.”
  • Phillip Pine…..Hammer as Virgil Sterig
    • Phillip Pine (1920-2006) appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone: “The Four of Us Are Dying” and “The Incredible World of Horace Ford.” He appeared in the Star Trek episode “The Savage Curtain” as the genocidal Earth warlord Colonel Green. Pine also appeared in the second episode of The Outer Limits entitled “The Hundred Days of the Dragon.”
  • Don Gordon…..Hammer as Andy Marshak
    • Don Gordon (1926-2017) was born Donald Walter Guadagno before changing his name for show business. He is best remembered for film roles in which he appeared alongside his friend Steve McQueen: Bullitt (1968), Papillon (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone: “The Four of Us Are Dying” and “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross.” He also appeared in two episodes of The Outer Limits: “The Invisibles” and “Second Chance.” He was married and had one biological daughter and later adopted another daughter.
  • Peter Brocco…..Mr. Pop Marshak
    • Carl Peter Brocco (1903-1992) appeared in over 300 credits, notably Spartacus (1960) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) during a Hollywood career that spanned over 60 years. He appeared as Claymare, an Organian council member, in the classic Star Trek episode “Errand of Mercy.” This was his only Twilight Zone appearance during the original series, but he later appeared in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) as Mr. Mute (segment #2). He lived for some 40 years in Laurel Canyon, in a 1920s Spanish style home on Laurel Canyon Blvd. His ceramics studio was located in the ground floor which served as a source of income when he was blacklisted during the red scare of the early 1950s.
  • Milton Frome…..Detective
    • Milton Frome (1909-1989) was an American character actor who appeared in television shows like I Love Lucy, Adventures of Superman, and Lassie. He also worked with The Three Stooges during their final years in the Columbia Pictures short subject department, appearing in the films Pies and Guys and Quiz Whizz, and later in Jerry Lewis films. He had one child and died in 1989.
  • Beverly Garland…..Maggie
    • Beverly Garland (1926-2008) was often featured in films primarily as small parts in a few major productions or leads in low-budget action and science-fiction movies; however, she had prominent recurring roles on several popular television series such as My Three Sons. She appeared in Gunsmoke, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman as the mother of Lois Lane, and Planet of the Apes (the show). She admitted to not being a singer, but she described how Rod Serling praised her performance in this episode of The Twilight Zone. She married three times, and became stepmother to two children through her third husband, Filmore Crank, who built a a 255-room Spanish Mission-style resort and called it Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn (it has since been renamed simply “The Garland”).
  • Bernard Fein…..Penell
    • Bernard Fein (1926-1980) is best known for co-creating and associate producing the 1960s television sitcom Hogan’s Heroes; a show which he also occasionally wrote for, including the pilot episode. He appeared in shows like The Untouchables, Sea Hunt, Lawman, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 77 Sunset Strip, Perry Mason, and The Twilight Zone. He appeared in two Twilight Zone episodes: “The Four of Us Are Dying” and “He’s Alive” as a heckler.
  • Jeonne Baker….silent part
  • Pat Chomiskey…..man #2
  • Paul Denton…..clerk in the hotel lobby
  • Jimmy Gray…..bellboy in the hotel lobby
  • Bob Hopkins…..man in bar
  • Harry Jackson…..trumpet player
  • Marco Lopez…..silent bit in hotel
  • Sam Rawlins…..busboy
  • Tony Rosa…..silent part
  • James Selwyn…..man in the street

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• This episode was based on an original story entitled “All Of Us Are Dying” or “Rubberface” by George Clayton Johnson. The short story had not been published yet when this episode aired. The original story was later published some 22 years later in the May 1982 edition of The Twilight Zone magazine.
• George Clayton Johnson became a more regular contributing writer to The Twilight Zone during Season Two.
• As with many Twilight Zone episodes, the props and sets for this episode were reused from other MGM productions. In this case The “Hotel Real” sign, in front of Arch Hammer’s hotel, is an MGM prop, originally used in a Mexican street setting in their 1953 feature film Take the High Ground!, starring Richard Widmark and Karl Malden.
• One of the signs on the street reads: “Chit-Chat, Delightful Girls (Nightly)… The Bam Girl.” Another sign for the “Skylight Room” reads “Buck Winston Opening Tonight.”
• A sign outside the bar room appears to read: “Columbia Rica.”
• This is the first episode in which Rod Serling doesn’t say “…in the Twilight Zone” in the closing narration.
• “After the first half-dozen stories had been written, part of the hustle was getting an agent. Through those years I found several who would let me use their names, though few cared to sign a contract with me. One of these men, Jay Richards – at the time head of the television department of the Famous Artists Agency, long since absorbed by I.F.A. (International Famous Agency), and since embedded in I.C.M. (International Creative Management), which represents me now in television and movies – agreed to read something. I showed Jay ‘All of Us Are Dying.’ After reading it, he crossed out the title with a ballpoint pen and wrote in ‘Rubberface!’ Then he sent it to Rod Serling, who had a new series that season called The Twilight Zone.” — George Clayton Johnson, writing in the August 1981 issue of The Twilight Zone Magazine.
• Rod Serling, John Brahm, and Millie Gusse decided that all four of the actors playing the same character needed to be five feet ten inches tall and approximately 150 pounds.
• Every scene for this episode was shot at MGM studios. It cost about $100 to purchase newspapers for the newsstand.
• Penell’s apartment is the same studio set (stage 24) that was Marty Sall’s office in “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine.”
• Beverly Garland sang Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s 1943 classic “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road).” It was first performed by Fred Astaire and popularized by Frank Sinatra. This episode was Beverly Garland’s singing debut.
• This is the first episode in the series not to feature the phrase “The Twilight Zone” in the closing narration.
• The memorable percussive score of this episode was completed by the great Jerry Goldsmith (Planet of the Apes, Alien, Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

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