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The creepy predecessor to “The Twilight Zone” the TV
show “One Step Beyond” seemed to be everywhere in syndication
when I was a kid. I’ll admit when I watched it I always
thought the supernatural stories were a bit honky even though
they were reportedly based on “real” events. Hosted by the
late John Newland (who also directed the show)the series
gave early TV audiences the thrill of watching supernatural
mystery stories since, essentially, many of them whether
they be the appearance of ghosts or the disappearances of
people were unsolved. ***
The episodes always had a top notch look to it part
of that was the use of existing studio sets, the clever
use of lighting and Newland’s clever direction. Featuring
a who’s who of character actors and TV stars including Pernell
Roberts (“Bonanza”, “Trapper John, MD”), Cloris Leachman
(“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Julie Adams (“The Creature
from the Black Lagoon”), Mike “Touch” Connors (“Mannix”),
Werner Klemperer (“Hogan’s Heroes”) and Ross Martin (“The
Wild, Wild West”) the show still manages to be creepy even
with fifty years on. ---
Image & Sound:
You’ve probably seen the show presented with poor public
domain 16mm prints that were distributed for syndication.
This is the first time that the show has been presented
with transfer from the original 35mm prints for the series
and it looks extremely good. Blacks are solid throughout
and detail quite good. Scratches and a bit of dirt show
up now and again but on the whole the series looks remarkably
good. *** Audio sounds extremely good with the mono soundtrack
favoring dialogue. We don’t get any subtitles which is a
surprise since the audience for this show would probably
benefit from having them. --
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