Summary[]
Seriously? All this trouble over a lost umbrella?
A mystery ensues. A man has told Rocky that he landed on an alledgedly uninhabited planet. But on that planet he discovered an umbrella! He barely escaped with his life as wild wolf dogs attacked him! Is Rocky the brunt of a joke?
But Rocky, assuming there may be something to the tall tale, heads for the planet and begins his investigation.
It turns out the planet IS inhabited by some very superstitious people! And the wolf dogs are no fable either!
Can Rocky get back to the ship and off the planet alive?
Vena and the Darnamo | ||||
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Season | Season One | |||
Original Air-Date | November 6, 1954 | |||
Written By | Warren Wilson | |||
Directed By | Hollingsworth Morse | |||
Order in Series | 13th Episode Produced | |||
Order in Season | 13th Episode Aired | |||
Previous Episode | "Inferno in Space" | |||
Next Episode | "Out of This World" | |||
Single Episode[]
Rocky and Biff power the Silver Moon to station OW9. Vena and Bobby buckle up for docking.
Rocky contacts Ranger Clark, who uses the stations's viseograph to see if the Silver Moon "is bend, busted, or just plain clobbered"! Ranger Clark is overjoyed to see the Silver Moon and crew while they refuel. Vena suggests Clark ask Rocky where they are headed, and Clark's curiosity forces him to ask! Mandora...? A tiny speck of an uninviting, uninhabited, and unfriendly rock?!
Rocky says he met a pilot on Apollo Minor who got lost, and landed on Mandora. He found an umbrella - that was made in Cincinatti - and Rocky plans to investigate - dispite all the humor found by his crew...
Rocky lands on Mandora, and they do an exterrior check. Bobby comments that the weather looks nice - too nice for an umbrella! The jungle sounds abound on Mandora, and the local natives are curious but evasive of the new visitors. Then a wolf hound growls!
Rocky follows the native he sees, and Vena finds a wolf hound with the perverbial thorn in the paw! She removes it, and the wolf dog happily runs off. Bobby passes the tale of Androclis and the Lion to Biff, and Rocky notices that the handle of the umbrella does look a bit like the wolf hound... Rocky is willing to say he fell for a tall tale about the umbrella. But as they are on Mandora anyway, he decides to do a survey for Secretary Drake before they leave. The local natives howl to communicate to each other. Rocky and his crew locate a wolf hound totum pole - and then the natives attack them with - sling shots, no less!
Rocky and his crew take cover! The natives close in! Rocky attacks the natives, and Biff follows! They get two native shields and Bobby and Vena use them for cover to get back to the Silver Moon!
But once back at the Silver Moon, they realize the umbrella is gone! A sudden and incessent banging comes from the cockpit door! Someone is inside! Vena believes they are breaking up the controls! (We've all had enough of that!) Rocky prepars to enter the cockpit. And as the door opens, a little old lady stares at them with an umbrella in her hand! She scolds him for taking so long to get the umbrella back to her!
In her home, Miss Pilkington explains that her granddaddy - Professor Cyrus Pilkington - was a huge fan of Jules Verne. The Professor and Dr. Quinn Jay O'brien from Cincinatti, Ohio built a "sky wagon" and left Earth with their wives. Their children, Sara O'brien, and Cyrus Pilkington, Jr. later married, and she is the result. She has been living rather comfortably making sling shots on Mandora ever since. Her last visitor got away with her umbrella! Lulubelle - her grandmother - bought the umbrella in Cincinatti because it looked like one of her dogs! The very dogs who now run wild on Mandora!
A ghaslty howl sounds and the natives attack the house! Miss Pilkington grunts that she ran out of gunpowder thirty years ago, but the natives don't know that! But she is Mandora Esurrada - Beautiful White Goddess - to the natives, and she goes out to quiet them down. The natives think the dogs are incited by the strangers and they want to sacrifice one of the strangers to quiet the Darnamos (mutation of the "down animals!" Mr. Pilkington used).
All seems to be calmed down, but that night, the natives sneak into the house and kidnap Vena! When Rocky sees that she is gone, he persues the native through the Mandoran jungle! Rocky fights the natives, but gets knocked out.
Vena is tied to the totum, and the natives begin to prepare to burn her at the stake!
Miss Pilkington decides to intervene, and she, Biff, and Bobby head out into the night.
The Darnamo wolf hound attacks the natives and defend Vena, but the torch is dropped and the pyre is lit! Rocky comes to the rescue and unties Vena. Biff, Bobby, and Miss Pilkington arrive and see that all is safe again.
Rocky decides to go, and asks Miss Pilkington to come along, but she prefers to stay and be the "Beautifuyl White Goddess" of Mandora.
Rocky and crew leave, with the umbrella mystery solved, and knowing the truth about Mandora!
END
Gallery[]
Cast[]
- Richard Crane as Rocky Jones
- Sally Mansfield as Vena Ray
- Robert Lyden as Bobby
- James Lydon as Biffen (Biff) Cardoza.
- William Hudson as Ranger Clark.
- Ida Moore as Miss Pilkington.
- Charles Horvoth as First Mandoran.
Crew[]
- Directed - Hollingsworth Morse
- Director of Photography - Walter Strenge
- Production Manager - Dick L'Estrange
- Supervising Editor - Fred Maguire
- Editor - Richard Brockway.
- Make up - Ernie Park.
- Special Effects - Ira Anderson.
- Photographic Effects - Jack R. Glass
- Art Director - McClure Capps
- Casting Director - Bill Tinsman
- Sound - Jack Goodrich.
- Sound - Joel Moss
- Script Supervisor - Hazel W. Hall
- Technical Advisor - Dick Morgan
- Technical Instruments - Loren Sackett
- Assistant Director - Dick Moder
- Costumes - Berman Costume Co.
- Teleplay - Warren Wilson
- Executive Producer - Guy V. Thayer, Jr.
- Associate Producer - Arthur Pierson
- Producer - Roland Reed
- Original Music - Alexander Laszlo (uncredited)
- Produced in 1954 by Roland Reed Productions Inc. and Space Ranger Enterprises
Trivia[]
- This is the third Rocky Jones stand alone episode. It is copywritten 1954.
- This episode has the old season title cards and announcer's voice. But ends with the new credit layout.
- The title has Chaper 1 under it even though it is only a single stand alone episode.
- This is the most comical of all Rocky Jones Space Ranger episodes!
- Biff tells us that Mars has mammoths!
- See Ranger Clark over act in his closeups aboard the Silver Moon!
- Bobby is shorter than Vena's ear in this episode, so it was shot BEFORE the "Cold Sun" episode where he is taller.
- Whatever does Miss Pilkington trade the natives for her slingshots?
- Ida Moore was 72 at the time of the filming of this episode. She also appeared in a 1958 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents titled "Bull in a China Shop."
Previous episode: "Inferno in Space" |
Episodes of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger in Production Order |
Next episode: "Out of This World" |