Monday, July 19, 2021

THE TWILIGHT ZONE / "Mr. Dingle, The Strong" - 1961

Here's a crazy little episode about a timid vacuum cleaner salesman who's given the strength of 300 men by two aliens using him in an experiment. it stars Burgess Meredith, James Westerfield, Eddie Ryder, Douglas Spencer, Michael Fox and Don Rickles.

The story mainly takes place at a local bar, where, Bettor (Don) is constantly arguing over sports with his more than willing sparring partner. I'm mean, it's just stupid crap like.. What if someone had hit a home run, instead of striking out!! And sometimes, another person that hangs out there, vacuum cleaner salesman Mr. Dingle, gets forced into choosing sides between the two.

Bettor is always over the top and Dingle usually takes sides with the other guy!

So, Bettor has punched Dingle in the stomach, when, weird aliens show up and take interest in the incident...

After O'Toole, the owner and bartender, chases off Bettor, he gives Dingle some sage advice... Just stop talking, nod your head or something!

As Dingle tries to gather himself, the aliens hit him with a strength ray, making him 300 times as strong as a normal human...

On his way out of the bar, he pulls the door off its hinges like it was nothing!

Dingle shows off at the park and it gets on the front page of the newspaper. It's Samson, not Hercules that Dingle seems to be! I don't get it.

Everybody's trying to come up with schemes to make money off of Dingle's uncanny strength. At the moment, he's listening to a pitch being made by a boxing promoter, saying that he'll make him the world boxing champ!!

Then a TV crew comes in and clears the area for an interview with Dingle about his strength...

He starts with easily punching a hole in the wall.

And pulling a bar stool out of the floor.

Then he sees Bettor and gives him the evil eye! Bettor tells him... Haven't you ever heard the saying, let bygones be bygones?

Dingle twirls him around like a feather! These are stuntmen doing this gag, and you can easily tell that they don't look like the actors

The aliens turn off Dingle's strength ray and his power is no more. He tries and tries, but just hurts his hand and gives up.

Now, he gets ready for a nose twister from Bettor.

Offended, the TV announcer apologizes to their audience, and the crew storms off in disgust!

The aliens are Martians, on Earth to experiment with physical strength. These other two guys are from Venus, on Earth looking for subjects to experiment on with mental powers. They ask the Martians if there are any good subjects around to use in their experiment. They point to Dingle!

So, Dingle it is... They give him 500 time the intellect of a normal human!

The gang's watching a baseball game on TV when they ask Dingle what he thought would happen on the next play. He says 'home run' and sure enough, home run! He starts spouting out mathematic formulas and theories to the bemusement of his pals...

3 comments:

Grant said...

I don't know this one well, but I'd watch almost anything with Don Rickles.
And Burgess Meredith, of course.

Realm Of Retro said...

Don Rickles: "You're out of your green-grass mind"

5 years later that might have been censored!


Here's a prod. still I found:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i910yS682jw/XnTbVREh66I/AAAAAAACHkk/r3iN8t3WMDoMH9XhiUd3un4rtrld80V8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tumblr_mx4y2n4ZjQ1r7dgeuo1_1280.jpg

EEGAH!! said...

Cool Photo! Thanx!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??