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The Twilight Zone was resolutely a product of its time, which can be ironic considering how timeless many of its stories are. Creator Rod Serling intended each episode to serve as a modern-day fable, with a moral message or observation about humanity packaged into its signature twist endings. It's helped them transcend their era, and it remains one of the few series from the 1960s that people still watch and enjoy for more than nostalgia value.

Despite that, the series still reflects a very different time in American life, and not all of it has aged as well as it might. Some episodes were written for then-contemporary issues that are no longer pertinent, while others indulge in problematic stereotyping that simply wouldn't be acceptable today. A few are just plain silly, or hinge on premises that modern audiences would reject wholesale. They tend to stick out all the more because...

Old Hollywood actor and activist Marsha Hunt has died at the age of 104.

Best known for her roles in films such as These Glamour Girls, Pride and Prejudice and Raw Deal, Hunt fell into obscurity after being blacklisted from the industry during the McCarthy communist witchhunts.

Roger C Memos, the writer and director of the 2014 documentary Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity, confirmed news of her death to The Hollywood Reporter.

Hunt died of natural causes at her home in Sherman Oaks, California.

She started her career as a model, before being signed to Paramount Pictures studio at the age of 17.

Her breakthrough came in MGM’s These Glamour Girls in 1939, in which she featured opposite Lana Turner.

A number of other well-received roles followed, including in Anthony Mann’s Raw Deal in 1948.

Hunt’s career took a turn in 1947, when she and her second husband, screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr, joined...

Marsha Hunt, a star of MGM and Paramount beginning in the 1930s who was blacklisted in Hollywood in the ’50s during Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt, died Wednesday at age 104.

Roger Memos, who directed a documentary about Hunt’s life, confirmed the news.

A former model, Hunt was a standout in such films as John Wayne’s 1937 Western “Born to the West”; 1939’s “The Glamour Girls,” opposite Lana Turner; 1940’s “Pride and Prejudice” and 1948’s beloved noir “Raw Deal.” In 1945, she joined the board of the Screen Actors Guild.

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But her career unraveled after she and her second husband, screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr., joined a Hollywood group that questioned McCarthy’s efforts to root out Communists in American society, including in Hollywood. In 1950, the right-wing publication Red Channels named her as a potential Communist and she was asked to...

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Marsha Hunt, the bright-eyed starlet who stood out in such films as These Glamour Girls, Pride and Prejudice and Raw Deal before her career came unraveled by the communist witch hunt that hit Hollywood, has died. She was 104.

She died Wednesday of natural causes at her Sherman Oaks home, where she had lived since 1946, Roger C. Memos — writer-director of the documentary Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity — told The Hollywood Reporter.

Hunt also appeared opposite Mickey Rooney in the best picture Oscar nominee The Human Comedy (1943) during a period in which she was known as “Hollywood’s Youngest Character Actress.”

A former model who signed with Paramount Pictures at age 17, the Chicago native made her first big splash as a suicidal co-ed opposite Lana Turner in MGM’s These Glamour Girls (1939).

Playing Walter Brennan’s sweetheart in Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the...

America’s top box office star John Wayne sneaks away to a remote corner of the Sahara Desert with the top Italian sex symbol Sophia Loren … and foolishly brings an entire camera crew with him. Henry Hathaway’s impressive desert adventure boasts a fairly amazing, bona fide Lost City, made even more impressive through the Technirama cinematography of the legendary Jack Cardiff. Rossano Brazzi co-stars as a treasure hunter, who can’t handle the truth about his explorer-father.

Legend of the Lost

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date December 12, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Rossano Brazzi, Kurt Kasznar.

Cinematography: Jack Cardiff

Film Editor: Bert Bates

Art Direction: Alfred Ybarra

Original Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino

Written by Ben Hecht and Robert Presnell Jr.

Produced & Directed by Henry Hathaway

Not enough color in your life? Perhaps this movie will perk up your retinas — cameraman...

When I was a kid, I used to love a scary movie. I remember catching the original The Haunting (1963) one night on Channel 9’s Million Dollar Movie when I was home alone. Before it was over, I had every light in the house on. When my mother got home she was screaming she’d been able to see the house glowing from two blocks away. The only thing screaming louder than her was the electricity meter.

That was something of an accomplishment, scaring me like that. Oh, it’s not that I was hard to scare (I still don’t like going down into a dark cellar). But, in those days, the movies didn’t have much to scare you with. Back as far as the 50s, you might find your odd dismemberment and impaling, even an occasional decapitation, but, generally, the rule of the day was restraint. Even those rare dismemberments,...

The Sopranos was named the best-written show in television history by the Writers Guild of America, edging out an eclectic collection of some of the most beloved and admired series. Members of the Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) and the Writers Guild of America, East (Wgae) voted online for the 101 Best Written TV Series, with David Chase’s iconic “family” drama topping Seinfeld, The Twilight Zone, All in the Family, and M*A*S*H*.

“At their core, all of these wonderful series began with the words of the writers who created them and were sustained by the writers...

From the WGA/TV Guide via Deadline 1. The Sopranos – HBO – Created by David Chase 2. Seinfeld – NBC – Created by Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld 3. The Twilight Zone (1959) – CBS – Season One writers: Charles Beaumont,...

Marsha Hunt activist and ‘planet patriot’ [See previous post: "Marsha Hunt and the Hollywood Blacklist."] The focus of Marsha Hunt’s life changed after she and husband Robert Presnell Jr went on a trip around the world in 1955. For the first time in her life, she witnessed abject poverty in countries like India and Pakistan. Spending most of her adult life on a sound stage, she had no idea that this kind of poverty and despair was going on in the world. She came back [...]...

When I was a kid, I used to love a scary movie. I remember catching the original The Haunting (1963) one night on Channel 9’s Million Dollar Movie when I was home alone. Before it was over, I had every light in the house on. When my mother got home she was screaming she’d been able to see the house glowing from two blocks away. The only thing screaming louder than her was the electricity meter.

That was something of an accomplishment, scaring me like that. Oh, it’s not that I was hard to scare (I still don’t like going down into a dark cellar). But, in those days, the movies didn’t have much to scare you with. Back as far as the 50s, you might find your odd dismemberment and impaling, even an occasional decapitation, but, generally, the rule of the day was restraint. Even those rare dismemberments,...