The Twilight Zone - The Whole Truth
Sort of tuckered in the middle of the second season, “The Whole Truth” is among those imperfect few video-taped episodes that suffers to this day because of its technically dismal quality print. However, I think this episode, never packaged much in the New Years Eve and Day marathons, has some fun moments to offer Twilight Zone fans mainly because of the irony of the premise, Jack Carson’s amusing character and performance, and a key twist at the end that is quite historical due to when it was made and set.
Carson is an auto salesman of junkers on his lot that are
not only past their prime but literally falling apart or missing parts! Carson’s
character’s name is just perfect, too: Harvey Hunnicut. I think one of his
slogans on the lot is he’ll sell a car to you for a honey of a price. He is
very good at laying it on thick but clearly can talk customers into signing
their name to the contracts for the very worst of lemons on his lot. You see
him at work on one young couple mulling over whether or not to buy a new “transportation”
car or an obvious lemon he’s hoping to dump on them for a price it doesn’t
deserve. When George Chandler arrives with a particular car that has also seen
better times on the road, Carson hopes to steal it off of him for a blasé price,
not realizing the warning of it “being haunted” is actually true…it makes
Hunnicut tell nothing but the truth, an absolute death knell for car salesmen!
In order to get his ability to lie through his teeth again, Hunnicut will need
to sell the cursed car.
A young Arte Johnson plays Irv, an impressionable employee of Hunnicut, who makes signs and works quite cheap, hoping for a raise he later learns is never intended. Those signs Irv has to make up that actually tell customers the truth about the lemons on the lot are hilarious as is the music that kicks in when Hunnicut’s attempt to lie is “altered” into the truth, leaving him having to tell his wife that he isn’t working late but playing “poker with the boys”! Hunnicut agonizingly telling the truth, against his usual nature, the pains and confusion on his face that his skills of deception are robbed him, as the music cues us to when he attempts to lie are thwarted by the cursed car is really the entire episode’s gag.
This is all about the irony, poking fun at snake oil salesman who makes a living giving customers the shaft. Of course, the obvious question is how could Hunnicut stay in business if the cars he always sells customers are lemons? Wouldn’t his reputation as a salesman who dumps junkers on customers who pay him more than their worth ultimately catch up to him? I guess you can’t really put too much thought into critiquing the finer details of this sort of plot…it is about the punchline at the end. That Nikita Khrushchev and Jack Kennedy are mentioned by Carson at the end gives this episode some historical significance…and that the cursed car plays into the punchline might just bring a smile to the face of not only TZ fans but of those interested in US history and the US relations with the Soviet Union.
Because the plot didn’t require a lot of special effects or flashier camerawork, “The Whole Truth” didn’t suffer as much as other videotaped episodes, its ugly quality is still unfortunate. Carson, to his credit, anchors the episode with his believable angst and struggles to combat the curse with what he actually wants to do: send customers off in cars that will break down or wear out not long after they leave the lot. Seeing Carson in the early going all animated, gnawing on his cigar, turning on the coercive influence with his gift of talkative persuasion, only to lose all that deceptive talent when he’s left to defeatedly reveal the accuracy of exactly what customers are purchasing is the episode’s greatest strength. Problem is this is fluff, nothing too extraordinary, and in a season that is inundated with one great episode after another, “The Whole Truth” inevitably gets lost in the shuffle. 2.5/5
A young Arte Johnson plays Irv, an impressionable employee of Hunnicut, who makes signs and works quite cheap, hoping for a raise he later learns is never intended. Those signs Irv has to make up that actually tell customers the truth about the lemons on the lot are hilarious as is the music that kicks in when Hunnicut’s attempt to lie is “altered” into the truth, leaving him having to tell his wife that he isn’t working late but playing “poker with the boys”! Hunnicut agonizingly telling the truth, against his usual nature, the pains and confusion on his face that his skills of deception are robbed him, as the music cues us to when he attempts to lie are thwarted by the cursed car is really the entire episode’s gag.
This is all about the irony, poking fun at snake oil salesman who makes a living giving customers the shaft. Of course, the obvious question is how could Hunnicut stay in business if the cars he always sells customers are lemons? Wouldn’t his reputation as a salesman who dumps junkers on customers who pay him more than their worth ultimately catch up to him? I guess you can’t really put too much thought into critiquing the finer details of this sort of plot…it is about the punchline at the end. That Nikita Khrushchev and Jack Kennedy are mentioned by Carson at the end gives this episode some historical significance…and that the cursed car plays into the punchline might just bring a smile to the face of not only TZ fans but of those interested in US history and the US relations with the Soviet Union.
Because the plot didn’t require a lot of special effects or flashier camerawork, “The Whole Truth” didn’t suffer as much as other videotaped episodes, its ugly quality is still unfortunate. Carson, to his credit, anchors the episode with his believable angst and struggles to combat the curse with what he actually wants to do: send customers off in cars that will break down or wear out not long after they leave the lot. Seeing Carson in the early going all animated, gnawing on his cigar, turning on the coercive influence with his gift of talkative persuasion, only to lose all that deceptive talent when he’s left to defeatedly reveal the accuracy of exactly what customers are purchasing is the episode’s greatest strength. Problem is this is fluff, nothing too extraordinary, and in a season that is inundated with one great episode after another, “The Whole Truth” inevitably gets lost in the shuffle. 2.5/5
- *the politician who shows up to negotiate the cursed car from Hunnicut is a bit over the top but he fits the tone of the episode...a career liar opposing a supernaturally "reformed" career liar is quite a humorous and clever set up leading to the twist at the conclusion.
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