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The Twilight Zone

The Four of Us are Dying

Season 1, Episode 13, Aired 1/1/60

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Episode Summary

A man who can change his face to resemble others gets into hot water with gangsters.

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Cast & Crew

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Rod Serling

Narrator/Host
Harry Townes

Arch Hammer
Phillip Pine

Hammer as Virgil Sterig

Fan Episode Reviews (1)

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Arch Hammer has thre ability to change his face. A clever talent, until he gets caught.

5.5

"Mediocre"

By Oracle2127, Aug 20, 2005 Report Abuse

The episode storyline sounds promising, a man with has the ability to cahnge his face. Imagine all of the cool things that he can do.

What he ends up doing is taking the guise of people who are dead. He uses his powers to get close the friends of the people who are dead.

For example, he takes the guise of a dead gang member. He goes back to the boss to collect money that he knew the boss owed to the the dead gang member.

So, obviously, Arch is clever and does his research. However, the episode is filled with a lot of meaningless converstaion. The episode gets boring really fast.

In the end, he dies in clever twist. He is caught with the wrong face at the wrong time. I guess it ended good, but I think that if Arch was as clever as he was made out to be, he would have thought of a way to escape.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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Notes
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- The "Hotel Real" sign, in front of Arch Hammer's hotel, is an MGM prop, originally used in a Mexican street setting in their 1953 feature film Take the High Ground!, starring Richard Widmark and Karl Malden. Edit
- Originally, the four main roles (Hammer, Foster, Sterig, and Marshank) were to be played by one man with makeup changes. However, after timing the transition, the production crew realized the actor would be in makeup longer than he would be on stage. Thus, the parts were cast with four different men. Edit
- Included on volume 4 of Image-Entertainment's DVD collection. Edit
Quotes
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- (Opening Narration) Narrator: His name is Arch Hammer, he's 36 years old. He's been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel and dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his conscience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Hammer has a talent, discovered at a very early age. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anything he wants. Mr. Archie Hammer, jack of all trades, has just checked in at three-eighty a night, with two bags, some newspaper clippings, a most odd talent, and a master plan to destroy some lives. Edit
- (Closing Narration) Narrator: He was Arch Hammer, a cheap little man who just checked in. He was Johnny Foster, who played a trumpet and was loved beyond words. He was Virgil Sterig, with money in his pocket. He was Andy Marshak, who got some of his agony back on a sidewalk in front of a cheap hotel. Hammer, Foster, Sterig, Marshak - and all four of them were dying. Edit
Allusions
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- Maggie: Me and Electra. Referencing Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (1931). The play, set during the American Civil War, is an update of the myth of Orestes. Edit