One Step Beyond (Delta)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: B-
Continuing our look at Rod Serling Twilight Zone
forerunner One Step Beyond, we go from VCI’s amusing collection to a
single-disc example of a different set of episodes of the series offered by
Delta Entertainment. Though not filled
with as many episodes as the VCI set, Delta is also offering a huge box set
with more shows. To repeat an interesting
fact about the competing series, both were shooting at the M-G-M Studios, with
each ABC/Alcoa show produced at $55,000 a show. While Serling hosted and wrote many of his series’ shows, John
Newland hosted and directed ALL of his.
While VCI Entertainment’s first double DVD set offers ten
of the best episodes from Season Two, this offers five key shows from the very
first season. They are as follows by
title, writer, original date of broadcast, plot, and cast:
Night Of April 14 (Collier Young (the series’
producer) and Larry Marcus (script editor for the show), 1/29/59) – This second
episode of Season One is one of the most remembered in the series, as a woman
(Barbara Lord) keeps dreaming of drowning in frigid waters, accelerated by her
fiancée Erick Farley’s (Patrick Macnee) announcement that they have tickets to
board the maiden voyage of a ship called The Titanic. Often confused with Macnee’s 1959 Twilight Zone episode Judgment
Night penned by Serling himself, that show too dealt with a sinking
ship. This one is not as good, but is
interesting.
The Dark Room (Francis Cockrell, 2/10/59) –
Photographer Rita Morrison (Cloris Leachman) goes to France to take a series of
photographs, but her employer (Marcel Dalio) may be a strangulation serial
killer! An early genre piece for
Leachman, who had made a splash in the great Film Noir Kiss Me Deadly
only a few years before. Now a highly
respected actress for her work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis
and remembered as Wonder Woman’s mother form the original Lynda carter pilot,
this does offer a rarely seen performance form her that is effective and may
even save this show.
Epilogue (Don M. Mankiewicz, 2/24/59) –
The great actors Charles Aidman and Julie Adams star as a separated couple,
with the wife (Adams) and son trapped in a cave. A ghostly figure appearing to Charles Archer (Aidman) may save
them, leaving Dr. Sanders (the great William Schallert) at a loss to explain
what is really going on. Interesting
installment.
The Dream (John Dunkel, 3/3/59) – The
Blakelys (Reginald Owen, Molly Roden) keep having the same dream about The
Nazis invading England; are they onto a plot through supernatural premonition
they can stop before its too late?
The Dead Part Of The House
(Michael Plant, 3/17/59) – There are three dolls in a very cold room of the
house of a little girl’s aunt. Do they
have any connection to three children who lived and died there not too long
ago?
That may not be as many shows as the VCI set, but they are
key enough to be its equal. Like the
VCI set, the 1.33 X 1 full screen, black and white image is average, because it
is amazing the materials even survived.
They have been restored as best they could be, but pale in comparison to
the recently restored Twilight Zone DVDs, which had not been issued when
the VCI set came out. Since the catalog
is split between companies and some shows are covered by copyright, while
others are not. That hurts the
possibility they will get the same digital HD treatment, restoration and
preservation, so these will be the best copies for a while in the case of both
companies. No Alcoa ad placements this
time, sadly. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
is not bad for its time either. Harry
Lubin’s music, and especially his theme song for the show, are underrated. The age and some background limits can be
heard, but it is not bad for average.
There are no extras, but this should satisfy those curious about the
series and both companies have most of the shows out there. The lack of extras in both cases is disappointing.
- Nicholas Sheffo
