Perchance to Dream (1959)

1959 | USA | Charles Beaumont | ★★★★★

Horror and science-fiction author Charles Beaumont's beautifully crafted, brilliantly conceived Perchance to Dream is a nightmarishly unsettling Twilight Zone episode, featuring an unforgettable central performance from Richard Conte.

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"Edward Hall has a bad heart—and a [terrible] problem. Desperate, he barges into the office of Dr. Rathmann, a psychiatrist, and explains that each night, he’s been dreaming in chapters, as in a movie serial. The setting is always the same: an amusement park, in which Maya, an alluring carnival dancer, entices him into a funhouse and onto a rollercoaster…with the intention of scaring him to death. He knows if he goes to sleep again, he’ll suffer a fatal heart attack—and yet, if he stays awake much longer, he feels sure his heart won’t stand the strain. Whatever choice Hall makes…he’s brought a one-way ticket into the Twilight Zone." CBS


See also:
Stotty's 1950s Favourites
The Twilight Zone