The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Dead Woman's Shoes/Wong's Lost and Found Emporium (1985) User Reviews

Shoe heels transforms attitudes, appearances, and brings revenge justice/And a house of strange and crazy items.

[blanbrn · 6/10 · 25 November 2007]

This episode 9 from the 1985-86 season of the CBS "New Twilight Zone" featured two segments "Dead Woman's Shoes" and "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium". I will give my take on each.

First segment "Dead Woman's Shoes" featured future best actress Oscar winner and "Queen" star Helen Mirren as a poor and timid store clerk who seems hopeless. Then one day when a dead woman's clothing and shoe slippers are returned to the store and upon slipping the shoe heels on it magically transforms not only her attitude but her looks as well! The story takes on an even more interesting turn when she arrives at the dead woman's house to confront her mean and arrogant husband(Jeffrey Tambor) who's a rich and powerful entertainment lawyer. Only the painful and bitter truth will be revealed about the woman's death as these shoes show a very vengeful spirit they will walk all over you! Good segment that's acted well and uses the revenge theme well and just to note this aired on the original "Twilight Zone" as "Dead Man's Shoes".

Second segment seemed interesting at first but turned into somewhat of a yawner. Seeming to be set in San Francisco starting off at an adult bookstore and sex shop a young man stumbles in asking for a store of all apparent lost goods only to find it upon entering the backside warehouse. Finally he finds it's another dimension as everything from everywhere that's been lost turns up no matter if it's people, places, animals, arts, valuables, or anything you just name it. Overall okay episode it was just a little too fairy tale style and it seemed to fall from interest because it didn't have no real suspense.

Really a pretty decent episode that's carried pretty strongly by the first segment while the second is a yawner.

Dead Woman's Shoes

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 17 September 2011]

Mousy, nervy, wallflower (who works in a thrift store) Betty Duncan (Helen Mirren) puts on some "fancy shoes" and takes on the personality of their former owner. Mirren is a marvel, the way she goes from the thrift store bucket of nerves Betty to Susan Montgomery, the swagger, sophistication, confidence, strong-will, class, it's all there. And then, on a dime, Mirren returns to meek and timid Betty, intimidated by her own shadow. She's sensational. Well Susan's death has a reason and we follow her inside Betty's body, provoking her worried husband into action because he thought his business with her was over. Jeffrey Tambor (The Gary Shandling Show) is ideal for the role of lecherous husband, Stephen Montgomery, who is a lawyer, shaken to the core when some mysterious woman calls him claiming to be his dead wife, knowing specific details that startle him. Theresa Saldana is Inez, the maid, who is stunned by the arrival of some woman she's never seen before, Betty walking in as if she owns the place. We learn details about Inez as well, the kind only Susan would have known. When the shoes are taken off, Betty, obviously perplexed, returns, Susan temporarily gone until someone else puts them on. The transition from one character to another is quite a joy to behold, as Mirren proves here that she still had quite a career ahead of her. Seeing Tambor reduced in the presence of Mirren's Susan in their scenes together is quite a treat. Robert Pastorelli (Murphy Brown) has a cameo as some Elvis Presley wannabe who comes on strong to Betty, to little success.

eighties - I'm living in the eighties

[nebmac · 7/10 · 25 April 2016]

"Dead Woman's Shoes": Does anyone else think this segment dates itself much more strongly than previous episodes of the series? Must be the hair. Anyway, Helen Mirren joins the parade of actors who appear in the Twilight Zone before making it big. And being Helen Mirren, she doesn't disappoint in the dual role of a socially awkward pushover mysteriously transformed into a wronged wife looking for revenge.

"Wong's Lost and Found Emporium": The main problem here is that the characters are boring. Wong is a jerk because the world is racist, Melinda is trapped in a joyless life, the old woman wants more time to make art, and the old man can't get any damn respect from his kids. Sure, it's all realistic enough, but the story would work a lot better if the characters' losses were the result of something more tangibly dramatic, such as murder of a close friend (Wong), sexual assault (Melinda), terminal illness (the old woman)...I can't think of anything for the old man, but you get the idea. Incidentally, Anna Maria Poon's portrayal of Melinda was very personable. I wonder why she didn't have a more fruitful career in Hollywood.

Possessed shoes, and an emporium of human discovery.

[b_kite · 6/10 · 8 December 2018]

Episode nine returns back to two segments. The first "Dead Woman's Shoes" has Helen MIrren as a shy quiet woman who works at a thrift store. She tries on a pair of black high heels one day and becomes its owner, a hellbent on revenge woman who mysteriously died, but, did her husband have anything to do with it?. This really is a pretty good tale primarily due to the acting talents of Mirren and Jeffrey Tambor. The conclusion is also fun to. The second "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" has a man looking for a magic store were one can rediscover there lost emotions, including humanity, compassion, and sense of humor. It's incredibly sappy and the acting isn't to good to boot which doesn't help it. As another reviewer so rightly said my main issue with the 1980s version of the series is that it seems to be full of sappy heartstrings episodes. while Serling's original series was more influenced by unsettling questions of morals and the unexplained. Overall a decent episode.

Brilliant Remake Matched With a Weak Original

[chrstphrtully · 7/10 · 2 February 2017]

DEAD WOMAN'S SHOES (9 of 10)

Remakes can often be tiresome affairs -- after all, the writers, directors, crews and actors are all essentially walking in footsteps that were left (usually) by creators of great imagination and impact. Too often in film and television, this leads to a form of laziness or misguided reverence: producers will hire people who they can rely upon to produce a profitable product, without concern for whether those people can put a thoughtful and innovative stamp on the work; otherwise creative professionals simply feel content following the same path as their predecessor(s); or those same producers and/or professionals who feel the original work is so untouchable that they fear any effort to make it their own defiles the original. Consequently, it's not surprising that many viewers feel a chill go down their spine at the mention of the word "remake."

Which brings us to a very welcome departure from this normal state of affairs. "Dead Woman's Shoes" is a remake of "Dead Man's Shoes," a largely forgettable (in my opinion) episode from the third season of The Twilight Zone's initial incarnation. In the original version, written by Charles Beaumont and (uncredited) OCeo Ritch, Warren Stevens played a vagrant who takes the fancy shoes off of a corpse and, upon putting them on, is possessed by the vengeful spirit of the dead man, with an eye on getting even with the crooked partner who had him murdered. The conceit was an ingenious one, but the script itself was flat and Stevens didn't do much to elevate the piece (which is otherwise occupied by a bunch of B-movie stereotypes). As mentioned above, the result is forgettable. What a difference two decades, a more thoughtful script, and imaginative performances can make.

In "Dead Woman's Shoes," Helen Mirren gives a knockout performance as a mousy thrift-store employee who tries on an expensive pair of shoes, and becomes possessed with the spirit of a murdered woman, out to take revenge on the husband (Jeffrey Tambor) who murdered her. Lynn Barker's script effectively creates the template for the night and day contrast of Mirren's character, and Mirren's physical and vocal performance allows us to see both characters in the snap of a finger (or, more precisely, the putting on and taking off of a shoe); each performance is equally believable and effectively delivers on the story's underlying conceit. Barker also avoids the original's mistake of focusing so exclusively on the lead character that the supporting characters become stick figures: both Tambor's character and the family maid (wonderfully played by Theresa Saldana) are created as fully rounded human beings. Each scene between two or more of these characters conveys an unspoken history amongst them which enlivens the suspense, a testament to Barker's script, Peter Medak's direction, and there performances of Mirren, Tambor, and Saldana. All this, and a final twist that also improves on the original.

In short, an exception to the rule of remakes and a worthy addition to not only the mid-1980s series, but the entire Twilight Zone canon.

WONG'S LOST AND FOUND EMPORIUM (3 of 10)

The laws of physics tell us that for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Apparently, this rule can also apply to many episodes of the mid-1980s "Twilight Zone" series, where multiple stories were combined into a single episode, and a well-done piece was accompanied by a real clunker. This segment, which aired together with the marvelous "Dead Woman's Shoes," would seem to serve as a definitive example of this principle.

Through a door in a San Francisco sex shop (which easily provides the most lively scene in the segment), a jaded young man (Brian Tochi) accesses a mysterious storeroom in search of the eponymous emporium. Soon, other people start drifting in via entrances in other parts of the country: an elderly woman seeking to recapture her artistic spirit/talent; a young woman trying to recover her sense of humor; an older man trying to regain the respect of his children. The young man is dismissive of their needs since, of course, he's trying to get back his empathy. If the story sounds like abstract theater, imagine the worst possible kind.

The script is a major letdown from the usually fine Alan Brennert (whose Zone episodes include "Her Pilgrim Soul," "A Message From Charity," and "Dead Run"). Unlike those scripts, which allowed the characters to reveal themselves through normal conversation, Brennert's teleplay here consists almost exclusively of clumsy exposition and risible epiphanies. For example, each person is able to precisely identify that part of themselves they want to recover, and say so in so many words. In the Tochi character's case, it is particularly glaring, as the fact that he realizes he's lost his empathy and wants it back would seem to be entirely inconsistent with someone who has lost his empathy.

The direction and production design aren't much of a help. The warehouse looks like nothing more than the props closet for a Guillermo del Toro film, and the actors are blocked in a fashion that looks like something out of a low-quality acting class. When old hands like Carol Bruce and Stacy Keach, Sr. can't make their characters seem believable, you know you've got a problem.

Ah, well, at least there's "Dead Woman's Shoes" -- and the woes of the sex shop customer expressing dissatisfaction with the blow-up doll he purchased...

Dead Woman's Shoes is a very different and vastly superior remake to the 1960's TZ ep

[smithbea · 10/10 · 19 September 2020]

In the original (slightly different titled TZ ep) it all took place in a few hours. The remake takes place over days. Has an excellent change of sex for the lead. Also, a lot of very sexy fun is the remake whereas the original was mostly drab (despite a jazz score). Helen Mirren was a great lead in this.

The First Rather Pedestrian and the Second Bradburyian

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 20 April 2017]

The first episode involves a murderous husband, Jeffrey Tambor, and a shy, frightened woman, Helen Mirren. When she puts on a pair of fancy shoes, she becomes the incarnation of a murdered woman and seeks revenge on her husband. When the shoes come off, she reverts back to her previous self. Interesting premise but not all that complex. The second involves an ethereal curiosity shop where people go to find the things they've lost. Not corporeal things but personal things, like respect, time, compassion, and a sense of humor. A young Asian man has become bitter and it's what he locates here with the help of a pretty young woman that changes his life for the better.

Reboot of Dead Man's Shoes

[wdannygi · 14 June 2019]

Wasn't as good as the original version. The shoes were the property of a murdered gangster thrown in a alley next to a sleeping bum. Both versions failed to explain how did the character take the shoes off to take a shower without getting spooked. The original had the cool gangster music whenever the bum put the shoes on.

A pair of shoes that brings grooming and confidence

[enziangenciana · 10/10 · 24 April 2012]

The pair of shoes that once belonged to a woman was sent to a thrift shop after she passed away. Maddie Duncan, or Betty, starts this episode by portraying such a shy and timid woman working at a thrift store and then she changes into such a different woman after she tries a pair of shoes at the store. Dramatically, the pair of shoes returns to the house where it came from like a boomerang. Susan Montgomery's vengeful spirit possesses her and then she finds her husband and retells him the details of his murder. Maddie knew secrets from her maid and her husband that only she would have known. Her pair of shoes even changed the way that she dresses. A pair of shoes did the work on this episode to take care of a murderer

Not bad but not great either.

[mm-39 · 6/10 · 26 April 2024]

Well if you had to pick the better of the two I liked Dead Woman's Shoes. What works was the transformation of a clerk who's wears the shoes dropped off by a lawyer who's wife recently died. These shoes are not the ones from the Wizard of Oz! Hell no, but bad ass shoes which possess the person who wear them by the old wife. Well, the clerk acting like the rich women was great acting, but the viewer asks why did the happen? Which was the plot device which keeps the viewer wanting more. A murder victim wanting revenge plot twist was great. Wong's Lost and Found Emporium well let's just write was a better short story than a t v installment. A fantasy story Wong finds after years of not caring gives Wong what is lacking in the guys life. It just took too long to divulge the wholes story. You wanted to like Wong, but it just took too long. Split the two and I the N0v 22 installment 6 stars.

One decent tale with Helen Mirren, and another disappointingly saccharine effort

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 9 April 2015]

DEAD WOMAN'S SHOES is one of the better episodes of this series, featuring a decent story for once (and one that's an apparent twist on an episode of the original TWILIGHT ZONE). It involves the shoes of a murdered woman which are bought by a bookish woman (Helen Mirrne, of all people). When she puts them on she finds herself possessed by the spirit of the deceased woman, who's lusting for revenge.

It's a straightforward tale and one that's handled fairly adroitly, but of course the big draw here is seeing Helen Mirren in a very unusual production for her compared to the highbrow efforts of THE QUEEN and the like. Mirren is pretty good actually, and there's a nice little role for HELLBOY's Jeffrey Tambor as the villain of the piece. Not perfect, but one of the better episodes in this series.

WONG'S LOST AND FOUND EMPORIUM is, unfortunately, another unappetising episode of THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE, a preachy and sickly-sweet story about the titular premises where visitors can discover the important things they've since lost. In reality this leads to scenes where characters rediscover their humanity, their compassion, and their sense of humour, but it's all as cheesy and uninteresting as it sounds.

My favourite TWILIGHT ZONE episodes are the ones that pose genuinely unsettling questions about life on our planet - the classic spooky episodes that pose moral questions or raise points about the unexplained. Sadly, this 1980s series seemed more interested in sappy, saccharine-sweet episodes designed to warm your heartstrings, but they leave me stone cold. The routine production values and the dated styles of acting don't help much either.

Brian Tochi guest stars

[safenoe · 8/10 · 1 February 2022]

Brian Tochi guest stars in Wong's Lost and Found Emporium and does a decent job to bring out the emotions. I like the 80s reboot of the Twilight Zone which was brave in light of the Twilight Zone movie tragedy.