The foundations of a good episode are established with this ghastly character Crangle (Theodore Bikel) and his sanctimonious crusade against people leading less than saintly lives. He is a hypocrite, telling his landlady 'I mind my own business'. He does harm by anonymous phone calls and letter writing. Crangle's war on immorality is clearly the creepy, slithering nastiness of an obsessed coward who wont play the game and live his own life.
The story continues well throughout in the middle. Crangle's lack of humanity is further underlined when he receives a visit from Mrs Lucas (Phyllis Love) the wife of doctor he intends to expose for being 'imperfect'. This is a strong scene with Mrs Lucas questioning the crazy crusader and him mentioning communists among the 'evil' he targets. Then things get madder when Crangle hits on an idea- from this point the production suffers from a silly conclusion. A pity because there're still good moments as Crangle cherry picks by underlining only the parts he likes of The Gettysburg Address and displays his paranoia. Perhaps the end doesn't have to be taken literally? There could even be a clue with the parrot? Crangle is undeniably mad after all.
One truly far out, mad-bad character. Yet his type gets elected in democracies from time to time. He is sadly all too human.
The story continues well throughout in the middle. Crangle's lack of humanity is further underlined when he receives a visit from Mrs Lucas (Phyllis Love) the wife of doctor he intends to expose for being 'imperfect'. This is a strong scene with Mrs Lucas questioning the crazy crusader and him mentioning communists among the 'evil' he targets. Then things get madder when Crangle hits on an idea- from this point the production suffers from a silly conclusion. A pity because there're still good moments as Crangle cherry picks by underlining only the parts he likes of The Gettysburg Address and displays his paranoia. Perhaps the end doesn't have to be taken literally? There could even be a clue with the parrot? Crangle is undeniably mad after all.
One truly far out, mad-bad character. Yet his type gets elected in democracies from time to time. He is sadly all too human.