Rod Serling: Good evening. Of course, you're all here by invitation, but don't let it disturb you if these paintings, per se, don't happen to be your thing. These are rather special paintings, the kind of hangings generally put up with a noose.
The Messiah on Mott Street
Written by: Rod Serling
Directed by: Don Taylor
Rod Serling: This painting, for example, is of a rather special world: what has become perpetuated in the language as "the ghetto"; that dismal realm of pushcarts and poverty, where hopes are stamped down like dirty shoes on snow. Death is a commonplace visitor to these somber alleys, but occasionally, someone else visits. Our painting is called: The Messiah on Mott Street, and this place, should you not already know it, is the Night Gallery.
Abraham Goldman (Edward G. Robinson), an elderly Russian-American Jewish man, lies bedridden on Christmas Eve, battling a potentially life-threatening illness. His doctor advises him to go to the hospital, but the old man refuses to leave the apartment for a second, lest his orphaned grandson Mikey (Ricky Powell) lose his only family. After he sees the Angel of Death visiting him from his bed, Abraham tells Mikey of his unwelcome visitor and how Jewish tradition dictates the coming of the Messiah, who will bring heavenly contentment when He arrives on Earth. Taking his grandfather's advice to heart, Mikey sets out onto the bustling streets of Christmastime New York to search for the Messiah. He decides that a large man who calls himself Buckner (Yaphet Kotto) is the Messiah, so he brings him to his grandfather's bedside to hopefully heal him.
Tropes
- Act of True Love: A familial version occurs when Mikey tells Abe to tell the Messiah that he doesn't want all the toys and ice cream he'll be given in Paradise, only for his grandfather to get better.
- Argentina Is Nazi Land: Abraham makes an allusion to the trope as he furiously tells off the Angel of Death, asking why he doesn't go to South America to find Adolf Hitler instead of taking his soul when he's not ready to go.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Noting how Abraham's failing health renders him unfit to care for a child, Dr. Levine tells the old man that Mikey can be put in a foster home, where he'll be cleaned and fed. The old man counters by asking if the boy will be loved, driving Levine to hesitant silence.
- Author Appeal: This segment is considered one of Rod Serling's most personal works, as he was born into a Jewish family on Christmas Day.
- Bad Santa: Mikey meets a rude and sarcastic one collecting donations on the street, disbelieving that the Jewish boy doesn't recognize him.
- Big Rotten Apple: Mott Street is a downplayed example. It's described by Serling as a place filled with "pushcarts and poverty", and the street-corner Santa Mikey comes across in his quest to find the Messiah tells him that the place is "half soup kitchen, half saloon" all the way to the East River, noting that if the Messiah did arrive there, He'd be mugged in 10 minutes. In spite of this, the Messiah does end up coming down the street to ward off Death and give Abe the money he thought he was getting, noting to Dr. Levine that "every now and then, God remembers the tenements."
- Children Are Innocent: Upon hearing Abe's mention of the Messiah leading his soul to "health, wealth, and heavenly contentment", as well as the fact that he covers up the Angel of Death's visit to his bedside by saying that it was Him trying to give him a message, Mikey goes out onto the busy streets of New York to find the Messiah himself so he can make his grandpa well again. His bringing Buckner (who he suspected to be the Messiah due to his resemblance of him "looming big and black against the sky" and does indeed turn out to be the real thing) to his grandfather's bedside ends up saving his life without even knowing it.
- Christmas Episode: The segment combines both Christmas and Hanukkah, as the Jewish Abraham is visited by the Angel of Death on Christmas Eve, but is determined to stay alive for the sake of his orphaned grandson Mikey.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Mikey's parents are mentioned to have passed on, and Abe is adamant in not going to the hospital, nor accompanying the Angel of Death, because he's the only family the boy has.
- Cool Old Guy: Abraham, complete with witty retorts, an undying love for his orphaned grandson, and balls of steel in the face of Death itself.
- Crazy Homeless People: Being a New York City slum, Mott Street is full of them, with Mikey meeting a trio of shabby men huddling around a burning trash can, an old woman rifling through crates of old newspapers, and a crazed evangelist calling shouting for "sinners" to repent, claiming that the "day of reckoning" is coming.
- Deadpan Snarker: Abe has no end to the wit he dispenses, shooting the kind of zingers that only a man of his wisdom and faith can provide.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: As the Angel of Death hovers over him, Abe tells him off, boasting that he's not going to leave Mikey alone.
- Darkest Hour: When Mikey finds Buckner and brings him back to his building, where he finds a police car in front of said building, hinting that his grandfather's taken a turn for the worse.
- Everybody Lives: Abe is able to pull through and overcome his sickness, which he and Mikey are ecstatic about.
- Foreshadowing: In the opening scene, Abraham mentions his brother Sam, who is said to be a "lettuce tycoon" who owns a thousand-acre farm in California, and sent a letter to Abe to say that he's closing a "million dollar deal" to sell a good amount of that land, hoping to send a check to pay back $10,000 he owes him once the deal is done. Miss Moretti reveals to Dr. Levine that Sam's actually broke and living in an old folk's home, suffering from hardened arteries and delusions of grandeur, so it's incredibly unlikely that Abe will get that check. Fortunately, the end of the episode has Buckner delivering the money after things turn their bleakest, allowing for Abe and Mikey's monetary problems to be solved with the old man never learning that his brother went senile.
- Fountain of Youth: In one of their peaceful bonding scenes, Mikey tells his grandfather about how he learned about Ponce de Leon's search for the Fountain in school. Abe clarifies to him that the Fountain isn't real, because if it were, he would have taken the subway to find it a long time ago.
- The Grim Reaper: He's referred to as the Angel of Death, and the elderly Abraham spits in his eye, refusing to leave Mikey alone for even a second and even throwing a candlestick where his physical form would be.
- Happy Ending: Abe gets to live, he and Mikey reunite, and the pair are even given a check for $10,000 his brother Sam "owed" him, allowing a good deal of their problems to be solved.
- He Was Right There All Along: Mikey turns out to be right that Buckner, the random man who he thought was the Messiah, was the genuine article all along, as he plays the role of a postman who gives Abe the $10,000 he's "owed".
- Incurable Cough of Death: Abraham coughs persistently throughout the episode, as Dr. Levine notes that he's nearly contracted pneumonia, and that's on top of the pulminary conditions he has from a prior case of tuberculosis.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: After driving the Angel of Death away, Buckner erases everyone's minds of what he looks like before he dresses as the postman who delivers Abe the $10,000 check he was expecting.
- Mall Santa: Mikey comes across one standing on a curb with a donation pail, asking him if he's the Messiah. The Santa snippily answers that he's not who the boy's looking for, and doesn't believe that Mikey isn't able to recognize him, even after he says he's Jewish.
- Nice Guy: Buckner/The Messiah, who humors Mikey's "delusions" and tells a fanatical evangelist to leave him alone when he first sees the boy. His intervention in Mikey's mission to save his grandfather allows Abraham to recover from his fatal diagnosis, and he also delivers a $10,000 check Sam "owed" him while disguised as a postman.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: "The Messiah" is likely used as a placeholder for either "Moses" or "Jesus", as neither name is spoken in the segment.
- Real After All: Mikey thinks that Buckner, who resembles the "long, dark shadow" his grandfather described, is the Messiah. Though he appears to be amused by the boy's claims, it's implied that he is indeed the real thing, as he wards off the Angel of Death and gives Abe a check for $10,000 Sam "owed" him.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Dr. Levine and Miss Moretti.
- The former tells Abe that he won't last much longer if he isn't brought to a hospital, and tells him that Mikey can always be put in a foster home if he has no one else to take care of him. He's unfortunately silenced when Abe asks if Mikey's hypothetical foster parents will love him along with feeding and clothing him, as the doctor has no control over which home the boy could potentially be sent to.
- The latter is a case worker who tells the doctor that Sam can't actually send the money he promised in the letter he wrote to Abe, as he's actually senile and living in a nursing home instead of being the owner of a thousand-acre farm. As much as it would hurt to tell Abe and Mikey the bitter truth, she grimly notes that they can't keep up the charade indefinitely.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When the Angel of Death looms over him, Abraham tears him a new one for trying to take him while he's still alive, trying to rob Mikey of his only living relative, and the fact that there are far better people than him to take, advising him to go down to Argentina and find Hitler.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Abe's brother Sam is hinted to have gone senile by Miss Moretti, who tells Dr. Levine that he's living in a nursing home and suffering from delusions of grandeur by thinking he's a produce tycoon, so he can't send the $10,000 Abe was promised.
- Shout-Out: Dr. Levine hesitantly muses "God bless us, everyone." to himself as he leaves the Goldmans' building.
- Sinister Silhouettes: All we see of the Angel of Death is a large silhouette looming over the bedridden Abraham, which he tells Mikey was the Messiah wanting him to take a message to cover up the encounter.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: The Angel of Death gives Abe a message that he’ll be back to collect his soul on the stroke of midnight. Thankfully, Buckner is able to drive him away, thanks to Mikey bringing him into his apartment.
- Winds Are Ghosts: Along with his tall shadow, the only indication we get at Death's presence are howling winds in Abe's bedroom.
The Painted Mirror
Original story by: Donald Wendrei
Teleplay by: Gene R. Kearney
Directed by: Gene R. Kearney
Rod Serling: We, all of us, have a kind of fascination for mirrors. There's a most appealing mystery to what is on the other side of a looking glass, and occasionally, we turn into Alice. Our last selection, tonight's gallery, a very special looking glass, and it's called: The Painted Mirror.
Frank Standish (Arthur O'Connell) owns a thrift shop that is facing severe financial difficulties, forcing him to hire a co-owner in the form of the beastly Mrs. Moore (Zsa Zsa Gabor). Against his input, Moore decorates Frank's respectable shop with garish designs and groovy music, and the old man himself is belittled by the abusive woman and her bratty pets. His most frequent and loyal customer, Ellen Chase (Rosemary DeCamp), joins him for tea in the backroom, whereupon he rediscovers a full-length mirror she previously sold him, with a lens completely coated in gray paint. When they manages to remove the paint, Frank and Ellen discover that the mirror displays a mysterious prehistoric jungle filled with horrific beasts, through which they are able to reach their hands into. Frank soon learns that Mrs. Moore is buying him out, providing him with the idea to use the mirror to "improve" his current situation.
Tropes
- Adam Westing: With her Hungarian accent and garish sense of style, Mrs. Moore is essentially Zsa Zsa Gabor herself, and that alone should be a good enough reason to get the viewers wishing for her to be chomped upon by prehistoric beasts.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When Mrs. Moore tells Frank that she's bought him out, Ellen decides that enough is enough and lures Moore into the titular mirror's alternate dimension by using her pets against her.
- Cat/Dog Dichotomy: While both of Mrs. Moore's pets misbehave constantly, they have different approaches regarding the mirror. Lorenzo the cat enters the jungle it leads to once, before getting scared and hurriedly exiting again. Pookie the dog, on the other hand, chases after his favorite ball when Ellen tosses it into the jungle, caring more about getting it back rather than where he and his owner have ended up.
- December–December Romance: Frank and Ellen are about the same age, and it's shown that they have a great deal of affection for one another, which is free to escalate once Mrs. Moore is gone.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Frank manages to get his loathsome co-owner out of his life and get back in control of his store thanks to the titular mirror, and he may soon enter a romance with the lovely Ellen.
- Establishing Character Moment: Mrs. Moore hiring an electrician to test the new doorbell to the thrift shop and ordering the sound to be made louder, even though Frank is concerned that it's already loud enough in his shop with the blaring music and the rowdy pets.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Averted with Mrs. Moore's dog Pookie, which is too interested in chasing after its ball to care about the fact that it's entered a prehistoric jungle. Instead, it's her cat Lorenzo that enters the mirror, then quickly escapes with its tail between its legs.
- Hate Sink: Mrs. Moore, who decorates Frank's sleepy-but-respectable thrift shop with garish decor and "hip" music, has her bratty pets disrupt his work, and treats him with absolutely no respect, even buying him out when she gets tired of his non-existent "shouting". Also, she's Zsa Zsa Gabor.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Mrs. Moore's pets, who behave atrociously and disrupt Frank's work, are used to get her stuck in the mirror. Lorenzo the cat's frightened mewling after entering the land beyond the mirror brings her to the back room, and Pookie the dog charges in afterwards chasing his favorite ball, prompting Mrs. Moore to go after him as Frank and Ellen repaint the mirror, sealing the portal.
- Hypocrite: As Frank works in removing the paint from the titular mirror, Mrs. Moore is on the phone with a realtor discussing how to buy him out, tired of all the shouting and noise he generates. It's worth mentioning that she herself completely ignores how beastly of a co-owner she is to him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: For all the crap she puts poor Frank through, Mrs. Moore ends up stranded in the world beyond the mirror, destined to be killed and eaten by creatures more beastly than her.
- Magic Mirror: The titular mirror leads to an alternate dimension full of prehistoric monsters.
- Mister Muffykins: Mrs. Moore has two of them, a cat and a dog respectively named Lorenzo and Pookie. The pair bark and yowl consistently, disrupting Frank's work and relaxation time. Ellen uses Pookie's favorite ball to lure the dog into the titular mirror by tossing the toy inside, prompting Moore herself to chase after him.
- Never My Fault: Mrs. Moore has this attitude with her realtor acquaintance over the phone, complaining about how disruptive Frank is when it's all her fault that the shop is so loud.
- Nice Guy: Frank is a pleasant and affable old man who clearly doesn't like having to partner with Mrs. Moore for finacial security, but could see no other alternative to keep his shop open at the time.
- Portal Picture: The mirror holds appears to hold a picture of a jungle wasteland housing a variety of prehistoric creatures. Frank and Ellen soon find that this "picture" is a gateway that objects and organisms can enter, and was presumably painted over as a means to close it and keep the creatures already inside it from escaping.
- Slurpasaur: Some of the inhabitants of the titular mirror's alternate dimension, as portrayed via stock footage.
- Waxing Lyrical: Mrs. Moore tells Ellen "the times, they are a-changin'" as she enters the shop while the electronic doorbell is being tested.
