The Big Picture
- The Twilight Zone‘s unsung strength is its use of guest stars like Robert Redford, who appeared on the show early in their careers.
- “Nothing in the Dark” is an episode that explores themes of life, death, and living without fear, departing from the typical sinister tone of the series.
- While Gladys Cooper delivers a phenomenal performance, Robert Redford’s portrayal is not his best. But he still adds a sweet touch to the episode’s optimistic ending.
The Twilight Zone is built off fascinating premises, topical episode ideas, and an eerie undercurrent of horror, but its most unsung strength is the way that it plays with its wide array of guest stars like Robert Redford. Of course, these instances are often unintentional as many of these actors were extremely early on in their careers when they were given a spotlight on Rod Serling’s iconic series. The Twilight Zone is an anthology, meaning every episode presents a new story… so everyone on the show is a guest star! But what makes these instances most fun is looking back on the faces that the world didn’t know would go on to be major movie stars one day. Charles Bronson, Ron Howard, and William Shatner all had a chance to take the spotlight for an episode or two, long before they were household names. Hardly any of these actors have as interesting of a task as Redford does, though. In Season 3’s “Nothing in the Dark,” the future All the President’s Men star starts out as a goodhearted police officer, but come on, this is The Twilight Zone — you know that he’s bound to get a little spooky.
For most of its runtime, “Nothing in the Dark” isn’t exactly the most special Twilight Zone episode. Actually, it tends to drag pretty hard. The story takes place on a dark, snowy night and follows Wanda Dunn (Gladys Cooper), an elderly woman who lives in a creaky, cobwebbed, ramshackle basement by herself. Her days are spent in fear of death, so she hides away in her crumbling home and cowers at the sound of anything approaching from outside.
Robert Redford Is “Mr. Death” in ‘The Twilight Zone’
It doesn’t take long for Dunn to have a visitor, though. Just a few moments into “Nothing in the Dark,” a noisy quarrel takes place outside of Dunn’s home, ending with the sound of a gunshot. She goes to see what all the noise is about, only to find a young police officer, Harold Beldon (Redford), who has been shot and is lying on the ground, desperately clutching at his body. He claims that he is dying and needs help, but Dunn refuses to help. She refers to him as “Mr. Death,” and initially turns away. After he passes out, she takes a chance to touch him to see if he’s still alive. When she realizes that his touch doesn’t kill her, Dunn changes her mind and decides to take him in.
Dunn and Beldon’s relationship grows a little warmer, but things don’t get that much better. Beldon claims that he’s ready to be taken to the hospital, but Dunn doesn’t have a phone to call an ambulance. It turns out that for the last few years, she’s been hiding away indoors, preferring to live a life of loneliness as opposed to not living at all. This leads to a series of conversations about life and death in general. Beldon tries to reassure Dunn about living and the process of dying, but she is set in her ways. A man soon comes to warn her that the building she lives in will be demolished within the hour. When she tries to get Beldon’s help, the man turns and doesn’t see the police officer sitting there. Beldon’s cover is blown, and the unfortunate truth settles in for Dunn — she is in the presence of Death Incarnate.
“Nothing in the Dark” Goes Out On an Optimistic Note
Just when you expect Dunn to become hostile, Death remains calm and reassuring. He gently informs her that there is no sting or engulfment when you die. She initially hesitates to take his word, but Beldon insists, so Dunn ends up taking his hand. Once she takes his hand, she feels that there truly is no pain in this natural death. After looking at her own body, she shows happiness for the first time in the entire episode, and the two of them walk off into the night.
While most Twilight Zone episodes have a sinister air to them, “Nothing in the Dark” has a bit of a different approach. A lot of the episode is still eerie, with Dunn’s decrepit home making for an impossibly comfortable setting. However, most of its dour tone comes from the feeling of an impending doom lurking over our shoulders. As soon as we learn that our protagonist lives a life engulfed by a fear of death, we know that she isn’t getting out of the story alive. This doesn’t quite feel the way that you would expect the obvious threat of someone dying to play out in The Twilight Zone. Instead, the two share a couple of long conversations about living a full life, dying, what it must feel like to pass away, and not living in fear. It’s one of the series’ most openly existential episodes.
Gladys Cooper Outshines Robert Redford
This episode is nothing without its two central performances, though. Gladys Cooper is phenomenal as Wanda Dunn, portraying someone who has lived a soured life of paranoia and loneliness. Her profound sadness makes this episode a devastating watch, but that only makes her final optimistic decision more fulfilling. Given that an icon like Robert Redford is her co-star, you wouldn’t expect it, but Cooper totally schools him. Most audiences don’t know that she was a legend in her own right, with a career that spanned seven decades and a ridiculous number of credits to her name.
Redford, on the other hand, grew to become one of our most beloved actors… but doesn’t exactly hold his own here. He’s leaning way too hard into that ’50s and early ’60s “aw shucks” kind of performance that so many delivered back in the day. Once it’s revealed that Beldon is actually Death, his performance feels a bit sweeter, but that’s probably more due to a feeling of relief. Dunn is such a miserable character, the last thing we want to see is Redford turn into some sort of monster and kill her so that he can finally claim her soul. He still has that cheeky delivery in the last few minutes of “Nothing in the Dark,” but given he is encouraging Dunn to take his hand and join him in the afterlife, it’s a welcome and sweet way for the episode to go out. This isn’t Redford’s best performance, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a fun early credit that is often overlooked when talking about the entirety of his career.
“Nothing in the Dark” isn’t the greatest episode of The Twilight Zone, but for Robert Redford fans, it’s more than a worthy watch. At this point, he only had one movie credit to his name and a handful of roles in TV shows. This had to have been a major highlight for him at the time! Come for the young Redford performance, but stay for one of the series’ most poignant and existential episodes.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
