ONE STEP BEYOND / "The Aerialist" - 1959

Just got a set of  ONE STEP BEYOND episodes and thought I'd check them out. I randomly picked a title and was thrilled to see two of my favorite monster movie actors starring in it, and who both worked on Roger Corman films around this time. Anyway, the story's about the Patruzzio family, trapeze artists in a circus. During a show in which the the safety net was removed, one of them falls and is paralyzed, causing the family's decline.

It stars Mike (DAY THE WORLD ENDED, VOODOO WOMAN) Connors, Yvette (ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES) Vickers, Robert (THE BLACK ORCHID) Carricart, Ruggero (THE LOST WORLD) Romor, Penny (MISTER PEEPERS) Santon and Charles (ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) Watts.

And of course, that's John Newland as our host.

Before a show, papa Patruzzio is arguing with his son, Mario, about family stuff.

Mario's married to Carlotta, a member of the aerial team. He finds her flirting with some delivery guy (boy, talk about type casting for Yvette!). When he asks her what she was doing, she tells him basically to mind his own business!

Papa tells Mario that Carlotta is no good for him, and that it's effecting their act. Mario doesn't want to hear it and talks back to his dad...

And gets slapped in the face for his effort. Mario then says, it'd be a shame if I didn't catch you during the act, papa!!

So, it's time for the show, and there's a packed audience to watch the thrills.

The Patruzzios are up, and the safety net is taken down for added drama...

Then, Mario has to catch papa but their hands slip and the dad drops to the ground, and is totally paralyzed from the fall. But, no way in Hell did Mario drop him on purpose.

C. C. Higgins, the owner of the circus, wants Mario and his brother to continue with their act to help pay the medical bills, but Mario says that he's lost his nerve and will not get back on a trapeze again. This causes a huge rift between the two.

Mario goes to an employment agency to find a job. After talking with the representative for a few minutes, Mario gets up and walks out. He was being offered a job for $3 and hour, an insult to someone who was making $400 a week!!

Mario's lost, and kinda in La La Land. He's talking about Italian cigars for his dad and doesn't even notice Carlotta packing her bags! As she's leaving, Mario shouts to her that papa was right!.. You're no good!!

At this point, Mario has one last trick to do on the trapeze. He climbs up to the platform, grabs the trapeze bar and  swings a few times before doing a flip, hoping to drop to the floor and die there, a fitting end for what happened to his papa.

But, from nowhere, his dad grabs him and Mario gets safely back to the platform. 

Brother Paul walks in to see Mario shouting, papa saved me! And the other trapeze is still swinging, proof of the miracle.

The brothers race to the hospital to see their papa, and, he's not in his room. They think he has died until the nurse tells them that he went to surgery, the doctors were trying to figure out what had happened to him moments earlier. She says that all of a sudden their dad reached his arms out like he was holding something!

Papa is rolled back into his room where Mario gives him all his love...

Well, as happy an ending as possible I guess, John then explains in scientific terms what had happened, I don't remember the name of it but it basically means... Being in two places at once. Like Tabonga! and Eegah!!