Cry of Silence

Eddie Albert and his screaming wife encounter killer weeds in the outback.

Does this sound like the dumbest thing you have ever heard? Probably. But the realistic acting of Albert holds the whole thing together. This would have been the dumbest thing ever made if Albert were not cast in the lead role.

The screaming wife will get on your nerves but the hour keeps moving with clever turns and suspense.

Around this time Albert also appeared in the pilot episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea titled: Eleven Days To Zero.

Eddie Albert and June Havoc star as Andy and Karen Thorne, a married couple driving along a desert highway trying to find Wild Canyon Road, but instead stumble upon strange phenomena like tumbleweeds or boulders moving of their own volition, even a large group of frogs seem to want to attack them, though the timely arrival of a seemingly friendly farmer named Lamont(played by Arthur Hunnicutt) enables them to escape to his farm, though it is there that they discover that a mysterious alien force is desperately trying to communicate with them, but why? Unpopular episode is really not bad at all, creating a genuinely eerie atmosphere in its isolated locale. Dramatically it never really pays off, but that failure to communicate is cleverly remarked upon. The three-person cast (especially Albert)is fine at least. Worth another look.

Awe come on, this was fun, ultimate low buget episode, great acting, like a good short stage play. Good acting with little to mothing to work with, gotta love Eddie Albert, and the ever flexible "lamont". Fun!

The previous episode, "The Demon With a Glass Hand", is one of the best shows of "The Outer Limits" series. Oddly, the very next one, "Cry of Silence" is among the worst--with a really cheesy 'alien' attack--one that might make you laugh! Yes, it is THAT dumb!

Eddie Albert and June Havoc play a husband and wife who are apparently moving out in the country to buy a farm! This, and Albert driving a Lincoln make this seem a bit like a pilot episode of "Green Acres" when it began! But it turns out that this country is a lot worse than Hooterville--the place is possessed by a force that controls tumbleweeds, rocks and later frogs which terrorize the couple! Yes, frogs and tumbleweeds and rocks! It's all pretty silly if you ask me! It did improve a bit over the course of the episode but that isn't saying a hole lot!

That is, the weed would help cheer on this goofiness! Meet Dr. Thorne. Brilliant beyond measure. He determines, with almost nothing to go on, that a probably extra-galactic intelligence has come to earth to set up shop and is attempting to communicate through tumbleweeds, frogs, and rocks. He is an amazing man. But he can't figure out where a road is when he's directly across from it. He drives too fast on a narrow dirt road and smashes into a rock. He thinks he's going to start farming in the middle of Vasquez Rocks. And he married a hysterical shrew with a voice that could split the atom. Nonetheless, his brilliance sparkles. When he is about to engage his incisive intelligence, he turns slightly away from the camera and looks up -- your can HEAR his mental mechanism churning away like an Enigma machine.

Sure, the threats are genuine, out there in the desert. The tumbleweeds are horribly intimidating and frightening, as tumbleweeds so often are. And who wouldn't be scared into catatonia by an army of bullfrogs, croaking, croaking?

Mrs. Thorne will make you want to slit your throat. She is knowing and attractive, and starts out seeming pleasantly sarcastic and even a bit witty. But then she says the most amazing thing, something like "In a cathedral, you dare not even whisper -- it would be a desecration. Here, I feel as though if you shouted, the sun would die." Nathanael West, watch your back, man!! After that astonishing statement she just screams, cries and trembles her way to the impotent conclusion, about which the less said the better.

If I sound too critical, I'm just pointing out the worst groaners. There's lots to love in this.