The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Thirty-One “The Chaser”

Original Air Date: May 13, 1960
Writer: John Henry Collier/Robert Presnell, Jr.
Director: Douglas Heyes

“Mr. Roger Shackelforth. Age: youthful twenties. Occupation: being in love. Not just in love, but madly, passionately, illogically, miserably, all-consumingly in love – with a young woman named Leila, who has a vague recollection of his face and even less than a passing interest. In a moment, you’ll see a switch, because Mr. Roger Shackelforth, the young gentleman so much in love, will take a short, but very meaningful journey into the Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

“The Chaser” recycles a well-worn popular cliche: “be careful what you wish for.” It is a charming little drama I suppose but admittedly it is not an example of The Twilight Zone’s best. A young man named Roger Shackelforth (played by Emmy and Grammy Award winner George Grizzard) is obsessively in love with a woman named Leila (pronounced “Lee-La,” played by Patricia Barry). We first meet Roger hogging a public payphone desperately trying to speak with Leila while she ignores him on the other end of the line. A large and impatient man cuts to the front of the line and gives Roger a card instructing him to pay a visit to a certain man who can help solve all his romantic troubles.

Roger heeds the man’s advice and visits the residence of A. Daemon (note: “Daemon” is an old spelling of “demon”). It is a strange home with a massive library –one of the best scenes in the episode occurs when the walls separate and we first meet the cantankerous, professorial, Irish-accented Professor A. Daemon (played by television Western actor John McIntire). Professor Daemon initially suggests Roger may be in need of glove cleaner for $1,000 (or “The Eradicator” as he calls it, a clean, colorless, tasteless, unidentifiable substance), but he reluctantly sells a love potion to Roger for $1 instead, even though it carries a warning of grave results. Roger then brings the potion to Leila. She initially refuses to let Roger into her home, but he begs her to have just one drink with him and she finally relents. Roger slips the potion into her champagne and moments later she falls madly in love with him. In fact, she becomes wholly obsessed with him.

Six months later, Roger and Leila are married and by now he cannot stand her smothering affections. He revisits the home of Professor A. Daemon only to discover that there is no antidote to the love potion, only a “glove cleaner” which is actually an “eradicator” poison used to kill its victim. Roger reluctantly buys it this time for $1,000 (his entire life savings) and he very nearly goes through with the deed (killing Leila) until she shares some news –she is pregnant. In shock, Roger drops the poisonous drink on the floor. He tells himself he never could have gone through with it anyway. Outside on the veranda we see a brief clip of A. Daemon slyly smoking. He puffs a smoke ring into air shaped like a heart and then he vanishes. Whimsical music begins playing as we have just witnessed a very silly dark comedy in The Twilight Zone.

“Mr. Roger Shackelforth, who has discovered at this late date that love can be as sticky as a vat of molasses, as unpalatable as a hunk of spoiled yeast, and as all-consuming as a six-alarm fire in a bamboo and canvas tent. Case history of a lover boy, who should never have entered the Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts on “The Chaser”

The saving grace of this episode is the wily, entrancing performance of John McIntire and his eccentric portrayal of Professor A. Daemon, a quasi-Mephistopheles alchemist who seems to have a dark past. Several times in his episode, he alludes to the fact that he is a lonely man and that he actually invented the glove cleaner precisely because he knows exactly what it’s like to use the love potion. He seems to prefer murder to forced-love. McIntire offers a terrific performance, certainly memorable in the series, even if this episode is not remotely among the best in the series. In my view, only a handful of Twilight Zone comedies manage to succeed and this one has a light-hearted tone for a dark comedy. Would Roger have used the deadly “glove cleaner” on Leila if it turned out she wasn’t pregnant? We may only speculate.

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Credits:

• Director: Douglas Heyes
  • Douglas Heyes (1919-1993) was a longtime television director and writer. His career began with various 1950s kids programs like The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and Circus Boy, as well as shows like Naked City and Maverick. He directed a total of nine episodes of The Twilight Zone (“And When The Sky Was Opened,” “Elegy,” “The Chaser,” “The After Hours,” “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room,” “The Howling Man,” “Dust,” “Eye of the Beholder,” and “The Invaders“). He and his wife Joanna Heyes had one child together, Doug Heyes, Jr. Douglas Heyes died in Beverly Hills in 1993 due to congestive heart failure.
• Written by: Robert Presnell, Jr. (1914-1986) based on the short story “Duet for Two Actors” by John Henry Collier originally published in the December 28, 1940 issue of The New Yorker (Robert Presnell, Jr. first dramatized the story in Billy Rose’s Playbill Theater in 1951).
• Music: Stock Music
• Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and Merrill Pye
• Film Editor: Bill Mosher
• Assistant Director: Don Klune
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Keogh Gleason
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip Mitchell
• Starring:
  • John McIntire…..Professor A. Daemon (a play on “a demon”)
    • John Herrick McIntire (1907-1991) was an American character actor who appeared in 65 theatrical films and many television series, known for his roles on Wagon Train, Bonanza, and The Virginian. He played Police Commissioner Hardy in John Huston film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and had a minor appearance as Sheriff Al Chambers in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). In addition to The Twilight Zone, he also appeared in episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Daniel Boone, and a great many Westerns. He was born in Spokane, Washington and grew up in Montana where he raised broncos. He married actress Jeanette Nolan (who appeared in another love-potion-themed Twilight Zone episode, “Jess-Belle“) and they had two children, both of whom also became actors. McIntire died from emphysema and lung cancer in Pasadena on January 30, 1991, at the age of 83. His son Tim McIntire had predeceased him in 1986.
  • Patricia Barry…..Leila, Roger’s love interest (pronounced “Lee-La”)
    • Patricia Allen White, or Patricia Barry (1922-2016) won a Rita Hayworth look-alike contest in 1944. The resulting publicity led to her signing a contract with Warner Bros. She appeared in many television shows like Playhouse 90, The Third Man, Sugarfoot, Maverick, The Rifleman, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, My Three Sons, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, CBS Playhouse, Columbo, Charlie’s Angels, and others. She appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone (“The Chaser” and “I Dream of Genie“). She also appeared in the film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) playing Anthony’s mother in the third segment “It’s A Good Life.” She was married for 48 years to producer and writer Philip Barry, Jr., until his death in 1998. They had two daughters who later made a documentary about their mother. Patricia Barry died in 2016 of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 93.
  • George Grizzard…..Roger Shackleforth
    • George Cooper Grizzard Jr. (1928-2007) was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina and raised in Washington, DC. He studied advertising and drama at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before beginning his career in advertising and radio broadcasting. He soon turned to stage acting in 1950 at Washington’s Arena Stage and later wound up in Hollywood. Throughout his lengthy career, he went on to win an Emmy Award for his supporting role in 1979’s The Oldest Living Graduate and he was featured in many stage productions (for which he won a Tony Award). He famously played a demagogic United States Senator in the film Advise and Consent (1962), and television shows like Hawaii Five-O, Rawhide, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Cosby Show, Law & Order, Murder, She Wrote, and two episodes of The Twilight Zone (“The Chaser,” and “In His Image“). The last film he appeared in was Clint Eastwood’s Flags Of Our Fathers (2006). Grizzard died in Manhattan in 2007 at the age of 79 due to complications from lung cancer. He was survived by his partner William Tynan.
  • J. Pat O’Malley…..Homburg, the man with an “emergency” in the payphone booth
    • James Patrick O’Malley (1904-1985) was born into an Anglo-Irish family in Lancashire, England. He was known for appearances on the Broadway stage in Ten Little Indians (1944) and in Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954). He appeared in four episodes of The Twilight Zone (“The Chaser,” “The Fugitive,” “Mr. Garrity and the Graves,” and “The Self-Improvement of Salvatore Ross“). He also performed many voice roles in Disney films, such as the Cockney costermonger in the “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” sequence in Mary Poppins (1964), he also served as Dick Van Dyke’s dialect coach for the film, additionally he also played Cyril Proudbottom in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949); and the role of Colonel Hathi and the vulture Buzzie in The Jungle Book (1967). His voice can be heard in Alice in Wonderland (1951), in which he performs all the character voices in “The Walrus and the Carpenter” segment (excluding Alice), such as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Walrus, the Carpenter, and Mother Oyster. He voiced several audio-animatronic characters in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland, including the original voice of the pirate dunking the magistrate in the well and one of the prisoners coaxing the dog carrying the keys in his mouth. O’Malley and his wife had two children. He died of cardiovascular disease at his home in San Juan Capistrano, California in 1985, at the age of 80.
  • Marjorie Bennett…..old woman in line at the payphone booth
    • Marjorie Bennett (1896-1982) was an Australian actress who began her acting career in the silent era before transitioning to talkies with appearances in classic films like Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949), and Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight (1952). She had small roles in both Mary Poppins (1964) and My Fair Lady (1964), and she performed the voice of “Duchess” in Disney’s animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). She appeared in television shows like Four Star Playhouse, I Love Lucy, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Mission: Impossible, and three Twilight Zone episodes (“The Chaser,” “Kick the Can,” and “No Time Like the Past“). She later appeared in one episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (segment: “Deliveries in the Rear”). She retired from acting in 1980 due to ill health and she died of cancer in 1982 in Hollywood, California.
  • Barbara Perry…..blonde woman in the payphone line
    • Barbara Perry (1921-2019) had an extraordinary long career in Hollywood. She appeared in shows like The Thin Man, The Dick Van Dyke Show, My Favorite Martian, The Andy Griffith Show, Perry Mason, Daniel Boone, Bewitched, The Bill Cosby Show, My Three Sons, Murder, She Wrote, and How I Met Your Mother, among others. She was married twice (her second husband was Disney animator Art Babbitt). She died of natural causes in Hollywood, California in 2019.
  • Rusty Westcoatt…..tall man in the payphone line
    • Rusty Wescoatt (1911-1987) appeared in many shows and movies like Batman and Robin (1949), Atom Man and Superman (1950), and others, as well as television shows like The Lone Ranger, The Roy Rogers Show, The Gene Autry Show, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Have Gun – Will Travel, Wagon Train, and a great many Western and adventure movies. He played a cop in Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958), and apparently he doubled Orson Welles throughout the film. He died in 1987 in Los Angeles, California.
• Extras:
  • Duane Grey…..bartender (uncredited)

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• “The Chaser” was based on a script by Robert Presnell, Jr. which was, itself, based on a John Collier short story. In 1951, John Collier sold the rights to his story to Presnell so that it could be made into a play. But Twilight Zone producer Buck Houghton was able to purchase the rights directly from Collier for $2,000 but they went with producing the Presnell script (instead of having Rod Serling adapt the story into a teleplay). The Presnell script dates back nearly a decade before The Twilight Zone episode as “Duet for Two Actors” which debuted on February 20, 1951 for The Billy Rose Show (a.k.a. “Billy Rose’s Playbill Theater”).
• In the original John Collier short story, the protagonist is named Alan Austen. The old man alchemist and Alan’s beloved remain unnamed. Click here for my full review of John Collier’s short story “The Chaser.”
• This is the only episode of The Twilight Zone written by Robert Presnell, Jr.
• This was the only episode of the first season of The Twilight Zone not written by either Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont, or Richard Matheson.
• Director Douglas Heyes was selected as a replacement to direct this episode by Frank Cooper Associates (which represented both directors Douglas Heyes and Richard L. Bare) after Richard L. Bare had suffered a plane crash (see my review of “The Purple Testament” for details).
• Collier’s original story used different names (Roger was Alan) and A. Daemon is not named, though it is heavily implied he is the devil.
• Another Collier short story “Evening Primrose” served as the inspiration to Rod Serling’s “The After Hours.”
• Part of the agreement in acquiring Robert Presnell’s story was that Rod Serling would share other Presnell scripts with fellow show-runners and producers. For example, he sent the story “Fare Thee Well” to television producer Fred Coe.
• Professor A. Daemon’s flat is #22.
• This episode apparently reuses the same jazz stock music composed by Russ Garcia that was previously featured “The Fever.”
• At first, Professor A. Daemon thinks Roger has come for glove-cleaner.
• Professor A. Daemon sells ointments, salves, powders, sovereign remedies, nectars, lotus blossoms, toxins, tonics, anti-toxins, decoctions, concoctions, and potions.
• John McIntire, who played Professor A. Daemon, was given top billing above George Gizzard in the closing credits for this episode.
• When nervously making small-talk with Professor Daemon after visiting him a second time, Roger briefly mentions a “pretty ugly situation with China.” This is a reference to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961, a famine which is estimated to have killed tens of millions of Chinese people.
• Close viewers will note that Leila’s telephone number, repeatedly dialed by Roger from a payphone in the opening scene of this episode, is 323-6263.
• Regarding his experience directing “The Chaser,” Douglas Heyes was quoted as saying: “That was one of the great things about The Twilight Zone. I had total freedom. Sometimes I would think of an idea that would make the episode more Twilight Zone-y [but] that would require some expense. I remember one episode, ‘The Chaser’, in which I devised a huge bookcase that must have doubled the budget, but [Rod Serling and Buck Houghton] never blinked an eye. They just said, ‘Okay, great!’ I didn’t have to argue with anybody over the money—they’d argue about the money and let me have it! I knew that they were having problems with Jim Aubrey, but they kept them away from me. My responsibility was to get the job done.”
• In this episode, George Grizzard (who plays Roger Shackleforth) wears the same smoking jacket that was worn by Rod Taylor (who played H. George Wells) in the film The Time Machine (1960).
• Douglas Heyes described the construction of A. Daemon’s library as follows: “We built a very long, narrow set which was very high, with lots of bookcases… We didn’t put a back on these bookcases; instead we covered the backs with gauze and lit it from behind, so that the books stood out in relief against light –which is something they never do in a bookcase.”
• This episode re-uses the colloquial phrase “Why don’t you take a flying jump at the moon!” It is spoken by Leila to Roger on the phone. The phrase also appears in other episodes, including “What You Need” and “To Serve Man.”
• The title of this episode is a pun, with Roger serving as a “chaser” who is aggressively seeking after his romantic interest, and also the “chaser” is a drinking reference to chase the taste after the shot of potion provided by Professor A. Daemon to Roger.
• Recent fans have noted a similarity between this episode and the 2025 horror film Obsession.

Click here for my full review of John Collier’s short story “The Chaser.”

Click here to return to my survey of The Twilight Zone series.