By Geno McGahee
I get the sneaking suspicion that Ray Bradbury dealt with a lot of assholes in his rise to fame. After watching so many of his stories, there is a common theme. If the lead is a writer, which many of them are, they deal with somebody either totally dismissing them or outright telling them that they suck and to find a real job. Bradbury died before the term “haters” was first used, but he is laughing at the haters from the other side right now.
In Ray Bradbury Theater episode “THE FRUIT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL,” William Acton (Michael Ironside), is a struggling screenwriter, seeking the approval of Jerome Huxley (Robert Vaughn), but not only does he not receive that, he gets told in a frank way that he is a terrible untalented writer. Also, Huxley is nailing his wife too. That 1-2 punch of bad news is enough to send Acton over the edge.
Huxley challenges the failed writer to kill him, going as far as to put the gun in Acton’s hand and pointing it at his chest. He pulls the trigger but there are no bullets and Huxley begins laughing loudly at the spectacle. He made Acton look like an ass again and it felt so good, but Acton has had enough. An attack, a strangulation and we have a dead Huxley on the floor, but it’s not the perfect crime. What about the fingerprints?
The concern over leaving behind fingerprints consumes Huxley. He desperately wants to prove that he’s not a screw up and eventually stays inside the house for a lot longer than he should, desperately trying to remove all evidence. Unfortunately, he goes a little bit too far over the edge and loses his mind in the process, but at least he got rid of that mean Huxley.
THE FRUIT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL isn’t a great story and really doesn’t do anything remarkable. What make it good are the performances of both Michael Ironside and Robert Vaughn. Ironside has made a name for himself for playing a tough guy as he did in TOTAL RECALL and THE V: THE FINAL BATTLE, but here he shows his flexibility by playing a total worm, and he plays it very well. Vaughn just has that presence and brings it here, proving great contrast to the weak character of Acton. This was cast very well and these two could have worked with anything and made it good. I recommend this one.
Rating: 6/10
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