| Multiple Mirror Effects in Movies | ||
In Praise of Pip (The Twilight Zone Season 5, Episode 1, 1963) |
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| Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film. |
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| This is an episode of the original Twilight Zone TV show from its fifth and last season, written by the host, Rod Serling. The show was never known for its subtlety, and this episode is no different. It's a tear-jerker with Jack Klugman chewing up the scenery. He plays Max Phillips, a worn out bookie and a drunk whose adult son Pip is an injured soldier who is dying in Vietnam (where Max says there isn't even supposed to be a war going on.) We hear an army doctar says that if Pip lasts one more hour, he may live. This sets up the supernatural hallucinatory ending in a mirror maze. |
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| Max gets a phone call from someone in Vietnam who tells him that Pip is dying. Max attacks his bookie boss then is shot by his henchman. He runs, wounded, into a deserted amusement park nearby where he has fond memories of taking Pip when he was a boy. Suddenly Pip (Billy Mumy) appears, the park electricity comes on, and Max's gunshot wound seems to disappear. They play carnival games and eat cotton candy and have a great time. Then Pip suddenly ducks into the mirror maze. Max chases after him, but gets lost in the maze of mirrors. When he finally finds Pip he tells Pip "No man ever, ever loved a boy any more than I love you." He apologizes for being a con man who made Pip live in rooming houses and for being a lousy father. Pip tells him his hour is up and he's dying. Max begs him to stay then smashes some mirrors. He picks up a piece of broken mirror in which he sees Pip apologizing that he has to go back. With Pip gone, Max begs to God to take him and let Pip live. If you are familiar with Rod Serling's corny screenplays, you can figure out exactly what happens next, but I'll spoil it anyway: We see Pip home from the war at the same amusement park, reminiscing about going there with his father, before he died. Cue the theme song: "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone." The amusement park scenes were filmed at Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, California, a few years before it was closed for good. Channel Awesome on YouTube gives a good summary of the episode where you can see some of the mirror maze scenes. |
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