The Howling Man

"**The Howling Man**"
"The Howling Man"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 2; Episode 5
Directed by	Douglas Heyes
Written by	Charles Beaumont
Based on	"The Howling Man"; by Charles Beaumont
Featured music	Stock by Bernard Herrmann
Production code	173-3642
Original air date	November 4, 1960
Guest appearances
	H.M. Wynant as David Ellington; John Carradine as Brother Jerome; Robin Hughes as The Howling Man; Frederic Ledebur as Brother Christopherus; Ezelle Poule as Housekeeper;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "A Thing About Machines"	Next →; "Eye of the Beholder"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 2)
	List of episodes

"The Howling Man" is episode 41 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on November 4, 1960 on CBS. The episode was based on the short story by Charles Beaumont published in the November 1959 issue of Rogue magazine.

Opening narration

The prostrate form of Mr. David Ellington, scholar, seeker of truth and, regrettably, finder of truth. A man who will shortly arise from his exhaustion to confront a problem that has tormented mankind since the beginning of time. A man who knocked on a door seeking sanctuary and found, instead, the outer edges of The Twilight Zone.

Plot

While on a walking trip through post–World War I Central Europe circa 1919, David Ellington becomes lost in a storm. He sees an ancient castle, now the home of a monastic order. He knocks at the door and pleads for help. He is told by the monk who opens the door that they do not allow visitors. After Ellington further begs, the monk goes to speak to a person he names as Brother Jerome, while Ellington waits and hears a wolf-like howl coming from inside the castle. The monk returns and, when asked about the howling, says it is merely the wind. The monk takes Ellington to meet Brother Jerome, the leader of the order. After Ellington explains himself, Brother Jerome announces that there is no help to be had there and that Ellington must leave. Bewildered, Ellington walks out and collapses in the hallway.

When Ellington awakens, he again hears howling. He investigates and finds a man in a cell. The man claims to be unjustly imprisoned by the "mad" monks, and beaten by Brother Jerome using the staff he carries. Ellington is seen talking to the prisoner and is taken back to Brother Jerome. Ellington agrees to leave but also threatens to go to the police. Brother Jerome, disturbed by Ellington's threat, then reveals the truth: the prisoner is the Devil himself, and can only be contained by Brother Jerome's "Staff of Truth". The Devil had come to the village shortly after World War I to corrupt it, but Brother Jerome used the staff to imprison him. These actions have given the world five years of relative peace. Ellington pretends to believe the story; Brother Jerome is not fooled and assigns a brother to watch him.

Ellington waits until his guard falls asleep, then creeps down to the cell and sees that the door is held shut only by a staff that is within reach of the imprisoned man. At the man's urging, Ellington removes the staff. The prisoner exits the cell and pins Ellington to the floor with a wave of his hand. As he walks toward the exit, he begins to change, taking on the appearance of the Devil, before departing the castle in a plume of smoke. Brother Jerome arrives, and sadly explains that the inability to recognize the Devil has always been Man's great weakness.

Ellington has been telling his story to a maid. He says that ever since then he has been hunting for the Devil to atone for his mistake, through World War II, the Korean War, and the development of nuclear weapons. He has finally succeeded, locking the Devil in a closet barred by a staff similar to Brother Jerome's. Ellington intends to return him to the castle; he warns the skeptical housekeeper to not remove the staff under any circumstances. As soon as Ellington leaves, the maid hears a howl from behind the door, removes the staff, and opens the door.

Closing narration

Ancient folk saying: "You can catch the Devil, but you can't hold him long." Ask Brother Jerome. Ask David Ellington. They know, and they'll go on knowing to the end of their days and beyond — in the Twilight Zone.

Cast

H.M. Wynant as David Ellington
John Carradine as Brother Jerome
Robin Hughes as The Howling Man
Frederic Ledebur as Brother Christophorus
Ezelle Poule as Housekeeper

Production

This was the first aired episode of the second season that was not written by Rod Serling.

Charles Beaumont had originally envisioned that the monks would keep the Devil imprisoned by putting a cross in front of his cell door. Fearful of a backlash in the religious community, the producers substituted the "staff of truth" over Beaumont's objections.

References

Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition).
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

External links

"The Howling Man" at IMDb

v t e 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"