Classic Horrors Club

Writer | Mel Goldberg
Director | Charles S. Dubin
Air Date | Nov. 9, 1951

Vic Russo (Jack Carter) arrives at Mother Walker’s Boarding House in Las Palmas, New Mexico (population 860), looking for a room. He’s followed newspaper headlines and other leads in search of proof that flying saucers exist. When he encounters the one man who believes him, though, Russo discounts his stories. It’s an interesting take on two kinds of “believers”: ones that keep a level head and ones that go a little crazy.

In this case, the man Vic meets is literally known as “Crazy John” (Vaughn Taylor.) John doesn’t mind his nickname. He’s careful before revealing too much to this stranger; he wants to make sure he’s “one of us” instead of “one of them.” According to Crazy John, “them” are “them that came in from the saucers.” He claims that some of the townspeople arrived via spaceship and since then, the regulars that asked too much about it have disappeared.

Eventually Vic agrees to accompany John to a shack outside the cave that might be hiding a flying saucer. The inhabitant of the shack has gone missing, a lukewarm pile of ash remaining on the floor. Still, Vic doesn’t believe. For someone so desperate for the truth, he’s mighty particular about how he gets it. He finally decides to search the cave on his own. Mother Walker’s daughter, Ginny (Olive Deering) begs him not to go. She definitely knows something… and she’s fallen in love with him.

Writer | Mel Goldberg
Story | Russell V. Ritchey
Director | Leslie Gorall
Air Date | Dec. 7, 1951

It’s 1960, almost a decade after Sneak Attack was produced. Ray Clinton (Zachary Scott) awakens in a hospital bed “somewhere on foreign soil.” There’s much discussion about his true identity with the lovely physician caring for him, Dr. Maroff (Barbara Joyce), and an unnamed General (Royal Beal.) Is he a United States spy there to gather information, or is he a spy for this country, trying to stop a secret experiment from happening in a room down the hall?

For me, this is the least interesting part of the story. It gets better when planes piloted by robots land in 25 U.S. cities. Trying to cut into one, there’s an explosion and Denver is leveled. We learn that the country “somewhere on foreign soil” is blackmailing the United States into surrendering to them or it will detonate all the planes from the hospital room down the hall from where Clinton is recovering. It’s a race against time…

The U.S. Secretary of Defense (John Seymour) believes there’s no option but to surrender. He’s interested in saving lives. However, the President (Richard W. Shankland) will not “hand the enemy our country.” With 55 minutes to go, Maxwell Smart, I mean Ray Clinton, retrieves his right shoe and sends a coded message to the White House. Whether we can rely on one man to stop the sneak attack depends on the agent’s record. Is there any chance he could succeed?