The Incredible World of Horace Ford

For me, this episode doesn't work. Pat Hingle's characterization is immediately over-the-top, annoying, even scary, instead of childlike and charming. His character should garner your sympathy, but instead, you wonder why his employer doesn't call security and have him escorted out of the building. Nan Martin is completely miscast as his wife -- their relationship is not believable at all. In fact, it's rather unbelievable that Horace would be able to find any wife, given his frightening behavior, let alone a wife that seems like a high-society gal rather than a homemaker. The mother is such a strange character as well -- I don't understand the point of even having her there. I guess this was supposed to be the dark side of "Kick the Can," and it could have worked... but it just doesn't.

Escaping to alternate worlds and/or one's childhood was a frequent theme on "The Twilight Zone" (TZ). TZ goes hopping and skipping again with "The Incredible World of Horace Ford." Unfortunately the results this time are unconvincing drama and a fantasy gimmick repeated to the point of tedium. You might think TZ was just running out of ideas, but surprisingly this was a Reginald "12 Angry Men" Rose story first televised eight years prior on the anthology "Studio One" (an old haunt of TZ's Rod Serling!). Art Carney starred as Horace, and Jason Robards was his co-worker Leonard O'Brien.

The redeeming factor of TZ's version is Pat Hingle in the title role. Horace Ford may strike some viewers as unrealistic; on the other hand, his odd, clashing traits are interesting to see, and Hingle certainly uses them to create a compelling TV character.

Horace is almost 38 but seems stuck in childhood. Immature in manner, he's also prone to gushing, endless reminiscences about the playground games and old neighborhood kids from long ago. However, this probably contributes to his success as a toy designer, valued by his company. (Amusingly, the story suggests his immaturity goes in hand with him just being a temperamental artiste. He resents the suggestion that he cancel the "light-up eyes" feature of the new robot he's designing, because light-up eyes are central to the toy's whole "meaning" or something!)

Also unexpected is that this childish man has a wife, although, in another infantile touch, the couple lives with his mother. Yet Horace is well aware that his work is what supports the whole household.

Serling's smug opening narration scores points against Horace for being too childish. It seems the fantasy plot that unfolds is meant to reform him in some way. In typical TZ fashion, Horace decides to revisit a childhood neighborhood, and his trip takes him further than expected.

But the resulting drama never comes together. It's uncertain what the episode wants Horace to do. Without spoiling anything, the denouement's conclusion goes too far in taking a proposal with a little psychological truth in it, and applying it sweepingly to a man's entire childhood. For this to work, Horace would have to be not merely eccentric, and immature, but deluded.

The drama is not well-done, and unfortunately neither is the episode is general.

When I complained about repeating the fantasy gimmick, I didn't mean merely that the episode is a rehash of other TZ trips to the past, though many viewers will likely conclude that. Rather, the episode repeats its big long trip two more times with almost no change. We are forced to sit through the same mundane collisions with pedestrians, the same mother screaming the same words out a window, etc. I think they literally reused the same footage. Picture "Groundhog Day" without the comedy or variations. This is just tedious TV.

Also a problem is the ambiguous character of Laura, Horace's wife. Like everyone else, she doubts his story of what happened on his return to the old hood. But then the episode makes a big to-do (again, done three times) about one of the hood kids showing up at her door in his outdated clothes, and returning the watch Horace keeps dropping. Yet nothing comes of this. It doesn't change Laura's disbelief at all, and in fact doesn't move the story forward.

It's surely a burden for a young wife to have to live with her mother-in-law, and do so in an apartment. But that's not enough to explain Laura's cruelty to the woman. At inappropriate times, and after the most minor offenses, she's always telling Mother Ford to be quiet and leave the couple alone. The worst is when the prospect arises of unemployment for Horace. Mother gives a long, impassioned speech about how unfair that would be for the talented Horace, and how worried she is about how the household would survive. All true. Laura's response?

"Shut up!"

Just bizarre.

Mother's speech makes sense, and is well acted, but this too is unnecessary to the story. It's pure filler. With stuff like this, and the tedious repetition, I guess they just didn't have enough material to fill an hour.

We are left with Hingle as what makes this worth watching. He's dynamite as the energetic, moody, sometimes exasperating Horace. Modern viewers who know him mainly from his minor role as Commissioner Gordon will be surprised at his strong acting.

You might just want to fast forward through most everything else, though.

I was curious to see how this hour-long Twilight Zone would compare with the previous half hour shows. Sadly, it didn't hold up at all. I don't know if it suffered more from not being written by Rod Serling or just the expanded timeline, but everything about it seemed to suffer in this longer format.

Watching it felt more like an exercise in endurance than entertainment.

This "Twilight Zone" episode from season 4(the extended year) called "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" was one that was interesting and sentimental as it twist with a theme of the past. Horace Ford(late good character actor Pat Hingle("Batman" and "Batman Returns") is a likeable and young married man who's a toy designer only he spends much of his day on shift arguing with his tough demanding boss and laughing and making jokes and trying new far out designs on toys. Plus he loves to talk about and think about his past it's like he loved the good old glory days. Only in an odd and strange way when he visits his old streets and stomping grounds it's shown and revealed his childhood was not as good as he thought. The episode displays his discomfort and blocked out memories well, it's message is that it's important for one to come to reality and truth as finally they can be at ease and live in the present day. Overall well done episode a sentimental feel of memory lane showing how the past does effect one and can be relevant and the work of Pat was a pleasure to watch.

I am surprised at how few positive reviews this teleplay gets. I consider this program one of television's finest hours. It seems that many viewers lack sympathy for the main character, Horace M. Ford. I see him as a man with a troubled childhood who has spent most of his life in denial about his psychological baggage. His unwillingness to face reality has caught up with him and he is having what they called in the 1960s a nervous breakdown. So, of course his behavior is childish, he is having a nervous breakdown. I assume that for most of his adult life he was able to act more like an adult, but at the age of 38 the wounded child within finally demanded attention. In a 'magical realism' sort of way, the resolution is convincing and satisfying. The acting, casting, and set designs are first rate. "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" is a meaningful psychological drama.