**SPOILERS*** One of the most original and best of the Alfred Hitchcock hour long TV mystery episodes has simple minded Charlie Hill, Pat Buttram, obtain this mysterious jar from carnival barker and midget Billy Barty for a hefty,to Charlie, $12.25. Charlie is fascinated with the contents of the jar and wants to put it on display at his home in Wilder Hollow for all his friends to see.
In no time all all Charlie's jar becomes the talk of the town with people from all parts coming to Charlie's place to watch and observe it. It's Charlie's young and cheating on him, with local stud Tom Carmody (James Best), wife Thedy Sue, Collin Wilcox, who's appalled by the jar in that the contents inside it terrifies her!
Thedy Sue getting boyfriend Tom to get rid of the jar he instead hires local voodoo practitioner Jahdoo, William Marshall, to do the job for him giving Jahdoo $1.00 for doing it. It's later when Charlie finds the jar gone that he goes to the local sheriff Clem Carter, Slim Pickins, to help him get it back. Given a tip from village idiot Jukie Marmer, George Lindsey,that Jahdoo had been paid off by Tom to steal the jar and destroy it Charlie head for the place where Jahdoo is known to hang out at the Haron Swamp with shotgun in hand. Finding the jar in the middle of he swamp but not realizing that it's surrounded by quicksand Charlie ends up stuck in the mud with nowhere to go as the swamp slowly engulfs him!
It's then when Jahdoo who set the trap for Charlie emerges from the darkness that we and Charlie get the real deal about the jar and what exactly is inside it. Being as observant as he is and knowing a bit or two about the supernatural Jahdoo has figured that what's in the jar is in fact the center of all creation! Crawling out of the Middybamboo or primordial swamp some 10,000 years ago this thing that's in the jar is in fact the Middybamboo Momma from which we, humanity, all come from! It was the measly $1.00 that Jahdoo was paid by Tom to destroy what he feels is the center of all creation that in fact got him to save it! Tom and Thedy Sue greatly underestimated Jahdoo's wisdom and intelligence in knowing what the jar really represented and in the end they both were for pay for their mistake!
***SPOILERS*** After Jahdoo rescued Charlie from the swamp he together with the jar went back home to be confronted by his angry wife Thedy Sue for saving it! It's later that Thedy Sue reviles to Charlie what she found out at the carnival about the jar from the midget who sold it to him and in a white hot fury destroys what's in it! It's then that Charlie finally, after years of talking all the abuse he could from her, lost it and as for Thedy Sue she ends up losing both her life and head in the process!****MAJOR SPOILER**** In fact it's Thedy Sue's pretty head that Charlie ended up replacing for what she destroyed that was in the jar!: The very heart and center of all creation! The Middybamboo Momma from which we and all of humanity eventually come from some 10,000 years ago!
In no time all all Charlie's jar becomes the talk of the town with people from all parts coming to Charlie's place to watch and observe it. It's Charlie's young and cheating on him, with local stud Tom Carmody (James Best), wife Thedy Sue, Collin Wilcox, who's appalled by the jar in that the contents inside it terrifies her!
Thedy Sue getting boyfriend Tom to get rid of the jar he instead hires local voodoo practitioner Jahdoo, William Marshall, to do the job for him giving Jahdoo $1.00 for doing it. It's later when Charlie finds the jar gone that he goes to the local sheriff Clem Carter, Slim Pickins, to help him get it back. Given a tip from village idiot Jukie Marmer, George Lindsey,that Jahdoo had been paid off by Tom to steal the jar and destroy it Charlie head for the place where Jahdoo is known to hang out at the Haron Swamp with shotgun in hand. Finding the jar in the middle of he swamp but not realizing that it's surrounded by quicksand Charlie ends up stuck in the mud with nowhere to go as the swamp slowly engulfs him!
It's then when Jahdoo who set the trap for Charlie emerges from the darkness that we and Charlie get the real deal about the jar and what exactly is inside it. Being as observant as he is and knowing a bit or two about the supernatural Jahdoo has figured that what's in the jar is in fact the center of all creation! Crawling out of the Middybamboo or primordial swamp some 10,000 years ago this thing that's in the jar is in fact the Middybamboo Momma from which we, humanity, all come from! It was the measly $1.00 that Jahdoo was paid by Tom to destroy what he feels is the center of all creation that in fact got him to save it! Tom and Thedy Sue greatly underestimated Jahdoo's wisdom and intelligence in knowing what the jar really represented and in the end they both were for pay for their mistake!
***SPOILERS*** After Jahdoo rescued Charlie from the swamp he together with the jar went back home to be confronted by his angry wife Thedy Sue for saving it! It's later that Thedy Sue reviles to Charlie what she found out at the carnival about the jar from the midget who sold it to him and in a white hot fury destroys what's in it! It's then that Charlie finally, after years of talking all the abuse he could from her, lost it and as for Thedy Sue she ends up losing both her life and head in the process!****MAJOR SPOILER**** In fact it's Thedy Sue's pretty head that Charlie ended up replacing for what she destroyed that was in the jar!: The very heart and center of all creation! The Middybamboo Momma from which we and all of humanity eventually come from some 10,000 years ago!