MovieChat Forums > The Outer Limits (1963) Discussion > The sweet smell of...of what? ("It Crawl...

The sweet smell of...of what? ("It Crawled Out of the Woodwork")

posted 7 years ago by joestrike422
2 replies | jump to latest

Just got the season 1 box set of one of my all-time fave series

First I have to say I hate the cutesy "nostalgic" look of the packaging and booklet with those period TV sets - no reason to underline the series' age, except to mock the show.

Now that that's out of the way I just watched the above named episode. In the middle of it Jory tells Gaby he fell asleep during the day which he never does, and when he woke up there was a sickly sweet smell in the motel room. The smell & his falling asleep are never mentioned again.

There's like 12 pages of OL threads and I don't have time to read thru all of them to see if someone asked/answered this question already. My theory is it was a subplot that got cut out of the script for time -- but they left the set-up in because then the episode would've been too short without it.

Anybody else have a theory or a real answer? BTW I've watched this episode a zillion times - the Energy Monster is one of the series' best special effects. First time I've noticed though: maybe it's my imagination but does the EM have a vaguely humanoid shape with sort of arms and a (small) head? Anybody else see that?

-Joe (who controls the diagonal)

[–] wbf200 7 years ago

It's been a while since I saw this episode, but I don't think the reference to the sickening sweet odor was meant to be an important plot point, rather it was meant to contribute to the overall foreboding atmosphere that pervades the entire episode. As for the Energy Creature, it does at times take a humanoid shape which I assume was not accidental though it's not clear why. The whole episode is best viewed as an allegorical tale on the dangers of nuclear energy rather than trying to interpret it as a strictly linear story.

[–] telegonus 7 years ago

I recall the dialogue in It Crawled Out Of The Woodwork as often cryptic, elliptical, or both, as if each of the characters gets a crack at revealing some aspect (or aspects) of his personality, often not germane to the plot. Jory's reference to the "sickly sweet smell" maybe was a hint that someone came in and drugged him, and that the odor was a symptom of it; or it may well have been something prosaic, like the cleaning lady, or the fact that she let someone in. Who knows? It's never made clear, and these lines and moments are among the many charms of the episode and of TOL in general. Why, I wonder, is the name of the security guard and his time left on earth mentioned in the opening scene, complete with middle name? Warren Edgar Morley. Hello and goodbye, Warren. 