Classic Horrors Club

Teleplay | Max Ehrlich
Story | Fitz-James O’Brien
Air Date | May 9, 1952

Prof. Vanya (Gene Lockhart) has been working for 15 years on an experiment to transform base metal into gold. His latest surefire tweak to the formula is a “secret catalyst” that he pours into the top of the oven after turning it on. He tells his daughter, Margaret (Monica Lovett), “Tomorrow we’ll be rich!” as a neighbor, Mr. Hodges (Theo Goetz) knocks on the door to collect the 2,000 francs the professor owes him.

When the experiment inevitably fails and the professor tries to kill himself, Margaret spends all her money to buy an ingot of gold and places it in the oven overnight so that her father believes he has finally succeeded. After seven nights of repeating the process, the professor gets greedy and wants to double the output. Margaret goes running to her beau, Dr. Charles (David McKay) and expresses her concerns about telling her father the truth. 

Soon after, Mr. Hodges breaks into the makeshift lab in Prof. Vanya’s apartment and steals the ingot. The professor thinks Margaret has others hidden away, but now the truth is forced into the open. What will happen next? Sorry, I’m not going to spoil it. As with some of the Tales of Tomorrow episodes, “The Golden Ingot” has an ironic twist. I say “some” because our next episode, “World of Water,” does not have  that twist.

I’ve meant to ask a question when we’ve discussed several other episodes, but now I’ve come to accept that one of the 1950s science fiction tropes is a doctor/professor/scientist with a daughter that’s the moral compass for a stubborn man so set in his ways… so strong in his beliefs… that he doesn’t listen to her. The variation here is that Margaret is so concerned about Prof. Vanya that she’s willing to fool him. This then makes her as culpable as he is and becomes the potential “bad guy.”

Adapted by | Mann Rubin
By | M.J. Gorley, James V. McGlinchey
Director | Don Medford
Air Date | May 23, 1952

At the beginning of “World of Water,” an unknown crisis threatens the world and at the Department of Agricultural Research in Washington, D.C., Nelson (Logan Field) and Lane (Mel Ruick) are desperately searching for a missing scientist, Dr. Kramer (Victor Jory) who may be insane. Nelson reads from his “file” and we see a flashback that explains what Kramer has been doing, never mind that neither man was was there during the flashback to have witnessed what happened.

We learn that, yes, Dr. Kramer is a bit… unstable. This isn’t demonstrated as mach in his experiment as it is with Nicki (Nita Talbot), the young woman who moved in across the hall from him three weeks ago. As he realizes the fruits of his labor with a solvent that turns solid material into water, he promises fame and fortune to the gold digger if she will be his girl. When she refuses his proposal, he goes full tilt crazy and unleashes his anger onto the world.

There’s more information we don’t know; or, if so, I didn’t catch it. Who are “they” that Kramer seems determined to punish? He mentions twice the one compound that will stop his solvent, but what is it? After the commercial break, we learn that Philadelphia is half covered with water. Kramer has planted 50 vials of his solvent along the east coast and the world is flooding. Can Nelson stop Kramer and save Earth from becoming Waterworld?

While Kevin Costner is nowhere to be seen – SPOILER! – we never learn what happens. “World of Water” ends on a bleak cliffhanger with stock footage of flooding and giant waves crashing into the shore. 

We’ve got to stop this terror! Our world is drowning! We’ve got to find him before it’s too late.

I don’t mind a bleak ending, but this one feels a little too unresolved. My suggestion would have been for us to learn the nature of the solvent and weave its location into the plot. That could have added an irony to make the story more impactful.