"Shirley Temple's Storybook" The Terrible Clockman (1961)

Note Générale:

5,1/10   

Réalisateur:

Allen Reisner

Scénaristes:

Bernard C. Schoenfeld (adaptation)
Jules Verne (novel)

Série TV:

"Shirley Temple's Storybook" (1958)

Date de diffusion originale:

29 janvier 1961 (Saison 2, Episode 18)

Genre:

Famille

Intrigue:

Based on a story by Jules Verne, an evil alchemist moves to a small Swiss village and wishes to marry the local clockmaker's beautiful daughter...

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title

Avis des utilisateurs:

Slightly Scary-Children Can Handle This One

Ensemble

Shirley Temple	...	Gerande
Eric Portman	...	Van Der Graf
Sam Jaffe	...	Zacharias
John Wengraf	...	The King
Jacques Aubuchon	...	The Burgomaster
David Frankham	...	Aubert (as David Frankman)
Betty Garde	...	The Flowerwoman
Garrett Lewis	...	The Clockman
George Ives	...	The Apothecary
Jon Peters	...	The Ironmonger
Joe Higgins	...	The Tavernkeeper
Arthur Malet	...	The Cook
John Astin	...	The Coachman
Henry McCann	...	Van Der Graf's Servant
Ida Mae McKenzie	...	Burgomaster's Wife

Société:

National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Connexions:

version de Maître Zaccharius (1973) (TV)

Slightly Scary-Children Can Handle This One

"Shirley Temple's Storybook" was an anthology series that Shirley hosted for children on NBC in the early 1960's. Shirley also typically played a role in each of the stories in the series. As a young child I was a big fan of the series and for me "The Terrible Clockman" (1961) was the most anticipated of the entire collection. At the conclusion of each week's telecast there would be a trailer for next week's show and I couldn't wait for this one to be shown. It looked to be very scary and it was based on a Jules Verne story.

Unfortunately it proved a disappointment. Although the format of "Shirley's Storybook", three act plays with theatre style production design, worked fine for drama it was not a good fit for science fiction. Too much suspension of disbelief was required. The title character is a man size clock, actually a guy inside a gold colored suit of medieval armor with a clock face. It looks surreal enough to be scary but the action sequences are very poorly staged.

The basic story involves an alchemist (played by Eric Portman) in league with the devil who wants to marry the beautiful daughter (played by Shirley) of a clockmaker (played by Dr. Zorba from "Ben Casey"). He blackmails them with a spell that manipulates time and turns a giant clock into a walking monster.

Watch for John Astin ("The Addams Family") in a minor role as the Coachman; you will probably recognize his voice before you recognize his face.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.