TALES OF TOMORROW / "What You Need" - 1952

Here's another great episode from Tales Of Tomorrow... It stars William Redfield as  writer Tom Carmichael and Edgar (4-D MAN) Stehli as curio shop owner Peter Talley. Those are the only two actors with credits on this production for some reason. The story is by Henry Kuttner and another version was done for THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

The story's about an unscrupulous writer who's short on money and wants to marry his girlfriend. He stumbles upon a potential mystery when he notices well-to-do men shopping at a small curio shop. And, the men come out of the shop with mere mundane items...

Here's the sign hanging at Peter Talley's shop. Guess what? He has what you need!

Writer Tom Carmichael is watching the well dressed men visiting this odd curio shop. He makes notes of every item the men leave with, this time, a pair of gloves. He's really puzzled.

So, Tom goes inside to ask the owner what the Hell's going on!  Peter and his wife are turned off by his brashness. In the meantime, another gentleman comes in and picks up a pistol and pays Peter $5000 for his services! Tom's dumbfounded, he explains that he doesn't have any money and wants to marry his girl, and begs for a freebee.

Just to have Tom leave, Peter agrees. He has built a machine that can predict outcomes in the future of situations. Peter sees Tom getting his tie stuck in a printing machine.

Tom gets a measly pair of shears, Peter tells him to keep it close at all times... Oh, and never come back, we don't like you!

Tom's girl thinks the shears are funny, what are you going to do Tom? Become a seamstress?!! They'll make a great married couple. But Tom's thinking about something else, money.

And sure enough, Tom goes back to the print shop and gets his tie stuck in a machine! Luckily, the shears were handy to save his neck! Now, Tom, the publisher and his girl all get the big picture, that machine of Peter's is worth a million dollars!!

Tom rushes back to the curio shop and threatens Peter, give me another thing I need, OR! Peter tells Tom that he'll have a courier deliver the item to him at the restaurant he'll be at. Tom is giddy with delight.

Peter has the machine make a future prediction about the current situation and it has Tom coming in, killing Peter and then stealing the machine...

Peter is in shock, what is he to do? He quietly gets up and picks out what Tom needs...

At the restaurant, Tom gets his package, a pair of shoes, brand new with super slick soles! And you know what? It's snowing outside. Tom quickly puts the new shoes on before him and his girl leave the place.

Outside in the snow, Tom slips and is run over by a truck, the driver swears that it looked like an invisible person pushed Tom in front of the truck!

Tom is dead and nothing can bring him back. Peter realizes that he has just played God with Tom's life and it's a bad ending for everyone! He destroys the machine.

Reminds me of a Guzanos tune... "Alles Ist Kaput."