An elderly and somewhat
eccentric tycoon, B.E. Raleigh, surrounded in his home by a vast amount of
antique weapons and artifacts of medieval period wars, places papers in a wall safe
in the den before heading to his room on a higher floor to retire for the night.
Raleigh sits on a motorized stair lift beside the staircase (not able to walk
up stairs in his condition). As the lift is rising slowly, suddenly, about
midway up the stairs, an antique halberd (a weapon that is basically a large
axe blade on a 6-foot pole) comes swinging down from the wall directly above
where it was hanging, with the blade going right across the front of Raleigh’s
face. The near miss and scare seems to cause Raleigh to suffer cardiac arrest.
(Who wouldn’t? Incidentally, the halberd’s blade bounced off the staircase’s
side wall beside Raleigh, yet didn’t produce a mark on the wall. Are walls in
that house made of a very hard material?)
Peter Gunn arrives at
Raleigh’s posh mansion and is greeted at the door by a very creepy-looking
butler named Emil who speaks with a European accent and walks with a limp. Emil
tells Gunn that Raleigh is expecting him and leads him to the den. Miss Kelvin,
Raleigh’s private nurse, who suffers from an uncontrollable chronic giggling
disorder whenever matters around her appear very serious, is standing at the
top of the stairs as Gunn walks past it. Miss Kelvin and Gunn stare at each
other for a moment before he proceeds into the den where Raleigh is waiting.
Gunn stops to stare at a
full standing suit of armor with a sword. He says the sword is interesting and
Raleigh tells him that it’s over 900 years old, and that it is said to have
once belonged to William the Conqueror. Raleigh asks Gunn to sit down. He
explains that he has a heart condition and doesn’t expect to live but a few
more months. However, there is someone out there who is apparently impatient
and believes that his imminent demise won’t happen soon enough. Raleigh places
a note in Gunn’s hand, a death threat that he’d received. It was signed Martin
Raleigh. (Fine; then contact police, show them the letter, and have Martin arrested.
Why contact a private investigator?) Raleigh explains that Martin Raleigh is
his nephew, who once worked at one of his companies and embezzled $100,000.
Raleigh had his nephew arrested and was released from prison three days ago. He
informs Gunn about the incident on the stairs’ lift (he refers to it as a
“stair elevator”). He then tells Gunn that he doesn’t have an address for
Martin, but gives him a picture of his nephew playing a guitar, saying Martin
was also a musician. (Viewers of this episode do not see the picture.) Raleigh
wants his nephew to be found. (And then do what? Raleigh doesn’t say. Have him
arrested?)
Gunn leaves the den and
begins inspecting the stair’s lift. The nurse comes out of a door on the first
floor to see what he’s doing. Gunn turns around and sits on the lift and
activates it. As the lift rises slowly, Gunn and the nurse look directly at
each other curiously, and then the nurse suddenly bursts out giggling and
dashes into the den. Gunn stops the lift just under the wall where the halberd
was hanging. He continues inspecting around the lift seat and finds the cut end
piece of a loose thin cord. He also finds a sharp letter opener attached to the
side of the lift. (It appears to be what cut the cord as the lift was rising
with Raleigh, with the other end attached to the halberd; Gunn may believe at
this point that a deadly booby-trap was in fact set up here.) A man appears
introducing himself as “Collins, Mr. Raleigh’s secretary”, and that he was the
one who called Gunn for him to come in and speak to Raleigh. Collins recognizes
the letter opener and says it has been missing from Raleigh’s desk. As Gunn
gets ready to leave, Collins says to let him know if there’s anything he can
do. Gunn leaves the lift where it was about midway up the stairs and walks down
the steps. (Now how does Raleigh get on it?) The nurse comes out of the den and
begins giggling loudly again, and then starts to run off, but Gunn calls out to
her. She returns and apologizes about the giggling and explains what causes it.
Gunn tells her it’s not a problem. He then asks her how long she's been working
for Raleigh. She tells him seven years, but not as long as Mr. Collins, who has
been Raleigh’s secretary the past 12 years and that Collins is like a son to
him. She tells Gunn how she believes that Raleigh’s nephew, Martin, is worried
that Raleigh will leave all his money to Mr. Collins.
A jazz combo is on stage
playing at Mother’s and the place is packed with customers. Edie is sitting at
the bar looking miserable. Barney the bartender walks up behind her stool and tugs
a strand of her hair to cheer her up, but it doesn’t work. (He looked rather silly
and juvenile doing that.) Gunn walks into the club and also walks up behind Edie
to touch her neck. She’s now smiling and happy. Gunn says he’s looking for a
guitar player named Martin Raleigh. Edie says she knows a lot of guitar
players, jokingly trying to make Gunn jealous. Edie says Mother might know him
and he goes to see her at a table by the door where she’s playing with a deck
of cards. Mother says Martin has played in her club once or twice. She says he
stole money from his uncle and was sent to prison. Gunn wants to know how to
find him. Mother says Emmett (the pianist) worked with him and to go ask him.
(Why all this runaround? Martin Raleigh was released from prison three days
earlier according to B.E. Raleigh. Authorities don’t know where he lives?) Gunn
walks up to the piano on stage where Emmett is playing and asks about Martin.
Emmett says he’s in prison. Gunn tells him he got out recently. Emmett says he
doesn’t know, but he had a girlfriend named Virginia Carter; they were engaged
to be married, and that she once worked at the Sutton Theater “on the line.” (This
term about a performer, singer, or musician working “on the line” was used
several times in the Peter Gunn series, but it is unclear exactly what is meant
by it. This is probably the most dialogue heard from Emmett in an episode so
far this season.)
Gunn starts to head back
over to Edie, but the payphone on the wall rings that Barney answered and he tells
Gunn the call is for him. The caller confirms that he is Martin Raleigh. He
says he’s going to kill his uncle and then kill himself and that Gunn won’t be
able to stop him. He then hangs up. Gunn goes back over to Edie and tells her
he’s got “a couple of hot prospects for a suicide pact.” (Prospects? More than
one?) He tells Edie to “sing pretty” and leaves.
Gunn arrives back at the
Raleigh home and hears two loud gunshots just as he stops the car in the
driveway (his driver’s side window is rolled all the way down). Gunn opens the
car door and dashes over to the patio where the gunshots were heard and finds
double doors (French doors) from the house wide open. He then goes inside.
(Gunn had run toward the sound of gunshots and NEVER retrieves his own gun from
his holster! Why not?!) Inside he finds Raleigh’s body dead on the floor.
(Nobody came running out from the patio doors, meaning the shooter should still
be in the house, unless he exited another door. However, Gunn doesn’t seem
concerned about his own safety.) Collins and the nurse, along with Emil the
butler behind them, come running into the room. They appear shocked at seeing
Raleigh dead. Gunn looks at all of them very suspiciously.
Gunn uses a house phone near
the stairs and speaks to a sergeant on the police force. He gives the sergeant
directions to the house. After hanging up, he turns around to find the creepy
butler, Emil, standing there.
Gunn asks Emil, who is
dressed in full formal attire, about his whereabouts at the time of the
shooting. Emil says he was preparing for bed. Gunn asks why he is fully dressed
if that’s what he was doing. Emil says he was reading a newspaper in his room
and was about to get ready for bed when he heard shots. Emil then limps away.
Collins enters the room appearing distraught and saying that Raleigh was like a
father to him. Gunn tells Collins that he examined Raleigh’s body and personal
effects and the death threat letter from Martin was not found; and that means
that Martin must have taken it. (Why reach that a definite conclusion? Maybe
Raleigh had put it in the safe.) Gunn says he’s going to go find Martin Raleigh
and leaves.
Gunn arrives at the home of
Martin’s ex-girlfriend, Virginia Carter (this episode’s rendition of a super sexy
hottie). Virginia, after hearing a knock on the door, says, “Come in,” without
knowing who it is. (Must be a very safe area she lives in.) She is practicing
her photography hobby and snaps a picture of Gunn after he’s inside. Virginia
walks up to Gunn, puts her hand on his face, and moves his head wondering what
would be a better angle for a picture. She tells him, “You know, we could make
wonderful pictures together.” Gunn says he’s there to ask about her fiancé. She
asks him which one, because she always has two or three. He tells her Martin
Raleigh. She has to think hard to remember, and finally does. She walks Gunn to
a room divider full of pictures hanging on it and finds one of Martin. She
reads off an address written on the back as 314 Mason Place. As Gunn is ready
to leave, Virginia tells him to go into the dark room with her for developing pictures
so that they can “compare techniques”. Gunn says, “Some other time,” and
leaves.
Gunn arrives at the
apartment (just a room actually) of Martin Raleigh. He discovers Martin lying
dead in bed with a gun clutched in his right hand stretched away from his body.
(How can he still have a grab on the gun if he had killed himself? Wouldn’t it
have fallen out of his hand?) He finds a suicide letter on the typewriter that
reads, “This will save the State the cost of my execution. Martin Raleigh.” As
Gunn gets ready to leave, he looks at a guitar and picks it up. There’s something strange about the guitar and
he looks confused. Then he flips it to hold it as a left-hander and realizes
the guitar is made for left-handed people. (He’d already seen a picture that
Raleigh gave him of Martin playing a guitar; hadn’t he noticed that? Obviously,
the problem here is that there is a gun in the dead man’s right hand.)
Gunn heads back to the
Raleigh home once again and sneaks into the den through the patio’s French
doors. When he hears someone coming into the room, he hides. Collins places
some papers in the wall safe and then realizes someone is in the room. He grabs
a long weapon from the wall and turns to swing it at Gunn, but Gunn blocks it
with a standing suit of armor, pushing it into Collins, who goes down onto the
floor. He appears surprised that it is Gunn and gets back up. Peter Gunn accuses
Collins of being worried about not getting the inheritance from Raleigh and
that he killed B.E. Raleigh before the will gets changed. Collins says Raleigh
was killed by his nephew. Gunn says when B.E. Raleigh was shot, nobody had
exited the doors (French doors leading back outside). He is insinuating that
Collins was in the house when it happened. (But so were the nurse and butler;
why totally rule them out?) Gunn tells Collins that he found Martin Raleigh
dead and it was made to look like a suicide, but it won’t work. He tells
Collins that Martin was left-handed, and that Collins put the gun in the wrong
hand. Gunn says the forged death threat letter will be confirmed by experts as
fake. Collins says they will never find that letter; he removes it from his
pocket and tosses it into the fireplace’s fire. Gunn goes to reach for it
before it burns, but Collins knees Gunn in the face. A vicious fight breaks out
between the two men, with Collins grabbing whatever he can find around the room
to swing or throw at Gunn; swords, spike sticks, and even furniture. Gunn
manages to catch Collins with some good punches, one sending him back into an
antique blade that stabs him in the back, killing him.
At Gunn’s apartment, Edie is
nursing Gunn, placing a bandage on his forehead as he complains about pain from
the pressure she’s putting on it. They begin speaking to each other with Middle
Ages jargon! (That was cool! See “Quotes” below.) Edie tells Gunn she’s going to get him a suit
of armor for his birthday and they kiss.
QUOTES:
As Peter Gunn is looking
around the home of B.E. Raleigh at all the war armor and relics of the Middle
Ages...
Gunn: “Must
have been a dangerous life back then.”
Raleigh: “No
more than today.”
At Gunn’s apartment where
Edie is pressing a bandage on Gunn’s forehead (causing him pain while doing so)
after the brutal fight he had gotten into with Collins (using Middle Ages
jargon because of all the antique weaponry that was used during that fight…
Gunn:
Fairest maiden, Edith, must ye wine yon snow white linen so?
Edie: Oh,
gentle knight, thou hast had a rough tournament and got thy head fair split
open in the list.
Gunn:
Yeah, me thinks I should have zigged instead of zagged.
As Gunn grabs and holds Edie
passionately to kiss her…
Gunn: “Ye
now! This is jousting what I like.”
From Google: “Jousting” – A medieval sports contest
in which two opponents on horseback, typically knights, fight with lances.
NOTES:
This is the fourth episode
in a row that no filming of Lieutenant Jacoby occurred. (Remember that his two
very brief appearances in the previous episode, “Love Me to Death”, was copied
film footage from episodes earlier in the season.) It appears actor Herschel
Bernardi took quite a long vacation during this time period. He won’t appear in
the next episode either, “Lady Windbell’s Fan”, but will finally return for the
episode after that, “Bullet for a Badge”, where the storyline and plot will
revolve around him.
The part of Virginia Carter was played by actress and singer Bek Nelson (born Doris Stiner). She was born
on May 8, 1927 in Canton, Ohio (turning 32 years old four days after this
episode first aired on May 4, 1959). She was a bathing suit model during the
1940s and later a singer at the Copacabana night club in New York City. She was
married to actor Don Gordon for 20 years, from 1959 to 1979. Don Gordon had
previously divorced Nita Talbot, who we saw play the part of Rowena in Episode 19, “Murder on the
Midway”. Bek Nelson died in 2015 in California at the age of 87.
DECEASED: B.E.
Raleigh shot by his long-time confidant and secretary Collins, who stood to
inherit Raleigh’s fortune, but was worried about the will getting changed to
someone else as the inheritor. – Martin Raleigh shot by Collins, who attempted
to make it look like a suicide. – Collins stabbed in the back after being punched
by Peter Gunn during a brutal fight, causing him to fall back into a knife.
Peter Gunn Kills: 1 – Series
Total: 8 (Note: the last recorded Gunn kill previous to this episode occurred in
Episode 19, “Murder on the Midway”.)
Comment below your thoughts on this episode and this blog
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BLOG: S01/E33: “LADY WINDBELL’S FAN”
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