The Outer Limits (1963)

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wmcclain
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Nightmare, directed by John Erman.

When planet Ebon A-bombs Earth, the multi-national and multi-racial space force takes the war to them. Which goes poorly: all the troop ships are captured and the soldiers subjected to physical and mental torture on their strange planet.

We have hints that all is not as it appears and the big plot twist is delivered at the half-way point.

The bare surreal staging gives the show a theatrical look and it does run like an experimental play. This is probably due to the director's casting experience: when you make an actors showcase the result will be stage-like.

That actually sort of fits with the "experimental" nature of the plot. In the end it is a moral little tale like those used in the Twilight Zone, less often for this series.

The Ebonite Interrogator is played by busy character actor John Anderson. He had been the suspicious car salesman in Psycho (1960) a little earlier:

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He really, really hated the costume.

Many other familiar faces: Ed Nelson, James Shigeta, Whit Bissell. Martin Sheen, age 23, would become a star.

Written by Joseph Stefano, photographed by John M. Nickolaus.

The commentary track is by David J Schow, who points out strong parallels with the patriotic war film The Purple Heart (1944). He gives a lot of production detail and offers his opinion on what works and what doesn't.

This was Erman's only episode and the producers did quite a bit of re-editing. They told him: you can either cast or direct, but not both. Apparently there were no hard feelings and he found it to be good advice.

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Dargo
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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wmcclain wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 7:22 am
...The commentary track is by David J Schow, who points out strong parallels with the patriotic war film The Purple Heart (1944).
Ah yes! I can see that, although I must admit that it's been many many years since I've watched that flick.

Now, if I recall correctly, there's a scene in which the evil Japanese general played by Richard Loo (always so good in this kind of role) for some inexplicable reason has all the captured American flyboys line up in front of him and orders them to begin swaying from side to side, and when leaning to the left are supposed to yell out the word "Tick" and then when leaning to the right are supposed to yell out "Tock". All the flyboys then begin to comply with this except for Dana Andrews who in what seems an act of defiance will only lean to the left and yell out "Tick".

Yeah, that's right. You guessed it. The punchline here has Richard Loo walking up to Dana Andrews and saying, "We have ways to make you 'tock', Yankee dog!"

(...sorry, just couldn't resist) ;)
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scsu1975
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Dargo wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 3:36 pm

Now, if I recall correctly, there's a scene in which the evil Japanese general played by Richard Loo (always so good in this kind of role) for some inexplicable reason has all the captured American flyboys line up in front of him and orders them to begin swaying from side to side, and when leaning to the left are supposed to yell out the word "Tick" and then when leaning to the right are supposed to yell out "Tock". All the flyboys then begin to comply with this except for Dana Andrews who in what seems an act of defiance will only lean to the left and yell out "Tick".

Yeah, that's right. You guessed it. The punchline here has Richard Loo walking up to Dana Andrews and saying, "We have ways to make you 'tock', Yankee dog!"

(...sorry, just couldn't resist) ;)
Apparently you were on the Loo when you thought this up.
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Intrepid37
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Salome Jens fascinates me. She scared me frozen as the "terror from the year 5000". Yet, as the nurse who she kills, she is hot as hell. Weird juxtaposition of responses in me for one movie. There is just something very compelling yet disquieting about her beauty.
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Dargo
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Intrepid37 wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 6:00 pm Salome Jens fascinates me. She scared me frozen as the "terror from the year 5000". Yet, as the nurse who she kills, she is hot as hell. Weird juxtaposition of responses in me for one movie. There is just something very compelling yet disquieting about her beauty.
You probably remember that she played the same sort in Frankenheimer's 'Seconds'.

But truth be known here, I could never understand why Rock Hudson's character seemed so fascinated by her in that movie, as she never did a thing for me, anyway.

(...and so I guess a case of "YMMV" here, Intrepid)
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Intrepid37
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

Post by Intrepid37 »

She has an otherworldly quality about her, Dargo. Some mysterious depth - or lack of. A possibly sociopathic coldness, yet sexually alluring.

But, maybe that's just me. I'm easily scared by women like her and so tend to notice them.
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Dargo
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Intrepid37 wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 6:46 pm She has an otherworldly quality about her, Dargo. Some mysterious depth - or lack of. A possibly sociopathic coldness, yet sexually alluring.

But, maybe that's just me. I'm easily scared by women like her and so tend to notice them.
Interesting way to explain this, Intrepid.

Still though, I have to admit I ain't seein' it with Salome here.

(...EXCEPT, and now that I recall, she DID have a fairly sexy lower register/throaty voice)
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Intrepid37
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Dargo wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 7:56 pm I have to admit I ain't seein' it with Salome here.
"Seein' it."

So, when I said Salome Jens fascinates me, you just can't wrap your head around that, huh?

"Fascinated' not a feeling you yourself are familiar with feeling, I take it. Maybe don't understand what it means?

I guess an actress with some mysteriousness to her ambience, rather than simple vixens like Ava Gardner or Gene Tierney don't count for anything.

Maybe if she had a surgically-created overbite, Jens might have registered better with you, huh?

Whatever, dude. She's fascinating to me but not to you. Thanks for your zero opinion on that.
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Dargo
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Intrepid37 wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 9:15 pm
Dargo wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 7:56 pm I have to admit I ain't seein' it with Salome here.
"Seein' it."

So, when I said Salome Jens fascinates me, you just can't wrap your head around that, huh?

"Fascinated' not a feeling you yourself are familiar with feeling, I take it. Maybe don't understand what it means?

I guess an actress with some mysteriousness to her ambience, rather than simple vixens like Ava Gardner or Gene Tierney don't count for anything.

Maybe if she had a surgically-created overbite, Jens might have registered better with you, huh?

Whatever, dude. She's fascinating to me but not to you. Thanks for your zero opinion on that.
LOL

Man, I tell ya. Somehow I seem to be ticking-off a WHOLE lot of folks around here today! First Belle, then Swithin, and now YOU! And in THIS case, all because I dared say that OTHER than her voice, I never found Salome Jens all that attractive nor exceptionally "fascinating".

(...gee, I wonder if I should maybe take a break from this place for a while and before I tick-off any MORE people around here???) LOL
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Intrepid37
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

Post by Intrepid37 »

And you just had to respond to my post about Salome Jens with an "I don't find her fascinating" because?

Even after I tried to explain why she affected me that way, admittedly probably poorly, you continue to respond "no, not me" because?

Make it a couple of weeks if you do take a break.
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Dargo
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Intrepid37 wrote: May 3rd, 2023, 11:55 pm And you just had to respond to my post about Salome Jens with an "I don't find her fascinating" because?

Even after I tried to explain why she affected me that way, admittedly probably poorly, you continue to respond "no, not me" because?

Make it a couple of weeks if you do take a break.
LOL

Well first, you can count on me bein' away from this here keyboard for about a week starting next Thursday, as my wife and I will be heading to The City of Brotherly Love for a family wedding. Most of her family still reside on the "Joisey" side of the Delaware River and even though she grew up in "Sandy Eggo". And so because I never travel with my laptop and never use my cellphone to post on websites, you'll at least have THIS to look forward to. ;)

(...and secondly, I actually DID think your explanation as to why you find Salome so "fascinating" was rather well put, and so please accept my apologies for continuing to press my point, as I didn't expect that it would cause this much ire within you)
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Intrepid37
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

Post by Intrepid37 »

Dargo wrote: May 4th, 2023, 12:46 am Well first, you can count on me bein' away from this here keyboard for about a week starting next Thursday,
Good. Why not make it a full month, then.
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Dargo
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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Intrepid37 wrote: May 4th, 2023, 1:05 am
Dargo wrote: May 4th, 2023, 12:46 am Well first, you can count on me bein' away from this here keyboard for about a week starting next Thursday,
Good. Why not make it a full month, then.
LOL

Man, you really ARE ticked-off at me here, aren't ya!

(...note to self: the next time the name "Salome Jens" comes up in conversation around here, do NOT post a damn thing about it)

LOL
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wmcclain
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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It Crawled Out of the Woodwork, directed by Gerd Oswald.

The whimsical title has a cute opening: it's the cleaning lady's fault. She shouldn't poke at that unknown mass in the corner. Could be a deadly, unstoppable energy being.

Not so funny after that. Staff at the research lab are paranoid and in despair. A lot of deaths. They all wear little electronic boxes under their clothes: you won't believe what those are for.

A reasonably straightforward SF thriller with a little psycho-drama between the brothers. The smoke/shadows/electricity energy menace is at once a rudimentary effect and really quite effective. It lives in "the Pit".

The closing narration tells us it is a metaphor for various human powers, but particularly that of controlling the atom:
Control Voice

The Conservation of Energy Law — a principle which states that energy can be changed in form but that it cannot be either created or destroyed. And this is true of all energy — the energy of genius, of madness, of the heart, of the atom. And so it must be lived with. It must be controlled, channeled for good, held isolated from evil… and somehow lived with, peaceably.
We have a rich set of familiar faces:
  • Kent Smith as the head honcho, always handsome and dull, remembered from earlier thrillers like Cat People (1942), The Curse of the Cat People (1944), and The Spiral Staircase (1946). Here he has a giant photo of a mushroom cloud on the wall behind his desk. The man knows what he wants.
  • Ed Asner as the police detective.
  • Michael Forest who I remember as the god Apollo in Star Trek Who Mourns for Adonais?
  • Barbara Luna was all over TV back then, again in Star Trek as Kirk's consort in the alternative universe Mirror, Mirror.
  • The great Ted de Corsia has a small part as a gate guard. He was doing a lot of TV around then.
Photographed by Conrad Hall.

No Blu-ray commentary track for this episode.

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wmcclain
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Re: The Outer Limits (1963)

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The Borderland, written and directed by Leslie Stevens.

When experimenting with strong magnetic fields, scientists discover how to open a passage to another dimension. A side-effect of entering that dimension is reversal of objects into their mirror images. In the first scene the chief scientist puts his hand in the field, with inconvenient results. Could have been worse.

This is a good setup and uses several intriguing elements:
  • The meeting of science and spiritualism. The rich man funding the research will use either path to contact his dead son.
  • When dealing with new aspects of time and space we have to start taking premonitions seriously. Are they real, or just the familiar projections of our hopes and fears?
  • The business manager looks for ways of exploiting the 4th dimension. He never explains what he has in mind.
  • The Control Voice becomes sentimental in the closing narration: "There are worlds beyond and worlds within which the explorer must explore, but there is one power which seems to transcend space and time, life and death. It is a deeply human power which holds us safe and together when all other forces combine to tear us apart — we call it the power of love".
  • The climax reminds me of Blair Brown pulling William Hurt out of the Elsewhere into the Here at the end of Altered States (1980).
On the down side, even with this rich set of ideas, the episode is padded. We have a long dinner table exposition and then an experimental procedure at the power plant which is repeated many times. The gear is impressive and everyone takes it seriously, dramatically flipping those switches and calling out the steps. But it goes on and on.

Even so, this builds to an impressive, exciting climax, with our scientist caught between dimensions, witnessing strange and confusing realities, while his wife and friends frantically struggle to bring him back.

The cast includes:As always with the series the effects are economical but strangely appropriate.

Photographed by John M. Nickolaus.

No Blu-ray commentary track for this episode.

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Capsule film reviews: Strange Picture Scroll
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