The Unknown

The Unknown (aka Forms Of Things Unknown) was originally aired as an episode of the Outer Limits TV series in 1964. Set in Europe, it concerns two American women who are manipulated and dominated by a sadistic man with whom they are both deeply involved, whom they decide to poison. After the murder they arrive at the home of a very peculiar young man whose hobby is playing with time. He has developed an elaborate machine to conduct his experiments and, as things turn out, succeeds in bringing back to life the dead man his two visitors have recently killed. Or has he? Once again, these women are being played with, this time in an even more sinister manner, only in this case the trickster is a retiring, benign seeming, scholarly fellow who, when not spying on the women at odd moments, is inclined to quote passages from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This is a daring and original film, beautifully photographed by Conrad Hall, and finely acted by a well chosen cast that includes Barbara Rush, Vera Miles, David McCallum, Scott Marlowe and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. It is in many ways a "chamber film", small-scale and intimate, done in a manner suggestive of Ingmar Bergman. Director Gerd Oswald does a superb job with the material, and Joseph Stefano's script is artistically ambitious, coming at times perilous close to going over the top, alternately provocatively philosophical and emotionally unnerving, it is like nothing else I have ever seen. If I hesitate to call it a masterpiece this is due mostly due to my resistance to the word, and also to the fact that I've only seen the film once in its entirety and would like to examine it more closely before making grand pronouncements about it. As it is, The Unknown is in a class by itself, and deserves wider distribution than it has thus far received. It is a compelling, utterly unique viewing experience.

Not one of my personal favorites, this was also shown as part of the SF Anthology series :The Outer Limits, episode titled "The Forms of Things Unknown". Other than having the beautiful Barbara Rush the only thing I enjoyed this particular episode for was brief interlude when we hear the opening strains of Frontiere's theme for "The Invaders".

Telegonus' review is well-written and on-point, so my review is merely an addendum to it.

For anyone interested in watching this episode, it is well-worth the time. "Forms of Things Unknown" is available for download through Amazon; it is listed as the last of the first season episodes of the 60's version of "The Outer Limits".

The designation of this episode as "horror" is almost an over-statement in terms of "The Outer Limits" as it does not have the monster/alien element of most OL episodes. That does not mean anything was lacking in terms of suspense, though. The difference in atmosphere was due to being filmed as a pilot for a possible series called, "The Unknown".

At times, "Forms" has an almost mesmerizing quality. For b/w, the episode was beautifully filmed and has an almost film noir quality.

"The Unknown" is an elegant, oddball and symbolic tale that pays tribute to many classic works: first, the core of the drama comes from Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques"--the drowning of a man--and then borrows elements from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"--the old dark house and composer Dominic Frontiere's music remind the shrill violin of "Psycho" during the murder in the lake scene--, Val Lewton's 1940's noirish productions--fear created by the power of suggestion--, injects some literary references to William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (see David McCallum's monologues delivery) and anticipates the mood of Ingmar Bergman's "Persona"--see the close-ups combined with quick cuts of both actresses inside the mansion. The camera works of Conrad L. Hall and William A. Fraker are superb and innovative: see how they transform Nature to give it a dreamlike texture during the lake scene. The general art direction and the dramatic structure are so refined that make this TV movie almost like a feature film. I think this is a work of art for 1964's standards. For the anecdote, the rip through main title by Wayne Fitzgerald as well as Dominic Frontiere's original score was re-used in 1967 for Quinn Martin's "The Invaders".

It was interesting watching this alternate version of "Forms Of Things Unknown", from the original Outer Limits TV series. Although this is not as satisfying as the familiar version, Scott Marlowe is able to expand his role as the evil Andre, and David McCallum's imbalanced character makes more sense.