https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forms_of_Things_Unknown
"The Forms of Things Unknown" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television
show. It first aired on May 4, 1964, and was the final episode of the first season.
Plot:
The plot involves two women who kill a blackmailer. Driving through the countryside with
the body in the trunk, looking for a good place to bury him, they take refuge from a storm
in a house containing a blind man and a strange young inventor who is experimenting with
time. Unlike the traditional "time travel" devices, this one is intended to "tilt the cycles of
time" and bring the dead back to life...which is what happens to the murdered blackmailer.
Technique
The episode is considered an unusual one, even for The Outer Limits. More than almost any
other, it is filled with weird camera angles, atmospheric photography, gothic sets, creepy
music (much of which surfaced later in the TV series The Invaders), and offbeat writing
and performances, giving the episode something of an "art house movie" feel.
Cast
Vera Miles – as Kassia Paine
Sir Cedric Hardwicke – as Colas
Scott Marlowe – as André
David McCallum – as Tone Hobart
Barbara Rush – as Leonora Edmond
This episode was the final acting role of Sir Cedric Hardwicke. He died on August 6, 1964, a
few months after this episode aired.
The story begins in the French countryside, where a car can be seen driving at high speed. The
driver, Andre Pavan a wealthy playboy, is kissing his girlfriend Kassia Paine while Kassia's friend
Leonora Edmond sits in the back seat.
Andre decides to stop at a small lake for a swim, stripping down to his swim trunks. He orders
the women to make him a drink, and they do so – but lace the cocktail shaker with a leaf from
the deadly Thanatos plant. Andre, with jovial cruelty, makes the women serve his drink while
he stands in the water, ruining their "fine stilletto heels" as he puts it. He drinks a toast to
blackmailing Leonora's father in London, and dies immediately, but with a strange smile on his face.
The women load Andre's corpse and clothing into the trunk of the car and drive in search
of a place to bury it. Leonora is unnerved by the whole thing, and becomes more nervous
after they encounter a funeral procession. When night falls and a thunderstorm starts, Leonora's
nerves are on edge. Kassia tries to calm her, but then the trunk comes open. They stop the
car to check on Andre, who hasn't moved. But a lightning flash makes it seem to Leonora
as though he had blinked, and she runs off, frightened. Kassia catches up to her and tries
again to calm her, but both women see a shadowy figure standing nearby. This is too much
for Leonora, who runs to a nearby house. A blind man, Monsieur Colas, answers the door
and lets the women in from the storm. Colas explains that "Mr. Hobart" is not at home, but
will return soon..."
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