Freebie FIlm Tip #4: You Can't Hide Your Martian Eyes
Created | Updated Nov 4, 2014
Freebie Film Tip #4: You Can't Hide Your Martian Eyes
Okay, maybe you don't get the Eagles reference. But the person who kindly donated this early TV gem from the series Lights Out swore this was the scariest thing a kid could see back in the early 50s. I concur. Take a half hour to enjoy Martian Eyes. It may make you chuckle, but it's well-acted by Burgess Meredith. What an amazing performer, always right there with the perfect touch, be it straight drama or science fiction, of which he did quite a lot. Who could forget him as the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust in Twilight Zone?
I don't know what it is about the third eye that strikes us as so uncanny. But it's a pleasing effect. As the host on archive.org pointed out, seeing that reveal, and then experiencing a power outage – in the middle of the Cold War, remember – would definitely make an impression.
If you're not tired yet, you might want to listen to Burgess Meredith read a Ray Bradbury story. You can do it while you work. Just click on There Will Come Soft Rain. It's only 17 minutes, and it's a pretty good tale. Mind, the editor in me complains that the story could have been tightened up: Bradbury's too self-indulgent for my taste. But quibbles aside, think about it: nobody had a smartphone, or a smarthouse, or a talking toaster back then, so the story's really science fiction.
Now, if your smartphone can only figure out how to detect Martians…