The Twilight Zone (TV Series) The Last Night of a Jockey (1963) User Reviews

Good but not great

[DGPTA · 7/10 · 26 March 2020]

Something about this episode just didn't quite pull me in, I'm really not sure why. I mean it is still great especially for it's time, Rooney is always fun to watch, but compared to other stories I found this one a little more...uninspired, I guess? I LOVED how they kept changing the size of the objects in the room to make Rooney appear taller, very clever move in an age before CGI, but it just seemed a little basic. I couldn't quite figure out why his conscience was so...cruel. He was acting more like a paranoid schizophrenic than someone genuinely communicating with their mind that also grants wishes...if that makes any sense.

You'll probably like it but just thought I'd share my experience, again it's hardly the worst TZ episode, but something about it just didn't grab me like other "paranormal" episodes have....(admittedly I prefer the sci-fi/tech story lines more but these are fun too).

Perhaps this one went on a bit too long...

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 16 June 2010]

This is a highly unusual episode of "The Twilight Zone" in that the entire show was done using one actor! Mickey Rooney not only plays the lead but does the narration--as the conscience of the jerk that Rooney plays in the show.

The entire show takes place in a small apartment. Rooney is apparently a horrible person--an ex-jockey who has lost his good name since he is a cheat and a very unlikable jerk. Then, out of the blue, his conscience (or is it?) begins to harangue him--belittling him as a petty little man--in more ways than one. After a bit of verbal abuse, the voice asks him what he wants more than anything else...at which point Rooney says "to be big"--and he gets his wish.

Whether or not you like this monologue really depends on if you think it's too much (like I did) or just right (like the other reviewers). It's not a bad idea but it just seemed to go on and on too long--like the plot idea couldn't support the 25 minutes of the show. It just seemed to drag and the ending seemed, as a result, a bit of an anti-climax.

By the way, this particular episode was written by Rod Serling--who was himself 5'4".

The man in the mirror

[Calicodreamin · 5/10 · 22 June 2021]

This episode is very similar to a previous twilight zone with a lone man talking to his conscious. Great acting from Rooney but the dialogue was repetitive and the outcome predictable.

Rooney's 23-minute course in overacting. A bonanza.

[fedor8 · 5 April 2022]

That's mighty rich, Serling calling Rooney a runt, a "small man". Rod is what... a whole half-millimeter taller than Rooney? Are we to suspect that Rod may have projected some of his own small-man complexes onto the character?

An awful episode that is basically a rehash of "Nervous Man In a 4-Dollar Room", and just as dull.

Rooney hams it up "all the way to 11". This "performance" may have served as a blueprint to kick-start the careers of infamous overactors John Travolta and Nick Cage.

Even worse than Rooney's grimaces is the voice he provides for his sociopathic alter ego, in which his overacting is appropriately mirrored with his "overspeaking". The voice is full of lame, low-tier sarcasm. Pretty awful.

These overly theatrical mono-setting episodes are usually the worst. If you're shooting TV or film, then do either TV or film. Cheesy theater isn't what anyone needs in shows like TZ.

Rooney Gets Carried Away As Grady, Mounted In His Room

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 21 February 2019]

The episode is basically Mickey Rooney as a jockey, Grady, whose career has been rocked with scandal and is ending with a big one. Then Grady falls asleep and dreams that his alter ego is talking to him and is part of the blame for all his troubles.

The dream the expands to the sleeping Rooney waking up a much bigger man than whe he went to sleep. Everything seems out of wack until Grady gets a phone call that the owners want him back. Only now he is too big to ride any horse.

At the end, this Serling tale pinches the viewer when they realize this is all just a dream. For it is just another visit, to the Zone.

A Big Man

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 18 October 2023]

The jockey Grady has been banned from the races after doping his horse. He claims that he is innocent to the board. Alone in his apartment, he overhears a voice that identifies as his alter-ego. The voice questions what Grady would like to be, and he says "a bigger man"; but not in the sense of a better man. He just wants to be taller. Soon he sees that his wish was granted.

"The Last Night of a Jockey" is an episode of "The Twilight Zone" with only one actor, Mickey Rooney. He performs a man with no (or poor) ambition that has the chance to fix his life for good and become a better man, but wastes the chance with a stupid wish. The episode is slow and a little boring, but worthwhile watching. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Quem Tudo Quer, Tudo Perde" ("Grasp All, Loose All")

Big Man, Yesterday!

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 11 December 2008]

Sometimes we forget what a great actor Mickey Rooney was. He was multi-talented, full of energy, and always gave a great show, even when he was twelve years old. In this tour de force, he plays a jockey who has been caught doping horses and throwing races. He has been issued a lifetime ban from racing, basically ending his productive life. Despite this, he still blames everyone else. As he lies in self pity in a crummy room, he begins to hear voices from his subconscious. These are later made visual in mirrors, coffee pots, shards of glass. They taunt him and belittle him. He responds with violence and anger. He always wanted to be a big man, a man people would look up to. Well, Serling throws him that bone. What happens as a result is pure Twilight Zone.

Dull reworking of 'Nervous Man In A Four Dollar Room'.

[darrenpearce111 · 4/10 · 13 January 2014]

I have a request to make. Would you please watch 'Nervous Man In A Four Dollar Room' (season two) before seeing this, a much inferior and obvious reworking of the same scenario? That is to say, if you must watch this one at all. The ending here is truly lame and this episode is best taken as the flip side of 'Nervous Man'.

Mickey Rooney provided a DVD commentary for this episode and surprisingly said he thought this episode was best. Admittedly there are some nice touches where the jockey Grady sees his alter ego in different places in the room (the whole story takes place in one room). Rooney makes a good effort but his performance suffers from being completely solo. In 'Nervous Man' Joe Mantell isn't quite always alone. I love 'The Twilight Zone' and I don't normally find it too preachy like some say. However, in this case it is dark ,dull, and preachy.

Part of the sports-themed/broken men line of episodes

[jcravens42 · 9/10 · 28 June 2008]

You could make a special showing of just the Twilight Zones that were about broken men with ruinous desires (maybe someone has?), and you would have quite a depressing evening of episodes, including this one. Or maybe an evening of the shows with a sports-related theme? That would also include this one and also be depressing... anyway, what stands out about this episode is the knockout performance by Mickey Rooney, who flawlessly plays two characters, and his conversations with himself are the perfect mix of mocking and creepiness. You will see the O. Henry-esquire ending coming a mile a way, but even so, it's well worth your time to watch. It would be so great to read what reviewers said about this episode and Rooney's performance back in the day. Sadly, the audio commentary by Rooney on the DVD Special Edition is not so great - he doesn't really provide any insight into this episode nor into Serling. He also dismisses the idea that there are so many modern fans of the show among young people.

A Big Man

[AaronCapenBanner · 4/10 · 5 November 2014]

Mickey Rooney is the whole show here playing a troubled Jockey named Grady who was recently banned for horse betting and doping, though he adamantly maintains his innocence and the unfairness of his treatment. While raging in his hotel room, an inner voice asks him what his ultimate wish is, and Grady decides he wants to be big, as he is tired of being a little man, with little respect. Unfortunately for Grady, he didn't think this wish through properly, as he'll discover when it is granted... Rooney tries awfully hard, and though he is believable, his character is too obnoxious, and ultimate reveal too predictable to make this succeed. Not much point to this really.

"I wanna be BIG!"

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 19 July 2010]

If you've seen enough Twilight Zone stories, you'll come to realize that Rod Serling quite often took a particular theme, and then reworked it to arrive at a diametrically opposite conclusion. In fact he did that with the prior series episode, 'A Kind of a Stopwatch', which had all the earmarks of the first season's 'Time Enough at Last'. Each story was resolved with it's protagonist facing a catastrophic future, but for significantly different reasons.

This one appears to recall the third season's 'Four O'Clock', in which Theodore Bikel's character presumes to identify all evil people in the world at a pre-ordained time by reducing them to miniature size. He's condemned to suffer his own punishment when his desire is exposed for the evil that it truly is.

With 'The Last Night of a Jockey', Rod Serling takes the same basic idea and stands it on it's head. Mickey Rooney's character wants to be big, at least make it big, but he didn't exactly clarify his terms. The Twilight Zone had a way of conferring a literal meaning on every miscreant's wish, and consequently they wound up getting exactly what they asked for.

Whether you're a Mickey Rooney fan or not, you'll be impressed with his performance here. He's actually portraying two characters - Grady the horse doping, race fixing jockey under suspension for his misdeeds, and his alter-ego conscience trying to show himself the error in his thinking. As he did in 'Four O'Clock', Serling telegraphs the ending so it winds up what you expected, but still delivering an instructive twist to make it worth your while.

Borefest

[Snownoise · 1/10 · 11 February 2021]

It's just a showcase of Mickey Rooney's acting skills. Boy, he can act, but that's all. It was so boring, I forgot how boring those episodes in the beginning of season 4 were. One strange thing is that the jockey was a big shot, but his room is almost the same as 4 dollar hotel room. It should be bigger and fancier.

Last Night of a Jockey

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 29 August 2011]

Mickey Rooney acts his guts out with this intense, fierce, volatile performance as a former jockey given a lifetime suspension for supposedly doping a horse among other criminal acts forbidden by the profession coming apart at the seams as his balanced, calm, assured alter ego wants a word with him. I mean Rooney delivers everything including the kitchen sink with this performance, it runs the gamut, especially in regards to full-blown anger and rage. As Grady, Rooney ably portrays a man at the end of his rope—I found some similarities between this and "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" which also features a man communicating with his alter ego who wants to take over so that the character can escape his miserable existence—needing a psychological "fixer upper" before he completely goes off the deep end. Grady's heart's desire was to be "big" and he gets his wish; it comes with a price. This episode has Rooney in one single, solitary room for the ENTIRE episode, debating and arguing with the inner self that he can in fact resurrect his fallen career. It really is a one-act show, and that room sure does take a beating. Windows are broken, bottles of liquor and trophies (he had won in the past, perhaps underhandedly) hurled across the room, anything that is in his trajectory during one of his temperamental tantrums is mincemeat. The fantasy element is that Grady gets his wish (how is uncertain), the fact that he will be "larger than life", but such a wish will cost him dearly as the room he destroys becomes smaller until his head touches the ceiling! If you love Rooney (this isn't Andy Hardy folks), then this is a showcase you can't miss.

Saddled with a dull script.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 15 April 2022]

The Last Night of a Jockey is a showcase for the acting talent of Mickey Rooney, who puts in an impressive performance as Michael Grady, a jockey who has been banned from his sport for alleged horse-doping and race fixing. While in his apartment, Grady hears a voice - his conscience or alter-ego - that, after a few home truths, claims it can grant one wish for the washed-up jockey.

The moral of this episode is that you don't measure the size of a man with a ruler but by his actions. A fair point, and one that would have been close to 5' 4" Rod Serling's heart, but it doesn't make for a particularly engaging tale. The story is really drawn out, even at 25 minutes, and despite Rooney's best efforts, this dreary, dialogue-heavy, one-man show runs out of steam way before the predictable outcome.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for the scaled-down set made to make Rooney look like the big man he wishes to be.

Grady rides again

[sol1218 · 8/10 · 25 September 2011]

(Spoilers) Mickey Rooney in a tour de fore one man performance as corrupt and unscrupulous thoroughbred racehorse jockey Grady who's now facing a lifetime suspension for both pulling and doping horses by the racing commission.

Small in both stature, barley five feet tall, as well as in honesty, in him being suspended dozens of times by the racing commission, Grady crying in his beer in his cheap hotel room gets an unexpected visit from his alter ego or conscience also played by Mickey Rooney. Grady at first thinking that he's hallucinating soon realizes that his alter ego knows as much if not more about him then even he does. Always feeling inferior because of his size which in fact made Grady at one time a top jockey all he want's to be is a real big man. A man so big not only in size but in everything that he does were the girls, who want nothing at all to do with him, would not treat him like the great lover that he feels that he is.

We as well as Grady's alter ego see where he's going which is straight down the rat hole in that he's so screwed up in the head that the very thing that made him rich & famous as well as attractive to the opposite sex on and off the racetrack-his cuddliness and small size-is the one thing that he's so ashamed of and wants to get rid of!

****SPOILERS*** In the end as Grady's suspension from racing is unexpectedly lifted he does get his wish in being not only a big man the the biggest man on record, over 10 feet tall, in all human history! Far too big in that he'll crush any horse he's to ride on. Now just when things were about to break his way Grady has screwed it all up again by not using his head when he was given, by his alter ego, a chance to use it to get himself out of the sorry mess that he now finds himself in.

P.S Even after the Twilight Zone episode is over you soon begin to realize what a first class jerk Grady really is. Now being the tallest man in the world he could have used that, like becoming a multi-million dollar super star basketball player, to become far more rich and famous then he ever was as a jockey. Not to mention all the classy and gorgeous girls who would flock to him like they did, by the hundreds if not thousands, to the late seven foot two inches tall Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain. But in being not too bright and always feeling sorry for himself even when,like in this case, he doesn't have to Brady blew that golden opportunity as well!

The dullest 25 minutes in the entire dimension of sound, sight, and mind

[Coventry · 3/10 · 21 September 2022]

Do you also love the intro-sequences of "The Twilight Zone" so much? Rod Serling's stern and ominous narrating voice saying stuff like: You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind... Well, in "The Last Night of a Jockey", all three the dimensions apparently fit into one single and utterly DULL room!

As much as I love Rod Serling and the wonderful Sci-Fi/fantasy universe he created with "The Twilight Zone", this must - hands down - be the most boring and uninteresting script he ever penned down. I never cared much for Mickey Rooney as an actor, so he's well cast as the whiny and self-pity-sick jockey (he is short, after all) who's banned from professional horse-racing. As if one Rooney isn't enough yet, he starts talking to his own conscience that appears as another Rooney in every reflecting object. And that really is all they do... talk. Knowing Rod Serling, I'm sure there's a valuable life-lesson hidden somewhere, but the dialogues were just too dull to listen to.

Remember, Schultz; Be Careful What You Ask For, Because You Will Get It!"

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 12 September 2009]

WE HAVE here today, for your approval, a deeply psychological tale; attempting to explore in its alloted 30 minutes of air time what goes on in the depths of inner-space, which is our own human mind.

THA COMBINATION of Messers Rod Serling (writer) and Mickey Rooney (master actor), manages to pull off the complete crossing over from our comfortable world to "that sign post, up ahead....., THE TWILIGHT ZONE. The merging of such talents into what is essentially one coherent force is seldom realized in Film to such a high degree. And lest we forget, this is very near to the time when some fishy character (Newron Minnmow)branded Television as being just "a vast wasteland."

OUR STORY........... Our main character, played to a proverbial tee by the artist formerly named Joe Yule, Jr.(Mickey) is a disgraced Jockey, who is hold up in his dingy single room pad; alone and self pitying himself about his having been recently suspended from horse racing for some (apparrently bone fide)serious rule breaking. He is alone and frustrated over his prospects (or rather lack there of) he begins to have some very frank discussions with his own conscience.

HIS CONSCIENCE or alter ego, if you will, appears as an image of Mr. Rooney, appearing in mirror or crystal object.* His conscience is a much tougher task master than Jimminy Cricket; as revealed to the audience by the no nonsense dialog that ensues between the "two".

AFTER LENGTHY diatribes which pulled no punches, the "Conscience" lets it be known that he has the power to grant any wish to the despondent jockey. Unhesitatingly the suspended equestrian shouts: "I EANNA BE BIG!" His wish is granted and we next observe a seemingly super giant of a man; where a small,man once was.

NO SOONER does all of this transpire' when the solace of the room is broken by the ringing of the telephone. To his amazement and for a brief, fleeting moment, the now huge guy is elated. His conscience quickly reminds him that he is now a large guy, as he ordered.

THE ACTION of the play fades to black with the accompaniment of Mr. Rooney's voice, frighteningly shouting: "I'M TOO BIG! I'M TOO BIG! I'M..........

ADDITIONAL TO A very fine script and outstanding performance by the Star, Mickey Rooney, the props department and special effects boys shared in so much of the success of THE TWILIGHT ZONE: The Lasr Night of a Jockey. The scaled down room. furniture and even electronic gadgets such as the Telephone were most effective in bringing us to that pit of despair that was his room.

IN A ROUNDABOUT way, we were being forced to think about just what is truly important in our lives; and it is done without being sanctimonious, heavy-handed or preachy.

WE PERSONALLY rate this installment of THE TWILIGHT ZONE as being right up at the top; along with such titles as Dearh's Head Revisited and THE HUNT.

NOTE: * This was a most effective use special effects; as one could easily forgot that this was essentially a one man show. The lengthy exchanges of conversation were just that good.

Be careful what you wish for...

[gregorycanfield · 8/10 · 3 June 2021]

Twilight Zone was famous for the "moment of revelation" which came at the end of each episode. In the case of this episode, the title gives away a bit too much. If it's the jockey's "last night," that has to mean the "end" of something. The story is not original for the series. I can think of two other TZ episodes which have something in common with this one. They are "The Invaders" with Agnes Morehead (also an episode with only one actor.) and Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, another story of a self-pitying loser being lectured by his alter ego. Mickey Rooney is good in the part, but generates little sympathy. His character is very unlikeable, and this unlikeable character has to carry the whole show. It really comes down to personal opinion. In my opinion, "Nervous Man" was the better of two similar episodes.

Good and bad

[rmj142 · 13 August 2011]

I was not impressed by this episode except for one interesting aspect.

Mickey Rooney is at his over-acting nutty self-loathing worst here. He indulges in rather pointed self hate by calling himself a runt and other pleasantries.

The basic "be careful what you wish for because you might get it" plot has been done to death by TV, movies, and literature.

The "special effects" are crude and fail completely to make Rooney appear "big". A more effective tactic would have been to have Grady (Rooney's character) live above the stable and interact with a horse or horses. At the end just replace the full size animals with small ponies for a simple yet visually interesting effect.

The one laudable angle to this episode is that it presented a compelling allegory of Rooney's life. Here Grady was a jockey who wished to be "big" and when granted the wish he was too large to continue as a jockey. In real life Mickey Rooney was at his zenith when he was "small" and when he became "big" he failed to achieve at the same high level. Becoming an adult had the same result for Mickey Rooney that becoming a large man had for Grady.