"I just need a little more time!"
Rod Serling: His name is Arch Hammer. He's thirty-six years old. He's been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel and dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his conscience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Hammer has a talent, discovered at a very early age. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anything he wants. Mr. Archie Hammer, jack-of-all-trades, has just checked in at three-eighty a night, with two bags, some newspaper clippings, a most odd talent, and a master plan to destroy some lives.
Air date: January 1, 1960
Arch Hammer (Harry Townes) is a petty crook who has a special talent. Through concentration, he can change his face to fit the appearance of any man he sees. He first takes the image of Johnny Foster (Ross Martin), a murdered trumpeter, in order to steal his girlfriend Maggie (Beverly Garland). To cover his finances and the rent for his motel room, he then impersonates dead ganster Virgil Sterig (Philip Pine), who demands money from Penell, the mob boss who put the hit on him. After Hammer leaves, Penell sends two men after him. To evade them, Arch changes his face yet again so that he now resembles boxer Andy Marshak (Don Gordon). As he emerges from the alley thinking he's in the clear, Arch meets Andy's father (Peter Brocco), who is none too pleased with the things his 'son' did. The police closing in and a later encounter with Mr. Marshak will soon teach Hammer that his line of work is not all it's cracked up to be.
The Four of Us Are Troping:
- Adaptational Superpower Change: In the original short story, Hammer's shapeshifting involuntarily causes him to appear as whoever a person wants to see the most. Here, he has to change through concentration. This changes the ending slightly, since in the story, he got away with everything only to be shot by a gas station worker who sees him as someone who he's wanted to kill for years.
- Bed Trick: Although he never actually gets the chance to get her into bed, Hammer's first disguise is meant to seduce dead trumpeter Johnny Foster's girlfriend Maggie, who agrees to go away with him.
- Contrived Coincidence: Both times Hammer shapeshifts into Andy Marshak, he just happens to run into Marshak's estranged father.
- Crisis Makes Perfect: Inverted. Hammer tries to change out of his Andy Marshak form so he can prove to Marshak's vengeful father that he's not that man and won't get shot, but the pressure of having a gun pointed at him breaks his concentration too much and after a few seconds Marshak’s father shoots Hammer.
- Fake Identity Baggage: Arch has the ability to change his face, which he uses to trick a trumpet player's grieving girlfriend and extort a crime boss for money. After shapeshifting into boxer Andy Marshak to hide from the boss's men, he runs into Marshak's father, who has a bone to pick with his wayward son. The next time Hammer takes Marshak's face, he finds that his father brought a gun.
- Heroic BSoD: Maggie tells the disguised Arch how she slumped into a depression after Johnny's death. She still went to work, but the only songs she could sing were sad ones.
- Honor-Related Abuse: Marshak's father had been looking for Andy for some time because he brought dishonor to his family for some unspecified crime. Unfortunately for Arch, that means shooting his "son".
- I Have No Son!: Marshak's father tells Arch, disguised as his son Andy, that Andy used to be his son, but he's nothing to him after whatever unspecified nasty thing he did.
- Karmic Death:
- In the original short story, Hammer's undoing comes when a gas station attendant sees him as a man he's spent the last ten years wanting to kill.
- In the episode, he's shot when he takes on the appearance of Mr. Marshak's wayward son Andy, who "broke his mother's heart and did dirt to a sweet little girl."
- Laser-Guided Karma: Hammer is an unscrupulous man and dies a violent death. What little Mr. Marshak says about his estranged son Andy's misdeeds make clear that Andy deserves a bad death, too (although it's a cosmic irony that he inflicts it to another crook).
- The Mafia: Arch Hammer imitates Virgil Sterig, a gangster who was murdered on the orders of mob boss Penell, to threaten said boss for rent money.
- Neon City: The city the story takes place in is chock full of neon advertisements that litter the sky, alongside other downtown joints.
- Noodle Incident: Andy was stated to have broken his mother's heart and "did dirt" to a sweet girl who was devoted to him. It's never said how he specifically did either.
- The original story doesn't tells us why the attendant wants to kill the man he wishes to, either.
- Offing the Offspring: Andy Marshak's father believes he's doing this, as Arch's last-minute insistence that he's not really his son doesn't register with him.
- Offscreen Villainy: It's not shown what Andy Marshak did offscreen, but it's clear he left trail of suffering in his wake.
- Shapeshifting Seducer: Hammer turns into torch singer Maggie's dead boyfriend Johnny to get her to go away with him.
- Shapeshifter Swan Song: As he dies, Arch switches from face to face before settling on his original look.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Arch willingly shape-shifted to Andy in order for him to get away from gangsters trying to hurt him. When it looked he was going to make a clean escape, some random guy (later revealed to be Marshak's father) blows him away instead (for a completely unrelated reason).
- The original story has Hammer walking away with a lot of crimes, only to run into a schmuck that had a very obsessive desire to kill some guy that wronged him when he stopped for some gas.
- Thought-Controlled Power: Hammer needs to concentrate to change shape. Unfortunately for him, that means that when he is scared out of his mind by someone trying to kill him, he is unable to change forms quickly. This turns into a literally fatal weakness when confronted by Mr. Marshak.
- Villain of Another Story: Andrew Marshak's sole appearance is in a boxing bout poster and Mr. Marshak’s attempted "The Reason You Suck" Speech telling that he did crimes awful enough that he is honor-bound to kill him. Unfortunately for Hammer, he is the one who is going to get killed for Marshak's sins.
- Villain Protagonist: Arch, who Serling notes is a bad guy in the introduction, and who uses his powers for his own benefit.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Hammer can change his appearance into that of another man if he concentrates.
Rod Serling: He was Arch Hammer, a cheap little man who just checked in. He was Johnny Foster, who played a trumpet and was loved beyond words. He was Virgil Sterig, with money in his pocket. He was Andy Marshak, who got some of his agony back on a sidewalk in front of a cheap hotel. Hammer, Foster, Sterig, Marshak - and all four of them were dying.
