Wonderful character development!

Simply A Masterpiece

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Recently this little gem of a movie showed up on CometTV (basic cable).At first I thought I was watching a Twilight Zone episode. Sure, it was made ten years earlier, but it has some familiar tropes.I went to IMDB and saw that it's a film from 1953, based on a short story by Henry Kuttner, a mid-20th-century sci-fi and fantasy writer.

This film was made two years prior and then it was shelved until 1953. When it debuted, finally, it appeared in only three theaters and apparently a lot of folks walked out of the screening!"The Twonky" is a strange sci-fi comedy...complete with a completely ridiculous 'monster'. And, the monster is a TV set that seems possessed!! It can walk, it can talk, it can use mind control AND it can make or destroy things. Because of that, although Professor West (Hans Conried) is scared of it, the robotic TV keeps out-thinking him and seems indestructible! No matter what he does, the TV survives and thrives...and in the process the Professor seems ready to lose his mind!The movie is dumb...that goes without saying. But unlike some dumb monster films of the 1950s, this one doesn't take itself seriously...which is why I think it's worth seeing provided your expectations aren't high! Ultra-silly, that's for sure!

Hans Conreid is one of my favorite character actors of all time, and here he is put to the test as a man whose wife has bought him a television to entertain him while she is away So many people don't get the point of this movie, and it really is quite simple considering the history of the time. This is in the infancy of television and the motion picture industry was suffering at the time because people found it was cheaper to stay at home for their entertainment. So what does the industry do? They hire Arch Oboler of radio fame to write a screenplay about an almost despotic TV set. It's pretty basic, and makes for a surreal and entertaining time. Think of "The Twilight Zone" with a sense of humor and you get "The Twonky Zone" basically. Just sit back and enjoy, and if smoke 'em if you got 'em. The Twonky will light it for you.

Henry Kuttner's short story was terrific, and could have made for a very good movie -- but not as in the hands of Arch Oboler. He overstates everything, drags out the compact story, and insists on inserting a MESSAGE into a story that doesn't require one. It's a shame that the great Hans Conried's only solo starring movie is one as bad as this. Incidentally, this film is a prime example of why the IMDb rating system is faulty. It's inconceivable that 25 people would consider this trifle to be one of the greatest movies ever made -- but that's how they voted. 25 people gave this a 10. What a foolish thing to do.