Add content advisory. Did you know Edit. The relevant segment was directed by Steven Spielberg. Quotes Charles Whitley : Maybe, the fountain of youth isn't a fountain at all.
Connections Referenced in Everybody Wants Some!! User reviews 20 Review. Top review. Arguably one of the best of all of the T. The surprise ending is one of the best of the T. The story gets off the ground when Mr. Truax makes plans to leave the confines of the old folks home, and to move in with his son. But Mr. Truax is somewhat disappointed when he discovers that his plan was really a misunderstanding, that is, his son had never invited him to move in.
At any rate, Mr. Truax continues to live in the old folks home, and the viewer will be amused by Mr. Truax's penchant for running through the water sprinkler, and for amusing himself with other juvenile antics. At one point, Mr. Truax borrows a crumpled tin can that had been used by a neighborhood boy for playing kick the can, and he keeps it as a souvenir for himself.
A continuing theme in this story, is that Mr. Truax continuously harps at his elderly colleagues to enjoy themselves, and to play kick the can.
Russell Collins plays a cantankerous old man, who is steadfast in his refusal to engage in childish games. However, Mr. Truax is successful with persuading the other residents to "let go" and to engage in a childhood game or too.
Tension is provided in this story, because the manager of the old folks home tries to prevent the old people from engaging in any childhood shenanigans. However, Whitley's grouchy longtime friend Ben Conroy well played to the sour hilt by Russell Collins thinks otherwise. Director Lamont Johnson not only relates the sweet and charming story at a steady pace, but also crafts a warm gentle tone.
George Clayton Johnson's thoughtful and sensitive script offers a positive and uplifting message about the importance of staying young at heart well into your twilight years. Truex's wonderfully vivacious acting gives this episode an infectiously joyous glow. John Marley lends sturdy support as strict superintendent Mr. Cox while wizened character actor Burt Mustin appears as one of the old folks. A lovely show. Coventry 7 September Inconspicuous but nevertheless adequate and compelling but also slightly over-sentimental Twilight Zone tale set in a retirement home where, evidently, the residents muse non-stop about their own childhood years whilst observing the kids who're playing "kick the can" and other games across the street.
One of them is Charles Whitley, who just has been rejected by his own son, and he strongly believes that playing these same kid games hold the power to make their old bones feel young and vital again. Charles encourages the entire old folks' home to join his experiment, but his best friend Ben stubbornly refuses to believe. Ben obviously doesn't know his way around the Twilight Zone.
I said it before, and I'll say it again: sentimentality is not my favorite theme for this wonderful TV-series. I prefer the grim and dystopian TZ-stories over the sentimental ones. Still, I have a fondness for ageing and elderly actors in roles that summarize their lives.
I don't have the same connection with the actors in this episode, but they give strong performances for sure.
Slender premise, well performed by a troupe of Hollywood vets. It's an old age home where unoccupied old folks are simply waiting to die. That is, all except one. When Whitley Truex watches kids playing kick-the-can, he begins to wonder why the spirit of youth must pass with old age. Suddenly enthused, he tries to rally others into frolicking like youth.
Is he senile or really on to something. Good to see so many familiar movie vets picking up a payday. It's a slender episode, more interesting than suspenseful, and one of the few times of that era when elderly faces dominate the proceedings.
Too bad the home's supervisor Marley doesn't organize some non-strenuous activities. That way the aged would't just be sitting around. But I guess he likes his charges ultra-manageable. So there's something of a contest between the deadening supervisor and the enlivening Whitley. Anyway, it's a pretty spry old bunch—check out how sprightly they come down the stairs.
Still, I doubt that the theme will appeal that much to a younger crowd. All in all, it's not typical TZ fare, but is still consistent with the series' sci-fi concept. Calicodreamin 16 June Solid episode of the twilight zone, the characters were interesting and well acted and the storyline authentic even if a bit predictable. Kick the Can is about something, but I don't think hide and seek and kick the can would get you invigorated. The idea's sound, but it's lazy writing.
Churning out episode after episode, not taking the time to make them better. AaronCapenBanner 28 October His hopes of living with his son are dashed, so Whitley seems to retreat into a fantasy world where all you have to do is play an old childhood game called Kick the Can in order to be young again.
His friend Ben Conroy played by Russell Collins thinks he is going senile, but the other residents join in, forcing the Superintendent played by John Marley to take drastic action, but it turns out that none will be needed Fondly remembered episode is no classic, being a bit corny and thin, but it still remains an entertaining entry with a timeless message.
George Clayton Johnson wove a story around a childhood game, like tag, in which the kid who kicks the can releases all the 'captured' kids in the game. Old age has captured the residents of Sunny Vale, an old people's home. A sad beginning has Charles Whitley Ernest Truex having his hopes dashed of going to live with his son.
Whitley starts acting nostalgic and his curmudgeonly but well meaning friend, Ben Conroy Russell Collins , becomes concerned that he may be going senile. Magical, funny, sad, but ultimately delivering a pleasant afterthought in Serling's epilogue, this is a charming episode. The relationship between the two contrasting old guys is good and Truex plays Whitley's childlike ways brilliantly. I despise every one of the latter cotton candy lie factories. The Twilight Zone could be good when the story lived up to the opening narration, but it could be embarrassing when it turned hoakey and jokey, like the episode where the two alien invaders reveal themselves to each other at the end, on by exposing his third arm, the other, his third eye.
It was actually a good, unsettling episode until then. Some of the better episodes include "Mirror Image", with Vera Miles and Martin Milner, which needed no shaggy dog ending - it started in the Twilight Zone and ended up in the Uncanny Valley.
Then there was "The Invaders" which, although it had a shaggy dog ending, was carried marvelously and nearly mutely by Agnes Moorehead. Those were exceptional episodes. But the ones like this dreck, or the other variations of Modern, Hectic Man is Saved by Regression to Childhood are just irritating and unwatchable.
Contrary to the pompous blowhard that rates this episode a 3, this is a decent episode that I rate a 10 just to offset his rating. Some people feel obligated to hand out low ratings because, in his mind, the rest of us are too stupid to be fair. Thank goodness we have such an unreproachable critic to correct us all. For anyone looking for some of the best in television writing and production, this is without question one of the very finest of the Twilight Zone series, or any other series!
This was produced when Twilight Zone was in its best period with one of the most insightful and moving scripts by writer George Clayton Johnson. Watching actor Ernest Truex is pure joy. What a performance! This is one of the DVDs I enjoy watching from time to time.
And each time I find new levels of appreciation in Truex's portrayal of a throwaway man who evokes the essence of vitality in life through imagination and creativity. They request to be old again, which Mr. Bloom grants to them. Leo Conroy witnesses one resident, Mr. Agee Murray Matheson, who had a role in "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" that still remains young, and says that he wants to go with him before the boy runs off. Conroy realizes that he does not have to stop enjoying life because of his old age.
The segment ends with Mr. Bloom leaving to another retirement home and Conroy outside happily kicking a can around the yard, having learned being young at heart is what really matters. The Twilight Zone Wiki Explore. Episodes Seasons. Literature Products. Narrators Rod Serling Jordan Peele.
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