Classic Horrors Club

Writer | Mel Goldberg
Story | H.G. Wells
Director | Charles S. Dubin
Air Date | Oct. 12, 1951

At the beginning of “The Crystal Egg,” we don’t know why Professor Frederick Vaneck’s (Thomas Mitchell) peers believe he’s hallucinating. He desperately records his tale in case something happens so him. Oddly, the tale doesn’t begin with him. Eventually, a crystal egg from an antique shop comes his way, but he wasn’t present to witness a man named Walker (Gage Clarke) haggling with the shop owner, Mr Cave (Edgar Stehli), over the price of the object.

Due to said haggling, Mr. Cave takes the egg to the professor to get his opinion of its value. Vaneck barely has time to look at it, but when he does, he becomes obsessed with it. Eventually, its cloudy composition clears enough for him to discern a foreign landscape inside, one that he determines must be Mars. And if he can see Mars, can Mars see us? The value of the egg also becomes clear. Walker wants it, Mr. Cave wants the most money he can get from it, and Vaneck simply wants someone to believe him.

There are hints of a conspiracy, especially at the end; however, that’s not what “The Crystal Egg” is about. The desperation and paranoia are familiar and we’re perhaps expected to use our knowledge of the tropes to embellish the story. That’s today, though; I’m not sure how prevalent they were in 1951. As with many of these episodes, and early television as well, their original intent probably differs with modern interpretation.

Then again, “The Crystal Egg” aired four years after the Roswell incident and four years into the Cold War. This was the birth of desperation and paranoia. Fictional stories may not have been immediate, though. Prior to October of 1951, only The Thing from Another World and Day the Earth Stood Still had been released. This was two years prior to War of the Worlds and three years before the best Cold War paranoia movie of the era, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Writer | Mel Goldberg
Story | Nelson Bond
Director | Charles S. Dubin
Air Date | Oct. 26, 1951

Wayne Crowder (Lee J. Cobb) is not just obsessed with, he’s consumed by, becoming the first man to discover the wealth and minerals “up there” in space. It will cost his company, and him personally, well over $500 million, but think of it… the first man to reach space! His CFO, Marty Peters (Cameron Prud-Homme) warns him that if he falls, he’s Humpty Dumpty, but Crowder insists that money and determination can buy anything.

As expenses escalate and the board of directors grows increasingly antsy, newspaper headlines ask, “Crowder Rocketing Toward Bankruptcy?” Nevertheless, Crowder builds a rocket and now needs someone to fly him into space. Enter Wilkins (Harry Townes), who has been working for 30 years to develop a motor based on electromagnetism. It would require starting over and building an entirely new rocket, but what’s another $100 million? Crowder persists, “It’s worth it if it breaks me!”

With no patience left, the big day arrives. Wilkins wants to do more checks, but the board of directors is about to storm the launch site and Crowder proclaims, “I’m fed up. This ship better take off today!” He holds Davis away at gunpoint, “Nothing can stop me now!” He and Wilkins strap themselves into their leather recliners, note that the inertia will be terrific, perform the countdown, and launch. SPOILERS AHEAD. Safely in the stratosphere, Crowder celebrates:

I’ve done it! I’ve conquered space! I’ll be the richest, most powerful man on Earth! I proved it could be done!

He then tells Wilkins, “We can turn back now.” No more spoilers for a conclusion that truly surprised me. You might think something terrible would happen to a man with such selfish ambition, and it does… sort of. But there’s no horrible accident or explosive consequence for all of Crowder’s trouble and expense. There’s more of a quiet punishment that teaches him a lesson, not the least of which is that if you’re going to trust a partner, you should probably do a background check on him.