Scientists Sam (Bruce Cabot) and Carl (Nelson Olmsted) find some
minerals out in the desert they get curious about - and soon they discover
an unsettling secret of these minerals: They do merge and grow in size,
and they are even able to move to ultimately all merge into one large
meteor. Thing is, the bigger the mass of merged minerals gets, the more
dangerous it gets, too, until it grows into a large fireball destroying
everything in its way, killing those who happen to carry parts of the
meteor in their pocket and becoming a threat to the whole region - so the
good scientists decide to blow the fireball - or dune roller, as they dub
it - up. But that only keeps the minerals temporarily from merging
again. Quite an interesting sci fi tale ... but totally wrong
for the format of a half hour live television show made on the cheap, as
this format totally lacks the possibility to feature elaborate special
effects (at least in the early 1950's it did), meaning the main attraction
of the story as such, the dune roller itself, is never even
seen, and its menace is simply signalled by a bit of lightning - which
somehow doesn't cut it at all. Pity, the plot would have deserved better.
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