"Four O'Clock" is episode 94 (season 3, number 29) of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Video Four O'Clock (The Twilight Zone)
Opening narration
Maps Four O'Clock (The Twilight Zone)
Plot
Oliver Crangle is a paranoid fanatic who lives in an apartment with his parrot, Pete. He maintains records of people he believes to be "evil". He makes phone calls to them and their employers at all hours, writes letters regarding their actions, demands their prompt firing, and threatens to involve higher authorities if they do not comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous calls and letters, he searches for a more effective way to eliminate evil from the world. He settles on the idea of shrinking all evil people to two feet tall. Throughout the episode, Crangle's parrot Pete periodically calls out, "Nut," asking for a nut to eat, which Crangle gives him, not realizing that Pete is also, in effect, calling Crangle a "nut."
His landlady, Mrs. Williams arrives, whom he berates and treats horribly to make her leave. Another lady, Mrs. Lucas comes to Crangle's apartment and pleads for Crangle to leave her husband, a doctor, alone. Crangle is convinced that because her husband was unable to save the life of a woman in the ER who died from her injuries, that he is a murderer and evil. Due to Crangle's letter writing to the hospital, her husband's colleagues and coworkers abuse him, which Mrs. Lucas wants Crangle to stop. Crangle simply believes that those people, are also evil. Mrs. Lucas leaves realizing that Crangle is insane.
Crangle calls a number of government agencies, and Agent Hall of the FBI is sent to investigate. Crangle tells him of his plan to shrink every evil person at 4:00 that afternoon through sheer force of will, also mentioning that he believes all evil people are collaborating in a worldwide conspiracy. He believes that by shrinking all evil people to two feet tall, that they will be unable carry on their everyday lives, and eventually become extinct. Hall asks Crangle if he has ever had any psychiatric help, and tells Crangle that they do not need his kind of help because they have the law. Hall says that both support and help in upholding the law are appreciated, but what Crangle is doing is instead interference. Crangle accuses him of being in on the conspiracy. As Hall leaves, Crangle screams at him that he too will be two feet tall in just 20 minutes.
When 4:00 rolls around, Crangle is horrified to find that he himself has been shrunk to two feet tall. He struggles in vain to get up to his window sill, and one last time Pete calls out the word "Nut".
In the radio adaptation starring Stan Freberg, the ending was altered to be more gruesome as Pete the parrot mistakes the now-shrunken Crangle for a "nut".
Closing narration
References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
- The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas Vol. 4, Blackstone Audio, Inc., ISBN 978-1482937022
External links
- "Four O'Clock" on IMDb
- "Four O'Clock" at TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments