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"The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" is episode 88 of the American television anthology series ''The Twilight Zone''. It originally aired on February 23, 1962 on CBS. ==Plot== In the mid-1920s in a small rural town in the "southernmost section of the Midwest," a man, Jeff Myrtlebank, returns to life at his own funeral. The townspeople believe that the man must be possessed by a haint (a wandering demon), even though the town doctor declares it was more than likely a medical condition that imitated death. Jeff seems normal enough, yet he has changed: he has suddenly become a hard worker with exceptional strength. Discussing the puzzle, his mother says she is real concerned at how he's behaving: "He's different. Not like he was at all,... And the way he goes at that hard work. Why, he was never that friendly with work before." His father agrees with her. "I recollect worrying many times that he leaned just a shade tow'rd this side of shiftlessness." "Not lazy, exactly, but..." his mother says, and his father completes her sentence with, "No, no, just uninterested." When he goes to visit Comfort, he brings a bouquet of roses, but they are all dead. Afraid, Comfort will not let him touch her after she sees them. Her older brother confronts him and tells him to leave and never come back, and they fight. Myrtlebank defeats him readily, the first time that has ever happened, and that gains Comfort's sympathy. "Poor Jeff," she says. "He hasn't got anybody." After the fight, the townsfolk gather and start saying they need to take care of this evil amongst them. Comfort races off to warn Myrtlebank and to avow her love for him. He proposes to her, but before she can respond to his proposal, angry townspeople arrive to confront the demon they believe is possessing Jeff. They demand that he leave. He insists that Comfort answer his proposal first, and she tells him yes. Myrtlebank then makes an inspired speech in which he tells them that they are wrong and have nothing to fear from him. He also slyly threatens that if they're right, it might be in their best interests to be nice to him. They nervously accept the wisdom of this, and promise to attend Jeff and Comfort's wedding. After they leave, Comfort asks him. "You couldn't really do all that, could you?" He says he hated lying to them, but when something comes up, "You gotta cope with it." As he speaks, he pulls out a pipe and a match, which lights by itself. When Comfort asks how he lit the match, he laughs and says, "Comfort, first thing you got to learn is not to imagine things." He puts his arm around her shoulders to take her inside. As they walk toward the house, the fence gate closes behind them on its own. ==Cast== *James Best as Jeff Myrtlebank *Sherry Jackson as Comfort Gatewood *Edgar Buchanan as Doc Bolton *Lance Fuller as Orgram Gatewood *Dub Taylor as Mr. Peters *Ralph Moody as Pa Myrtlebank *Ezelle Poule as Ma Myrtlebank *Helen Wallace as Ma Gatewood *Vickie Barnes as Liz Myrtlebank *Jon Lormer as Strauss *James Houghton as Jerry *William Fawcett as Rev. Siddons *Mabel Forrest as Mrs. Ferguson *Patrick Hector as Tom 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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