The Twilight Zone (TV Series) A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain (1963) User Reviews

Predictable but well worth seeing.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 10 June 2010]

Perhaps I just have had a lot of bad luck and bad timing, but I never saw this episode until today--and that's odd, as I thought I'd seen them all and watched the re-runs again and again over the years. I wonder if others have also noticed this.

Patrick O'Neal stars as a sad old rich guy who has married a beautiful young harpy. His "beloved wife" (Ruta Lee) deeply regrets marrying an old man and never hesitates to rub his age in his face. She's simply a horrible woman and yet he still loves her and wants to please her. In desperation, he takes an experimental medical formula to make him younger. Do things work out for him? Well, remember it IS "The Twilight Zone"! I found this show a bit predictable, as I quickly guessed what would happen once O'Neal took the formula. Still, it was well-acted and enjoyable, so this telegraphing can be forgiven. Worth seeing...and with a well-deserved twist.

By the way, although she plays a horrible person, I agree with Hitchcoc's review in regard to Ruta Lee in this show...Hubba, Hubba! And I've seen recent photos of her and wonder if she, too, took some of this miracle rejuvenation potion!

An Unfairly Maligned Episode

[mackjay2 · 7/10 · 4 May 2007]

One of the least-liked TZ episodes, A SHORT DRINK has a few faults: terrible age makeup for the lead actor, and a stereotyped harpy of a wife character. It's also not terribly believable, even in fantasy terms. But this episode has more good about it than bad. First of all, Patrick O'Neal's performance as Harmon is one of the most nuanced and sympathetic of the entire series. It's disappointing that O'Neal did not make at least one more TZ. As the hideous Flora, Ruta Lee gives as good a performance as the role could stand. Flora has no humanity, so Lee can hardly be blamed for not injecting any into her. On the plus side, she is given the show's only funny lines. Walter Brooke, as Harmon's physician brother, is very convincing in that deadly serious TV-drama way. This is not a great, neglected, "underrated" episode, but it's worth seeing for Patrick O'Neal and a pretty satisfactory, if implausible twist ending.

The Serum

[AaronCapenBanner · 6/10 · 6 November 2014]

Patrick O'Neal stars as Harmon Gordon, who is an aging man recently married to a much younger woman named Flora(played by Ruta Lee). Harmon is charmed by her beauty, but blind to her heartless, gold-digging true nature. By coincidence, his brother(played by Walter Brooke) is a scientist working on a youth rejuvenation serum that has had mixed results so far, but a desperate Harmon insists on being the first human subject, but the effects of the serum go much farther than he planned... Good cast here makes it watchable, but episode is still thin, and leaves several unanswered questions by its assumed "just" ending, such as if it really turned out best for Harmon...

Hubba Hubba

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 12 December 2008]

The rich old goat gets the young girl. He is sick and having trouble keeping up. That Ruta Lee was really something back in the day. She certainly is a handful in this episode She's about as nasty and shrewish as a vixen can be. Her perpetual reference to her husband as Big Daddy is really dated. He certainly is that, although sugar daddy may have been more appropriate. She is in it for the money and she makes no bones about it. She abuses him and his property. She has not a lick of sentimentality. Along comes the brother who has been researching a serum which makes tissue regenerate and make things younger. The husband wants some and after threatening suicide, he gets it with dire consequences. Quid pro quo. One problem is the issue of the power of the brother/doctor. How does he get such power and have the right to use it?

Filed under 'Hokey' in The Twilight Zone.

[darrenpearce111 · 6/10 · 28 December 2013]

Hokey is a word that was never in use this side of the Atlantic, but if I may borrow it, there is no more apt description. Don't expect any depth or meaning that made the series great. However if you're an older man you may want to watch Ruta Lee for a while and try finding some interesting angles. At least she's good at being Flora, the bad young wife, in the spirit of the script.

A very thin comic book kind of story played like a skit on weird tales of that era. The combination of the seriousness of the wealthy older man ,Harmon (Patrick O'Neal) and the overbearing glamorous shrew give this episode a vibrant comic book effect. Useful for watching in a TZ marathon or sandwiched with meatier TZs. Plenty of chance to make the coffee or put the pizza in the oven during the talky middle of this scenario (but if you are an older man get back quick for Ruta).

It gets worse at the end, but I did warn you it's hokey. I like to think of it as the Zone sending itself up a little, as was the case with Serling's superior 'Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up' in series two.

The Fountain of Youth

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 21 October 2023]

The old and wealthy Harmon Gordon is married with the former show girl Flora Gordon, who is forty years younger than him. Harmon calls his brother Dr. Raymond Gordon and asks him to inject a serum with his experience of cellular regeneration; otherwise, he will commit suicide. Raymond reluctantly injects the experimental serum in his brother and Flora has a new man at home.

"A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" is a funny episode of "The Twilight Zone". The plot of an old man that wants to recover his youth to live his life with a younger woman has an ironic, but predictable conclusion. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Fonte da Juventude" ("The Fountain of Youth")

"A man growing old becomes a child again."

[rmax304823 · 8/10 · 2 April 2013]

"Children are the anchors of a mother's life," said Sophocles. That quote just happened to occur to me because I deliberately looked it up on "Brainy Quotes." He didn't get it quite right, though, because he lived a long time ago -- oh, ages and ages. Today he would have said "caregiver" instead of "mother." Ruta Lee is the cute, brassy young wife of old, wealthy Patrick O'Neal. He loves her deeply but she insults him, orders him around, and wants to go out and do the hootchy-cootchy or something, while O'Neal can barely kneel to pick up the shattered bric-a-brack she's left on the carpet.

On the verge of suicide, O'Neal persuades his researcher brother to inject him with an experimental drug that has restored youth in old animals. Man, does it restore O'Neals youth -- his infancy, in fact. The drug-administering brother, to give him a proper Homeric epithet, since we're in a Greek mood now, informs the stunned Ruta Lee that she will be cut off without a penny if she neglects the child in any way -- no nannies, no maids, nothing like that. She wanted a young husband, she got a young husband.

I'm not sure the moral calculus works out quite well. Okay, the predatory wife must now take care of an infant and watch him grow up, while she herself grows old. But what's to prevent her from secretly stubbing out her cigarettes on the kid's bum? Or putting him into the microwave oven and claiming through her sobs that he must have climbed in by himself? But we accept myths for whatever enjoyment they provide and don't demand too much in the way of logic. This particular story ends with a nice irony.

In any case, Patrick O'Neal gives a percipient performance as an old fellow on the brink of his dotage. His younger brother may race down a staircase but when O'Neal follows he takes it step by step, holding on to the handrails. His aged voice even has that slight gargle that aged voices sometimes acquire.

Ruta Lee gets an A plus for showing she has some acting capacity. She's awfully cute, but more important, she can dance. She was one of the seven brides in "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers." She was also Tyrone Power's lover in "Witness for the Prosecution."

Another 'return to youth' tale from Rod Serling.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 16 April 2022]

Harmon Gordon (Patrick O'Neal) is married to Flora (Ruta Lee), a predatory gold-digger forty years his junior who treats her ageing husband with contempt. Despite this, Harmon still loves the woman and wishes he was younger so that he could keep her happy. By coincidence, Harmon's brother, Dr. Raymond Gordon (Walter Brooke), is working on an experimental cellular serum that reverses the ageing process, but has so far only tested it on animals with partial success. Harmon convinces Raymond to inject him with the drug, with incredible results.

A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain is a tale of poetic justice, the tables turned on money-grubbing alleycat Flora. The use of the serum on Harmon has the desired results, winding back the years for the old man, but a little too far: he goes from big daddy to little babby, decades younger than his wife. Raymond, who has never liked Flora, tells the woman that if she wants to continue enjoying his brother's wealth, then she must become Harmon's carer. The look on her face as she is torn between a life of childcare or life without her husband's money is priceless - a fitting comeuppance from The Twilight Zone (although how long will it be before she finds herself another sugar daddy?).

6.5/10, rounded down to 6 for the unconvincing old-age make-up on O'Neal.

Gold digger torments lover to desperation

[dale-51649 · 9/10 · 15 December 2019]

This episode is one of the best TZ's, and is fascinating in its presentation . Made 50 years ago, before we got all "woke" and neurotic , the characters are presented much more realistically than they would be today. The story is about a 62 year old with a 23 year old gold digging wife . He is very much in love with her, but she treats him like crap. 62's brother is always calling out the chick, pointing out that she is a greedy little tramp using this guy for his money . It's kind of ironic that this is being shown now , in an era where the young writers have never even seen a woman portrayed in this way. If this were made today , the female in the piece would be portrayed as an innocent , possibly illiterate "child" , plucked from security and "groomed " by a perverse predator, (her husband) who actually met her when she was 17 and a half. He would Be the one labeled "predator " and probably be criminally prosecuted, after all his assets and bank accounts had been liquidated and placed in her and her lawyers accounts. At one point in this piece the brother refers to her as a predator, I am suprised this didn't get banned. The story shows a man willing to be injected with an untested substance that makes mice younger but hasn't been proven in man. He is desperate to be younger to keep up with his Much younger wife . The serum ends up with unusual results , but not so unexpected in , The Twilight Zone.

Hot take - its not her fault

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 22 June 2021]

Not a strong episode in terms of storyline or characters. Although definitely unlikeable, why should Flora be punished for Harmon and the doctors mistake? Rude.

Sub-Par

[dougdoepke · 17 May 2014]

Elderly man married to vicious, gold-digging wife gets his wish with surprising results.

Opening sequence is unusual for the series since it emphasizes raw sexuality of Ruta Lee as she torments aged husband Patrick O'Neal. I can't help thinking episode would work better had they used a real elderly man instead of the poorly made-up O'Neal. His youthfulness is so apparent under the pancake, that you know what's going to happen. Then too, Lee's trashy wife is so venomous and one-dimensional that their relationship strains believability. Just as damaging is Walter Brooke, as the concerned brother, who comes up with such a commanding performance, he overpowers everything else, including the final moments. At best, this is an average entry, without either atmosphere or suspense, and with an ending more amusing than gratifying.

"You can expect a miracle, but you're not very likely to get it".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 27 July 2010]

Well I'm a sucker for those schlock sci-fi flicks from the Thirties through the Fifties that used a lot of pseudo-scientific jargon by the mad scientist to state his case and conduct some unbelievable experiment. All you get here is a brief mention of a cellular serum by Doc Gordon (Walter Brooke), but it's enough to convince brother Harmon (Patrick O'Neal) that he's just GOT to be the human guinea pig to win the love of his wife back again. That would be Ruta Lee, portraying the junior wife of forty years. A classic mis-match, and it might have helped to explain how this union came about in the first place. But it doesn't matter - this is The Twilight Zone.

This time though, Serling might have taken it too far. Shrinking old Harmon down to toddler size was a sure enough twist, but the threat of having Flora blackmailed into raising him didn't make the cut for me. You mean to tell me Flora couldn't find another sugar daddy all over again? Please. There are plenty of self centered rich guys ready and willing to get on the Flora merry-go-round if they ever got the chance. Me thinks Serling might not have thought this one through well enough.

The moral of the story is presumed to be that as we get older we get wiser. As I approach Harmon's age, I might offer a corollary to that hypothesis. As the kid gets older, it's the parent that gets wiser. Funny how that works.

Morality Tale

[ron_tepper · 4/10 · 7 May 2008]

"The Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" was one of the 4 twilight zone episodes not available for syndication although in recent years it has been somehow included in those Twilight Zone Marathons on one of the major cable channels. I agree with the other commenter. Patrick Oneal is married in this episode to Ruta Lee who is 30 years his junior(lucky him) and beautiful to boot.While he is old and getting older he begins to realize he's got problems keeping his wife interested in him. His brother who is a scientist gives him a not quite perfected youth serum which at the time was only successful in animal studies. I don't want to give this funny ending away but lets just say the serum works a little TOO well and leads his wife with a problem as well as a role that she never expected. Its basically a morality tale. It is not well acted and yes the makeup is as bad as it gets but it does provide the viewer with the "twist" that The Twilight Zone usually delivers.

Weak, tired and ends badly

[ObscureAuteur · 2/10 · 3 July 2009]

I have to wonder if the source material has as many problems as the episode. Serling wrote a teleplay from a story by Lou Holtz.

The biggest problem here is the ending. What sort of monster would leave this poor defenseless baby that used to be Harmon Gordon(Patrick O'Neal) in the care of Flora Gordon (Ruta Lee)? Good Serling scripts leave off with plausible and satisfying results depending only on the basic suspension of disbelief required to get there, for example, the fate of Captain Lutze in "Deathshead Revisited". This ending takes a huge final leap after all that came before on grounds that are far too real. Even with the hammer of losing the benefit of Harmon's money unless she takes proper care of the baby would not be enough to transform this selfish woman into a fit mother. It's out of the frying pan into the fire for poor Harmon, I fear, a fool for love from end to start.

It angers me that so many people villainize Flora

[crisnjohnson · 3/10 · 27 December 2017]

I really didn't like this episode. It was so terrible that I felt I had to see if anyone shared my opinions, and when I found nobody does, I had to express it even if nobody agrees with me.

To me this episode was mean-spirited, unjustified, and ridiculous. It tries to enforce some stereotypical expectation that all women must have the same personality: meek, sweet-natured, and grateful - all things that Flora wasn't. Sure in the beginning, I sided with Harmon because it seemed she was just a terrible person who clearly wasn't brought up in an environment that fostered empathy, but as the story unfolded, I found myself sympathizing more with Flora than anyone. Harmon's brother was the real villain in this episode.

Some key facts to back up my viewpoint are as follows:

• Harmon married Flora knowing full well how her personality was, and fell in love with her. He clearly has some taste for that type of woman. If you've never heard of the term "tsundere" before, now's the time to look it up.
• Going off the previous fact, Flora may or may not have married Harmon merely for his money (it was never truly mentioned that she did, she just as well have loved him as much as he loved her and ignorant side characters never realized it), but many people seem to ignore the man's role in this situation. "Gold-diggers" as people call them are only given power when the man they're chasing accepts their advances and falls into their trap. If a man is naive or clueless enough to not realize what's happening, then that's their fault just as much as the predatory woman.
• Most of the comments Flora made seemed like harmless jabs to joke at her husband. As far as we know, that may have just been her personality type. Sure, she never seemed to realize that her jokes hurt his feelings, but I never saw him try to talk to her about it either. I get the impression that a serious conversation of "please stop making these jokes, they're hurtful" would get through to her at least a little. An example: "If we ever go to a nightclub in Egypt, you better watch out. I might run away with a mummy." This is not threatening in any way... a little hurtful maybe, but not something that most would consider a truly malicious remark.
• Harmon never once asked Flora for her opinion on whether he should take this dangerous experimental youth drug. I feel like if he had, she likely would've said 'hell no!' and that would've been the end of the story. Instead he took the unnecessarily selfish "boohoo woe is me if you don't give me the drug then I'm gonna kill myself" route.
• When Harmon's body was feeling the effects of the drug and he started aging down, Flora was genuinely concerned about what he'd done. When she pressed for details, both he and the brother shrugged her off like she was insignificant and unworthy of being told. When they brushed her off and Harmon insisted he was fine, she took it the way any normal person would: that everything was fine and just went with it, accepting her husband's invitation to go on a vacation.
• As he was asking her where she wanted to go, she continuously claimed she'd be willing to go anywhere with him, never making any demands or ridiculous remarks. This makes me feel like she was never as greedy as the story tried to make her out to be, and she really was in love with him rather than being the self-serving harpy everyone thinks she is.
• When he got worse and his brother took him to bed, she looked truly frightened and worried. Not because there was a chance she might lose all her wealth (because even if he died, she'd still inherit everything), but because she really loved him and was scared for him.
• When he turned into a child, she tried to walk out. A lot of people might consider this heinous by itself, as she's walking out on her husband who now needs her help, but everyone is missing the bigger point here. She never asked for nor agreed to any of it. Harmon took the drug entirely without her knowledge, and in the end, she was forced by the brother to suffer for the results - results she ultimately had no part of and no control over. When she turns around crying and says "It isn't fair!" the camera zooms in on her face as though to make the audience applaud for the justice imposed on her for being a greedy harpy. But for me personally, I felt truly sorry for her because in all honesty, it really wasn't fair. Nobody ever tried to have a true heart-to-heart with her to try and get her to change her attitude, so to me she was completely in the dark about all of it, assuming that everything was fine. And in the end, she was stuck in a situation she couldn't get out of that was thrust upon her with no warning whatsoever. That's the real injustice right there.
• The brother was simply a conniving, vengeful a-hole toward Flora through the entire episode. Maybe if a little backstory had been provided, it might've made things easier to understand, but without it, it just seemed like he was out to get her for no reason at all other than he just didn't like her. And that's a terrible reason to treat someone like crap - I know from firsthand experience.

So in my opinion, this is the worst ever Twilight Zone episode I've ever seen in my life. And it really saddens me that so many people hate Flora with such little evidence to support it, even though she never even really did anything to deserve any of it except just being a little brash in the personality.

Weak episode.

[joegarbled-79482 · 5/10 · 19 October 2023]

"A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain" rather reminds me of one of my favourite Laurel & Hardy shorts "Dirty Work" where crackpot, Professor Noodle, is experimenting with a rejuvenating formula and it actually works and unfortunately for chimney sweeps Stan and Ollie, Ollie is rejuvenated so much, he turns into a chimpanzee!

Naturally, "The Twilight Zone" is more serious and it's hard to say who is the episode's biggest victim, Patrick O'Neal's elderly lovefool or his gold digging pig-eyed wife. The makeup used to get O'Neal to look like he was in his 60s made him look like he'd dug his way out of his grave and that it had taken him a few years to do it. I guess makeup wasn't quite as advanced, so the close up shots were badly advised.

Considering how mean and undeserving his wife is, the idea of a rejuvenated (now in his 30s) O'Neal offering the witch a 4 week trip to Tokyo or Rome seems a bit wild, but her greedy reaction showed that O'Neal's MD brother was accurate regarding his appraisal of the gold digging floozie....she was VILE.

There just isn't enough meat in the story so it struggles to fill the 25 minutes whereas some episodes felt rushed. I know some longer episodes felt like they dragged, eg some fans don't like "The Thirty Fathom Grave" as it takes a while before the Captain finds that Chief Bell was the only survivor of the sunken submarine they've found. Writers have to work to the tv company's schedule which made for uneveness. So, no more than 5/10 for this episode, I'd have added extra points if the chinless gold digging wife had suffered more.

Decent acting ruined by TWO GAPING PLOT HOLES...

[IdaSlapter · 5/10 · 15 October 2023]

As others have pointed out, this is an interesting premise with some decent performances, especially Patrick O'Neal's. He manages to be quite believable as the older man, changing his voice ever so slightly, instead of using some exaggerated hokey-creaky type of voice.

Ruta Lee, more famous for her game-show and humanitarian roles, is also quite good here, especially considering what she's given to work with. Walter Brooke, as O'Neal's doctor/brother doesn't come off as well, but that's probably due more to the bitchy lines he had to deliver. Some have called Lee's character a 'harpy', when it's actually Brooke who's doing most of the harping.

But what ruins the episode are the two GLARING plot holes at the climax of the story.

SPOILER ALERT:

O'Neal begs his brother the doctor, to let him try the youth formula he created. One that he's only tried on rats, mice, etc.. He absolutely refuses, until O'Neal not so subtly threatens to commit suicide unless he lets him try it. So he gives in, gives him the shot, and the next morning O'Neal is 30 years younger.

The problem is, he very quickly keeps getting younger. The doc sends him to bed, and before you can sneeze, he's a toddler. Ruta Lee freaks, and the doc then proceeds to lecture her about how now she'll have to take care of her "younger" husband, and in the process, she'll grow old as the baby grows up. She'll be the old one now! Ha-ha.

Except, she WON'T. Why would the baby stop getting younger and start growing older? There's absolutely no explanation at all, and no rationale for him to not continue getting younger. And if that's the case, he'd eventually turn into a...single cell!

Which brings us to the 2nd plot hole: The doctor, who's used this formula on small animals WOULD KNOW THIS. He wouldn't be surprised about anything that's happening to his brother or about to happen!

Twilight Zone was a GREAT show, but Rod must've been on a coffee and ciggie bender to let this one make it to the air without a better ending. Still, worth a watch mainly for O'Neal's performance.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm six or four!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 30 September 2022]

The fifth and final season of "The Twilight Zone" is beginning to look more and more like a farewell tour, in which the legendary writer/creator Rod Serling recycles his personal favorite themes one last time! Here we have another short story of a man longing for his own younger years and seeking for a magical solution to rejuvenate. It's a common theme in TZ, but it's made slightly more interesting because of the motivation of protagonist Harmon Gordon. He wants to be young again to keep up and please his forty (!) years younger wife Flora. Flora's character and personality is what makes this otherwise derivative and predictable episode worthwhile. She's the ultimate gold-digger; stunningly beautiful but mean, selfish, and foul-mouthed. People like her don't usually see a happy ending in ...the Twilight Zone!