Robert Duvall delivers a subtly affecting performance as a man who seems utterly bewildered by how to react to the world around him. Minutes into the episode, you feel really bad for this guy. He has no friends, his boss fires him because he doesn't fit in at the office, and he's under the constant, unrelenting thumb of his smothering mother. There are social rules, but no one ever gave Charley Parkes the rule book. Rather than be angry at his situation, he's passive to the point where, were he a real person, he'd probably snap someday and end up a serial killer.
Instead, Charley "meets" a beautiful young woman who plays the pianoforte - she's a doll in a dollhouse in a museum, and he swears she moves around the dollhouse and is threatened by another doll. It's sad because we see how Charley could be a gentle and caring boyfriend, if only he could figure out how to find and get to know a real woman like this. He's trapped in the "smallness" of his world, its limited options as he sees them. Terrific acting.
Instead, Charley "meets" a beautiful young woman who plays the pianoforte - she's a doll in a dollhouse in a museum, and he swears she moves around the dollhouse and is threatened by another doll. It's sad because we see how Charley could be a gentle and caring boyfriend, if only he could figure out how to find and get to know a real woman like this. He's trapped in the "smallness" of his world, its limited options as he sees them. Terrific acting.