No-good bum Salvadore Ross (Don Gordon) is an angry young man who feels that life owes him; he tries to prove his worth by winning the affection of kind-hearted social worker Leah Maitland (Gail Kobe), but this prize escapes him like everything else. Unable to accept that her rejection could be due to his shortcomings as a person, Ross concludes that Leah considers herself too good for him.
Things are about to change for Salvadore when he discovers that he has an amazing ability that allows him to easily improve his social standing: he can exchange physical characteristics with others. When he breaks his hand, he makes a deal with a man with a cough to exchange ailments, and then he sells his youth to an ageing tycoon for a million dollars and a swanky pad. Then he starts to buy back his years from young men at a $1000 a year. Pretty soon, he's back to being twenty six, but now he's loaded.
The new, improved Ross tries his luck with Leah again, but she rejects him once more, telling him that he still lacks compassion. For Salvadore, that's an easy fix, but this being The Twilight Zone, there's a cruel twist in store for the man.
I like this one a lot. Don Gordon is great as Ross, utterly convincing as a volatile man who always seems just one step away from violence, at least until he makes his final deal with Leah's father. Gail Kobe, as Leah, is equally as impressive, delivering a great combination of courage and wariness in Salvadore's presence. Furthermore, the twist is genuinely clever on this occasion and for once I didn't work it out until the very last minute. Certainly, Salvadore is too slow on the uptake, a fact that costs him his life - and after he had worked so hard to make things just so. The Twilight Zone can be so cruelly ironic sometimes.
8.5/10, rounded up to 9 for IMDb.
Things are about to change for Salvadore when he discovers that he has an amazing ability that allows him to easily improve his social standing: he can exchange physical characteristics with others. When he breaks his hand, he makes a deal with a man with a cough to exchange ailments, and then he sells his youth to an ageing tycoon for a million dollars and a swanky pad. Then he starts to buy back his years from young men at a $1000 a year. Pretty soon, he's back to being twenty six, but now he's loaded.
The new, improved Ross tries his luck with Leah again, but she rejects him once more, telling him that he still lacks compassion. For Salvadore, that's an easy fix, but this being The Twilight Zone, there's a cruel twist in store for the man.
I like this one a lot. Don Gordon is great as Ross, utterly convincing as a volatile man who always seems just one step away from violence, at least until he makes his final deal with Leah's father. Gail Kobe, as Leah, is equally as impressive, delivering a great combination of courage and wariness in Salvadore's presence. Furthermore, the twist is genuinely clever on this occasion and for once I didn't work it out until the very last minute. Certainly, Salvadore is too slow on the uptake, a fact that costs him his life - and after he had worked so hard to make things just so. The Twilight Zone can be so cruelly ironic sometimes.
8.5/10, rounded up to 9 for IMDb.