The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Twenty-Eight “A Nice Place To Visit”

Original Air Date: April 15, 1960
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: John Brahm

“Portrait of a man at work, the only work he’s ever done, the only work he knows. His name is Henry Francis Valentine, but he calls himself “Rocky”, because that’s the way his life has been – rocky and perilous and uphill at a dead run all the way. He’s tired now, tired of running or wanting, of waiting for the breaks that come to others but never to him, never to Rocky Valentine. A scared, angry little man. He thinks it’s all over now but he’s wrong. For Rocky Valentine, it’s just the beginning.”
-Rod Serling

The title of this episode comes from the popular expression “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” This was the last episode written by Charles Beaumont for Season 1 of The Twilight Zone, and it was also the last episode directed by John Brahm for Season 1. “A Nice Place To Visit” is both an amusing and chilling story that contemplates the need for suffering and finitude in life while exploring alternatives to the traditional mythology of Heaven and Hell.

An urban ruffian and robber named Henry Francis “Rocky” Valentine (played by Larry Blyden) is caught in a shoot-out while attempting to escape an encounter with the police after robbing the Southside Loan Company. He awakens to find himself suddenly lying beside an elderly, plump man dressed in a white suit named Pip (played by Sebastian Cabot who was a voice actor in a variety of classic Disney films). Pip claims to be a “guide” seems to know incredibly detailed information about Rocky’s life. The two travel to a beautiful penthouse hotel room where Rocky grows suspicious of Pip as hoards of money, food, and women are paraded before him for amusement. When Rocky tries to shoot and kill Pip he discovers that his bullets have no effect. Rocky discerns that he must be dead and Pip is his guardian angel.

In this strange simulated carnival of earthly delights, nothing is real and everything Rocky wishes is granted. Rocky starts gambling but soon he loses interest because there is no challenge in simply winning every time. At his request, Pip takes Rocky to the Hall of Records where Rocky finds his own file. It is filled with a list of his own sins. As time goes by, Rocky grows listless. He asks Pip why he was sent to Heaven rather than ‘the other place’ to which Pip responds, ‘Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven, Mr. Valentine? This is the other place!’ Rocky desperately tries to escape through a locked door while Pip descends into maniacal laughter. For Rocky, Hell is a fantasy-land where he is given everything he desires; a form of infinite meaninglessness. There are no thrills, challenges, joys, or suffering –this nightmare vision of Hell is a rapacious, solipsistic world without limits.

“A scared, angry little man who never got a break. Now he has everything he’s ever wanted – and he’s going to have to live with it for eternity – in The Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts on “A Nice Place To Visit”

One thing I love about The Twilight Zone is the way the writers manage to create protagonists akin to the common man. Often these are ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances beyond their control. In the case of “A Nice Place To Visit” we see a low-brow schemer transformed into a gluttonous resident of hell. Wishes have consequences in The Twilight Zone, and ironically hell is akin to Rocky’s own “private domain.” In some ways, “A Nice Place To Visit” is reminiscent of “One For The Angels” and “Escape Clause” as an ordinary man is confronted with Death or The Devil and the like. However, in my view Charles Beaumont’s final script “A Nice Place To Visit” doesn’t quite reach the grandeur of his earlier episodes this season –“Perchance to Dream,” “Long Live Walter Jameson,” and “Elegy.”

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Credits:

• Director: John Brahm
• Written by: Charles Beaumont
• Music: Stock Music
• Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and Merrill Pye
• Film Editor: Joseph Gluck
• Assistant Director: Don Klune
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Keogh Gleason
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip Mitchell
• Starring:
  • Larry Blyden…..Henry Francis “Rocky” Valentine
    • Ivan Lawrence “Larry” Blieden (1925-1975) was a Broadway and television/film actor, producer, and director. In 1972, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in the revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which he also produced. Also in 1972, he became the host of the syndicated revival version of What’s My Line? He appeared in television shows like Playhouse 90, Omnibus, The Loretta Young Show, The United States Steel Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Defenders, The Fugitive, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He appeared in two Twilight Zone episodes: “A Nice Place To Visit” and “Showdown with Rance McGrew.” Blyden and his wife had two children and purchased the he historic Achenbach House in Saddle River, New Jersey, which they believed to be haunted by the spirit of the builder. After his wife died (she died in 1964 at the age of 39 due to diabetes, alcoholism, and pneumonia), Blyden believed she was then haunting the house. He would smell the scent of brownies at periodic times until he decided to yell after his wife to leave him alone, at which point the strange smells stopped. He later sold the house and it burned down in a fire in 2004. At the time of his death, Blyden was slated to host a new game show, Showoffs. He took off for a two week vacation in Marrakesh before the show launched but tragically he succumbed serious injuries when his car flipped over off the road. He died of his injuries in 1975 at the age of 49.
  • Sebastian Cabot…..Mr. Pip
    • Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot (1918-1977) was a British character actor who is best remembered for playing gentlemanly characters on shows like Family Affair and Checkmate and the film Kismet (1955). He was also a voice performer in many Disney animated films –he played the narrator and Lord Ector in The Sword in the Stone (1963), and Bagheera in The Jungle Book (1967), in addition to a long-standing role in the Winnie the Pooh series. He died of a stroke at age 59 in 1977.
  • John Close…..policeman
  • Barbara English…..dancing girl
  • Peter Hornsby…..the crap dealer
  • Bill Mullikin…..the parking lot attendant
  • Nels Nelson…..the midget policeman
  • Wayne Turner…..the croupier
  • Sandra Warner…..the beautiful girl

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• Mickey Rooney was the first choice to play Rocky Valentine. In a memo to Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont suggested if Rooney is not available, Serling should consider playing the part himself. Long story short Rooney was unavailable and Serling declined the role so Larry Blyden was hired to play the part. Mickey Rooney would later star in “The Last Night of a Jockey.”
• “A Nice Place to Visit” was singled out for its brazen sexual innuendo by the CBS censors.
• Guest star Sebastian Cabot had to bleach his hair white for the role; it took three months for the actor’s hair to return to its original dark color. Apparently, he was was reluctant to dye his brunette hair and beard blonde, since the peroxide used for it ensured that the color would remain for about six months.
• The slot machine seen in the episode is the same one used in “The Fever.”
• This was the last episode directed by John Brahm for Season 1, and it was also the last episode written by Charles Beaumont for Season 1.
• Apparently, Donald Trump has been quoted saying this episode of The Twilight Zone inspired his philosophy of success (though it’s doubtful he ever really watched the show).
• The original working title for this episode was “The Other Place.”
• At one point, Rocky calls Pip “Santa Claus” which is ironic since Cabot would later go on to play Santa in Miracle on 34th Street (1973).
• At one point, Rocky tells Pip that he wants a million dollars in “Five G Notes” (or $5,000 bills). Five thousand dollar bills were last printed in 1945 but were still in circulation in 1960. A million dollars in “Five G Notes” would be 200 individual bills.
• The set for the “Hall of Records” was reused from the remains of the library in “Time Enough at Last.”
• Despite having a large cast of extras, only Larry Blyden and Sebastian Cabot received screen credit in this episode.
• The stereo in Rocky’s new house is a Stromberg-Carlson Integrity Series SP-965.
• Rod Serling wanted Rocky’s bag with his gambling earnings to say the name of a real Las Vegas casino but since Rocky is in hell, the bags simply read “The Casino.”
• I believe the song Rocky puts on the record player in “Cha Cha Cha Linda” by Garriguenc (CBS stock).
• Rocky calls Pip “fats” throughout this episode.
• Rocky’s says his friends are Matt Gorman, Fink Mitchell, Silky Armstrong.
• In the Hall of Records, Rocky reveals that at age 6 he slaughtered a small dog after it bit him, at the age 7 stole 14 toys from a dime store, at the age of 8 he organized a street gang known as “The Angels,” and at the age of 9 he broke into a bicycle store.
• A small sign for “The Famous Callini Circus” can be spotted in the background of this episode.
• The only three letters on Rocky’s telephone are “P-I-P” to call for Mr. Pip.
• The store Rocky is robbing at the start of this episode is the “Southside Loan Company.”
• Notably, The Twilight Zone did not air the following week on April 22, 1960. Instead a Playhouse 90 episode entitled “Journey to the Day” was played on CBS starring Mike Nichols, Mary Astor, James Dunn, James Gregory, and Steven Hill.

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