These below in this series, all hosted by John Newland, were American made-
1- "The Bride Possessed"- Newlyweds Matt and Sally are on honeymoon when at Eagle Point she suddenly takes off, apparently taken over by Karen, who had committed suicide at the spot. She however claims she has been murdered and when the murder weapon turns up where she says it is, it's time to call the police and a confession of murder. Sally returns to normal and there'll be a happy honeymoon after all
2 "Night of April 14th" - The Titanic story, starring Patrick MacNee as Eric engaged to Grace, who has an "old fashioned" nightmare, feeling she is drowning. Others share her premonition, and we know they are right, though we can't be sure of Grace and Eric's fate as we watch the Titanic crash into that iceberg. John Newland ends by showing us an 1898 novel called Futility that uncannily foreshadowed the event
3 "Emergency Only" - At Jim and Betty's cocktail party, Ellen predicts that Arthur Douglas will travel on train compartment B102 with a woman who has a knife.... Though Arthur is sceptical, despite his best efforts, maybe because of them, he finds himself on that train, in that compartment, with that woman. In fear he pulls the emergency communication cord. "If you hadn't pulled that cord..." It is revealed how that vision amazingly actually saved lives
4 "The Dark Room" - Rita rents a French house and for her assignment photogrpahs a typical Frenchman in this home. But where is he? This very slight story reveals his image is somehow not captured on her pictures, "it can't be." For that man had killed his wife years before in that very house
6 "Epilogue"- "That cannot be," but yet it is! Carl, an alcoholic, returns cured to his family as in Days of Wine. His wife really can't take it, as in Days of Wine and Roses. But when their son Stevie gets trapped in an old mine with her, her voice seems to call him there to rescue Stevie. Not obviously Any Step Beyond
7 "The Dream" - 1940, "bottom of the barrel" Home Guard men keep watch with lots of 'bloomins' and 'ruddys' as this is the American conception of British speech. Old Herbert (Reginald Owen) is awoken from a dream to stop of boat load of 5 Germans and their officer. The dream was about a bomb landing on his house, and Ethel his wife. Back home later, he finds his bombed out home, no sign of Ethel, but she had been warned by Herbert in a dream and escaped death
9 "The Dead Part of The House" - With her father Paul, Anne comes to stay with her Aunt Minna, after her mother is killed in a car crash. Anne can't understand her dad: "sometimes I wish daddy and I could get divorced." In the nursery Anne hears the voices of her three dolls Jennifer, Rose and Mary, but also three girls who used to live in the mansion and who died there after a gas leak
10 "The Vision" - In 1915, four French soldiers are accused of cowardice after running away from a dazzling light. Their lawyer learns Germans had seen the same sight
11 "The Devil's Laughter" - Convicted murderer John (Alfred Ryder) is being hanged, but the rope snaps. "It's never happened before." When a second attempt fails, John believes himself invincible, The Man Who Could Not be Hanged. He has a vision that he will meet his "remarkable" death by a lion
12 "The Return of Mitchell Campion" - Intriguing account of Mitchell Campion on his first visit to a Mediterranean island. However locals recognise him claiming he has been there before. It's nonsense, he is sure, until he encounters someone he vaguely recalls, Francesca. But he couldn't have been there before, his passport would have indicated that much. Besides, he was lying in an American hospital after a car crash. Yet, here's a photo of him on his previous trip. There's "no logical answer," except maybe that Mitchell had been officially dead for four minutes
14 "The Secret" - Not Who is Sylvia?- but Where is Sylvia? On her birthday, Sylvia uses her ouija board to contact Jeremy, and she senses his presence even though noone else can see him. He becomes so real to her that her husband is sure she's ill. But she blames him for "stopping her living." Mad, she is taken away by a doctor, but is the doctor really Jeremy? And where is Sylvia now? Vanished from the earth, claims John Newland
15 "The Aerialist" - Trapeze act The Flying Patruzzios' death defying act ends in disaster for Papa Gino, paralysed, "better if he'd died, he's like a mummy or something." Did Mario (Michael Connors) drop him because they'd argued? We see Mario crack up, all quite understandable, until he revisits the scene of the accident, jumps off the trapeze, but an invisible hand saves him
16 "The Burning Girl" - "A fire doesn't start from nothing" though in 1921 Alice, with the reputation of a firebrand is attacked and dragged to a lonely barn, only escaping when the place catches fire. A dark sense of evil is well portrayed in her relationship with Aunt Mildred, who demands she be put away. In front of her shrink, her fear seems to bring on a spontaneous combustion, "it just started by itself." John Newland adds a coda, that Alice's strange power disappeared after she got happily married
19 "The Captain's Guest" - For rent: "unfriendly" New England house, "this is what we've been dreaming about," Andy tells his wife Ellen. "I wouldn't fool with it," advises the agent, "don't go to house, not a happy place," advises a local. But they do move in, and Andy starts to take on the character of the previous occupant, a sea captain who'd lost one leg, until fire ravages the mansion destroying the captain's body, or is it Andy's? "Not entirely satisfactory," admits John Newland at the end, and for once I agreed
21 Front Runner- Jockey Ronnie Watson, in intensive care, relates how he had nobbled his friend and rival jockey Sam Berry who had bet a fortune on winning his last race. Then Ronnie has his final race, and Sam, aged over sixty, is in the race too and causes Ronnie to swerve and miss his final moment of triumph. But cine film shows that Sam was never in that race
23 "Delusion" - Harold (Norman Lloyd) has a very rare blood group, but refuses to donate his blood to save a dying girl. "What kind of crumb are you?" He explains that on several occasions when he has donated blood, he has affected the recipients' lives. But finally he is persuaded to help 19 year old Martha (Suzanne Pleshette), who does recover. But then Harold has this premonition she will die a violent death. He saves her from being gassed, but then a handsome young man rescues her from more danger, and Harold's over protecive influence on her life can lead to only one thing, violent death
24 "Ordeal on Locust Street" - Jason is afflicted with a rare ailment of unknown origin. In desperation Margaret his mother turns to Dr Edward Brown, who first helps Jason's sister Anna (Suzanne Lloyd) who has been jilted by Danny after he has met the unseen Jason. After several month's treating Jason, Dr Brown's method is proved a success. The first use of hypnosis
25 "Brainwave" - In 1944 Commander Bill Fielding is injured on his ship, only man who can operate is a busted drunken rating, Harris, who has to remove the shrapnel from Fielding's neck. Harris has to follow detailed radio instructions from the doctor on another ship, Your Life in Their Hands, but when radio contact is lost, is the commander's life also lost?
26 "Doomsday" - In a medieval Seville castle, Jamie is bewitched by a maid and wastes away when his father forbids the liaison, When she is condemned to be burned as a witch, she curses them and each succeeding generation. The modern day earl lies a-dying, so his 28 year old son Will waits for his end within the hour. What could have been dramatic is only frustrating, for you can see the ending coming, just like Will can, only different. However apparently the castle can now be a grand tourist attraction!
27 "Night of The Kill" - Seven year old Davy has been missing in the woods for three days before he's found by his weary parents. But just who is the "giant" friend who had looked after him? It seems to be some sort of creature, "tall as a tree. It's got to be killed." Setting fire to the brushwood should flush it out, though once done, no charred remains are discovered. A truly tall story literally, "we fear what we do not understand," John Newland rounds it off
28 "The Inheritance" - A self centred contessa mysteriously dies when she puts on her valuable diamond necklace. Is it punishment for her treatment of her maid Grace, or her taunting of her lover Michael Barry? The maid inherits everything, and then rather rashly makes up to Michael, but donning the valuable necklace dies the same death. Michael grabs the jewelry to give to a grateful young Nina, "never saw anything so beautiful," or so awful as it chokes her too
29 "The Open Window" - In the Greenwich Village apartment of March, there's a good view of the room opposite, here March overhears a woman on the phone on the verge of a breakdown. He watches as she switches on the gas to kill herself. He dashes to her room, but no sign of her at all. Back in his own apartment a shocked March sees her again! "It couldn't have been a dream twice." A third time, but this time someone else also sees the woman, and she is really there committing suicide, "how did he know?"
30 "Message from Clara"
31 "Forked Lighning"
33 "Dead Ringer" - What's the connection between lady firebug Emily and her twin sister Esther's unaccountable fevers at the time of the arson attacks? JN explains it is Bilocation, "Emily is evil," Esther explains to her husband Bill, since she's started another conflagration at St Anne's School. Esther wills her sister to come to her, with tragic consequences
36 "Make Me Not A Witch"
37 "The Hand" - Lady Macbeth's disease strikes when hot jazz pianist Tommy (Robert Loggia) is jilted . "Dead without" Alma, he stabs her, but then washing his hands, they'll never be clean. A doc tells him "there's nothing wrong with your hand," though Tommy knows there sure is, everything he touches has blood on. So he comes to court, where he just can't place that hand on the Bible...
40 "The Forest of the Night"- "A magic game of some sort," Chinese, fascinates Ted, sending him into a trance, making him believe he is a leopard in the jungle. His companions are baffled by his change of behaviour, is it "second childhood?" When he disappears, reports come in of a leopard on the prowl. John Newland reveals that a leopard was later found shot, though Ted is never seen again. "I will undergo change," he quotes, but surely this is One Step Too Far....
42 "Who Are You?" - For three weeks Helen has been "more dead than alive," after her twelve year old daughter Alice had drowned. Ten miles away twelve year old Laurie is dying of scarlet fever, but suddenly miraculously recovers, or does she? Now she no longer recognises her mother or father. Instead she runs away to her real daddy, though he's really Alice's dad. "I don't understand," Laurie-Alice cries in a story a soap opera writer couldn't dream up. But she cheers Helen up who then finds she is expecting. That takes Laurie out of her new identity and returns her to her own family. "Purposeful possession," John Newland informs us. Intriguing also
43 "The Day The World Wept" - Abraham Lincoln (Barry Attwater) dreams of his death and his wife Mary has forebodings too. Newland shows us others who had premonitions, an old newspaper editor, a soldier who hears weeping, and church bells ringing even before the assassination
44 "The Lovers" - A "nice story" (says Newland) of a retired Viennese postman who falls for a young maid. But whenever they try to kiss a poltergeist seems to interrupt them
45 "Vanishing Point" - "Where are you?" After another argument a wife disappears "into thin air" inside their Connecticut home. Suspected of Ruth's murder, the husband sees a vision of Agatha trapped in their home a century earlier. She also was never seen again. "The screwiest alibi I ever heard!" admits Lt Barnes. When the husband also disappears Newland asks us "how can that be?"
46 "The Mask" - How come a wounded American flyer in WW2 can suddenly write and speak ancient Egyptian? And how come, after his bandages are removed, does he look like a different man? Out of his African hospital bed he leads an archaeologist to the tomb of an Egyptian prince. Or is it his own tomb?
47 "The Haunting" - In the Alps, Colin (Ronald Howard) fails to help his best man Peter Duncan who has broken his leg in a skiing accident. He leaves him to die in the cold, believing Peter was too "devoted" to Nancy, his bride-to-be. Now it's just before Colin's marriage. Are his old withdrawal symptoms which started when he crashed his Spitfire returning? No, but things start freezing, the wedding bouquet, even the bridesmaid at the wedding. A rather thin storyline, with Peter's poltergeist coming literally between bride and groom. "There will be no honeymoon," announces Newland blandly
49 "The Clown" - echoes of silent movies and goodness knows what else. A husband punishes his immature young wife (Yvette Mimieux) by cutting off a lock of her hair. Pippo, a mute clown, comforts her but that only makes her enraged husband stab her to death. The murderer is then haunted by the clown and drowns. When Pippo is arrested he is soaking wet, but how come? He'd been inside his caravan pathetically cradling the dead girl. Well, JN did promise us this would be "bizarre"
50 "I Saw You Tomorrow" - Good characterisation in this "accident of time," as house guest Donald witnesses Claire's murder at the hand of her husband Carter Seymour. But he's never met either of them until he's shortly afterwards introduced to the very much alive Claire and her boorish husband
51 "Encounter" - Pilot Bob Rand photos something "like a big cigar" before he crashes his plane. A famous possible UFO sighting, but this story gets sidetracked into the search for the missing plane and even Rand's love life, before he is found a thousand miles away. Yet his plane could never have travelled that far. The UFO theme is explored though the eyes of a sceptic, and I must say neither did I find the evidence offered here convincing
52 "The Peter Hurkos Story" (part 1) - It's Amsterdam in 1944. Nazis pursue a young man who falls 50 feet, but somehow survives. As he recovers, he warns his doctor he is going to be killed, "it just came to me." Soon he's a success on stage as a mind reader. though he worries his powers might fail any moment. The Man with the Radar Eyes uncomfortably exposes a wartime traitor
53 "The Peter Hurkos Story" (part 2) - The Dutchman is "a psychic marvel," submitting to scientific tests to prove his esp powers. Then he agrees to solve a murder case. A sick man has strangled a woman, Peter incredibly able to point the police to Vogel, "is he crazy?" Newland chats to the real Hurkos to conclude this programme
54 "Delia" - Newland tells us this, an "unforgettable" story of instant romance between er ... and ... er
60 "Goodbye, Grandpa" - Grandpa adds his homespun philosophy to his two grandchildren, wholly annoying. Departure of said old timer with a stroke, but he never said farewell as he'd promised, but then he does, driving his old train, "they won't believe." No. Very unconvincing, very stagey, very dull.
62 "Tidalwave" - So many dead in the Chilean earthquakes of 1960. Volcanoes and tidal waves follow. Over in Honolulu evacuation warnings can't be heard by dead retired Commander Powers, and wheelchair bound Margaret North can't get anyone to come and rescue her. Hopelessly lost, Powers asks his way at her house, "come on, let's get out of here." A miracle, the real Mrs North tells John Newland, for two lives were saved
63 "Anniversary of a Murder" - Businessman Gerald Simms has a guilty conscience, not just because he's cheating on his wife. "I can't see," cries his dictaphone at him. A year previously, on a stormy night, he had been driving his car carelessly alongside his lover Fran, when he had knocked a cyclist down. They had concocted alibis and nothing had happened until this anniversary. Simms replaces the dictaphone record, but the new one produces the same playback, "it's all black. I want to go home," the very words of the dying cyclist. Fran hears it too, and is scared. She goes to the police, but Simms has now crashed his car at the very scene of the accident. "Conscience is a potent enemy," John Newland concludes grimly
66 "If You See Sally" - All very straightforward to start. Sally Ellis is blamed by her father for the death of her twelve year old brother Paul and in sorrow leaves home. Her mother arranges a reconciliation but on the way home Sally is killed in a road accident. But seven years on, salesman Ray sees her badly injured by the side of the road, but her parents later reveal to him she was dead, but every year returns to the place and is seen by a passing motorist like him. Such an annual occurence authenticates itself, making this one of the most convincing One Step Beyond
67 "Moment of Hate"- Depressing story of a woman who is depressed because she wished her hated business rival dead, and it was so. Hypnotism reveals a childhood trauma in an even more depressing ending
68 "To Know the End" - In wartorn France Emily sees a wounded man (Alex Davion) whose dying words are "Emily, I love you." But the war hasn't started as yet, when she next meets Harry, as though for the first time. As romance blossoms she warns him, "it doesn't turn out all right," for she knows the date and the place he is to die. To prevent the tragedy, she tries crashing their car, but Fate cannot be foiled, and the only question is, how could she know about it all beforehand? John Newland ponders the answer
69 "The Trap" - Florence and Dom are happily married in Chicago, but as he awakes he screams out Edna, whoever she is. He becomes claustrophobic, dehydrated but medically "completely well." But surely "flipping his lid." The last rites are pronounced in this fascinating story, which is amazingly connected with the fact that Dom had, unknowns, a twin brother named Fred, and away in Nevada he is trapped in a mineshaft
72 "Tonight at 12.17" - a pregnant woman believes a plane will crash into her home
73 "Where Are They?" - Two unexplained mysteries. First, in 1922 in Chico, Sacramento Valley, it rains rocks every day, "they are falling from an empty sky!" No attempt at explanation rather spoils it for me. Then in 1917 Charles Elton had demonstrated that old chesnut, a miracle pill that turns water into petrol. However he vanishes without trace
74 "The Legacy of Love"- A woman takes the wrong train and finds herself stranded at Seaside. She keeps on staring at this married man, Norman, she knows him, he her, though they've never met. Ingrid Bergman might have made this a memorable role, as it is Norma Crane makes do. Is this a romance? "This is something else," Norman explains to his naturally sceptical wife, for he is also John, in the eyes of the girl's mother. Deja vu or something is the only explanation. Asks John Newland, "is there a deeper memory in every cell?"
76 "The Executioner"
77 "The Last Round" - Yank Dawson (Charles Bronson) is haunted by an ex-boxer, the Ghost of East End Arena, Paddy. Sanderson, manager of his next opponent, admits to trickery, but then during the actual fight Yank really sees the apparition. Legend has it that all who see it will die. It's September 17th 1944, night of another air raid...
78 "Dead Man's Tale" - Jan and Phil book into a hotel, broke, end of the line, "we'll make out." Maybe a book left behind in their room will help, The Gold Miners' Handbook. That night, Phil writes a "fascinating" tale of prospector Larry Barton who falls out with his brother Robert over a gold strike. But how on earth does Phil know that what he was writing was actually true? He traces the feuding brothers and finds it is so
81 "Persons Unknown" - John Newland is in Mexico City to talk to a doctor who back in 1920 had been on the run and had hidden one night in a convent. A policeman who came to arrest him was overcome by some supernatural force. The doctor was charged with murder but was acquitted. Newland wants to know more of this death "by someone or something not seen by the eye"
82 "Night of Decision" - "When will spring ever come?" a crisis in the American War of Independence, General Washington's dispirited troops are short of provisions in the freezing cold, morale is at zero. When an allegedly dead Red Indian renews "the stubbornness to continue against the most impossible obstacles," he furnishes Washington (Robert Douglas) with a vision of a "nation victorious," and also in the future, "a major force for good." But has this prediction come true?
91 "Blood Flower" - Pacifist Professor Gavin Carroll (Larry Gates) is lecturing on political science in a South American dictatorship, when he falls under the spell of a "psychic parasite" transmitted by a plant growing on the university campus. It turns him into dead revolutionary Luis Arturo Fuentes, a man determined to kill the evil Presidente. The prof completes the task before being shot himself. "I don't understand," are his dying words, and John Newland attempts to help him out
94 "Midnight" - Aspiring writer Ralph Terrence encounters a "very beautiful" lady in the London night fog, and falls in love. She meets him every subsequent night at midnight, and persuades him to make money to buy her new dresses. However his conscience revolts at killing and to prevent her seeing him yet again, he prevents Big Ben from ever striking another midnight. A familiar enough theme, but well done, ending as you would expect, except that this is only his novel. No JN to explain this one
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