Thursday, February 4, 2010

Journey to the Unknown: Eve

One of my resolutions for the New Year was to watch and review all the episodes of Hammer's 1968 TV series Journey to the Unknown. Though I had copies of these shows available to me for quite some time, I never got around to watching them. So it's time to fill this hole in my Hammer filmography.

Can't tell you much about the series in general quite yet: Whatever little I may at one time have read about it, soon vanished into mental oblivion so all I really know offhand is that this is one of Hammer's rare excursions into television and and that it wasn't all too successful.





Eve premiered on September 28, 1968 and features a young Dennis Waterman as Albert Baker, a socially inept dreamer who watches romantic movies but is otherwise incapable of establishing any kind of relationship with the fairer sex. When he imagines a mannikin winking at him one evening while walking past the shop he works in, he straight away asks to be transferred to work as a window dresser to be closer to his new found love now christened “Eve”. His new boss, a cheating womaniser, is played by Michael Gough and provides the only link to the classic Gothic Hammer movies. When he orders the mannikins to be destroyed to make room for new ones, he seals his fate: Albert, afraid that Eve, too, will be burnt, tries stealing the dummy (as well as an expensive fur coat to keep her warm), but gets caught in the act by Gough, accidentally kills him and escapes from the police into the countryside. But will he find peace and happiness there? Well, don't hold your breath.

At this stage I don't have the slightest idea whether or not this episode was typical for the series overall. As a standalone, however, it is all rather pointless. For a show from the late 60s it is surprising to see Albert's love affair with the mannikin played straight and not for laughs, thereby given it a rather unsavory feeling. The trouble, however, is that the entire concept is just ridiculous beyond belief and on top of that the first 20 minutes are wasted on endless scenes of cliched soft focused, slo mo and psychedelically coloured images of Albert with Eve running through the forest or sipping champagne in luxurious surroundings. (In those scenes Eve is played by American actress Carol Lynley.)

Worse than these involuntarily funny scenes, however, is the utterly confusing characterisation of Albert. Despite the fact that we are supposed to believe that he considers the mannikin to be real we are time and again shown that he is quite aware that she is just a dummy. After all, why else would he request to be transferred to the window dressing department and why be concerned with the burning of the mannikins if he really believed her to be a hot blooded woman?

What is amazing about this episode, however, is how contemporary it was at the time. This surely must have been one of the first occasions where we see a hippie drop out get high on smoking dope on British television. And those bikers that we see towards the end could have come straight off a 1970s NEL pulp paperback.

Still, despite these touches this is a show that has outrun its ultra thin concept far before it hits the 50 minute mark and its anti climactic finale. Bit of a disappointment really. Let's hope the next episodes will improve on this lacklustre debut.

14 comments:

Matthew Coniam said...

Hmmm. Never seen any of these - I wonder if they get any better? That said, I'm very fond of Hammer House of Horror, which most people hate too! Looking forward to seeing your accounts of other episodes...

paulcheshire said...

hi

yeah i have all these, they are really good. It is not a hammer producton though, although tony hinds produces (will hammers/hinds' son) but it is not a hammer production, nor an amicus production.

I recomend anybody watch these, they are among my favourites and i have every good old sci-fi/horror/terror film and tv propgramme available.

Cheers, Paul.
www.paulcheshirefilms.co.uk
PS I am looking to make a short film along these lines, anybody interested in helping out/acting etc do get in touch. Passion and enthusisam over experience . I am based in London.

Holger Haase said...

Which reminds me that I better start watching and writing about the other eps as promised.

Nocti said...

"Which reminds me that I better start watching and writing about the other eps as promised."

If your other reviews are going to be as brainless as this one, then please don't bother. Thanks!

Matthew Coniam said...

It's even braver when you use your real name.

Holger Haase said...

That wasn't some kind of bizarre reverse psychology, was it? ;-)

Unknown said...

Hi

I found your blog while looking for info on this tv series Journey to the Unknown. I had randomly come across the show when I DVRed a bunch shows and really enjoyed the couple of episodes I saw.

It sounds like you were able to get a hold of the complete series. I wanted to ask if you had any tips on where to get the series. It doesn't seem to be available on DVD =(

Thanks!

Holger Haase said...

Yep, I have all the eps but still only seen the first one. Need to get my act together. Drop me a PM. ;-)

Sime's World said...

Excellent review - I now have a facebook page for this great series! By the way - it's freely available on DVD from Ioffer. (But it needs an official release)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1838843876254229/

Holger Haase said...

Excellent. Will drop over and join the group. And maybe it's about time I am starting to watch and post about the remaining eps. After all it's been nearly 4 years... ;-)

Singlem said...

When is this series going to be released on DVD in the UK?

Holger Haase said...

I'm afraid your guess is probably as good as mine with regards to a potential DVD release.

isley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I remember seeing this particular episode about the mannequin and thought at the time to be excellent. You say that the concept is ludicrous especially because it was played straight rather than as a comedy. i disagree,because i viewed him as suffering from a mental illness and suffering from this delusion dhe to his desire but inability to find a real girlfriend.perhaps he viewed a mannequin to be the perfect woman. no answering back or cauing grief!