Classic Horrors Club

Writers | David E. Durston, Manya Starr
Director | Don Medford
Air Date | May 1, 1953

How would you explain a sudden overpowering unnatural urge to destroy everything you love?

In a variation of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, Anne (Margaret Phillips) accidentally consumes a serum when a glass vial of it breaks and drips into her apple pie. Before we go any further, why is there a serum in her refrigerator? Well, it seems that the fridge in her husband Peter’s (Rod Steiger) lab is on the fritz and he needs to keep it cold. He almost broke the vials himself a few minutes earlier, providing a clue about what’s to happen. It’s never fully explained what the serum does, but after three years of testing, it’s finally remained stable in the lab monkeys.

It makes Anne literally let her hair down. Earlier we saw how uptight she was about Peter working so much. However, it also gives her a mean streak. When Peter goes on one of his thinking-walks, she purposely breaks the other vials and burns his notebook. When he later discovers what she did (after her lying about it, by the way), she explains that he destroyed her, so she destroyed everything he cares about. Since that includes her, she holds a knife to her throat, threatening to kill herself.

It’s a good buildup, but the climax kind of peters out. I enjoyed Phillips’s performance as she transitions from bitter housewife to evil genius. Less showy, but equally notable, is the appearance of James Dean as Ralph, Peter’s lab assistant. He had done a lot of television by this time, yet it was still two years before East of Eden. A bespectacled young man in a lab coat isn’t how I normally think of James Dean. It’s his call to tell Peter the serum has worn off the monkeys that buys the couple fifteen minutes before one of them dies. Unfortunately, no suspense accompanies the plot turn.

Writer | Frank De Felitta
Director | Don Medford
Air Date | May 22, 1953

What strange effects does radiation have upon earth’s creatures?

We’re wrapping our coverage of Tales of Tomorrow with two of the show’s most frequently used tropes. In The Evil Within, it’s the neglected wife, and in The Spider’s Web, it’s the two men on an expedition that seem to hate each other. Here, the bad guy is Matt (Don Hanmer), the leader of the journey who made no attempt to save any of the passengers when their yacht exploded. The good guy is Irwin (Henry Jones)… I’m not sure his official role other than the confidant of Matt’s wife, Jean (Nancy Coleman), who’s getting ready to divorce Matt.

They’re the only three survivors and they wash up on shore to discover a strange insect in the jungle. It could be a mutation, but it’s been seven years since the atomic bomb. Ah, yes, but “atomic refuse” is buried on the island and what it has done to little bugs is nothing compared to what it’s done to the creature who laid the large egg sac they discover. One of the best decisions in depicting the giant spider is to not show it. The characters slowly looking up at its size tells us it’s… large. Our imagination will produce something more horrific than 1953 live TV.

In fact, in the final shot, we are the spider, slowly backing one of the guys (I’ll let you guess which one) into its giant web. It’s clearly rope and he doesn’t so much get stuck in it as he does wrap his hands inside it to simulate its stickiness. If I’m not sure of Matt’s role on the team, I’m even less certain of Jean’s… other than to be the damsel in distress, fainting when faced with danger. It’s a sign of the times, but other episodes have given women more agency. Why I remember once called… hmmm… The Evil Within, where the woman was the one who wore the pants in the marriage.