Editing The Grave (The Twilight Zone)

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox television episode
| series   = [[The Twilight Zone]]
| image    = Lee Marvin Twilight Zone 1961.JPG
| caption  = Lee Marvin as Conny Miller
| season   = 3
| episode  = 7
| airdate  = {{Start date|1961|10|27}}
| production = 3656
| director = [[Montgomery Pittman]]
| writer   = Montgomery Pittman
| guests   = {{ubl|[[Lee Marvin]]| [[Lee Van Cleef]]| [[James Best]]| [[Strother Martin]]| [[Stafford Repp]]| [[Elen Willard]]| }}
| season_article = The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) (season 3)
| episode_list = List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes
| prev    = [[The Mirror (The Twilight Zone)|The Mirror]]
| next    = [[It's a Good Life (The Twilight Zone)|It's a Good Life]]
}}

"'''The Grave'''" is episode 72 of the American television [[anthology series]] ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]].'' It originally aired on October 27, 1961 on [[CBS]]. This is one of two episodes that were filmed during season two but held over for broadcast until season three, the other being "[[Nothing in the Dark]]".

==Opening narration==
{{cquote|Normally, the old man would be correct. This would be the end of the story. We've had the traditional shoot-out on the street and the bad man will soon be dead. But some men of legend and folk tale have been known to continue having their way even after death. The outlaw and killer Pinto Sykes was such a person, and shortly we'll see how he introduces the town and a man named Conny Miller, in particular, to the Twilight Zone.}}

==Plot==
An outlaw named Pinto Sykes is ambushed and killed by the men of a small town in the Old West. Sometime later, gunfighter Conny Miller, who had been hired to track down Sykes, arrives in town. He goes to the saloon where the men who hired him are gathered and is angry to learn that they had killed Sykes themselves. Moreover, on his deathbed Sykes accused Miller of being a coward, saying he had waited for Miller in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]] and even sent word of where he was, and threatened to reach up from his grave and grab Miller if the latter ever approached it.

Miller says that Sykes was a liar, claiming he went to Albuquerque and found no sign that Sykes had ever been there, and also denies that he is at all frightened by Sykes' threat of vengeance from beyond the grave. After Sykes' vengeful, eldritch sister Ione confronts Miller, the men say they are not convinced of Miller's story, openly admitting they themselves are frightened of Sykes. They bet Miller $20 that he is too scared to visit the grave, giving him a knife and telling him to drive it into the earth there as proof of his visit. Miller accepts the terms and departs into the cold, windy night; he reaches the grave at midnight and plants the knife as instructed, but as he attempts to leave, he is suddenly pulled back down.

When Miller fails to return the next day, Ione and the townsmen travel to the cemetery in search of him. They find him lying dead atop Sykes' grave, the knife driven through his coattail and pinning him to the ground. One man theorizes that Miller had not buttoned his coat and that the wind blew its tail over the grave; after planting the knife, Miller mistook the pinned tail for Sykes' grasping hand and died of fright. However, Ione demonstrates that the wind direction that night would have blown Miller's coattail away from the grave, not over it, and then laughs mockingly at the stupefied men as her cloak blows in a manner similar to that of the [[Grim Reaper]].

==Closing narration==
{{cquote|Final comment: you take this with a grain of salt or a shovelful of earth, as shadow or substance, we leave it up to you. And for any further research, check under 'G,' for 'ghosts'...in the Twilight Zone.}}

==Cast==
*[[Lee Marvin]] as Conny Miller
*[[James Best]] as Johnny Rob
*[[Strother Martin]] as Mothershed
*[[Elen Willard]] as Ione Sykes
*[[Lee Van Cleef]] as Steinhart
*[[William Challee]] as Jason
*[[Stafford Repp]] as Ira Broadly
*Larry Johns as Townsman
*Dick Geary as Pinto Sykes

=="The Path Through the Cemetery"==
[[Leonard Q. Ross]] published a similar story in 1941, called "The Path Through the Cemetery", set in Imperial Russia, which describes a very timid man named Ivan, who responds to a similar challenge from a [[Cossack]] officer in the Tsar's Army (some printings identify this officer as a captain, some as a lieutenant) with the sword he receives from the Cossack officer for the purpose, and meets a similar fate.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

=="The Dare"==
[[Maria Leach]] authored a compilation of ghost stories called ''The Thing at the Foot of the Bed and Other Scary Tales'' in 1959 that included a story called "The Dare", in which a group of kids sitting in front of a fire telling ghost stories dare one of the group to go to the grave of a man who was just buried earlier that day. The boy takes the dare, states he will stick a knife in the grave to prove he was there, and then proceeds to meet the same fate that night.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

==References==
* DeVoe, Bill. (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. {{ISBN|978-1-59393-136-0}}
* Grams, Martin. (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-9703310-9-0}}
* Ross, Leonard Q. "The Path Through the Cemetery." [[Saturday Review of Literature]].; 29 Nov 1941, Vol. 24, pg. 12; {{ISSN|0147-5932}}.
* {{cite book|last1=Leach|first1=Maria|title=The Thing at the Foot of the Bed and Other Scary Tales|url=https://archive.org/details/thingatfootof00leac|url-access=registration|date=1978|publisher=The World Publishing Company|location=Cleveland, OH|isbn=978-04404-877-39|edition=First}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb episode|0734643}}

{{The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grave, The}}
[[Category:1961 American television episodes]]
[[Category:The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) season 3 episodes]]