February 23, 2010

The Martian/s from Twilight Zone's dumbbell 'Mr. Dingle' episode.
Didn't see the series as a kid, but finally saw most of them in
the early '90s. This one might've made a better text story, by say,
Fredric Brown. As it was, I prefer to view it as the aliens' story,
than tolerate the mix of the hammy Burgess Meredith and the over-
intense Don Rickles. James Westerfield, the bartender, is always good.

According to the date on this likely test shot, Douglas Spencer,
the Martian on the right, was only months away from an early death
at age fifty from diabetes. He was also most visible in "This Island
Earth", "The Thing from Another World" as 'Scotty' the reporter, and
in the sanitarium section of "The Lost Weekend".

Left side Martian, about ten years younger, was Michael Fox. He made
it to age 75, working all the way to the end in small parts, often
very small, in just about every TV show from the fifties onward.
And sometimes movies. 'Baby Jane'. Here he is missing his radar dish.
Perhaps they mainly put it on for filming, so it wouldn't fall off.

I think they worked well together here. Fox comes out the more
chipper. But Spencer had a nice believability you don't always see
in more famous actors. The costume had no legs, so they had to be
wheeled in somehow.

Now that I know a bit about their deaths, I'll be picturing viewer's
left Martian soon having to drag around viewer's right Martian. And
in that thin atmosphere...




Here is another Dingle, one I'd never heard of, a little before my time.
A "weather elf" puppet. No relation to the above, but I like the painting.