If it wasn't for "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.", comical character actor Hans Conreid may never have slipped out of the small, forgettable character roles he had been getting for well over a decade before he wore a coat of many gay colors (and apparently many different animals) in that Dr. Seuss cult classic. His career on screen, stage and T.V. lasted far longer than I had thought and included many different characters. Here, he's a milquetoast husband who is addicted to that new fangled invention called television, and ultimately finds his life taken over by what brings him reception. They aren't quite rabbit ears, closer to Robbie the Robot, and he finds himself doing the oddest things at its bequest. In exchange, the Twonky does all sorts of favors for him, too, even removing his very unnoticeable beard when he mentions that he needs a shave."Who the devil outside of Hollywood is making mechanical men?", Conreid's pal asks him, not believing him. The film features a mostly unknown cast, with Gloria Blondell (Joan's sister) as perhaps the most known actor outside of Conreid. There's fun supporting performances by Bennie Washington as the spunky landlady boasting that her T.V. is better than Conreid's; Edwin Max as the T.V. repairman, and Billy Lynn (who reminded me of Leon Errol) as a college football coach. When the robot begins to speak, pandemonium ensues, especially when it calls the telephone company to request female companionship for Conreid. This leads to a delightfully silly conclusion, and Conreid is a delight through out, as is the voice of the Twonky itself. A little sleeper which flopped badly in its time, it is perhaps a bit ahead of its time, and for those who have become addicted to the boob tube, idiot box or whatever you want to call it, the film is rather insightful as to its look into the future.

There is nothing quite like this extremely Low-Budget Satire/Slapstick/warning. It's Message...TV (in 1953) is about to Control the Population, and that cannot be a good thing. It is delivered in such a Bizarre way with ugly Sets and even uglier Photography and Actors that the whole thing ends up looking like a Nightmare.But that was the intention. To drive home the point, with Outrageous Comedy and Surreal Surroundings (what was with the Girlie Photos on the headboard) combined with a believable Back-Story of impending Doom at the hands of the One Eyed Monster. Everything in this Oddity of Oddities works on a Subconscious level but nothing really works on the surface.Just ask anyone who saw it as Kids in the 1950's and it is Seared on Their Consciousness like it was a Laser Beam shot from a 16 inch screen. This is one of those Ideas that was Formulated (Ed Wood) that made it to the Screen, and Penetrating the Mind despite of itself. This one should be seen by lovers of Bad Movies, Pop Culture, Psychology, Big Brother, Mind Control, Primitive Art, or let's say just about Anyone with even the slightest bit of Curiosity about Psychotronica.No one can come away after Viewing this incredibly Awful Production without a Thought or two. But just Whose Thoughts are they?

Arch Oboler's LIGHTS OUT is one of the handful of radio shows I've listened to over the years that was genuinely worth listening to. (One of my all-time favorite writers, Harlan Ellison, mentioned Oboler's show somewhere along the line, and that's how I came to it. In DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND, one of Ellison's two episodes of the original black and white series THE OUTER LIMITS, one of the characters is called "Arch." I'm guessing he was named after Oboler.) Likewise, his end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it feature, FIVE, was watchable. THE TWONKY, while maybe not as watchable as FIVE, is nonetheless not bad for what it is (or isn't). As pointed out elsewhere, it could've fit right in with the rest of the episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Once the one-eyed monster gets its hooks in you, you're as good as finished. (Just look around you.) Both NETWORK and VIDEODROME would go still further in their depictions of a medium gone mad, but Henry Kuttner and Arch Oboler were there first. And funniest.

I agree, this movie scared me half to death when I saw it as a kid (probably around 8 or so). I was surprised when I ran into it much later on IMDb, and it was billed as a comedy. Looking back through adult eyes, it was probably pretty funny, and I hope to see it again someday. But back then, the idea that a TV that looked just like our TV could be alive, was really scary, particularly since I was already having nightmares about the big speaker from my dad's hi-fi system chasing me around the room.Maybe it will come out on DVD or VCD some day, and I can see it again.