So we begin a new series. Because every genre show must be compared to The Twilight Zone, I’ll compare it to The Twilight Zone. It is no Twilight Zone.
But it debuted a year before TZ, and I have only watched one episode, so it might turn out fine. They use a host like most TV anthologies. I appreciate that the host here, John Newland, is not just a carpetbagger like Truman Bradley on Science Fiction Theatre. Bradley — Tru’, I call him — seems like a swell guy, but why is he there?
Serling is the king of the hosts because, in addition to being a scary dude, he created the TZ world and wrote a huge number of the episodes. Sorry, 2 faceless guys on the 1980’s TZ run, you were awful. Forrest Whitaker, I like you as an actor, but you were just collecting a check on the 2000’s TZ. Hey, Jordan Peele, I appreciate your movies, but I don’t see any writing or directing credits on the series. [4] Plus, I’ll be damned if I’ll pay a nickel to watch TZ or Star Trek when God intended them to be free! Fight the power!
Anyhoo, I respect John Newland for directing 94 of the 96 episodes of One Step Beyond. I also see a single writer was responsible for 72 episodes. [3] I hope these guys know what they’re doing . . .
John Newland announces that he is in The Elite Bar and Grill — stop the tape! Well, that didn’t take long. The ornate writing on the door clearly says Ray’s Bar. This appears to be a set — how could they not get that right?
Matt and Sally McCoy are celebrating their wedding at this elite cafe named Ray’s Bar. I guess the reception was held there because Newland was diddling the cake earlier. Adding to the class and sanctity of this blessed event, a couple of dudes have attended in their work-shirts with the name of a moving company on the back. Sally is dancing with a bunch of the guys who are Matt’s friends, but everyone seems happy.
The happy couple bails out so they can reach their honeymoon hotel by 9:00. We hear that Sally has a heavy, adorable Southern accent. On the drive to the hotel, Matt says, “Those crazy guys down at Tommy’s. You sure knocked them for a loop.” Wait, so the joint is named Tommy’s now? [1] Suddenly Sally sits up as erect as Matt and says, “Matt, if we turn left about a mile ahead, it is a prettier drive.” As they approach the road, Sally says, “Turn right.” Then when the reach the road, Matt turns left. What the hell?
Matt pulls the car over, and Sally gets out. She runs to a beautiful cliff overlooking the ocean. [2] She is darting about as if confused and in a trance. Matt asks her what is wrong. She says,”Who are you?” Even stranger, she has lost her accent quicker than Elizabeth Olsen in Avengers: Infinity War. She runs back to the car and — LOL — takes it, stranding Matt.
He is able to flag down a cop. As they are driving back to the station, the officer sees a light on at the ol’ Wharton place. And hey, Matt recognizes his car out front. As they go inside, the cop says the former owner jumped to her death from the cliff Sally just led them to. Sally suddenly appears and tells the cop in a nice midwestern non-accent, “No, I didn’t kill myself! I was murdered! I was murdered!”
So they take her to the nut-house. Matt chews out the doctor for keeping her drugged up. Then the doctor plays tapes of Sally insisting that she is named Karen Wharton. She again insists she was murdered. She even knows Karen Wharton’s birthdate, mother’s name, how her father died, and all about that special night during finals at Bryn Mawr. That’s all fine, but then she tells the doctor that she knows his wife drowned at a picnic in 1941 during freak dunk tank accident. Not only that, she says that four years ago, the doctor asked her to marry him. Hunh?
She says she was murdered by Dan Stapler who she used to be married to. The doctor knows that Dan was never married. Sally — oh sorry, she’s identifying as Karen today — says they kept the marriage secret because her mother hated Dan. Her mother’s instincts were correct as Dan soon bashed Karen’s head in and threw her off the cliff.
Of course, all this is so Dan Stapler can panic and prematurely blow his wad, confessing before the local Perry Mason can even get him on the stand. I’m sure the testimony of the crazy lady who did not know any of them, had never been to the city, and no longer remembered her her paranormal flashback would have held up in court. Mission accomplished, Karen Wharton vanishes from inside Sally and she and Matt head for the hotel to fill that void.
This was actually a pretty good start. The episode looked great, but the bar might have been lowered by low-res DVDs and You Tube public domain uploads of other series I endure. It was refreshing just to see a crisp, clear B&W picture. The music was a little overwrought at the end, and the story was a little thin, but consider this a Pilot.
My only real beef is the bit where Karen said the doctor asked her to marry him four years ago. It is bizarre how that is shoehorned in, given no reaction, then dropped. I can only figure that 1) a scene was deleted for time, and/or 2) that was supposed to explain why the doctor just happened to have an 8 x 10 glamor shot of Karen Wharton in his office that was not an X-Ray of her skull.
My only fear, largely based on nothing, is that the series will be the same story every week. Until proven correct, I will be uncharacteristically optimistic.
Other Stuff:
- [1] You’re thinking Tommy’s is the name of the moving company where they all work. Nope, that’s Nor-Cal Van & Storage.
- [2] Maybe not worth a footnote, but dayum Sally looks hot in that white dress on the cliff with that blinding smile.
- [3] Hmmmm, upon further examination, most of the episodes had other writers. Lawrence Marcus was credited as Executive Writer on 50 of them. His other credits include Dramatized By, Dramatised By, Dramatisation, and a very special Material Assembled By.
- [4] Correction, he does have one TZ Story By credit for Nightmare at 30,000 Feet. However: 1) the episode is based on the original TZ’s Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, 2) that was based on the Richard Matheson short story, 3) he shares the Story By credit with 2 other guys, and 4) one of the other guys wrote the teleplay. So I’m not sure how much his fingerprints are on the episode.
Walter Durst is scheduled to give his final lecture on clairvoyance. His wife Judith is angry that the tiny ad in the newspaper would need a clairvoyant to find it. He is a clairvoyant of the kind you see only on TV — genuine. He is concerned that he dreamed of a murder last night.
A few days later, Walter has a vision. Somehow the vision has left him with a bloody hand although damn if I can figure out why. Judith suggests he might want to wash his hands, but he would rather call Scotland Yard. Possessing super-vision, Judith concludes that it is Walter’s own blood.
A beautiful woman named Sita Vernoy died in August 1927 in Delhi. A beautiful baby girl named Santha Naidu was born in August 1928. In between, a pretty un-noteworthy 12 months for beautiful people.
Santha shows up at casa de Vernoy and tells Krishna she is his mother. She throws her arms around Armand and claims to be his wife. Under-standably, Krishna does not accept this woman his same age to be his mother. Not so understandably, Armand does not accept this woman 40 years younger than him to be his wife. Dude!
Title Analysis: Better than the episode. The “return” is her rebirth, her return to Armand, and stretchingly her return to Delhi.
Paige turns off the soup on his hot-plate — a nice touch — and dashes out of the room to report himself for peeping-tomming. Since phones had apparently not yet been invented, he actually runs to the police station to report the murder of the “pretty blonde”.
Moments later, the “pretty blonde” asks Paige’s neighbors for directions to an apartment she wants to rent. Well, well, well . . .
“Our story begins in Europe where Peter Wade has established a thriving air service.” It would have been nice for Karloff to tell us whether he meant Peter Jr or Sr. And just why would you write a screenplay and give two of the characters exactly the same name? “Hi, I’m Henry Jones, Sr. — they call me Indiana too!”
That night, Sr is having nightmares about the war and a B-17 crash that killed his friend Wally Huffner. Jr comes in to wake him up. Sr says they were in a plane that was hit by the Jerrys in WWII. Sr gave Wally his parachute and was able to pilot the damaged plane to the ground. Sadly, Wally croaked, or more accurately splatted as the chute didn’t open; or maybe it had been replaced by a share of 
Jr tells Sr that he saw Wally’s ghostly face and his voice. He shows Sr a parachute with the serial number 0-1636184. Jr uses this evidence to tell his father that another man died in that crashed plane — Wally Huffner. Sr took Wally’s parachute back in the war and Wally died in the crash. Well, at least, not long before the crash — Wally could not be captured by the Germans so he insisted Sr give him his cyanide tablet.