Classic Horrors Club

So far, episode nine of World of Giants (WOG), ‘Rainbow of Fire,’ has been my least favorite… by far. Our trio of heroes, Bill Winters (Arthur Franz), Mel Hunter (Marshall Thompson), and Dorothy “Brownie” Brown (Marcia Henderson) head to South America to search for a crashed missile. I missed what specifically it is they need to retrieve from the wreckage, but it comes in a small, rectangular box.

A young boy, Pedro (Eugene Mazzola) has beat them to it, and his father (Salvador Baguez) is willing to beat Bill for him to keep it. It’s a low point for the series when Mel hides under a hat on a donkey and talks to Pedro, making him think it’s the donkey. Mel/the donkey warns Pedro that he took something that wasn’t his and it’s important that he gives it back. If he does this, the Mel/the donkey will leave him a present to replace it.

That’s forgivable for what I assume was intended to be a family show; however, Brownie’s behavior is not. The way she gushes over their host, Juan Garcia (Eduardo Noriega) as he flirts with her is shameful, especially since she and Bill has such a nice time dancing together before they left the United States. Her attention to Juan sends Bill to the bottle. Neither of the two character’s actions seems consistent with what we know about them from the first eight episodes.

Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, but Juan Garcia/Eduardo Noriega doesn’t seem nearly as attractive as Johnny Delgado/William Masters from the last episode. Noriega was a prolific actor from Mexico who appeared in 173 films and televisions shows, many in his home country. The only familiar genre film I see on IMDb, though, is The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956), in which he played Enrique Rios. 

There’re no other genre favorites in the episode, either. The closest we come is the director, Harry Horner. Of 19 directing credits, only his first film sounds familiar, Red Planet Mars (1952), and it reads to be more drama than science fiction. He had more gigs as a production designer and many of those films sound familiar, but they’re not horror or sci-fi. He’ll return for episode 13 and the writers (A. Sanford Wolfe and Irwin Winehouse) for episode 12.

This gives me concerns for the rest of the series; however, any show is entitled to a dud now and then. When there are only 13 episodes, though, the percentage seems higher. I failed to mention a really fun part of this one, so we’ll conclude on a high note. Instead of his usual briefcase, Mel travels via a hollowed-out camera. This allows him to be closer to the action, I suppose, but now that I think about it, it doesn’t contribute to his role in the adventure.