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THE FORMS OF THINGS UNKNOWN ONE
OF THE 10 BEST!
Vera Miles, Barbara Rush, Sir
Cedric Hardwicke, David McCallum, and Scott Marlowe.
A strange young man, with a "time tilting" device, has the
power to bring the dead back to life.
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QUICK SCAN...
This is an odd episode, involving death, time travel, and
rebirth. David McCallum (The Man from UNCLE) is excellent as Mr.
Hobart, an odd fellow who tinkers with time. Vera Miles delivers
an icy performance as a woman who kills her evil employer, then
has to deal with him when he is reborn.
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SYNOPSIS...
Two women kill their evil boss. In a rainstorm, they end up at an
isolated mansion, with the dead body in their trunk.
An odd young man at the mansion has a "time tilting" device,
that can bring the dead back to life. He uses it to restore animation
to the dead boss, not knowing he's evil. The revived, dead man resumes
his nasty behavior.
The formerly dead boss, trying to run over one of the women, crashes
his car, dying again. The time tilting fellow, a formerly dead guy
himself, decides that the dead ought to stay dead. He climbs into
his machine, disappearing from view.
REVIEW...
Director Gerd Oswald's THE FORMS OF THINGS
UNKNOWN is a strange but well made Sci-Fi tale.
David McCallum is fine as a man who has invented a device which tilts
time. As he explains it, "Suppose the past and the present are
separate time cycles, co-existing, coiling about us concurrently.
Tilt it one way, the present would slide into the past. Tilt it the
other, the past would tumble into the present, and with it would come
past things as they were before they died."
McCallum, looking a bit like Laurence Olivier in his filmed "Hamlet",
exhibits the grace, charm, and polish that was to make him such a
big star, just a short time later, in TV's, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."
McCallum's time tilting chamber is a small room filled with many ticking
clocks and wires radiating out in all directions, a literal time machine.
Art Director, Jack Poplin, and Set Decorator, Chester Bayhi, really
deliver the goods here.
Vera Miles registers strongly as the ultimate cold, bitch goddess.
She has great icy delivery on lines like, "This is the kind of
neighborhood I was looking for. A good neighborhood for unmarked graves".
Barbara Rush, who usually is composed and poised on screen, plays
her character, frightened and emotional, like a raw nerve. Her vulnerability
is a fine contrast to Miles' icy control freak.
Sir Cedric Hardwicke is delightful as the blind owner of an isolated
mansion, who is mistaken for the house's servant by Miles and Rush.
His many years of distinguished stage and screen work show in his
impeccable delivery of lines like, "My Mr. Hobart tinkers with
time, just as time has tinkered with Mr. Hobart."
Scott Marlowe is effective as a boss from hell who is killed and brought
back to life. His handsome face, frequently smiling, is a cover for
an evil, dark heart.
My favorite scene takes place early on. Marlowe, a real bastard, makes
his employees, Miles and Rush, wade into a lake, in skirts and high
heels, to serve him a drink. The decadent scene brings to mind, Fellini's
"8 1/2".
Director of Photography Conrad Hall 's work is top notch. His frequent
use of canted, (tilted), camera angles disorients the viewer, in service
of the odd story.
The music, by Dominic Frontiere, is diverse. Sometimes it's driving
and insistent, at other times gentle and waltz like.
THE FORMS OF THINGS UNKNOWN should be highly watchable for most Sci-Fi
viewers. McCallum and/or time travel fans will definitely dig this
episode.
 
 
 
 
 
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