this one with Jackie Cooper or the one yesterday with Cliff Robertson. I don't really like either but if I had to choose it would probably be the one on now.
shareFor a better ventriloquist dummy scare, see the feature film "Dead of Night" (1945). Totally skip the feature film "Devil Doll" (1964).
shareThe little girl in this show was Susan Cupito who changed her name to Morgan Brittany.
shareI like Caesar better, but I like Cliff Robertson better than Jackie Cooper.
shareI think they are both equally creepy. I choose Caesar.
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Never say never...
The episode with Cliff Robertson is my favorite. However the little girl's hatefulness in the Caesar episode is fascinating.
shareprobably caesar and me, its more dramatic about a stranger in town struggling to get by away from his homeland and he really battles with his conscience in what circumstances driving him to do all while his mind is slipping and it has a sombre ending with the police leading him away, with a last twist of caesar turning to the girl for a partner in crime, that little girl by the way went on to star (as grown up) in the twilight zone radio dramas, among them one of my favorite episodes "the passersby". i liked the cliff robertson episode "a hundred yards over the rim" better. on "the twilight zone radio dramas" versions i prefer "the dummy" over "caesar and me" though cause it's very atmospheric and suiting for radio and bruno kirby with his voice is great fun in playing both parts, it also has some great jokes, i don't know if those are in the tv episode or updated on the radio version, and some of the dialogue about the dummy living on its own is similar to what happened to the people gregory west made up in the episode "a world of his own", and you're right, there is something really creepy about ventriloquists stories, so there is alot of strange mix in the radio version.
📺 📻
youre my universe,
when youre gone with world,
i get sucked in a black hole,
when you return out with colours i float,
like a lizard you zap my soul,
a martian in venus secrets nothing comes close,
once in her weather spell blows my mind away,
and lets me explore earth again.
The Lincoln twist in "The Passersby" works better in the radio format; it feels less silly.
I also liked Morgan Brittany in the radio version of "Mirror Image." Like "The Passersby"'s twist the one in "Mirror Image" feels a lot less clunky when heard rather than seen.
As far as "Caesar and Me" and "The Dummy" go I prefer the latter much, much more. "Caesar" is amusing and all but "Dummy" is one of the better psychological thrillers the show ever did. To this day, I still wonder if Willie was real or all in Jerry's head. Either way, the episode is splendidly spooky and hard-to-shake -- it's in my Top 20 in fact.