Perchance to Dream

Richard Conte guest stars in this fine Twilight Zone story from the first season of the show. He plays a man with the worst case of insomnia ever. Conte has been awake almost 96 hours, four days and he's in to see psychiatrist John Larch.

The tale he tells Larch is that he has a weak heart and he's having one really wild erotic dream concerning a woman played by Suzanne Lloyd who is beautiful and seductive. Even in the arms of Morbius, Lloyd has Conte's mojo going so wild he's afraid his heart can't take it. And she keeps reappearing which is why he's been staying awake.

I think all of us have had some really wild dreams of the erotic nature and in the case of men when we wake up there is visible evidence of those dreams on our persons. This episode I think hit home with many viewers.

As for the ending, quite a twist. One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes.

This episode, among several others, turned me on to Twilight Zone for a strange reason: they creeped me out as a child.

I remember vividly the first time I saw this episode, during a New Year's marathon. I'm pretty sure I had nightmares for awhile about this happening to me. Maya's eyes were so unnerving and the suggestion that one could have such sensory dreams that reality becomes a tangent dream to wake from made me worry about remembering nightmares the morning after.

A Thing About Machines comes next on my list of episodes that developed phobias for me to battle. I'm still treating my machines with the utmost respect for fear that they may revolt.

While some may not like this episode, I found it quite captivating. A man is dying. Either he is going to die from a heart condition, from over-stressing himself, or he is going to die at the hands of woman whom he meets in an episodic dream. Most of the story takes place in a psychologist's office. The man relates his seemingly insane story. There are many layers here, including whether a dream is a reality, or, even more interesting, what is a dream. The concluding foray by Rod Serling talks about the momentary nature of dreams, how they may be a second long yet seem an eternity. One can only feel for the man who is trapped in a consummate no win situation. He hasn't slept for days. He is tied up in knots. The psychologist must deal with what he knows. At the end, we don't even know the reality we are supposed to believe in. Of course, this could be a criticism of this episode.

Richard Conte stars as tired and sleepless Edward Hall, who visits a psychiatrist(played by John Larch) out of desperation, and tells him his sad tale of childhood sickness, close calls with death, and recent insomnia, where he is both attracted to but terrified of an alluring figure of death in a carnival cat-lady(played memorably by Suzanne Lloyd) who beckons him to join her on just one more ride, which Hall is certain will lead to his death, since he has a bad heart, and another shock may kill him... Seriously underrated episode creates a most effective mood of menace and dread, with an appropriately weary performance by Conte and a fine score, all leading to an effective twist ending.

"Perchance to Dream" is most definitely one of the more ambitious, complex and intriguing episodes of "The Twilight Zone" that exist, but unfortunately the atmosphere of mystery and fright is too often undercut by the slow-pacing and rather dull narrative structure. If it weren't for the too many dull moments, "Perchance to Dream" would – at least according to yours truly – be one of the most fabulous episodes of the entire five-season series. Unlike most episodes in the series (as well as 90% of all movies in the world) this tale's biggest trump is unpredictability. We don't know what's troubling the obviously exhausted Edward Hall when he enters the office of psychiatrist Dr. Rathmann. He hasn't slept for 87 hours straight and claims that he will die in case he does fall asleep. Gradually, Edward Hall explains to the shrink that he dreams in chapters and he has strong reasons to believe that the next chapters will be the one of his death. His dreams recurrently feature the irresistibly beautiful but lethal Maya; a cat woman working at the town's fair. The flashback dream sequences are compelling and atmospheric, but also a bit too tedious and repetitive. Richard Conte, star of "The Godfather" but also many terrific Italian Poliziotteschi movies, gives a very intense performance as Edward Hall, but the show is indisputably stolen by the ravishing and ultimately seductive Suzanne Lloyd. Powerful climax, too.