The Collinsport Weather Report: Ron Sproat

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Episode 141: The Impossible Locket

Thursday, January 12, 1967

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 141st episode, but the official number is 144 or 9.
My name is Victoria Winters. For one member of the Collins family, the past is shrouded in mystery, and I’m just beginning to suspect that the mystery surrounding her is deeper and stranger than I’ve ever imagined.

Vicki says that this must be the locket that Laura was wearing the day she moved into Matthew’s cottage.

The detective says that’s impossible. This one was found in the ruins of a burned-out apartment only last week.

Vicki says there must be two of them.

Liz says that could only be if Laura had a copy made.

Vicki wants to know why David’s hair is in this one when Laura said it was in the other one. Liz thinks Vicki must have misunderstood. Vicki asks to come along to the cottage.

Laura tells the policeman that all of the effects belong to her.

He asks her a few questions about her apartment. The woman who died there was locked in from the inside, so she must have had a key.

Well, a cleaning woman who used to work for Laura had a key at one point. Margaret something.

She’s sure no one else would have had access.

Liz and the detective leave. Vicki asks Laura about the locket.

Laura says she told Vicki about the locket, but she wasn’t wearing it at the time. There isn’t another one.

Vicki is mistaken.

Vicki says it’s time for her to get back to the house.

Vicki asks Lt. Riley about the woman found in Phoenix. Time of death hasn’t been established yet.

Vicki finds that Frank Garner has come to deliver some contracts for Liz. He says it’s really an excuse to see Vicki. They sit by the fire and talk.

Vicki tells him strange things have been happening since Mrs. Collins came back.

She tells him about the locket.

Even if there are two lockets, why should Mrs. Collins lie about it?

Liz hears everything (not too surprising).

Frank wants to know why Laura would lie to her. How could the same object show up in two different places?

Liz tells Vicki it’s impossible, and she relents.

Liz goes upstairs, and Vicki tells Frank about the strange things that have been happening, David’s dream and the painting, and how Vicki is being compelled to do things against her will.

She didn’t even want to go to the cottage earlier, but the words came out unbidden.

Frank says he’ll take her out later and she’ll feel better.

After they leave the room, the family book opens itself.

Liz comes down and Vicki says she’s going to go see David, but something makes her come into the drawing room.

Liz asks her if she was thinking of the locket. Wasn’t she looking at it in the book?

Vicki says she wasn’t.

Josette looked after her when Matthew held her hostage.

There’s a picture of Josette wearing the locket.

Vicki wonders if it’s a message from Josette.

Vicki decides she needs to go for a walk.

Cast, In Order of Appearance

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

Lt. Dan Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Connell

Laura Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diana Millay

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard . . . . . Joan Bennett

Frank Garner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conard Fowkes

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by John Sedwick

Written by Ron Sproat

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Episode 140: You Painted My Dream

Wednesday, January 11, 1967

My name is Victoria Winters. It is night at Collinwood after a day of strange and unexplained events. But the strangest event of all has just happened to a small boy, and it defies explanation.

David cries out for Elizabeth, and she comes to him.

Vicki arrives too.

He’s afraid of the painting. He says he saw a face come right out of it. His mother’s face.

Liz tells him it was a bad dream, but he insists it was real.

Liz says dreams sometimes seem very real.

She asks why the painting is there and Vicki tells her Sam painted it, that he didn’t want it, and that he gave it to Vicki. Then David saw it and wanted it.

Liz says they can take the painting away now. David doesn’t want it anymore, does he?

David says he guesses not, but then when Liz goes over to take it down, he changes his mind and begs her to let him keep it. She says they’ll talk about it in the morning.

Vicki and Liz tuck David back into bed.

After they leave, David gets back up and goes over to look at the painting.

Liz asks Vicki why she gave David the painting. Vicki says it was an impulse; he seemed to want it so much. She tells her how Laura felt about the painting.

Vicki asks whether they’ll need her if David leaves with Laura.

Liz says she isn’t sure David will be leaving. Laura needs to prove she can do more for David than Liz can, and Liz isn’t sure that’s the case.

Vicki says, “Oh, but she needs him so badly!” (A strange thing to say—is Vicki under Laura’s spell? Or the forces fighting against Laura?)

Liz points out that the important thing is whether David needs Laura. She seems to be the cause of his nightmares. Her presence there seems to disturb him.

David sets his crystal ball on the windowsill.

He gets up on something and looks at the portrait.

It’s morning in Collinsport, and Sam is preparing to paint when there’s a knock on the door.

It’s Vicki and David. David wants to thank him for the painting.

He likes that it looks like his mother, and it’s scary, and he loves scary things. He asks why Sam painted her that way, standing in flames. Sam says you can’t ask an artist why he paints something, because he never knows the answer.

David tells Sam he painted David’s dream. His mother is on fire, and it’s getting hotter and hotter.

Sam says maybe they both travel on the same psychic wavelength.

He tells David there are cookies and cider in the refrigerator. David still wants to know how Sam painted his dream. Sam says it’s a coincidence. There’s not any real connection.

David says he just thought it was spooky. (David likes spooky things.)

When David goes to the kitchen, Sam says David’s dream is the same as the vision he’s been having.

He started another picture. It was going to be a seascape. He shows it to Vicki.

“It’s another woman on fire!” Vicki says. She wants to know whether it’ll be Laura Collins again, and what the empty space is going to be.

He doesn’t know.

Vicki says something strange happened yesterday. Something made her take the painting, something made her show it to David, something beyond her power.

David comes back and Vicki says it’s time for them to go. Sam tells Vicki that some things are best forgotten.

After Vicki and David leave, Sam begins, unwillingly, to paint.

When Vicki and David return, Liz tells David his lunch is ready in the kitchen.

Vicki tells Liz she took David to see Sam; he wanted to thank Sam for the painting.

Liz says she thinks that was a mistake. Vicki asks why, but before Liz can answer, there’s a knock on the door.

It’s a policeman asking to see Laura.

It’s about the dead woman in Phoenix.

Liz says she’ll take him to Laura’s cottage, but first he wants to show Liz some personal effects found in the fire.

She can identify the locket—a family heirloom; her brother gave it to Mrs. Collins when they were married.

Vicki said she saw this locket in Laura’s possession, and Laura told her a story about it—how she clipped a lock of David’s hair and kept it in there.

Liz says it can’t be the one she saw, because this is a family heirloom.

Vicki says it must be.

The policeman opens the locket and finds a lock of hair.