He's Alive

Infobox Television episode
Title = He's Alive
Series = The Twilight Zone


Caption = Dennis Hopper in He's Alive
Season = 4
Episode = 106
Airdate = January 24, 1963
Production = 4856
Writer = Rod Serling
Director = Stuart Rosenberg
Guests = Dennis Hopper (Peter Vollmer)
Ludwig Donath (Ernst Ganz)
Curt Conway (Adolf Hitler)
Music =
Episode list = List of Twilight Zone episodes
Prev = Valley of the Shadow
Next = Mute

"He's Alive" is a fourth-season episode of "The Twilight Zone". It tells of an American neo-Nazi who is inspired by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. A personal passion of Rod Serling, it concludes that figures such as Hitler will always be alive so long as prejudice and ignorance persist.

Opening Narration

ynopsis

The leader of a small Nazi group, Peter Vollmer, is visited by a shadowy figure who teaches him how to enthrall a crowd. He is successful at first, but is later undermined when the elderly Jewish man he lives with interrupts a speech and denounces him. The man in the shadows reveals himself to be Adolf Hitler (his ghost) and orders Peter to kill the old man, which he does. When the police arrive to arrest Peter for conspiracy for another crime, he is shot and killed while fleeing the scene. The ghost of Hitler leaves, off to look for another worthy candidate.

Closing Narration

Preview for Next Week's Story

Episode notes

Quote box2
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quote = "Mr. Vollmer! I was making speeches before you could read them! I was fighting battles when your only struggle was to climb out of a womb! I was taking over the world when your universe was a crib! And as for being in darkness, Mr. Vollmer.... I INVENTED Darkness!!"
source = — Adolf HitlerThis episode reportedly produced more hate mail than any other installment of "The Twilight Zone"::'Within a week after the telecast, Serling and his staff received four thousand letters for which the designation "hate mail" was much too mild. Communications were received from the followers of the prominent anti-Semite Gerald L.K. Smith, from the disciples of faith-healer/politicizer Billy Jo Hargis, from such august concerns as "The White Citizen’s Councils" and "Christian Anti-Communism Schools". Serling and company were addressed as "commie bastards" by some, while others characterized the Twilight Zone people as "kike lovers" and "nigger lovers." An organization called "Geo Politics" offered the novel suggestion that "Jews should be put in gas ovens and niggers shipped back to Africa."' —Hal Erikson, excerpt from "All the Little Hitlers" published in the October 1986 edition of "The Twilight Zone Magazine".

Despite this less than enthusiastic reception, Serling sought to bring his story to an even larger audience::'To Rod Serling, "He’s Alive!" was far more than just another sausage from the "Twilight Zone" grinder. He felt that the play was the best he had written for the 1962-63 series and had hopes for its development beyond the hour-long format. Distressed that producer Herbert Hirschman had edited the film to conform to time restrictions, eliminating a nightmarish sequence in which Dennis Hopper, suddenly terrified at the prospect of meeting Hitler face-to-face, runs through the deserted city streets only to be confronted by swastikas, Nazi propaganda posters, and copies of "Mein Kampf" on every street corner. Serling suggested that two versions of "He’s Alive" be prepared in the editing room. One, the shorter of the two, would be telecast; the other would be expanded into a theatrical feature film. (Serling had been developing a "Twilight Zone" motion picture since 1960, only to be thwarted by uninterested or skeptical producers at every turn.) To this end, Serling started writing additional scenes, expanding the characters of Dennis Hopper’s three followers (one of whom was played by Paul Mazursky, the future director of such films as "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" and "Moscow on the Hudson") and adding, as a normal "sympathetic" protagonist, the character of a dedicated FBI man who is investigating Hopper’s fascist movement. Because "Twilight Zone’s" already conservative budget had been stretched to the breaking point, Hirschmann turned down Serling’s suggestions.' —additional excerpt from "All the Little Hitlers"

References

*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). "Trivia from The Twilight Zone". Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
*Grams, Martin. (2008). "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic". Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
*Zicree, Marc Scott: "The Twilight Zone Companion". Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

External links

*imdb title|id=0734572|title=He's Alive
* [http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone/hes-alive/episode/12691/summary.html TV.com episode page]

Twilight Zone links

*The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
*Episode list
*Season 4