User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** Real life pacifist Lew Ayers plays Dr. Tom Clay a man who's dream is to invent a cobalt bomb that's so destructive that it would make future wars and conflicts totally obsolete. Dr. Clay is so determined to make the bomb workable that he neglects his wife Joanne, Julie Adams, and his good friend and house guest author Robert Blake, Robert Webber, spending all his time in his study working on it. Tom is so carried away with his project, the cobalt bomb, that he doesn't realize that Joanne and Robert are having a secret affair right under his nose and in his house. But what's even more serious then a run of the mill illicit affair that Robert and Anne are having is that Robert is also a paid spy for the Soviet Uniion and planning to steal Tom's secret blueprints for his cobalt bomb!

It's later when Tom takes his top secret papers-File 281-on the cobalt bomb home that Robert sees his chance to secretly photograph it and send the film together with himself to his Soviet contacts in Mexico City. While all this is happening Robert in planning to knock off two birds with one stone by talking Joanne to get on the plane with him and leave her husband, who can't seem to find any time with her, and get a both divorce from Tom and marry him. Tom who had caught Robert red handed stealing his top secret blueprints is blackmailed by him in that he himself had broken security at the research plant by taking the blueprints homes without proper authorization.

***SPOILERS*** With his wife about to leave him and now facing a possible jail term for breaking security Tom in first attempting to buy the blueprint film off Robert is then forced to pull a gun on him to prevent him from taking off at a local airfield, this time without Joanne, for Mexico City! Robert in knowing how Tom is against violence of all types still turns and pulls his own gun out on him. And before Robert can get a shot off Tom, without thinking, blasts him away. It was Tom's loyalty to his country that in the end made him do what would have been totally unthinkable for him to do. But it was Robert's actions in pulling a gun on him as well as being a Soviet spy who was about to give the Soviet Union the most destructive weapon in all of human history,the cobalt bomb, and who were more then willing to use it that made Tom the lifetime pacifist for just one split second turn violence.

P.S Check out Leonard Nimoy as US Government Agent Cowell who's job it is to see that nothing happens to Tom and ends up together with his partner Agent Chester,Morgan Jones, preventing the getaway plane without Robert Blake, who was by then shot by Tom , but with his roll of film about the cobalt bomb from taking off.

An aging scientist (Ayres) is developing a cobalt bomb and in the process neglects his much younger wife (Adams). She in turn takes up with her husband's best friend (Webber), who just happens to be a Soviet spy. Complications ensue. This is one of the very best Kraft episodes, with a heckuva good plot, courtesy of Larry Cohen, sharp direction by Tom Gries, and an outstanding cast. Ayres is smooth as silk as an obsessed egghead and Adams, in her other life a popular songstress, lends just the right amount of emotion to every one of her scenes. When push comes to shove and she has to decide between husband and lover, it is actually painful to watch her expression in closeup. Webber, one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, makes a truly sinister turncoat. Watch for a young Lenny Nimoy as a compassionate federal agent. A side note: Ayres, who had been acting since his youth and continued to act right up to his death, will always stay in my head and heart for one of his final roles. Well into his 70s or possibly early 80s, he played a doctor in a the second OMEN movie. When he grows wise to Damien, he goes to his death under thick lake ice. He is shown being swept along under the ice as people attempt to rescue him, in vain. The scene goes on for quite a bit,and is agonizing to watch. Ayres is absolutely amazing as he struggles t survive, and to to this day I wonder how they filmed his death scene and what they must have put him through to make it look so convincing.

Dr. Thomas Clay is working on an absolutely insane project--a cobalt bomb that has the capacity to destroy the entire world. The idea of these government employees is that if such a bomb were built, it would make wars impossible. Of course, it also assumes no one would ever detonate the thing! Regardless, Clay is obsessed with the project--working on it day and night and completely ignoring his young wife. In fact, she's been having an affair because she's just so lonely--and wouldn't you know it, the guy she's hitting the sheets with turns out to be a Commie spy! When dumb old Dr. Clay realizes what's happening, what's he to do? Especially because it turns out that the spy isn't just sleeping with his wife but has been stealing from the crazy cobalt bomb project.

This is a fairly interesting installment of "Kraft Suspense Theatre". The whole notion of a bomb like this one seems nuts today--maybe it didn't back in the 60s! All I know is that the show was interesting and Webber played the sort of jerk you expect, as he based much of his career on playing selfish dirt-bags!

It's an interesting casting choice to have Lew Ayres play the obsessed doctor. This is because during WWII, Ayres was a conscientious objector and was a dedicated pacifist. In addition to Ayres, the show features Julia Adams, Robert Webber, Leonard Nimoy and Ted Knight.