In the first eleven episodes of The Twilight Zone, a salesman has played a major role in two: Episode Two, "One For the Angels" and Episode Three, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday." Rod Serling makes it three for twelve with this story.
And this story is something of a parallel to that Old West "Doomsday" ep. Here, a kindly old gentleman named Pedott (long time stage and screen actor Ernest Truex) enters a bar and peddles his wares. A sympathetic young woman (Arlene Martel) offers to buy some matches, but Pedott suggests what she needs is a small bottle of spot remover.
At the bar, the proprietor (William Edmonson) has been ragging on his most faithful customer, Lefty (Read Morgan), a former pitcher for the Cubs who cost the bartender a bundle on a bet he placed before the southpaw blew out his arm. Pedott offers the former pitcher a bus ticket to Scranton, Pennsylvania.
As Lefty puzzles over what might be in Scranton, he gets a call. The General Manager of his team wanted to hire him as a a minor league coach in, you guessed it, Scranton. Then when Lefty realizes there's a nasty stain on his lapel, the woman from before uses that bottle of spot remover to clean him up. It seems Pedott could have offered her a bus ticket to P.A., too!
Observing all of this was a small time crook/big time loser Fred Renard (Steve Cochran). He wants the old man to give him what he needs, too. Pedott hesitates but eventually gives him a pair of scissors. Renard is in shear disbelief but when he returns to his boarding house hotel and the elevator door closes on his scarf, choking him as the car rose, Renard whipped out the snippers and saved his own life.
Renard stalked Pedott and waited for him to come home. He wanted to know what he needed NEXT. Again, Pedott was unwilling but eventually gave him a pen. A fountain pen. A leaky fountain pen. Again Renard blotted out what it could mean, until some ink dripped right next to the name of a horse running at the racetrack.
Renard cashed in for a couple hundred and had the bellhop bring him the early edition of the paper to try the ink spill trick again, but the pen had dried up.
Angry and determined, Renard found Pedott again, demanding what he needed. He grabbed a box of shoes. Renard found them tight and the leather soles slippery. As Pedott moved across the street, Renard pursued. He slid on the slick cobblestones and just as he regained his balance, a hit and run driver mowed him down.
Slippery shoes were what Pedott needed.
The parallels to "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" are in how both salesmen knew what was needed, how they offered their products for little or no fee, how they watched the results of what happened, directly and how those results were, ultimately, for the saleman's agenda. That's why you better be careful if any salesperson offers you their items for no charge... in The Twilight Zone.
I give "What You Need" an 8 out of 10.
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