The Jeopardy Room
- Episode aired Apr 17, 1964
- TV-PG
- 25m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
A defector is trapped in a hotel room and given three hours to find a hidden bomb.A defector is trapped in a hotel room and given three hours to find a hidden bomb.A defector is trapped in a hotel room and given three hours to find a hidden bomb.
John van Dreelen
- Commissar Vassiloff
- (as John vanDreelen)
Bob Kelljan
- Boris - Vassiloff's Assistant
- (as Robert Kelljan)
Rod Serling
- Narrator
- (uncredited)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOne of a handful of TZ episodes that, notably, contains no science fiction or fantasy elements. Others include Dust (1961), The Shelter (1961), and The Silence (1961).
- GoofsWhen Boris initially shoots out the windows, while Ivan is trying to put up a blanket, there are no holes in the wall behind Ivan where the shots would have ended up.
- Quotes
[opening narration]
Narrator: The cast of characters: a cat and a mouse. This is the latter. The intended victim who may or may not know that he is to die, be it by butchery or ballet. His name is Major Ivan Kuchenko. He has, if events go according to certain plans, perhaps three or four more hours of living. But an ignorance shared by both himself and his executioner is of the fact that both of them have taken a first step - into The Twilight Zone.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Payback (1999)
Featured review
The Last Imaginative Executioner ... Or not
Major Ivan Kuchenko is a political prisoner from a non-specified country (cough**Russia**cough) who wants to escape to the free Western world, but he's being hunt down by a megalomaniacal commissioner named Vasiloff and his simple-minded assistant Boris. The two have traced Kuchenco to his hideout in a small hotel, and they easily shoot him, but Vasiloff insists to toy around with his target and kill him in an original way. Well, he shouldn't have done that.
There's nothing supernatural or fantasy-like about "The Jeopardy Room", so it's one of the few outcast episodes in the entire series. That is totally fine, though. One of my personal favorite installments is "The Shelter" and that one also doesn't feature any surreal aspects whatsoever. "The Jeopardy Room" is an enjoyably straightforward thriller, with director Richard Donner displaying his skills of generating suspense, but the story is little simplistic and badly suffering from its silly ending.
It features two very interesting actors, though. Always positive to see Martin Landau reappear in "The Twilight Zone". He starred in one of the very first episodes of Rod Serling's TV-series, and it's nice to see him return in one of the last. Bob Kelljan plays Vasiloff's not-so-intelligent and refined assistant Boris. That name might not sound very familiar, but he would later direct a handful of excellent horror/cult movies in the 70s, like "Count Yorga - Vampire", "Rape Squad" and "Black Oak Conspiracy".
There's nothing supernatural or fantasy-like about "The Jeopardy Room", so it's one of the few outcast episodes in the entire series. That is totally fine, though. One of my personal favorite installments is "The Shelter" and that one also doesn't feature any surreal aspects whatsoever. "The Jeopardy Room" is an enjoyably straightforward thriller, with director Richard Donner displaying his skills of generating suspense, but the story is little simplistic and badly suffering from its silly ending.
It features two very interesting actors, though. Always positive to see Martin Landau reappear in "The Twilight Zone". He starred in one of the very first episodes of Rod Serling's TV-series, and it's nice to see him return in one of the last. Bob Kelljan plays Vasiloff's not-so-intelligent and refined assistant Boris. That name might not sound very familiar, but he would later direct a handful of excellent horror/cult movies in the 70s, like "Count Yorga - Vampire", "Rape Squad" and "Black Oak Conspiracy".
helpful•10
- Coventry
- Jan 13, 2023
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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