A Thing About Machines

I should explain that when I say "overused," I don't quite mean that it has been done to death, because even though there have been countless examples of sci fi TV show and movies about machines coming to life, they are not necessarily all the same or rip-offs of each other. Besides, if any TV show ever had the right to do a show on the topic of machines coming to life, the Twilight Zone is it.

The main characters in the show are Richard Haydn as Bartlett Finchley and Barney Phillips as a TV repairman who, I have to say, must certainly act in a certain way that no TV repairman has ever acted toward a customer. Of course, I wasn't exactly spending much time hiring repairmen back in the 1960s, nearly 20 years before I was born, but I would think that, even if he was called repeatedly to Finchley's house to fix the most mysterious and suspicious damages, it's probably generally not such a good idea to openly criticize and insult one of your best repeat customers!

At any rate, it sets up the situation that we need to know about. Finchley has to call repeatedly to have his various machines and appliances fixed because, for example, he is provided with reason to put his foot through his TV set. I've heard about that being done in several movies and TV shows, and it always strikes me as something that would be exceedingly difficult to do. Have you ever imagined how much force would be needed to drive a foot through a TV set? This man's foot certainly had some momentum behind it!

And the question, of course, is what could possibly have led him to such a state as to cause him to make such a vicious kick? Babara Stuart shows up briefly to angrily quit her job as his secretary, once again hinting toward the reality of his state of mind. Once she threatens to quit because of his ill treatment, he panics at the thought of being left alone in his house, and we begin to understand what is really going on. Well, we already knew what was going on because we know the title of the episode, but you get the idea.

Sadly, the second half of the episode is where the show starts to falter. The main reason, I think, that the threat of the machines becomes a problem is because the threat is just never made realistic enough. At the time of this writing, there is only one other IMDb reviewer who has reviewed this episode, jcravens42, and he (or she) notes the hilarity that may ensue at things like the attack of the killer electric shaver.

And on this point Craven is exactly right. I didn't quite laugh out loud, but I did smirk a bit, and not just because it's so ludicrous that you have to laugh, but because such a thing could never be a real threat. What could it do? Give Finchley razor burn? Why not just grab it out of the air and toss it into the tub? Or out the window? But then again, imagining yourself in the situation of the characters in many Twilight Zone episodes is a great way to ruin the experience.

But it's the same thing with the climax of the show, the car chasing him around outside. It's not just placing yourself in his situation that could ruin the suspense, but I have never been able to feel any sympathy for people in movies being chased by cars (manned or otherwise) when all they do is run right up the middle of the road or, in this case, back and forth. Avoiding a car at close range would be FAR too easy for it to ever be able to generate any suspense.

But in the show's defense, it is also an illustration of Finchley's state of mind, which is not exactly allowing for rational thought. You could call this one of the Twilight Zone's weaker episodes and probably be right, but it's also an almost required theme for the show and is well made enough, I should think...

This truly not one of the better episodes, but what is of interest is that Bartlett Finchley is almost certainly modeled after the humorist and movie personality Robert Benchley.

Benchley, who died in 1945 or thereabouts, became topical in 1960 as the result of the publication of a collection of his best humor by his son Nathaniel Benchley. Benchley fought an unending war against the inanimate objects around him, which he chronicled in a number of delightful and very funny pieces. Serling, who was hard up for ideas by that point, must have been as impressed as I was.

Or so I do believe. In any case, I have always thought the similarity between the characters name 'Finchley' and 'Benchley' is no coincidence.

Okay, I have trouble with screw top lids and when the can opener balks, I call the wife. Last time I fixed anything was replacing batteries in my TV wand. So, all in all, I sympathize with Finchley, but I do try to take my ineptitude with some humor. Not Finchley. He's an intellectual snob, certainly dislikable, thanks to an excellent performance by actor Haydn. He not only treats mechanical things with contempt, but people too. So no wonder a reckoning is at hand. But this being the TZ, it's the mechanical world that rebels. Cars, razors, clocks, TV's, even typewriters-- all find a voice and rebel against the insufferable tyrant. The special effects are mostly good, and I really like the first eruption of the electric razor looking just like a coiled cobra. From now on, you can bet I'll keep mine well cleaned. And catch that driverless car-- I was rooting for it.

All in all, it's an unusual episode with what I think is a good moral—something about being kind to our cutting-edge creations and they'll be good to us. I expect that goes for our computerized world as well. Uh oh!— now what's the problem with my keyboard. Guess I'll have to call the wife.

With the legendary Richard Haydn as the lead in this episode, I expected better things. But a weak script, poorly executed, pretty much sinks this episode entirely. It always takes some suspension of disbelief to watch the Twilight Zone now, given how slickly produced movies and TV shows are now, with incredible special effects, but with good episodes, I can see past the low-budget production values. Not with this one. I actually laughed out loud over the electric shaver attack, not only because of the visible string but also because it was so absurd. This is an episode that could have been made much more effectively, even with the budget restraints. Oh, well, given the brilliance of the other episodes, it's hard to criticize... just don't let this be the first Twilight Zone you ever watch (or it will be the only one).

Richard Haydn plays Bartlett Finchley, an acid-tongued but unhappy man who lives alone in his mansion, and constantly complains about evil machines that not only won't work for him, but are conspiring to kill him. Barney Philips is most amusing as his long-suffering TV repairman who has grown tired of constantly repairing perfectly good televisions that Finchley has kicked in. Turns out the machines are out to get him after all... Heavy-handed yet still entertaining episode has a singularly unpleasant lead character that it is difficult to build any sympathy for, but of course it's possible he doesn't warrant any; in any case, it is a memorable effort.