Thursday, July 7,
1966
My name is
Victoria Winters. In the short time I’ve been here, Collinwood has made me a
part of its strangeness, a strangeness that seems to reach out and touch
everyone—and everything—that lives within its walls. For the past can be a
prison, not only for me, but for other, for all those driven by fears of the
future.
Bill Malloy comes into the
hotel lobby and calls Burke on the house phone, saying he wants to come up and
talk with him. Burke hangs up on him.
Bill goes to see Liz, who is
about to put the tea things away. He has some papers for her to look over, and
he calls his secretary to let her know where he is. Bill tells Liz “they raised
the price five cents/a hundred cans of sardines in Nantucket.”
“Is that why you came to see
me? To talk about the price of sardines?”
He has to keep her informed.
“It’s about Burke Devlin?” she
asks.
It is. Burke refused to see
him when he went to the hotel.
Carolyn comes in and asks how
things are at the fish factory. (“Swimmin’ along, princess, just swimmin’s
along.”) Then she wants to know what their enemy is like. Upon discovering that
she has met Burke, she notes that he’s a very attractive man.
When Bill and Liz are alone
again, Bill wonders when Carolyn and Joe will get married. As soon as possible
is his hope. He’s worried about what Burke might do.
Burke went of prison because
he committed a crime, Liz says. She is not afraid of him. Bill thinks Liz is
the “greatest woman on the face of the earth.”
“Why? Because I’m not afraid
of Burke Devlin?”
“Because you plant your feet
firm on the deck when the gale blows. Because you hold your head up high and
damn the devil. Because you don’t know how to run scared.” The two of them will
stop Burke, no matter what he’s trying to do.
Carolyn visits Vicki in her room.
She tells her about the three people who threw themselves off the cliff:
“Josette, the wife of the madman who built this place,” and, oh, two
governesses.
Despite her scare tactics,
Carolyn is glad Vicki is staying. She wishes she were as brave as Vicki. She
hates this place, but when she has the chance to leave, she gets scared. She
loves Joe, but when he proposes, she panics. Switching gears, she wants to know
about Burke.
Bill thinks Burke isn’t
vicious, but he’s a hungry man. “It’s in your head, Liz, whether you’re wealthy
or not.” Burke will consider himself poor until he owns all the Collins
holdings.
Someone knocks, but no one is
at the door when Liz goes to answer. She finds a broken teacup. She tells Bill
it was a poltergeist. A nine-year-old poltergeist named David. One of her
favorite teacups is broken, and she’s delighted—because it wasn’t Burke at the
door. She thought it was, and she was frightened. And she isn’t going to live
that way.
“I’m going to be Elizabeth
Collins Stoddard, and I’m not going to jump at every sound and tremble at every
whisper.”
Bill accuses her of planning
to do nothing as she’s done for eighteen years. (Where did all that admiration
go, Bill?) He’s been worrying about her for so long it’s like a habit. He
doesn’t want her to ignore Burke, who is a dangerous man.
Carolyn thinks Burke sounds
marvelous from Vicki’s description of their coffee meeting. “I wouldn’t say
marvelous. He’s charming, and very direct, and a little frightening.”
“In what way?”
“Well, he’d be telling me
stories about when he used to live in Collinsport, but all the time,
underneath, he’d be asking me questions.” About Carolyn’s mother and uncle,
especially her uncle. Why the sudden interest in Burke?
According to Carolyn, from the
moment his name was mentioned, it was as if someone had thrown a bomb into the
place. Maybe a good bomb is what they all need.
Carolyn’s mother calls her
downstairs. Before going, she tells Vicki that Burke threatened to paddle her
last night. She didn’t know who he was at the time. “I bet he would have done
it too.” Vicki notes that’s not much of a recommendation. Carolyn says maybe
not, but a man like that is worth a second look. She offers to take Vicki’s
letter to town to post when she’s finished it. Vicki puts a stamp on it so
Carolyn won’t have to go to the hotel to get one.
Bill’s niece is going on a
trip, and he would like Carolyn to go with her. Carolyn wants to stay and help
with the troubles. “You’re stubborn, princess, just like your mother.”
Carolyn tells Bill he can give
her a ride into town and assures her mother, “I was brought up in this house,
and that makes me an expert in fighting goblins.”
Carolyn calls Burke on the hotel house phone and asks if she can come up to see him. She gets a friendlier answer than Bill Malloy.
Carolyn calls Burke on the hotel house phone and asks if she can come up to see him. She gets a friendlier answer than Bill Malloy.
Cast,
In Order of Appearance
Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . Alexandra Moltke
Bill Malloy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Schofield
Elizabeth
Collins Stoddard .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Joan Bennett
Carolyn Stoddard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . Nancy Barrett
Mrs. Hopewell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . Elizabeth Wilson
Fashion by Ohrbach’s
Directed by Lela Swift
Story created
and written by
Art Wallace
