Original subtitles

Presented by Chrysler, the name that makes news in watch bands.

Could science solve the awful secret of this terrible creature, more horrible

than the world had ever known?

Tonight, Chrysler presents The Cocoon.

Starring Jackie Cooper and Edith Fellows.

With Edgar Staley.

Hello there.

Well, you know, you'll have to admit that this hat looks pretty strange.

It certainly does. While some people might wear this kind of a hat, it does

look peculiar.

Now, I don't have to tell you that a square hat on a round head just doesn't

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And let me tell you about another round shape that should be properly fitted.

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with Chrysler.

And now Chrysler presents The Cocoon, starring Jackie Cooper and Edith

Fellows.

Noted, geologist. At work.

And speaking of old fossils, have you finished photographing those specimens I

gave you this morning? Oh, yes. The negatives are drying.

I'll print them up after lunch.

Oh, which reminds me. Maru's cooked up a special treat for us today.

Don't tell me. Let me guess.

Canned salmon stewed in coconut milk.

Well, the salmon part is right.

Oh, why doesn't that fool Safari get here?

If I have to face another can of salmon, I shall go out of my mind.

Now, patience, Uncle John. They're not due this way till the 17th. That's six

more days.

Put that.

Another sample?

Susan, this may be a find of tremendous importance.

These fossils are of a species of insect which I believe to be entirely unknown.

Tom found them over on the other side of the crater.

Uncle John, about Tom.

I know he's been behaving badly, but please try to understand.

It's just that he's so terribly eager.

Eager? That's putting it charitably.

No, Susan, I'm truly sorry now that I ever talked the Institute into allowing

him to accompany me on this expedition.

I wish you two would try to get along.

You know, the idea of marrying a man my uncle dislikes doesn't make me very

happy. I can't say that I'm looking forward to it either.

I find Tom opinionated and overbearing.

He's brilliant, but undisciplined.

Constantly letting his imagination run wild.

Disregards orderly procedure entirely.

Qualities that don't make for a first-class scientist.

Or, more important, Susan, a first-class husband.

Have you heard his latest fantasy?

He insists now that these specimens were part of the meteorite.

That's impossible, isn't it? Impossible?

It's utter nonsense.

A meteorite is a flaming fireball. Why, this material couldn't exist under those

conditions.

Yes, but this crater, Uncle John, the trees and plants surrounding here are

green and healthy.

Wouldn't the meteorite have burned everything?

He's got new tunes.

No, Susan, there's a perfectly simple explanation for that. The meteorite did

fall and burn itself out, but probably thousands of years ago, giving the

surrounding plant life plenty of time for regrowth. Wait for it!

Look here.

It was buried under a few inches of shale.

What do you make of it?

Well, it looks like a cocoon.

Yes, that's right.

A giant cocoon.

Of course.

A cocoon.

Underneath this crust, the case is hard and smooth.

Chrysalis-like.

And yet the material seems unusually tough.

Too hard for an insect in its pupa state to pierce.

I wonder what the incubation period is.

Disgusting to even think what might be inside that thing.

Yeah, it certainly is a giant.

All right, hand me the mallet and chisel.

You're not going to break it. Of course I am.

But the Imago might not be fully developed.

Imago? What Imago?

Why, this cocoon is practically petrified. Any insect it might have

contained has been dead for centuries.

Or do you consider this an out-of-the-world wonder, too, brought

here by the meteorite through 600,000 degrees of flaming white heat?

Yes, Professor, actually I do. And what's more, since I made this

discovery, I also consider it mine.

What? You... Tom, Uncle John.

Please.

Listen, Susan.

Go and see about dinner, will you?

There are a few things I'd like to say to this young genius privately.

Please do, Susan. This should be interesting.

I don't understand what's gotten into you two.

I just can't believe that you're the same two people I came here with.

I can't stand this constant fighting.

I just can't stand it!

Susan! Susan!

Now get this person and get it straight. I am in authority here.

And until the Institute is fit to relieve me of that authority, it's I who

make all decisions concerning specimens...

It's

empty.

Professor, help!

Something's choking me! There's nothing there, nothing!

Those ropes will hold.

It has a heart.

It breathes.

Yet it's completely invisible.

Well, I suppose you think Mother Nature is also responsible for this.

That's not impossible.

You mean to tell me that in the face of this, you still won't admit you've been

wrong? If you'd reason a bit, Pearson, instead of rushing headlong into

fantastic conclusions, you might discover there's a perfectly good reason

for this.

All right, Professor.

Let's have this perfectly good reason.

All right.

Granted, this is a solid body that we can touch but can't see.

We have a parallel to that phenomenon on Earth, a piece of pure glass.

Only a certain chemical coarseness prevents the average piece of glass from

being entirely invisible. Wait a minute. You're speaking about an inanimate

substance. Glass doesn't breathe. This thing does. It lives. All right. Have it

your own way.

But I intend to subject this creature to a thorough scientific examination.

Very well, Professor.

How do you propose we start?

I ought to find out his form and shape first.

I wonder if I can outline it in chalk.

No, no, that wouldn't help at all.

Wait. How about taking a plaster cast of it? That way we'd get a solid

dimensional form.

His motions would distort the mold.

Not if we doped it. We know it breathes. We could use chloroform.

Well, maybe it'll work.

Well, we'll try it.

Well, I get the chloroform, you get the plaster. And we'll need a rectangular

box about... about two feet in length.

It's beginning to come out of the chloroform.

Have you secured the ropes again?

Yeah.

All right, if the cancer's ready, give me a hand over here.

Hand me the mallet, will you?

Thanks.

There.

Now, now easily, we pull it apart. You take that side, and I'll take this, and

pull it apart gently.

Hello again, and welcome back to the world of today.

Why am I wearing this dunce cap?

Well, frankly, I deserve to wear it. You know why? Because I've been letting my

wife spend too much money on clothes when it's so easy for her to save.

Now, let me show you.

Here you see the basic kind of suit everyone, every woman owns.

Not very exciting, is it, with just a plain blouse?

But now, look at this fashion magic.

How glamorous this suit can look.

with a low-cost fashion accessory.

It's all done with this smart little jabot.

Clever, isn't it? And now, another money-saving piece of fashion magic.

Here is the kind of old-fashioned watch many women own.

But see the change a clever accessory can make.

It's all done with a new fantasy watch band by Chrysler. And immediately, you

get the costly look of a new $50 bracelet watch.

Yet you pay only $9.95.

Here. Take a close look at it. The new slim fantasy band that fits even a very

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Ask for it by name.

It's Golden Fantasy by Chrysler.

Now you can have Golden Fantasy in a variety of styles, jewel set or tailored

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And whatever model you pick, see how perfectly it suits your watch.

See how perfectly this new design at the end blends with the smallest watch.

Another big advantage, these bands expand.

So when you're doing work around the house, you can slip fantasy up out of

the way.

And remember, golden fantasy costs less than many ordinary bands, only $9.95,

federal tax included.

So go to your jeweler. Make your old watch look smarter than new with the

Fantasy Watch Bracelet by Chrysler.

And now back to our story, The Cocoon.

Starring Jackie Cooper and Edith Fellows with Edgar Staley.

Well, thank you, Maru. I'll have another cup.

Tom. Tom, you've got to do something.

Uncle John hasn't had a thing to eat in days. He just sits and sits by that

filthy thing's bedside.

It's dying, Susan.

Well, I hope so.

And soon.

Now, easy, honey.

What is that thing to me?

What is it?

I told you what I thought it was, but you don't believe me any more than he

does.

You honestly think that that loathsome thing is from another planet?

What other explanation could there be?

We've tried feeding it everything intravenously, and slowly and surely

it's starving to death.

It must have gotten here by way of the meteorite.

But a meteorite would burn itself up.

That thing couldn't have existed on all that heat. Yet, if it fell without

burning.

Oh, I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but so does that creature in there.

I brought you something to eat.

Get up.

Wait.

What's the matter?

Look.

Its heartbeat is normal.

It's regained its strength. Yes.

What did you do?

I discovered what it feeds on.

What?

Human blood.

That explains its emergence for the cocoon at exactly that moment.

It sensed the proximity of human blood.

Its nourishment.

Our blood called it alive.

What shall we do?

We've got to keep it alive at all costs.

We have enough blood plasma and whole blood to last for five or six days.

By that time, my painter, the Savari, will be with here.

Little more press to climb.

This rain sure has delayed them.

Yes, this blasted rain.

It's going to die without a whole butt of plasma that can't last beyond

tomorrow.

What's happened to that safari? Why don't they get here?

Why don't they get here?

Oh, they're four days late now. They're sure to be here by morning.

They don't even have preservatives.

Without preservatives in this heat, if it should die, why would it decompose

within a matter of hours?

We'd have no evidence at all then.

Oh, take it easy, Professor.

You're taking all this very calmly.

You don't seem to care a hang whether it lives or dies. I don't. I hope it does

die. What? Now listen to me. If my theory is correct, and this thing is

from another planet, can't you see the danger involved?

It's invisible.

It has the strength of two men. It's a vampire.

Why, a horde of these things might destroy the world.

What do we know of it?

Nothing. We know nothing of its breeding or anything.

You mean to tell me that after stumbling across a discovery of this magnitude,

that you're willing to sacrifice its life to save your own miserable skin?

Yes, and maybe the skins of millions of others.

Then both as a man and a scientist, you disgust me.

Sorry.

Get out of here.

All right.

They've got to get here.

They've got to.

Oh, Tom.

I'm so frightened.

Yeah, me too.

Your uncle.

This thing's really gotten hold of him.

Susan, I'm afraid for his mind.

Tom. I'm sorry, honey. What can we do?

I don't know.

Tom. Tom, please promise me, if you'll love me, please take care of him for me.

Oh, if they'd only get here.

You wait here.

It's going to die.

It'll go in a minute.

It's... to be kept alive there's nothing more we can do yes there is prepare me

for transfusion what you'd give your own blood to save this thing yes gladly it

doesn't make sense oh to you it wouldn't but it's a small thing a small sacrifice

to make you are mad yes and do as i say i'll kill it

first no

This is what I meant to do.

What do I have to do?

You'll understand later, Pierce, why I'm doing this.

I'm not too bad with the sign.

Yes,

Professor.

I didn't want to say it.

No need to say it.

It must have been out of my mind.

Don't talk now, Uncle John.

I'm sorry, Tom.

Is... Is it dead?

Yes.

And Susan, the log, can take down what I say.

August 3rd, the creature died this night.

Conclusions.

Pearson was right.

It could not have been of earthly origin.

If human blood was only source of food, it could not have existed in dense

jungles far from populated areas.

Therefore, it must have come from elsewhere.

I'm convinced now that by some miracle...

The meteorite brought it here.

A sample of life beyond our universe.

A monstrous, loathsome civilization in which a species of human

beings is the food supply for a monstrous, invisible insect colony.

While all my scientific instincts rebel against its death, every human feeling I

possess

Cannot help but rejoice that we've seen the last of this hideous creature.

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What fate awaited the man who so desperately fled the future?

Next week, Tales of Tomorrow presents The Chase, starring Walter Abel. And now

a word from Alan Edwards.

Tales of Tomorrow is brought to you next week by C.H. Maslin & Sons, makers of

Maslin Beauty Blend Broad Looms and authentic hunting and fishing clothes.

Right now, take a quick look at one Maslin Broad Loom made especially for

today's trend towards smart floor coverings. Carioca, a cotton broad loom

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Available in 11 decorator colors and priced at only about $5.95 a square

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Another Beauty Blend Broad Loom by Maslin.

your host next week on Tales of Tomorrow.