Tuesday, June 28, 1966
My name is Victoria Winters.
Collinwood, the great house
on top of Widows Hill, is a dark and frightening place to end a journey. The
ghosts of yesterday seem to tell me to run, but I’m here now, and there’s no
turning back.
Miss Winters sets her very large
suitcase in the hallway and apologizes for being late, explaining that she had
trouble getting a taxi. Liz asks to see the letter she sent and Miss Winters
gives it to her. It’s like an invitation to get into a special event.
There are forty rooms in the house, and
they have one man to do the heavy work. The family “pitch[es] in.” Liz, still
wearing her long gown, demonstrates this by going to make tea. She returns to
find the new governess looking at portrait and tells her that it is Liz’s
great-grandfather, Jeremiah Collins, who built the house. He was a strong man,
unlike, perhaps, the current adult male Collins (or that seems to be Liz’s
feeling). Liz has asked Roger to join them for tea, but the sounds of footsteps
and a closing front door suggest he has declined to invitation.
Miss Winters is enthusiastic and curious
about her young charge, David, but gets little information from Liz, although
she does mention that her daughter, Carolyn, is a lovely girl.
Carolyn Stoddard is currently dancing at
the Blue Whale, much to the annoyance of her boyfriend, Joe Haskell, and the
pleasure of Burke Devlin’s private eye, Wilbur Strake. Yes, the joint is
jumping, as much as its limited space will allow.
Joe not-so-charmingly tells Carolyn she’s
making an idiot of herself (all she is doing is dancing!) and gets into a fight
with two of her Neanderthal dance partners. Perhaps some of this trouble could
have been avoided had Joe learned to dance. The bartender calls the police
(this seems to be a common occurrence). Burke breaks up the fight and sends
Carolyn home, not-so-charmingly threatening to take Carolyn over his knee. He
also tells Joe to come back once he gets Carolyn home.
Wilbur Strake comments, “Looks like the
fight’s over, Mr. Devlin,” to which Burke replies, “Just beginning, Mr. Strake,
just beginning.”
Victoria’s new bedroom is quite different
from her digs back at the orphanage. She wants to know why she, of all people,
was offered this job. Liz tells her what (to us) is an obvious lie, that Roger
knew someone at the orphanage who recommended her. Victoria also finds this a
bit fishy, as no one there had mentioned this to her.
Liz goes downstairs to discover a
distraught Carolyn, who doesn’t even want tea. Carolyn doesn’t think what
happened is Joe’s fault, but she wishes she could get out of this house, wishes
she had a white knight. She adds brightly: “How do you expect me to go away and
leave you all alone in this beautiful nuthouse?”
Liz notes that she wouldn’t be alone now,
and they discuss the new governess, whom Liz says Carolyn will like. Carolyn is
surprised she’s come and wonders if she’s crazy.
Meanwhile, Miss Winters says “boo” to one
of the portraits and goes out for a walk. On Widows Hill, she meets Mr. Collins
(“Roger—I much prefer Roger”). It is all very pleasant except for his dark
warnings about his own son and intimations that people have jumped from this
spot before.
But then she mentions having met a man
named Burke Devlin. Roger demands to know whether she is sure of the man’s name
and takes off in a tearing hurry.
Miss Winters returns home to the sounds of
Liz’s lugubrious piano playing and goes upstairs for the night.
Cast,
In Order of Appearance
Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexandra Moltke
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . Joan Bennett
Carolyn Stoddard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nancy Barrett
Joe Haskell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joel Crothers
Wilbur Strake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Julian
Burke Devlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mitchell Ryan
Roger Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Louis Edmonds
Fashion by Ohrbach’s
Directed by Lela Swift
Story created and written by Art Wallace
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