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 appearance(s)
	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;

"The Howling Man" is episode 41 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on November 4, 1960 on CBS.

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

The story is told in a flashback by an American named David Ellington. While on a walking trip through post–World War I Central Europe (circa 1925), Ellington becomes lost in a storm. He sees a building, and walks towards it. It turns out to be a castle, which is now the home of an order of Brothers (Wolfring Castle, referred to in the episode as the "Hermitage") near the village of Schwarzhof. He knocks, the door opens, and he pleads for help. He is told by the monk who opens the door that they do not allow visitors. Ellington pleads, explaining he is lost, and begs for sanctuary from the storm; while the monk goes off to speak to a person he names as Brother Jerome, Ellington waits in the hallway. He hears a wolf-like howl coming from somewhere in the castle. The monk returns and, when Ellington asks him about this howl, says it is merely the wind. The monk takes him to meet Brother Jerome, who is the leader of the order. After Ellington explains that his only purpose in being at the castle is to escape the storm and perhaps obtain some food, Brother Jerome announces that there is no help to be had there and that Ellington must immediately leave. Bewildered, Ellington turns to leave, but gets only as far as the doorway before collapsing.

When Ellington awakens, he is inside the castle and again hears howling. He investigates and finds a bedraggled man in a cell. The man claims to be a prisoner of an insane religious order, locked up because he kissed his sweetheart in public, and beaten by Brother Jerome using the staff he carries.

Ellington is seen talking to the prisoner and is taken back to Brother Jerome. When an explanation is not forthcoming about the man in the cell, Ellington says he will leave, but also threatens to go to the police. Brother Jerome, realizing that Ellington's threat might set the prisoner free, then reveals the truth; the prisoner is not a man, but rather the Devil himself, and can only be contained by the "Staff of Truth", which Brother Jerome has. The Devil had come to the village shortly after World War I to corrupt it, but Brother Jerome had recognized him for what he was and used the staff to imprison him. These actions have given the world five years of relative peace, with only the evils created by mankind itself. Now convinced that Brother Jerome is insane, Ellington pretends to believe the incredible story. Brother Jerome is not fooled, however, and assigns another brother to watch him.

Ellington waits until his guard falls asleep, then creeps down to the cell. Seeing that the door is held shut only by a staff that is within reach of the imprisoned man, Ellington briefly wonders why the man has not simply removed it himself. 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 more and more of the appearance of the Devil with each step, before departing the castle in a plume of smoke. Brother Jerome arrives, realizes what has happened, and sadly explains that the inability to recognize the Devil has always been Man's great weakness.

The flashback ends. Ellington has been telling the 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; he has locked the Devil in a closet barred by a staff similar to the one Brother Jerome had used. Ellington intends to return him to the castle and Brother Jerome's keeping. He warns the skeptical housekeeper to not remove the staff under any circumstances, while he goes to make final preparations. As soon as Ellington leaves, the maid hears a howl from behind the door and, in her curiosity, removes the staff. The door slowly opens.

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
"The Howling Man" at TV.com

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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"