This is an episode from Four Star Playhouse. This anthology series ran for 130 episodes between 1952 and 1956. The series was produced by Dick Powell, David Niven, Ida Lupino and Charles Boyer. It was a popular series that drew many well-known Hollywood types as guest stars. This is the 100th episode of the series.
This particular episode stars Ida Lupino. Lupino is a wealthy woman who has had enough of her playboy husband (Scott Forbes) stepping out on her. She tells him she is tossing the crumb out. Lupino gets on the horn and calls her friend (Frances Robinson) in New York. Robinson is a real estate broker. Lupino asks her to find a nice apartment for her. She is leaving Forbes and thinks a few months on the East coast will help. Robinson says she has just the place, a nice new furnished apartment with everything included.
Lupino takes the train cross country and meets with Robinson. Robinson shows her a nice suite in a new building. Lupino will be the only resident of the building for a few weeks, Robinson tells her. Lupino is tired from her trip and goes for a nap.
Miss Lupino is woken by a phone call. She answers, but no one is there. She takes a look around the apartment and discovers some strange things. The windows are covered by sheets of steel. The front door is missing the doorknob on her side, no utensils in the kitchen and the furniture is all bolted to the floor. She tries the phone but finds there is no dial tone.
What the hell is going on? She starts to panic and starts clawing at the outside door to no avail. Then the phone rings again with no one there. Now the power goes off leaving only the skylight as a source of illumination. This goes on for several days with Lupino becoming rather overstressed.
Now she finds a record player with a note attached saying, "To the new resident." She plays the record, and a voice tells her that there is enough food to last her a month, if she rations it. The voice also says there is a way out. All she needs to do is find the key. Lupino now spends hours looking for this key.
She finds said key hidden on a wall. Now she needs to find what it is for. Several more hours are spent tearing up the apartment looking for a door. She finds another door hidden in the closet. She unlocks the door and enters. All there is inside is a length of rope ending in a hangman's noose, dangling from the roof. Now Lupino is becoming completely unglued.
A week passes and the front door slowly opens. In walks her cad of a husband (Scott Forbes). He calls out to Lupino, but gets no answer. Forbes is now joined by Frances Robinson. The two look through the apartment calling out to Lupino.
Lupino walks slowly out of the bedroom mumbling to herself about going to New York. She does not even notice Forbes or Robinson. She wanders around the apartment looking for her luggage. Forbes smiles and says to Robinson, "See, all we need to do now is have her committed to a private nut-house. All her money will be ours." Of course Forbes and Robinson have been stepping out behind Lupino for ages. They have had plenty of time to set up this apartment. Lupino always went to New York when upset.
Forbes starts looking around for the record player. "We need that record from the player, it is the only evidence against us." While they are searching, Lupino, still mumbling to herself, walks out of the apartment. She stops and closes the door behind her, locking in Forbes and Robinson. She heads for the street to get a cab: she must go to New York, she mumbles.
This is an excellent suspense tale with Lupino going all out as she goes over the mental edge.
Of note here is the director, Ray Kellino. Kellino, from England, was a much in demand television helmsman who was getting ready to break into Hollywood feature films when he died at age 44. Kellino was James Mason's brother-in-law.
The look of the episode is excellent, with veteran film noir cinematographer George Diskant, using a nice selection of blacks and grey to heighten the tension. DESPERATE, PORT OF NEW YORK, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, THE RACKET, ON DANGEROUS GROUND, NARROW MARGIN and KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL are some examples of his big screen work.
The episode was written by Joyce Selznick and Richard Carr. The latter name you may remember from the recent one-off link to the RICHARD DIAMOND episode "The Sport" (one of five episodes of that show written by Carr). Joyce Selznick (1925-1981) was the niece of David O. Selznick and had a brief career as a writer before becoming a major talent scout, personal manager and casting director. She is credited with discovering Tony Curtis, James Darren, and Michael Paré (which might tip us off to her personal taste in men). She also launched the careers of George C. Scott, Faye Dunaway, and Candice Bergen. As a personal manager, her clients included Kurt Russell, Brenda Vaccaro, David Hasselhoff, Joey Travolta, Ann Jillian, and Fannie Flagg.
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