Tales of Tomorrow –The Evil Within – S 2 E 37

Tales of Tomorrow –The Evil Within – S 2 E 37

Review by Bill Russo

Here's another pretty good entry in the 1953 season of the under-rated series, Tales of Tomorrow. With painted sets, primitive mikes and cameras the size of a VW Bug, along with the constraints of live TV, the producers did a pretty good job, all things considered.

Rod Steiger, James Dean, and Margaret Phillips star in this episode where a bizarre plot has Steiger playing a scientist who develops a chemical that releases the beast within – but since it needs to be refrigerated he takes it home and puts it in a pie! (Why the lab did not have a fridge is not known! - and why he put it in a pie is also not known.)

What is known is that while Rod was away, his wife devoured a piece of the pie and afterwards she was ready to devour poor old Rod, who seemed to be phoning in his performance for the first half of the show. But he managed to get going pretty good after the wife picked up a huge knife and held it shoulder high in classic horror film, attack-mode.

James Dean, has a small role as a bespectacled lab assistant and his work is excellent. In his scene with Steiger he sells his role perfectly, while the veteran actor seems wooden. From Dean's tousled hair, the way he moved on the set, and a bit of business with the eyeglasses, J D made the most of the tiny part.

It was one of about 30 tv productions in which he appeared during a busy 1953. It was two years ahead of somebody dropping a needle down on a 45 r.p.m. Record, called Rock Around the Clock, which introduced Rebel Without a Cause, which made James Dean the hottest actor in the world!

Margaret Phillips plays the wife with a certain flair that befits her real occupation, which was star of the legitimate stage where she gave an award winning performance in 1947's Broadway smash, “Another Part of the forest.” Her lively acting, and the broad smirk on her face is like a symphony orchestra to Steiger's ukulele!

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Suspense, The TV series: The Spider - S 4 E 18, 1952

Suspense TV: The Spider – S 4 E 18, 1952

Synopsis and review by Bill Russo

Her worst fear was a loathing of spiders, but when she found herself lost in a swamp near the top corner of Florida's sparsely populated West Coast, she encountered a new thing she feared even more!

Olive Deering stars as the lady who wanders into the secluded dwelling of a seemingly harmless blind man, who she later discovers, has a chilling hobby.

Between the 1940s and 60s Olive Deering worked in radio (on dramatic shows and in soap operas) television, and in film (notably in 1949's Samson and Delilah).

When I watched this episode I was struck by how much this beautiful lady resembled Carolyn Jones, who achieved fame in the TV show The Addams family. Both of the ladies had angular, distinctive, chiseled-features, as well as dark hair, usually worn long.

Despite a few issues with sound (early TV shows often had such problems. In the early 1950s television was pretty new and the producers, technicians and even the actors, still had a lot to learn. Still, this is another pretty good episode of Suspense, the TV version.

It was performed live as many early TV shows were. The actors had to memorize their lines and perform the show in sequence as if it were a theater performance.

Suspense TV was the little brother to the Suspense Radio Program that ran from 1942 to 1962. Suspense TV produced 250 episodes in its span of five season from 1949 to 1954. Only one third of the episodes have survived into the 2000s.  They were captured  by an early process called Kinescope - aiming a motion picture camera at a TV monitor showing the program as it was being performed live. 

The Lawless Years: The Dutch Schultz Story, Season One E 5 (1959)

The Roaring 20s (the ones from the 1900s, not the 2000s) come to life again in “The Lawless Years”. Gravel voiced James Gregory (Detective Frank Luger in the 1975 to 82 Barney Miller series) stars as the real life New York City cop Barney Ruditsky. 

 Ruditsky was a celebrity cop involved in dozens of high-profile cases and was credited with breaking up ‘Murder Incorporated’.

In this episode Dutch Schultz calls a board meeting of the top ten mobsters in the entire USA. From Cali, to Texas, to Florida, other infested places and cities, they arrive one by one in the Apple for the big parley. The meeting has been called because Schultz is in Dutch with Tom Dewey, New York's crusading special prosecutor. And if Dutch can convince the other mugs to agree, it's gonna be time for Tom Dewey to Hang Down his Head – to keep it from getting shot off by a couple of yeggs with Tommy Guns.

There's a good cast of familiar faces filling the ten chairs surrounding the meeting table and a nice moll named 'Molly', played by Chicago native Selete Cole (in her 80s as of this writing, 2021) who was featured in a number of movies in the 1960s including The Strangler, and The Invaders.

After he left the force, Officer Ruditsky went to Hollywood and worked on many projects including The Lawless Years, to which he was a technical advisor.

Science Fiction Theatre - Miracle Hour - S2 E 31

There’s more than one way to get from Boston to New York.  The Acela Express Train is probably the fastest, but you could also go by plane, by car, or you could even walk.  But what about your eyes?  Is there more than one way to see?  That’s the question that SFT probes in this heartwarming tale of a little blind boy.  All of the doctors agree, that the lad’s sight can never be restored.  But just like there are multiple ways to get from Beantown to the Apple, there might be more than one way to see! 

Science Fiction Theater: The Man Who Didn't Know - S2 E 13

There’s a mystery in the air, and it’s a very good one, even by the high standards of Science Fiction Theater.  The U.S. is on the verge of a breakthrough in flight – a noiseless aircraft that can stay in flight indefinitely.  One of the key scientists is assigned the duty of piloting the XB 205.  All went well until a structural defect caused the XB to crash.  After a week of fruitless searching for survivors, it was assumed the crew perished.  But six months later, the pilot surfaced in a hospital in Singapore.  He can remember only that he was plucked from the sea by the hands of a passing ship.  Weird so far, but the mystery doesn’t really begin until the pilot gets back to work on the top secret XB-205-Project again.  The military learns that somehow, and impossibly, an enemy country has recordings of every single one of their confidential project meetings.  This only happened after the injured pilot returned to work!

I Grew Up in Dodge City in 1875 - the Video of my most downloaded short Western Tale.

My most downloaded Western Short Story! I based the tale, on the real first Sheriff of Dodge City, Kansas. Before Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the fictional Matt Dillon, there was Charlie Basset, the first lawman in the famous, rowdy cow town called Dodge. This is a brief tale of fact based fiction, with a twist that we hope you'll find interesting and amusing. Click the picture to watch the brief film.

Can You Taste the Karma?

A year ago Tampa Bay without Brady was 7-9. This year T B, with T B, is going to the Super Bowl. This year, without Brady the Patriots were 7-9.

Karma is a dish that tastes heavenly or like dogfood -

depending which side of it you're on.