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Director Charles Haas', CRY OF SILENCE, is a silly,
non-classic "Outer Limits" episode.
Eddie Albert ("Dreamscape") and June Havoc are tourists whose
car breaks down in the desert. They end up surrounded by mobile tumbleweeds,
but escape.
Later, they encounter a farmer who has witnessed an alien landing. He
appears to be under alien control.
The concept of tumbleweeds, inhabited by alien energy and roaming about
threatening people, is rather lame. Writer, Louis Charbonneau, is responsible
for the silly script. Maybe aliens made him write it!
Eddie Albert manages to keep a straight face while battling mobile tumbleweeds.
I guess this was good training for Albert, who later was able to keep
a straight face while interacting with Arnold the Pig, in the hit 1960's
series, "Green Acres".
Veteran film performer, June Havoc, whose sister was Gypsy Rose Lee,
is okay as Albert's mate. It's fun, however, to imagine what Eva Gabor,
Albert's mate in "Acres", might have done with this role.
Character actor, Arthur Hunnicutt, under Haas' direction, delivers an
effectively odd performance as an alien-controlled farmer. The grizzled
Hunnicutt appeared on many popular 50's and 60's television shows, including
"The Twilight Zone," inwhich he played a recently deceased
farmer whose dog saves him from being tricked into entering Hell.
CRY OF SILENCE may be slightly watchable for rabid Eddie Alber/ June
Havoc fans. Tumbleweed rights activists may be outraged. "Cry of
Silence" is the sound of one hand clapping. BACK
TO: EPISODE
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