Message from Clara

A big, ugly one-eyed immigrant from East Europe gets passionate about his demure English teacher, and offers her the gift of a brooch. She instinctively refuses it, but he acts victim, claiming that she's rejecting him because of his appearance, and she feels blackmailed into accepting it. The next words she writes on the blackboard suddenly turn into a rapid stream of what looks like gibberish, but turns out to be a highly sinister, desperate message written in his native language (as only he can tell), and he rushes from the room.

What follows only makes sense if she's starting to warm towards him, yet there are no signs of this. He tells her that it's a message from his late girlfriend Clara, and in order to discover more, the teacher drives him to his boarding-house, running a red light and getting pulled-up, yet finds she can't write her name and address in the ordinary way.

Clearly the brooch is the channel for all this automatic writing (the catalyst, or what Hitchcock used to call 'the Macguffin') though its significance is much underplayed. The police doctor finds she's in better shape after a little rest without her jersey (or brooch). But the ending is indeterminate, fading out to reveal our genial host John Newland smoothly explaining his current take on psychic dialogue.

Barbara Baxley stars as Miss Morrison, who teaches English in a night class to adult immigrants hoping to become citizens. One of her students named Mr. Tomachek(played by Robert Ellenstein) is smitten by her, and gives her a cameo brooch to show his affection. She reluctantly accepts, but then strangely finds herself writing a language on the chalkboard she never learned, though Tomachek recognizes as his own language, as it seems a deceased woman named Clara is desperately trying to communicate to her through the brooch, and to warn of imminent danger... Good episode contains interesting story turns and performances.

Just before she's due to give an English class to her foreign born students, Lois Morrison is gifted a brooch from Mr. Tomachek, a student with a crush on her. Lois puts the brooch on, and soon begins writing wildly. Tomachek believes his true love Clara is attempting to communicate with him.

There's nothing elaborate or crazy here, it's just an engrossing and captivating story, one which will hold your attention from start to finish.

Perhaps not the huge mystery you'd expect, but it will keep young gripped, it has all of the elements that make this such a good series.

Barbara Baxley is great as Lois, it's an excellent sincere performance from her, so feminine and elegant, very good.

7/10.

Good little smooth episode, without being spooky, creepy in any way, just riveting enough to keep you awake for twenty six minutes. Another kind of story where the unexplainable is on the spot. The possibilities are endless to speak of those unexplainable, incredible, unbelievable stories and ONE STEP BEYOND is one good opportunity, in addition of TWILIGHT ZONE, to explore all those combinations. However, it is just a shame that there is the annoying John Newland speech about the true facts source for each of the stories. I have the feeling that he thinks we are all idiots. Who cares if it is authentic or not? Who? A good fiction is far better than a lousy real story, isn't it?

After reluctantly accepting a cameo pin from visually disabled admirer Robert Ellenstein (as Tomachek), English teacher Barbara Baxley (as Lois Morrison) begins writing in tongues - that is, she uncontrollably scrawls messages on her chalkboard; and, they seem to be in a foreign language. The immigrant man who gave Ms. Baxley the pin says the writing matches that of his dearly departed "Clara" who has been dead five years. At first, Baxley is hysterical when she needs to write. Later, she becomes interested in what "Clara" is trying to communicate. And, she should be… In closing, "our guide into the world of the unknown" John Newland reveals more about what he calls "psychic writing." Bamf!

*** Message from Clara (11/10/59) John Newland ~ Barbara Baxley, Robert Ellenstein, Don Keefer, John Newland