Call from Tomorrow

***SPOILERS*** Coming home from the hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown famous stage actress Elena Stacy, Margaret Philips, is still haunted by the death of her 8 year old daughter De De. It was on that rainy evening that De De in trying to get the family cat, who ran out of the house, from running into the street got herself killed by being hit by a truck! Now Elena together with her director writer husband Kevin, Arthr Frenz, have to live with the fact that their daughter is no longer here and that's something that Elena just can't accept!

It's later when the family cat who was responsible for De De's death shows upon the scene that Elena starts to hear her deceased daughter screaming "Mommy! Mommy!" as if she's warning her that something terrible is about to happen! The screams get even loader with Elena in trying to get her life back together, by going back to acting, is forced to see an ear specialist Dr.Harvey, Ben Hammer, in her hoping that it's her hearing not mental condition that's casing her to hear her late daughter's screams.

***SPOILERS*** It's later with Elena about to go on stage that a very strange thing happens. This little girl, Dyan Hinton, spots the late De De's cat running in the streets and follows it into the theater where Elena is preforming! With the door suddenly locked behind her the little girl starts to scream out hysterically "Mommy! Mommy! just like Elean heard her daughter did that was driving her to another nervous breakdown! What in fact it did was drive her off the stage, to see where the cries were coming from, and thus ended up saving her life!

Was it all a lucky coincidence that the little girl by getting herself locked in the theater ended up preventing Elena from being crushed to death by a falling theater lighting fixture! If that's the case how can one explain the fact that the little girl who, by her screaming, saved Elena's life just happened to be at the right place and the right time to run into De De's cat who mysteriously guided her there!

This is one of those videos listed at 30 minutes on the relevant IMDb page, but only 25 on my YouTube upload, so one of the other critics in this review-section must have had access to knowledge that I don't have, revealing details of the family tragedy that sent a noted Shakespearean actress (Elena) into a nervous breakdown, from which she returns home at the beginning of the present episode.

Working only from what I have, then, the plot is obscure indeed - not helped by the sort of dim recording that goes with the territory after sixty years, and I can't say that it made easy viewing.

Rehearsing for a stage-play, Elena thinks she hears her late daughter's screams of "Mommie, Mommie!" and sends for an Audiologist (played by a most reassuring Ben Hammer), wondering if her hearing is at fault, which he says it isn't. Later in the rehearsal, she hears the genuine screams of a child, accidentally trapped by a locked stage-door... and there we have to leave it for fear of spoiling whatever remains of the mystery.

It's all pretty contrived, especially the business of the cat, who is meant to be the 'catalyst', all witchcraft and wonder, but mainly just looking as though it wants to get away from the camera and off the set altogether. And Elena's husband, who is also her manager, and their Irish housekeeper, seem quite redundant.

Equally contrived is your host John Newland apparently adding a new word to the language - 'Clairaudio' (the audio equivalent of Clairvoyance), or "the hearing rather than the seeing of things that are about to happen." As always, the story is meant to be 'based on human record', in other words, something vaguely truthful, with no proof required.

Margaret Philips stars as stage actress Elena Stacy, who is still grieving for the sudden and tragic death of her young daughter, who was struck and killed in a road accident. Things get worse for the poor woman when she becomes convinced that her late daughter is crying out to hear "Mommy! Mommy!" for some unknown reason. Of course she is the only one who can hear it, and despite the sympathy of her director husband, he believes she may be suffering from hysterics, but as a fateful event will prove, it was no illusion... Unoriginal premise is bolstered by a genuinely surprising twist at the end, which puts the episode in a new dramatic light.

Good, now routine, job from ONE STEP BEYOND, just routine and I would even say chain routine, with the foreseeable scheme of a dead person - a little girl - who suddenly appears in her mother's life. It is poignant, riveting, it will enjoy the whole family. But beware, because if there is anyone particularly sensitive around you, someone emotionally fragile, it could shock him or her. Good episode, especially if you are not too used to this kind of stuff. But after a while, for me who reviews every episode, who watches several of them per day, I am of course less impressed. That depends of the viewer.