"The Howling Man" was the fifth episode of the second season of The Twilight Zone, and was first broadcast in November of 1960. It starred H.M. Wynant as lost traveller David Ellington, John Carradine as monk Brother Jerome, and Robin Hughes as the title character. The story was written by Charles Beaumont.
It was a dark and stormy night, and American tourist Ellington is lost and ill somewhere in Europe. He comes to the gate of a monastery, but the monks don't want to let him in. They reluctantly do, but when he enters the monastery, he hears a weird howl. He later meets a man in the basement that says that Brother Jerome is a religious fanatic who has imprisoned him. But Brother Jerome has quite a different story about who the man in the cell is. Who will our lost traveller believe, and what will the consequences of his decision be?
The Twilight Zone did not actually do that many "gothic" stories, and this is the first one to actually start on a dark and stormy night in an ancient castle. The cinematography and direction also add to the atmosphere: much like Third from the Sun, it uses many tilted, slightly vertiginous shots. While I liked the episode's set-up, I found its conclusion to be somewhat of a disappointment. I found the story the most interesting when we were in the position of Ellington, not knowing how to believe. When the revelation comes, it seems to be somewhat forced, coming from a need to conclude the story, rather than resolving the mystery that Ellington finds himself in.