The Prime Mover

21st episode of the 2nd season of The Twilight Zone

"The Prime Mover"

The Twilight Zone episode

Christine White, Dane Clark, Buddy Ebsen and Jane Burgess

Episode no.

Season 2
Episode 21

Directed by

Richard L. Bare

Written by

Charles Beaumont

Story by

George Clayton Johnson (uncredited)

Featured music

Stock

Production code

173-3647

Original air date

March 24, 1961 (1961-03-24)

Guest appearances

Dane Clark as Ace Larsen
Buddy Ebsen as Jimbo Cobb
Jane Burgess as Sheila
Christine White as Kitty Cavanaugh

Episode chronology

← Previous
"Static"

Next →
"Long Distance Call"

The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 2)

List of episodes

"The Prime Mover" is episode 57 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on March 24, 1961, on CBS.

Opening narration

Portrait of a man who thinks and thereby gets things done. Mr. Jimbo Cobb might be called a prime mover, a talent which has to be seen to be believed. In just a moment he'll show his friends, and you, how he keeps both feet on the ground, and his head in the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Small-time gambler Ace Larsen discovers that his partner, Jimbo Cobb, has telekinetic powers after a car overturns outside their café and Jimbo moves the car without touching it.

Ace plans to use Jimbo's powers to win big in Las Vegas, and he takes his girlfriend Kitty with them. Ace wins every bet he makes, disregarding Jimbo's headaches from the use of his powers and his growing moral concerns over what they are doing, and accumulates hundreds of thousands of dollars in winnings. Kitty becomes disgusted with Ace's behavior and leaves, so Ace hires the casino's cigarette girl as his companion for the night and has the manager call Phil Nolan, a notorious gangster from Chicago. Ace and Nolan begin a private game of craps, with Ace winning roll after roll. Ignoring Jimbo's interruptions, Ace decides to bet all his money on the next roll but unexpectedly loses; Jimbo says afterward that his powers had suddenly failed him. The loss awakens Ace to the reality of what he has become, and he and Jimbo have a good laugh over their misfortune and return home with Kitty.

Back at the café, Ace asks Kitty to marry him just as Jimbo drops his broom. She flips a coin, and Ace calls "heads". Without showing Ace the coin or telling him the result of the flip, she decides to accept his proposal. As they embrace, Jimbo picks up the broom telekinetically, revealing he faked his loss of power to snap Ace out of his greed.

Closing narration

Some people possess talent, others are possessed by it. When that happens, the talent becomes a curse. Jimbo Cobb knew, right from the beginning - but before Ace Larsen learned that simple truth, he had to take a short trip - through The Twilight Zone.

Cast

Dane Clark as Ace Larsen
Buddy Ebsen as Jimbo Cobb
Christine White as Kitty Cavanaugh
William Keene as Desk clerk
Nesdon Booth as Big Phil Nolan
Clancy Cooper as Trucker
Jane Burgess as Sheila

Production

The crash scene re-uses footage from the 1958 film Thunder Road.

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

External links

"The Prime Mover" at IMDb

The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes

Season 1

Season 2

"King Nine Will Not Return"
"The Man in the Bottle"
"Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room"
"A Thing About Machines"
"The Howling Man"
"Eye of the Beholder"
"Nick of Time"
"The Lateness of the Hour"
"The Trouble with Templeton"
"A Most Unusual Camera"
"The Night of the Meek"
"Dust"
"Back There"
"The Whole Truth"
"The Invaders"
"A Penny for Your Thoughts"
"Twenty Two"
"The Odyssey of Flight 33"
"Mr. Dingle, the Strong"
"Static"
"The Prime Mover"
"Long Distance Call"
"A Hundred Yards Over the Rim"
"The Rip Van Winkle Caper"
"The Silence"
"Shadow Play"
"The Mind and the Matter"
"Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?"
"The Obsolete Man"

Season 3

"Two"
"The Arrival"
"The Shelter"
"The Passersby"
"A Game of Pool"
"The Mirror"
"The Grave"
"It's a Good Life"
"Deaths-Head Revisited"
"The Midnight Sun"
"Still Valley"
"The Jungle"
"Once Upon a Time"
"Five Characters in Search of an Exit"
"A Quality of Mercy"
"Nothing in the Dark"
"One More Pallbearer"
"Dead Man's Shoes"
"The Hunt"
"Showdown with Rance McGrew"
"Kick the Can"
"A Piano in the House"
"The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank"
"To Serve Man"
"The Fugitive"
"Little Girl Lost"
"Person or Persons Unknown"
"The Little People"
"Four O'Clock"
"Hocus-Pocus and Frisby"
"The Trade-Ins"
"The Gift"
"The Dummy"
"Young Man's Fancy"
"I Sing the Body Electric"
"Cavender Is Coming"
"The Changing of the Guard"

Season 4

Season 5

"In Praise of Pip"
"Steel"
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
"A Kind of a Stopwatch"
"The Last Night of a Jockey"
"Living Doll"
"The Old Man in the Cave"
"Uncle Simon"
"Probe 7, Over and Out"
"The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms"
"A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain"
"Ninety Years Without Slumbering"
"Ring-a-Ding Girl"
"You Drive"
"The Long Morrow"
"The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross"
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You"
"Black Leather Jackets"
"Night Call"
"From Agnes—With Love"
"Spur of the Moment"
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
"Queen of the Nile"
"What's in the Box"
"The Masks"
"I Am the Night—Color Me Black"
"Sounds and Silences"
"Caesar and Me"
"The Jeopardy Room"
"Stopover in a Quiet Town"
"The Encounter"
"Mr. Garrity and the Graves"
"The Brain Center at Whipple's"
"Come Wander with Me"
"The Fear"
"The Bewitchin' Pool"

v t e Works directed by Richard L. Bare
Films	Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948) Flaxy Martin (1949) The House Across the Street (1949) Return of the Frontiersman (1950) This Side of the Law (1950) Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (1957) Girl on the Run (1958) I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew (1969) Wicked, Wicked (1973)
Film and television series	Joe McDoakes (1942–1956) So You Want to Learn to Dance (1953) The Twilight Zone "Third from the Sun" (1960) "The Purple Testament" (1960) "Nick of Time" (1960) "The Prime Mover" (1961) "To Serve Man" (1962) "The Fugitive" (1962) "What's in the Box" (1964) Green Acres (1965–1971)