Episode 119: When the Cannery Whistle Blows at Noon

Monday, December 12, 1966

Note: The episodes’ official numbering includes skipped numbers for pre-emptions, in accordance with their numbering system (so that one could look at the number of an episode and know what day of the week it aired on). I have elected to number the episodes by what episode it actually is, but I will note the official numbering also. This is the 119th episode, but the official number is 121.

My name is Victoria Winters. There is great concern at Collinwood, for my whereabouts are still unknown. The searchers move farther and farther away from where I’m hidden. But there is one, who, unsuspecting, has come very close to finding me.

Vicki frantically tries to communicate with David through her gag, but Matthew comes in before David can investigate the suspicious sounds further.

David gives Matthew the stolen cigarettes. 
He tells Matthew about the sounds that were like a human voice but not quite, and that he thinks the sounds were made by a ghost. 
Matthew laughs. Yes, there’s no one here but ghosts and ghosts to be.

Mrs. Johnson clears away some dishes from the drawing room and muses that Vicki will never be seen alive again with that awful Matthew Morgan about.

The sheriff arrives. He wants to see Mrs. Stoddard and doesn’t want to tell Mrs. Johnson whether they’ve found Vicki.

“Oh, I see, you haven’t found her. What a police department! You could have a hundred clues and fifty eye witnesses and you wouldn’t solve the case.”

When he gets to talk with Liz, he tells her he should deputize Mrs. Johnson; “she gives a pretty mean interrogation. Unfortunately, she’s right. I haven’t got a clue, not a trace.”

He admits Matthew might have her.

Liz wishes she could turn time back and make everything right.

George admits he doesn’t have much hope for Vicki.

David arrives back from the old house. He asks Mrs. Johnson if the sheriff has any clues.

“When the cannery whistle blows at noon, he knows it’s time for lunch. That to him is a clue.”

Mrs. Johnson wants to know whether David took her cigarettes. She looks at his hands to see if they’re yellow. David tells her if he wanted cigarettes, he wouldn’t steal them; he’d buy them.

David asks George what it means when the cannery whistle blows.

“Lunch?”

The sheriff wonders whether someone is trying to hide Matthew. 
He’s a dangerous man, very unpredictable, and the person who hides him is also breaking the law. Accessory after the fact.

Liz comes in with a snapshot of Vicki. George says he’ll return it once he gets a copy made.

When he leaves, David asks Liz whether she thinks Matthew has Vicki.

“I don’t know.”

“Would he hurt her?”

“Possibly.”

“Would he—kill her?”

Liz says she’d rather not talk about it.

He asks if she knows any secrets about the old house, anything about the walls.

He says he’s going out, and Liz tells him to be back before dark.

Mrs. Johnson tackles him about the cigarettes but he leaves. She calls after him that she thinks he knows where they are. “I think you’re up to something!”

David tells Matthew that the sheriff is taking most of his men away from her. He also tells him about accessory after the fact. Matthew asks who David is going to believe, him or the sheriff.

“I’ve been believing you,” David says. He’s worried about going to jail.

       Cast, In Order of Appearance

Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexandra Moltke

David Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  David Henesy

Matthew Morgan . . . . . . . . . . . .  Thayer David

Mrs. Sarah Johnson . . . . . . . . . .  Clarice Blackburn

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard . . . . . Joan Bennett

Sheriff George Patterson . . . . . .  Dana Elcar

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Written by Malcolm Marmorstein