Robots, mannequins and ventriloquist\u2019s dummies.\u00a0 Saints preserve us.<\/p>\n
Cliff Robertson is Jerry Etherson, a ventriloquist and Willie is his dummy.\u00a0 But Jerry\u2019s problem is that sometimes Willie wants to do the talking.\u00a0 And because of this Jerry has become an alcoholic.\u00a0 Obviously, nobody believes him including his manager Frank (played by Frank Sutton of Gomer Pyle semi-fame).\u00a0 Frank warns him that if he doesn\u2019t conquer his drinking problem the delusion about Willie will persist.\u00a0 Jerry tells Frank that the truth about Willie is what is driving him to drink.<\/p>\n
Jerry thinks he has figured a way out.\u00a0 He switches the act away from Willie by using his other dummy Goofy Goggles.\u00a0 When Frank asks him why he is leaving early Jerry says he\u2019s leaving for Miami and he\u2019s leaving Willie behind in a locked steamer trunk.\u00a0 Hearing that Jerry is running out on an engagement Frank ends his association with Jerry and tells him he needs a psychiatrist to solve his dummy delusion.<\/p>\n
But when Jerry tries to leave the club, he can still hear Willie taunting him and telling him he won\u2019t be able to get rid of Willie.\u00a0 He rushes back to the darkened dressing room; rips open the trunk and smashes the mannequin down onto the floor.\u00a0 But when he opens the light, he sees that he has destroyed Goofy Goggles.\u00a0 And Willie is sitting on the couch mocking him.\u00a0 When Jerry implores Willie to explain how a wooden dummy can live, Willie tells him that he did it by putting words into him.\u00a0 Jerry bows his head in defeat and Willie laughs at him maniacally.<\/p>\n
In the next scene we\u2019re in a theater and the master of ceremonies introduces Willie and Jerry and from behind their backs we see the ventriloquist and his dummy going through their patter.\u00a0 But as the position of the camera turns, we see that the ventriloquist is a living version of Willie and the dummy looks just like Jerry.<\/p>\n
I suspect that Rod Serling was an actual time traveling sadist.\u00a0 He had gone into the future and knew that I existed and if he would only create Twilight Zone episodes about robots, mannequins and ventriloquist dummies that can talk I would suffer horribly.\u00a0 He must have been a monster.<\/p>\n
And what about Cliff Robertson?\u00a0 He was a reasonably successful and respected actor for what that\u2019s worth.\u00a0 And yet here he is wrestling with a dummy and being bested in a battle of wits.\u00a0 I suppose there is a place for talking ventriloquist\u2019s dummies in this wide wonderful world.\u00a0 But what am I going to do in season five when I reach the second talking ventriloquist dummy story?\u00a0 Am I supposed to pretend that\u2019s alright too?\u00a0 Besides this was the inspiration of the Chucky movies and who knows what future dummy abominations.\u00a0 No, this will not stand.\u00a0 D+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Robots, mannequins and ventriloquist\u2019s dummies.\u00a0 Saints preserve us. Cliff Robertson is Jerry Etherson, a ventriloquist and Willie is his dummy.\u00a0 But Jerry\u2019s problem is that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,240,1661],"tags":[1904,1905,38,1355,1194,44,309,265,1691,1903,154,1692,838],"class_list":["post-7153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","category-twilight-zone","tag-cliff-robertson","tag-frank-sutton","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rod-serling","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-the-dummy","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-twilight-zone"],"yoast_head":"\n