Silent Snow Secret Snow - Part 2 of 2

[RatedArggg]

I liked the original 1967 version better. It hokey, but raw and simple like the story. This one didn't work for me because the stark story of a boy descending into schizophrenia (?) is upstaged by slick production, technicolor, and cheesy acting. Orson Welles was a great narrator, however - that's the only thing I liked about it.

[hyperskreem]

FUCKING HATE THIS UPLOAD!!!!!!!!!! IT FREEZES ON EVERY BEST LINE OF THE NARRATION...PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT VIDEO!!!!

[hyperskreem]

why does the video freexe up at the best parts of the narration?? soooo annoying!!!

[madJedi1]

ur takin the piss keeping this hack-job online, waste of time

[JohnWayneColt45]

Does anybody know what the mane of the epidode is where a small town finds a hole in a field that is bottomless and is apparently the gateway to hell?

[9theAwfulbet]

Nice touch, making the video freeze up all the time. Puts me in the zone.

[zenileon]

4:50, Cocaine

[hyperskreem]

Please re upload this without the Glitches...it ruins the beautiful narration and the flow of it =0(

[zomfgitsmeh]

Eh....I like the other one better. That one really captured the creepiness of it all.

[henrycbrennan]

Actually, this story is a frightening (but beautifully rendered) illustration of a child falling into a mental illness known as "catatonic schizophrenia".

[OrodesIII]

@henrycbrennan

Indeed it is although this version fails to capture the gradual isolation and menace of the disorder as experienced by the boy. By far the better film is the original one from 1966.

[launwatch]

@henrycbrennan Thx 4 explaining that. I thought it was a sad, horrible story.

[brismike65]

@launwatch i'm not sure why you think it is horrible, I find it fascinating

[FelixNColon]

This was the most silliest writing I've ever encountered. I'll stick with his Twilight Zone.

[bazileo78]

The story is about a boy who is progressively going deaf

[daggerinthebrain]

soothing soothing I envy him

[ROTLDzombi]

i think boy is either suffering from schizophrenia or sever late term aspergers syndrome. the original story was written before they were discovered though.

[WynterZ]

"As a child, Aiken saw his father kill his mother and then commit suicide. He was raised by relatives, graduated from Harvard in 1910, and became a successful writer. It is easy to speculate that this exquisitely written account is his imaginative projec­tion of an autistic state he may have begun to enter in the wake of his awful trauma— to shelter himself from his pain and the morbid curiosity of others."

[mzvanity09]

thank you so much this really helped me grasp the story, i had read it thru twice and still did not grasp it completely , this really tied it all together!

[chairmanofthebored1]

Ok, the metaphor here is that the poor kid has a coke addiction, it was made in the 70's right, lol?

[johnrunion]

thank you for posting this. it is a thing of melancholy beauty. this has haunted me since childhood. this, the ear wick episode and 'brenda' about the thing waiting to be born are my top three favorite night gallery episodes. thanks again.

[MyClark100]

he was hooked on snow

[JackWild67]

hhhmm very interesting episode. Kind of reminds me of me when i was young. i lost myself in ideas of paradise. And some would say i still have at the age of 42.

[SylviaLovesCake]

I remember reading this story a few years ago, it was titled "The Boy Who Loved Snow", and it was much more interesting than this twilight zone episode. And one thing about this really bothered me--they could have used REAL snow!  It looked like little bits of sawdust or something. Sad.

[johnrunion]

this is night gallery, not TZ.

[Mingming5683]

Very good story development.

If u havnt read the short story by aiken it probably wont be as clear.

[johnrunion]

i agree.

[brianfurry13]

Its a beautiful story. Just too bad some people lack any imagination to really fully understand it.

[johnrunion]

thank you. i agree.

[Michaeldair]

It all very simple. It about the progressive withdrawal from reality and social relationships, as well as preoccupation with idiosyncratically meaningful ideas could be interpreted as characteristic of schizophrenia.

[foppa123]

in other words, it was a bad episode.

[themagnus316]

I think that this is a story of a boy who turns inward after either witessing something or has something terrible happen to him. something i think his parents know about but just don't know what to do. that whole part from 3:18 3:49 makes me think child molsetation and then his reactions to his mother and he arrival in the bedroom makes me think its shes the one doing it. Granted this could be the SVU marathon talking but i think it tracks.

[sandydidit]

This is my fave "Night Gallery" episode, just because it lends itself gracefully to different interpretations.

Conrad Aiken's must-read story is longer and more involved than this show. But this "Night Gallery" still reflects his deliberately mysterious theme -- the cold weirdness that is happening to this kid is a natural cold weirdness. My guess: It's the wintry death of childhood, and a turn to lonely adulthood.

[foppa123]

it's one of my LEAST favorite episodes...boring.

[gareththefireman]

What the fuck? fetch me my benzodiazepenes. All of you, please lie down and tell me about your childhoods'. Its a fuckin episode of Night Gallery made by people in the seventies with lots of money, lots of drugs and lots of time on their hands. Relax for fuck's sake.

[GillesBetrand]

Oh, shut up!

[MelanieLouM]

I tend to believe that it's a story about a boy who is autistic...you must remember that this story was created in the seventies when not much was known about this disorder. This is my opinion, anyway. :/

[GingerAutie]

The film was made in the 70th, but the story is written in the 40th. But even in the beginning of autism it was clear that it starts before the age of three and you also should remember that autism was described (and still is described by some experts) as having a lack of fantasy, but Paul has the opposit. I believe he stars to develop schizophrenia and it starts usually with not being able to devide fantasy and reallity.

[MunkeePete]

It's both a death wish and a life wish. Paul wants to protect himself from the stale, loveless enviroment around him so he may expand into something more, even if it is a cold, polar existance that resembles his current life, at least it's beautiful. Enough of the psycho-babble. He is not autistic or psychotic. I have the same dreams as Paul and am neither of those things.

[princessrose321]

who know if Paul is really crazy or just creative-not even Paul know for himself- that's the whole point, we are supposed to be confused and at the same time amused just like Paul is by the snow....juicy, isn't it?

[1137moiz]

OK how is his environment loveless? I feel sorry for the kid's mother, poor woman

[papaboule]

My favorite NG episode. Growing up in snowless central Florida, and seeing this show when I was 13, it was fun to imagine.

Orson Welles' voice is both soothing and sinister.

[sickfixxreturns]

How typical of stupid fucking stodgy conservatives to try and stifle a child's imagination.

[Misterioso]

No need to argue guys, we can all agree this short story sums up obsessive compulsive disorder, autism & depersonalization disorder in a very artful manner.

[GingerAutie]

Autism starts bevore the age of three, I think he is a bit older than that. He has schizophrenia.

[idna33]

I thought it seemed as though it were about autism. The main character kept retreating into his own world.

[GingerAutie]

Once again, autism are not cept in their own world and autism stars to develop before the age of three, I believe he is a lot older than that and autistics don't have delusions.

[M1i2K3E4]

The visual didn't really help me that much to understand it deeper. It was basically a visual narration of the story..

what does the story actually mean? Did he die at the end? Is he schizophrenic? Was his entire problem focused on the relationship between his parents, mainly his mother?

can someone explain?

[songnight]

The gist of the story is that Paul is schizophrenic and is retreating further into his own mind.

[Roguemarlfox]

Orson Welles does a great job with this. Personally, I've always imagined the story taking place more in the 1940s or '50s, so seeing it like this is a little different for me, but it does make the story come alive. I think I still prefer reading it, but this is a great transition to the medium of television.

[12Zwolf]

The author, Conrad Aiken, when he was an 11-year-old boy found the bodies of his dead parents; his father murdered his mother, and then committed suicide; after this horror his psyche is further insulted via being shipped-off to be 'raised', and very likely emotionally/sexually abused, by a 'great-great-Aunt'; the snow in the story symbolizes his grief process that began in his childhood.

Valkyrie Ziege Mourne

[Danimal77]

Yeah, it's freezing every few seconds.

[pnrmom]

Thanks for showing this. This episode was on t.v. earlier today, but I fell asleep and missed it. Thanks for letting me see it.

[SaulCarp]

Hubs88, thanks for the transcript. My video kept freezing and seconds of audio dropping out. Never had this happen on youtube before.

[freddead]

The screen creeps freezing. Must be all that snow.

[Hubs88]

And with that final effort everything was soft, the seamless hiss advanced once more.

"Listen," it said.

"We'll tell you the last most beautiful and secret story. A story that gets smaller and smaller, that comes inward, instead of opening like a flower. Tis a flower that becomes a seed, a little cold seed. Do you hear? We are leaning closer to you..."