Written by Rod Serling, directed by Allen Reisner and starring Dan Duryea, Martin Landau, Doug McClure, Malcolm Atterbury and Jeanne Cooper.
The first Western themed Twilight Zone is a cracker, boosted by a great performance by Duryea, it's an episode dealing with that old dangled carrot known as the second chance. Al Denton has lapsed from being a dandy gunfighter into the town drunk, a man forced to sing for his next fix of alcohol offered by the town bully (Landau). But fate is going to play a hand, here in the human/supernatural form of peddler Henry J. Fate (Atterbury).
Story firmly has us feeling for Denton, wondering just how he came to be this way? The sorrow quickly turns to joy but this being The Twilight Zone we know there's going to be a kick in the tale, and when it comes it's a doozy, beautifully set up by Denton's revelation about what drove him to drink to oblivion. It could have ended up sappy but director Reisner ensures that is not the case, and Duryea's two pronged performance gives the story its super emotional fortitude. 8/10
