Episode no. Season 5
Episode 26 Written by Rod Serling Original air date March 27, 1964 | Directed by Abner Biberman Production code 2630 | |
Featured music Stock from "Where Is Everybody?" by Bernard Herrmann | ||
"I Am the Night—Color Me Black" is episode 146 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on March 27, 1964 on CBS.
Contents
Plot
Sheriff Koch (Michael Constantine) cannot sleep the night before the execution of a man, as he feels conflicted about the situation. His wife Ella (Eve McVeagh) is no comfort as she snarls, "What time do they string him up; you know what I mean...what time does he get hung?" Her attitude represents the hateful sentiment of the town that looks forward to the fate of Jagger, a man who is to be hanged after being wrongfully convicted of killing a bigot in self-defense and who is unrepentant about the killing. On the day of his execution, the sun does not rise in the morning.
There is still some dispute as to whether Jagger is guilty. However, Jagger is hanged anyway, much to the delight of the town. The town reverend, who also agrees to the execution, steps in and says that the sky is black because of all the hatred in the world, namely the hatred surrounding Jagger's execution. The sky becomes even darker after the execution.
Later, a radio broadcast reveals that the town is not the only place where this disturbance is happening. The sky has turned dark over North Vietnam, a section of the Berlin Wall, a political prison in Budapest, a section of Chicago, a street in Dallas, Birmingham, Alabama, a section of Shanghai and other places of hate around the world.