Escape Clause

"**Escape Clause**"
"Escape Clause"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 6
Directed by	Mitchell Leisen
Written by	Rod Serling
Production code	173-3603
Original air date	November 6, 1959
Guest appearances
	David Wayne as Walter Bedeker; Thomas Gomez as Mr. Cadwallader; Virginia Christine as Ethel Bedeker; Dick Wilson as insurance man #1 (Jack); Joe Flynn as insurance man #2 (Steve); Wendell Holmes as Bedeker's lawyer; Raymond Bailey as Bedeker's doctor;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Walking Distance"	Next →; "The Lonely"
	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 1)
	List of episodes

"Escape Clause" is episode six of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It is "the story of a strange contract between a mortal man and his most satanic majesty";^[1] it originally aired on November 6, 1959, on CBS.

Opening narration

You're about to meet a hypochondriac. Witness Mr. Walter Bedeker, age forty-four. Afraid of the following: death, disease, other people, germs, draft, and everything else. He has one interest in life and that's Walter Bedeker. One preoccupation: the life and well-being of Walter Bedeker. One abiding concern about society: that if Walter Bedeker should die, how will it survive without him?

Plot

Walter Bedeker, a paranoid and self-absorbed hypochondriac, is convinced his wife Ethel and his doctor (who insists Bedeker is in good health) are conspiring to kill him by purposely making him sick. After they leave, a large rotund man calling himself Cadwallader appears in Bedeker's room, offering him immortality and a near-total halt to his physical aging. Bedeker guesses Cadwallader's true identity (the Devil) but is unafraid. He haggles with Cadwallader, who admits he wants Bedeker's soul and accurately points out the other will never miss it or notice when it's gone.

Cadwallader inserts an escape clause allowing Bedeker to summon him at any time if he chooses to die. Bedeker is suspicious but after Cadwallader leaves, he tests his new power by placing his hands on a hot radiator and finding them uninjured, then throws all his medicines out of a window, to Ethel's surprise.

Bedeker uses his newfound invulnerability to commit insurance fraud, claiming false settlements, and garnering cheap thrills by hurling himself into life-threatening accidents. After doing so 14 times, he concludes that the absence of risk and fear has made his life a dreadful bore. He purposely mixes a concoction of poisonous household liquids and drinks it, shocking Ethel, but it has no effect on him at all. Bedeker explains his situation to Ethel, admonishing her that if she had any imagination, she would find some way for him to experience some excitement. Proclaiming he is going to jump down the lightwell of their apartment building, Ethel futilely tries to stop him, tragically falling to her own demise.

Bedeker calmly calls the police, confessing to murdering Ethel. He is arrested and brought to trial. He hopes to experience the electric chair. However, due to his lawyer's defense strategy, he is instead sentenced to life in prison without parole. Cadwallader appears in Bedeker's jail cell to remind him of the escape clause. Realizing he will face eternity in prison if he does not use it, Bedeker nods and immediately suffers a fatal heart attack. The guard discovers his lifeless body and sighs, "Poor devil … ."

Closing narration

There's a saying, "Every man is put on Earth condemned to die, time and method of execution unknown." Perhaps this is as it should be. Case in point: Walter Bedeker, lately deceased. A little man with such a yen to live. Beaten by the devil, by his own boredom, and by the scheme of things in this, the Twilight Zone.

Preview for next week's story

One of next week's stars is alongside me now. She'll appear in a most unusual tale called "The Lonely". It's a story that takes place on a - (female voice) an asteroid, and it's a most intriguing premise. (Serling) Sounds it. Next week on The Twilight Zone, Jack Warden, John Dehner, and Jean Marsh appear in a bizarre tale of a man and a - a woman? I don't understand it either. Thank you and good night.

Production

"Escape Clause" was one of the three episodes-in-production mentioned by Rod Serling in his 1959 promotional film pitching the series to potential sponsors, the others being "The Lonely" and "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" (referred to as "Death, Destry, and Mr. Dingle").

Impact

"Here was a little gem. Good work, Rod Serling. This little piece about a hypochondriac who gets tangled up with an obese, clerical devil ranked with the best that has ever been accomplished in half-hour filmed television." —Excerpt from the Daily Variety review.

Disney's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror has a reference to this episode located in the basement of the attraction. The elevators have a certificate of inspection plaque, signed by "Cadwallader", bearing the inspection number "10259". These numbers represent October 2, 1959, the date The Twilight Zone first aired.

References

^ Serling, Rod. Promotional spot for "Escape Clause". Original airdate: 30 October 1959.

External links

"Escape Clause" at IMDb

[preview-1] Serling, Rod. Promotional spot for "Escape Clause". Original airdate: 30 October 1959.

[1]

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"