After NBC and Universal Studios dictated a change in tone, style, and format for Night Gallery prior to the start of the third season (1972-73), creator Rod Serling, citing artistic differences, ceased his script contributions to the show after submitting four teleplays for the new season. Staff writers Halsted Welles and Gene Kearney, as well as a trio of freelance writers, were called upon to provide the balance of the third season scripts.

Two of the freelance writers producer Jack Laird hired were David Rayfiel and Jack Guss. Desperate to fill the creative chasm left by Rod Serling, Laird turned to two veteran writers he knew he could trust, having worked with both men on the short-lived ABC series Channing (1963-64). Of the two, Rayfiel proved to be the most formidable talent, and is now best known for his splendid collaborations with his good friend Sydney Pollack on such films as Absence of Malice (1981) and Three Days of the Condor (1975). Rayfiel's form of storytelling is oriented toward the visual, featuring complex scene descriptions and detailed camera directions. Unlike Serling, his characters speak sparingly, avoiding complex polysyllabic verbiage. Rayfiel employs a writing style that is thoroughly unique: enigmatic, overlapping, and highly interpretive.

In "Whisper," the writer weaves a haunting tale set in the Deep South of a woman (played by Sally Field), with an unusual ability to channel the souls of the dead. She is accompanied by her ambivalent husband (played by Dean Stockwell) who is intrigued, and at the same time frightened, by her unique and potentially deadly talent. Rayfiel's oblique style of writing adds greatly to the dimension of quiet horror originally conceived by short story author Martin Waddell. Rayfiel himself admits that he prefers this approach: "I just love things to be there without being said. I make a real effort to do that. I hate being explicit. It's like the difference between a pane of glass and a prism. You can get more out of it by holding back, not saying it. There's a quote by Willa Cather that says it all: 'Whatever is felt upon the page without specifically being named there, that, one might say, is created.' And that's the way I feel."

With that philosophy of storytelling, David Rayfiel contributed what is generally regarded as one of the finest teleplays of the third and final season of Night Gallery, "Whisper."

(NOTE: For the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the original source material, all typographical errors made in this script have been left intact.)

NIGHT GALLERY #35221

Air Date: May 13, 1973

WHISPER

Teleplay by David Rayfiel

Based on the Short Story by Martin Waddell

Directed by Jeannot Szwarc

Music: Eddie Sauter

Director of Photography: Gerald Perry Finnerman

Cast:

Charlie: Dean Stockwell

Irene: Sally Field

Dr. Kennaway: Kent Smith