One Step Beyond The Dead Part of the House (1959–1961) watch online HD

Excellent episode was the best of the season, as a man(played by Philip Abbott) moves into an old house with his sister(played by Joanna Linville) and young daughter Anne(played by Mimi Gibson). Relations are strained between him and his daughter because his wife (her mother) died, and he unjustly blames her. Anne finds solace in her bedroom with three dolls(named Jennifer, Rose, & Mary) she becomes obsessed playing with, as they become her only friends, and as it turns out, may be possessed by the spirits of three girls who died there many years ago, and want Anne to join them there permanently... Most effective ghost tale with fine cast and atmosphere, and fitting end.

Following the accidental death of his wife, in Denver, psychologically fragile Philip Abbott (as Paul Burton) and his young daughter Mimi Gibson (as Ann Burton) go to live with Mr. Abbott's sister, attractive Joanne Linville (as Minna Boswell), in San Francisco. A divorcée, Ms. Linville lives in a mysterious house, with stereotypical "old world" Chinese manservant Philip Ahn (as Song). Obviously, Mr. Abbott and Ms. Linville hope to provide a pseudo-family for lonely girl.

Both Abbott and his daughter are experiencing emotional shock, and grief. Credited writer Michael Plant elicits these kind of assumptions with a cleverly written script; it keeps your mind working. The props (music box, doll house) presage the "Dark Shadows" 1970 playroom frequented by Kathy Cody. Eventually, young Gibson discovers a sealed-off section of the house. There, she spends her time with friends Jennifer, Rose, and Mary - but, are they real people, dolls… or ghosts?

***** The Dead Part of the House (3/17/59) John Newland ~ Philip Abbott, Joanne Linville, Mimi Gibson, Philip Ahn

The story in "The Dead Part of the House" is nearly identical to one I saw about a year ago on some other old TV show from the era. I wish I could remember which one it was...if you have any idea, let me know.

This show begins with a recent widower, Paul (Philip Abbott) arriving with his daughter, Ann (Mimi Gibson) at his sister's home. It seems that after his wife's death, Denver is unappealing and Paul wishes to start a new life there. However, Paul is a screwy father--and treats his poor daughter terribly. Aunt Minna (Joanna Linville) is horrified and chides her brother for how rough he is with the girl.

Soon after arriving at Aunt Minna's mansion, Ann asks if she can stay in a room in a part of the place that's been closed off for some time. Minna doesn't mind, but Paul is a grouch. Following their fixing up this room, Ann begins to act strangely--and in a good way. She becomes more thoughtful of her father--and she claims it's because her three new friends told her to be more understanding of him. Who are these friends? Well, they seem to be ghosts of children who died in that very same room, long, long ago.

This is an interesting episode, though as usual I strongly doubt the narrator's assessment that the story is true. Yeah, sure. But it is well made and worth seeing.

Warning: contains spoilers.

Despite the ominous sounding title, this is one of the most, if not *the* most, benign episodes of One Step Beyond. A recent widower (wife died in an auto accident) and his 11 year old daughter relocated from Delaware to California to move in with his sister. Father's gruff attitude leads young Ann to believe he wishes she had been the one killed. When we, the audience, are privy to his thoughts when he's alone, we realize she is not completely wrong.

The "dead part" merely refers to the fact that Aunt Minna, living alone, doesn't use the second floor. But Ann is drawn to the staircase. To placate the child, the adults take her to "explore" upstairs. While there, someone, or something beckons her to a particular room. She requests that this be her bedroom. The adults protest as to its suitability for that but agree to fix it up as a playroom.

Despite father's growing belligerence, in spite of himself, Ann makes every effort to be a loving daughter. She makes reference to her new friends who live in the room, and even named the dolls Minna gave her as a welcoming gift after them, so she says. Further along into the story, Minna becomes convinced something is there. And by program's end, even father is not totally disbelieving, for something is responsible for a parent-child reconciliation.

Phillip Abbot and Joanne Linville, both always reliable, are in fine form here, as usual. But Mimi Gibson as Ann gives what is arguably the best performance of her brief career. The one jarring note is the character of the Chinese butler, no fault of Philip Ahn, who invests his role with dignity. While it is he who explains the "secret" of the room, it is in a semi-pidgin English. While it's not as bad as other portrayals of Asians, it lacks the eloquence of Master Kan, his Kung Fu role. Why didn't Hollywood scenarists of the past believe minorities are capable of speaking in complete, grammatically correct, sentences?

This episode of One Step Beyond isn't as terrifying as the title might suggest, in fact I would find it odd if anyone with an unused portion of their home described it as a dead part of the house. However the butler Song (Philip Ahn) clues us in at one point when he described what happened in the second floor bedroom many years ago. Three young sisters died there when a faulty radiator valve leaked gas into the room and they all suffocated.

I couldn't figure out, as the other reviewers here have noted, why the father (Philip Abbott) treated his daughter Ann (Mimi Gibson) so rudely following the untimely death of his wife. If there was some unresolved connection between mother and daughter it was never mentioned, and it just made Paul Burton look like an always angry curmudgeon. Following the advice of her three new dolls which she named Jennifer, Rose and Mary, Ann melts her father's temperament with a hug and kiss to which he thoughtfully responds.

The resolution here was hardly a complicated one. The father decides to move to Denver with young Ann, who is at first resistant to going. Paul Burton's sister Minna, owner of the home they were visiting, has a frightening experience in the doll's room and felt she was being touched by hands even though no one else was there. That's as scary as things got in the story, and even though Paul brushed it off, he went up to the room and quite surprisingly, thanked the 'ghosts' for helping him reconcile his feelings for his daughter.