One of the episodes I missed during my childhood, and caught up with recently. I know that when it was released, it was a more innocent, less jaded time, but I have to wonder how much of a shock the ending was to the audience originally watching it? Maybe it was. A talkier than normal episode (sometimes when Serling wrote a script, his characters had a tendency to make speeches at each other rather than talk to each other) but the acting is solid, which helps. Franchot Tone, who appeared in "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Five Graves To Cairo" and became notorious for his volatile, masochistic relationship with the gorgeous and self-destructive Barbara Payton, plays the man making the wager, and he's very good, convincingly displaying cynicism, hostility, artistocratic disdain and sadism, increasing desperation. Also good is Liam Sullivan in the not-quite-believable role of the talkative man accepting the wager. On hand to supplement the cast is a low-key Jonathan Harris ("Dr. Smith" from "Lost In Space") playing an attorney, and, in a bit role, Felix Locher, father of better-known Jon Hall and an actor in one of my all-time favorite so-bad-it's-good horror movies from the 1950's "Frankenstein's Daughter", playing what he pretty much was at the time of filming, an old man standing around. Not the best episode in the series by any standard, but certainly not the worst.

Good episode with not one but two shocking revelations at the end. Had to take off a star though due to the lack of a supernatural element

Both of the main characters are dumb asses. I mean don't bet what ya don't got honey. Also what kind of idiot would lose one year of their life just for money and then the guy gets stupider by going through with it and in the end we fing out that he wasn't even strong enough to do it so he severed his voice box so he wouldn't be able to speak. In the end the guy who started the bet didn't even have the money and the talkitive man gets no money and has the most devastated look on his face as he tells the people of his club he will never be able to speak again because of the guy who asked him to do it.

A retelling of the Chekov story, The Bet which isn't at all bad, although it falls short of its promise.