Original Air Date: January 29, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Florey
“How can I stop? I lost a great deal of money. You said it yourself. I’ve got to win it back.”
“The Fever” is a somewhat farcical episode that explores the issue of gambling addiction as we watch one man driven insane by a Las Vegas slot machine. It was written by Rod Serling based on a trip he took to Las Vegas. At the time of the episode’s production gambling machines were illegal in California. Because of the ban, it was actually difficult for the crew to locate a slot machine for the show -they had to retrieve one from the local police department where it had been impounded. A policeman had to accompany the crew during the shoot to ensure the machine was not taken.
“Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Gibbs, three days and two nights all expenses paid at a Las Vegas hotel, won by virtue of Mrs. Gibbs’s knack with a phrase. But unbeknownst to either Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs is the fact that there’s a prize in their package, neither expected nor bargained for. In just a moment, one of them will succumb to an illness worse than any virus can produce. A most inoperative, deadly life-shattering affliction known as the Fever.”
-Rod Serling
A cold and stingy curmudgeon named Franklin Gibbs (played by Everett Sloane who appeared in a number of classic shows and films including Citizen Kane) and his wife Flora (played by Vivi Janiss) are on an all-expenses paid vacation in Las Vegas because she won a “slogan contest.” While there, Flora decides to quickly play a slot machine for fun, but Franklin protests decrying the frivolity of gambling away money. When she does not win any money he coldly tells her to go back to the room. Along the way, a drunken man forcibly grabs Franklin’s arm to put a coin into the slot machine. He wins a small jackpot.
Later that evening Franklin cannot sleep -he is haunted by the prospect of winning more money from the slot machine (the “one-armed bandit”). He tells his wife that he is going to give the money back to the slot machine downstairs. However, when he arrives at the slot machine he is unable to control himself. He begins obsessively playing the slots for hours as a small crowd gathers. Later, Flora comes down from the room to find that Franklin has gambled away a sizable portion of their money and now he is desperately trying to win it all back. His “fever” grows out of control. He screams at his wife. He puts his last dollar into the machine while growing furious, and the machine suddenly stops working. The casino staff carry Franklin back to his room while the voice of the machine echoes in his head. Later in his room Franklin is stalked by the slot machine. It chases him around the room and eventually out a window where Franklin falls several stories to his death. His last dollar lays flat in his open hand.
“Mr. Franklin Gibbs, visitor to Las Vegas, who lost his money, his reason, and finally his life, all to an inanimate metal machine variously described as a one-armed bandit, a slot machine, or in Mr. Franklin Gibbs’ words, a monster with a will all its own. For our purposes, we’ll stick with the latter definition because we’re in the Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling
My Thoughts on “The Fever”
Rod Serling’s “The Fever” presents the unique perspective of a reluctant, neophyte gambling addict as he struggles to control himself in a Las Vegas casino. Ultimately, Franklin Gibbs is a victim. He never really intended to lose all his money before he became a hostage to the “one-armed bandit.” Notably, “The Fever” is another classic Twilight Zone episode wherein modern newfangled machines, like slot machines, unexpectedly come to life and terrorize people in horrifying news ways. In a way, this theme reminded me a great deal of the episode “A Thing About Machines” or even “Nick of Time.” While “The Fever” is not exactly a standout episode for me, Everett Sloane delivers a mesmerizing, unsettling performance and Russ Garcia’s jazzy stock music perfectly captures the tone and tenor of this tragic misadventure.
Credits:
- Director: Robert Florey
- Written by: Rod Serling
- Music: stock music
- 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:
- Everett Sloane…..Franklin Gibbs
- Everett Sloane (1909-1965) was a noted television, radio, and film actor who previously appeared as a character in a script written by Rod Serling entitled “Noon on Doomsday” on the U.S. Steel Hour in 1956. It was one of the more heavily censored scripts Serling ever wrote because it was about the murder of Emmett Till. Sloane was also the author of the little-known lyrics to The Andy Griffith Show theme, he was a member of Orson Welles’s famous Mercury Theater troupe. Sloane appeared in Rod Serling’s earlier award-winning episode for Kraft Television Theatre entitled “Patterns” and he famously played Charles Foster Kane’s business manager, Mr. Bernstein, in Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941). He later appeared alongside Welles in Journey Into Fear and then in Welles’s Lady From Shanghai. Tragically, Sloane contracted glaucoma at the age of 55 and grew depressed at the prospect of onset blindness (glaucoma). He committed suicide by overdosing on barbiturates in 1965 at the age of 55.
- Vivi Janiss…..Flora Gibbs
- Vivi Janiss (1911-1988) was known for appearing in such films as The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955), Man on the Prowl (1957), and First, You Cry (1978). She voiced Daisy Duck for Disney, and appeared in two Twilight Zone episodes “The Fever” and “The Man in the Bottle.” Her first husband was actor and comedian Bob Cummings (they met while performing for Ziegfeld Follies) and her second husband was John Larch, who played the police chief in 1971 in the first of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry films.
- William Kendis…..public relations man
- Carole Kent…..the girl
- Art Lewis…..the drunk
- Lee Millar…..the photographer
- Arthur Peterson…..the sheriff
- Lee Sands…..the floor manager
- Jeffrey Sayre…..the croupier
- Marc Towers…..the cashier
- Everett Sloane…..Franklin Gibbs
The Twilight Zone Trivia:
- In the book Serling: The Rise and Twilight of Television’s Last Angry Man, Gordon F. Sander writes, “Serling celebrated the signing of his new show, The Twilight Zone by spending a weekend in Las Vegas. While Carol Serling was having good luck nearby, he became enslaved by a merciless one-armed bandit, an incident he would turn into one of his first Twilight Zone episodes.” Serling was later quoted saying it was 3am and he’d already spent an hour battling a one-armed bandit.
- The casino was shot on MGM stage 20 and was designed at a cost of $1,200 plus $250 to rent all the gambling equipment. The separate shots of the slot machine were filmed on stage 21 on the third day of shooting. The exterior shots were filmed on Lot 1.
- MGM had slot machines for use, a similar slot machine was later used in the Twilight Zone episode “The Prime Mover.”
- The slot machine shown in this episode is a modified Watling Rol-A-Top. The slot machine shown chasing Franklin at the end of the episode, has been modified to include a flashing lower light where the coin slot was located.
- The “Oasis” sign hanging in the background is the same one used in the episodes “Execution” and “The Four Of Us Are Dying.”
- The name of the hotel Franklin and Flora are staying at is never given, but the casino is called “Oasis.” Some fans have speculated that this would put them at “The Dunes,” a casino which operated from 1955 until its closure and subsequent demolition in 1993.
- This episode features the unique voice of a slot machine that was created by using speakers near an actor’s esophagus alongside the sound of tinkling coins.
- Selections from “Deserted Street” composed by jazz arranger Russ Garcia are featured in this episode. He began his career in radio filling in for the patriotic broadcast This Is America before he later served as arranger and musical director for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in 1957 during the classic Porgy and Bess sessions. He scored films like The Time Machine (1960) and Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961). He contributed various selections of stock music for CBS (as featured in this episode) and his works appear in another Twilight Zone episode “A Nice Place To Visit.”
Click here to return to my survey of The Twilight Zone series.
Click here to read my reflections on Rod Serling’s short story “The Fever.”