THE OUTER LIMITS / "Demon with A Glass Hand" - 1964

Today's story is about a man from the future that has the duty to save humanity from an invasion by an evil race from a distant planet. Written by Harlan Ellison and directed by Byron (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS) Haskin.

It stars Robert (I SPY) Culp, Arlene (Spock's Vulcan bride in the original STAR TREK) Martel, Abraham (HEAD) Sofaer and Rex (PANIC IN YEAR ZERO) Holman.

The Aliens' names are Arch, Battle, Breech and Budge!

So, a man named Trent finds himself in the present day US, he cannot remember who he is or what he's doing there. His left hand is a computer made of glass, but the three middle fingers are missing which limits the amount of knowledge the hand can supply. He does know that he is there from the future to save humanity from an alien invasion...

Trent's in a closed off high rise building where the aliens have a teleportation mirror they are using to come through to Earth with from the future. After going into a room, Trent finds a woman, Consuelo, who doesn't have a clue as to what's going on. One alien tries to capture Trent but is killed when our hero pulls the chained pendant off from around his neck! He then tells Consuelo everything he knows, according to his computer hand (that talks).

The computer tells Trent that in order to attain the first of the three fingers that the aliens have possession of, he needs to let them kill him!! Which he does.

The head alien attaches the first finger, and Trent is put in the room with Consuelo for the time being. But, the computer tells Consuelo how to bring Trent back to life.

Then, in the process of taking the second finger from an alien who has just come through the mirror, Trent is knocked out , so, Consuelo yanks the pendant off the alien and he goes poof before he can stomp Trent.

Trent has the second finger now, him and Consuelo listen to what the computer has to say. It says that the aliens are searching for a wire that has the lives of 70 billion Earthlings from the future on it, the aliens want to destroy the wire and take over Earth for themselves. Then Consuelo admits that she has fallen in love with him, he doesn't know what to make of it...

There's no way to logically speak with the aliens, to them, it's all out war! Boy, that reminds me of a political party here in the present! Anyway, Trent pulls the leader's chain off and that's the end of that brick head!

Trent goes searching for the teleporting mirror to destroy it. After hearing some strange mechanical noise, he locates the room housing the mirror. The alien with the third finger comes through and Trent then shoots the mirror, rendering it useless.

One alien grabs the finger, runs out the door and gets into an elevator car to escape from Trent. The episode was shot in the Bradbury Building in downtown LA.

Trent ends up with the third finger, but...

Another alien has found the room him and Consuelo are hiding in and he knocks our guy through a window where he tries to choke him out. Fortunately, Consuelo has been hiding out of sight outside the window and she pulls yet another chain from the neck of an alien, saving Trent again!

He gets her back inside where they listen to the final message about where the wire is. Well, it's inside Trent's body, because he's a robot, the reason he didn't die when the aliens shot him.

This thing's complicated - Not only did the human race put themselves on the wire, they also released a lethal dose of radiation with a half life of 200 years on Earth to kill every alien, then return 200 years later to restart life anew!!

But alas, Consuelo is devastated by the fact Trent's a robot. She quietly gets up, walks out the door and...

Disappears into the night. A sad ending for me...

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET - "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!" (1953)

Tonight's feature presentation is a real Smoking Saturday Night Special, and I mean that literally!

The title sounds innocent enough, but "Pickup On South Street" is a real mean film, so let's talk about something else!

Back in 1953, cigarettes and tobacco were just about as common as masks are today! People smoked everywhere, restaurants, clubs, hospitals, and it was something that was just taken for granted. The people who were intelligent enough not to smoke were the ones who were the weirdos. It was not even uncommon for Doctors to smoke! 

For years, cigarette machines were as common as phone booths! These days, you're not likely to find either one except in a bar or a casino!

Roosevelt included farm subsidies in the New Deal, and tobacco farmers were getting paid from the 1920's well into the 2000's, all in the name of stimulating the economy. Who cares that smoking was, and has, been killing almost as many people annually as Covid-19 for decades on end!

That's just the way it goes, tough shit!

 

Miss Ohio 1945, Jean Peters was married to Howard Hughes from 1957 to 1971 and basically disappeared during those years! She died in the year 2000, from leukemia, not lung cancer.

Richard Widmark also did not die from cancer, but lived to be 93 years old, and died from complications after falling down one day.

An odd pairing at best, back when people of different political ilks could still get along and work together, Jean Peters was a staunch Republican, and....................

.......................Richard Widmark was a super liberal Democrat, but at least they had that one common bond....................Smoking!

Smoking in cafes and restaurants was the worst, and it's only been the last twenty years that it has been banned in most public places. When we were kids, you could smoke in the local movie theaters as long as you were not in the main seating section, like that stopped the whole place from filling up with smoke anyway.

What an inexpensive way to kill some time in a film. A 'smoking a cigarette' scene must have been a scriptwriter's dream. I'll bet five to ten minutes of this film is just smoking in some form or another.

You had to be really bad, to be cool enough to use a cigarette holder, and not be ridiculed by your peers.

And when cigarettes don't stink up the room enough, there's always cigars to do the job!

"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) - Tex Williams and his Western Caravan circa 1947.

Murvyn (Voodoo Island) Vye as Police Captain Tiger also smokes his way through the whole film. Smoking, what a great way to be totally obnoxious without ever having to say anything.

Jean Peters' character's name is Candy!

I guess it all makes sense, or it's just one big lie, it's your choice!

THE THREE STOOGES / "Movie Maniacs" - 1936

Here we go again, in this Stooge adventure, the boys go to Hollywood to get in on the movie scene, but it isn't as easy as they think and they only create mayhem on the set after getting their big break in the movie business!

Hmmm, two things... First, Curly's name is misspelled on this one. Secondly, I just noticed that Shemp was born on March 17th, same as me!

The boys are going to Hollywood in a box car full of movie props. Moe is feeling lucky and tells Larry to iron his white slacks so that he can look sharp when they go looking for a job. But Larry messes it all up and covers up his mistake with white paint! Moe conks him on the head for his effort...

After washing up, Moe says that it feels great to be clean, Curly is flipping a pancake and he can't find it. Moe asks, you mean you lost it!! He looks up and it hits him square in the face after being stuck on the ceiling. So much for feeling clean.

They show up at Carnation Pictures, I'd bet that a lot of people don't even get the joke.

The head of the studio is Fuller Rath, played by the great Bud Jamison. He finds out that three new executives are showing up today to head up their productions...

The Stooges get past the guard by pretending to be from the newspaper and asking him to pose for a photo. The other guard comes out and asks his partner what he's doing!

The boys run into an office where Fuller tells them that he's glad to see them, thinking that these are his new execs. The guard shows up but quickly leaves after he sees the boss gladly greeting them! The boys don't know what to think!

So, the boys go to the set where they're filming a movie. Moe hands the director a note stating that they are in charge of the production now... Oh boy!!

Moe interrupts a scene where the actors are supposed to kiss. He tells them that they know nothing about kissing!

Moe says that the actors are not animated enough, so Larry and Curly show them what to do with their arms...

It gets a little weird here... The man says, but darling, I have no money!.. Larry reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bill. Curly snatches it away from him and... Check out the face on the lady and the placement of her arms! It's like, I dare you to stick that in my bra!!!

So, that's it for the director and the actors, and they storm off the set. Now the boys have to come up with plan B.

Curly plays the lady and Larry plays the man. It's ham-it-up time, and for the scene's climax, Curly jumps into the lap of Larry, who's seated on a chair, and they crash to the floor! Moe yells, CUT, and he cannot get over the terrific acting by Larry and Curly!

Yeah well, the boss finds out that the real executive won't actually show up until tomorrow, he grabs the security guards and they head for the set.

The boys destroy the place trying to get away from Fuller and the guards.

They get outside and find a good place to hide. Unfortunately, it's the lion cage and it's a merry chase to the finish. Love this episode! Check in again tomorrow for more cool junk...