THRILLER: THE HUNGRY GLASS (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas hosted by Boris Karloff.
The episode begins as Gil and Marcia Thrasher, a young married couple, move in to their new home, a cliffside New England manor. The locals hold grim superstition about the place involving the removal of all of the house's mirrors, but the Thrashers are undeterred. They are purchasing it from their friend, Adam Talmadge, a real estate agent. Adam, the Thrashers, and Adam's wife Liz visit the place; Adam explains that the local's superstitions revolve around stories of a few accidents involving broken glass, leading them to believe that the house's mirrors somehow killed the occupants. Despite the house's somewhat gothic interior, Marcia, an interior decorator, views it as a "challenge" and the Thrashers are happy with their new home. While celebrating, Liz screams, believing she saw the image of an old man with a hook for a hand in the reflection of the window. Adam, startled, accidentally cuts his hand on some glass. After a brief scare, the four of them laugh off the incident and Adam and Liz promise to return the next day for a proper housewarming celebration. However, after they have gone, Gil sees some sort of specter watching over him and Marcia.
The next day, both Gil and Marcia find themselves seeing strange silhouettes in their mirrors. Gil believes that they are merely highly suggestible due to the superstitions. Gil develops one of his photographs in an ersatz darkroom and, finding something unusual, sets about enlarging it. Meanwhile, Marcia inspects the house's attic and finds a door secured with a padlock; she sets about disabling the lock. Gil discovers the photograph contains the image of an unknown little girl in a window. Marcia finds that the locked room is filled with mirrors and shows Gil. She asks for him to move one of the mirrors out of the room, but inside he sees another specter and collapses from fright. Upon awakening he insists that the image was merely in his mind and likens it to his fever-induced hallucinations during his service in the Korean War.
Adam and Liz arrive for their get-together and Gil gets to speak to Adam alone. He demands to know the truth about the house and Adam decides to tell him. He explains that the house was built in the 1860's by a wealthy man named Jonah Bellman for his young, beautiful wife Laura. However, Laura suffered from some sort of psychotic narcissism and spent her days staring at herself in the house's many mirrors. Jonah passed away and Laura became an old recluse, but continued to see her reflection as young and unchanged. Eventually her nephew took over the house and locked her away from the mirrors, but she died when she witnessed her reflection in the window and accidentally smashed into it. Her nephew was killed soon afterwards when a mirror he was handling fell on him. Gil tells Adam about the mirror room and about the photograph he took of the little girl. Adam explains that the little girl disappeared near the house two years ago. Gil begins to believe that the house is haunted by ghosts.
Adam believes Gil is having a nervous breakdown and asks him to leave the house. Gil discovers that Liz left Marcia in the mirror room by herself and he rushes up there when he hears her panicked cries for help. He witnesses the ghosts of the house dragging her away into a mirror and he sets about smashing the mirrors. Adam holds him back and shows him Marcia on the floor, dead in a pile of broken glass. Gil believes he has accidentally killed her. As Gil contemplates what he's done, he sees Marcia's ghost in the window and leaps through it, falling to his death. Liz faints and Adam carries her off, seeing the ghosts of Marcia and Gil behind him as he leaves, beckoning him to stay. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: January 3, 1961 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:33
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: B:80184
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1960-1962
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- William Frye … Producer
- Douglas Heyes … Producer, Writer
- Robert Bloch … Based on the short story by
- Pete Rugolo … Music by
- Boris Karloff … Host
- William Shatner … Cast, Gil Thrasher
- Joanna Heyes … Cast, Marcia Thrasher
- Russell Johnson … Cast, Adam Talmadge
- Elizabeth Allen … Cast, Liz Talmadge
- Clem Bevans … Cast, Obed
- Pitt Herbert … Cast, Mr. Cabot
- Donna Douglas … Cast, Laura Bellman
- Duane Grey … Cast, Nephew
- Ottola Nesmith … Cast, Old Laura Bellman