On a hot summer day in New York City, detail-oriented shipping clerk Edward Paige (Henry Bartell) has just returned home from a hard day's work when he happens to glance out his window and sees something odd going on across the street from him. A gloved thief has just broken into an apartment and immediately starts going through a woman's purse and her jewelry box. When the woman enters the room, the thief grabs her and there's a brief struggle before she's murdered by a flashlight blow to the head. Edward immediately goes to the police, but when he accompanies Lt. Davis (Paul Bryar) and Sgt. Fenton (Ray Montgomery) to the crime scene they discover it completely vacant; no furniture, no murderer, no body... From all appearances, no one currently lives there and no murder actually took place. The cops send Edward in for a psychiatric evaluation with Dr. Francis Mason (Boris Karloff), who listens to his story, records it and ultimately believes Edward to be sincere in his testimony. Not soon after, an actual murder does occur in the same exact apartment and every single detail (the killer, victim, murder weapon, apartment layout, etc.) is exactly as Edward had described... days before it actually happened. Will Edward be charged with the crime or will the police believe his sense of precognition and have him aid them in finding the real murderer? Thanks to a very interesting concept (kind of like REAR WINDOW with a twist) and a solid lead performance and characterization from Bartell, this episode from director George Waggner is one of the better - if not the best- entry in this forgotten 10-episode series.
"The Veil" was never broadcast as an actual series on network TV. Instead, four episodes were combined to play as anthology features. This one was combined with "Destination Nightmare" (with Myron Healey), "Girl on the Road" (with Tod Andrews) and "The Return of Madame Vernoy" (with a young George Hamilton badly attempting an Indian accent) and released under the title DESTINATION NIGHTMARE. The other anthologies (also with four episodes apiece) were THE VEIL and JACK THE RIPPER.
