Hell Is Empty, All the Devils Are Here

Peter Graves, who was on the show as the tycoon just three months before, returns as the owner of "Jungleland", a zoo full of tightly caged animals that seems to represent his own personality. He's brooding over the death of his ex-wife, who had a circus act with Tigers, one of whom killed her. Graves and his assistant, "Brauner", (played by a tight-lipped Charles Radilac), who was his wife's father blame another man, Philip Tager, (Michael Pate), for his wife's death, although it isn't clear why until the end. They are planning to set things up so Tager winds up in the cage with the same tiger that killed his wife, (Tager vs. tiger).

Graves, (his character is "Peter Hale"), has remarried and his wife, (well played by an actress named Eva Stern whose last credit of a very limited career this is) finds out about the plan and, with Tod's help, (he's been hired to care of the camels), she convinces Peter not to go through with it. It's a strong ending, although Graves would not be my choice to play a tortured soul like this man.

This was filmed in Jungleland in Thousand Oaks, California, the same location as THE FUGTIVE episode, "Last Second of a Big Dream", which was filmed three years later.

Intriguing story about a lion tamer (Graves) who keeps and cares for a lion that killed his first wife. The show opens with a well done nightmare sequence that alone makes this episode worth watching. The story behind this man's strange behavior and inner turmoil unfolds nicely and culminates with a rather shocking and intense finale. It's also fun to see Graves before his trademark gray hair. Milner again appears solo and has very little to do as the guest stars pretty much take over the show in this one. This is a drawback as the chemistry and dialogue between Maharis and Milner was always a lot of fun and helped carry many of the shows. The episode title is the best one of the series and it's a line that gets mentioned several times by the Graves character during the course of the story.

Grade B+

I'm surprised I'm only the third to leave a review on this episode. My family moved to Thousand Oaks in 1957 after my Father completed the building of our house at 1373 Montgomery Road. We were about 3 miles from Jungleland yet could hear the large felines roar and the chimps screeching. Of course, there was no 101 Freeway or much traffic noise anyway. I attended some of the Jungleland auction. I was only 12 or 13 and don't remember much. A favorite memory was at the monkey house. My mom tossed the chimps chewing gum and the chimps had a ball chewing it and pulling it out of their mouths in strings and slowly chewing it back in. An attendant came over to see why there was suddenly a large crowd and everybody laughing. Attendant chewed out the crowd for "feeding the animals" chewing gum. Later, after Jungleland was abandoned, Cory Meade and I would ride our bicycles in the animal pits. Later they became popular with skateboarders. I'm now in southern Oregon and every time I return to Thousand Oaks, I'm shocked at the change and it has only changed for the worst. drivers glaring at me because I drive "normal" and have an out of state plate like I'm just some dumb tourist. Where Jungleland once set now has some horrible looking huge building, something about a "Civic Arts" building. Hah! That's "art"? Should have left it a parking lot! Any Thousand Oakies want to chat, get me at daviddaveinternational@gmail.com David F; TOHS Class of 1973.

WIth Maharis still MIA, writer Stirling Silliphant apparently reached into his bottom drawer of discarded scripts and found this off-the-wall screenplay, one that hardly belongs on "Route 66".

Pre-credits sequence is a surreal psychodrama that is shot in the manner of an "Outer Limits" episode, presenting a nightmare experienced by guest star Peter Graves. He doesn't resemble the authoritative presence of "Mission: Impossible" but rather the stolid hero of '50s horror and sci-fi junkers. As his wife, Eva Stern is the most obscure leading lady ever cast on the show, and her line readings are poor. Another major role, the dead wife's father, was played by Charles Radilak, who is as inexpressive (a great stone face) as could be, and coincidentally later appeared in small parts on "Mission: Impossible" and "The Outer Limits". I wasn't prepared for seeing the talented character actor Michael Pate, styled to look like a stand-in double for Jerry Lewis, with identical greased-back '60s Lewis hair style. Yuck!

Set at Jungle Land park, the story resembles one of those circus cliches, with Graves haunted by the death of his first wife years later. Perhaps Silliphant wrote this trash for "One Step Beyond", as it plays like the ghost of his wife haunting the whole magilla. It ends with an anticlimax where Milner is standing around, looking useless.

The real mystery is not about the first wife but how he ended up getting hitched to Stern. Milner is wasted trying to wrangle camels (!) and the series' penchant for dealing with social issues or interesting regional populations is missing entirely.

A mix of the fascinating and the awkward. So what's bugging Jungleland owner Hale (Graves). It's something about his deceased ex-wife, but what. He keeps ruminating darkly, tormented by a recurring nightmare. Meanwhile, his sweet new wife, Julie (Stern), remains sorely neglected, a mere on-looker to Hale's secret obsession. Good thing a Buz-less Tod's hired to tend the camel herd. He's always a sympathetic ear,-- now, if he can only learn Arabic.

The plot's pretty convoluted, the revelations coming to us in spread-out drips and drabs, so it's often hard to follow. The opening, however, is a real grabber as another reviewer notes, dark figures in tilted frames that resemble Peter Gunn (1958-61) type openings. Given the story's high drama, there's more close-ups than usual, especially of Graves who performs ably. But please, writer Silliphant's penchant for poetic tropes is spread on pretty thickly, calling attention away from the characters and on to the script. His occasional lyricism is unusual for the period, but here it's more distractive than enhancing. Nonetheless, if there's padding without Buz's character to fill out the hour, it's not noticeable, while newcomer Stern also performs most ably. Too bad the actress had such a brief career since she's quite affecting as the neglected wife. Anyway, fans of roaring tigers should find a lot here to admire. But whatever the hour's drawbacks, there's still plenty to keep viewers involved.