Original subtitles

Tales of Tomorrow.

Miss Selena Wisniewski?

Please. You got the wrong party. My name is Marshall.

Of course, Miss Marshall. That was stupid of me. I must speak to you.

Well, what do you want?

My car.

Mr. J.M.

Carmichael, business consultant.

You mean Wall Street?

Yes. Please, may I come in? I must speak to you. Oh, by all means, come right in.

I'm awful sorry, but I'm all bought up on my stocks and bonds this week.

May I sit down?

Oh, sure, sure. Just make like this is your club.

Well? Now, Miss Wisniewski... Oh, when you're carrying that stuff, I said the

name was Marshall.

It isn't to your advantage to be Miss Marshall.

We're only interested in Miss Wisniewski.

Hey, what do you want, and who are you?

Well, who I am is of no importance, but whom I represent is.

Now, you are Selina Wisniewski, born May 10th, 1926.

Parents, Thomas and Coral.

Place of birth, Whitman City, population 89.

Small rural community located on the Gulf of Mexico.

Small rural community?

That place is a dump.

Education, primary school.

Left home in 1943.

Moved to Jamaica, New York.

Occupation, cannery worker.

Well, so what? It's better than anything I had back there.

Father died August 8, 1947.

Oh, uh, he, uh, finally drunk himself under, huh?

Mother. still living in the same waterfront cottage. Now, look, mister,

what's with this cottage and rural community business anyway?

I come from a shack town. What do you want with me?

Wish you to go back home, Selena.

What?

Oh, mister.

Are you kidding me? Go back to that crummy joint?

Perhaps this check will change your mind.

What's this all about?

You'll listen to me now.

Yeah.

Good.

Now, I can't mention any names.

Suffice it to say that I represent the combined food industries of this

country. Food?

Yes. Now, briefly, here's the picture.

Our attention was directed to Whitman City a little over a year ago when the

only general store in town suddenly went out of business and shut down.

Comedy? Yes.

Oh. Now, Whitman City is neither agricultural nor dairy. And there isn't

another store within 100 miles.

The community depended entirely upon Carmody's for its food and staples.

Yeah, yeah, we used to get everything there.

Exactly. So did everyone else.

Well, what are they living on?

Well, that's the strange part of it. They're thriving.

Every one of the 89 is strong and healthy.

And yet they haven't so much as imported a loaf of bread in a year and a half.

Well, there's plenty of fish in the Gulf.

We've investigated that possibility.

They haven't taken a single fish out of those waters.

Now, Selena, the big question is, what sustains the inhabitants of Whitman

City? What are they living on?

If they've discovered or developed a new food, we must know about it.

You mean, you want me to go back there and find out what they're living on?

Exactly. In all this country, you're the only person who has a living relative in

Whitman City.

Don't you see? It would be perfect.

The return of the prodigal.

Nobody would suspect you.

I... I don't want to go back.

I... I hate that place. I never want to see it again.

Besides, I'm not a detective.

You need a detective. Yes. We've tried that. They've all failed.

Those people down there are closed-mouthed and antagonistic.

Whatever they've got, they're guarding it with all their strength.

You need only stay as long as it takes you to find out what this food is.

And if possible, bring us back a sample for analysis.

That's a lot of money for just a few days' work, Selena.

What do you want?

Mama?

What is it?

What is it?

Mama, it's me, Selena.

What do you want?

It's your daughter, Mama.

I come to visit you. It's me, Selena.

Selena?

Yeah, your daughter, your baby.

My baby?

What what's the matter with you mom

Yeah, yeah, the way you look, you been sick or something?

No. Selena?

No.

No? In the house.

I know, it's just a shack, but now,

it's... Uh, Mama,

I'm hungry.

I, I ain't had any food for, well, since yesterday.

You got anything to eat in the house, Mama?

Selina, you stay.

You stay, Selina, Mama. Right now I'm hungry.

I'd like to have something to eat. Yes, yes, yes. We go see Samuel.

Samuel, Lina, we must ask Samuel.

Ask him what, Cora?

Oh, Samuel.

Samuel, my baby, has come home.

Lina has come home.

Fine, Cora, fine.

She's come home to stay for good, Samuel.

For real.

A good friend, Lena. A very good friend, Lena.

Samuel. Lena is hungry.

Then feed her.

Oh, Samuel.

Thank you, Samuel.

Thank you. Lena, sit down. Sit down. I'll...

Lena, sit down.

Oh, wait. We must be careful.

We must hide it just for us. Right, Samuel?

Yes, Cora.

What is it? Eat, Lena, eat.

Eat that filthy junk.

I said I was hungry for food, not that.

It is food, Lena. Whatever kind you want, Lena. What?

whatever kind you want.

How about a thick, juicy, charcoal-broiled steak, Selina? Oh, now

you're talking with onions and french fries.

It's right there, Selina. It's a steak or a roast.

Pork, lamb, or veal. Or strawberries in December.

It's caviar or kale.

It's anything you've ever tasted, if you want.

Selina.

What do you know?

Strawberries.

It's sweet. It's sour.

It tastes like anything you want it to taste like. It's everything and anything

you want it to be.

Mama, baby.

Mama.

Mama.

Grow this stuff, Mom.

Don't grow.

Mix it from the sea water, Lena.

Sea water? See, what is he, from Mars or something?

A scientist, Lena. A great scientist.

Oh, yeah?

Well, then why doesn't he do something about the way you live him?

Don't you ever clean up or anything?

What for, Lena?

Eat. Eat this plenty, plenty. What for?

Say it, Mom.

How did he make this stuff?

Down in the workshop by the reeds.

Yeah?

Well, what do you know?

Bacon and eggs.

Oh, it's you.

Well, who'd you think it was?

Can't be too careful.

I'm sorry if I frightened you. Come in, come in.

So, so this is where you make the manna. Yes, only it isn't manna.

That's the name of the peabnit. I call it Substance X.

Substance X?

Oh, tell me something. Do you really... make it from the seawater out there?

It's nothing new. The process has been known for years.

For instance, the fish in the ocean.

They derive their nourishment from minute plants in the water.

You mean this is the same stuff that fish eat?

No, no.

Only the process is similar.

Substance X contains various other chemical ingredients which I add to it.

Oh, ingredients. You mean you add something to it to make it taste like

anything you want it to taste like? Yes.

Do you know what governs the sense, Delina?

No. When you eat something, the taste buds under the tongue send an impulse to

the taste centers in the brain.

The brain, in turn, identifies the food as sweet, sour, bitter, salty.

Now, Substance X just reverses that procedure.

It is the brain that sends a suggestive impulse to the taste buds.

So you see, in that way, Substance X is able to taste like anything the brain

remembers.

Well, then it couldn't taste like caviar to me because I never tasted caviar

before. That's right. Only what the brain remembers.

Wow.

If you put this stuff in a box, you could make a million dollars.

I'm not interested in making a million dollars. You're just going to give it

away? When the time comes, yes.

But I'm afraid that day is still a long way off. Still a long way off?

Why, you give it to the people here right now.

Experimentally, yes.

Oh, but not you.

You eat the regular kind, huh? Yes.

Well, if this Substance X is so hot, why don't you eat it yourself?

Because in every experiment, it is necessary that a control group be

maintained.

When I first started, I held Substance X back from half the town, but it didn't

work. They objected so strongly that I was forced to give it to them, too.

I am the only control left.

Hey, that makes them guinea pigs.

Perhaps, but they haven't been harmed.

So far in a year and a half, their physical condition has improved

tremendously. And they've become immune to all diseases.

But... But?

Excuse me.

But he was always the richest man in town.

He's always the best dressed.

Then you can see what's happened.

It's something that hadn't occurred to me at first, but it should have.

The whole town has lost its ambition and incentive, Selina.

So long as there's plenty of substance X to be had for the asking, why work?

They become callous and slipshod.

Their habits have degenerated to those of animals.

They're nothing but a bunch of animals.

Exactly. And that's why I'm so happy you've come, Selina.

It's going to be up to us, you and me, to rebuild their confidence, bring them

out of this mental torpor, rebuilding them a sense of pride.

You and me?

Oh, I know it's going to be a big job, Selina, but I'm sure that together we

can do it. Oh, no.

No, you're not going to rope me in on this.

The rest of you, uh-uh.

I promise things will change. Sure, yeah, sure, they'll be different. This

is only the beginning. Why, in five years, you'll all be living like a pack

of rats. Now let go of me.

Mom?

There, there, Cora. Everything will be all right.

Sir, you should just come on and know.

Everyone will know.

Everyone will find out.

Don't worry, Cora.

They won't find out anything.

So, like you told me to, I sent you a telegram, hopped on the first plane, and

here I am.

It's fantastic. I can't believe it. Oh, it's true, all right. Honestly, just try

some yourself and see.

No, no, no. We'll need every bit of this for analysis.

Oh. I congratulate you, Selena.

You did a good job.

Thank you. Hey, where's our steaks? I'm starving to death. I ain't had a bite to

eat since I left that hole.

Oh, here we are.

Oh.

Boy, doesn't that look wonderful.

You can just give me the good old-fashioned kind any time.

Eat hearty.

Yeah, thanks.

I will.

Hey, what's with this joint?

They're trying to poison me.

They're trying to poison me. What's wrong? What is it? That steak.

It's poison. It's filthy, rotten. Send it back.

Nothing wrong with it, Selina.

Perfectly all right.

It's poison, I tell you.

Selina, the food.

Substance X.

How much of it did you eat down there?

The banana?

Oh, no.

That must be it.

Substance X.

It affects the taste centers in the brain somehow.

It makes all other foods unpalatable and nauseating.

The brain can no longer identify them.

It can only identify Substance X.