Classic Horrors Club

Writer | Frank De Felitta
Director | Don Medford
Air Date | February 13, 1953

Another Tales of Tomorrow character… “Another Chance.” Harold Mason (Leslie Nielsen) finds himself in the kind of trouble you invite when you steal a priceless brooch. He accuses his wife, Carlotta (Virginia Vincent), of talking him into committing the crime, and she responds by packing her bags. Paranoid and desperate, he sees an ad in the newspaper that reads:

I’m sure I can help you.

He pays a visit to the name in the ad, Dr. John Borrow (Robert Middleton) who promises him… another chance… with a machine of his own invention. It’s a special chair that will send him far away and seven years into the past, his conscience and memory “wiped out.” Harold is certain he’d make a better job of his life this time, but, as we soon learn, Dr. Borrow knows exactly how it’s going to turn out.

We do, also, but it’s fun to watch Harold’s life repeat. He may be far away with no memory, but seven years after he wakes up, he finds himself in a familiar situation. He’s stolen securities from the bank where he works and his wife, Regina (also Virginia Vincent) packs her bags to leave him. He remembers bits and pieces, such as Carlotta/Virginia going to a movie and… the newspaper ad.

Dr. Borrow isn’t surprised to see Harold burst into his office; in fact, he’s been expecting him. He offers no more chances, though. He’s instead proven a point that there’s no such thing as a second chance. Life’s pattern is unalterable and people make the same mistakes. He can only help his clients delay the inevitable. “We” can only do something about the future.

Go now, face the future!

What am I going to do?

You’ll find out.

Writer | Frank De Felitta
Director | Don Medford
Air Date | February 20, 1953

It’s the third day of “the Great Silence,” when the country has lost the ability to speak due to invisible hydrogenic particles from recent experiments with the H-bomb. Newscasters insist repeatedly that the situation is temporary and not at all dangerous. Yeah, right… It’s an odd episode that changes tone on a dime. After the set-up, we focus on Paul (Burgess Meredith) and Mathilde (Lilia Skala), a couple living in a cabin in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

It seems like a typical relationship between two people that have been married a long time. They have the same interactions that go back and forth between loving glances and physical gestures for thoughts not so loving. The difference, of course, is that they can’t talk. Therefore, there’s a lot of pantomime and it’s accompanied by comedic music. That is, until…

Paul discovers a flying saucer in the woods. Peeking through a window, he sees an alien studying a map of the United States. Now the fact that he’s mute becomes deadly serious rather than funny. How can he convince Mathilde or the authorities that the situation is apocalyptic? Spoiler, he’s not able to and decides to take care of the problem with a selfless sacrifice.

You might think, like I did, that Paul could simply write what he saw on a piece of paper, but there’s a further complication… he can’t read or write. No wonder the commissioner at the Kenasha Municipal building thinks he’s a nut job and throw him out the office. There’s more going on here than meets the eye. You can take it for what it is, but if you think a little harder, it’s almost profound.