The Dummy
| "The Dummy" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Cliff Robertson with Willie in "The Dummy" |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 98 |
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| Directed by | Abner Biberman | ||
| Written by | Rod Serling (Based on an unpublished story by Lee Polk.) | ||
| Featured music | Stock | ||
| Production code | 4826 | ||
| Original air date | May 4, 1962 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Cliff Robertson: Jerry Etherson/Voice of Willie/Voice of Goofy Goggles |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"The Dummy" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The episode opens with ventriloquist Jerry Etherson and his dummy Willie in the middle of one of his acts, somewhere in New York City. After the act, he goes back to his dressing room and begins to drink from a liquor bottle he'd had hidden in a drawer. His agent comes in and is upset that he's drinking again. He tells his agent that Willie is alive and frequently talks to him. When he tells the agent that he is at the mercy of the dummy, he does not believe Jerry and thinks he might need psychiatric help.
Jerry decides that he is going to perform with a different dummy, "Goofy Goggles", for his next act (and all acts in the future) and locks Willie in a trunk. After the second act, (which is not as successful as the ones with Willie) his agent tells him that he is quitting, but Jerry says he is leaving to go to Kansas City and try to get away from Willie. His agent tells him that it doesn't matter where he goes; he'll still have this delusion if he doesn't deal with it here and now. While he's standing outside of the back door to the theater, he hears faint whispers of Willie's voice. He sees the dummy's shadow and continues to hear his voice until a coworker from the theater walks up and asks if anything is wrong. Jerry invites her to get a drink, but does it nervously and eccentrically, thereby causing the woman to become frightened and run away.
As soon as she leaves, he hears Willie's voice again and runs back into the theater. He goes into the dark dressing room, opens the trunk and throws the dummy on the floor, brutally smashing it. But when he turns on the light, he realizes that he destroyed the Goofy Goggles dummy that he was going to use in his future acts. He can't understand how he could have been mistaken. He sees Willie sitting on the couch, laughing. Jerry asks how he can be real when he's made of wood, and Willie tells him that it was he, Jerry, who made him alive. Realizing the truth, Jerry lowers his head as Willie cackles crazily.
The scene cuts to a stage in Kansas City announcing that the next act will be "Jerry & Willie", and we see the beginning of the act from the back of the man who walked out. As the camera rotates to the front, it is revealed that the man is actually Willie, and he is holding a dummy that looks just like Jerry.
[edit] Production notes
Abner Biberman also directed "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You."
The same dummy was used in the 1964 Twilight Zone episode, "Caesar and Me." The actual dummy which was used in both episodes was in a private collection in Connecticut since the late 1970s, and now resides in David Copperfield's International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts in Las Vegas, NV.[citation needed]
A figure of Willie can be seen at Disney's Hollywood Studios in the dark corner of a barred off exhibit to the side of one of the elevator exits of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride.
[edit] See also
- The Great Gabbo, a 1928 film about a mad ventriloquist, starring Erich von Stroheim
- Caesar and Me, a 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone television series, starring Jackie Cooper
- Magic, a 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margaret about a ventriloquist whose delusion leads him to commit murders at what he imagines to be the behest of his dummy, "Fats".
[edit] References
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
