THRILLER: TERROR IN TEAKWOOD (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas hosted by Boris Karloff.
Vladimir Vicek, a famous pianist, breaks into a graveyard at night with the help of a deformed old man named Gafke. To Gafke's horror, Vladimir unearths a coffin from a mausoleum and sets about the corpse with a knife for some unknown purpose. Soon afterwards, Vladimir's wife Leonie visits an old flame of hers' named Jerry Welch. She believes that someone is trying to murder Vladimir, although he refuses to call the police or let anyone else know of it. In order to figure out the truth, Leonie arranges for Jerry to accompany them as a representative of their manager while on tour in the United States. Jerry visits the Vicek's old friend Glockstein, who recommended him for the job. Jerry is concerned that his past relationship with Leonie could get him into trouble with Vladimir, but Glockstein replies that while Vladimir is a master pianist he is difficult to live with. He remains obsessed with his rival Carnowitz even after his death, going so far as to spend part of his honeymoon with Leonie attending Carnowitz's funeral.
Suddenly Leonie calls Jerry in a panic; Vladimir has locked himself in and screams in torment as his piano plays. The music stops and Vladimir emerges bloody and exhausted. Jerry arrives as he recovers. Vladimir asks Jerry to forget what he has seen, apparently unaware of his past relationship with Leonie. He asks Jerry to stay with them for the time being and to look after a teakwood box, which he says is "important" for an unspecified reason. While Vladimir rehearses, Leonie tells Jerry that she believe Carnowitz is somehow responsible for Jerry's recent mania. She notes that the music she heard before was Carnowitz's seventh sonata, which only Carnowitz himself was capable of playing. Jerry does not believe that Carnowitz himself is responsible, but fears that Vladimir may think so. He takes Leonie out for a drink and Vladimir notices them leave.
While out on the sidewalk Jerry and Leonie realize they are being followed and Jerry sends Leonie inside. It turns out to be Gafke, whom Jerry struggles with and then interrogates. Gafke wants money from Vladimir in exchange for his silence about what happened at the graveyard, threatening to kill Vladimir otherwise. Jerry becomes curious when Gafke mentions the teakwood box and later opens it to discover a pair of disembodied hands inside. Later, Jerry visits a newspaperwoman acquaintance of his named Sylvia who is to be in attendance at Vladimir's concert later that night. She tells him that Vladimir has made a change to the program and plans to play Carnowitz's seventh sonata, despite supposedly being unable to do so. She recounts Carnowitz's and Vladimir's bitter enmity, and reveals that Carnowitz wrote the sonata so that only he could play it purely to spite Vladimir. She notes that Carnowitz was uniquely suited to playing the song due to his unusually oversized and dexterous hands. Jerry realizes that the hands in the teakwood box belonged to Carnowitz, and runs off.
In the hours leading up the concert, Jerry finds Glockstein in a panic since someone has smashed Vladimir's piano to pieces and they need a replacement. Jerry suspects Gafke is the culprit since the stage manager saw him there earlier that night. They agree to replace the piano and keep the incident a secret from Vladimir for the time being. Jerry tells Glockstein about Vladimir's decision to play Carnowitz's sonata, and Glockstein wants to stop Vladimir. In private, Jerry tells Leonie about the hands; he hypothesizes that desecrating Carnowitz's corpse was what started Vladimir's delusions. He also surmises that Gafke is blackmailing Vladimir because he witnessed him do it. He asks Leonie to run away with him and she agrees, but feels compelled to watch Vladimir's concert first. Jerry agrees to attend with her.
The concert begins. Sylvia meets Glockstein outside and explains how she and many others in the audience are eager to see Vladimir fail to play Carnowitz's seventh sonata and suffer embarrassment and mockery. Near the end of the concert Vladimir plays the sonata successfully, invoking a standing ovation from the crowd. However, Leonie faints in horror when she notices that Vladimir has somehow gruesomely affixed Carnowitz's hands to the ends of his arms. Jerry takes her home, where she is sedated. Vladimir arrives soon thereafter, and Jerry and the doctor leave him be. Later, Gafke enters via the window and demands his money from Vladimir. Vladimir fights him off and tosses him out the window, where he falls to his death. When Vladimir lays his hands on the sleeping Leonie, she semi-consciously pushes him away and starts calling for Jerry, enraging Vladimir.
He confronts Jerry along with the teakwood box, which Jerry discovers is now empty. Vladimir pulls Gafke's knife on Jerry and tells him that he is aware of his wife's infidelity. He announces his intention to kill Jerry and confesses to stealing Carnowitz's hands, claiming that they "came to life" somehow. The hands resisted him at first, but Vladimir claims he was able to settle them and "wear them like gloves" in order to perform the sonata, believing that Carnowitz was "second-rate" and deprived him of his rightful fame. He reveals that he has set the hands on Leonie's bed in order to murder her for her infidelity. Jerry hears Leonie scream and he fights Vladimir before running off to her room. Inside he finds her shaken but unharmed as the hands crawl across the floor. They try to leave together, only to find Vladimir's dead body outside with the hands clasped across his throat. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: May 16, 1961 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:37
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: B:55490
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1960-1962
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- William Frye … Producer
- Doug Benton … Associate Producer
- Paul Henreid … Director
- Alan Caillou … Writer
- Harold Lawlor … Based on a short story by
- Jerry Goldsmith … Music by
- Caesar Giovannini … Music by
- Boris Karloff … Host
- Guy Rolfe … Cast, Vladimir Vicek
- Hazel Court … Cast, Leonie Vicek
- Charles Aidman … Cast, Jerry Welch
- Reggie Nalder … Cast, Gafke the Graverobber
- Vladimir Sokoloff … Cast, Papa Glockstein
- Linda Watkins … Cast, Sylvia Slattery
- Bernard Fein … Cast, Stage Manager
- George Kane … Cast, Sonny the Photographer
- John Craven … Cast, Dr. Hilton
- Monica Henreid … Cast, Miss Curtis