Nice opening. Howard Duff, a businessman, enters his office, gives his attractive secretary a nice greeting -- not nice enough, if you ask me -- and gets to work. He picks up the phone and it's dead. "Oh, for heaven's sake," he says, hanging up. And a voice yells "Cut"! It's the director's voice. Duff is on a movie set, surrounded by crew, but he doesn't believe it. He's convinced that he's the happy character that he's playing.
His real life isn't so hot, as we can imagine. His wife is a harridan, and Duff has been acting up on the set about is being dropped from the production. He can't believe what's happening to him. He's still convinced he's the happy businessman instead of the drunken and uxurious actor.
The ending clears everything up ambiguously. He apparently takes off for a vacation in the company of his fictitious wife.
The plot is a bit clumsy compared to other episodes. It's as if Richard Matheson, the writer, had a great "concept", as it's called. Let's have a guy who assumes in real life the role of the character he's been playing. It's not exactly a fresh idea. We've had Ronald Coleman doing "Othello" and several others. But nobody could think of a proper ending.
It's still enjoyable, of course. But if, at the end, Duff is absorbed into his cinematic role to the exclusion of genuine life, why not take off for a vacation with that secretary instead of his wife?
His real life isn't so hot, as we can imagine. His wife is a harridan, and Duff has been acting up on the set about is being dropped from the production. He can't believe what's happening to him. He's still convinced he's the happy businessman instead of the drunken and uxurious actor.
The ending clears everything up ambiguously. He apparently takes off for a vacation in the company of his fictitious wife.
The plot is a bit clumsy compared to other episodes. It's as if Richard Matheson, the writer, had a great "concept", as it's called. Let's have a guy who assumes in real life the role of the character he's been playing. It's not exactly a fresh idea. We've had Ronald Coleman doing "Othello" and several others. But nobody could think of a proper ending.
It's still enjoyable, of course. But if, at the end, Duff is absorbed into his cinematic role to the exclusion of genuine life, why not take off for a vacation with that secretary instead of his wife?