Finally, I have found it, after looking for 54 years. Now if I can only find a way to watch it again. In 1958 I was 7 years old, one night my parents and I happened on this episode and it haunted them until their deaths and me to this date. Every so often something would remind us of this and we would again discuss this excellent show. I can't really say what has made this episode stand out among the thousands of programs I have watched over the years, but to say it is more memorable than anything I have ever watched does not do it justice. Even though I only remember bits and pieces after all these years, it still gives me a chill when I think of the ship's crew finding only a gray spongy material where a short time before a voice in the dark spoke to them. This was the horror genre as an art not the predictable drivel of blood and guts put forth today. If anyone knows how I can see this again, I would be eternally grateful.
7 Reviews
Chilling
Mikey-1125 November 2008
A TV classic and one of many vintage TV shows that should be put on DVD. Why doesn't US TV bring back the single story format instead of having to run a series into the ground? There are thousands of short stories that could be made into one off films. I have a watchable VHS copy of "The Voice in the Night" that I bought from online somewhere. I agree with the other comment but one correction. The story is actually told by the James Donald character not Coburn, who plays the First Mate of the passing ship, Patrick Macnee is the Captain. The Japanese used the original story again for "Matango" (1963) or "Attack of the Mushroom People" (US Title) a pretty good horror film. It's available on DVD in the original uncut Japanese version. Lot's of atmosphere, mood, and in lurid color.
Castaways marooned on an island of fungus
wpglory18 August 2006
This is a very faithful rendition of the short story by William Hope Hodgson. James Coburn and Barbara Rush are shipwrecked, and find their way to an island where an unusual fungus has taken over everything. Finally they find a small beach where the fungus cannot grow. Most of the story is the narration of Coburn's character to a passing ship. The mystery is that he refuses rescue, and only asks for some food. Of course the reason for his odd behavior becomes clear at the end. I first heard this story when my mother read it in a collection of short stories edited by Alfred Hitchcock, and titled "Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Put on TV." Oddly enough, we saw this teleplay a few weeks later. I managed to find it again by chance in the early 1960's when it was re-broadcast as a time-filler by a local station. The story always stayed with me, and looking at the credits today (Director Arthur Hiller, writer Stirling Silliphant), it is easy to see why. This was a very well done production, and I would jump at the chance to see it again.
Imagination: the best effect
tomsview28 July 2017
I'm in that club of people who saw this episode of "Suspicion" as a child back in the late 1950's. I remember it was one the kids at school talked about the next day. It made an impression.
The amazing thing is that so much is left to our imagination. It didn't have that much in the way of special effects; just a few sets really. At present, there is a blurry old copy on YouTube, and although you struggle to see anything, the story still works. Would millions of dollars' worth of CGI effects have made it any more chilling? I doubt it.
At the time we saw programs like this on TV, we also had those brilliant anthologies of short stories in paperback, a lot of them under Alfred Hitchcock's banner as well as editions of "The Pan Book of Horror Stories". Read around a campfire at night, some of those stories could make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up - our pleasures seemed simpler back then.
Later I realised that many of the stories in those collections were quite old, some from the early 1900's or even from the 1800's.
In fact, "Voice in the Night" is a faithful adaption of a short story written in 1907 by William Hope Hodgson, a fascinating man who produced dozens of stories before he was killed during WW1.
After 60 years, we aren't likely to see a better copy of "Voice in the Night", but does it matter? The real power is sometimes in what you don't see.
The amazing thing is that so much is left to our imagination. It didn't have that much in the way of special effects; just a few sets really. At present, there is a blurry old copy on YouTube, and although you struggle to see anything, the story still works. Would millions of dollars' worth of CGI effects have made it any more chilling? I doubt it.
At the time we saw programs like this on TV, we also had those brilliant anthologies of short stories in paperback, a lot of them under Alfred Hitchcock's banner as well as editions of "The Pan Book of Horror Stories". Read around a campfire at night, some of those stories could make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up - our pleasures seemed simpler back then.
Later I realised that many of the stories in those collections were quite old, some from the early 1900's or even from the 1800's.
In fact, "Voice in the Night" is a faithful adaption of a short story written in 1907 by William Hope Hodgson, a fascinating man who produced dozens of stories before he was killed during WW1.
After 60 years, we aren't likely to see a better copy of "Voice in the Night", but does it matter? The real power is sometimes in what you don't see.
Horror in the doldrums in the fog somewhere east of Australia
clanciai6 May 2022
It's only about 50 minutes but one of the most shocking horror movies ever made, although there is no blood, no death, no violence, no crime, no nothing, just fog and a desert island where "nothing is alive and nothing is dead". James Donald and Barbara Rush are an ideal newly married couple, and she insists on following him on a long voyage around Cape Horn from Portsmouth to Japan and China, he doesn't want to expose her to that risk, it's a sailing ship, the story is from 1907, and there are marvellous sequences of her beauty, a ship that any sailor must love. He is first mate, after the Cape they meet with hard weather and are shipwrecked, only they survive and float on some flotsam around in the fog on a dead calm sea until they meet with a deserted ship, overgrown with some sort of a fungus. They find means to survive on that ship and can't understand the mystery of what happened to the crew, until they find the ship is grounded on a reef outside a nearby island. That island is also overgrown with the same kind of fungus. As the fog never lifts and everything is constantly kept soaked, that's how the fungus thrive, and they find a spot on that island on which the fungus can't grow and settle there, waiting for a ship to pass. There is a ship finally passing, but the situation is then more complicated.
James Donald made several unforgettable roles mainly as doctors, like in "White Corridors" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai", and Barbara Rush was here in the beginning of a long successful career, like also the director Arthur Hiller. The great love story between them, their fine acting together, a magnificent music score (uncredited), an equally efficient cinematography and above all a totally convincing story of excruciating horror make this film unforgettable forever for everyone who saw it back in the 50s - and it seems they all want to see it again.
James Donald made several unforgettable roles mainly as doctors, like in "White Corridors" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai", and Barbara Rush was here in the beginning of a long successful career, like also the director Arthur Hiller. The great love story between them, their fine acting together, a magnificent music score (uncredited), an equally efficient cinematography and above all a totally convincing story of excruciating horror make this film unforgettable forever for everyone who saw it back in the 50s - and it seems they all want to see it again.
Classic_Horror_Story_If_There_Ever_Was_One
Jenny_K_N21 November 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this story when it was first presented on TV, and have never forgotten it. I remember that for weeks afterwords, I had trouble falling asleep....(Spoiler)....so sure was I that a malignant fungus was out to get me! I suppose one of the reasons this story terrified me so much is that I believed, (and still do, for the most part), that, (SPOILER) "love conquers all". I have recently read the original short story, (SO clearly written, even in 1907....an era of largely floridly-written works). There is no hint in the original story, (Spoiler) that the two principals are Run-Away lovers...he poor, she rich. No, in the original text story, they are just lovers. At the end of the story, (Spoiler), the principal male character is called "the thing". In the TV version, he is (Spoiler), called by the much more graphic description, "A sponge...a great gray sponge".
The tension builds up and Up and U p, in this drama. Every...Er, "thing" about it was SO well done! I wish it would be re-broadcast and/or put on DVD. Especially now.... Global warming is bound to bring a (Spoiler) lessening or cessation of winds. And this story takes place, (Spoiler), in "the Doldrum" area of the earth. Or so they said in the TV version. In the written version, it is just a "becalmed" area of the North Pacific. Either way, you may NOT "be calmed" for a while after watching this eerily well-played, totally possible drama!
The tension builds up and Up and U p, in this drama. Every...Er, "thing" about it was SO well done! I wish it would be re-broadcast and/or put on DVD. Especially now.... Global warming is bound to bring a (Spoiler) lessening or cessation of winds. And this story takes place, (Spoiler), in "the Doldrum" area of the earth. Or so they said in the TV version. In the written version, it is just a "becalmed" area of the North Pacific. Either way, you may NOT "be calmed" for a while after watching this eerily well-played, totally possible drama!
Shipwreaked couple land on island with horrible secret
snicewanger1 May 2016
Pity the Thomason's. Heaven really seems to have it in for the couple. First they are shipwrecked in an open boat. Then they land on an island that is the portal to hell. Based on the William Hope Hodgson short story "Voice in the Night",this episode of the anthology series Suspicion was fairly ambitious for the time. Well cast with James Donald and Barbara Rush in the leads the story is both eerie and creepy and is cautionary table underlying the old adage that you had better eat your vegetables or they will eat you. The island itself is rather terrifying place but it kind of grows on you.Patrick MacNee "John Steed" plays the ships captain and James Coburn has a barely visible role as a curious deck hand.
Suspicion was produced by Hitchcock's Shamley Production and was supposedly based on his Story They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV. The episode has not been placed on VCR or DVD but there is a copy floating around on YouTube.It has the feel of a Thriller episode and I thought that is where I had first seen it until I stumbled upon it.Like the other reviewers I had not seen it since I was a kid so it was fun to view it again after half a century.
Suspicion was produced by Hitchcock's Shamley Production and was supposedly based on his Story They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV. The episode has not been placed on VCR or DVD but there is a copy floating around on YouTube.It has the feel of a Thriller episode and I thought that is where I had first seen it until I stumbled upon it.Like the other reviewers I had not seen it since I was a kid so it was fun to view it again after half a century.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
