The Purple Room (25 Oct. 1960)

A practical-minded skeptic must stay in the spooky Baton Rouge mansion his brother willed to him for one night or forfeit it to his cousin and her husband, who warn him of ghosts.

Director:

Douglas Heyes

Writer:

Douglas Heyes

Stars:

Boris Karloff, Rip Torn, Patricia Barry

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Boris Karloff	...	Himself
Rip Torn	...	Duncan Corey
Patricia Barry	...	Rachel Judson
Richard Anderson	...	Oliver Judson
Alan Napier	...	Lawyer Ridgewater
Ray Teal	...	Sheriff Wiley
Joanna Heyes	...	Caroline Vale Ransom

Storyline

Heir feels smug about a mandatory night in a haunted mansion - armed with .38 & New York attitude. Otherwise his cousins reap the valuable Bayou property they shared with the deceased. Duncan shrugs off the legend of an ancestor who went mad after accidentally killing her husband, when he fought a ghostly intruder. Duncan's smirky superiority immediately riles the country cousins he's never met, but Duncan feels equally prepared for any spooky tricks from them.

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Plot Keywords:

mansion | ghost | haunted mansion | brother | cousin cousin relationship | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 1960 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Revue Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hubbell Robinson Productions, National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The mask worn by Richard Anderson in order to frighten Rip Torn was the "Phantom of the Opera" mask worn by James Cagney in 1957's "Man of a Thousand Faces."

User Reviews

the first horror episode(no. 7)

After six rather forgettable crime entries,episode 7 marks the debut of new producer William Frye and the result is "THRILLER's" first all-out horror story,written and directed by Douglas Heyes,who would repeat his double duties for episode 16,"The Hungry Glass." Rip Torn stars as the inheritor of a spooky mansion(the "PSYCHO" house no less,which would reappear in episodes 32 "Mr.George",43 "Masquerade", and 52 "An Attractive Family")that he will forfeit to his cousins unless he lives in it for a full year.He decides to spend the night in the "Purple Room," where a murder took place 100 years earlier,and is now reputed to be haunted.Atmospheric and scary,this first classic "THRILLER" demonstrates why this was one series that was thankfully done in black and white,retaining its eerie effectiveness without becoming dated,since most of the scripts were adaptations based on actual novels and magazine stories,from authors such as Robert Bloch(Psycho")and Richard Matheson("The Shrinking Man" and "I Am Legend").Frye would remain as producer for the rest of its run except for 8 crime episodes from Maxwell Shane,and 2 each from former producer Fletcher Markle(9 and 14)and from Executive Producer Hubbell Robinson(65 and 67).