Cry of Silence

Cry Of Silence is the worst episode of The Outer Limits I've seen thus far. It features a city couple stuck out in the middle of the country who are set upon by tumbleweeds, which attack their faces and bodies. Fortunately, these pesky weeds don't like fire, so the couple get somewhat of a respite when they light a fire. They meet up with a gaunt, fatalistic local farmer who offers them shelter but tells them there's no escape from their predicament. He's stuck, too. Someone or something is up to no good.

No sooner does the plague of tumbleweeds abate than are the couple set upon by thousands of attacking frogs.Is this a Biblical prophecy come true or invaders from another planet? Maybe a little of both. The ending is tiresome and unenlightening, and the narrator makes points about what we have just seen of the kind I've heard done better in other, earlier episodes of the series. Neither Eddie Albert nor June Havoc gives a good performance, but then who could with such a wretched script?

While watching this turkey I kept on asking myself if this was a "parody episode",--you know, a send up of the more serious entries--but apparently it isn't. The humor, and there's a lot of it here, is, so far as I can tell unintentional. This is the kind of episode legendary hack director Ed Wood would have made had he been able to have made it in the mainstream, actually got a script he wrote for a TV series accepted, was given a chance to direct it as well. It's that bad.

Me, I'll take Plane 9 From Outer Space over this one. It's plot is far more lively, with most of the actors seemingly clueless as to the awfulness of the lines they're given to deliver, without the seriousness of the players in this one, which gives that cult film a kind of near hypnotic, out of this world gravitas wholly lacking in Cry Of Silence.

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.

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.

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.

Mature couple Andy and Karen break down whilst travelling, the birds don't sing, the area is silent, the only movement, tumbleweed. An injured Karen seems the tumbleweeds moving, and the pair fear they are being set upon by an unknown force.

Knowing my luck, if I got stuck in a situation like this, I'd be stuck with a Karen too, and credit to her, she lives up to her name, what a Karen, if I hear the name Andy again, I'll scream.

Not a favourite, but not bad, some wonderfully interesting ideas, and a few creepy themes too, that sinister tumbleweed was a great idea, it worked so well.

It's over the top, it's possibly a little silly, but it's amusing, and there's no denying that Eddie Albert was really good as Andy (ANDY, ANDY, ANDY!)

6/10.