One Step Beyond (TV Series) Person Unknown (1961) User Reviews

"If not me, who IS the child afraid of?"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 18 February 2015]

This is an unusual story backed up by the still surviving participant in events that occurred a half century earlier. Dr. Pino Atl, having escaped from a Mexican prison, seeks sanctuary in El Convento de la Merced in Mexico City. His timing couldn't be worse, a 'ghost' that haunts the convent once each year is due to make it's presence felt that very night. A caretaker shows Atl the massive imprint of a hand in a wall attributed to this Aztec giant, and quite suddenly soon after, an unseen force wrestles a Mexican gendarme to the ground who arrives to arrest Atl.

Eventually Atl is arrested for the murder of Captain Alvarez as his luck goes from bad to worse. The body of the Captain has been cremated and the only witness to the events in the convent, the caretaker, has died of a heart attack! What's additionally bizarre here, besides the unfortunate deaths, is the idea that someone would have made a death mask of Captain Alvarez for the poor wife - why would anyone want such a thing hanging around?!?!

Anyway, the death mask reveals that the indentations on the Captain's throat are so huge they could not have been made by an ordinary human being. As I think about it, I wonder how it's even possible to leave an impression of a strangling on someone's neck, but I'm not a forensics expert.

So at least Atl is acquitted of the crime and lives to tell about it. And tell he does, as the show ends with series host John Newland accepting Dr. Atl's account of the story being true as presented in this episode. The 'ghost' or 'troubled shadow' of the Aztec giant left it's mark as a reminder that an injustice had been done.

A cold wind on a windless night?

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 20 February 2011]

***SPOILERS*** Unusual "One Step Beyond" episode in that besides telling a story about the supernatural it also has featured in its epilogue the person that the episode was based upon: Famed Mexican artist and world renowned philosopher Gerardo Murino Cornado know also as Dr. Atl. Dr.Atl escaping from prison back in 1920 after the president of Mexico, whom Dr. Atl was associated with, was overthrown by a military coup ends up in this Mexico City monastery on "The Night of the Ghost". That's when this 7 foot tall Aztec warrior comes back from the dead and seeks revenge for being murdered or sacrificed to the Aztec Gods back in the 15th Century.

As it turned out it was Dr. Atl's both good and bad luck to be at the monastery that evening in that he was later arrested not just from escaping from prison but for the murder of Captain Alverez, Robert Carricart, who was just about to shoot him and make it look like Dr. Atl resisted arrest! What in fact happened was that Capt. Alverez ended up being killed by the invisible Aztec ghost just as he was about to do Dr. Atl in! Arrested for Captain Alverez's murder Dr. Atl can only explain his death in ways that even he, a man of science ad logic, can't himself believe.

***SPOILERS*** Demanding that the person in charge of the military investigation Col. Rodolfo Acosta view Captain Alverez's body to see that he couldn't have possibly had murdered him Dr. Atl's is out of luck in finding out that his only witness monastery caretaker Carlos Gonzalez, Jay Novello, had suddenly died of a heart attack and that Capt. Alverez's body has since been cremated! It soon came out that a local artist Gomez, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr, had made a death mask of Captain Alverez for his graving wife just before he was cremated that may well prove Dr. Atl's claims that he wasn't the person who murdered him. Going to Gomez's Mexico City studio Col. Acosta is shocked to see that regardless of how incredible Dr. Atl's story was it in fact was true! The death mask of Capt. Alverez showed such major damage to his neck and face that it couldn't have possible been made by Dr. Atl or, with he exception of someone with the size and strength of "Andre the Giant", any other member of the human race!

Killer Ghost

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 18 April 2015]

David J. Stewart stars as Dr. Atl, a once renowned personal physician to a recently deposed Mexican leader. Now a fugitive, Dr. Atl seeks refuge in the night in what turns out to be a haunted convent built on the remains of an Aztec shrine that is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a giant warrior who is said to return once a year, and wouldn't you know that time is tonight! The ghost does make an appearance, killing a corrupt government official about to arrest him, but now Atl is arrested for the crime, but a death mask bust of the murder victim just may clear him... The real(and now elderly) Dr. Atl makes a personal appearance at the end with John Newland, which gives this effective tale an extra bit of realism.

Ghost in the Monastery

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 4 July 2011]

A monastery in Mexico City is rocked by the appearance of escaped convict David J. Stewart (as Doctor Atl). Fainting upon arrival, Mr. Stewart is tended to by kindly Jay Novello (as Carlos Gonzalez) and his family. As a wanted revolutionary, Stewart must spend the evening in the monastery, which is supposedly haunted. Moreover, this is the very night when the legendary ghost of an Aztec warrior is expected to claim another victim. When the ghostly murderer manifests himself, Stewart finds himself in deeper trouble - as the prime suspect... An epilogue features the real Dr. Atl discussing his psychic adventure with host John Newland. Not surprisingly, they agree, "It happened..."

**** Person Unknown (2/7/61) John Newland ~ David J. Stewart, Rodolfo Acosta, Jay Novello, Argentina Brunetti

This Review is for "Person Unknown"

[aa56 · 5/10 · 2 December 2017]

I chose this title because I referenced another in my text, and the computer put it under that one. I had to give this only five stars, because the over-acting of David J. Stewart had me cringing. Oh, the histrionics! John Newland admitted at the end of the program that it was a dramatization. Wow, was it! About dramatization: with One Step Beyond you're really not sure of the truthfulness of this stories. For example, in "Where Are They," there really was a rocks-from-the sky episode in Chico, CA according to some accounts, while others say it was a hoax. Did the writers make up stories based on popular hoaxes or on strange incidents that happened somewhere in the world? As Mr. Newland is no longer with us, we'll probably never know.