{"id":1901,"date":"2006-12-05T13:05:32","date_gmt":"2006-12-05T20:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1901"},"modified":"2020-12-21T17:43:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T00:43:56","slug":"twonky-the-1953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1901","title":{"rendered":"Twonky, The (1953)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;That television set isn&#8217;t a hallucination; that&#8217;s a twonky. I had twonkies when I was a child. A twonky is something you do not know what it is.&#8221;<\/strong> <\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Poster-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Poster-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen his wife (Janet Warren) leaves town for a few days, a professor (Hans Conried) finds his new television set acting <em>very<\/em> strangely.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Aliens<\/li>\n<li>Arch Oboler Films<\/li>\n<li>Hans Conried Films<\/li>\n<li>Robots<\/li>\n<li>Satires and Spoofs<\/li>\n<li>Science Fiction<\/li>\n<li>Television<\/li>\n<li>Time Travel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis quaint sci-fi curio by Arch Oboler &#8212; a former radio scriptwriter who directed the first post-apocalyptic cautionary film, <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=769\"><em>Five<\/em> (1951)<\/a> &#8212; is badly dated in many ways, but its premise &#8212; a mobile television set is inhabited by a time-travelling alien which fiercely protects its &#8220;owner&#8221; (Conried) at any cost &#8212; remains intriguing. As with <em>Five<\/em>, Oboler is once again remarkably prescient: at a time when television sets were still a brand-new fixture in Americans&#8217; homes, he effectively lampoons their tendency to literally &#8220;take over&#8221; one&#8217;s life, utilizing the metaphor of TV-as-alien-entity to show just how powerful the agency of this seemingly innocuous &#8220;entertainment box&#8221; can be. <\/p>\n<p>While the satire in <em>Twonky <\/em>is never fully developed &#8212; it devolves into unfortunate slapstick by the final scenes, and the Twonky&#8217;s ultimate nefarious purpose on Earth isn&#8217;t revealed &#8212; I&#8217;ll admit I was impressed by Oboler&#8217;s attempt to skewer the mind-numbing qualities of television long before it became commonplace to do so. Indeed, when the Twonky hypnotizes everyone around it into drawling, &#8220;I have no complaints,&#8221; one can&#8217;t help admiring this time-travelling creature for so accurately &#8220;predicting&#8221; its future role&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A clever satirical premise<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-TV.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-TV.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-58921\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-TV.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-TV-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-TV-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-TV-360x270.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Hans Conried&#8217;s unintentionally campy performance as the put-upon Professor West<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Conried.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Conried.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-58919\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Conried.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Conried-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Conried-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Conried-360x270.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Billy Lynn as West&#8217;s well-meaning football-coach friend<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Coach.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Coach.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-58920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Coach.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Coach-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Coach-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Twonky-Coach-360x270.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply for its status as a cult curiosity. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0046475\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasticmoviemusings.com\/2015\/01\/01\/the-twonky-1953\/\">SciFilm Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;That television set isn&#8217;t a hallucination; that&#8217;s a twonky. I had twonkies when I was a child. A twonky is something you do not know what it is.&#8221; Synopsis: When his wife (Janet Warren) leaves town for a few days, a professor (Hans Conried) finds his new television set acting very strangely. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Aliens Arch Oboler Films Hans Conried Films Robots Satires and Spoofs Science Fiction Television Time Travel Review: This quaint sci-fi curio by Arch&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1901\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58923,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions\/58923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}