Mr. Garrity and the Graves

"Mr. Garrity and the Graves"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 32
Directed by Ted Post
Written by Rod Serling
(From a story by Mike Korologos)
Featured music Tommy Morgan
Production code 2637
Original air date May 8, 1964
Guest appearance(s)

John Dehner: Jared Garrity
J. Pat O'Malley: Gooberman
Stanley Adams: Jensen
John Mitchum: Ace
Percy Helton: Lapham
Norman Leavitt: Sheriff Gilchrist
Edgar Dearing: First Resurrected Man
Kate Murtagh: Zelda Gooberman
Patrick O'Moore: Man
John Cliff: Lightening Peterson
Robert McCord: Townsman In Black Hat
Cosmo Sardo: Resurrected Man

Episode chronology

"Mr. Garrity and the Graves"[1] is an episode of the American television series The Twilight Zone.

Plot

A traveling peddler, Garrity, arrives in the little, recently renamed town of Happiness, Arizona, offering to bring the townsfolk's dead back from Boot Hill. Initially, they don't believe him, but when he appears to resurrect a dead dog struck by a traveler's horse-drawn wagon, they do believe him. After performing the resurrection ritual, Garrity, in seemingly casual conversation, reminds the people about the dead and departed, almost all of whom were murdered: who died having a score to settle with whom, and so forth. The townsfolk grow uncomfortable at the thought of facing problems they thought buried with the dead; when one apparent resurrectee is seen approaching town, his brother, who shot the man himself, bribes Garrity to reverse the ritual, and the figure vanishes. Ultimately, everyone in town similarly pays Garrity to not revive their "loved ones."

Later that night, Garrity and his assistant (who was both wagon driver and "resurrectee") ride away with the money, joking about how they cannot actually bring the dead back to life: they had simply performed a few smoke and mirrors tricks to con the townsfolk, and used a dog that was alive the whole time but simply knew how to play dead. After they have left the town, the last scene reveals that the dead really are rising from the grave, with one commenting that the peddler underestimates his own ability.

References and further reading

  1. The script was published in As Timeless as Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling, Volume 6, edited by Tony Albarella (Gauntlet Press, 2009). The original script (Script 152) is part of The Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College.
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