The After Hours

This article is about the original 1960 Twilight Zone episode. For the 1986 remake, see The After Hours (1986). For other uses, see After Hours (disambiguation).

"The After Hours"
The Twilight Zone episode
250px Publicity photo of (l-r) Anne Francis, James Millhollin and Francis' mannequin double
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 34
Directed by	Douglas Heyes
Written by	Rod Serling
Featured music	Bernard Herrmann (from Where Is Everybody?)
Production code	173-3637
Original air date	June 10, 1960
Guest actors
Anne Francis as Marsha White Elizabeth Allen as Saleswoman James Millhollin as Mr. Armbuster John Conwell as Elevator Man Patrick Whyte as Mr. Sloan Nancy Rennick as Ms. Keevers

"The After Hours" is episode thirty-four of the American television anthology series, The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on June 10, 1960, on CBS.

Opening narration

Express elevator to the ninth floor of a department store, carrying Miss Marsha White on a most prosaic, ordinary, run-of-the-mill errand.

The opening narration involves Marsha White riding an elevator to the ninth floor. Then the rest of the narration is heard.

Miss Marsha White on the ninth floor, specialties department, looking for a gold thimble. The odds are that she'll find it - but there are even better odds that she'll find something else, because this isn't just a department store. This happens to be The Twilight Zone.

Plot

Marsha White (Anne Francis), a woman browsing for a gift for her mother in a department store, decides on a gold thimble. She is taken by the elevator man to the ninth floor, a floor beyond that shown on the elevator gauge. She enters the ninth floor and turns to complain to the elevator operator that there is nothing there, but the door closes abruptly, leaving her to ponder her situation. She is approached by a saleslady who guides her to the only item on the floor: the exact gold thimble that Marsha wants. During the sales transaction, she grows increasingly puzzled by the comments and actions of both the male elevator operator who transported her to the barren, seemingly deserted floor, and the aloof and clairvoyant female salesclerk behind the counter who addresses her by name and sells her the thimble. As Marsha rides the elevator down, she notices that the thimble is scratched and dented; she is directed by the elevator operator to the Complaints Department on the third floor.

When she tries to convince Mr. Armbruster, the sales supervisor, and Mr. Sloan, the store manager, that she bought the item on the ninth floor, she is told that the store doesn't have a ninth floor. Marsha spots the back of the salesclerk who sold her the thimble, and is shocked to discover that the woman is not a salesclerk at all; she's one of the department store's display mannequins. While resting in an office following her frightening discovery, Marsha finds herself accidentally locked inside the closed store. She attempts to find a way out and becomes alarmed by mysterious voices calling to her and by some subtle movements made by the supposedly lifeless mannequins around her. Moving about aimlessly, she topples the sailor mannequin, whom she recognizes as the somewhat frustrated elevator operator in earlier scenes.

Becoming hysterical, she flees backward to the now-open elevator, which again transports her to the unoccupied ninth floor. There, she gradually realizes that the mannequins are alive, trying to help her, and that she is also a mannequin. It is explained to her that each mannequin takes turns going out into the world to live among the humans for one month, but Marsha had enjoyed her stay among "the outsiders" so much that she lost her identity and forgot her true nature. Being with the other mannequins, she realizes that she is back in her natural place, which allows the next mannequin in line—the female salesclerk—to go out and live among the humans for thirty days. As the other mannequins bid farewell to the salesclerk, the sailor asks Marsha if she enjoyed her time among the humans. She says she had "ever so much fun, ever so much fun." As Marsha fondly recalls her brief sojourn out among the humans, and with a passing expression of regret, confusion, and a small sigh, she and the sailor assume their natural posing postures, and grow rigid as mannequins.

The next day, Mr. Armbruster is making his energetic morning rounds on the sales floor and does a double-take upon passing the mannequin of Marsha White on display. The final shot moves in on her, and then her face, which fades into the stars as the closing narration begins.

Closing narration

Marsha White, in her normal and natural state, a wooden lady with a painted face who, one month out of the year, takes on the characteristics of someone as normal and as flesh and blood as you and I. But it makes you wonder, doesn't it, just how normal are we? Just who are the people we nod our hellos to as we pass on the street? A rather good question to ask, particularly, in the Twilight Zone.

Props

The head of the mannequin double for Ann Francis was made from a cast of Francis' face done by noted make-up artist William J. Tuttle. Tuttle displayed the mannequin head in the 1968 MGM short film "The King of the Duplicators".

Remake

Main article: The After Hours (1986)

The episode was remade in 1986 for The New Twilight Zone. It starred Terry Farrell as Marsha Cullen and Ann Wedgeworth as the Saleswoman. The plot is similar, but the emphasis is more on suspense. In addition, the Marsha in the remake is in denial of her identity and doesn't want to be a mannequin. She wants to be truly human, unlike the Marsha in the original, who simply forgot who she was and enjoyed feeling human for the month in which she lived among the outsiders.

Graphic novel

In 2008, the original episode was adapted as a graphic novel, "Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone: The After Hours", by Mark Kneece and Rebekah Isaacs.

Further reading

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

• "The After Hours" at IMDb
• TV.com episode page