Tales of Tomorrow #9: The Crystal Egg (1951)

★★★★★ · Fine Episode from a Fine Early SciFi Series · pianocharlie · 2011-05-29

In the early days of television, special effects were often thin and sketchy. In this particular episode, thin special effects perfectly complement the great ensemble work by the cast, and only serve to direct the viewer's attention to the story, and its superb adaptation to the small, slightly blurry television screen of the early 1950s. To the SciFi community, HG Wells is one of the fathers of us all. He is one of but a handful of speculative fiction authors whose works show up in academic reading lists, and whose works have been admitted to the canon of classic literature. The adaptation…

★★★★★ · Thomas Mitchell · Shadows_Girl · 2010-05-30

is better known for his role as Scarlett O'Hara's father in GONE WITH THE WIND than for that tired old piece of tripe It's A Wonderful Life (which, by the way, it isn't---unless you're Jimmy Stewart). His death in GWTW sets up one of the most dramatic moments later in the film. Good sci-fi though....

★★★★ · Solid Suspense · learning richard · 2010-11-26

H. G. Wells gave a us good story here. Farfetched but not dated even by today's knowledge (2010 that is). It seems a bit cynical and the ending left this viewer wondering more than I wished to. However it was enjoyable. If you are a sci-fi fan this short story is more than worth 24 minutes of your time. The technical shortcomings of this film such as poor tonality and an overly dark picture took this film from 4.5 to 3.5 stars which I was forced to round to 4 stars.

★★★★ · The Crystal Egg - ToT · I_h8_screen_names · 2013-11-23

A mysterious customer seeks to be a crystal egg from a curio shop. When the shopkeeper sees how much the man wants the egg, he asks a large price, much more than the customer has in his pocket. The mystery man tells the shopkeeper to hold on to the egg and he will return with the full price. This has caused the shopkeeper to wonder about the value of the egg and he seeks the help of a professor about just whether or not this egg is trash or treasure. The young woman who is supposed to be interested in the professor is just nonsense. She adds absolutely nothing to the plot at all and her…

★★★★ · A damned good science fiction story · XMinusOne · 2008-07-12

A damned good science fiction story, and an excellent television adaptation for its time. Well worth watching at least a second time.