Way Out

William Pearl gets the bad news from his doctor: he only has a month to live. Dr. Landy says he can keep William's brain alive in a glass jar, after his body is dead. William never got along with his wife Mary; he was a cheapskate and was mean to her. When William dies, Mary is at home drinking and dancing. William's brain (and the attached eyeball) are coming home to Mary. But William's days of mistreating his wife are over; now she has the upper hand. To prove her point, she blows some cigarette smoke into the brain jar, making William's eyeball squint. [note: ""William and Mary"" is the name of a famous college-- the names kind of go together.] [trivia: perhaps this episode provided inspiration for the movie ""The Brain That Wouldn't Die"" (1962).]

John Ventry and Mr. Bayle were Navy buddies; after they got out, they went into business together. Although they were pals, John Ventry wasn't much good at business; in fact, his gambling debts-- which he charged to their company-- almost forces them into bankruptcy. Bayle winds up shooting Ventry, and leaving a phony suicide note next to the body. But Bayle is haunted by Ventry. Bayle is in the top-story office one night when he starts hearing eerie noises and voices; Bayle tries to escape by taking the elevator down, but it plunges to the basement. When the elevator door opens, Bayle is greeted by his dead buddy John Ventry. [the ending is vaguely reminiscent of the Famous Ghost Story, about the personification of Death saying ""There's room for one more"" to a person about to board the elevator-- just before the elevator crashes. It was the theme of the Twilight Zone episode ""Twenty-Two"" which was broadcast Feb. 10, 1961.]

Harriet, the older sister, is immaculately neat; Louise, the younger sister, is a slob. (think: ""The Odd Couple"".) They live together in a cliff-house in Maine. Not only does the domineering Harriet impose her tidy housecleaning habits on Louise, she tries to run her life too-- Harriet ""forbids"" Louise to date Paul Marchand. Possessive Harriet tells Louise she doesn't need men-- after all, they are sisters and will have each other forever. One day, Louise lets Harriet fall off the cliff. Now Louise can do as she likes, and date Paul; (or so she thinks). At night, a woman like Harriet goes around compulsively doing housecleaning. One day, Paul comes to the front door, asking to see Louise. Even though Louise answers the intercom, it is in Harriet's voice that she tells Paul to go away. Louise has become her dead sister. [in the character of Louise-- who adopted the habits of the person she killed-- I see a bit of Norman Bates, from Alfred Hitchcock's ""Psycho"" (1960).]