One Step Beyond (TV Series) Reunion (1959) User Reviews

Glider Of Death

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 15 April 2015]

Set in Germany in 1939 at the brink of World War II, this episode stars Paul Carr as Peter, a patriotic soldier and member of a small glider club who are on a picnic in the mountains, about to take turns flying. His girlfriend Helga seems overly attentive to another member named Hans, and Peter takes the opportunity to murder Hans with a knife, then push the glider off to fly, leaving the body in the cockpit. The glider is believed lost, but six years later, when Peter, Helga, and another friend return to the area for a planned reunion at war's end, that very same glider makes a most unexpected return as well... Good episode with distinctive setting and premise, though viewer may feel a bit letdown by the abrupt ending.

Variation of an old Urban Legend!

[MadTom · 8/10 · 14 May 2023]

This episode is simply a variation of the story of a US Army Air Force P-40 Warhawk; one variation says it took off from Wheeler Field, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 to take on the Japanese Naval Air Forces attacking Pearl Harbor, then disappeared without a trace until a year later on December 7, 1942 when it belly-landed at Wheeler with the pilot's skeleton still in the cockpit. The original story was that the P-40 bore the markings of a unit that had been based in the Philippines, and it belly-landed in a field in China on May 6, 1943, the first anniversary of the Philippines getting overrun by the Japanese. That version came from an anthology of FICTIONAL short stories titled DAMNED TO GLORY, written by Brigadier General Robert L. Scott, commander of the USAAF fighter forces in China and author of the best-selling 1943 autobiography GOD IS MY CO-PILOT (adapted into a movie in 1945). People just assumed that since GOD IS MY CO-PILOT was nonfictional, so was DAMNED TO GLORY and especially that particular short story which is now entrenched in Urban Legend.

MYTH BUSTED!

Fair historical drama

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10 February 2015]

It was not commented yet, so I do it right now. But I won't repeat the topic fully explained just above, in the plot line. You have here some classical elements such as some love interests among some youngsters having picnic in the German country side. And the tragic news of the German Poland invasion screwing the good atmosphere. Till now, nothing really eerie. It's just an American point of view placed under the German side, because if it was about the Pearl Harbour critical day, it would have been told the same. But the following is quite interesting for the viewer. The party among friends goes suddenly awry in a strange way no one can explain. And that's where the whole mystery takes place. I let you look for it now, without spoiling totally this very rewarding episode. Enjoy.

I remember the reunion...last scene.

[captainvideoralph · 9/10 · 13 March 2019]

Of all the episodes, this is the one I remember. But, has the final scene of opening of the cockpit been edited? I clearly recall the pilot being shown???

"We'll Meet Again..."

[Goingbegging · 5/10 · 20 October 2021]

A small group of German gliding enthusiasts decide they might as well spend the last day of peace out on the mountain, as Poland is obviously about to be invaded.

The grimly Teutonic Peter (convincingly played by an American) is possessive of his glamorous fiancee Helga, who seems to be taking an undue interest in Hans, who sounds entirely American, leading us to anticipate some mid-war dogfight, which never comes.

They hear the invasion news over the radio, to Peter's obvious satisfaction, but the rest of them feel only foreboding, and try to stay positive by looking forward to a reunion immediately the war ends. Meanwhile they reckon they've got time for one last glider flight, and Hans draws the lucky ticket, promising to be back in an hour. That hour lasts for six years, for reasons we can't reveal.

Cut to 1945, referencing defeat and shortages ("You spent all that money on the bus for nothing"), with Helga insisting on honouring their promise to hold the reunion, to which Peter agrees only with reluctance - which has something to do with the surprise ending.

The flirty scenes between Hans and Helga are distinctly overplayed. And plot-wise, any foreigners in Germany on that day would be racing to the frontier as fast as they could.

"Nobody has been able to disprove it" - the standard weasel from your host John Newland, classifying this as a story of the super-natural, only part-based on real life.