The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Eighteen “The Last Flight”

Original Air Date: February 5, 1960
Writer: Richard Matheson (based on “Flight”)
Director: William F. Claxton

“Maybe it wasn’t an accident that I landed here. Maybe I was brought here for a purpose to find out that time was giving me a second chance. You’ve got to let me go!”

Written by Richard Matheson, “The Last Flight” is a classic “man out of time” story that offers a rare second chance for a lone World War I pilot who realizes it’s not too late to still become a hero (see “King Nine Will Not Return” for comparison). “The Last Flight” is a powerful science fiction story of redemption and self-sacrifice. Richard Matheson initially titled his story simply “Flight” (a pun playing on the idea of an airplane flight, as well as the idea of a cowardly flight from courage). This wound up being the first non-Serling written teleplay in the series (Matheson’s previous entries “And When the Sky Was Opened” and “Third from the Sun” were made into teleplays written by Rod Serling).

“Witness Flight Lieutenant William Terrance Decker, Royal Flying Corps, returning from a patrol somewhere over France. The year is 1917. The problem is that the Lieutenant is hopelessly lost. Lieutenant Decker will soon discover that a man can be lost not only in terms of maps and miles, but also in time – and time in this case can be measured in eternities.”
-Rod Serling

It is March 5, 1917 during the height of World War I. British Royal Flying Corp Second Lieutenant William Terrance “Terry” Decker (played by Kenneth Haigh) flies his plane into a thick cloud before emerging and landing at Lafayette Air Base, an American base in Reims, France many years later in the year 1959. Somehow he has traveled through time. The American military personnel at Lafayette are utterly baffled as to how or why a World War I era plane has just landed. When questioned, Lt. Decker explains both the time and place from which he comes –he thought he was landing at 56th Squadron R.F.C. in 1917. He even provides documentation as to his identity and he is shocked to find that the date is March 5, 1959.

Lt. Decker had just abandoned his flying partner, Alexander “Mac” Mackaye (pronounced “Muh-Kye”), as he was surrounded by seven German aircraft (Lt. Decker claims he was fleeing from three German aircraft). Thus, leaving his partner for dead, Lt. Decker veered into a cloud and inexplicably disappeared into the future. Lt. Decker now believes himself to be a coward. He laments the loss of his friend, “Old Leadbottom” Mackaye. He learns that Mackaye is scheduled to arrive at Lafayette that same day and he begins to realize that somehow he has been offered a second chance to save his friend. He springs back into his plane, assaulting several officers on the way, and overcoming his own cowardice in doing so.

Then when Mackaye arrives at the base, he is asked about Lt. Decker. To which he responds, “Terry Decker? Oh I should know him – he saved my life.” Mackaye describes how they were both out on patrol when seven German planes surrounded them. Mackaye watched as Decker fled and disappeared into a cloud, returning moments later guns ablaze. Decker shot down three German aircraft before being shot down himself. Decker’s actions saved Mackaye’s life but Decker’s personal effects were never recovered. Mackaye is handed Decker’s identification and other personal items. In shock, Mackaye asks where they came from to which the American Major responds with a nickname only Decker would have known, “Maybe you’d better sit down, Old Leadbottom.”

“Dialog from a play, Hamlet to Horatio: There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Dialog from a play written long before men took to the sky: There are more things in heaven and earth and in the sky than perhaps can be dreamt of. And somewhere in between heaven, the sky, the earth, lies The Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts on “The Last Flight”

A profound meditation on the nature of courage, “The Last Flight” gives Lt. Decker a second chance. An inexplicable supernatural force grants Lt. Decker the opportunity to redeem himself and sacrifice his own life for his friend. Something happens to him when he travels into the future. His perspective is reoriented away from fearing death, and toward celebrating self-sacrifice. Many of us would like to think we would choose the higher path and fly back up into that cloud like Lt. Decker. It is the ultimate passio, to lay one’s life down for friends. Such passion does not frequently come along.

A similar hero’s choice is offered to Achilles in The Iliad: either to live a long, happy, quiet life by shying away from battle, or else die young in glorious battle and become a hero. Both Lt. Decker and Achilles choose the latter. They are affected by the fate of a friend. For Lt. Decker, that friend is Alexander Mackaye, for Achilles that friend is Patroclus. In both cases, courage overcomes all other feelings of fear or sorrow. And this episode not only represents Lt. Decker’s “last flight” inside an airplane, but also his “last flight” in running from a battle.

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Credits

• Director: William F. Claxton
  • William F. Claxton (1914-1996) was a Southern California native who got his start in Hollywood editing films and television shows, primarily for Edward Small Productions. During World War II, he served as a captain in the U.S. Signal Corps and he worked under Frank Capra as a film editor on the “Why We Fight” series in addition to working alongside Theodor Seuss Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”) in the animation and film department of the U.S. Army. After the war, he directed many episodes of television shows like Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie. He directed four episodes of The Twilight Zone (“The Last Flight,” “The Jungle,” “The Little People,” and “I Sing The Body Electric“). He and his wife had two children. He died in Santa Monica in 1996.
• Written by: Richard Matheson (working title: “Flight”)
• Music: Stock from “Where Is Everybody?” by Bernard Herrmann
• 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:
  • Kenneth Haigh…..Flight 2nd Lt. William Terrance “Terry” Decker
    • Kenneth Haigh (1931-2018) was an English actor who was known for playing the role of “angry young man” Jimmy Porter in the play Look Back in Anger in 1956 opposite Mary Ure in London’s West End theatre. When the play was later adapted into a 1959 film, his role went to Richard Burton. He also made a brief uncredited appearance in the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night (1964). Haigh married West Indies model Myrna Stephens in 1974, they had one child and divorced in 1985 but remained good friends; she nursed him through his final years of ill-health after he accidentally swallowed a bone in a restaurant in Soho causing brain damage due to lack of oxygen to his brain. He died in 2018 at the age of 86 after having spent the last 15 years of his life in a nursing home.
    • Kenneth Haigh was paid $2,000 for this episode (a far cry from the $5,000 paid to Ida Lupino and Ed Wynn for their respective appearances earlier in the first season).
  • Alexander Scourby…..Major General Harper
    • Alexander Scourby (1913-1985) was an American film, television, and voice actor and narrator known for his deep and resonant voice and Mid-Atlantic accent. His father was a successful Brooklyn-based Greek restaurateur and baker. He performed as four different characters onstage in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He is best known for his film role as the mob boss Mike Lagana in Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953), and he is also well-remembered in the English-speaking world for his numerous landmark audio recordings for the blind, particularly of the entire King James Version Bible. His recording company was named Lectern Records and his work was released in numerous editions. He started his career in radio before moving to theater and television. He appeared in television shows like Shirley Temple’s Storybook, Rawhide, Bonanza, The Rifleman, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Daniel Boone, and others. He married Lori von Eltz in 1943 (also known as the actress “Lori March,” daughter of the motion-picture actor Theodor von Eltz). The couple had one daughter, Alexandra, born in March 1944. Scourby died of a heart attack on February 22, 1985 at the age of 71.
  • Simon Scott…..Major Wilson
    • Simon Scott (1920-1991) was an American character actor from Monterey Park, California. He served in the Pacific in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was best known for his role as Arnold Slocum on the television series Trapper John M.D. He made appearances on Perry Mason, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, I Spy, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Munsters among other shows. He died of Alzheimer’s in 1991 at the age of 71.
  • Robert Warwick…..Air Vice Marshal Alexander Mackaye (pronounced “Muh-Kye”)
    • Robert Warwick (1878-1964) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was a matinee idol during the silent film era before leaving Hollywood and Broadway to serve as an infantry captain in 1917 during World War I. Appropriately for this episode, he spent 17 months in combat in France and returned to the US as a major. He later worked in films and television. He appeared in a string of Errol Flynn films as well as award-winning films like The Life of Emile Zola (1937) and Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Cleopatra (1934), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Romeo and Juliet (1936), The Awful Truth (1937) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). He eventually became an aristocratic character actor during the rise of “talkies.” He was married three times, had two daughters, and died in June 1964.
  • Harry Raybould…..Corporal
    • Harry Raybould (1932-1997) made appearances in television shows like Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Daniel Boone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and others. He died in 1997 in Los Angeles, California.
  • Jerry Catron…..Guard
    • Jerry Catron (1932-2017) appeared in television shows like Lost in Space and The Green Hornet, as well as Lassie, Land of the Giants, Gunsmoke, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,The Time Tunnel, Batman, Bewitched, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Rawhide, The Virginian, and others. He appeared in three episodes of Star Trek (“Operation – Annihilate,” “The Doomsday Machine,” and “Journey to Babel“). He died in 2017 in Novato, California.
  • Paul Baxley…..jeep driver (uncredited)
    • Paul Baxley (1923-2011) was an American actor and stunt coordinator best known for his work as a stunt coordinator on Star Trek –he was a stunt double for William Shatner in at least eleven episodes. Baxley doubled for several other important Hollywood actors, such as his good friend Marlon Brando, as well as Alan Ladd, and James Dean. He played an uncredited role as a CIA Agent in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Prior to his acting career, during World War II he served as a marine, a scout, and sniper in the 4th Division. He fought on Kwajalein, Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Tinian. He received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a letter of commendation from the President of the United States. After the war, he became a successful all-American quarterback and met stunt coordinator, Richard Talmadge, who helped him get started in motion pictures. Baxley’s son is stunt coordinator and director, Craig R. Baxley, his grandson is stuntman and second unit director Craig Baxley Jr., and his great-grandson is stunt performer Cash Baxley.
  • Jack Perkins…..mechanic/ground crewman (uncredited)
    • Jack Perkins (1921-1998) was an American film and television actor who was perhaps best known for his many appearances on TV as a comic drunk. He appeared in films like Blazing Saddles (1974) and television shows like Star Trek (the episode “Bread and Circuses“), as well as Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, and others.
  • Paul Mantz…..the stunt pilot (uncredited)
    • Paul Mantz (1903-1965) was a stunt flier and former member of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The following year, he began collaborated with airplane owner Frank Gifford Tallman.

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• This episode was filmed at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. Norton AFB was decommissioned and closed in 1994. The site is now San Bernardino International Airport.
• The vintage Nieuport airplane used for this episode was brought in and flown by its owner Frank Gifford Tallman, a veteran motion picture pilot. The plane was used in a variety of Hollywood World War I productions. George T. Clemens’s cinematography in this episode wonderfully captures the distinctions between old and new aviation as this vintage 1917 war plane lands alongside more advanced military jet aircraft in 1959.
• The number on Lt. Decker’s plane is 56.
• Richard Matheson said that he sold Serling and Houghton on the idea for “The Last Flight” with a mere one sentence synopsis: a British World War I pilot gets lost and lands on an American base in 1959.
• Buck Houghton and Rod Serling loved the idea for this story so Leo Lefcourt contacted Gordon Levey of the Preminger-Stuart Agency to negotiate a deal for Matheson to write the full outline of this story with the possibility of composing the teleplay. Matheson was later paid $1,750 for his teleplay (the lowest fee for his work on The Twilight Zone). Matheson and Beaumont shared the same agent and were often paid $2,000.
• Rod Serling noted there was a similar radio script that was aired on Quiet, Please called “One for the Book.” He and Matheson briefly considered tracking down Wyllis Cooper to purchase the rights.
• The rank of Air Vice Marshall (AVM) in the R.A.F. is roughly equivalent to the rank of Major General in the U.S.A.F. Therefore, officers Harper and Mackaye are of equal rank.
• The helicopter in the hangar and later seen taking off is a Sikorsky H-5. The first flight of this model was on August 18, 1943 before it was retired in 1957. Over 300 helicopters of this type were ever built. It was used by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, and even the United States Post Office Department.
• Other military aircraft visible in this episode include: a C-124 Globemaster (the first aircraft Lt. Decker passes when he is taxied off the runway), several USAF F-100 Super Sabre jets, a C-47 Skytrain, an F-104 Starfighter model on Major General Harper’s desk, and F-102 Delta Dagger jets.
• This episode acknowledges assistance from the Department of Defense and the Department of the Air Force.
• Three pictures of jets can be seen on the walls of Major General Harper’s office –the first appears to be a US Navy F-9F Cougar, the second photo appears to be an A-4 Skyhawk, the third appears to be a C-124 Globemaster.
• Buck Houghton forwarded two copies of the revised script to Captain Damon Eckles of the Air Force hoping he might act as a consultant and offer feedback (which he did).
• In his episode narration, Rod Serling pronounces Lieutenant in the British fashion as “leftenant.”
• This episode takes place in Reims, France on March 5, 1959.
• The serial number on the American military vehicle reads: “20979954.”
• Lt. Decker compares his situation to that of legendary French fighter pilot Georges Guynemer, pronounced “geen-meh-air” (1894-1917) who also disappeared into a similar cloud. He was the second highest-scoring French fighter ace with 54 victories during World War I, and a French national hero at the time of his death. He never returned from a combat mission on September 11, 1917. He was declared missing in action, though there were various stories about his death or disappearance over the years. In this episode, Lt. Decker says that a cardinal at Guynemer’s memorial service said: “He belonged to the sky and the sky has taken him.” This appears to have been an error within the episode as Lt’ Decker’s odyssey takes place on March 5, 1917 whereas Georges Guynemer wasn’t killed until (presumably) September 11, 1917.
• Richard Matheson later praised this story. He liked using titles with double-meanings –“it was his flight from his cowardice, and a flight from the past to the future, and so on.”
• Cinematographer George T. Clemens later told Marc Scott Zicree (author of The Twilight Zone Companion) a delightful story about the reception the 1918 Nieuport received when it landed at Norton Air Force Base.

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