The Doll (Claire Griswold) and Charley Parkes (Robert Duvall) |
“Miniature”
Season Four, Episode 110
Original
Air Date: February 21, 1963
Cast:
Charley
Parkes: Robert Duvall
Mrs.
Parkes: Pert Kelton
Myra
Russell: Barbara Barrie
Dr.
Wallman: William Windom
Buddy
Russell: Lennie Weinrib
Guard:
John McLiam
Diemel:
Barney Phillips
Harriet:
Joan Chambers
Guide:
Chet Stratton
The
Suitor: Richard Angarola
The
Maid: Nina Roman
The
Doll: Claire Griswold
Crew:
Writer:
Charles Beaumont
Director:
Walter E. Grauman
Producer:
Herbert Hirschman
Production
Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
Director
of Photography: Robert Pittack
Associate
Producer: Murray Golden
Film
Editor: Edward Curtiss
Art
Direction: Edward Carfagno &
George W. Davis
Set
Decoration: Henry Grace & Don
Greenwood, Jr.
Assistant
Director: Ray De Camp
Assistant
to the Producer: John Conwell
Music:
Fred Steiner
Sound:
Joe Edmondson & Franklin Milton
Mr.
Serling’s Wardrobe: Eagle Clothes
Filmed
at MGM Studios
And Now, Mr. Serling:
“Next
on Twilight Zone a most unusual program called ‘Miniature.’ The very eminent Charles
Beaumont takes us into a brand new realm of science fiction and fantasy that is
at the same time intriguing and strangely believable.”
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
“To
the average person a museum is a place of knowledge, a place of beauty and
truth and wonder. Some people come to study, others to contemplate, others to
look for the sheer joy of looking. Charley Parkes has his own reasons. He comes
to the museum to get away from the world. It isn’t really the sixty-cent
cafeteria meal that has drawn him here every day, it’s the fact that here in
these strange, cool halls he can be alone for a little while, really and truly
alone. Anyway, that’s how it was before he got lost and wandered into The
Twilight Zone.”
Charley
Parkes is an introverted man who works a menial job and still lives with his
mother. He uses his lunch breaks from work to visit a nearby museum. There he
comes across a curious dollhouse. A staging of a nineteenth century domestic
scene, the dollhouse comes to life before Charley’s eyes. A beautiful young
woman seated before a piano begins to move and play. Amazed, Charley asks the
museum guard how this effect is achieved. The guard gives Charley a questioning
look and tells him that the wooden doll does not move and there is no music to
be heard.
Charley
eagerly visits the dollhouse each day, standing in front of the glass display
watching the young woman go about her daily business. The museum guard begins
to show an interest in Charley, curious as to what Charley sees in the display.
Charley’s obsession with the dollhouse grows to the point where he is gently
let go from his job after returning late from lunch.
Instead
of looking for work Charley spends more time at the museum gazing into the
dollhouse and speaking softly to the young woman within. Into the world of the
dollhouse comes a caped, mustachioed rogue who is after the young woman’s hand
in marriage. Charley is helpless but to watch as the young woman futilely
attempts to ward off the rough suitor.
Charley’s
frequent trips to the museum catch the attention of his sister, Myra, who is
concerned about her brother’s welfare. Myra believes Charley should be free of
their mother’s house and living with his own wife and family. Charley
reluctantly agrees to go on a blind date with Myra’s friend Harriet, a date
which ends in disaster as Charley is unable to loosen up and enjoy himself.
When
Charley again visits the dollhouse he sees the rouge suitor attacking the young
woman and tries to break the glass display in order to stop it. Charley is
subdued and committed to a psychiatric institution where he is placed under the
care of Dr. Wallman, whose stated mission is to help Charley rid himself of the
delusion that the doll of the young woman is alive.
At
first Charley refuses to acknowledge that it is a delusion but soon realizes
that his only way free of Dr. Wallman’s care is to feign a total recovery. Charley
is eventually released into his mother’s care where he appears to have made a
remarkable turnaround.
Charley
escapes from his bedroom as soon as he is able in order to return to the museum
and the dollhouse. Charley hides inside the museum and waits until after
closing to emerge into the darkened corridor. There he turns on the dollhouse
display and sees the young woman inside. She is sad and crying heavily. Charley
desperately wishes to comfort her but he cannot do so from outside the
dollhouse. He wills himself desperately to join the young woman's world inside
the dollhouse.
Charley’s
family discovers his absence and contacts Dr. Wallman, who knows exactly where
Charley has gone. A search of the museum, however, yields no evidence of
Charley’s whereabouts. Or does it? As the museum guard gazes into the dollhouse
he sees a new doll within. It is a familiar looking young man sitting
comfortably beside the young woman. The guard smiles because he knows this man,
and he also knows that he will not say anything about what he’s seen because
nobody would ever believe him.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
“They
never found Charley Parkes because the guard didn’t tell them what he saw in
the glass case. He knew what they’d say and he knew they’d be right, too,
because seeing is not always believing, especially if what you see happens to
be an odd corner of The Twilight Zone.”
Commentary:
It is a terrible irony that the fourth season is arguably the strongest
showcase for the talents of writer Charles Beaumont. The season served as a
swan song of sorts for his writing career before the onset of debilitating
effects from what is believed to be early onset Alzheimer’s. As is well
documented, Beaumont began to suffer memory loss which increased in severity
and slowly robbed him of his ability to write. Beaumont’s professional commitments
were completed by his friends under Beaumont’s byline to benefit the Beaumont family.
The fourth season is
also occasionally derided as unworthy of time or consideration due to the hour-length
of the episodes and the resulting change to the snap-ending formula of the
half-hour segments. The fourth season showcased a number of moving and thought-provoking
stories which offered more complex narratives and greater shades of
characterization than many of the half-hour offerings from previous seasons. Charles
Beaumont provided more teleplays (5)* for the
fourth season than he did for any prior season and appeared to flourish given
the extra half-hour of time. Among this final gathering of Beaumont’s tales is perhaps
his finest script for the series, “Miniature,” a highly personal vision aided
by an exceptionally moving performance from Robert Duvall and the spoils of the
show’s talented production team. It is perhaps not too strong to suggest that
“Miniature” is one of the finest hours of fantasy television presented in that
rich decade of the 1960s.
Beaumont
excelled at crafting the half-hour drama from the beginning of his television
writing career but quickly proved that he was equally adept at producing longer
work, writing his first feature in 1958 (Queen
of Outer Space), following it with now-highly regarded scripts for director
Roger Corman (The Premature Burial, The
Haunted Palace, The Masque of the Red Death, The Intruder) and supplementing
this work by writing hour-long segments of Boris Karloff’s Thriller and The Alfred
Hitchcock Hour. Beaumont was inspired to write “Miniature” by his close
friend William F. Nolan, a prolific short story writer then at the beginning of
a long film and television writing career. Much of Nolan’s life at the time was
mirrored in that of protagonist Charley Parkes. We spoke to William F. Nolan in
2017 and took the opportunity to ask about his connection with “Miniature,” to
which he replied: “Well, for one thing, the character was shy around women and
Chuck (which is what we called Beaumont) was well aware of this. It was partly
his way of ribbing me, but I also have always had a thing for miniature figures
and models. Maybe it’s because my eyesight – I am near-sighted in one eye and
far-sighted in the other – prevents me from really seeing large objects in 3D.
But a small object that I can hold up in front of my face can become a whole
world to me. I can see it in its totality and study it. It fascinates me. Chuck
was one of the only people who knew me well enough to pick up on this and used
it in the story.”
Nolan
revealed more about his role as inspiration for “Miniature” in an audio
commentary which accompanied the episode on the Blu-ray release of the series. Beaumont
took the raw material of Nolan’s life at the time, his shyness around women,
his meek appearance, his living situation with his mother, his struggles to fit
in at work, and crafted a moving tribute to his close friend and a potent
examination of the ways in which society can pressure an outsider to fit an
acceptable mold.
A
surprising aspect of the episode is its humor. Though the humor is never in
danger of spoiling the carefully constructed gravity of the narrative, it
lightens the fantasy and prepares the viewer for the lighthearted and
sentimental tone of the ending. A humorous moment occurs on the initial visit
to the museum with Charley. Discovering the cafeteria to be closed, Charley
attempts to ascend the main stairway only to be ambushed by a tour group
descending the stairs. Attempting to push his way upwards through the crowd,
Charley is instead pushed back down the stairway as though by a wave.
Incidentally, it is in this way that Charley happens upon the display of the
dollhouse which will come to consume his life. It is a perfectly staged moment
which not only serves to provide humor but also to illustrate Charley’s place
in the world as a mild man who prefers quiet solitude but continually finds
himself pushed this way and that by crowds, coworkers, and family members. A
broader moment of physical humor occurs later when Charley witnesses the young
woman in the dollhouse being led away by the roguish suitor. Attempting to
better see them exit the dollhouse, Charley presses his face against the glass
in a comical expression. It is an odd moment for comedy but fortunately does
not ruin a carefully built scene of tension. The intrusion of humor in an
otherwise serious production is sometimes used to reinforce the idea that the
play is a fantasy and not to be taken too seriously, although it is just as
likely that here the humor was used to better illustrate the awkwardness of
Charley Parkes.
“Miniature”
also contains some recognizable motifs from Beaumont’s other scripts, notably
the use of psychoanalysis as a tool for narrative transition. Beaumont was
clearly fascinated with the field of psychology beyond its utility as a method
for conflict. Beaumont’s first episode for the series, “Perchance to Dream,” is
told from the psychiatrist’s couch. A later episode, “Person or Persons
Unknown,” makes use of similar circumstances. Beaumont seems to have little
faith in the process, however, as each case features a person undergoing an
extraordinary event but unable to convince rational-minded authority figures of
their sanity.
Producer
Herbert Hirschman told author Marc Scott Zicree that he believed the episode
had its genesis in a previously published story, one which also concerned a
dollhouse and featured an enormous hand descending on an occupant of the house.
The story Hirschman recalled is “None Before Me” by Sidney Carroll. Carroll
(1913-1998) is remembered as an accomplished screenwriter (The Hustler) who also wrote for television, winning an Edgar Award
from the Mystery Writers of America for his episode “The Fine Art of Murder” on
the anthology series Omnibus (1956).
Carroll also wrote for Alfred Hitchcock
Presents and Roald Dahl’s Tales of
the Unexpected. “None Before Me” was originally published in the July, 1949
issue of Cosmopolitan and benefited
from being reprinted in Ray Bradbury’s anthology of fantasy stories, Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow
(1952). The anthology went through numerous printings down the years and should
be relatively easy to find. The story relates the tale of an elderly miser
whose time is spent coveting the fine items his lifelong passion for collecting
has yielded. The man purchases an antique dollhouse which quickly becomes an
obsession. He creates imaginary lives for the occupants while also terribly mistreating
them until a giant hand descends from above to crush him, as though he were in
a dollhouse of his own. If Hirschman’s recollection is accurate then Carroll’s
tale inspired two episodes of Twilight
Zone as Rod Serling’s third season episode, “The Little People,” features
an ending sequence also likely inspired by the tale.
According
to litigation introduced by a television writer named Clyde Ware, Beaumont’s
script had its genesis in another story, a script Ware submitted to Rod
Serling’s Cayuga Productions in the spring of 1961 titled “The Thirteenth
Mannequin.” Ware’s claim of plagiarism was ultimately found baseless by both
the initial judge and the appeals judge but did result in “Miniature” being
kept out of syndication packages of the series for decades. “The Thirteenth
Mannequin” concerns an elderly department store guard who becomes obsessed with
the store’s twelve mannequins. The mannequins begin to feel more real to him
than other people; they move and speak to him. Soon after the old man’s death a
thirteen mannequin is added to the store, a mannequin which looks like him.
Cayuga passed on Ware’s script and returned it to the writer. It was never
produced for television although Ware steadily sold his writing to various
series through the 1970s. Of interest is his adaptation of Robert Bloch’s 1960
story “The Final Performance” for The
Alfred Hitchcock Hour. “The Thirteenth Mannequin” somewhat resembles Rod
Serling’s first season episode “The After Hours,” which itself was the subject
of baseless plagiarism charges when veteran pulp writer Frank Gruber claimed
Serling stole the idea from Gruber’s 1949 story “The Thirteenth Floor.” Ware’s
tale better resembles the later fourth season episode “The New Exhibit,” an
episode which wears its influences on its sleeve. That episode was attributed
to Charles Beaumont but was actually written by Beaumont’s friend Jerry Sohl.
The subject of “The New Exhibit” is wax figures but the similarities remain. Those
who desire a more detailed look at the litigation are directed to Martin Grams,
Jr.’s The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the
Door to a Television Classic (2008).
The subtle special
effects in “Miniature” were handled simply and efficiently. A full-sized
interior set was constructed along with the actual dollhouse. The dollhouse
could be filmed in exterior or outwards from the interior. The full-sized set
was used to the stage the action within the dollhouse.
“Miniature” was one of
a number of episodes featuring dolls, dummies, and effigies from the fourth and
fifth seasons. The series was producing so many of these type episodes (“Miniature,”
“The New Exhibit,” “Living Doll,” “Caesar and Me”) that the show’s final
producer, William Froug, declined to put into production a script by Richard
Matheson simply titled “The Doll.” Froug felt there was an overabundance of
doll stories being produced on the series and sold the script back to Matheson.
It was eventually published in the June, 1982 issue of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine before being produced on
Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing
Stories. Phil Joanou directed the segment from Matheson’s script and the
episode was broadcast on May 4, 1986. The nearly twenty-five years it took to
arrive before an audience paid off for its creators as star John Lithgow took
home an Emmy Award for his central performance and Richard Matheson nabbed a
Writer’s Guild nomination for his script.
A colorized segment of "Miniature" |
The
first appearance of “Miniature” after its initial broadcast came during a
television special titled The Twilight
Zone Silver Anniversary Special on October 20, 1984. The special consisted
of three episodes previously unavailable in syndication: “A Short Drink from a
Certain Fountain,” “Miniature,” and “Sounds and Silences.” The special was
hosted by actor Patrick O’Neal, star of “A Short Drink from a Certain
Fountain.” In an article covering the special, Stephen Holden of The New York Times described “Miniature”
thus: “the young Robert Duvall plays a 30-year-old mamma’s boy who falls in
love with a wooden doll in a museum exhibition. . . Mr. Duvall’s role demands
only that he be half-witted and sweet.” The television special was notable
because the dollhouse sequences from “Miniature” were colorized using
hand-colored and computer processes. This has occasionally caused confusion
from those who first experienced the episode with the colorized segments being
led to believe the episode originally included color.
Robert
Duvall (b. 1931) is one of the most accomplished performers whose early careers
included a stop on The Twilight Zone. The
young actor who gives a moving yet emotionally restrained performance as
Charley Parkes would go on to acclaim as one of the most gifted actors of his
generation, nominated for seven Academy Awards (winning for Tender Mercies (1983)), as well as
winning a number of other awards, including the Golden Globe (of which he won
four), the Screen Actors Guild, and the Emmy Award. Duvall was at one time labeled
the most versatile actor in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records
during a career which saw him play a diversity of roles, including such
political figures Joseph Stalin and Adolf Eichmann. Born in San Diego and
raised in the Annapolis, Maryland area due to his father’s service in the Navy,
Duvall would eventually make his way to New York City to study acting. A busy
and fruitful career on the New York stages during the 1950s led to television
work in the early 1960s. Duvall appeared as the titular character in an
adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “William Wilson” in the premier episode of the
short-lived replacement series Great
Ghost Stories (1961). He also
appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents
episode “Bad Actor” (1962), scripted by Robert Bloch from a story by Max
Franklin. Duvall appeared in The Outer
Limits episodes “The Chameleon” and the two-parter “The Inheritors.” Other
genre television appearances include Kraft
Suspense Theatre, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and The Time Tunnel. After a hiatus Duvall returned to television for
the award-winning miniseries Lonesome
Dove (1989), based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Larry McMurty,
for which Duvall received a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award as Captain Augustus
McCrae.
Film work followed the
early television work, including a memorable role as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).** An appearance
in George Lucas’ first film, THX 1138 (1971),
led to a role in that film’s producer Francis Ford Coppola’s production of The Godfather (1972), a career defining
moment. Duvall also appeared in Coppola’s troubled production of Apocalypse Now (1979) as Lt. Colonel
Bill Kilgore, the surf-loving commander who uttered the famous proclamation, “I
love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Other notable film roles include The Godfather Part II, The Great Santini,
The Handmaid’s Tale, Falling Down, The Apostle, The Judge, and many others.
Most recently, he appeared in the 2018 suspense film Widows.
In support of Duvall’s central performance is an impressive assemblage
of veteran actors. Pert Kelton (1906-1968) portrays the doting Mrs. Parkes in
the way of an endearing caricature. The veteran actress began her career in
vaudeville before moving to more lucrative stages, eventually making it on
Broadway. Regular film work followed in the 1930s. Kelton took a hiatus from
screen acting after the end of the decade, not reappearing until the advent of
television in the early 1950s. She is probably best remembered today as the
original Alice Kramden, wife of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), on the variety
series Cavalcade of Stars.
Barbara Barrie (b. 1931) portrays Myra, Charley’s perceptive and
protective sister. Barrie has enjoyed a distinguished career built up the
old-fashioned way through the New York stages. Barrie enjoyed stage work and
continued to appear on stage well into her film and television career. She was
nominated for a Tony Award for her role as Sarah in Stephen Sondheim’s Company (1970). Like so many stage
actors Barrie transitioned to television in the 1950s, appearing on dozens of
series including turns in such genre programs as Suspicion, Great Ghost Stories, Kraft Mystery Theater, The Alfred
Hitchcock Hour, and The Invaders. Barrie’s
breakthrough screen role came in 1964 in the controversial film One Potato, Two Potato, in which she
portrayed a white divorcee who falls in love with a black man. Barrie received
an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Barrie aged gracefully into a
reliable character actor who has continued to appear regularly in guest roles
on a variety of television series.
Lennie
Weinrib (1935-2006) portrays Myra’s good-natured husband Buddy. Weinrib
appeared in a handful of Alfred Hitchcock
Presents episodes and in Roger Corman’s Poe-anthology Tales of Terror (1962), scripted by Richard Matheson, but found his
true calling as a voice actor. Beginning in the 1960s, Weinrib amassed dozens
of voice acting credits on many children’s programs, most notably as the voice
of H.R. Pufnstuf. His last credited voice work was as Max the Mole in an
updating of Hanna-Barbera’s Yogi the Bear
titled Yo Yogi!
Claire Griswold (1936-2011) graced the episode as the beautiful,
melancholy doll trapped inside the dollhouse. Griswold’s brief acting career
began on television in 1958 and included a variety of appearances on the
leading series of the time. Griswold appeared alongside Ray Milland in The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “A
Home Away from Home,” scripted by Robert Bloch from his story which originally
appeared in the July, 1961 issue of Alfred
Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Griswold married actor/director Sydney
Pollack in 1958 and quietly retired from acting in 1967 to raise their family.
Pollack previously appeared on The
Twilight Zone as the pushy young theater director in E. Jack Neuman’s “The
Trouble with Templeton.”
The Doll (Claire Griswold), the Suitor (Richard Angarola) and the Maid (Nina Roman) |
Richard
Angarola (1920-2008) portrayed the menacing, black-clad suitor. Angarola had a
long and busy career as a hardworking supporting player. He began his
television career in a bit role on Alcoa
Presents: One Step Beyond in the episode “The Return of Mitchell Campion.”
A lot of work in crime and detective series followed although Angarola’s
versatility is apparent in his diverse number of appearances: Mike Hammer, Bonanza, The Andy Griffith
Show, and Honey West, among others.
Angarola’s genre appearances include two episodes of Kraft Suspense Theatre and the 1969 shocker What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?
William Windom |
The
remainder of the cast should be familiar faces to regular viewers of The Twilight Zone. William Windom
(1923-2012) portrayed the obligatory psychiatrist. Like many of Beaumont’s
doctors, Windom is sympathetic yet incapable of understanding the extraordinary
circumstances of his patient. Windom was a prolific television actor who graced
dozens of programs with exceptional acting. He previously appeared on The Twilight Zone as the Major in “Five
Characters in Search of an Exit.” He appeared in perhaps his finest role as a businessman
on the edge of retirement coming to terms with the past in Rod Serling’s masterful
Night Gallery episode, “They’re
Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar.” Windom returned to Night Gallery for “Little Girl Lost.” Other genre programs to get
the Windom touch include Lights Out, Boris
Karloff’s Thriller, Kraft Mystery
Theater, The Invaders, and Circle of
Fear, the latter being an anthology series developed by Richard Matheson.
Prolific actor John McLiam (1918-1994) gives a
refreshingly different performance as the curious museum guard, a role which in
lesser hands would have devolved into one of antagonism and one-dimensional
service. As it is, McLiam imbues the guard with a sympathetic nature whose own
loneliness (or boredom) draws him to the curious Charley Parkes. The way in
which the episode ends, with a circular narrative in which the guard sees the
life inside the dollhouse, is more than a fitting denouement. McLiam appeared
in dozens of television series, mostly westerns and police dramas. He also appeared
on The Twilight Zone in “The
Shelter,” “The Midnight Sun,” and “Uncle Simon,” only receiving credit for the
first. McLiam also appeared on other genre programs such as The Outer Limits, Kraft Suspense Theatre,
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and The
Invaders.
Barney Phillips with Robert Duvall |
Rounding out the cast is the ever-reliable Barney Phillips (1913-1982)
as Charley Parkes’ boss Mr. Diemel, who must let Charley go when it becomes
clear that Charley will never fit in with his co-workers. Phillips is one of
the most recognizable actors on The
Twilight Zone due to his appearance in Rod Serling’s “Will the Real Martian
Please Stand Up?” in which Phillips donned a third eye on his forehead to
portray a Venusian masquerading as a short-order cook in an out of the way
diner. Phillips also appeared in “The Purple Testament” and “A Thing About
Machines.” Phillips can also be spotted in episodes of Science Fiction Theatre, Kaft Suspense Theatre, The Alfred Hitchcock
Hour, and the cult film I Was a
Teenage Werewolf (1957).
The
director and composer for “Miniature” deserve mentions, as well. Walter E.
Grauman (1922-2015), director, was behind the camera only this single time for The Twilight Zone. He began by directing
the low-budget horror film The
Disembodied (1957), a film notable for offering a starring vehicle to
Allison Hayes a year before she portrayed the title character in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958). Grauman
moved quickly into the lucrative television market and began a busy career
shooting dozens of series. The intermittent feature film offered such items of
interest as Lady in a Cage, a 1964
shocker which featured Olivia de Havilland as a woman trapped in her private
elevator who is tormented by a young James Caan.
The
music of Fred Steiner (1923-2011), composer, can be heard in dozens of Twilight Zone episodes. Notable are
Steiner’s original compositions for “King Nine Will Not Return,” “A Hundred
Yards Over the Rim,” “The Passersby,” and “Mute,” portions of which reverberate
across the series as stock music cues. Steiner enjoyed a long and busy career providing
music for many television series and feature films. He composed the theme for Perry Mason and several scores for the
original Star Trek. The wistful
composition which the Doll plays on the piano is “Piano Sonata no. 11 in A
major” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
“Miniature”
is an episode which has a number of excellent selling points: a thoughtful,
sensitive script by Charles Beaumont, a quiet yet mesmerizing performance by
Robert Duvall, an excellent supporting cast, some pleasing special effects, and
a fine Fred Steiner score. The notoriety of the episode has likely suffered due
to its long absence from syndication packages as well as its misfortune of being one of the hour-long fourth season episodes. Nevertheless, it is
essential viewing, especially for fans who desire a full appreciation of the show’s
range. It may even sway some viewers who do not always enjoy the hour-long
episodes. It comes highly recommended.
Grade:
A
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the
following:
The
Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott
Zicree, second edition (1992)
The
Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr. (OTR, 2008)
“Silver Anniversary for ‘The Twilight
Zone’” by Stephen Holden (The New York
Times, Oct 19, 1984; digitized copy)
Audio commentary with William F. Nolan
and Marc Scott Zicree (Blu-ray)
The Internet Movie Database (imdb.org)
The Internet Speculative Fiction
Database (isfdb.org)
*A sixth episode, “The New Exhibit,” is
credited to Beaumont but was ghost-written by Beaumont’s friend Jerry Sohl
after Beaumont became unable to write due to the effects of the disease which
would take his life four years later.
**To
Kill a Mockingbird is a film whose cast should be familiar to viewers of The Twilight Zone. Members of that cast
included Frank Overton, Ruth White, Collin Wilcox, Robert Duvall, William
Windom, and Mary Badham, all of whom appeared on The Twilight Zone.
Notes:
--William
Windom also appeared in the third season episode, “Five Characters in Search of
an Exit,” as well as in two segments of Rod
Serling’s Night Gallery, “They’re Tearing
Down Tim Riley’s Bar” and “Little Girl Lost.”
--John
McLiam also appeared in “The Shelter,” “The Midnight Sun,” and “Uncle Simon,”
uncredited in the latter two episodes.
--Barney
Phillips also appeared in “The Purple Testament,” “A Thing About Machines,”
and, most memorably, in “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
--Chet
Stratton also appeared in “The Mind and the Matter.”
--“Miniature”
was adapted as a Twilight Zone Radio
Drama starring Lou Diamond Phillips.
-JP
A rare A from the Vortex! Thanks for this fascinating look at a classic episode.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jack! I've always been a fan of the fourth season but I'm enjoying some of these episodes even more than I thought I would when going back over them.
ReplyDeleteMiniature, I agree, is a top 10 hands down! Superb acting by a young Robert Duvall. Charlie Parks is a social outcast and even when his family tries to help him out of his shell, he fails at every level. Charlie gets fired for being a square peg, he gets slapped by a blind date his sister fixed him up with because he doesn't know how to act with a woman, and gets committed to a mental-health facility because he suffers a mental breakdown at the museum smashing a doll-house thinking his crush is being taken advantage of by a caped interloper from outside of the house! Finally, when he gets released from the hospital he feigns sanity and escapes from is room back to the museum and hides out after-hours only to completely disappear. When his family, the psychiatrist, go back to the museum, they cannot find him except for the incredulous guard who sees Charlie in the doll-house now with the pretty woman in motion. Great ending!
ReplyDeleteIt really is a great script and is one of the few hour-long episodes which would have felt very compressed if whittled down to a half-hour. Although there are some stinkers in the fourth season these writers were more than capable of crafting an effective hour-long play. Beaumont was perhaps the best of them all at this, as I think "In His Image," "Miniature," "Printer's Devil," and "Passage on the Lady Anne" are all very good hour long plays. I feel the same about "The New Exhibit" but I give that credit to Jerry Sohl as ghostwriter.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Charley pressing his face against the glass might not serve a secondary purpose, i.e., to reinforce/set up the presence of the glass itself for when he ultimately smashes it. If I'm not mistaken, there's at least one shot in which Duvall actually mimes beating his fists against the glass before breaking it, and they may have wanted to make it absolutely clear (as it were) to the viewer.
ReplyDeleteThis may be and I'd like to think it serves to foreshadow such a dramatic moment. I just found it an odd bit of whimsy in an otherwise serious narrative and assumed it was to reinforce Charley's oddness.
DeleteThanks for reading! It's great hearing from you and I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed "Miniature" so much as it has always been among my favorites. In my view it is the final great script from Charles Beaumont before ghostwriters had to finish his contributions to the show due to his decline in health. I agree that the hour long format works in favor of this one. It would have certainly felt rushed at twenty-four minutes, both in terms of the narrative and with Duvall's character. It is a shame that its absence from syndication packages kept the episode buried for so long but I feel that now that it's easily accessible it has begun to achieve the recognition that it deserves as one of the true classics of the series.
ReplyDeleteSplendid review of a wonderful story about a sensitive subject. You do have a way with words Mr JP, you made it even more emotional with your superb narrativ. At long last I am in the process of making a dream come true by buying the box with all the seasons of this amazing series. Thank you and congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much for the kind words. I'm pleased you enjoyed the review and found it useful. I hope you enjoy the box set as these episodes of quality like "Miniature" can be watched and re-watched again and again.
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