Passage on the Lady Anne

"Passage on the Lady Anne"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no. Season 4
Episode 17
Directed by Lamont Johnson
Written by Charles Beaumont
(from his short story "Song for a Lady")
Featured music Rene Garriguenc
Production code 4869
Original air date May 9, 1963
Guest appearance(s)

Lee Philips: Alan Ransome
Joyce Van Patten: Eileen Ransome
Wilfrid Hyde-White: Tobias "Toby" McKenzie
Gladys Cooper: Mrs. Millicent "Millie" McKenzie
Cecil Kellaway: Ian Burgess
Alan Napier: Captain Prothero
Cyril Delevanti: Officer
Don Keefer: Spiereto
Jack Raine: Officer
Colin Campbell: Addicott
Frank Baker: Otto Champion
Sam Harris: Mersia Jones
Colin Kenny: Ship Passenger
Carl M. Leviness: Ship Passenger
Scott Seaton: Ship Passenger
Arthur Tovey: Ship's Greeter

Episode chronology

"Passage on the Lady Anne" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

Portrait of a honeymoon couple getting ready for a journey – with a difference. These newlyweds have been married for six years, and they're not taking this honeymoon to start their life but rather to save it, or so Eileen Ransome thinks. She doesn't know why she insisted on a ship for this voyage, except that it would give them some time and she'd never been on one before – certainly never one like the Lady Anne. The tickets read 'New York to Southampton,' but this old liner is going somewhere else. Its destination – the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Six years into a troubled marriage, a young couple hopefully embark on a second honeymoon and their last chance at reconciliation. They board an old ocean liner, the Lady Anne, for a 13-day crossing from New York City to Southampton, England.

The couple, Eileen and Alan Ransome, soon realize that all the other passengers are elderly, at least 75 years old, and their vessel seems to be following a meandering course. In fact, they had sailed on the ship before, when young. Quarreling aboard the ship, the Ransomes decide to divorce when they return home. Then Eileen disappears.

When her husband finds her again, Eileen is wearing the nightgown that one of their fellow passengers wore on her honeymoon. The Ransomes find their love rekindled and are dancing in the ship's ballroom when the Lady Anne's engines suddenly stop. The captain enters and informs the young couple that he is putting them off the ship, telling them that there isn't time for lengthy explanations.

Despite their objections, the captain and the other passengers are adamant that the Ransomes cannot continue on the ship. The Ransomes are forced, at gunpoint, into a lifeboat, stocked with provisions and set adrift in mid-ocean while the Lady Anne speeds away, never to be seen again. The captain assures them that their position has been radioed and they'd be picked up soon. The Ransomes are picked up by a cutter after a few hours, but they can find no report of the Lady Anne docking in England or anywhere else.

Closing narration

The Lady Anne never reached port. After they were picked up by a cutter a few hours later, as Captain Protheroe had promised, the Ransomes searched the newspapers for news – but there wasn't any news. The Lady Anne with all her crew and all her passengers vanished without a trace. But the Ransomes knew what had happened, they knew that the ship had sailed off to a better port – a place called the Twilight Zone.

Production notes

This was the last episode actually written by Charles Beaumont. Although there would be other episodes credited to Beaumont later, according to The Twilight Zone Companion, these episodes were ghostwritten, primarily by Jerry Sohl and John Tomerlin, as Beaumont was seriously ill.

References

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