History Recap / TheTwilightZone1959S3E29FourOClock

* BreakTheHaughty: Throughout the episode, Oliver looks down on all people whom he deems lowly and evil, judging them, harrasing them, and then plotting to shrink them in an effor to get rid of them. In the end, ''he'' shrinks to two feet tall, and he utterly loses it after that.

* HarassingPhoneCall: Oliver anonymously calls several companies and agencies to accuse them of comitting various crimes and that their employees are Communists. Agent Hall, once he learns of this, is quick to point out that no one likes being called by some stranger who accuses them of things they might or might not have done.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Oliver tells everyone he meets how he claims it to be his duty to punish "evil" people, despite the fact that he clearly doesn't have the authority nor the mental stability to pass judgement on others.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Oliver's delusions have convinced him that he is completely in the right to judge others, deeming them to be thieves, Communists, harlots, and other deplorable types with no evidence of their sins, or even very ''flimsy'' evidence at ''best''. To him, they are evil solely [[BecauseISaidSo because he deems them evil.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor[=/=]HoistByHisOwnPetard: Oliver doesn't expect in th slightest that his whole "two foot tall" plot to backfire on him.

Oliver Crangle (Creator/TheodoreBikel) is a maniacal and demented fanatic who spends every day maintaining records of people he deems "evil", anonymously calling and writing their employers to alert them of their evil acts, demand their immediate firing, and threatening to involve higher authorities if they don't comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous threats, Oliver searches for a more effective way to eliminate evil from the world. When Mrs. Lucas (Phyllis Love), the wife of one of his victims[[note]]a hospital intern who lost a patient, though Oliver thinks it was murder[[/note]], futilely pleads with him to leave her husband alone, Oliver is inspired when he makes a chance remark about those who are evil being "little bugs" and "bacteria". To this end, he settles on the idea of shrinking every "evil" person in the world to two feet tall at 4:00 that day. He cackles at the idea, prompting Mrs. Lucas to realize she can't reason with him and leave.

Oliver calls various government agencies to warn them of his grand design, prompting Agent Hall (Linden Chiles) of the FBI to investigate. Oliver tells the agent that he has finally formulated his plan to shrink every "evil" person to two feet tall that afternoon, doing so by sheer force of will. Agent Hall dismisses Oliver as a nutjob and recommends that he seek psychiatric help. Angered, Oliver warns Hall that he'll be among those who will become two feet tall, but Hall ignores him and leaves. When 4:00 rolls around, Oliver's plan apparently works. However , Oliver he's in no mood to celebrate, since ''he himself'' has been shrunken to two feet tall. Oliver's parrot, Pete, calls him a "nut" for his delusions.

->'''Creator/RodSerling''': At four o'clock, an evil man made his bed and lay in it, a pot called a kettle black, a stone-thrower broke the windows of his glass house. You look for this one under 'F' for fanatic and 'J' for justice in the Twilight Zone.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Throughout the episode, Oliver seems to be nothing more than a madman ConspiracyTheorist with no power all all, yet he somehow is able to turn ''himself'' two feet tall in the end. Unless he's hallucinating after losing what little sanity he had left.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor / HoistByHisOwnPetard: Oliver doesn't expect in the slightest that his whole "two foot tall" plot to backfire on him.

* BreakTheHaughty: Throughout the episode, Oliver looks down on all people whom he deems lowly and evil, judging them, harrasing them, and then plotting to shrink them in an effort to get rid of them. In the end, ''he'' is the one one who shrinks to two feet tall, and he utterly loses it after that.

Oliver calls various government agencies to warn them of his grand design, prompting Agent Hall (Linden Chiles) of the FBI to investigate. Oliver tells the agent that he has finally formulated his plan to shrink every "evil" person to two feet tall that afternoon, doing so by sheer force of will. Agent Hall dismisses Oliver as a nutjob and recommends that he seek psychiatric help. Angered, Oliver warns Hall that he'll be among those who will become two feet tall, but Hall ignores him and leaves. When 4:00 rolls around, Oliver's plan apparently works. But Oliver himself is in no mood to celebrate, since ''he himself'' has been shrunken to two feet tall. Oliver's parrot, Pete, calls him a "nut" for his delusions.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The episode takes place over, at most, in one afternoon.

Oliver Crangle (Creator/TheodoreBikel) is a maniacal and demented fanatic who spends every day maintaining records of people he deems "evil", anonymously calling and writing their employers to alert them of their evil acts, demand their immediate firing, and threatening to involve higher authorities if they don't comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous threats, Oliver searches for a more effective way to eliminate evil from the world. When Mrs. Lucas (Phyllis Love), the wife of one of his victims[[note]]a hospital intern who lost a patient, though Oliver thinks it was murder[[/note]], futilely pleads with him to leave her husband alone, Oliver is inspired when he makes a chance remark about those who are evil being "little bugs" and "bacteria". To this end, he settles on the idea of shrinking every "evil" person in the world to two feet tall at 4:00 that day. He cackles at the idea of that plan. Mrs. Lucas realizes she can't reason with him and leaves.

Oliver calls various government agencies to warn them of his grand design, prompting Agent Hall (Linden Chiles) of the FBI to investigate. Oliver tells the agent that he has finally formulated his plan to shrink every "evil" person to two feet tall that afternoon through, doing so by sheer force of will. Agent Hall dismisses Oliver as a nutjob and recommends that he seek psychiatric help. Angered, Oliver warns Hall that he'll be among those who will become two feet tall, but Hall ignores him and leaves. When 4:00 rolls around, Oliver's plan apparently works. But Oliver himself is in no mood to celebrate, since ''he himself'' has been shrunken to two feet tall. Oliver's parrot, Pete, calls him a "nut" for his delusions.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Oliver is a very unfriendly variation. He confides in his parrot as though it's a person, holds absurd grudges against various people, and believes that every evil person on Earth will shrink to twoo feet tall, just because he wills it so. He's right about the last one, from his perspective anyway.

Oliver Crangle (Creator/TheodoreBikel) is a fanatic who maintains records of people he deems evil, calling and writing their employers to alert them of their evil acts, demand their immediate firing and threaten to involve higher authorities if they don't comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous threats, he searches for a more effective way to eliminate all evil from the world. When Mrs. Lucas (Phyllis Love), the wife of one of his victims[[note]]her husband is a hospital intern who lost a patient; Oliver thinks it was murder[[/note]], futilely pleads with him to leave her husband alone, Oliver is inspired when he makes a chance remark about evil people being "little bugs" and "bacteria"; he settles on the idea of shrinking the "evil" people to two feet tall. He cackles at the idea of that plan. Mrs. Lucas realizes she can't reason with him and leaves.

Oliver calls various government agencies to warn them, and FBI Agent Hall (Linden Chiles) is sent to investigate. Crangle tells him that he has finally devised a plan to shrink every "evil" person down to two feet tall at 4:00 that afternoon through sheer force of will. Hall dismisses him as a crank and recommends psychiatric help. Angered, Crangle warns Hall that he's one of the evil people who will become two feet tall, but Hall ignores him and leaves.

When 4:00 rolls around, Crangle's plan apparently works! However, Oliver is in no mood to celebrate, because he himself has been shrunk to two feet tall. His parrot, Pete, calls him a "nut" for his actions.

->'''Creator/RodSerling''': At four o'clock, an evil man made his bed and lay in it, a pot called a kettle black, a stone-thrower broke the windows of his glass house. You look for this one under 'F' for fanatic and 'J' for justice in the Twilight Zone.

* AdaptationExpansion: Serling's script is based on [[https://www.scribd.com/document/61870211/Four-O-Clock-Story a short story]] by Price Day. A ''very'' short story -- it's basically a vignette where Mr. Crangle (who originally had [[OneNameOnly no first name]]) explains his plan to his parrot (originally [[GenderFlip a female]] called "[[ADogNamedDog Pet]]"), then suffers the KarmicTwistEnding. Serling added three new characters (Mrs. Lucas, Agent Hall and Oliver's landlady Mrs. Williams) just so Oliver would have other humans to interact with.
* AmbiguousSituation: Did Oliver truly turn 2 feet tall or did he have some kind of hallucination at the end?
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Throughout most of the episode, Crangle seems to be nothing more than a madman ConspiracyTheorist with no power all all, yet he somehow ''IS'' able to turn ''himself'' two feet tall in the end. Unless the theory of him hallucinating as losing what's left of his sanity, then its unknown exactly ''what'' he is.
* BackingAwaySlowly: How Mrs. Lucas reacts to Oliver's epiphany.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor[=/=]HoistByHisOwnPetard: Bet you weren't expecting the "two feet tall" thing to backfire on ''you'', eh, Oliver?
* BerserkButton: Crangle is already unstable but totally loses it when Mrs. Lucas calls him a "crank". The communists or "Reds" as he calls them are another big one for him.
* BreakTheHaughty: Throughout the episode, Oliver looks down on people whom he deems as being lowly and evil, judging them, harrasing them and then plotting to shrink them in an effort to get rid of them. In the end, he is presumably the one one who shrinks and he loses it after that.
* BrickJoke: Pete the parrot repeatedly calls out to be fed with the word "nut." At the end, "nut" applies to Oliver.
* CanonForeigner: Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Lucas and FBI Agent Hall do not appear in the short story.
* CastingGag: The [[DirtyCommunists Commie-hunting]] Crangle is played by Theodore Bikel, a liberal activist in RealLife.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Oliver is an unfriendly variation of this. He confides in his parrot like it's a real human, has absurd grudges against various people, and believes against all logic every evil person will shrink just because he wills it. He's right about the last one.
* ConspiracyTheorist: Oliver calls the government to alert them that all the evil people are going to shrink...

* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Oliver was right! At least one evil person did shrink at 4:00 -- [[HoistByHisOwnPetard himself]].
* DeadpanSnarker: FBI Agent Hall's response to Crangle's statement that "evil" people don't like to be woken up at night is to wonder "Who ''does''?"
* DeathByAdaptation: At the end of the radio adaptation, the shrunken Crangle (now played by Creator/StanFreberg) is killed and eaten by his parrot Pete, who has mistaken him for a nut.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Oliver's view of people was allegedly based on the RedScare and [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthyism]].
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Crangle's personality is demonstrated in the first scene: He anonymously calls various businesses, accusing the people in their employ of being immoral, calling them communists and other evil things. When asked who he is and how he knows this, he says "never mind" and demands that they be discharged anyway.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: At least, in the form of his pet parrot Pete. When he's not trying to "destroy evil", he dotes on his "good boy" Pete like he were a toddler son. It does little to balance out his overall unpleasant personality, however.
* EvilLaugh: Oliver lets one out when he comes up with the shrinking idea.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The episode takes place over at most several hours one afternoon.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: Oliver wears OpaqueNerdGlasses on and off throughout the episode.
* GenderFlip: In the short story, Crangle's parrot Pet is female. In the television adaptation, the parrot is a male named Pete.
* HarassingPhoneCall: Crangle tells Agent Hall that he calls the supposedly evil people in the middle of night to accuse them of various crimes. The FBI agent is quick to point out that no one likes being called in the middle of the night by some stranger who accuses them of things they might or might not have done.
* HatedByAll: Aside from his parrot, no one seems to like Crangle due to his instability, as well as his HolierThanThou attitude.
* HateSink: Despite his own beliefs, Crangle is not a good person and just gets worse and worse.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The [[AnAesop Aesop]] of the story. Oliver is so obsessed with other people's evil that he doesn't recognize his own until it's too late.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Oliver Crangle scolds Mrs. Williams in the beginning of the episode for being invasive and not minding her own business, completely unaware of the irony that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he spends his days invading others' lives]] and judging them as evil.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Oliver tells others that it is his duty to punish "evil" people, despite the fact that he clearly doesn't have the mental stability to pass judgement on others, nor the authority to do so.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Oliver wants to do this to all the evil people in the world. If you've read this far, you know how things turn out for him.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Crangle's delusions have convinced him that he is in the right to judge others, deeming them to be thieves, communists, harlots and other deplorable things with almost no evidence of their sins or even very ''flimsy'' evidence at ''best''. To him, they are evil [[BecauseISaidSo because he deems them to be evil.]]
* {{Irony}}: Crangle wants to shrink all the evil people in the world. In the end, he himself shrinks.
* ItsAllAboutMe: While Crangle claims that his actions are to punish all the evil people in the world, it's obvious that he is doing it due to the fact that he is insane, but also his need to feel morally superior.
* {{Jerkass}}: Oliver. In addition to devoting himself to ruining people's lives, he's generally unpleasant, abrasive and condescending, as seen by his interaction with his landlady Mrs. Williams.
* KarmicTwistEnding: Oliver wants all the evil people to shrink to two feet tall. In the end, the only one who shrinks (as far as we know) is Oliver himself.
* LonersAreFreaks: Oliver, who lives alone in a small apartment with a parrot, is a crazy man who dedicates himself to ruining the lives of those he deems "evil."
* MeaningfulName: Crangle's name is a few syllables removed from "crank" - that is, a fanatical believer in a crazy idea.
* MinimalistCast: Although not quite as minimalist as the original story.
* MisanthropeSupreme: Crangle loathes most normal people, comparing them to parasites, and seeing himself as superior.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The television adaptation gives Crangle the first name Oliver.
* {{Narcissist}}: Crangle shows definite signs of being one. He has an absurdly inflated view of himself and an extremely low one of everyone else, he's self-absorbed and thinks he has absolute authority to determine who is evil and deserving of punishment, he has no tolerance for criticism and refuses to see shades of grey, calling an FBI agent evil for not getting on board with his plans and he has an incredible appetite for power, believing he has a right to determine who is evil and punish them as he sees fit.
* ObliviouslyEvil: Crangle is so certain of his moral superiority that he never considers that he might be in the wrong about anything. This comes back to bite him ''hard''.
* OriginalPositionFallacy: Crangle resolves to shrink all the evil people in the world to two feet tall. He never considers that he might be considered an evil person and thus shrunk himself.
* TheParanoiac: Crangle to an extreme degree. He sees evil and conspiracies everywhere, has an extremely cynical and misanthropic view of everyone but himself, he zealously holds grudges and insists on punishing anyone he believes has broken ''his'' moral code, has a massively inflated ego and sense of his own morality and importance and is generally rude and unpleasant to everyone he meets.
* {{Troll}}: Oliver Crangle. He devotes himself to ruining his victims' lives, and boasts to Agent Hall that he calls them in the middle of the night and reads the charges against them. It comes back to bite him ''hard''.
* VillainousBreakdown: The episode ends with the now-tiny Oliver Crangle on his knees doing a SkywardScream.
* VillainProtagonist: Oliver Crangle.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] as Mrs. Lucas doesn't attack Crangle physically, but she does rightfully call him out for harrassing her husband and slandering his name.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: How Oliver sees himself. Hey, all he wants to do is destroy evil! However, he's a KnightTemplar at best.
* WorldLimitedToThePlot: The only settings are Oliver's apartment and the hallway and stairway leading to it.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: Crangle longs to punish all the evil people in the world... and he's also shown to be an insane, corrupt, narrowminded {{Jerkass}} who ruins other people's lives on a regular basis.
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* DeathByAdaptation: At the end of the radio adaptation, the shrunken Crangle is killed and eaten by his parrot Pete, who has mistaken him for a nut.

Oliver Crangle (Theodore Bikel) is a fanatic who maintains records of people he deems evil, calling and writing their employers to alert them of their evil acts, demand their immediate firing and threaten to involve higher authorities if they don't comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous threats, he searches for a more effective way to eliminate all evil from the world. When Mrs. Lucas (Phyllis Love), the wife of one of his victims[[note]]her husband is a hospital intern who lost a patient; Oliver thinks it was murder[[/note]], futilely pleads with him to leave her husband alone, Oliver is inspired when he makes a chance remark about evil people being "little bugs" and "bacteria"; he settles on the idea of shrinking the "evil" people to two feet tall. He cackles at the idea of that plan. Mrs. Lucas realizes she can't reason with him and leaves.

* AmbiguousDisorder: There's something seriously off about Oliver. The visiting FBI agent Hall even asks if he has ever sought psychiatric treatment.