A man loses two weeks due to some sort of brainwashing. This is about a scientific effort to bring him back to reality and find out what happened to him. Apparently, there is some sort of formidable spy network functioning in Germany and he may have inadvertently given away secrets. No one knows this. How do they even speculate about it? Anyway, it is the original Sounds of Silence routine. The story plays out in it's well diagrammed but really suspect way to an inevitable conclusion. It is again filled with incredible paranoid by the military and the federal government. No wonder McCarthy had such a great time. About the only intriguing thing for me is the appearance of Phyllis Coates, who was Lois Lane in the first season of the George Reeves "Superman" (Noel Neill took over later). She really doesn't do anything in this episode other than support her poor husband who is catatonic through nearly the whole thing.
2 Reviews
Get Stupid!
lor_31 October 2023
Unfortunately, this well-acted episode of the sci-fi series is utterly static, unfolding more like a radio play than a motion picture. A certain amount of suspense is generated, but so is a maximum amount of dullness.
Warren Stevens is in a coma, and two weeks of his life spent in Europe are missing. Adolphe Menjou plays a scientist trying to break through, experimenting on him with sound to break through, and ultimately discovering that "complete silence" breaks through.
Show's topic of destroying a human's will turns out be more about a new weapon of espionage, which Menjou ends up hoping will be beneficial to humanity. It's the opposite message of most science fiction, which more accurately poses the threat of new discoveries falling into the wrong hands, whether nuclear weapons or this far-fetched type of brainwashing technique. At any rate, the concept is poorly dramatized, and the emphasis on a Cone of Silence lent itself better to comedy a decade later on Mel Brooks/Buck Henry's tv series "Get Smart".
Warren Stevens is in a coma, and two weeks of his life spent in Europe are missing. Adolphe Menjou plays a scientist trying to break through, experimenting on him with sound to break through, and ultimately discovering that "complete silence" breaks through.
Show's topic of destroying a human's will turns out be more about a new weapon of espionage, which Menjou ends up hoping will be beneficial to humanity. It's the opposite message of most science fiction, which more accurately poses the threat of new discoveries falling into the wrong hands, whether nuclear weapons or this far-fetched type of brainwashing technique. At any rate, the concept is poorly dramatized, and the emphasis on a Cone of Silence lent itself better to comedy a decade later on Mel Brooks/Buck Henry's tv series "Get Smart".
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