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[Robb_K]

s these two vintage suspense/horror Television shows from some of our childhoods, teen years, or time as young adults about the supernatural were so similar in concept, and produced very close in time, during the same era, I thought comparing them would be very interesting.  Both series claim that each episode's story was based on a true incident, which has never been adequately explained using scientific methodology and logic.  It seems to be obvious that they had different budget levels, and slightly different visions of what they wanted to do with their series.  So, I've chosen one episode (story) from each to compare to each other.  But you readers
(watchers) may talk about the two series in general, and talk about ANY of the episodes.  My goal is to compare the methods of each storywriter, producer and director and the relative effectiveness of the methods of each.  General comparisons to "The Twilight Zone" are fare game, as well.

It should be noted that "One Step Beyond" ran for well over 2 years 1959-1961, while "The Veil was never shown because production was halted in 1958, before even half of one season of episodes was completed, due to differences between the financiers and producers.

"The Veil" - "Jack The Ripper"
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=54997

"One Step Beyond" - "the Devil's Laughter"
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=55013

[Morgus]

both are good, but I liked the episode of THE VEIL a bit better.
RIPPER was made by another company and was purchased the same way that OCCURANCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE was bought and shown by TWILIGHT ZONE.
I found it suspenseful because I'd forgotten a lot of details about who was who in the whole Ripper case and so everything was a surprise. Their solution is probably as likely or as good as any...

ONE STEP BEYOND and their episodes always made me smile. You got the feeling John Newland REALLY thought this was all true. Me, not so much. But I liked seeing the famous stars before they really got famous.

[Robb_K]

both are good, but I liked the episode of THE VEIL a bit better.
RIPPER was made by another company and was purchased the same way that OCCURANCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE was bought and shown by TWILIGHT ZONE.
I found it suspenseful because I'd forgotten a lot of details about who was who in the whole Ripper case and so everything was a surprise. Their solution is probably as likely or as good as any...

ONE STEP BEYOND and their episodes always made me smile. You got the feeling John Newland REALLY thought this was all true. Me, not so much. But I liked seeing the famous stars before they really got famous.

Boris Karloff, outside his Frankenstein Monster makeup and roles, was one of my favourite actors. So I was glad to learn about "The Veil" late in life.  It's like finding "lost" Carl Barks, or Ken Hultgren comic book stories that I missed back in the 1940s and early 1950s, and having "new" old comics to read, or finding unreleased tapes of late '40s or '50s music from my favourite singers or bands, to have "new" old music to listen to.  Karloff was also a great host for The "Thriller" TV series.  "As sure as my name is Boris Karloff, THIS is a THRILLER!!!"

[The Australian Panther]

"The Veil" - "Jack The Ripper"

Its a pity that 'the Veil' didn't make it into a viewing schedule.
However what we see here is not top-quality stuff.
My template for this type of show is 'The Twilight Zone'
That had Bernard Herrman's score, so much more atmosphere.
Karloff's leqd-in is a little too straight forward, not enough atmosphere. That's the writers and the directors fault, fault, not Karloff's.    .
The script was good and so was the acting, but there was something missing.
It was workman like, but not special.
Interestingly, the story, as an explanation of why the Ripper was never caught, was believable.

One Step Beyond" - "the Devil's Laughter"
Much better. 

John Newland does a better job as host. I guess being the Director gives you more leeway and authority as the host. And at the end, like Rod Sterling, he appears on the set [breaking the forth wall]  to give the closing message. 

Alfred Ryder, who,

had the singular honour of being cast as the understudy for Laurence Olivier in one of the legendary actor's greatest roles, that of Archie Rice, in the 1958 Broadway production of John Osborne's "The Entertainer".

chews the scenery - as they say and really creates and fills out the character.
When we get to his defiant, 'there is only one way I'm going to die....' We can guess how the story is going to turn out, but they do give us two false leads before we get there.

Thanks Robb for these. I'll be coming back to 'One Step Beyond' 
     

[Robb_K]

"The Veil" - "Jack The Ripper"

Its a pity that 'the Veil' didn't make it into a viewing schedule.
However what we see here is not top-quality stuff.
My template for this type of show is 'The Twilight Zone'
That had Bernard Herrman's score, so much more atmosphere.
Karloff's leqd-in is a little too straight forward, not enough atmosphere. That's the writers and the directors fault, fault, not Karloff's.    .
The script was good and so was the acting, but there was something missing.
It was workman like, but not special.
Interestingly, the story, as an explanation of why the Ripper was never caught, was believable.

One Step Beyond" - "the Devil's Laughter"
Much better. 

John Newland does a better job as host. I guess being the Director gives you more leeway and authority as the host. And at the end, like Rod Sterling, he appears on the set [breaking the forth wall]  to give the closing message. 

Alfred Ryder, who,

had the singular honour of being cast as the understudy for Laurence Olivier in one of the legendary actor's greatest roles, that of Archie Rice, in the 1958 Broadway production of John Osborne's "The Entertainer".

chews the scenery - as they say and really creates and fills out the character.
When we get to his defiant, 'there is only one way I'm going to die....' We can guess how the story is going to turn out, but they do give us two false leads before we get there.

Thanks Robb for these. I'll be coming back to 'One Step Beyond' 
     

I agree that the introductions of The Veil are weak.  The writing was boring, and very tame, which didn't provide even a remote feeling of uneasiness and fear.  I am sure that keeping to that script made it difficult for Boris to instill any bit of menacing feeling into the viewer, and, therefore couldn't put him or her on edge.  The proof is that Boris did a good job in his "Thriller" series, where, perhaps, HE wrote his introduction lines, or, at least, he had more leeway in his interpretation.  Both "The Veil" AND "One Step Beyond" emphasised only the unexplainable aspects of unbelievable events occurring that couldn't be explained by current scientific knowledge; whereas, "The Twilight Zone" and "Thriller" added and stressed a horror element, which set the viewers very much on edge, making for a much more memorable experience.  Both used lighting and agitating, bizarre, camera angles to set the mood of first being on edge, and later moving slowly onwards towards terror, and ending in the unexpected, just when the viewer is not prepared for it.  Karloff was a great actor.  He could be very grandfatherly and provide a comforting mood, or he could be ghoulish, and scary.  It's a shame, that he, like Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre, were all excellent at their craft, but got typecast by Hollywood's moguls, producers, and directors, as only known for their ghoulish parts.  I like ALL those actors' acting in their conventional parts much, much better than their portrayal's in horror and thriller films.  Although, I love all those films that starred Karloff as a well-meaning doctor/scientist, who, in trying to do good for Mankind, went too far where Man was not meant to tread, and a horrible disaster resulted.  He was always a very sympathetic character to me.

[SuperScrounge]

I thought this was the Reading group, not the Viewing group.

The Veil - Okay, for what it was, but if I had come across it changing channels I'd have quit watching after a few minutes.

One Step Beyond - The first ten minutes or so was a waste. It only became interesting after the first failed execution, so they should have had that earlier.

[Robb_K]

I thought this was the Reading group, not the Viewing group.

The Veil - Okay, for what it was, but if I had come across it changing channels I'd have quit watching after a few minutes.

One Step Beyond - The first ten minutes or so was a waste. It only became interesting after the first failed execution, so they should have had that earlier.

Is there a CB+ Viewing Group?

[The Australian Panther]

Seems I started this by including a Jack Webb episode in the Christmas post. One of my goals with the reading group is to make selections here as a way to expose all the aspects of CB+ to a wider audience. Which is why I did that. I searched for 'Christmas' and that came up, it was out of left field, so I included it. That was all there was to it. What we do is look at the selection and make comments on it. And we create a dialogue with each other. So I don't see a problem with occasionally including a TV or serial episode or even a radio episode. I don't want to make a habit of it tho. I don't see the need for a separate viewing group.
I had no problem with Robb's choices in his post. I've been aware of those two TV shows but never watched them.So that was an opportunity for me to get to look at them. And all TV or Film is to some extent based on a script and if you do a course on film you learn to 'read' film. And believe me, just like reading comics, you can learn a lot. 
Dictionary.com gives for 'to Read' ' to look at carefully so as to understand the meaning of ' which is, I would think, what we do.       
I read the post by SuperScrounge as a comment, not a criticism. And one I take note of.
If there are a number who want a viewing {or listening] group, we could do that.
But there are far fewer choices to make in those areas.
Bear in mind that we have the 'Watcha Watching' section which covers that area.
And a happy and peaceful new year to everybody.   

[Robb_K]

Seems I started this by including a Jack Webb episode in the Christmas post. One of my goals with the reading group is to make selections here as a way to expose all the aspects of CB+ to a wider audience. Which is why I did that. I searched for 'Christmas' and that came up, it was out of left field, so I included it. That was all there was to it. What we do is look at the selection and make comments on it. And we create a dialogue with each other. So I don't see a problem with occasionally including a TV or serial episode or even a radio episode. I don't want to make a habit of it tho. I don't see the need for a separate viewing group.
I had no problem with Robb's choices in his post. I've been aware of those two TV shows but never watched them.So that was an opportunity for me to get to look at them. And all TV or Film is to some extent based on a script and if you do a course on film you learn to 'read' film. And believe me, just like reading comics, you can learn a lot. 
Dictionary.com gives for 'to Read' ' to look at carefully so as to understand the meaning of ' which is, I would think, what we do.       
I read the post by SuperScrounge as a comment, not a criticism. And one I take note of.
If there are a number who want a viewing {or listening] group, we could do that.
But there are far fewer choices to make in those areas.
Bear in mind that we have the 'Watcha Watching' section which covers that area.
And a happy and peaceful new year to everybody.   

I understood that ALL the different categories that CB+ offers for viewing were fair game.  And the Odds and ends section, often with just drawings and only sometimes even a caption to read is not "Story reading" was accepted automatically, so why not a Film, TV or radio episode once in a blue moon?  There is no chance of this thread being dominated by those media, due to the paucity of different examples of them uploaded here, in relation to comic books.  I'm sure they will be very few and far between on this thread.

[crashryan]

I'm fine with an occasional video / radio selection. Watching shows is harder for me to get around to, however, than reading comics, a I prefer to watch a show in one sitting. With comics I can read a story here, a story there.

Anyway, this was an interesting pair of episodes. My opinions seem to be the opposite of most of the commentators.

The Veil: From what I read this episode wasn't necessarily typical of the series because it was bought already made from another production company. I might take a look at other episodes to get a feel for the show. This episode held my interest. Scripting and direction were workmanlike but the acting was solid. Knowing it was supposedly based on fact, I looked up the story of the real-life psychic. I wound up falling down a rabbit hole of Jack the Ripper history teeming with frauds, hoaxes, myths and speculation. As recently as two years ago forensic researchers "proved" with DNA evidence that a Polish immigrant, Aaron Kosminski, was the guilty party. The evidence, a bloodstained shawl from one of the victims, has spent over a century passing from hand to hand. The present owner, a Ripper enthusiast, bought it at auction. I don't know how reliable such evidence would be.

I had no problem with Boris Karloff's introduction. I got the impression the producers wanted a quiet, urbane host. Perhaps they wanted to distance themselves from the melodramatic, sinister hosts of radio shows like The Inner Sanctum. I agree with all who have pointed out that Karloff had a much wider acting range than he was given credit for. Incidentally, I noticed that the music was by Edwin Astley, whose compositions brightened Secret Agent and The Saint.

To me One Step Beyond always seemed like the TV equivalent of pre-Code DC supernatural stories. Well-crafted but restrained and unwilling to get too scary. I was pretty young when it was on and I don't remember any of the episodes. I do remember the tune that played under the end credits and during the episodes' spooky moments. I still have the TV soundtrack LP with its silver-foil-stamped cover to honor the sponsor, Alcoa Aluminum.

The episode itself was excruciating. I promised myself I'd watch both shows all the way through, but five minutes into this one I wanted to scream. I don't care who he understudied, Alfred Ryder's frenzied overacting made Robert Newton look like Jack Webb. At first I thought there would be a payoff to his bizarre behavior, hooting and jerking and leaping around the room. Maybe he was mad, or possessed. Nope, he was acting! The part certainly called for a larger-than-life performance, but not an unhinged one. For some reason I found myself imagining Stanley Holloway in the role.

Meanwhile the story moved at a glacial pace. It was basically a two-paragraph "strange but true" factoid stretched into an interminable half-hour. The writers must have known it, for they used every dodge they could think of to delay revealing why the murderer felt he was invulnerable. Once he did that I instantly knew how the story would end.

Production design, lighting, and direction were much better than in The Veil, but the boring story and Ryder's performance didn't make me feel much like trying another One Step Beyond.

[SuperScrounge]

I was a little snarky with my viewing group comment.

When I was a kid I was a TV addict. If the TV was on I would watch no matter how bad it was. Then my parents TV broke and it was months before they got a new one. So I developed other interests, but I can sometimes find myself bored looking for something halfway entertaining on TV. So I like the reading group because it exercises the part of my brain that hasn't been turned to mush.  So two choices in a row of TV shows... ouch.

On the other hand we do have some radio shows & TV shows based on comics and vice versa, so maybe, somewhere down the pike we can do a compare and contrast of a comic and a TV or radio episode based on the same feature?

[The Australian Panther]

Superscrounge, That is a very good idea! I will keep it in mind, and we will probably do it somewhere down the track.
And remember we now have a suggestions thread, so if you [or anybody else ] have suggestions along those lines, please pass them along. 
Cheers!   

[paw broon]

Thank you all for your participation in the reading group.  Generating conversations is always good.
I see no reason why we shouldn't include the occasional tv show or other non-comicbook item from the wealth of material available here on COMICBOOKPLUS
I would ask that if we are quoting something from another's post, we paste it as it was in the original, with the addition of quote marks. 
Comicbookplus (along with the exemplary Digital Comic Museum) prides itself on being arguably the friendliest, non-confrontational, abuse free comics site. Keeping it that way means we all get to discover, read, chat about, share opinions and information on the vast and eclectic range of reading and viewing files we have collected.
And if anyone is wondering what I'm up to today, well, for your delectation and delight, another Thriller Comics has turned up.  So I need to check the file, do a wee bit of reading on it and upload it, all so you can see more exceptional Brock art in The Loring Mystery.   TAAAA-DAAA!!!
Keep on reading.

[lyons]

We have Facebook, YouTube, movies, radio, television, and DVDs.  Reading is increasingly elusive in our over-networked culture.  Let's keep the Reading Group as its title portends - reading.  'One Step Beyond' purported to tell stories based on documented historical events - differentiating itself from fictional shows like the Twilight Zone.  A good read - er - a good view.  Thanks Robb.

[Robb_K]

We have Facebook, YouTube, movies, radio, television, and DVDs.  Reading is increasingly elusive in our over-networked culture. Let's keep the Reading Group as its title portends - reading. 'One Step Beyond' purported to tell stories based on documented historical events - differentiating itself from fictional shows like the Twilight Zone.  A good read - er - a good view.  Thanks Robb. 

We won't make a habit of choosing TV shows, films and radio shows (maybe just a couple per year.

[Captain Audio]

I thought this was the Reading group, not the Viewing group.

The Veil - Okay, for what it was, but if I had come across it changing channels I'd have quit watching after a few minutes.

One Step Beyond - The first ten minutes or so was a waste. It only became interesting after the first failed execution, so they should have had that earlier.

Is there a CB+ Viewing Group?

There is the Whatca Watching thread.