The Twilight Zone - Mr. Dingle, the Strong

 *½ / ****

Burgess Meredith has been in two of the greatest Twilight Zone episodes of the classic show’s entire run, but I consider his Mr. Dingle a low within all five seasons. Is it Cavender is Coming, Caesar and Me, and Bewitchin’ Pool low? Well, Mr. Dingle, the Strong has some good “tests of strength” effects (like Dingle lifting a park bench, ripping off a car door and bar door from their hinges, breaking apart rocks, etc.), but Meredith’s character is reduced to such a stuttering weakling, incapable of defending himself or standing up for himself, that trying to invest any care at all into his story proves quite frustrating. I do feel bad when fucking Don Rickles picks on him simply for not agreeing with him on a ball game’s outcome (due to his losing a bet he truthfully is attempting to welsh on), but Meredith’s treatment by the screenplay, considering him a patsy so emasculated he doesn’t even attempt to avoid punches to the face for little reason other than answering a question correctly, leaves me awash with discontent. Aliens with large craniums and pointy ears [natch], attached together within a large box with knobs and antennae, decide to provide Mr. Dingle (Meredith) with great strength as an experiment, observing how weak and pitiful he is after another in a long line of fisticuff abuse by gambling bully (Rickles). Edward Ryder is a bookie named Callahan at odds with Rickle’s bettor, when the two bring in a terrible vacuum salesman trying to determine if he’ll come close to commission to determine who is right in their baseball argument. Barkeep Anthony (James Westerfield), operating the bar, tries to talk sense into Dingle just not to participate when asked about the game so that he won’t get bullied yet the reduced simpleton can’t help but do so. There is no doubt that Dingle is an innocent often victimized by a cruel world, and this episode sure pours it on.

Rod Serling, 9 times out of 10 writes great scripts with profound characters and dialogue, but sometimes he loses me. Disappointedly also, John Brahm (who translated his skills from film to television), who directed this episode, serves the viewer with fun moments where Dingle shows how strong he is, but the characters (almost everyone mistreats Dingle who never deserves the amount of grief Serling’s script dumps on him) and location (almost exclusively in the bar except for a couple thankful excursions outside, like when Dingle speaks to a mom or when tossing the pigskin as if an Olympian hurling a javelin in a neighborhood) are chore to contend with.

The episode is regarded by Twilight Zone fans and is popular in marathons, but Mr. Dingle, the Strong is definitely not on my favorites list, that’s for sure. The child aliens giving Dingle great intelligence did amuse me, but much like provided strength, it is temporary so his lot in life will still result in abuse and misery. The camera crew documenting Dingle’s feats of strength (which has built his rep and provided Anthony’s with publicity and financial benefit in his bar), with James Millhollin (wiping sweat from his forehead with handkerchief) turning in a minor supporting part as an interviewer left despondent when the aliens take back from their human experiment what that give to him momentarily abandon him immediately when their story is undermined…the world Serling drops Dingle into is quite horrible to him indeed.

And why Serling doesn't allow Dingle to get more revenge on Rickles, such a repulsive scumbag, is anybody's guess. A smashed cigar in his despicable mouth and being tossed around in the air (mostly by a stuntman who looks nothing like Meredith) just doesn't seem to equal punching Dingle right in the face and over the bar, ridiculing him consistently, and throttling him to the floor. That injustice alone does the episode no favors with me. Spencer and Fox as the "Box Martians" have one of the most laughable costume contraptions (and make-up) TZ ever produced.