If you're wanting to warn a whole city to escape an imminent earthquake, it helps if you're not saddled with a reputation for alcoholism. Apparently a reformed character, Perkins has been allowed back into his old job as a distinctly middle-aged bellboy in a luxury hotel, virtuously performing humble duties for his betters.
Unfortunately on this very morning, as he receives his shocking premonitions, a crooked staff-member has framed him for watering the whisky ordered by a highly-paid theatrical star, so his warnings go unheard, and he is doomed to be the Cassandra of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Most of the story is simply Perkins trying to convince everyone he sees that the earthquake is about to hit, and being told to run away and play. This gets a bit monotonous, though David Opatoshu's performance is a minor tragic masterpiece. (We could imagine him singing 'Buddy can you spare a dime?') When a local newspaper editor starts to wonder whether the claims might be valid, an employee warns him not to believe a word from this man, who turns out to be his disgraced father, and advises his boss to send for the police.
Thus Perkins is sedated and strapped to a bed when the big moment comes, and dies without seeing his predictions vindicated. A nice coda is that the only people who took him seriously, a married couple staying at the hotel, did actually get out of town, and thus survived the disaster.
The destruction of the great hotel carries a touch of the Titanic story (also featured in an episode in this series), and it seems well possible that some of the original footage of the disaster may have been slotted-in here.
Unfortunately on this very morning, as he receives his shocking premonitions, a crooked staff-member has framed him for watering the whisky ordered by a highly-paid theatrical star, so his warnings go unheard, and he is doomed to be the Cassandra of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Most of the story is simply Perkins trying to convince everyone he sees that the earthquake is about to hit, and being told to run away and play. This gets a bit monotonous, though David Opatoshu's performance is a minor tragic masterpiece. (We could imagine him singing 'Buddy can you spare a dime?') When a local newspaper editor starts to wonder whether the claims might be valid, an employee warns him not to believe a word from this man, who turns out to be his disgraced father, and advises his boss to send for the police.
Thus Perkins is sedated and strapped to a bed when the big moment comes, and dies without seeing his predictions vindicated. A nice coda is that the only people who took him seriously, a married couple staying at the hotel, did actually get out of town, and thus survived the disaster.
The destruction of the great hotel carries a touch of the Titanic story (also featured in an episode in this series), and it seems well possible that some of the original footage of the disaster may have been slotted-in here.