Original subtitles

SERLING: Starring tonight:

Robert F. Lyons,

Susan Strasberg,

and Glenn Corbett.

A most cordial welcome to this nocturnal arcade

featuring canvases that are sometimes a bit on the peculiar side,

sometimes uncommon.

Sometimes a few frescoes of the freakish.

Tonight's first selection,

a painting suggesting solitude, or at least solemnity,

as viewed during the midnight hour.

It tells a tale of two young people caught inexorably in a recurring nightmare,

with a finale on the jolting side.

Our painting with the somewhat familiar face

is called Midnight Never Ends.

And this is the Night Gallery.

Do you want a ride or don't you?

Yes, ma'am.

Going to Los Angeles?

You live there?

I asked if you live there.

No.

Visiting?

Vacation?

What is that tune you're whistling?

It's part of a song. Why?

It's been running over and over in my head

and I can't think of the name of it.

I don't think so. I just wrote that song this evening.

That's impossible.

Why? Because I'm in this uniform?

This is only temporary.

Well, I like to write songs.

Just as soon as I get out.

What?

Get out... What?

I don't know.

Hey, has that ever happened to you before?

I mean, sometimes I know exactly what's going to happen when I shouldn't.

And then, when I should at least have an idea,

nothing. It’s like I've got a complete wipeout.

You take tomorrow.

I don't know if it's even going to come or not.

But standing out there in the dark,

I knew it would be you picking me up, Ruth.

How did you know my name was Ruth?

That's what I've been telling you.

It's like I've lived all of this before.

Yeah, I'm sure of it.

That's why you know my name, too.

Vincent.

Vincent Riley.

Give that lady a big, fat cigar!

No, we must have met somewhere else!

Where? I don't remember.

Try. Tell me some of the places that you've been.

I think I remember being in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong. Hong Kong? What were you doing there?

Don't laugh. I...

I think I was a spy.

Oh, that's beautiful.

I wish I knew you as a spy.

Only if you were, I wouldn't know it, would I?

Not if you were a good spy.

Besides, I don't think I've even been to Hong Kong.

Were you ever in Dodge City?

I mean, the old Dodge City, with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

Hey, come on, I didn't laugh at you.

I'm sorry.

Well, I was there some time. I think some...

I'm so tired of driving.

A new song?

It's all a trick, or ESP. You probably do magic

and get people up on stage and hypnotize them.

There's a place a little ways up the road.

A place for what?

You were supposed to ask me if I knew someplace where we could stop for coffee.

Maybe that's why we have to keep doing this over and over until we get it right.

It'll be closed.

But we get him to open up.

A big, fat man playing solitaire.

He's gruff.

He didn't like us.

The Blue Danube Cafe.

Let's not stop.

You've got the wheel.

It's still open.

What are we waiting for? Let's go inside.

Another mistake.

I wonder if we'll have to start again.

I guess not.

What are you doing with that?

I didn't know I had it.

It changes a little each time.

He's not sure what he wants.

Who?

Whoever's playing with our lives.

Maybe he won't let us in.

Like maybe he has a choice.

Closed!

We want some coffee.

I can afford to lose the business.

Come on, give us a break.

That's just what I'd like to give you.

You read English?

What, 6:00 a.m. to midnight ain't enough hours for me?

It's not midnight yet.

Are you telling me? Take a look at that clock there!

What now?

Are you telling me? Take a look at that clock there!

All right, come in. But just coffee.

What do you want to bet he cheats?

Black eight on a black nine.

She's right.

That's 20 cents.

Keep it.

You kids got it too easy.

Are you sure you're in the Marines?

According to this uniform.

The uniform doesn't mean a thing.

I got hippies come in here all day wearing the uniforms.

They get them at the surplus. It's a disgrace to the country.

I can remember when I was...

When I was...

When you were what?

When I...

Welcome to the family.

Family? What family?

You two are hippies, ain't you?

Hippies? Bateman?

Your name is Joe Bateman, isn't it?

You better drink your coffee up and get outta here,

you only got a couple more minutes.

We all only have a couple of more minutes.

Yeah, it's all coming back, Ruth.

Who's coming back? What are you two freaks talking about?

Someone else joins us.

Uninvited.

If you think another member of your family's coming...

A policeman.

A sheriff. He sees the door open.

Another mistake.

The sheriff

sees the door open.

Comes in to check.

Are you two running from the cops?

Right on cue.

What's that noise?

Air conditioner? Furnace?

No.

I think I know what it is.

Hey, who are you two?

Puppets.

You know them, Joe?

Never seen them before.

Oh, sure you have, Joe.

Come on, you remember. We've all been through this all before!

You on some kind of trip or something?

Oh, brother, am I? We all are.

This is a trip that never seems to end and goes nowhere.

You got any papers?

What for? He's not a show dog.

I wasn't talking to you.

You traveling with him?

I'm giving him a lift, yes.

Mmm-hmm.

That your car outside?

It's the one I'm driving now.

What do you mean, "Now"?

Before it was...

A station wagon.

That's right.

Let me see your driver's license.

I don't have one.

Car registration?

Not that I know of.

Mmm-hmm.

And I suppose you don't have any identification, either?

Oh, well, I have a guitar.

And I have a notepad with a song on it that I wrote. Would you like to hear it?

You stay right where you are.

When I was in the Marines, I carried a rifle, not a guitar.

When was that, Sheriff?

It's none of your business.

You can't remember because there's nothing up there to remember.

Are you... Are you saying I'm stupid?

No. I'm saying you didn't exist until you drove up here.

And Joe didn't exist until we arrived here.

You really are on something, aren't you, kid?

Am I? Where were you born, Sheriff? What's your hometown?

Your mother? Your father?

What are their names?

How long have you been Sheriff?

And you, Joe, how long have you owned this place?

How many people did you serve today?

What was the blue-plate special?

I don't know.

Because we don't exist, none of us.

Somebody's formed us with chicken wire.

They've hung on some ears and lips and skin, the whole works,

except an ability to choose our own destinies.

I know what it is now. I'm sure of it.

And my destiny, for what it's worth, is to leave here.

You go when I tell you to!

No, not you, Sheriff. Someone else.

Someone who doesn't know his job very well.

Someone who doesn't really know what to do with us.

And that's why we have to keep doing this over and over.

You stay right where you are!

Vincent.

I really don't have any choice, Ruth. I have to try.

Now, you take one more step...

Any way I can. Because that's the way...

Someone wants it to be.

Why did you give her a gun?

Well, I'm really not sure.

Maybe she killed someone and she's running away.

I thought writers knew before they started out where they were going.

Just the good ones, darling.

Ruth seems familiar to me.

Should she be?

She's from an old play that I wrote.

It's about a spy from Hong Kong.

And the Marine?

From a TV Western, guitar and all.

Well, it's back to the battlefield.

You know who I think Ruth killed?

Her husband.

Because he left her alone too many nights.

Goodnight, love.

Do you want a ride or don't you?

Yes, ma'am.

Going to Los Angeles?

There's something rather remarkable

in the scope of imagination peculiar to children.

They project and dream and fantasize

with beauty and simplicity and faith,

in a manner that somehow eludes us as we grow older.

This is Brenda, and Brenda has a playmate.

It comes to her, in part, because of loneliness.

And what I wish for you is that you never get that lonely.

No, Brenda! Don't!

Oh, you're so mean!

Why are you so nasty, so mean?

Why, Frances Anne! I thought you never spoke to me.

What have I done to deserve this honor?

You know what you did! You did it on purpose!

Did I do that? Did I? I'm sorry. Honest, I am.

But maybe you oughtn't to stick your stupid stuff in everybody's way.

It wasn't in your way! You went out of your way!

Now, don't be silly, Frances Anne. Why would anybody do that?

Come on!

Be my friend. We can go to the old pit

and look for fossils.

Nobody on this island wants to be your friend.

And nobody wants to be around that rotten old pit!

Well, I'd rather be around something rotten than have a friend like you.

Here I am.

Can you see me?

Can't catch me.

I bet you can't!

Hello.

You can't get out, can you?

No. No, you can't get out.

I just think you better just stay there.

Now, the first thing in the morning,

you will march over to Frances Anne's,

and you will apologize to her mother and father, do you hear me?

For kicking over some stupid old sand piles?

No. For deliberate and malicious mischief.

Do you ever wonder, Brenda, when you do things like this

why the other kids on the island won't have anything to do with you?

No.

You don't wonder?

I mean, I know why they don't.

Six other families on this island, and you've managed

to alienate every other kid on the island.

And finally Frances Anne!

But you will apologize to her mother and father.

Okay, okay. Her mother and father like me.

Well, they really don't, Brenda.

They like your manners and your politeness

because your mother and I taught you those good manners and that politeness.

Now, nobody likes a little girl who goes around doing bad things.

Even when I apologize?

That doesn't alter the badness!

Doing something good doesn't make the bad any better.

Well, what does make bad any better?

Nothing!

They are two separate and distinct things. I've told you that.

About the doors.

The doors, yes!

In each of us, there are two separate and distinct doors.

Behind the first, good is waiting. Behind the second...

Evil.

Yes.

Now neither one can get in and neither can live unless you let it in.

Unless you open the doors. And the choice is always yours.

But how do you know the difference when the doors are closed?

That will be enough of your smart mouth for one afternoon.

On your way up to your room, you can remove your place setting from the dinner table,

since you won't be having dinner with us at all.

Oh, that's all right.

It is not all right!

I'll decide what's right and wrong! Now, get in the house!

- Hello. - How are you?

I don't like you. Why not?

Brenda! What are you doing in there?

Go to sleep!

Very well, Brenda. We accept your apology.

Don't we, Frances Anne?

Oh, I guess so.

I accept your apology.

Thank you, Frances Anne.

Hey, would you like to see what I found?

I have to help with the housework.

Oh, come on, wouldn't you let her off, Mrs. Emsden, just for a little while?

Just so she could see what I found?

What did you find, Brenda?

Something funny.

Funny?

Well, it's kind of queer. Can't she come?

I'll leave that entirely up to Frances Anne.

Come on! It's all right with your mother.

And it's more fun than housework. Just come and see it!

I like housework.

And I don't want to see it.

It isn't anything, anyway.

It is, too.

I don't care.

Whatever it is, I'm just not interested.

But you'd like it, really.

Brenda, Frances Anne has told you she is not interested.

Now, it seems to me you've had your answer.

Oh, all right.

But you really don't know what you're missing.

Hello.

I knew you'd still be here.

Are you a man?

I don't think you're a man. Not like any other man.

You're not like my father or anyone like that.

Where did you come from?

Did you come from an island off the mainland?

Did you come that night when the tide was so low you could walk across it,

where all that gummy, scummy stuff was on the bottom?

Did you come then?

Did you come on purpose?

I don't think you came on purpose.

I think you came by accident.

Not so much by accident, but I think you're here by mistake.

I know why you didn't go back. Because you can't swim.

Because you would get all drowned in the water.

You're... You're old, aren't you?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think you're very, very old.

Yeah.

I think you must have been the way you are for a long, long time.

What are you waiting for?

Do you want to be born?

Come on.

Well, aren't you going to do anything after all I've done for you?

Come on. Hurry up before it gets dark.

No, uh-uh, you're not getting any closer to me.

Elizabeth exaggerates. If it wasn't a tramp, who was it?

But nothing was taken. Only the roast chicken.

And that wasn't eaten. It was torn to pieces.

Oh, and there was something else.

Elizabeth said there was some sort of grayish slime all over it.

She said she was going to phone all the families on Moss Island

to lock their doors and bolt their windows.

She's hysterical.

She's afraid.

There are only six families on the island.

None of us went into her kitchen and stole that chicken.

I knew it. I knew you were there. I could sense it.

Now you get back in your room.

I won't have you crouching in the dark and listening behind doors.

Do you hear me, Brenda?

Yes, Father.

Flora, call Elizabeth,

and tell her to have Jim come over and to bring his gun.

Now! I don't know how long I can hold it off with this.

How did it get in?

Well?

He says that he's coming.

But he doesn't think that the gun will do any good.

- Why not? - I don't know.

He says that he has another plan.

Snap out of it!

I think I'm...

I'm what you said Elizabeth was.

I think I'm hysterical.

Flora, please!

Don't shoot, Rick! Now, you're going to wake up Brenda.

I don't want her to see this.

I don't think she could survive if she saw it.

Rick! Flora! Where do you have that thing?

It's in the front hall, Jim!

All right, now I'm coming round the side, Flora. Let me in.

Come on. Let him in, let him in!

Oh, yeah, that's the thing we saw.

It was over at our place before. It had to be the same thing.

Rick, I brought the gun, but I don't think it's going to help.

It's like shooting into a pile of mud.

Well, then, what are we gonna do?

I mean, I didn't think a thing could...

What are we gonna do, Jim? Take it easy!

Whatever it is, it won't like this.

Here.

You see? It's working!

Well, we can't just drive it out and leave it out there.

I mean...

And we can't kill it, can we? What are we gonna do, Jim?

One step at a time, Rick!

Flora, call the other men and send them down to the old pit!

Up high? Go ahead, go.

Come on.

No, no, don't get too close, Jim!

All right.

Yeah.

Don't get too close!

Let's keep him over by the pit.

All right, all right.

No, Jim, too close.

Come on, Jim, he's moving.

In the eye! Get back there.

We got him, we got him! Just keep him going, we got him!

Watch out!

Ha-ha for our side.

Can't kill it, can't kill it, can't kill a flea.

Watch out! Come on, let's get him.

Get him back there.

He's still not... We got him.

Brenda, what are you doing there?

Looking for you.

What were you and the man doing out all night?

Never mind.

When I feel there's something I ought to tell you, you'll be the first to know.

Now, go on back to bed.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, let's go to bed. I'm tired.

Are you in there?

Are you?

Brenda!

Come up out of there, right now! You've got no business in there!

Come on!

We're getting out of here. We're leaving the island tonight!

Tonight? Why?

Summer's ended, Brenda. I have to get back to work.

But are we gonna come back next year?

Next year? I don't know.

I haven't decided about next year. A lot of things will be different then.

Will they?

Now, come on!

I'm back.

Did you hear me? I've come back.

Oh, please.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be quiet.

Don't be dead.

I knew it. I knew you couldn't be dead.

I've been on the island all day.

But they were watching.

I'm sorry it took so long to see you.

Been a year.

But that's nothing to you.

Or two.

Or three.

Poor old thing.

You've waited so long.

You wanted so much to be born.

I love you.

I'll always love you.

You're the only one I could ever love.

But I'll let you out, I promise.

I'll give you life.

I'll give you love.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

We'll be born together.

We'll be born, you and I together.