Mr. Denton on Doomsday
The Twilight Zone

A rumination on faith and works, naturally in two parts. In the first, the indignities a man receives are seen to endow him with moral force (through the instrumentality of Fate). In the second, he applies this force to serve his ends, and finds it unavailing.

Serling’s own commentary on this is the comic version of Samson as “Mr. Dingle, the Strong”. It will be noted that the plot combines elements of Henry King’s The Gunfighter and Walt Disney’s The Worm Turns. The alto flute solo is uncredited.

Loser Takes All
Kojak

The elegance of this composition is in its analysis of the situation. A black loan shark (Ja’net DuBois) sells her interest in a white embezzler (Quinn Redeker) to her lover (Leslie Nielsen), who pressures the man into selling out his jewelry firm to the tune of a million-dollar diamond shipment. The loan shark’s husband is a tolerant man, but eavesdrops and snitches to the cops until the lover kills him. And that’s how shares are traded daily in the market of affections, a shift in capital, a transfer of liability.