JACK NICHOLSON IN THE SHINING (1980) - FINAL SHOT
After getting a comment from a reader regarding my article King, Kubrick and The Shining, the question was posed: Stephen King says that the Kubrick ending (Jack's 1921 photo) was used in an old Twilight Zone episode. Which episode is he referring to?
It took a bit of research, but what I found was startling. The 1960 Twilight Zone episode, The After Hours, stars Anne Francis as a customer in a department store who is looking to buy a gold thimble. What does this have to do with The Shining? Especially Kubrick’s version of The Shining? Plenty, although it is rather hard to describe without major spoilers. But from the ‘gray eye’ which opens the story (reminiscent of the The Shining’s first paperback edition), to the discussions between a customer and a sales clerk (which eerily mirror Jack Torrance’s conversations with Grady), to the quaint, orchestral dance hall music throughout, to the final shot, which practically screams that Stanley Kubrick took inspiration from this episode, visually and thematically, this is a prime example of how influential The Twilight Zone was and is. No, Richard Matheson did not pen this one, but series creator Rod Serling did -- and both writers have left an indelible mark on our popular culture.
The ending of Kubrick’s film is different than King’s book, and many have offered theories and conjecture as to what Kubrick meant by the gimmicky, Twilight Zone-esque shot of Jack at The Overlook some 60 years before the movie took place. Did the hotel assimilate him? Transport him back in time? Or was it simply as Grady says: “You’re the caretaker, Mr. Torrance. You’ve always been the caretaker.” This episode may shed some light on those questions.
Cop a gander and let me know your thoughts.
Comments
Are you certain about this? Now, granted, I've not watched Kubrick's Shining in awhile, but I don't see the similarities as readily as you do. The final shot? So the woman's a mannequin, and they do a c/u of her face. As I recall, Kubrick's starts w/ a c/u, pulls out to a wide shot of the photo & the text beneath. So he'd been there before, so she was really a mannequin. Sorry, I consider myself pretty philosophical and am a fan of trivia on this sort of thing, but I most certainly do not find any of the references you make "scream" anything overtly, nor hardly even remotely, familiar with Kubrick's film. Is it possible King is referring to a different episode altogether?
I have to agree with Geoff - - I too don't see any STRIKING similarity, other than the general plot device of a time-travel fantasy (which was OFTEN used in Twilight Zone episodes). You could make a similar point about the "Next Stop Willoughby" episode, and probably 20 others, but I don't see a STRONG 'copied' resemblance in Kubrick's "The Shining", a movie which I've seen often and enjoy. The music in "The After Hours" could more appropriately be thought of as background 'musak' that the dept store might have been playing, whereas the 1920/30's ballroom music playing in the psycho ballroom scenes of "The Shining" is very 'intentional' entertainment (and really evocative, in my opinion). Perhaps King was conjecturing rather than stating a known fact....
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