The Forms of Things Unknown

This episode of "The Outer Limits" seems like a variation on the classic French film "Les Diaboliques"--mixed with the ancient Greek character, Lachesis. It pretty much starts off like "Les Diaboliques". Two women hate a blackmailer, so they kill him. However, soon it becomes obvious that one of them (Barbara Rush) does not have the stomach for murder--and she spends MUCH of the show screaming and acting scared--so much so that it was a bit of a hindrance to the viewer's enjoyment. The two ladies shove the dead guy in their car trunk and drive off--and soon are stuck in a rain storm. It's so bad, they get stuck and are forced to take refuge at a blind man's (Cederic Hardwicke) home. There they meet a weirdo inventor (David McCallum) whose experiment causes great havoc--bringing the dead guy back to life by manipulating the strings of time! When McCallum meets the once-dead man, however, he regrets bringing him back to life. What's next? See the show if you dare (or not).

While doing a variation on "Les Diaboliques" might have worked, the acting sink this one. Not only does Rush's character overact, but so does McCallum. He behaves like a weirdo--and isn't particularly believable...just weird. Had these folks acted at least halfway believably, it would have worked. As it is, it just looks like a show that was too hastily assembled and should have had a few scenes re-shot. And, perhaps, re-written.

By the way, this is one of the distinguished British actor Cederic Hardwicke's last roles. He was just fine in the show and, as always, added an air of sophistication and grace.

Vera Miles and Barbara Rush star as Kasha Paine and Leonora Edmond, two women at the mercy of a sadistic blackmailer named Andre(played by Scott Marlowe) who decide one day at a lake to poison him, which does kill him, and they put his body in the car trunk. Unfortunately, they later seek shelter at the home of an eccentric inventor named Tone Hobart(played by David McCallum) who has invented a means to tilt time, which has the effect of reversing Andre's death, bringing him back to life to torment them all. Will Hobart be able to put things right again? Cedric Hardwicke costars. Bizarre episode is a dud, with a preposterous and excessively contrived plot wallowing in mind-numbing tedium. Good cast can't save it.

The visual imagery is quite striking here. The camera uses the shadows of the black and white to create ghostly scenes. The story is, unfortunately, plodding. I have to agree with the reviewer who talked about the young woman's hysteria being a distraction. When she assists in the murder of the man who will ruin her father for some relatively innocent transgressions, she quickly falls into utter guilt ridden craziness. This is actually a good ghost story with the old house in the rain and the weird stuff at the end of the hallway. David McCallum, who has made quite a comeback, is the spooky time traveller who set about from childhood to bring people back from the dead. Vera Miles is the ice blonde who has the chops for murder (who actually set up the old man). But this goes on and on and seems to never get to the point. We are also not given a good understanding of how McCallum put this all together. Hardwick is great as the blind homeowner who spooks around the house, knowing, but not knowing. Despite its shortcomings, it is great for atmosphere and a good bit of TV.

At least there were no hokey monsters or silly-looking aliens stumbling around in this episode.

But the poor acting of Scott Marlowe and David McCallum, the overacting of a hysterical Barbara Rush, and a confusing script make this episode frustrating to watch.

The story is told in a sort of backwards chronology, as you find out important details later in the episode. But the opening scenes are a jumbled mess and the actions and reactions of Scott Marlowe's character make absolutely no sense.

The gothic, noir feel of the episode coupled with Sir Cedric Hardwicke's grave performance are almost enough to redeem it. Almost.

And so, once again, I reach the end of the 1st season. I first saw this story when it was first-run --or perhaps on a rerun, if it was... either way, it was almost definitely during that 1st season when the show was on early Monday nights, just as the Tara King AVENGERS were years later. (Funny thing, my favorite "Tara" episode was THEY KEEP KILLING STEED, which blatantly swiped from THE HUNDRED DAYS OF THE DRAGON, which had aired in the same time slot on the same network years earlier.)

I never saw this again until I rented it in the early 90's. I've played the entire 1st season back twice now, so I've seen it 4 times now. I was completely shocked, surprised and blown away when I saw it the 2nd time, after so many years. WHAT THE F***??? Looking at the credits, I see this was the work of Joe Stefano and Gerd Oswald. But they'd done so many episode of OL, and none of them were quite like this!!

The story seems almost relatively simple... but not the way it's told. You feel like you're watching some kind of avant-garde European "art" film. All the weird camera-angles, the bizarre edits, the strange language, the intense expressions of people's faces. It's like some twisted, otherworldly version of Shakespeare... perhaps that's what they were after?

Barbara Rush is so beautiful, yet so tragic. Who'd believe she would later wind up in my vote for the absolute WORST episode of the Adam West BATMAN a few years later?? I found out she was a regular on PEYTON PLACE (as was Tippy Walker, who I fell for watching her early film). Made me wonder how things would have been if she'd been on DARK SHADOWS instead. Vera Miles, meanwhile, is reunited with Stefano (after PSYCHO, heh).

David McCallum is genuinely other-worldly in this. Perhaps, like Lugosi in Dracula, he really is "undead". His facial expressions make him seem something not quite human.

The house and its corridors reminds me of the 2 other "haunted house" stories OL had that year-- Stefano's own DON'T OPEN UNTIL DOOMSDAY and the very similar THE GUESTS (which, in the long run, I came to like much more). But this time out may be Stefano's unsung masterpiece.

Crime melodrama? Science-fiction? Art film? Poetry? All of the above? What a hell of a way for Stefano to depart the show. One can only wonder what might have been if he had stayed... if he hadn't pulled his own vanishing act, just as "Tone" did in the last scene.