Classic Horrors Club

After introducing the concept in episode one,World of Giants (W.O.G.) starts having fun with it in episode two, “Time Bomb.” The adventure is more exciting and the stakes higher. While Bill (Arthur Franz) is out in the garage of his apartment building repairing Mel’s tiny chair in his briefcase, Mel (Marshall Thompson) races against time to reach him and let him know he’s received a package that contains a ticking time bomb.

 As the lives of everyone in the apartment building depend on him, Mel throws the window blinds cord over the ledge and scales down the side of the building. However,  he misjudges the distance of the trellis and swings to reach it. He hits his head and is knocked out cold. Luckily, the gardener turns on the sprinkler and, although he’s nearly drowned in the deluge, he’s able to narrowly avoid the thorns of a rose bush and make his way to the ground. 

There, he faces what to him is a “prehistoric monster,” a possum. Mel finds temporary cover in a pint-sized milk carton and tries to defend himself. About this time, Bill exits the garage and heads into the apartment building. Has all his work been for naught? Probably not, but I won’t spoil the clever ending of the episode.

Arthur Franz has even more horror/sci-fi cred than Marshall Thompson, but he didn’t have a hit television series all his own. Although he appeared in four episodes of Climax (1954-57), three episodes of The Whistler (1954-55), and five episodes of Science Fiction Theater (1955-56), he played different characters instead of recurring roles. He also appeared in single episodes of The Web (1954), Men Into Space (1959), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1965), The Invaders (1968), and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974.) Interestingly, he also appeared in an episode of Land of the Giants in 1969.

A prolific and reliable character actor, the names of his characters often began with honorifics like Doctor., Police Chief, Senator, General, Professor, Sheriff, Major, Captain, Detective, Lieutenant, and Commander. From Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man in 1951 to Sisters of Death in 1977, he alternated genre favorites of mine like Invaders from Mars (1953) and The Atomic Submarine (1959) with legitimate roles in major motion pictures like The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and The Caine Mutiny (1954.) 

After his final film performance in That Championship Season in 1982, Franz retired from acting and lived until 2006 when he died of emphysema at the age of 86. I haven’t seen The Sniper (1952), but I read that he “turned in an outstanding performance as a mentally unstable ex-soldier in San Francisco who, after being rejected by a woman he was interested in, snaps and terrorizes the city by taking out his old army rifle and stalking and picking off women.” 

In World of Giants, Franz’s Bill Winters is a reliable partner for Mel Hunter. My guess is that he’s going to take the brunt of any physical harm as the series progresses. I hope we get to know his character a little better, other than just as the saint that Mel continues to claim he is. Mel is completely dependent upon Bill and heaps praise upon him in his fourth wall-breaking conversations with us, the viewers.