The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Caesar and Me (1964) User Reviews

"Well, that's show-biz!"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 2 September 2010]

Shades of Willie! - as in Willie, Cliff Robertson's ventriloquist dummy in Twilight Zone episode #3.33 - appropriately named 'The Dummy'. With just a slight change in hair-do, and virtually the same bushy eyebrows, this was the same article, creating havoc for it's owner and a finale that's fairly predictable for a Rod Serling entry. In fact, Caesar the Dummy even mentions (in a way) his prior appearance by stating that his former owner abandoned him. That's not exactly how it happened, but still, the insertion of that reference was one of the cooler things about this episode.

The other cool item was when Caesar enticed Jonathan West (Jackie Cooper) to go for one more big score, or as he called it - 'the really big shew'. That was the second time Serling used the Ed Sullivan classic line, the first being only three episodes earlier in 'What's in the Box'. Just one of the great things about watching these shows in order from the TZ Definitive Edition. I'm finding the set invaluable in tracking the progression of the series and how Serling quite willingly recycled his themes to tell a slightly different story.

I was wondering while watching how Serling came up with the name for the dummy here, and I couldn't help thinking of Edward G. Robinson's famous portrayal of "Little Caesar" in the gangster flick that originated the genre back in 1931. Serling's Caesar even had a scar on his left cheek - how's that for a gangster dummy!

But the real gangster of this film was that little she-witch Susan, un-charmingly portrayed by the precocious Morgan Brittany. I don't recall her role as Katherine Wentworth from the 'Dallas' TV series very well, but from what I remember, this episode was a pretty good warm-up for her turn as the grown up Susan from 'Caesar and Me'.

Saved by the ending

[mlh1963 · 7/10 · 4 June 2019]

This episode is not particularly bad. The acting is very good (especially Susanne Cupito who plays the world's biggest brat) and the story, although it is similar to the "The Dummy" in Season 5, is well written. It does however come across as so-so until the end. One change I would make would be to have Susan as an older young lady--the end would be even better. As is, she is probably around 12 or so--as a 17 year old or older the ending would have really resonated.

SUSAN!!!

[jilljohnson-80359 · 8/10 · 28 March 2024]

After viewing this episode several times throughout the years there's so much more than what is presented. The lighting and the shadows gives it a creepy presence we can't see but certainly can feel. Agnes Cudahy is his understanding landlady. Susan the little girl is her niece. Jonathan talks to caesar telling he'd never leave him like the other guy (the shame of it all abandoning you for some woman") I think he heard his mother say it his whole life. Then caesar tells him to quit kidding himself he's finished. I think Susan resents her aunts affections to Jonathan not her. Ever. Jonathan has no skills at all no wit for a ventriloquist. Caesar is verbally abusive to him. Then again he is "Dimwitted" Susan hears him talking with caesar. He tries ago at the employment office. No skills of any sort, he's not a citizen either. I don't think he ever saw a file cabinet just how hesite he is then watching it as its closed. No job Susan berated him and pokes fun at him. Caesar talks him into robbery. He succeeds and pays rent and has food. Jonathan doesn't want much in life unlike caesar. What really gets creepy is the way caesar eyeballs Susan while she's in Jonathan's room. Now there's a smart lid. So when he gets back to his room he catches Susan coming out shocked. Jonathan sees a smashed cigar and frets caesar"sit down!!!" Just like a gangster type film. Jonathan always does as hes told. He then gets talked into big robbery , seeing him chewing on his fingers and the way he acts is childish. Caesar wanted him to get caught that's why the timing. Night watchman sees him I guess he didn't know enough to wait. Susan then hears him talking again. Aunt reads paper about robbery creepy how Susan looks at her. Calls ythe police, that state by the phone reminded me of Susan the girl is reading leaning on her hand but that could be Susan how she felt inside. Her aunt did not like the idea of having her around. Jonathan in his room which looked like more of a storage room. He's actually drinking I think he was repeating another line of his mother. Caesar pokes at him. Anyway cops are at the door. Jonathan's provaricates his answers "ohhhh that nightclub" tries to get caesar to help him to explain. The way he kept fondling that puppets face was creepy. Pleading with him to help Jim I'm not a thief. Susan comes in to watch her aunt and police. Holding caesar to his chest that must have been his mom did regular basis. No help from him. The cops take him away. They all leave except Susan who gets called by caesar. He tells her she's hip and likes her. He tells her he'll take her to new york, and get rid of her aunt by using this poison dart gu. That's right! She was a brat but I give her a little space. Jonathan was to dennse to figure anything out. Unbelievable. I do like this show creepy as it was was one of the better. Un.

Will the Real Dummy Please Stand Up

[dougdoepke · 15 July 2006]

Personable ventriloquist lets dummy do thinking for him.

Most variations on the diabolical dummy-- of which there are many-- keep the secret until the end whatever it might be. This one doesn't. We know from the outset that the wooden man is alive in some sense. He walks and talks with Cooper, but only when he decides to. Inferior episode, with neither suspense, atmosphere, nor even a half-baked moral to the proceedings. Cooper seems to have wandered in from a charm school where dummies are expected to talk since he never registers the slightest surprise that he's not really a ventriloquist. In fact, getting right down to it, the whole script makes very little sense, appearing to have been patched together. Best part is the bratty little girl, who really deserves a lot worse than she gets.

The Irish Ventriloquist

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 4 November 2023]

Jonathan West is an Irish ventriloquist that lives in a boarding house. He is a loser and cannot find a job with his dummy Caesar. Out of the blue, Caesar suggests that Jonathan should robber a store to pay his bills. But the nosy niece of Agnes Cudahy, Susan, is overhearing their conversation.

"Caesar and Me" is an episode of "The Twilight Zone" with characters without any attraction. Jonathan West is a loser that follows the instructions of his dummy. Caesar is the personification of evil. But the teenager Susan is the worst, with her snooping and denounce. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "César e Eu" ("Caesar and Me")

Haven't we seen this dummy before?

[gregorycanfield · 7/10 · 13 September 2022]

I'm not surprised to see that most of the other reviewers made the obvious connection between this episode and "The Dummy." It's the same unlikeable dummy from the Cliff Robertson episode, only with Jackie Cooper as the pitiful loser. If Cooper also did the voice of the dummy here, it wasn't a very effective performance. The story doesn't have much substance to it. It's unclear whether the dummy is really supposed to be talking to Cooper, or it's Cooper's imagination at work. In any case, the dummy simply talks Cooper into turning to crime. There's no revelation beyond that. Jackie Cooper did the best he could with this underwhelming story. More interesting was Morgan Brittany as little brat, Susan. Here, she is credited with her real name, Suzanne Cupito. Suzanne should have kept her real name. Morgan is not a name for a pretty young girl, or pretty young woman! "Pretty" was the basic problem with her character here. She was too cute to be believable as the little brat she was playing. Suzanne also appeared in a Season One episode, Nightmare as a Child." In that episode, she was the nice little girl who appeared near the end. As for this episode, it's OK. Nothing more.

Very entertaining for a short film, suspenseful with a bit of unintended humor.

[anthonyc-25986 · 9/10 · 5 May 2015]

It's a short film, not a movie. And The Twilight Zone already did an episode called "The Dummy" where the ventriloquist does not know the dummy is alive and is much scarier than "Caesar and Me," but this episode used the same scary dummy, one of the creepiest dummies of all time. Also, my first time watching it was as child not an adult. Iv'e seen this episode numerous times and love it.

It's a simple plot but the actors and actresses make it great. In this episode, Jonathan (the ventriloquist played by Jackie Cooper, he is also the voice of Caesar) has trouble finding work as a ventriloquist and has trouble paying his rent and buying food. Whilst the landlord is very kind to Jonathan, she has a niece who is a complete brat and suspects the Dummy is really alive.

After Jonathan hocks his grandfather's watch and gets turned down for work, sinister Caesar talks him into stealing which Jonathan does not approve of but does it anyways. Jonathan Loves Caesar in the way he tries to take care of him and the way he talks to him, it's very funny. The whole short film is terrific and is easily a top 25 episode from Serling's Twilight Zone.

Completely original...NOT!

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 9 June 2010]

The idea of a talking evil dummy sure ain't new! In fact, this is the SECOND episode of "The Twilight Zone" with such a gimmick...a gimmick that's been used and overused again and again (such as in the Anthony Hopkins film "Magic"). At the onset, this is a HUGE strike against the show. It's a shame that a respected veteran actor like Jackie Cooper was saddled with this.

Cooper is out of work and is having a devil of a time finding a job. After all, all he knows is puppetry and ventriloquism--and there are not a lot of jobs requiring these skills. Eventually, the dummy (who looks and talks like a gangster) convinces him to resort to a life of crime--burglarizing businesses at night. Along the way, the dummy berates him and calls him all kinds of nasty names--and complains that Cooper is 'thinking penny-ante' and needs to make his crimes more daring and lucrative. Eventually, when he's caught, the dummy goes mute and Cooper is left holding the bag.

There is a bratty kid in the show who is totally hateful. She lives in the same building as Cooper and spends most of her time on camera making a nuisance of herself. This ugly little punk grew up to be the beautiful actress Morgan Brittany--and it's hard to recognize her here.

Overall, Cooper tries his best and I liked his Irish accent (I know at least one other reviewer didn't). But, no matter how hard he tried, it's all a bit clichéd and dull--though the ending wasn't bad. Had they killed the bratty kid, by the way, I would have given the episode at least a couple more points.

I don't understand the reason for the low grade

[diogoymagxgnhh · 10/10 · 27 November 2021]

I don't understand the reason for the low grade, the episode is very good, politically incorrect and has the ventriloquist's return!.

Best episod <3.

The Twilight Zone - Caesar and Me

[Scarecrow-88 · 2/10 · 29 January 2017]

Downright horrible developments collapse this second ventriloquist dummy episode (a far cry in quality to the overwhelmingly superior "The Dummy") of the Twilight Zone. Jackie Cooper isn't to blame for the downright cruelty in the writing or the mistreatment of a man falling on hard times. To encourage his further tumult, there's this incorrigible, nasty little girl who stays in the same apartment building as Cooper, looking to pin something on him out of sheer spite. Morgan Brittany is a real peach, a little girl with a dark soul, just placed in the episode to cause Cooper more trouble than the dummy that instigates his downfall. I have no idea why this story wishes to put Cooper through the ringer. An Irish ventriloquist who came to America hoping to make it in showbiz, betrayed by a dummy who can talk and think, with only unpleasantness its mission it seems; Cooper's pleading Caesar to tell the cops he wasn't to blame for the robberies he was led to by the dummy is outright painful to witness, as the actor deserves credit for gaining our pity. The Twilight Zone doesn't typically do this to people who endure suffering in a cruel world, but Strassfield's script is overtly evil towards Cooper. That the dummy and little girl escape without a single punishment and that there is no twist that can at least give us something thought-provoking to glean from the episode leaves a bad taste. Easily one of the worst (if not receiving top honors) episodes of the entire series. Sarah Shelby is the only character of any value in the episode who gives an inkling of humanity as the landlady. Cooper should have sold that dummy for $25 bucks in the pawnshop when he had the chance...

Deja View.

[robert-259-28954 · 5/10 · 1 January 2013]

Nothing against the superb Jackie Cooper in yet another star turn as the quintessential Irish immigrant, but this episode proved to be a rather pedestrian dedux of the Cliff Robertson version, which possessed are more drama and originality, in my opinion. As others here clearly agree, "the wooden dummy come to life" scenario is a pretty old saw, and this tale only confirms it. Perhaps the show's only truly redeeming quality was the sad reality that poor, desperate people will do anything—including committing crimes that they would never even dream of in normal circumstances—just to put food in their bellies and a roof over their heads. Perhaps there's an important lesson in this, particularly in these recessionary times. The only thing that really delighted me about the entire production was the fact that the little girl was portrayed by none other than Morgan Brittany, the film star who grew up to be one of my personal heartthrobs of the 80's, her incredible blue eyes still as vibrant beautiful today as ever.

"A small splinter with large ideas!"

[lrrap · 4/10 · 17 August 2019]

Too bad about the re-tread script. I saw this episode years ago and could barely bring myself to watch and re-evaluate it. Again, too bad that the talking dummy thing is SO overdone..

BUT--- Jackie Cooper is wonderful; a superb job. Also, David Butler's direction is first-rate: he keeps things moving along and invests this tired, old story with an impressive sense of movement and artful composition, which definitely helps keep the viewer involved in the tedium. The original musical score featuring the eerie, distant harpsichord is also effective.

Production values are also quite good; the big nightclub lobby set was obviously standing at MGM, and TZ wisely utilized it. In addition, the LIGHTING was considerably darker and more moody than most of TZ's brightly lit, "sit-com" style 5th season shows. All supporting roles were very well cast and performed.........with one major exception--and that's the insufferable, nasty, and downright evil kid, who continually pulls the viewer out of the otherwise plausible episode (plausible, that is..if you can accept the talking, conniving, domineering and (also) evil dummy). There's simply no reason for her to be written, directed and performed with such hostility and contempt, especially when it's directed at an adult. And her aunt tolerates and humors her. A bad decision by everyone involved.

And the malevolent little creep actually teams up with the dummy at the end, while poor, hapless Jackie is hauled off to prison. Serling didn't write the script, but he approved it, and the total lack of morality or sense of justice is really quite appalling. Just a few years previous, Hitchcock's closing comments to every one of his own TV series' crime episodes assured us that the perpetrators were always brought to justice; I thought this was part of the TV network's code of the era. So how did this one avoid it?

Everyone has their favorite talking dummy show; IMHO the scariest of them all is Hitchcock's 3rd-season opener (1957) "The Glass Eye", starring Jessica Tandy, Wm. Shatner, and Tom Conway. Truly terrifying. LR

Another Dummy Story Redux!

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 19 December 2008]

This time it's Jackie Cooper. Last time it was Cliff Robertson. And again there is a ventriloquist's dummy that is smarter than these guys. They are also vengeful and evil. They are the smart ones too. In this episode Jackie has a phony Irish accent. He is immigrant stock that has come by a dummy. He lives in a small apartment. He is down on his luck and needs money badly. The dummy talks him into robbing a nightclub where he has auditioned. Thrown into the mix is a bad seed child, a mean tempered little brat who listens at keyholes and talks down to adults. It's a ridiculous episode with motivations that don't even fit well in this strange fantasy world. You can only go so far with the threatening visage of a block of wood.

The Darkest Corner

[AaronCapenBanner · 1/10 · 8 November 2014]

Jackie Cooper stars as a talented ventriloquist with a horrible act, and even worse luck. He is also quite gullible and stupid, which his evil dummy Caesar will exploit for full advantage to pull off some robberies, though a rotten little girl(played by a young Morgan Brittany) has her own agenda... Appalling episode is without doubt the low point of the series. It isn't the actors or direction, but the atrocious script, which is entirely unoriginal('The Dummy' was a masterpiece), pointless, dramatically stale and repugnantly nihilistic, with a lead character too dumb to care about, and the evil doll enlisting that spoiled brat to continue more mayhem. Quite contrary to the normally just endings the series specialized at, this seemed to ooze out of the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone...

Aaaggghhhh!!!! Another dummy- takes- over- the- ventriloquist

[darrenpearce111 · 1/10 · 15 November 2013]

One dimensional stupid Irish ventriloquist turns to crime on the advice of his dummy. He acts as though the dummy is his intellectual and spiritual superior and as though an autonomous dummy is common enough. It is a silly idea done too often in fantasy stories. There is hardly any narrative to this and little merit whatsoever. Apparently, the writer had only two other screen writing credits. Even Julius Moomer from The Bard would have written something better. The barrel just cant get scraped much more than this.

Avoid this one and don't let it detract from so much great writing in the Twilight Zone.

Willy's back!

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 18 April 2022]

Jackie Cooper plays down-on-his-luck ventriloquist Jonathan West, whose dummy, Caesar, is alive. When West is unable to find work and falls behind on the rent, Caesar talks the entertainer into a life of crime as a burglar. Unfortunately for Jonathan, the landlady's precocious daughter Susan (future Dallas star, Morgan Brittany, who shouts every line) eavesdrops on West and Caesar as they are discussing their plans and calls the police.

The Twilight Zone had a habit of recycling themes. Caesar and Me not only employs the 'living ventriloquist dummy' idea from The Dummy (Season 3, Episode 33), but it uses the exact same ventriloquist dummy prop. The script was written by Adele T. Strassfield, who was producer William Froug's secretary - it was her first and only scriptwriting gig for The Zone, and her inexperience shows in the dearth of originality and the sheer stupidity of her central (human) character. A seasoned writer would have instantly dismissed the idea as trite nonsense.

Loser Ventriloquist - Perverted Dummy

[glennsmithk · 2/10 · 6 November 2019]

I did not care for this one at all. In spite of it being a banal story, one that's been reinvented and retold since dolls became part of the act, that's not why. This episode gets really creepy. 13 years old is too young for the situation the girl is put in at its close... in any era and with any "type" of man. There's something perverted lying just under the surface here.

Who's the dummy?

[Calicodreamin · 5/10 · 24 June 2021]

Storyline lacks effects and a purpose, the characters are unlikeable and without depth. Acting was decent.

The story behind this script is far more interesting than the episode itself.

[fedor8 · 2 April 2022]

The little girl is a very silly character with zero realism, the story has flawed and confusing morals, the doll itself has motives that are never explained (it is simply evil for the sake of it), and the dummy's accent is corny 30s gangster-speak. Just stupid all-round, amateur writing.

So who is Strassfield, the writer? Short answer: she was the producer's SECRETARY. The story he gave us was that she kept insisting she could write a story for TZ and that he finally relented. Translated from Malarkese into plain English, this means that the two were having an affair.

It is downright embarrassing that a show as successful as TZ would allow for such corruption, when there were dozens of actual - qualified - SF writers available who never got a chance to shine on TZ. Either because Serling felt he should hog all the "glory" (by contributing a much worse batting average than other writers), or, as in this case, by letting an amateur "mistress" write an episode just because she gave her boss sexual favours.

Yes, she was right that she could write an episode. Just not a good episode. Anyone can write a crap story.

Another season, another dummy...

[Coventry · 3/10 · 11 January 2023]

Ventriloquist dummies speak - pun intended - to the imagination of many horror authors and scriptwriters. They look creepy, it's as simple as that. Slight problem, however, there isn't a whole lot you can do with them in terms of plotting. It's usually the same plot of the eerie wooden dummy being alive for real and taking control over the life of its master/ventriloquist. Then the question becomes, is the doll evil or is everything just happening in the mentally unstable mind of the ventriloquist? And, in 99% of the cases, it's option 2. What'll it be here?

So, if "The Twilight Zone" is allowed to recycle the plot and the actual puppet from the previous season's episode "The Dummy", then I'm allowed to copy/paste parts of my review as well, right? "Caesar and Me" is watchable, but never once original or surprising. Jackie Cooper depicts a truly weak and spineless lead character (a disgrace for the Irish) who turns to theft and burglary because his podium act is lousy, and he cannot pay the rent anymore. Well, he mainly does it to obey his cigar-smoking and foul-mouthed dummy Caesar. The only noteworthy other aspect is that Morgan Brittney plays the most loathsome and irritating brat in history. If Cooper (or the dummy...) would have strangled her, I would have given five extra points.