Like the previous contributor, I was in my teens when this was first aired. And - also like the previous contributor - I remember the taxi scene vividly after the same amount of time. It's rare to find good SciFi, let alone brilliant stuff, but Out Of The Unknown contained some outstandingly good adaptations, and this was one such. The conversation with the taxi driver especially sticks in the mind since the 'mind invader' was 'chosen to be especially level headed' and the chosen character of a 'blunt northerner' worked very well, the kind of man who does not suffer fools gladly. In those days when the BBC in particular regarded itself as the guardian of the English language (how things have changed!) it was rare to hear any accent other than 'Standard Oxford English' on TV. Maybe the producer was thinking of the late great Professor Fred Hoyle as a model? And when the taxi driver is duly told to 'go to hell', the whole taxi promptly sinks into the desert sand! Arranging this with only the limited graphics and technology of the 1960's was something else again!
3 Reviews
35 years ago, but I still remember it
chris-hulley11 May 2003
I must have been 14 when I saw this film, and have never seen it since - but I still remember it, old B&W low budget thing that it was.
As I remember it, Peter Barkworth plays Stephen, a relative bystander who is asked to invade the psyche of Peter Parnell, a scientist who has come up with a fantastically useful (something), but has retreated catatonically into the suicidal fantasy world residing in his brain.
Science has found a way to allow Stephen to enter this fantasy world, and work with and reason with Peter and try to lure him out of this introversion, which if not interrupted will eventually spiral down to his death. Stephen is warned: the danger is real, he too can die in there.
Stephen is warned that his own efforts will be constantly subverted by Peter's fantasy where he plays the hero, but with a dark side that is likely to lead them into trouble. He will have his own resources, but will need courage to draw on them.
This leads to many hilarious scenes, such as: (I quote after more than 30 years) Peter: We must try to reach the sorceres'es castle, but it is a thousand miles through the burning sands.
Stephen: A thousand miles? Blow that! Taxi!
Taxi: Where you want to go, mate?
Stephen: Sorceres'es castle please!
Taxi: Pfwouagh! Thousand miles, mate! Big fare, you got the money?
Stephen: Sure!
Taxi: OK mate, hop in.
Apart from the numerous high quality laughs, the basic psychology is sound: an intelligent but self-destructive scientist is rescued in the end by a young man who agrees to the task, but is only able to do it in the end by calling on the bottom of the barrel: the security built into his psyche when he was a child, by an understanding father.
An interesting sidelight is: although rescued, the scientist does not like his rescuer on awakening - nor do the other incidentals who were also asleep at the same time, and were drawn into the fantasy/dream, such as the taxi driver who was merely asleep at the local ramp, but was required to drive to the castle ... and told to "go to hell" when the fare was due - which he did.
As I remember it, Peter Barkworth plays Stephen, a relative bystander who is asked to invade the psyche of Peter Parnell, a scientist who has come up with a fantastically useful (something), but has retreated catatonically into the suicidal fantasy world residing in his brain.
Science has found a way to allow Stephen to enter this fantasy world, and work with and reason with Peter and try to lure him out of this introversion, which if not interrupted will eventually spiral down to his death. Stephen is warned: the danger is real, he too can die in there.
Stephen is warned that his own efforts will be constantly subverted by Peter's fantasy where he plays the hero, but with a dark side that is likely to lead them into trouble. He will have his own resources, but will need courage to draw on them.
This leads to many hilarious scenes, such as: (I quote after more than 30 years) Peter: We must try to reach the sorceres'es castle, but it is a thousand miles through the burning sands.
Stephen: A thousand miles? Blow that! Taxi!
Taxi: Where you want to go, mate?
Stephen: Sorceres'es castle please!
Taxi: Pfwouagh! Thousand miles, mate! Big fare, you got the money?
Stephen: Sure!
Taxi: OK mate, hop in.
Apart from the numerous high quality laughs, the basic psychology is sound: an intelligent but self-destructive scientist is rescued in the end by a young man who agrees to the task, but is only able to do it in the end by calling on the bottom of the barrel: the security built into his psyche when he was a child, by an understanding father.
An interesting sidelight is: although rescued, the scientist does not like his rescuer on awakening - nor do the other incidentals who were also asleep at the same time, and were drawn into the fantasy/dream, such as the taxi driver who was merely asleep at the local ramp, but was required to drive to the castle ... and told to "go to hell" when the fare was due - which he did.
Fun but telling psycho drama
crispinkirkman4 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this as an 18 year old, and it has stayed with me all my life as a way of remaining sane when all is stacked against you. Like another reviewer, I recall much of the plot and images even now, but I remember different actors playing the key roles.
Peter Jeffery is the mentally-ill scientist whose illness makes him not want to be cured; Donal Donelly plays the cheeky chappy who is blackmailed by a sinister Peter Barkworth (national interest secret service?) into entering the sick man's mind to challenge his death-wish. Some of the scenarios are deliberately entertaining, only to point more strongly the blackness of those scenes that threaten all hope.
The two spar all the time, using their imaginations to challenge the other, with Donelly evading or mocking the sick man's fantasies of unavoidable doom; until his fear of spiders is discovered and he seems finally defenceless. At the last moment, he is rescued by the memory of a print of a Colt pistol that his father put over his bed to ward off nightmares, and he shoots away the spider-menace and the sick man is cured.
I have that pistol in my imagination when I need it!
I would love to get hold of a copy of this.
Peter Jeffery is the mentally-ill scientist whose illness makes him not want to be cured; Donal Donelly plays the cheeky chappy who is blackmailed by a sinister Peter Barkworth (national interest secret service?) into entering the sick man's mind to challenge his death-wish. Some of the scenarios are deliberately entertaining, only to point more strongly the blackness of those scenes that threaten all hope.
The two spar all the time, using their imaginations to challenge the other, with Donelly evading or mocking the sick man's fantasies of unavoidable doom; until his fear of spiders is discovered and he seems finally defenceless. At the last moment, he is rescued by the memory of a print of a Colt pistol that his father put over his bed to ward off nightmares, and he shoots away the spider-menace and the sick man is cured.
I have that pistol in my imagination when I need it!
I would love to get hold of a copy of this.
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