Four O'Clock

For the four o'clock flower, see Mirabilis jalapa and Mirabilis (plant).

"Four O'Clock"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 94
Directed by	Lamont Johnson
Written by	Rod Serling - (Based on the story by Price Day. First published in Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 14 of My Favorites in Suspense (1959)
Featured music	Stock
Production code	4832
Original air date	April 6, 1962
Guest actors
Theodore Bikel: Oliver Crangle Moyna Macgill: Mrs. Williams Phyllis Love: Mrs. Lucas Linden Chiles: Luther Hall, FBI agent

"Four O'Clock" is episode 94 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration

That's Oliver Crangle, a dealer in petulance and poison. He's rather arbitrarily chosen four o'clock as his personal Götterdämmerung, and we are about to watch the metamorphosis of a twisted fanatic, poisoned by the gangrene of prejudice, to the status of an avenging angel, upright and omniscient, dedicated and fearsome. Whatever your clocks say, it's four o'clock, and wherever you are it happens to be the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Oliver Crangle is a fanatic (with a slight German accent) who lives in an apartment with his parrot, Peter. On his wall hangs the framed motto: "An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth." He maintains records of people he believes to be "evil" and/or harmful to society. He makes phone calls to people and/or their employers at all hours and writes letters as well regarding their actions, harasses and demands their immediate firing, and threatens to involve higher authorities if they don't comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous calls and letters, he searches for a more effective way to eliminate evil from the world. He settles on the idea of shrinking the evil people to two feet tall. He cackles at the idea of that plan. Throughout this, in clever irony, Crangle's parrot Peter periodically calls out, "Nut," asking for a nut to eat, which Crangle gives him.

Crangle calls a number of government agencies, and Agent Hall is sent to investigate. Crangle tells him that he has finally devised a plan to shrink every "evil" person down to two feet tall at 4:00 that afternoon through sheer force of will. As Crangle cackles describing his plan, the parrot calls out "Nut." Hall gives the parrot an old-fashioned look, then asks Crangle if he's ever had any psychiatric help, and tells Crangle that they don't need his kind of help because they have the law. Crangle accuses him of being in on the plot. As Hall leaves, Crangle screams at him that he will be two feet tall in just a few minutes but is ignored.

When 4:00 rolls around, Crangle is horrified to find that he himself has been shrunk to two feet tall. He now looks up at Peter on his perch, and one last time Peter calls out the word "nut" as Crangle breaks down.

Closing narration

At four o'clock, an evil man made his bed and lay in it, a pot called a kettle black, a stone-thrower broke the windows of his glass house. You look for this one under 'F' for fanatic and 'J' for justice in the Twilight Zone.

References

• Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

• "Four O'Clock" at IMDb
• TV.com episode page