A Most Unusual Camera

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"A Most Unusual Camera" is an episode of the The Twilight Zone.

Episode Details[]

Opening Narration[]

"A hotel suite that, in this instance, serves as a den of crime, the aftermath of a rather minor event to be noted on a police blotter, an insurance claim, perhaps a three-inch box on page twelve of the evening paper. Small addenda to be added to the list of the loot: a camera, a most unimposing addition to the flotsam and jetsam that it came with, hardly worth mentioning really, because cameras are cameras, some expensive, some purchasable at five-and-dime stores. But this camera, this one's unusual because in just a moment we'll watch it inject itself into the destinies of three people. It happens to be a fact that the pictures that it takes can only be developed in The Twilight Zone."

Episode Summary[]

Two thieves, husband and wife Chester (Fred Clark) and Paula Diedrich (Jean Carson), have just robbed a curio shop, and among the things they have stolen is a strange camera. Through accident, the pair discover that it produces photos of the future, about five minutes ahead. After Paula's jail-escapee brother Woodward (Adam Williams) shows up, Chester decides to use the camera to take pictures of the blank winner's board before races at the local racetrack and then use the camera's "predictions" in making bets. The trio win $9,500 on the first race. They bet and win on five other races and leave with a considerable load of cash. Back at their hotel, a French waiter named Pierre (Marcel Hillaire) takes notice of their camera and its French inscription dix à la propriétaire, meaning ten to an owner. When the waiter exits, Paula, Chester and Woodward discuss the use of the camera's last two pictures and fail to come to any agreement. While tugging over the camera, a picture of Paula — screaming and recoiling in horror — is accidentally taken. In further struggle, Chester and Woodward begin to fight, and they fall out of an open window to their deaths. Paula screams — as in the picture — but recovers immediately when she realizes that all the money and loot is now hers.

Paula takes a picture (the last picture) of Chester and Woodward's bodies in the courtyard below the window, and begins collecting the day's winnings, planning to check out of the hotel. Before Paula can leave, Pierre returns and robs her, telling her that he knows about their crimes and will turn her in to the police if she calls them for help. He notes that her last picture shows "more than two" bodies in the courtyard. Panicked, Paula runs to look out the window, trips over a wire, and falls to her demise. Pierre then counts the corpses in the picture. "Yes, there are more than two bodies down there. Just like the picture shows. One, two, three ... four?!" In shock upon his realization, he falls out as well, leaving the camera lying on the floor.

Closing Narration[]

"Object known as a camera, vintage uncertain, origin unknown. But for the greedy, the avaricious, the fleet of foot, who can run a four-minute mile so long as they're chasing a fast buck, it makes believe that it's an ally, but it isn't at all. It's a beckoning come-on for a quick walk around the block — in the Twilight Zone."

Preview for Next Week's Story[]

"This may look to you like any dismal, dark and dingy alley that lies skulking out the million myriad shadow places off the main drags. Actually, it's the private domain of leprechauns and elves and supplies the locale of next week's Twilight Zone. With us for a very special occasion is Mr. Art Carney who plays the role of a department store Santa Claus. And he plays it with the heart, the warmth and the vast talent that is uniquely Carney. On The Twilight Zone next week, 'The Night of the Meek' ".

Themes[]

Critical Response[]

Background Information[]

Cast[]

Rod Serling as The Narrator (voice only), uncredited
Fred Clark as Chester
Jean Carson as Paula
Adam Williams as Woodward
Marcel Hillaire as Waiter

Production Companies[]

Cayuga Productions
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (in association with)

Distributors[]

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1959) (USA) (TV) (original airing)

Home media release[]

This episode is included on the Image Entertainment Vol. 19 DVD along with "The Jungle", "The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms" and "Uncle Simon".

Trivia[]

Referenced in Night of the Meek.
Inspired the R.L Stine's children's novel Say Cheese and Die! and a TV goosebumps adaption "Say Cheese and Die" and sequel "Say Cheese and Die… Again"

External Links[]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734543/

v • e The Twilight Zone (original series) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" • "One for the Angels" • "Mr. Denton On Doomsday" • "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" • "Walking Distance" • "Escape Clause" • "The Lonely" • "Time Enough at Last" • "Perchance to Dream"• "Judgment Night" • "And When the Sky Was Opened" • "What You Need" • "The Four of Us Are Dying" • "Third from the Sun" • "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air" • "The Hitch-Hiker" • "The Fever" • "The Last Flight" • "The Purple Testament" • "Elegy" • "Mirror Image" • "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" • "A World of Difference" • "Long Live Walter Jameson" • "People Are Alike All Over" • "Execution" • "The Big Tall Wish" • "A Nice Place to Visit" • "Nightmare as a Child" • "A Stop at Willoughby" • "The Chaser" • "A Passage for Trumpet" • "Mr. Bevis" • "The After Hours" • "The Mighty Casey" • "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" • "The Man in the Bottle" • "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" • "A Thing About Machines" • "The Howling Man" • "Eye of the Beholder" • "Nick of Time" • "The Lateness of the Hour" • "The Trouble With Templeton" • "A Most Unusual Camera" • "Night of the Meek" • "Dust" • "Back There" • "The Whole Truth" • "The Invaders" • "A Penny for Your Thoughts" • "Twenty-Two" • "The Odyssey of Flight 33" • "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" • "Static" • "The Prime Mover" • "Long Distance Call" • "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" • "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" • "The Silence" • "Shadow Play" • "The Mind and the Matter" • "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" • "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" • "The Arrival" • "The Shelter" • "The Passersby" • "A Game of Pool" • "The Mirror" • "The Grave" • "It's a Good Life" • "Death's Head Revisited" • "The Midnight Sun" • "Still Valley" • "The Jungle" • "Once Upon a Time" • "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" • "A Quality of Mercy" • "Nothing in the Dark" • "One More Pallbearer" • "Dead Man's Shoes" • "The Hunt" • "Showdown with Rance McGrew" • "Kick the Can" • "A Piano in the House" • "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" • "To Serve Man" • "The Fugitive" • "Little Girl Lost" • "Person or Persons Unknown" • "The Little People" • "Four O'Clock" • "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" • "The Trade-Ins" • "The Gift" • "The Dummy" • "Young Man's Fancy" • "I Sing the Body Electric" • "Cavender is Coming" • "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" • "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" • "Valley of the Shadow" • "He's Alive" • "Mute" • "Death Ship" • "Jess-Belle" • "Miniature" • "Printer's Devil" • "No Time Like the Past" • "The Parallel" • "I Dream of Genie" • "The New Exhibit" • "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" • "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" • "On Thursday We Leave for Home" • "Passage on the Lady Anne" • "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" • "Steel" • "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" • "A Kind of a Stopwatch " • "The Last Night of a Jockey" • "Living Doll" • "The Old Man in the Cave" • "Uncle Simon" • "Probe 7, Over and Out" • "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" • "A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain" • "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" • "Ring-a-Ding Girl" • "You Drive" • "The Long Morrow" • "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" • "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" • "Black Leather Jackets" • "Night Call" • "From Agnes—With Love" • "Spur of the Moment" • "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" • "Queen of the Nile" • "What's in the Box" • "The Masks" • "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" • "Sounds and Silences" • "Caesar and Me" • "The Jeopardy Room" • "Stopover in a Quiet Town" • "The Encounter" • "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" • "The Brain Center at Whipple's" • "Come Wander With Me" • "The Fear" • "The Bewitchin' Pool"