Long Live Walter Jameson

Kevin McCarthy is quite good as popular college history professor Walter Jameson, whose lectures have the distinct air and sound of authenticity to them, especially when a mysterious diary of an unknown soldier is read from the American Civil War, which arouses the suspicions of a fellow professor whose daughter he is set to marry, even though Walter's past is soon to catch up with him in a long overdue fashion... Strong and compelling(if just a bit contrived) episode takes a familiar premise and makes inspired use of it, with seldom a dull moment or misstep. Good makeup F/X too in fondly remembered entry.

William Tuttle, the first makeup specialist to win an Oscar, did an outstanding job with guest star Kevin McCarthy. In all, he was behind twelve TZ classics.

Definitely, you need an abundance of makeup for this creepy tale. McCarthy plays a young up and coming professor who apparently has nine lives and was actually in the Civil War? Could he be a warlock?

Wait and see.

A work of art by writer Charles Beaumont, whose scripts were strikingly similar to that of Rod Serling.

The professor's future father in law ( played by Edgar Stehli) uncovers the truth. Best is veteran actress Estelle Winwood who turns out to be his wife, or at least one of them from decades past. A camp tale, no other way to describe it, truly hits the macabre bullseye.

The ending transformation is memorable; William Tuttle works his makeup magic. One of the most rerun TZ episodes, always at the top of the list. It (may) have inspired DARK SHADOWS to a degree, at least a few very similar episodes where vampire Barnabas Collins also "loses" his youth.

William Tuttle not surprisingly worked on ONE STEP BEYOND and was makeup director for several Elvis Presley's films. Good trivia question for movie buffs.

10 STARS. SEASON 1 EPISODE 24 remastered. Classic First Season box set.

Solid episode of the twilight zone, achieving the scifi effect with just a few tricks. The aging of Walter was well handled and made for a cool ending. Great acting and well developed dialogue.

There have been many fictional accounts of men who cannot die, who are able to transcend centuries. Dorian Gray is the most obvious one. In this portrayal, Kevin McCarthy is about to be married to a pretty young woman. It is found out during the episode that his face has been seen in a Civil War picture. We come to know that this man has been around for centuries. He has had wife after wife, grown tired of them when they aged, and then moved on. Unfortunately for him, one of those wives is still alive and fingers him, ruining his plans. This is a tightly done rework of the Oscar Wilde story without a painting. As is the archetypal result, this cannot go on forever.

Kevin McCarthy is impressive as the ancient history professor, tired of thousands of years of life. Egdar Stehli matches him as his colleague and prospective father-in-law to the pipe-smoking Methusala. McCarthy plays Jameson as blasé about life, only really excited by lecturing on long ago history in which he was an active participant. Stehli plays Professor Kitteridge as a sensitive, rapidly aging man who fears death. That he refuses to let his thirty-year-old daughter marry Jameson seems like a patriarchal order from an earlier era.

One of so many interesting stories by Charles Beaumont in TZ. Intriguingly set up from the beginning with the stalking presence of Estelle Winwood.

The real life longevity of McCarthy and Winwood has been mentioned. Also Stehli lived to 89.