Veronica Lake as the Amelia Earhart figure in this episode is so driven and so cruel, it's hard to understand what the guy in the story saw in her, other than having her and attaching himself to her fame. The story unfolds as we are told she has done amazing feats no woman has ever done as an aviatrix. Each time a new challenge comes forth, she begins to drool and look to the sky. There's no talking her out of anything. He is the typical fifties kind of guy, expecting his woman to settle down to dull life with him now that she has achieved all this fame. He is a dullard who hovers over a short-wave radio day after day, listening to a mass of gibberish which he cannot interpret. His new wife wants some closure so they can get on with their lives. Also, there is a housekeeper, left over from the old days, who sulks around like the woman in Hitchcock's "Rebecca," remembering the past and wishing it to be the way it was. She also holds some secrets. Enter an old friend to explain this talky offering.
5 Reviews
From the "Tales of Tomorrow" TV Series (1951-1953)
Bernie444413 February 2024
Flight Overdue
Season 1 Episode 26 Episode aired Mar 28, 1952 Director Don Medford Starring: Veronica Lake, Walter Brooke, Lenore Shanewise, Mary Stuart McDonald, and Thom Conroy.
It is a copy of an old recording so do not expect remastered clarity.
This does have that twilight zone feel with a strange twist.
Shades of Amelia Earhart
Paula (Veronica Lake), a cute snot aviatrix gets a chance to fly the pacific. You guessed it; she disappears. Four years later her husband has remarried and still is haunted by the thought that she is trying to contact him from some remote island.
One day Sam Rutgers (Thom Conroy) reveals the details of the mysterious disappearance to Donald and us.
I did not recognize Veronica Lake with her bobbed hair as I am used to seeing her with her signature peekaboo as in I married a Witch.
Season 1 Episode 26 Episode aired Mar 28, 1952 Director Don Medford Starring: Veronica Lake, Walter Brooke, Lenore Shanewise, Mary Stuart McDonald, and Thom Conroy.
It is a copy of an old recording so do not expect remastered clarity.
This does have that twilight zone feel with a strange twist.
Shades of Amelia Earhart
Paula (Veronica Lake), a cute snot aviatrix gets a chance to fly the pacific. You guessed it; she disappears. Four years later her husband has remarried and still is haunted by the thought that she is trying to contact him from some remote island.
One day Sam Rutgers (Thom Conroy) reveals the details of the mysterious disappearance to Donald and us.
I did not recognize Veronica Lake with her bobbed hair as I am used to seeing her with her signature peekaboo as in I married a Witch.
"Someday you will take one chance too many."
classicsoncall13 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This is an odd story with an odd denouement. Donald Bennett (Walter Brooke) agonizes over his aviatrix wife gone missing four years earlier, even while remarried to current wife Deirdre (Mary Stuart McDonald). Flashback scenes relate how Paula Martin Bennett (Veronica Lake) was enthralled with her career at the expense of her marriage, away from home for increasingly long periods while maintaining secrecy even from her husband. Recruited for a secret government program, it's revealed that she was involved in training missions with a goal of flying a rocket to the moon! Now I know the Fifties were simpler times, but when family friend Sam Rutgers (Thom Conroy) stated that the rocket was going to carry three men and Paula to the moon I had to groan. Why would anyone consider sending a newly designed aircraft on a manned flight to the moon on its very first mission? That just didn't make sense, but I guess you have to consider the simplicity of televised scripts at the time. But the kicker occurs at the conclusion of the story when Rutgers was finally at liberty to mention that Paula and the rest died when the rocket ship crashed on the moon. At that point, Donald Bennett became ecstatic, stating that he hated Paula for the way she was during their marriage! By doing so, he contradicted all of his earlier behavior of pining for the wife that he held out hope for being alive. Very strange.
By the way, if you're intrigued by the casting of Veronica Lake in this short program, don't expect to see the blonde bombshell of "The Blue Dahlia" or "This Gun for Hire" from the Forties. Here she's very plain looking in those flashback scenes with short, dark hair and missing the charisma from her glory days. Still, it was an interesting casting choice and would peg this early anthology series with a former star celebrity.
By the way, if you're intrigued by the casting of Veronica Lake in this short program, don't expect to see the blonde bombshell of "The Blue Dahlia" or "This Gun for Hire" from the Forties. Here she's very plain looking in those flashback scenes with short, dark hair and missing the charisma from her glory days. Still, it was an interesting casting choice and would peg this early anthology series with a former star celebrity.
Minor story that is primarily worth watching for its historical context
jamesrupert201429 November 2021
The ultimate fate of a beautiful aviatrix, though to have crashed into the Pacific, is finally revealed. Paula Bennet, the missing pilot who is seen in flashbacks and who is clearly modeled on Amelia Earhart, is played by the lovely, diminutive '40s star Veronica Lake (whose career (and life in general) was in a tailspin in the 1950s due to alcoholism). There is not much to the story, and the resolution, which may have been novel and unexpected in 1952, now seems implausible and contrived. Like a number of 'Tales of Tomorrow' episodes, 'Flight Overdue' is one of the earliest references to 'realistic' manned space flight to hit the small screen - more interesting than entertaining (at least to 'contemporary' audiences). The episode I watched on-line includes embedded jewelry ads starring the British actress Adrienne Corri, perhaps best known for being violently gang-raped by Alex and his droogs in Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971) - "Viddy well little brother, viddy well".
Every decent series has an occasional letdown--and this one is sure it.
planktonrules19 September 2012
Warning: Spoilers
lake with dark hair earhardt
"Tales of Tomorrow" was a pretty good sci-fi anthology series. It predated "The Twilight Zone" by a decade and surely must have inspired this later show. However, "Tales" had one huge handicap--it had a pathetically low budget. It was aired on a TINY network at the time (ABC) and had trouble keeping sponsors. After two seasons, it ended BUT we are fortunate that the majority of the shows are available for free download at archive.org. HOWEVER, like any good series of its type, occasionally they had an episode that clearly wasn't very good. And, one of the poor ones is "Flight Overdue". It isn't written all that well and seemed a bit strange...and not in a good way.
The episode is clearly inspired by Amelia Earhart. Paula (Veronica Lake) was an aviatrix who was lost at sea--just like Amelia. But most of the story is told from the point of view of her estranged husband--the guy who was left to pick up the pieces after her disappearance. However, it's obvious he didn't pine too long--as he's now remarried. But his new wife thinks he's still carrying a torch for Paula. But, in a VERY bizarre twist you find out how Paula died and that the husband completely hated her guts and is pretty happy she's dead!!! Talk about bizarre! I could elaborate on the sci-fi aspect of her death, but that paled in comparison with the husband's intense hatred of her and how he saw her as a self-absorbed jerk! Weird, that's for sure.
One of the big reasons I looked forward to seeing this show is that it starred Veronica Lake--the lady with the peekaboo hairstyle she made famous in the early 40s. Sadly, here she was completely unappealing--with short bobbed dark hair. Unless you knew it was her, you certainly wouldn't have recognized her. She had a hard life and perhaps this HUGE change in her appearance is just evidence of this and the battles she had with alcoholism and obscurity.
"Tales of Tomorrow" was a pretty good sci-fi anthology series. It predated "The Twilight Zone" by a decade and surely must have inspired this later show. However, "Tales" had one huge handicap--it had a pathetically low budget. It was aired on a TINY network at the time (ABC) and had trouble keeping sponsors. After two seasons, it ended BUT we are fortunate that the majority of the shows are available for free download at archive.org. HOWEVER, like any good series of its type, occasionally they had an episode that clearly wasn't very good. And, one of the poor ones is "Flight Overdue". It isn't written all that well and seemed a bit strange...and not in a good way.
The episode is clearly inspired by Amelia Earhart. Paula (Veronica Lake) was an aviatrix who was lost at sea--just like Amelia. But most of the story is told from the point of view of her estranged husband--the guy who was left to pick up the pieces after her disappearance. However, it's obvious he didn't pine too long--as he's now remarried. But his new wife thinks he's still carrying a torch for Paula. But, in a VERY bizarre twist you find out how Paula died and that the husband completely hated her guts and is pretty happy she's dead!!! Talk about bizarre! I could elaborate on the sci-fi aspect of her death, but that paled in comparison with the husband's intense hatred of her and how he saw her as a self-absorbed jerk! Weird, that's for sure.
One of the big reasons I looked forward to seeing this show is that it starred Veronica Lake--the lady with the peekaboo hairstyle she made famous in the early 40s. Sadly, here she was completely unappealing--with short bobbed dark hair. Unless you knew it was her, you certainly wouldn't have recognized her. She had a hard life and perhaps this HUGE change in her appearance is just evidence of this and the battles she had with alcoholism and obscurity.
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