He's Alive

"He's Alive"
	The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 4; Episode 4
Directed by	Stuart Rosenberg
Written by	Rod Serling
Production code	4856
Original air date	January 24, 1963
Guest appearance(s)
	Dennis Hopper: Peter Vollmer; Ludwig Donath: Ernst Ganz; Curt Conway: Adolf Hitler; Paul Mazursky: Frank; Howard Caine: Nicholas "Nick" Bloss; Barnaby Hale: Stanley; Jay Adler: Gibbons; Wolfe Barzell: Proprietor; Bernard Fein: Heckler; Chet Brandenburg: Audience member; Paul Bryar: Policeman; Bobby Gilbert: Man with cat; Buck Harrington: Audience member; Ed Haskett: Audience member; Robert McCord: Cop; William Meader: Townsman in brawl; William H. O'Brien: Audience member; Bill Zuckert: Detective

"He's Alive" is episode four of the fourth season of The Twilight Zone. It tells of an American neo-Nazi who is inspired by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. Writer Rod Serling scripted a longer version of the teleplay to be made into a feature-length film, but it was never produced.

Opening narration

Portrait of a bush-league Führer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Peter Vollmer (Dennis Hopper), the leader of a small and struggling Nazi group, is mocked and ridiculed by the crowds he preaches to on street corners. Ernst Ganz (Ludwig Donath), the elderly Jewish man that Peter has had a sympathetic, uncle-like relationship with since he was an abused and neglected kid, offers him shelter and compassion but not respect. Ernst spent nine years in Dachau and recognizes that Peter's politics stem from a childish desire for the respect of others. This pains Peter, who openly confesses that he sees Ernst as his father, since his real father physically abused him and his mother was never around.

Beginning one night, Peter is periodically visited by a shadowy figure who teaches him how to enthrall a crowd. The figure teaches Peter how to speak. The figure pays Peter's rent at the hall where he holds rallies, and instructs him to arrange the death of one of his followers, Nick, thereby creating a martyr to rally everyone around. Following the figure's instructions and assistance, Peter is considerably more successful and his group's following grows. Ernst becomes fearful that Peter may actually succeed in igniting another Holocaust. He disrupts a rally, accusing Peter of being "nothing but a cheap copy" of the German Führer while Peter cowers before his surrogate father.

After the failed rally, the shadowy figure rebukes Peter for his failure and says that from now on he will be ordering Peter rather than instructing him. Peter demands to know who his mysterious benefactor is. The man steps forward from the shadows to reveal himself to be Adolf Hitler (Curt Conway). He orders Peter to kill Ernst. Peter steels himself enough to complete the task. Hitler congratulates him and asks how it felt. Peter replies that he felt immortal. Hitler responds, "Mr. Vollmer! We ARE immortal!"

Afterwards, police arrive to arrest Peter for conspiracy to murder Nick. Shot while fleeing, Peter is astonished by the sight of his own blood. Hitler's shadow appears on the wall behind Peter, who gasps out, "There's something very wrong here...Don't you understand that I'm made out of steel!?"

Closing narration

Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.

Production

Rod Serling was particularly pleased with the script for "He's Alive", and was dismayed when he learned that a scene set between Hitler's revealing himself and Vollmer's returning to Hitler was cut due to length constraints.[1] This prompted the idea of doing two versions of "He's Alive": a short version for television, and a longer version for theatrical release as a feature film.[1] His extended script added a number of scenes and even a new protagonist, an FBI agent who investigates Vollmer's neo-Nazi movement, but with The Twilight Zone's budget already stretched to the breaking point, Serling's proposal was turned down.[1] The scene following Hitler revealing himself was filmed, but the footage has since been lost.[1]

gollark: Do what?

gollark: It might be a software problem. We had MANY software problems.

gollark: How do you know?

gollark: We have TWO regular Pi cameras, I think, one in the box somewhere.

gollark: The... regular pi camera? It's connected over CSI. The pixy one is USB and has its own onboard processor.

References

"All the Little Hitlers". The Twilight Zone Magazine. October 1986.

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

External links

"He's Alive" on IMDb
"He's Alive" at TV.com

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[AllLittle-1] "All the Little Hitlers". The Twilight Zone Magazine. October 1986.

The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"