User Reviews

In almost every story like this, one of the wishes turns out to be for a million dollars or some such sum. I'm glad the Genie (Joseph Ruskin) made it a point to mention that money was the simplest thing to grant in the wish business. So let's just get it out of the way to figure out what you really want. To their credit though, the Castle's were pretty generous with their new wealth, taking the edge off of their supposed greed.

You know, after the million dollar deal, I thought Mrs. Castle (Vivi Janiss) blew it when she blurted out "I wish I knew" in answer to her husband's question. Was the Genie not paying attention? Come to think of it, that might actually be a pretty good wish if ever faced with the opportunity. Something to think about.

The episode presents a pretty interesting conundrum when all is said and done. I wonder if it's possible to design the fool-proof wish that has no unintended consequences. Human nature being what it is, there's probably a way for any wish to be undermined if you think about it long enough. Lasting world peace? An end to all disease? Live forever? I don't know, chances are there's probably something that wouldn't go right with any of those.

It's a pregnant premise—having four wishes granted by a mysterious genie. So what will the aging shopkeepers wish for. To this point, their lives have been a struggle turning their seedy antique wares into a living. But, it's a poor neighborhood, and the big-hearted Arthur (Adler) is a soft touch for hard luck stories. So when a suave, well- dressed genie suddenly appears from a magic wine bottle and promises four wishes, we wonder what the not-very-imaginative couple will wish for. Too bad they don't pay much attention to his caveat. After all, wishes can have unforeseen consequences.

The visuals are more dour than usual, suggesting the couple's unhappy situation even after their wishes materialize. And though it's not clear, I take that rather conventional ending as an ironical comment on appreciating what you've got. In short, that sneaky twist was the genie's real intention all along.

All in all, Adler and Janiss make a rather poignant middle-age couple. But my real money is on Ruskin as the sneering, perfectly cast, genie. His scarred face and smug smile are riveting, and amount to my special carry-away from the half-hour.

In this episode, the main character wishes for a million dollars in cash. After he gives a great deal of his money to his neighbors as an act of generosity, the IRS shows up and provides him a tax bill of $942,000. Thieves.

This is one more in the genre of the three wishes. I remember the story "The Monkey's Paw" where a wish for riches gets the old couple's son killed in a factory accident. The last wish is to send him to his grave. This is the story of two old people who run an antique shop. They are living hand to foot. The man is kind and can't say no to his neighbors. When the genie appears and offers him four wishes, we know from his appearance that nothing comes without a price. The man wishes for a million dollars, but the IRS of the fifties takes ninety percent (remember Jackie Gleason's taxes). They are left with a couple wishes. The next one is for power. But the conditions are so open to interpretation that a disaster happens. The conclusion is pretty much like all of them. I won't spoil the fun, but be careful what you wish for.

This episode reminded me of that half-assed remake of Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. Remember that? He would make wishes and something would go wrong and he would make another wish, overcorrecting his mistake in the last wish in the most spectacular fashion. I seem to remember Fraser's character wishing, for example, at one point to be the most emotionally sensitive man on earth. What? Why? Can he not see that that wish can't possibly go right? Anyway, it's the same problem in this episode. Arthur and Edna Castle own an antiques shop and are experiencing tremendous financial difficulties, until one day a poor woman comes in to sell them an old bottle which looks like garbage but which she claims to be a family heirloom. Out of the goodness of his heart, Arthur gives the woman a dollar, but later breaks the bottle in frustration, releasing a genie.

I've always dreamed of this happening to me and I've thought countless times about what kinds of wishes I would make, which is why it's so hard to watch someone make such dumb wishes as Arthur does in the movie.

First of all, in order to find out of the genie is for real or not, he wishes for a pane of glass in his counter to be fixed, and poof, it happens. He's incredulous that it worked, and I was incredulous that he would throw away one of his wishes like that. Real or not, you might as well find out by wishing for something good, right? Anyway, the genie warns him to be careful what he wishes for, because there are always consequences. Arthur is unconcerned, and places a seemingly safe wish - for one million dollars. Sadly, it turns out that in the early 1960s, the government took what I believe was just over 94% of prize money, so after giving away tens of thousands of dollars, Arhtur and Edna find themselves with $5 left and still the mountain of debt piled on them.

Having spent two of his four wishes now and instead of wishing for something safe, like $10 million tax free or his debt to be wiped away, he makes the astonishingly foolish wish to be the leader of a country who can't be voted out of office. What are you thinking Arthur!??! The wish is so foolish that he deserves for his wishes ultimately to be wasted, although this feeling that he deserves what he gets cancels out the show's message, which is to be careful what you wish for, and also to take note of how lucky you are. Things could always be worse. In Arthur's case, he's struggling but ultimately learns that things aren't so bad. Before he met the genie, for example, he didn't have to live with the knowledge that he had been handed an opportunity to turn his and his wife's lives around but blew it completely.

Note - if you ever find yourself in a situation where a genie comes out of a bottle and offers you three wishes but warns you of the consequences, just so you know, here are exactly the words you should say: "I wish for a clearly typed note on standard notebook paper, listing the three best and safest wishes that I, (insert your name here), can make." And for those of you in the screen writing business, if you're interested in an actual challenge, feel free to make another genie show using that one!

Gripping episode with a disturbing climax and then a happy ending. Not just another based on the ancient three wishes, this one is set in mid-century and really makes you think. What would I do if I won the lottery? This episode is played so well by veteran actors Luther Adler and Vivi Janiss, who really play their parts to perfection as husband and wife owners of a curio shop on the brink of bankruptcy, and yet the proprietor Arthur Castle can't help taking in worthless items from the poor, desperate people of the local neighborhood, much to his wife's disappointment, but it does shine a light into his sweet, sympathetic nature. From a worthless wine bottle pours out smoke and with it, a dapper genie (love his vest!) played by Joseph Ruskin, who didn't usually play these kinds of characters, and brings an eeriness to role as he explains the three wishes contract. Maybe he represents temptation, I don't know. But just for the sake of argument and to prove the genie is real, they ask for something simple; the mending of the unsightly cracked window in their front display case. When this is done, they next ask for a ton of money and unselfishly give a ton of it away to the poor neighbors, but without considering the visitation from the taxman (Olan Soule, another legendary character actor who's appeared in a billion TV shows). Now they owe a ton of money to the government, which they no longer have and now have to cancel their trip to Europe. The third wish, which Mr Castle carefully considers to make sure there are no negative consequences ("Consequences, Mr Castle?" asks the genie with a devilish grin). The rest you have to see, it's pretty gruesome. Wish number four brings them back to where they started, having now realized that their sweet, little old failing curio shop doesn't look that bad after all. It's sweet that Mrs Castle points out how they came out ahead, having no longer to look at that ugly swirl of cracked glass on their display window. For a moment you rejoice with them, until Mr Castle accidentally hits the glass with his broom in exactly the same place, same swirl--- back to where they started, but now they are able to laugh together about it after having suffered through the consequences of three wishes. A great life's lesson.

Everyone seems to be criticizing the man's wishes and taking it out on the episode. No need to take the man's choices so seriously.

A smart man, untouched by greed, making well-thought out wishes would not make for a fun story.

That's what this episode is - a fun story. The man is flawed in his greed and spontaneity in his wishes. That's what drives the story to its unfortunate, and hilarious, outcomes.

That's what I enjoy about The Twilight Zone anyway, the fun, dark, and hilarious stories.

If the man's wishes are holding you back from enjoying the episode, distance yourself from the character, sit back, and enjoy his failures.

While everyone knows the Twilight Zone is host to a ton of classic examples of excellent television, the show as not an exception to the low points. There's many episodes that are simply not all that good, and they are hardly talked about for a reason. Despite how mediocre some of them are, they can sometimes still be memorable due to ridiculous scenes or plot points, and this is the case with The Man in the Bottle. The episode focuses on Arthur Castle (Luther Adler) and his wife Edna (Vivi Janiss), who both own an unpopular antique store that rarely sees a customer. One day, a woman gives Arthur a bottle that looks pretty much worthless, but turns out to be extremely powerful because it houses a genie. The genie offers Arthur 4 wishes in place of the more typical 3, and Arthur wishes that he had 1,000,000 dollars cash. The genie grants his wish, but a tax collector shows up and presents Arthur with a bill so enormous that he's only left with 5 bucks after paying it. Clearly, Arthur has to be more careful with what he wishes for. For his next wish, Arthur says he wants to be a powerful leader who cannot be voted out of office by his people. Upon having his wish granted, Arthur is turned into Adolf Hitler, and the Soviets are closing in on his bunker during april 1945. An SS officer gives him a bottle of poison to kill himself with, but Arthur will have none of it. For his last wish, Arthur simply wants to go back to running a mediocre antique store so he can forget all this madness. Right after, Arthur's old life is restored, and the bottle containing the genie is now broken. He puts the shards of glass into a garbage can outside, and it magically repairs itself once he walks away. This episode is pretty ridiculous. I mentioned the lasting effect some episodes have on audiences before simply because this episode does have one memorable scene in it, which is the part when Arthur is morphed into Hitler during the last days of world war 2. It comes out of nowhere and I thought it was a joke when I first saw it. Were it not for that scene, I probably would have forgotten this episode even exists. The acting isn't particularly strong, and Arthur's wife is pretty unlikeable as a character. There's a large amount of stellar TZ installments, but this shouldn't be counted among them.

Arthur Castle (a sturdy performance by Luther Adler) and his wife Edna (an equally solid portrayal by Vivi Janiss) are a poor couple who run a floundering antique shop. The hapless pair discover a genie (smoothly played with suave charm by Joseph Ruskin) in a bottle who grants them four wishes that turn out to have serious unexpected consequences.

Director Don Medford relates the entertaining story at a swift pace and maintains a likable lighthearted tone throughout. Rod Serling's witty script astutely captures the pain of being an abject failure as well as makes an amusing point on the old adage about being careful what you wish for. Adler and Janiss make for sympathetic leads. Moreover, there are sound supporting contributions from Olan Soule as a pesky IRS man and Lisa Golm as the desperate Mrs. Gumley. A nice show.

This amusing fairy tale was written by Rod Serling but I doubt he would claim much of it was original. Luther Adler runs a pawn shop, now full of junk, and quickly falling into bankruptcy. He's a nice guy though and gives a poor old lady a dollar for an old wine bottle. A genie emerges from the wine bottle and offers him four irrevocable wishes. Each wish gets him into more trouble until the end of all his exploring is to arrive where he started and know the place for the first time, as the poet once said.

I kind of like these stories about wishes that go awry -- and, man, does Adler's get screwed up at the end. A feature film starring Fred McMurray, a kind of musical comedy with lyrics by Kurt Weil, did extremely well with the same material, "Where Do We Go From Here?" Luther Adler was always a bit of a ham but, for some reason, perhaps because he realizes he's on the small screen, he reins himself in and doesn't always sound like he's going to explode like a suicide bomber.

Joseph Ruskin plays the genie who is always "spewing" Rod Serling's flowery and quasi-elegant prose. He's okay but his face is slightly reptilian and his complexion looks like a relief map of Aghanistan.

I always get a kick out of it.

I enjoyed this short episode where we can see a man who discover a genie in a bottle and make wishes: money. But the consequences come really soon and the man cant really face it. Even with more money, it happened to have more problems. An interesting morality that whatever our situation and whoever we are, we always need to face the consequences of our lives whateder what happened. I really enjoyed it and found always that make us think about our lives and our ways of living and our desires. The mise en scene was interesting and trough that we can realise that our wishes are not constant and just for a little time. Nice episode.

Great episode, and a lesson on taxes. Luther Adler is a fantastic character actor and seeing him making wishes that bite him is great. But the choices/wishes are somewhat frustrating. There has to be a way of figuring out taxes.

I know Rod Serling may not have much time for many of the episodes, but he definitely needed more here, because there are so many problems with the wishes and their results in this episode.

Mistake Number One: The man granted four wishes, first wish, is to get his display's cracked glass fixed. Man, talk about a small change wish! But I suppose you could say he was just testing the waters and didn't really believe the genie, and therefore he picked the most annoying defect in the shop. Fair enough.

Mistake Number Two: Second wish is to ask for $1,000,000 right on the floor of the shop. Okay, the guy is excited, so this wish is badly considered, but not for the reason we end up getting. The reason it's badly considered, is because of the inevitable problem later, that people will come in trying to kiss backside trying to take it off the chump. But, also, when the neighborhood inevitably hears about it, do you think his place won't be a main target for burglars? To add to that, they speak of immediately going off on a trip.

And now for the stupidity of the consequence of mistake number two. The big fat lie that the IRS steps in and takes 94% of it. Never, never, in a million years does that make any sense, and Serling completely blew credibility in this episode with that. I guess it's supposed to be a joke, right? Well it makes a joke of the episode. They end up finding out they gave out $59,995 dollars to the beggars that wanted probably nothing to do with them before the windfall. So if this were for some looney reason possible at all, wouldn't it make sense to burn all the IRS money rather than give it all to such tyrants? The conclusion is obvious, the couple needs to go back out to all those beggars and at least try to get $20,000 of it back. Serling could have saved the episode by finding the TRUE IRS taxation rate for them, then have it's collection not necessary TILL TAX TIME, and have the couple give MUCH more away than they did, and still come out with the same effect, but he couldn't resist this tired old joke (and yes, it was VERY tired even way back in 1960)?

Mistake Number Three: It starts off with the stupidity of the prior wish, in that the IRS takes a laughable amount of money from them. So many have the impression that money itself is EVIL, so suddenly they think that wishing for money ALLOWING for IRS thievery would be the way to go (plus not be stupid enough to give it away to passerbys the minute you get it), but rabidly decline. Sheesh, back in those days, they might had been able to give out a decent sum to those same people, if only they invested in putting all of it into a bank, and yes, it would accrue interest for some time, and NOT have to be given straight away to the IRS. And at least that way they would be in control of the money, even if they lost 94% come tax time. Imagine the dividend payout on $1,000,000 at 5% annual interest.

Mistake Number Four: This mistake is too obvious, but it again shows the stupidity of the wisher. Come now, it's 1960, would you really want to be ruler of a country, and the other assurances, if it meant going back in time and being stuck there WITHOUT YOUR WIFE? I thought the wishes were supposed to include her in them. But in any event, it doesn't change the dilemma he put himself in, and therefore the wife would had changed into Eva Braun and gone back too, to get around the lameness of him going alone. Now while I'll admit going back in time permanently could find some advantage, it's a deliberate twist on the genie's part to put every single power seeker there, as he probably would, assuming, like the wisher here, you don't put lots of conditions on it. Well at least the wife thought that ruling a country isn't so hot if you can be ousted, etc.

Overall, I think the moral of the story is, to be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. Serling did a fairly poor job here as can be seen, but it was entertaining anyway. The immediate IRS taxation, and the amount of it, were just unforgivable though.

"The Man in the Bottle" was not one of the better Twilight Zone episodes which is probably why there are no comments. It does however deserve mention. This is a story of Arthur and Edna Adler who own a pawn shop and are just barely making ends meet. They are both good hearted people who can't say no when it comes to being kind to others. One day this woman brings an antique lamp into their store. She claims it has magical powers( to the disbelief of the couple) but feeling sorry for the woman they give her a dollar for it. One day they rub it and guess what appears? A genie.He is not a very nice genie and smiles at them in a malevolent almost mocking way.He does grant them 4 wishes but warns them to "be careful what they wish for" because all wishes have consequences. They wish for money-a million dollars in cash. The wish is granted and being nice people they give almost all of it away only to realize that they must pay taxes which wipes out the remainder of cash. Arthur than chooses power and wants to be the head of a Country where he would have complete control-he gets his wish only to end up as Adolph Hitler at the end of the war. A few other wishes are granted but in the end they end up no better off than when they started.It does end on an upbeat note This is one episode that HAS been done many times before. It is totally predictable as well as derivative leaving little to the imagination of the viewer.The couple are nice people who are sympathetic to others which makes this a "feel good" episode but it doesn't stand out as being novel or retaining any level of substance. Joe Ruskin does shine as the evil genie in a role of a lifetime but even he can't save this mess