"Tales of Tomorrow" (1951-1953)

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Enjoying this a great deal, Victoria!
I recently watched, on YouTube, the episode named 'The Window'. I'd read that many people consider this their favorite show of the series. I thought it was a very brave and daring effort for its day...even today (I'm reminded of the daringness of the Black Mirror TV series). The network, advertisers, actors...it's really original, and must have seemed ground-breaking in the newish world of television of 1952. (The dialogue is somewhat stilted, but that's true of most of the episodes, I think; perhaps in part because the shows were broadcast live?)
Hope to read your review of 'The Window' one day!

Your wish is my command.

"The Window" is an original story written by Frank De Felitta, later a best-selling author.

You'll be confused when this episode starts, since we're told the episode is actually "The Lost Planet." We get a few seconds of a typical premise for the series (scientist tells his daughter that Earth is doomed) when suddenly the show has technical difficulties and we see what seems to be three people in a small apartment. The crew members of Tales of Tomorrow rush around the set trying to figure what's going on. Then things get more sinister . . .

This is an extremely clever episode which breaks the fourth wall in a way which must have seemed highly innovative at the time. The scenes in the apartment are played in a very realistic fashion, unlike the usual style of acting for the show. Highly recommended.

https://archive.org/details/TalesOfTomorrow-LostPlanet

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Fatal Flower" is another original story from Frank De Felitta. The tension between a botanist and his assistant in the Amazonian jungle reaches the boiling point over a letter. The assistant, bored out of his mind, buys a letter addressed to the botanist for ten bucks. He refuses to let the botanist see it after the deal is made; after all, it's his property now. This trivial conflict leads to the final encounter.

I haven't mentioned the speculative content yet, because it's really irrelevant to the story. Given the title, and the fact that we see a giant carnivorous plant straight out of The Little Shop of Horrors a few minutes into the episode, and you can figure it out. This rather silly aspect of the story could have left out entirely, and we'd still have an Alfred Hitchcock Presents kind of psychological suspense yarn.

The Fatal Flower : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Bitter Storm" is another original story, and it's an unusual one. On an island off the coast a scientist, embittered by the way his discoveries have benefited only others, lives with his sister, the widow of a minister. Her adult daughter and the daughter's gentleman friend just barely make it through a bad storm to the island. The scientist has no faith in humanity until he sees the young man willing to risk his life to help them get off the island when the storm gets worse.

Once again I have not mentioned the speculative content, but this time it's relevant to the theme, if not the plot. It seems the scientist has created a gizmo that can pick up any sound from any time in the past. It also produces "static" of a sort which his sister can understand, but which he can't at first. The content of the static may surprise you . . .

Your reaction to "The Bitter Storm" may depend on your own personal beliefs.

The Bitter Storm : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Another Chance" is an original story, again by De Felitta, and it's a pretty good one. Leslie Nielsen gives an intense performance as a guy who foolishly stole a diamond brooch, even though he doesn't know how to find a fence to buy it. In desperation he answers a newspaper ad that only says "I CAN HELP YOU," along with a name and an address. The fellow at the address accepts the brooch as payment for sending Nielsen back to 1946, but not exactly as himself. He's got a new name, lives in a new city, and has no memory of his past life. That doesn't mean he might not make the same mistakes . . .

This a cleverly done weird little shop/time travel story which rewards paying close attention.

Another Chance : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Great Silence" is another original by De Felitta, and it's pretty goofy. It seems that an H Bomb test has released particles, spreading out from the Pacific Northwest, which render everybody mute. Apparently this isn't too bad a problem, as the government says that it will clear up in a few days. Meanwhile, a mountain man (Burgess Meredith) way out in the wilderness finds a spaceship, occupied by a little man with antennae, emitting a gas. (I guess those bureaucrats weren't right about the H bomb thing.) Since he's illiterate (we see him sign his name with an "X") he has no way to tell his wife, or the local officials. We get lots of scenes of Meredith trying to act out his warning, and this episode becomes a giant game of charades. Apparently he never thought of drawing a picture!

The Great Silence : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Read to Me Herr Doktor" features a professor who has built a robot to read to him. However, the robot quickly gets ideas from the books, demands that the professor read to it instead, and even declares its love for the professor's daughter. A silly story, and the robot is clearly just a guy in a cardboard suit.

Read to Me Herr Doktor : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive


"Ghost Writer" abandons science fiction for pure fantasy. Leslie Nielsen stars as a struggling writer who accepts an offer to come up with endings for stories by a mysterious fellow at five hundred dollars each. Sounds great, until it turns out that the endings he comes up with come true in the real world, and aren't exactly happy ones . . .

A nice little chiller, very dark in tone, which would have made a good episode of The Twilight Zone.

Ghost Writer : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

"Past Tense" stars the great Boris Karloff as a doctor who invents a time machine and goes into the past in an attempt to sell penicillin. His plans don't work out too well. We see Karloff dying of pneumonia in 1910 in the very first scene, the rest of the story shown in flashback, so there's not a lot of suspense.

Tales of Tomorrow - Past Tense (Karloff) : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Fury of the Cocoon" (another original by De Felitta) is pure 1950's monster movie. Somewhere in the jungle a meteor has landed, releasing giant invisible (!) "insects" that feed on human blood! The invisibility keeps the special effects budget down. We see a plaster statue made of one of the critters, and it's so laughably "scary" that it's actually kind of cute.

Tales of Tomorrow - Fury of the Cocoon : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

"The Evil Within" is another original story, although the basic theme sure owes a lot of Robert Louis Stevenson. A scientist brings up some vials of a substance which causes the primates he was tested on to fight each other. He puts it in the refrigerator (the one at the lab is broken) and a broken vial leaks some of the stuff into an apple pie! His wife east some of the pie and becomes evil! ("Evil," at first, just means that she starts acting sexy.) Rod Steiger is really odd to watch as the scientist with his intense method acting. Watch for James Dean in a small role as his assistant.

The Evil Within : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive