The suitor is an unnamed antagonist of "Miniature", the eighth episode of the 4th season of The Twilight Zone, the episode airing in 1963. He is seemingly a living doll, an abusive suitor of fellow doll Alice Summers, although there was no physical figure of him in the dollhouse, and he was only visible to a man named Charley Parkes. Externally, he appears as an animated, yet miniature, man wearing a fine 19th century suit.
The suitor was portrayed by the late Richard Angarola.
Biography[]
Sometime during the 1960s, Charley Parkes, a lonely man who felt that he didn't fit in, visited a museum during his lunch break. He found a display of a 19th century Boston town house, modeled after the house of Mr. and Mrs. Copely Summers. Within the display was a doll representing their daughter, Alice, carved down to the finest details, and made from wood of the home's original balcony. Charley then heard a piano playing from the display, seeing Alice moving within, becoming entranced with the sight, but when he asked a nearby security guard about it, the guard responded that the doll couldn't move, and that there was no music player within the display. Regardless, Charley later returned to the display the next day, seeing Alice animated and walking around, beginning to fall in love with her, despite the fact that nobody else could see her move. Then, Charley saw another figure appear within the display, that of Alice's maid, who then opened the door of the dollhouse to reveal the suitor.
The suitor entered, giving his hat and cane to the maid before walking to Alice, respectfully bowing to her and kissing her hand, before being given back his things and giving Alice a short cloak,. The two then left the display on a date, Charley unable to see where they went. Charley returned to the display for many days afterwards, possibly seeing a little more of the suitor's interactions with Alice, soon realizing that the suitor's seemingly kind and caring demeanor was just a façade for his true, abusive personality. Then, while watching Alice reading, Charley saw the suitor, appearing belligerent, barge into the house despite the maid trying to hold him back. Angered by the maid, the suitor promptly struck her in the head with his cane, breaking the cane in half and knocking her out, before entering the room Alice was in, throwing off his coat and hat while reaching out to her. Alice, frightened by the suitor's violent advance, fainted right into his arms, allowing the suitor to carry her upstairs.
As Charley began trying to find a way to open the exhibit to stop the suitor, the suitor reached the second floor and quickly located Alice's bedroom. Carrying the still unconscious Alice into the room, the suitor noticed the bed and smiled. Charley, realizing the suitor planned to rape Alice, quickly grabbed a nearby artifact and smashed the glass case of the display, but that reverted the display to its normal, inanimate state, the suitor and maid vanishing as Alice returned to her usual position.
Later, after a short stay in a psychiatric hospital, Charley snuck back into the museum after closing time, seeing Alice animate again and confessing his love for her, although the suitor was nowhere in sight. Then, just before security and Charley's overbearing family could enter the room to search for him, Charley somehow entered the dollhouse and became a miniature figure, finally being together with Alice, who fell in love with him as well. The suitor was not seen again, and what became of him is unknown. However, there was never a physical doll of the suitor in the display, so the suitor's true nature, whether an apparition of a figure from the real Alice's past or some other sort of entity, is unknown.
