User Reviews

A car accident inexplicably sends three people, a woman and her two 'wooers', one a erudite toff, the other a practical everyman, back 50,000 years to Neanderthal times. No explanation for the temporal displacement is offered and the story is more of a parable about 'thinkers vs doers' than a time-travel adventure. The story was adapted by Arch Oboler, who wrote/adapted several science fiction films in the 1950s (including 'Five' (1951) and 'The Twonky' (1953)). Some effort was put into the script, which is fairly accurate and scientifically literate (including references to Mousterian culture) and the story gets quite brutal at times. Not a lot happens and the plot is weakened buy the sudden appearance of a gun (which could have been written in more smoothly). The final 'twist' is predictable and awkwardly wedged in. It's interesting to speculate to whom 'Adam' in the title refers, otherwise the old teleplay has little to recommend it.

"Lights Out" was an early television horror anthology series--a bit like the later "Twilight Zone" but with a greater focus on the supernatural. I have found the series to be rather uneven. Part of this is due to the sophistication of television in the late 40s and early 50s (such as using a cheesy organ for the music and cheap sets). Part of it is due to wildly uneven scripts. While shows like "Dead Man's Coat" are brilliant, others such as "And Adam Begot" are downright silly.

"And Adam Begot" begins with some folks discovering a Neanderthal skull along the roadway in the Dordogne region in France (which is famous for its neolithic cave paintings). The two guys then begin arguing once the car takes off and this leads to an accident--and the trio are hurled down an embankment. Suddenly, it's thousands of years in the past and they are in the age of Neanderthals--and it's a fight for their lives.

Personally, seeing a guy running about in Fred Flintstone clothes chasing these modern folks is embarrassing. And so is the explanation for how all this occurred. Take my advice...see one of the other free episodes available for viewing or download at archive.org. This one is really dumb.

By the way, one of the characters in the show (played by Kent Smith) talks about how stupid Neanderthal man was and how small his brain was. This is not so, as the brain capacity if about equal to the average person today. Really.

I thought this was a pretty cool episode. Of course, yes, the production values from 1951 vs. 2020, 70 FREAKING YEARS LATER, pale in comparison to modern times. However, this is a pretty "modern" plot here. It involves 3 characters: A woman and both of the men who love her and are arguing over her throughout the episode. The dialogue in the car between the 3 is actually pretty well written. Yes, the guy running around in the furs as a Neanderthal is pretty silly looking but overall, especially with the nice little twist at the end and the witty dialogue at the beginning among the 3, I'll give this an 8.

Side note: The writer, Arch Oboler, around this time made the post-apocalyptic cult move, Five, about, yes, the last 5 folks on earth after an atomic war. There was not only a love triangle here among a good and bad guy over the last, and pregnant, woman, but an examination of racism and a great film setting, the Frank Lloyd Wright Cliff House, in the Santa Monica Mountains, owned by Mr. Oboler who gave his name to the property. The house unfortunately, and tragically, burned down in the Woolsey Fire in 2018.