Don't Open Till Doomsday

I watched The Outer Limits as a young child. This was my favorite episode, it scared the hell out of me. And I still enjoy watching it. Out Limits was a groundbreaking series in its time. Too bad today's audience doesn't get it.

Although it had been presaged as early as 1950, with Gloria Swanson's classic portrayal of grotesque has-been actress Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," the film category soon to be known as "psycho biddies" really started to get rolling 12 years later, with the release of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" In this film, in one of her greatest roles, screen legend Bette Davis portrayed another female grotesque, Jane Hudson, alongside her longtime rival, Joan Crawford. The film, a smash hit, ushered in a slew of similarly themed wonders featuring aged actresses, almost single-handedly jump-starting a subgenre also known as Grande Dame Guignol and hagsploitation; my buddy Rob has referred to it as "aging gargoyle movies," a term that I prefer. Before long, the public would be treated to similar geriatric female wackos in films such as 1964's "Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte" (Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Agnes Moorehead), 1964's "Strait-Jacket" (Crawford), 1965's "The Nanny" (Davis), 1969's "What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?" (Geraldine Page), and 1971's "What's the Matter With Helen?" (Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters) and "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" (Winters again). Anyway, I mention these films, and "Baby Jane" in particular, as they are the type of horror films that are most strongly suggested to me by the 17th episode of "The Outer Limits," the terrific outing known as "Don't Open Till Doomsday." First aired on January 20, 1964, it is an hour of television that seems to have been, whether consciously or unconsciously, directly inspired by the Davis/Crawford film that had premiered on Halloween Day '62.

This wonderful episode opens in 1929, in the small town of Winterfield, on the wedding day of Harvey Kry (well played by David Frankham) and his bride Mary. A wrapped box is delivered to their house, where the festivities are in full swing. When Harvey peers into the box--which is pierced with a peephole of sorts, out of which flashes a mysterious light--he is somehow sucked inside, never to be seen again. Flash forward 35 years. Now, another couple, a pair of elopers, is about to be married: Gard Hayden (Buck Taylor) and his bride Vivia (Melinda Plowman). The wife of the local justice of the peace (Nellie Burt, who would go on to appear in "OL" episode #26, "The Guests") steers the couple to the Kry house to spend their honeymoon night ("even heaven itself couldn't find you there," she tells them, ominously). There, the newlyweds encounter Mary Kry (the great '30s and '40s actress Miriam Hopkins), who has been waiting for the reappearance of her lost husband all these decades, and who maneuvers the couple into the vicinity of that mysterious box, in the hopes of getting them sucked in, and her lost husband released. And yes, as it turns out, her husband IS still very much alive in there, still young in the box's ageless limbo, and sharing the space with a very ugly alien being, indeed. And things only get more complicated when Vivia's father (played by the great character actor John Hoyt, who had just starred, the previous year, in both "Cleopatra" AND "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes") comes to the Kry residence, looking for the runaway pair....

Viewers wanting to peruse what must be the definitive examination of this wonderful hour would be advised to read David Schow's insightful article in his indispensable "Outer Limits Companion" volume, an article that discusses all the Freudian symbolism and sexual frustration that the episode dishes out in spades. The episode features an alien monster that Schow describes as being a "feculent blob," and that has been elsewhere less elegantly termed "the turd creature." It is a truly memorable creation, whatever one chooses to call it. But even more memorable than El Turdo itself is the character that Hopkins created for this film, an insane grotesque who manages to make such a strong impression on the viewer that I feel the actress should have been given some kind of Emmy Award for her work here. Her overly made-up visage is very much on a par with Jane Hudson's--there are even similar sequences in the two films, of the aged biddies applying their lipstick in close-up--and is used to shock and startle the audience just as much as the sight of the alien monster. On at least two occasions, we are given shock cuts of Mrs. Kry's face in close-up, and the scenes DO manage to startle. Hopkins--who had starred with Davis on two occasions, in 1939's "The Old Maid" and 1943's "Old Acquaintance--easily steals the show here, but the episode has lots more to offer than her exquisitely sad and ghoulish portrayal, having been created by one of my favorite triumvirates of "OL" talent. It features a wonderful script from "OL" producer Joseph Stefano, expert direction from Gerd Oswald, and always interesting cinematography from DOP Conrad Hall (just take a gander at the lighting in the stairwell of the Kry residence, and the swirling mists that seem to perpetually float inside that darn alien box!). The result is one extraordinarily strange and atmospheric hour of television, with a truly one-of-a-kind story line (illogical as it may be), and one of "The Outer Limits"'s finest offerings. To be succinct, despite all the many questions that the episode leaves unanswered, it is one of this viewer's Top 10 favorites....

At times silly, illogical, and over-the-top, none-the-less, this is a memorable episode for "Outer Limits" and Sci-Fi aficionados. The plot centers around the contents of the "Don't open till Doomsday" package that arrives as a wedding gift. The diabolical alien within resembles a chunk of misshapen, raw liver with a single eye who observes the "world" through a small porthole in its box (akin to a camera obscura device) through which it beckons humans. All of the actors give credible performances, but the "star" is obviously a spirited Mariam Hopkins who plays to the hilt the crazed Mary Kry in a performance that is often reminiscent of Bette Davis's turn as Baby Jane Hudson in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane". Running the emotional gamut of a character who is angry, desperate, cunning, pathetic, and downright evil, Hopkin's plight is accentuated by effective, mood-appropriate studio lighting that takes full advantage of the black and white film stock.

Some reviewers dislike this episode, but I found it truly creepy when I first saw it. Watching it now (this very day), I still like it. The ever-waiting bride is marvelously acted in her frozen 1929 world.

Sure, the underlying plot seems implausible, but that's what the series was all about. This story is more fast-paced than other talky episodes (like O.B.I.T.). But that's what television was like in the 1960s. I originally thought the show was made for Europe because it was unlike anything I have seen before or since. That's what made the series so interesting.

Don't look inside the box is the watchword for this episode of The Outer Limits.

Gard Hayden (Buck Taylor) has eloped with Vivia (Melinda Plowman) who have been married by the Justice of the Peace, the kind who does not ask a lot of questions. Both look very young. They are pursued by Vivia's dad, a hotshot lawyer.

With not much money, they are advised to stay at the bridal suite of Mrs Kry (Miriam Hopkins) a cross between Miss Havisham and Norma Desmond. It is a dilapidated house and the bridal suite contains a small box with a one eyed alien inside it.

The house is eerie and before long, Gard thunks that Vivia has run out on her. She has disappeared when she has in fact beamed inside the box. The alien is looking for someone to help him recreate a frequency but it is one which will destroy the world.

It is not long before Vivia's father comes looking for her and he makes a deal with the alien.

The story has a grotesque over the top performance from Miriam Hopkins, as the disturbed OTT Mrs Kry. The episode is certainly weird and creepy but does take time to get going.