The Howling Man
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Template:Infobox TTW season two "The Howling Man" is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone.
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Details
Episode number: 41
Season: 2
Production code: 3642
Original airdate: November 4, 1960
Writer: Charles Beaumont from his story of the same name, originally published in his 1960 collection Night Ride and Other Journeys
Director: Douglas Heyes
Music: stock
Cast
David Ellington:H.M. Wynant
Brother Jerome: John Carradine
The Howling Man: Robin Hughes
Synopsis
The story is told in flashback form by an American called David Ellington. While on a walking trip through post-World War I Europe, Ellington becomes lost and seeks shelter in a nearby castle. He is told to leave immediately, but as he tries to leave he collapses.
Upon waking inside the castle, Ellington hears a wolf-like howl and goes to investigate. In the bowels of the castle he finds a bedraggled but apparently cultured and intelligent man in a cell. The man claims to be a prisoner of an insane religious order, locked up because he was seen kissing a girl.
Ellington is seen talking to the prisoner, and is taken to a meeting with the leader of the order, Brother Jerome.
Jerome tries to explain that the prisoner is not a man, but rather the devil himself. He has been locked up in the room using the "Staff of Truth" since shortly after World War I. He came to the village to corrupt it, but Jerome recognized him for what he was, and his actions have given the world five years of relative peace. Ellington becomes convinced that the prisoner's claims are true and that Jerome is insane. Nevertheless he convinces Jerome that he believes his incredible story.
Ellington waits until the brothers are asleep and creeps down to the cell. He removes the staff barring the cell door and releases the prisoner. He realizes his mistake when the prisoner forces him to ground and transforms into a more recognizable form of the devil before escaping the castle.
Jerome finds the collapsed Ellington and explains that being unable to see the devil for what he really is has always been Man's great weakness.
The flashback ends and Ellington explains that he has spent the time since then, through World War II, the Korean War, and the development of nuclear weapons, atoning for his mistake and hunting down the devil. He now has him locked in a room and intends to return him to the castle and Brother Jerome's keeping. He has been explaining his story to a skeptical housekeeper to ensure that she, in turn, does not release the howling man while he is away for a few minutes making preparations.
The final scene of the episode shows the housekeeper, believing Ellington's story to be madness, removing the Staff of Truth barring the door.
Trivia
This was the first aired episode of the second season which was not written by Rod Serling.
Themes
A European setting between the wars might suggest an allusion to Adolf Hitler, another "evil" man who was granted freedom and power after making an appeal from a prison cell claiming that he was a victim (Mein Kampf, or "My Struggle"). This interpretation is further strengthened by a line in Beaumont's original story, which reads (in first person narrative from Ellington): "When the pictures of the carpenter from Braunau-am-Inn began to appear in all the papers, I grew uneasy; for I felt I'd seen this man before. When the carpenter invaded Poland, I was sure." If this is the case, Beaumont may be warning viewers not to repeat the same mistake, to deny future dictators "man's weakness and Satan's strength," which is mankind's reluctance to see evil for what it really is. Similar themes are explored in the episode "He's Alive."
References
- Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition).
Back to: The Twilight Zone, Episode List, Season 2