The Twilight Zone Review: The Man In The Bottle

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By William Kozy

If ever there were a Twilight Zone that was decent, simple, and well-acted, but almost ruined by one shot it was this one. In fact, it very well may that one shot that caused this episode to receive only 4 votes in my survey that asked, “What is your favorite episode of the original Twilight Zone series?” tying it with 9 other episodes for 124th thru 132nd place. I’ll get to the shot in question in just a bit.

Arthur and Edna Castle are owners of an antiques and curios shop, and financially, they’ve hit rough times. They have debts and bills and in examining the books Arthur has discovered he can’t pay them off.

But the opening scene reveals a charity in his heart that paints a lovely picture of the man even if it does assure the viewer that things won’t end up too tragically for him. Ah, but I can hear you now protesting against such guarantees as you bring up the case of Henry Beamis in the classic episode “Time Enough At Last.” I submit to you that Burgess Meredith’s Beamis has not half the decency of Arthur Castle, played by Luther Adler, for in the opening scene, despite the lamentations over their finances, when a Mrs. Gumley comes into the shop offering to sell what she claims is a family heirloom supposedly “very very valuable” Arthur cannot help but cave in and give her a dollar for what he knows is garbage.

And it’s obvious from their conversation that this is something she comes in often to perpetrate. She knows this man with a heart will spare something for her despite his situation. The sale is made but as she leaves her conscience makes her confess she found it in a trash can, which we already know he knows. But Beamis on the other hand never shows an ounce of charity; he is so self-consumed by his world of books that he gives nothing of himself to anybody. He is poor at his job, nearly short-changing a customer at the bank; he is unwilling to socialize with his wife nor the neighbors who have invited him and his wife to a party. His concerns are as myopic as his vision—he has no use for humankind, and this comes to light in the end when after the initial shock of not having other humans around, he realizes he’s actually quite content to have stacks of books at his disposal. His humanity is sorely lacking compared to our Arthur Castle here.

Arthur’s a lovely man for his charitableness, so we know things will turn out okay. Beamis was a whole different sort. So, when it is revealed that this bottle found in the trash turns out to unleash a genie who grants Arthur four wishes, although we know that things will go sorely awry (this is “The Twilight Zone” after all), we are also vaguely comforted with the hunch that this will not be one of those tragic episodes.

Joseph Ruskin as the genie makes for a dapper version of the usual trickster we encounter in a genie bottle, barely capable of hiding his sinister sliminess. At first the Castles don’t believe this character who has morphed from the unleashed smoke into a smooth talking wish granter before their very eyes. A hypnotist Arthur guesses. But as the genie takes over the room, turning on a light and walking to the window to pull down the shade, we are somewhat unnerved by how nonchalantly and subtly he has assumed the upper hand even while calmly telling them they can have whatever they want in the world.

With some trepidation, Arthur decides to test things and so for his first wish he asks that the broken glass in his display case be repaired. And abracadabra, it is done. Game on. On bended knee beside his wife he is now exuberant with the prospect and asks her, “Think, think! What do we want?” Edna however remains distrustful: “Arthur, no. There’s something unholy about this.” I love the interplay between Adler and Vivi Janiss who plays his wife, as they navigate this incredible development with fear, excitement, and confusion. Two fine heartfelt performances; and Ruskin’s coolness belies an almost heartless curiosity, as though his only entertainment across the centuries lies in waiting to hear the wish so he can challenge himself to think of a creative way to turn the wish on its head. The Castles wind up wishing for the usual: a million dollars!

Next thing we know they are doling out money to their friends and neighbors who have lined up in their store for a handout. But no, that’s not the twist. In fact they are happily handing out the money. That’s how big their hearts are. Yeah, they’re definitely gonna be okay. But the second wish’s twist does come, in the form of an IRS agent who levies a tax bill on them to the tune of $942,640. After figuring out what they gave away, the Castles have wound up with only a $5 profit.

The genie needles them with his glibness. The heartbreaking part is the frustration is tearing at the couple. It hurts to see them pick at each other as they try to figure out what to do next as the genie smarmily admonishes, “It was my suggestion that you reflect very carefully Mr. Castle” and then later, “I’m afraid wishing for more wishes isn’t permitted Mr. Castle. Frankly, I’d be afraid to have you try for fear of the consequences.” (Why you little $#@%!)

The way the genie says in that tone of his, “No matter what you wish for, you must be prepared for the consequences” I’d feel like saying, “nope I’m good. Pack it up genie, bye bye.” But Arthur comes up with an idea: Power. So Arthur stresses that he wants to be head of a “foreign” country who “can’t be voted out of office” (circumventing his wife’s warning) and that “it must be a contemporary country” (which would circumvent being sent to some backward ancient era world.) Arthur fine tunes the request that the country be “within this century.” Do you get the feeling where this niggling specificity is leading to? I did, and I was right. But here comes the terrible shot that almost ruins the whole episode…

We cut to a man hunched over his desk with his head down in distress. Militaristic drums score the scene. A military officer on the other side of the desk, barks out “It’s just a mass suicide!” The hunched-over man is sobbing fitfully. An explosion off camera. It’s chaos. Here comes the shot as if you didn’t already predict it: the man whirls around to face the camera in a big fat close-up, and it’s Arthur…but as Adolf Hitler. And he babbles the following right at camera: “Head of a country…can’t be voted out of office!…I’m Hitler, I’m in a bunker. It’s the end of the war!” Yes he actually spells all that out to us. In a sweaty close-up. More explosions are heard as another officer enters the room and gingerly places some pills on “Mein Fuhrer’s” desk. As Arthur/Adolf picks up a beaker of liquid, he calls out his fourth wish, that he was back where he started as Arthur Castle again. He throws the beaker down and in a nice edit, the smashed beaker on the floor becomes the broken wine bottle at the head of the episode, and Arthur is back.

He’s so grateful, realizing how much worse his life could be. Mollified, he starts sweeping up the broken glass as his wife smiles and kneels with him saying, “We came out ahead anyway” and gestures toward the fixed glass in the display case. But it’s a little odd that when he returned from the Hitler experience, his wife didn’t ask anything about it all. At first I thought, “Oh so the whole thing was in his head” but that’s not right because she’s the one who acknowledges the fixed glass and that they “came out ahead.” So it’s a slight bit of character mismanagement in the writing.

And the final button on the episode: Arthur gets back up after sweeping, and his broomstick accidentally crashes into the display case window, breaking it. Edna and he thankfully have the sense to realize the irony of it is pretty witty, but that also they have each other and their shop.

I’ll rate the episode an 8 without that ham-handed Hitler shot, but a 6.2 with the shot.

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