Four O'Clock

Theodore Bikel gives an unforgettable performance as Oliver Crangle, a man obsessed with evil of all kinds. One of those individuals who minds the business of every person he comes in any kind of contact with, whether its personal or he reads about it in the newspaper or see it on television. He sure can't hear much word of mouth gossip the way he lives.

It occured to me watching this again 57 years after it had first been broadcast that Oliver Crangle really would have thrived in the age of the computer. The internet would have given him countless opportunities to see and record evil in his eyes.

In any event he has willed that at 4 O'Clock something nasty is going to happen to the evil people in the world. That last shot with Bikel and his parrot is really something.

I only wish this would happen to the busybodies of the world.

With a hunched-over body, Coke bottle glasses, and a name like "Crangle", you know weirdo is going to follow. And it does, in spades. The half-hour really amounts to a Bikel showcase, as he gets to go through about every loony tune in the weirdo song book. As Crangle, he's out to eradicate the world of evil, that is, evil according to his own expansive definition. His poison is to contact folks "harboring" evil ones and let them know what they're doing. Needless to say, his lunacy is damaging a lot of undeserving victims. Yet he gloats the gloat of the smugly righteous. So what will happen at 4-o'clock when he "wills" the world's evil people to shrink down to midgets. That's the question.

The production's a one room, small cast setup that frankly features Bikel's same lunatic note the whole time. The only real interest is what Serling's got in store when the clock strikes 4. Otherwise, there's little storyline except for the loony emoting. I wish the screenplay provided a bit of Crangle's background. As it is, he and his venom are just sort of dropped in. To me, it's a mediocre entry at best.

(In passing--that's Moyna MacGill, Angela Lansbury's mom, as the aging woman. It's striking, to me, the family resemblance between the two.)

While the writing is heavy-handed and rather preachy, Bikel,s performance is superb insofar as you can watch him - in 20 minutes or so - sink believably into total paranoia. A good example of why one should always question the motives and mental health of a finger-pointer.

"Four O'Clock" is among the lowest ranked TZ-episodes (currently #144 out of 156 episodes), and there are remarkably more negative and downright harsh user-comments to be found about it. I'm probably the ignorant one again, but ... I loved it! What annoys me (personally, that is) about several episodes is that the tone of the stories, and the personalities of the lead characters, are too soft and sentimental. I liked my "Twilight Zone" tales dark & twisted, and my protagonists as evil and despicable as possible. Oliver Crangle, the anti-hero in "Four O'Clock", is pure evil and - moreover - utterly insane! Crangle, with glasses as thick as marmalade jars, fills his days with speaking bad of others and digging up random dirt of random people. Together with his parrot (!), Crangle conspires for something terrible to happen to all the "nasty" people. I honestly don't understand why anyone would dislike this happily deranged episode! Rod Serling's moral lesson is obvious (be nice to each other) but not shoved down our throats, Crangle's monologues are truly genius, Theodore Bickel's performance couldn't be better and the (admittedly foreseeable) climax is the cherry on the cake. Fun tale! Should be top 15 instead of bottom 15...

The foundations of a good episode are established with this ghastly character Crangle (Theodore Bikel) and his sanctimonious crusade against people leading less than saintly lives. He is a hypocrite, telling his landlady 'I mind my own business'. He does harm by anonymous phone calls and letter writing. Crangle's war on immorality is clearly the creepy, slithering nastiness of an obsessed coward who wont play the game and live his own life.

The story continues well throughout in the middle. Crangle's lack of humanity is further underlined when he receives a visit from Mrs Lucas (Phyllis Love) the wife of doctor he intends to expose for being 'imperfect'. This is a strong scene with Mrs Lucas questioning the crazy crusader and him mentioning communists among the 'evil' he targets. Then things get madder when Crangle hits on an idea- from this point the production suffers from a silly conclusion. A pity because there're still good moments as Crangle cherry picks by underlining only the parts he likes of The Gettysburg Address and displays his paranoia. Perhaps the end doesn't have to be taken literally? There could even be a clue with the parrot? Crangle is undeniably mad after all.

One truly far out, mad-bad character. Yet his type gets elected in democracies from time to time. He is sadly all too human.