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"The Forms of Things Unknown" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on May 4, 1964, and was the final episode of the first season. The title derives from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, Scene 1.

Much of the footage from this episode was used in a pilot episode for an unsold suspense/horror anthology series entitled The Unknown. It was created, witten and produced by Joseph Stefano. Leslie Stevens was the executive producer. The unaired pilot is also named “The Unknown” and was commissioned by ABC who later declined to green-light the proposed series. About its development, Dominic Stefano says his father, Joseph Stefano,

“. . . re(wrote) that original script of “The Forms of Things Unknown” into two different scripts. One called “Madmen and Lovers” and one called “The Forms of Things Unknown”. . .(He) then rewrote both yet again. “Lovers and Madmen” became “The Unknown,” and they filmed the pilot simultaneously. . .They used some common scenes between the two, but changed the story for the pilot because it had a different purpose.”

Plot

In the French countryside, playboy Andre Pavan drives with Kassia Paine and Leonora Edmond. While stopped for a swim at a small lake, Andre gloats about recently blackmailing Leonora's father and demands the women make him a drink. They poison it and load his corpse into the trunk of the car. While searching for a burial location, they see a funeral procession that puts Leonora on edge. That night during a thunderstorm, lightning flashes makes her believe the corpse had blinked.

They go to a nearby house, and are greeted by Colas, who is blind. He informs them that Mr Hobart is not at home but will return soon. In the house they see odd decorations including a toy tightrope walker. Hobart returns home and is revealed to be an inventor. He retires, asking not to be disturbed, but the women see that Andre's corpse is in Hobart's room, lying on a strange device.

While Kassia checks the car, Leonora becomes mesmerized by the tightrope walker. Hobart enters and asks her about Andre, and Leonora answers truthfully as if hypnotized. Hobart invites her upstairs to watch him revive Andre and thus free her of her guilt of the murder. He explains that he has invented a device that "tilts" the past to resurrect the dead. Hobart's room is dominated by the time tilter, a large collection of clocks all connected by wires to a pole in the center of the room. The loud ticking overwhelms Leonora who faints, but Hobart is distracted because Andre is missing.

When Leonora awakes, Kassia has returned and Hobart has left to search for Andre. Colas is revealed to be the owner of the house and Hobart is a boarder. Colas claims that Hobart had died and been brought back to life by the time tilter.

Kassia and Leonora try to leave, but the exit is blocked by the trunk of the car. A fully-clothed and living Andre emerges, and Leonora flees. Colas finds Hobart lying in the road who begins searching for Andre to fix the mistake he made in reviving the dead man. Hobart confronts Andre with a pistol. Andre disarms Hobart when he becomes hypnotized by the tightrope walker. Andre shoots the pistol into a chair inches from the inventor's head and tosses the gun aside. Andre leaves with Kassia who jumps from the car. He begins to back the car over her but she leaps out of the way. The car crashes and Andre is killed, returning him to death.

Hobart finds Leonora near an open briefcase in his room. She has found a letter which reveals that Hobart left school to discover a way to return his dead mother to life. Hobart disappears into the time tilter after asking Leonora to destroy it.

Production

The show was filmed with two endings and was allotted double the normal production time. In The Unknown pilot version: Andre reveals there is no Thanatos plant, and thus he was not dead; the time tilter did not in fact work; Hobart was not dead but merely in a coma; and lastly, Kassia uses the pistol to kill Hobart, thinking he is attacking Leonora.

Reception

The episode is noted for its similarities to Hitchcock's Psycho, for which Joseph Stefano had also written the screenplay. David McCallum's dead-mother obsessed inventor Tone Hobart is analogous to Norman Bates. The episode also draws on Les Diaboliques, a precursor to Psycho, with Vera Miles and Barbara Rush corresponding to Simone Signoret and Vera Clouzot. Bruce Bennett in a review of Outer Limits cited "The Forms of Things Unknown" as a standout episode, describing the screenplay as a blending "Clouzot's Diabolique, James Whale's The Old Dark House, and Stefano's own Psycho screenplay into a hypnotic 51-minute neo-gothic psychodrama pitched somewhere between a fairy tale and a stag film."

Cast

• Vera Miles – as Kassia Paine
• Sir Cedric Hardwicke – as Colas
• Scott Marlowe – as André
• David McCallum – as Tone Hobart
• Barbara Rush – as Leonora Edmond
• Wolfe Barzelle – as French Person #1
• Madeline Holmes – as French Person #2
• Gabrielle Rossillon – as French Person #3

This episode was the final acting role of Sir Cedric Hardwicke. He died on August 6, 1964, three months after this episode aired.

External links

• "The Forms of Things Unknown" at IMDb

References

1. Hipson, Rick “Interview: Dave Rash and Dominic Stefano take us to The Outer Limits”, Cemetery Dance Publications, (March 26, 2021), https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/interview-dave-rash-dominic-stefano-outer-limits/
2. Williams, Tony (April 23, 2018). "Genius in Collaboration: The Outer Limits, Season One from Kino Lorber". Film International.
3. Bennett, Bruce (2018). "When the Light Falls". Film Comment. 54 (3): 76.

• The Outer Limits (1963 TV series) season 1 episodes
• 1964 American television episodes
• Television episodes written by Joseph Stefano
• Television episodes about time travel
• Television episodes directed by Gerd Oswald