Twilight Zone episode review — 4.9 — Printer’s Devil

Episode 4.9 “Printer’s Devil”
Original air date: February 28, 1963
Writer: Charles Beaumont, based on his short story
Director: Ralph Senensky

Rating: 8/10

Douglas Winter (Robert Sterling) is the editor of a failing news publication called The Courier in a small town. They’re being run out of business by a bigger newspaper, and his linotype operator quits to go work for the other newspaper. It’s just he and his girlfriend, Jackie Benson (Pat Crowley). He stands on a bridge contemplating suicide when a curious man calling himself Mr. Smith (Burgess Meredith, Rocky) comes up to him. He claims to be a linotype operator and would like to work for The Courier.

It turns out Mr. Smith is incredibly gifted, able to perform his job with incredible quickness. He also claims to be an excellent reporter. Winter says he can’t pay him, but that doesn’t discourage Mr. Smith; he views this as a challenge to bring a dead paper back to life.

The Courier begins to rebound as Mr. Smith reports on and prints shocking stories that sound unbelievable but turn out to be true. Jackie doesn’t like him or trust him and it turns out she was right to. He eventually confesses to Winter that he’s the Devil, and that he will continue working for The Courier so long as Winter gives him his soul. He brings it up almost as if it’s a joke, and of course doesn’t expect Winter to truly believe it, and that’s why it works.

Winter eventually becomes convinced that Smith is causing awful news stories to happen just so he can sell papers. He tries to fire him, but since the contract has been signed with Winter selling his soul, that doesn’t work. Smith begins working on a story in which Jackie is injured in a car accident in an hour and a half. Smith claims to have made a bunch of modifications the linotype, and that Jackie will succumb to her injuries unless Winter kills himself. Winter refuses and instead goes out looking for Jackie.

Jackie, meanwhile, comes to Mr. Smith to ask him to leave town. He says he will if she gives him a lift, but he also asks to drive.

Winter returns to the office and writes a new story on the linotype. Smith drives the car off the road and crashes it, but Jackie is uninjured, and Mr. Smith disappears. The story Winter printed was that Mr. Smith left town a minute before the car accident would have happened, and that the contract he had with Winter was declared void because Winter didn’t understand the terms.

It’s an ending that I don’t love. It’s alright, I guess, but it doesn’t leave you with that punch that The Twilight Zone did such a great job with in the other seasons.

The reason to watch this episode is Burgess Meredith. He’s so compelling as the Devil. He’s maniacal, but also alluring in a way. It’s a very fun performance, and it carries the episode.