The Masks’ Director Made Twilight Zone History In More Ways Than One

In the fifth season episode of “The Twilight Zone,” called “The Masks”, an elderly millionaire named Jason Foster (Robert Keith) has gathered his daughter, her husband, and their two adult children for a Mardi Gras gathering.

Jason, attended by his doctor (Willis Bouchey), is dying.

He expects he’ll be dead by morning.

Jason also hates his daughter and her family.

He sees Emily (Virginia Gregg) as spineless, her husband Wilfred (Milton Seltzer) as greedy, her son Wilfred, Jr.

(Alan Sues) as dumb and oafish, and her daughter Paula (Brooke Hayward) as vain and shallow.At dinner, the family members all feign politeness, but the audience trusts Jason when he says they are all terrible people who are only interested in inheriting his fortune.

After dinner, Jason calls the quartet into the drawing room for a Mardi Gras game.

The patriarch has commissioned five expressive, full-face masks that he and his family are to wear.

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