The Evil Touch
The Evil Touch is an Australian-produced television series, originally broadcast in Australia in 1973. It was an anthology series where each episode had a self-contained story and a new set of characters. Each episode feature a new cast of guest actors, although several guest stars appeared in more than one episode, playing different characters. Each story is a thriller or horror story of some variety, ranging from tales of the occult and the supernatural, science fiction horror stories, to more standard murder schemes and whodunits. Most stories feature a twist ending.
Episodes
Arthur Randall's marriage has become a sham (and he is in love with his secretary), but his wife doesn't wish to give him a divorce. It is suggested to him that he and his wife go away for a while in an attempt to work things out. She reluctantly agrees, and they go to their cabin by the lake. While they are boating, Arthur's wife falls overboard and drowns. Before she drowns Arthur pulls a ring from her finger- a ring he intends to give to his secretary. Arthur returns home for a while, but is eventually drawn to return to the scene of his crime.
A wealthy woman who's raised a nephew in luxury has tolerated the insolent young man long enough. She informs the ingrate that she's changing her will to remove him as sole heir to her estate. Before she can act, he intends to exploit her heart condition and pin the murder on "the monster", a crazed killer roaming the countryside. Richard doesn't realize that the aunt is already anticipating his scheme.
Runtime: 30m
No overview is available.
Former pilot Willie Tremaine, the sole survivor of the airliner he was flying, is visited by the reporter who alleged Willie was drunk at the controls. Pettit brings with him an obituary of Willie and his wife's death dated for that day. Tremaine becomes frantic, fearing the reporter is there to harm him and his family.
Wheelchair-bound Aunt Carrie is celebrating New Years Eve with her young niece and nephew when she hears gunshots. From her window, she witnesses a murder in an apartment across the courtyard. Carrie and the killer lock eyes, so she knows he's coming for her next. The murderer doesn't realize that, though unable to walk, Aunt Carrie is smarter than he is.
Thomas Sullivan is a very well-respected heart surgeon- but one who is clamoring for even more success and recognition. He has the chance to perform a heart transplant on a fellow man of science when Gabor Skorzeny, a laborer who was killed in an automobile accident, is brought into Sullivan's hospital. Skorzeny, however, isn't quite as dead as he would appear, so Sullivan kills him and takes the heart. Unfortunately for Sullivan, the murder wasn't quite a complete success either- as Skorzeny's body is missing and Sullivan gets several mysterious telephone calls.
Runtime: 30m
No overview is available.
Upon returning home Roger Carlyle insists his wife Louise go take a look at something in their basement. What he neglects to tell her is that there are currently no stairs leading to the basement. Louise opens the basement door and falls to her death. Jenny, the Carlyle's maid, begins to blackmail Roger. Eventually Jenny's extortion drives Roger to plan ""accidents"" for himself, hoping to pin them on Jenny.
Wealthy Lily Parkhurst has been living on borrowed time for years thanks to a bad heart. Her greedy cousin and companion Harold rushes her overdue demise with a well-planned poisoning, knowing there will be no autopsy. Harold hadn't planned on the old lady's cockatoo, Radcliffe, being such a blabbermouth about what he's witnessed.
After being a widower for four years, John remarries. He seems to be quite in love with his younger bride Elizabeth. His teenage daughter Marcie insists the marriage is only to boost John's image in his business. It becomes obvious to Elizabeth that Marcie wants to be the only female in her father's life. Marcie begins to terrorize Elizabeth, who can't get John to see the truth about his daughter. Eventually Elizabeth realizes that she must fight back- with surprising results.
Runtime: 30m
No overview is available.
Constance knows that her much younger husband, Evan, is having an affair with her nurse, and that he's hastily stashed her in the closet. That why she demands that he immediately brick up it up. Not wanting to lose out on his rich wife's money, he does as she says. Constance thinks the nasty little problem is behind them until the supposedly dead nurse starts appearing around the house.
Runtime: 30m
No overview is available.
Professor Jonathan Slater's experiments with DNA go awry when he accidentally creates a hideous reptile-like creature. The monster escapes the lab and claims several victims as it takes refuge in a nearby lake. After the deaths, the professor resolves to kills the creature himself. The poison he pours into the water only briefly knocks the monster out. Once it reawakens, Professor Slater realizes he can't bear to destroy his creation.
World-renown scientist David Zack is trailing his opponent in the 2020 presidential campaign. He schemes to use his latest invention, a time-travel machine, to make sure his competitor is never born. He sends a humanoid to the past to prevent the man's parents from ever meeting.
Runtime: 30m
Rags or riches? A young man inherits the key to his grandfather's safe, which might be bobby-trapped.
Popular advice columnist Cora Blake lives in fear knowing the car bomb that killed her husband was meant for her. She informs the police she's going into hiding, not even telling her close friend Harry where she's headed. Isolated at her brother's seaside home, she becomes terrorized by someone who inexplicably knows she's there.
A ruthless developer is put on trial by a group of sideshow freaks. By bulldozing the circus to make way for a condominium, he's destroying the place the "family" calls home--a family he was once part of.
For a publicity stunt, horror movie star Pervis Green visits his two biggest fans, "little old ladies" Lavenia and Elspith Pfeiffer. After being drugged, the actor awakes in a coffin, made up as a vampire. The elderly sisters, unable to distinguish between movies and reality, have locked Pervis in his own private chamber of horrors, demanding he repent for his evil ways.
Reverend Vincent arrives at a missionary outpost in remote Australian to find everyone missing. Following a series of unexplainable events, he's told that it's the work of a Kadaitcha, an Aboriginal "witch doctor," who's trying to take his soul. The reverend instead believes the hallucinations he once suffered have returned.Reverend Vincent arrives at a missionary outpost in remote Australian to find everyone missing. Following a series of unexplainable events, he's told that it's the work of a Kadaitcha, an Aboriginal "witch doctor," who's trying to take his soul. The reverend instead believes the hallucinations he once suffered have returned.
Alvin Hazeltine is a manbored with his life who visits the mystical Dr. Gornak who demonstrates an odd device: a glass prism that reveals the infinite possibilities of every woman. He trains the glass on his boring wife, Selma, and is surprised by what he learns.
A rich couple buys the old sailing ship Endeavor after it spent 70 years in dry dock. Captain Palmer, who's aboard with his wife and another couple, puts everyone on edge with what he reads in the ship's logs. The Endeavor is a malevolent "death ship" that has killed most of the passengers on its previous voyages. The vessel inexplicably shudders, rattles its chains, and charts its own course.
A girl envisions disturbing premonitions: her sister's death was no accident.
Escaped murderer Frank Draker and his accomplice dig up the coffin containing stolen jewels he'd buried years earlier. Racing for the border, the men encounter a group of gypsies in the forest. Frank refuses to heed their leader's warning that the golden icon he wants to steal will bring about vengeance. Draker learns the truth when he's forced to face all the souls he has killed.
An eerie cult of children with plans for doing away with adults commit murders in a British seaside town. Dr. Fenton, a lecturer on over-population, and his son are visiting on vacation when they run afoul of the group. Their leader, Lydia, despises the doctor and his message and wants his son as a member of her group.
The Webbers' dream vacation in Central America becomes a nightmare when their son, Scott, disappears off of a rural roadside merry-go-round. The strange couple that runs the attraction is of no help, nor is Police Captain Ortega who soon disappears. Someone who doesn't want them to find their son runs the couple's car off the highway. On foot, they stumble upon a ghost town where they find their son. He's on an altar, about to be sacrificed by a strange bird-worshiping cult.
