Four O'Clock

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The Twilight Zone original series Season three (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) Fall 1961 – Summer 1962 List of The Twilight Zone episodes
Episodes: Two The Arrival The Shelter The Passersby A Game of Pool The Mirror The Grave It's a Good Life Deaths-Head Revisited The Midnight Sun Still Valley The Jungle Once Upon a Time Five Characters in Search of an Exit A Quality of Mercy Nothing in the Dark One More Pallbearer Dead Man's Shoes The Hunt Showdown With Rance McGrew Kick the Can A Piano in the House The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank To Serve Man The Fugitive Little Girl Lost Person or Persons Unknown The Little People Four O'Clock Hocus-Pocus and Frisby The Trade-Ins The Gift The Dummy Young Man's Fancy I Sing the Body Electric Cavender Is Coming The Changing of the Guard

“Four O’Clock” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

Episode number: 94
Season: 3
Production code: 4832
Original air date: April 6, 1962
Writer: Rod Serling, based on the story by Price Day, first published in Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 14 of My Favorites in Suspense (1959)
Director: Lamont Johnson
Music: Stock

[edit] Cast

Oliver Crangle: Theodore Bikel
Mrs. Williams: Moyna MacGill
Mrs. Lucas: Phyllis Love
Hall: Linden Chiles

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A fanatic maintains records of people he deems evil, calling and writing their employers to remind them of the evil acts in question and to demand immediate termination. Unsatisfied with the results he receives with anonymous threats, he looks for inspiration to eliminate all evil from the world. He finally devises a plan to shrink every such person down to two feet tall at four o’clock that afternoon. His scheme backfires on him as he himself shrinks to two feet tall when four o’clock finally rolls around.

[edit] Trivia

The main character Oliver Crangle may have been inspired by Joseph McCarthy, who himself instigated blacklisting of Communists, or anyone in particular who does not follow the rules.