Here's a wild 'n' weird tale starring Kent (CAT PEOPLE) Smith as Claude, Philip (JOAN OF ARC) Bourneuf as Geoffrey, Joan (TV only) Wetmore as Kay and Kurt (ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY) Katch as The (Cave) Man...
The story's all about a car carrying cultured Geoffrey, brutish Claude and eligible Kay that swerves off a cliff and ends up in a mysterious valley. Surprised by the weird vegetation and climate, they come to the conclusion they've traveled back in time 50,000 years!! Then, an encounter with an unfriendly caveman results in all three being held captive in a cave.
Narrator Frank Gallop starts off the show with his big intrusive face giving you something weird to think about before the story starts...
Check out this sweet 1948 (I think) Studebaker our gang's cruising in! They have stopped because the car is having some engine problems.
In the meantime, Claude has found a skull and thinks it's from a prehistoric man!
Once the car is moving again, their trip takes a turn for the worse, literally! They swerve off the mountain road and into a very mysterious valley. I'm starting to think that this is a very strange set for a TV show!
And, guess who's watching the injured intruders?.. Hey, nice haar mow!
Claude and Geoffrey try and make sense of their situation, then...
The prehistoric dude shows himself! Geoffrey, the sophisticated one, decides to try and communicate with him, but he beats the crap out of the dummy!!
Claude gets a little too close and is also attacked by their nemesis!
Welp, Claude, Geoffrey and Kay all end up inside the caveman's lair and he's starting a fire!!
Gulp!..
Geoffrey grabs his revolver and empties it into the hungry caveman, bringing the terror to a fin. They go over and make sure he's dead.
Then, a big old curve ball is served up for the ending. Claude concludes that the skull he found had a bullet hole in it, and, they were actually 50,000 years in the future!!!!!!!!!
Frank gets the last word!.. So, we suggest that you pop in again on Wednesday when who the Hell knows what we will have for you, but, you'll love it...
WEIRDSVILLE!!
ReplyDeleteJust watched the whole episode on YouTube, it was pretty cool. Atmospheric and moody despite the set limitations. Like a radio show played out, it was fun! I will watch other episodes now, thanks for turning me on to these creepy little gems! The narrator is ghoulish, indeed! Lights Out!!
ReplyDeleteLawson, our job is done! I have 8 volumes on DVD and will be doing more episodes - Wish I hadn't got rid of my TALES OF TOMORROW...
ReplyDeleteEven though he always had a dramatic appearance, I've never thought of Kent Smith as having a "rugged outdoorsman" kind of look. but in that middle photo he does.
ReplyDeleteNever imagined him as an outdoorsman type either!
ReplyDeleteKent Smith was on the other hand so cool in an OUTER LIMITS episode, in a great shot...camera low looking up, wild lighting...as he reaches out toward the lens with his hand as if turning a dial! Always remember that shot of him!
Too bad his inclusion as a semi-regular in the second season of THE INVADERS kinda hurt the show, as "The Believers" org he headed as Edgar Scoville pretty much killed the series by removing the one-man-against-the-alien-invasion paranoia vibe.
Now I need to check him out again in the SCIENCE FICTION THEATER episode THE UNEXPLORED, playing a university parapsychologist (!?), with Osa Massen from ROCKETSHIP X-M playing his wife. A very odd episode (parapsychology as a science?), in color too!