Cry of Silence

This is really bad. Eddie Albert and his wife are going to start up a farm (except Ava Gabor isn't around). The travel on a deserted road and run into a rock. The car isn't damaged but won't start. The wife, in getting out of the vehicle, slips and falls down a ravine and while she will recover, she sprains her ankle making it impossible to get back up the hill. While they are contemplating what to do, they are attacked by carnivorous tumbleweeds. Well, that's stupid enough. Arthur Hunnicutt, the grizzled old character actor, comes along. When the weeds are set on fire they explode. A path is cleared and they head for the old guy's house. His chickens, pigs, cows, and wife seem to be victims of all this. Not long after this the tumbleweeds go away and they are attacked by enormous bullfrogs. I could go on. Hunnicutt seems to be turning into a zombie and is little help. He does, however, keep a journal that sounds like it was written by a Harvard scholar. Eddie tries to figure things out and there are efforts to escape. The conclusion is totally unsatisfying and almost embarrassing. This followed the Glass Hand episode. What a drop in quality.

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!

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!