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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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