Vanishing Point, 2/23/1960
In this episode, John Newland, normally the host of the series, actually takes part in one of the episodes, talking to a police detective. The detective reveals what has happened.
He reveals how a couple rented the house for the summer and the wife stayed there, with the husband coming up on weekends.
He explains how the couple did not have a good marriage and that they fought a lot.
Then we go to the past and see the couple. The wife tells the husband he might as well go back to town, that they have nothing to save in their marriage any more.
She says she doesn't want a divorce, though. She loves the house, and he thinks it's terrible. She says something happened to her in the house that afternoon. She thinks she stopped existing or something.
She thinks that if she “let go” it would be the end of her.
He shows her no sympathy at all, saying her story is silly, stupid and boring. She goes into the house and he stays outside.
After less than a minute, he enters the house. His wife, Ruth, is not there.
The back (?) door is still chained from the inside.
Apparently the husband is going to be charged with murder. He and some other men are in a preliminary hearing. The judge drops the charge since the prosecution cannot present any substantive circumstantial evidence. No body, no blood, nothing like that at all. The husband vows to stay in the house and tear it apart until he finds out what happened to his wife.
It's obvious he's been searching for a while, as is evidenced by his beard growth. Unfortunately, this is yet another episode which is not in good condition, and much of it is so dark it's hard to determine just what it is he is looking at.
He's trying to rest when he hears someone pounding on the door.
He sees some woman inside, and a man outside pounding on the door and yelling for her to open it. The guy from outside is calling her Miss Agatha. She had spent 32 years as a school teacher. The woman says she will never leave the house.
He tries to talk to her but she doesn't notice him, and then she starts to disappear.
The detective is sitting on his porch and the husband starts to talk to him.
Later he calls his defense attorney (who is sure he is guilty) and tells him two other people have disappeared in the house in the past. He has an 1858 paper that talks about Agatha's disappearance. The other person was the man who originally had the house built.
He realizes that no one will believe that he did not kill his wife, so he really has nothing to live for.
Then it's back to the present time where Newland is talking to the guy who tells him that the husband disappeared from the house. Newland tells him that such disappearances have happened before from houses, planes, etc.
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