The Twilight Zone: Season 2, Episode One “King Nine Will Not Return”

Original Air Date: September 30, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Buzz Kulik

“This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead, and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning, she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in the wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.”
-Rod Serling

“King Nine Will Not Return” is a terrific, eerie opener for the second season of The Twilight Zone. In many ways, it contains echoes of Season One’s pilot episode “Where Is Everybody?” Both episodes concern themselves with one lone disoriented man who experiences a strange psychotic episode while in total isolation. “King Nine Will Not Return” marks Buzz Kulik’s first directorial effort for The Twilight Zone and notably this episode was hampered with unique challenges during filming as most of Bob Cummings’ lines occur as inner monologue (the voice-overs were pre-recorded at MGM and then played back during filming). This was to avoid the excessive speaking of a lone main character, as Rod Serling later said he felt was a problem with “Where Is Everybody?“

The setting is 1943 during World War II. We find a crashed B-25 bomber called the “King Nine” sitting alone in the remote desert of Africa. Captain James Embry (played by classic Hollywood star Robert Cummings) is stranded among the plane wreckage in the desert. He scrambles, desperately searching for his crew as he steadily goes insane –he begins having visions of his fellow crewmen as they appear inside the cockpit of the plane and standing over their own graves in the sand. Is Captain Embry hallucinating? Is this all a nightmare? Is he drunk in a bar somewhere? Or has he, in fact, died?

High up in the sky Captain Embry spots four modern jets flying overhead (he realizes that he somehow knows about F-106s, F-105s, B-58s even though these jets did not exist yet in 1943). Has he traveled through time? Is he the victim of a cruel experiment? How did he wind up alone in the desert? In a fit of madness, he collapses in the sand and then awakens in a hospital bed seventeen years later. Apparently, he has been suffering from hallucinations triggered by a newspaper headline he spotted about the discovery of a World War II plane in the middle of the desert. Back in 1943, Captain Embry was set to board his plane, the “King Nine,” for a routine mission but he came down with a fever and stayed behind at the last moment. The plane then disappeared and there were no survivors. Captain Embry has been living with survivor’s guilt but the doctor reassures him that he merely had a strange hallucination. However, in a twist at the end, a nurse pours out a pile of sand of Captain Embry’s shoe, leaving it up to the viewer to decide what truly took place. Similarly in the pilot episode of Season 1 “Where Is Everybody?” Rod Serling initially intended for the protagonist to pull movie tickets out of his pocket after his hallucination saw him visit a movie theater. “In “King Nine Will Not Return” Serling was granted his double twist ending. “Did I go back? Did I go back to my plane?” asks Captain Embry. But the psychiatrist gravely responds, “Only in your mind.”

“Enigma buried in the sand, a question mark with broken wings that lies in silent grace as a marker in a desert shrine. Odd how the real consorts with the shadows, how the present fuses with the past. How does it happen? The question is on file in the silent desert, and the answer? The answer is waiting for us – in the Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts on “King Nine Will Not Return”

The trauma soldiers face in war is a recurring theme throughout The Twilight Zone (perhaps partially owing to Rod Serling’s own lifelong PTSD from his service in the Philippines during World War II). In “King Nine Will Not Return,” Captain James Embry is suffering from soldier’s guilt. He blames himself for the accident that killed his crewmen many years ago –a wound that still remains seventeen years later. The ponderous twist is that Captain Embry’s vision of his crew might not have been entirely a hallucination as his hospital nurse pours a pile of sand out of his shoe, adding just enough of the fantastical to this story to make us wonder –did something supernatural occur here? Perhaps Captain Embry really did visit the desert. Perhaps he remains in that desert, still searching for his crewmen.

The Twilight Zone kicks off Season Two with a bang as Bob Cummings delivers a manic, terror-filled performance of a veteran in crisis. In some ways, “King Nine Will Not Return” shares thematic kinship with “Where Is Everybody?” and “Perchance to Dream” as a lone man is seemingly experiencing a psychotic break, and it also shares much in common with prior ‘soldier’ episodes like “And When The Sky Was Opened” and “The Last Flight.”

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Credits:

• Directors: Buzz Kulik
• Written by: Rod Serling
• Music: Original Score by Fred Steiner
• Associate Producer: Del Reisman
• Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
• Production Managers: Ralph W. Nelson and E. Darrell Hallenbeck
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and Phil Barber
• Film Editor: Bill Mosher
• Assistant Director: Kurt Neumann, Jr.
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and H. Web Arrowsmith
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Charles Scheid
• Casting: Ethel Winant
• Starring:
  • Robert “Bob” Cummings…..Captain James Embry
    • Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (1910-1990) appeared in comedy films like The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and Princess O’Rourke (1943), as well as in two Alfred Hitchcock films: Saboteur (1942) and Dial M for Murder (1954). He was the recipient of five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. He was a member of “Ziegfeld Follies of 1934” where he met his second wife Vivi Janiss (who appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone –the wife of Everett Sloane in “The Fever” and as the wife of Luther Adler who played pawnbroker Arthur Castle in “The Man in the Bottle“). They divorced in 1943, before either appeared on The Twilight Zone. Cummings also appeared in Twelve Angry Men, the original TV play for Westinghouse Studio One. He was married five times, had seven children, and was reportedly a meth addict from the 1950s until the end of his life (he received regular injections from Max Jacobson, the notorious “Dr. Feelgood”) though Cummings falsely claimed the injections only contained “vitamins, sheep sperm, and monkey gonads.” In later years, he was mired in numerous legal troubles over studio payments; he assaulted a police officer who tried to serve him a lawsuit from a Hollywood writer; in 1972 he was charged with fraud for operating a pyramid scheme involving his company which sold vitamins and food supplements; in 1975 he was arrested for being in possession of a blue box used to defraud the telephone company (he avoided trial under the double jeopardy rule). Politically he was a Republican. During the 1970s, Cummings traveled across the U.S. performing in dinner theaters and short stints in plays while living out of an Airstream travel trailer. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was forced to move into a string of homes for indigent older actors in Hollywood. He died of kidney failure and complications from pneumonia in 1990.
  • Gene Lyons…..Psychiatrist
    • Gene Lyons (1921-1974) best known for his role as police commissioner Dennis Randall on the NBC detective series Ironside. He also appeared in episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Have Gun – Will Travel, Bonanza, and he appeared in the Star Trek episode “A Taste of Armageddon.” He died in Los Angeles of chronic alcoholism at the age of 53 in 1974.
  • Paul Lambert…..Doctor
    • Paul Lambert (1922-1997) was an American character actor was a lieutenant in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He made his film debut in Spartacus, and appeared in Planet of the Apes (in a brief role as a simian minister), and All the President’s Men, in which he played the national editor of The Washington Post. He appeared in television shows like Gunsmoke, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Perry Mason, and The Wild Wild West. He made over fourteen appearances on Playhouse 90, more than any other actor. Lambert died at the age of 74 in Santa Monica, California in 1997.
  • Jenna McMahon…..Nurse who pours sand of Captain Embry’s shoe
    • Mary Virginia Skinner, or Jenna McMahon (1925-2015) was best known for her Emmy Award-winning work as a writer on the variety/sketch comedy program The Carol Burnett Show. She also co-created television sitcoms like It’s a Living, The Facts of Life and Mama’s Family along with her writing partner Dick Clair. She was married to actor James Holden, which ended in divorce. They had one daughter. McMahon died in 2015 in Monterey, California at the age of 89.
  • Seymour Green…..British Officer (uncredited)
  • Richard Lupino…..British Soldier (uncredited)
    • Richard Lupino (1929-2005) appeared on Broadway, in television series like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The 20th Century Fox Hour, The New Phil Silvers Show, and in Hollywood films, including Rhapsody (1954), Midnight Lace (1960), and Avengers of the Reef (1973). Prior to his career in television and film, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and served two years as a medic in the United States Army in Korea. From what I can tell Richard Lupino was the second cousin of celebrated Twilight Zone actor/director Ida Lupino. In fact, they wrote several television scripts together. He died of complications due to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2005 and was survived by his wife.

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• This was the first episode of the series wherein Rod Serling appeared on camera at the outset, rather than introducing the episode in a voice-over narration.
• This is also the first episode of The Twilight Zone to feature the now-legendary theme music, composed by Marius Constant, replacing Bernard Herrmann’s equally legendary theme music from the first season.
• Originally, Robert Parrish was slated to direct this episode but he was inexplicably switched out for Buzz Kulik and Robert Parrish never directed another Twilight Zone episode (he previously directed three first season episodes: “One for the Angels,” “A Stop at Willoughby,” and “The Mighty Casey“). This was the first of nine episodes directed by Buzz Kulik. He and Rod Serling were friends, in fact, Serling had recruited Kulik.
• As confirmed by Rod Serling’s secretary in a letter in 1960 to a fan, Connie Olmstead, Rod Serling was inspired to write this episode based on the 1958 discovery of the B-24 Liberator bomber “Lady Be Good” and her crew’s remains, which had originally crash-landed at night deep in the Libyan desert after running out of fuel upon returning from a World War II bombing mission over Naples, Italy. They were initially declared “missing in action” and presumed to have crashed somewhere in the Mediterranean. In the episode, the grave marker of Klein, a member of the King Nine crew, is dated “5 April 1943,” the day on which the “Lady Be Good” was lost. The “Lady Be Good” was later found in the Sahara in 1958 by a British oil surveyor named Paul Johnson, and the bodies of 8 of the 9-man crew were discovered far from the aircraft between February and August 1960 –the eighth crew member’s body being found just a few weeks before “King Nine Will Not Return” aired. The crew had apparently parachuted out of their plane and walked in search of the Mediterranean coast, tragically dying in the desert. The Air Force called the discovery “one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.” When the plane wreckage was found it was broken in two pieces but otherwise immaculately preserved, with functioning machine guns, working radio, and food and water supplies. A 1964 novel entitled The Flight of the Phoenix was based on this story, and a 1970 made-for-TV film entitled Sole Survivor was also based on this discovery but it as about the ghosts of a B-25 bomber in the Libyan desert.
• The bomber aircraft used in this episode was a North American Aviation B-25C-10NA (registration number: 42-32354). It is reportedly still in existence and kept in storage with Aero Trader in Borrego Springs, California. The “King Nine” plane featured in this episode is sometimes referred to as a B-25 “Mitchell” –a dual-engine World War II-era medium bomber. At this point in time, it was the only U.S. Bomber named for a person: Major General William “Billy” Mitchell (1879-1936), a United States Army officer who served in France during World War I. He was a fierce proponent of the creation of the U.S. Air Force.
• The jets Captain Embry spots flying over the desert are U.S. Navy F9F-8 Cougar fighter jets flown by the “Blue Angels” aerobatic team (built by Grumman).
• The King Nine plane has a painting of a King Nine of Hearts on its side along with a list of Nazi kills and the large letters “K9.”
• Captain James Embry is said to be 41-years old and single (Bob Cummings was 50-years-old at the time this episode was filmed).
• The newspaper cover featured in this episode is of the “New York Chronicle.” Other headlines displayed, aside from those pertaining to the King Nine, include “Volunteer Committee Is Selected To Help Social Service Group,” and “Home Sales Increase…”
• This episode takes place in the years 1943 and 1960.
• Captain James Embry’s crew includes Blake (the copilot), Kransky (the radio operator and wave scanner), Jimenez (the navigator, whose name is pronounced “gym-en-ez” in the episode), Connors (the tail gunner), and Sergeant WM F. Klein (the upper turret gunner, a “Bronx Cowboy”). He later spots a grave for Klein that says he died of injuries from the crash on April 5, 1943.
• When Captain Embry attempts to make an emergency call, he says: “King Nine calling Firefly.” Serling apparently consulted heavily with De Forest Research to ensure the dialogue was as accurate as possible in this episode.
• With the exception of the final hospital scenes, this episode was filmed entirely on location in the desert near Lone Pine, California. The production accounted for a day of travel to Lone Pine, two days of filming in the desert, and one day of shooting on an MGM stage. The final accounting for this episode was $14,000 over budget. The largest expense was the King Nine’s location and travel expenses (totaling $5,000). Buck Houghton later commented that this never would have happened if Ralph Nelson was still around (not to be confused with Twilight Zone production manager Ralph W. Nelson, director Ralph Nelson helmed the Season One finale “A World Of His Own“).
• Interestingly enough, lead actor Robert Cummings was an avid pilot and owned a number of airplanes, all of them named “Spinach.” Despite being a drug addict, he was a staunch advocate of natural foods and published a book on healthy living (“Stay Young and Vital”) in 1960.
• On the evening of the last day of filming for this episode, Robert Cummings arranged for Rod Serling to be given a copy of a book entitled The Damned. Cummings was heavily in securing the films rights for the novel. He proposed that Serling write a screenplay based on the book and for the movie to be filmed in Argentina, but it was never produced.
• Rod Serling initially intended for this episode to feature an opening shot of a large table map with small markers and a voice-over radio communication indicating the events that have led up to the disappearance of the bomber. Another scene that was cut was to occur after the sand is spilled out of Captain Embry’s shoe, the psyciatrist respons that it could have come from a desert or a plane.
• Rod Serling wrote a 90-minute script titled “The Vespers,” which was later adapted into a television episode of his Western show The Loner. He had intended for Cummings to play the role of Booker but it was Lloyd Bridges who played the lead instead.
• Composer for this episode, Fred Steiner, created a 31-second musical cue for the scene in which Captain Embry looked up in the sky to see four jets passing. However, this was not used in the final cut of the episode. It was later used in two episodes: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” right after Serling’s introduction as the major is searching the wall, and “Death Ship” as the captain swings around to see that Mason is missing.
• Rod Serling and Robert Cummings were friends. Cummings was known for doing comedic shows like The Bob Cummings Show and a Playhouse 90 episode entitled “Bomber’s Moon,” which was written by Serling.
• On January 3, 1961, Mary Cummings wrote to Rod Serling inquiring as to why “King Nine Will Not Return” was not nominated for an Emmy that year (since only producers, not actors, can submit episodes for consideration). Serling wrote an apologetic letter stating that unfortuantely he submitted “Eye of the Beholder” instead because it was more of an audience favorite, though he continued to praise Bob Cummings’s tour de force in “King Nine Will Not Return.”

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