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.

Message From Clara is a minimalist, tightly wound half-hour of One Step Beyond, a series that dealt with the paranormal, a rather broad category under which I think it's fair to say automatic writing neatly fits. It tells the tale of a night school teacher of what we'd now call ESL, whom a homely east European butcher takes a liking to, and the consequences of his interest in her.

Our first sense that something is wrong with this picture comes early, when the teacher, while writing on a blackboard, begins to inexplicably start writing in a language she does not know. She becomes acquainted with her student, finds herself uneasy in his presence, is incapable of signing her name to a traffic ticket, after which she spends a few hours in the hospital. Events come to a head when the teacher, while on the phone with her student's landlady, comes to learn what the words mean, as they come from Clara, a now deceased woman from the old country with whom her student was in love.

As One Step Beyonds go, this is a high end episode. Its low budget works in its favor; and the intense, heartfelt performances of its lead players, Barbara Baxley and Robert Ellenstein, help enormously. As was usually the case in this series someone or something was up to no good. There was an air of heightened realism to this episode, and most in the series, that made its "horror moments", while no big deal by today's standards, deeply unsettling. One has to be patient with old shows like this. They deliver the goods, but do so in a manner wholly different from how television series are made today. If one is willing to give them a chance, accept the black and white photography, the often drab, generic sets, shows such as this can be richly rewarding.

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

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.