Original subtitles

so so

I know she's in there, Doctor.

She's always in there with her cursed mirrors.

Go away.

Oh, go away.

Leave me alone, can't you?

Leave me alone with my mirrors.

A beautiful young face in the mirror, a pitiful old face at the door.

Could they have been one and the same?

Some people say that mirrors never lie.

Others say that they do, that they lie, they cheat, they kill.

Some say that every time you look in one, you see death at work.

But most of us see only what we want to see.

And perhaps it's better not to see too deeply into the darkness behind our

mirrors. For there live things beyond our imagination, as sure as my name is

Boris Karloff.

But if you're skeptical, stay with me and watch The Hungry Glass with those

others who doubt it.

William Shatner, Joanna Hayes, Russell Johnson, and Elizabeth

Allen. Oh, you'll be perfectly safe.

That is, if you turn your own mirrors to the wall and make sure that your

television screen casts no reflection.

Storm warnings are still hoist along most of the New England coast, though

the weather bureau now reports that the gale has spent itself and is sweeping

harmlessly out to sea.

Damage cannot yet be estimated, but power failures have plunged many areas

into total darkness.

The northern tip of Cape Caution is among those affected.

We return you now to recorded music.

My name is Thrasher. This is my wife. Has Mr. Tallman been in yet?

Thrasher?

He, the young couple, took on the old Bellman place. Yes, that's right. Mr.

Tallman said he'd meet us here with the keys.

Then I see no reason to doubt but what he will.

What you calculate to do with the old place anyhow?

Well, I live in it.

You can look forward to a heap of visitors out that way.

Thank you. That's neighborly.

Ain't neighborly?

That tarnation property comes fully equipped with visitors.

Appears Mr. Talmud never told you about that, eh?

Well, he did say something about some local superstition.

Superstition.

That be the word?

Hush up, Obed. No, please.

What are you saying?

You bought the house, lock, stock, and barrel?

Furnace and two?

The whole shebang.

And it never struck you curious to find an area of looking glass in the heart of

it?

Not especially.

Should it have?

You better ask your Mr. Talmadge, ma'am.

He's from out of state, same as you be.

Likely he'll find some good reason for it.

Like, uh, superstition.

Oh, I'm sorry to keep you waiting, folks.

You been here long? Not too long.

How have you been, Adam? In the pink.

Except for I'm turning blue with this New England autumn.

You know, I went by your house and I got struck with a sudden horrible thought. I

went inside to check.

Sure enough, empty sockets, not a light bulb in sight.

Mr. Cabot, how about a couple dozen light bulbs? Say 12, 100 waters and the

rest 150s.

Just so you don't expect them to work without electricity.

Well, I had the electricity turned on a week ago.

Storm had it turned off again.

Still want bulbs?

Well, yes, of course.

Damn awfully sorry. I didn't know. The light's going on again in town, and I

thought that we'd expect a few inconveniences at first.

We have to have a few, and a few you don't expect.

Eh, Mr. Tomage?

Here be your bulbs.

746.

My wife's waiting in the station wagon.

She insisted on coming along. She wants to meet you and give you some sort of

welcome. How nice of her!

Well, it's the only one you'll get around here.

And I think you're both terribly brave.

Why, moving to the Cape in autumn or buying the old Bellman place?

So, the local gossips have already been at work.

Oh, the bird inside had us thinking the place was built by vampires.

Vampires?

That's a new one.

That's just why the place had no mirrors, and everybody knows vampires

don't cast reflections, so... So, what else?

It's the only explanation.

Adam, the truth now.

The people who built our place, where were they from?

The Bellmans?

Pennsylvania, I think.

You sure it wasn't Transylvania?

The mirrors.

Now, that's what the old coots were bending your ears about. Now, look, I'll

admit that you warned us that the roof leaks and cellar floods and the shutters

go bang.

But what's this about no mirrors?

Didn't I tell you why you got the place so cheap?

You said the local characters think it's unlucky.

Yeah, unlucky because of the broken mirrors.

Gil, you have no idea how these people can build up a story.

Seems there were some nasty accidents up there years ago. A couple of people

killed by shattered glass.

So now the yarn's been worked around to where they were actually murdered by the

mirrors with malice aforethought.

Seems logical.

Sure. Some mornings when I'm shaving, the guy in the glass looks pretty

deadly, especially with a razor in his hand.

Well, I hadn't thought about it, but I better get you some sort of mirror, at

least till you get settled. Never mind. There's one in my traveling case.

Marsha couldn't live without her mirrors.

What woman could?

I'll bring in the bag.

And watch your step. The movers put everything just inside the door.

This is the only one of Adam's properties I've never seen from the

inside.

The outside was sufficient.

Here it is. Shine up this way.

Well, well.

Early mausoleum.

But Liz, what a challenge.

Granted, if you choose a house to pick a fight with. Marsha's a decorator, I'm a

photographer. We'll do a before and after layout that'll cover the down

payment. You'll see, it'll be a show place.

Like Madame Tussauds.

Now do you believe I can sell anything?

Darling, I'll never doubt you.

Actually, he tried to sell us any house with this one. I think he was trying to

keep it for himself.

Right. I needed a place to keep my whole razor blades.

Right this way, I built a fire in the living room. Oh, I love a fire.

And if you're lucky, it might spread.

Of course, we use the term living room rather loosely.

Your husband doesn't believe in the hard sell.

Who needs it?

Behold.

Now I ask you, why?

much our own private ocean.

And by a startling coincidence, here's a bottle that came all the way across it.

Hey, champagne and chill, too.

Yeah, I put it on ice when I built the fire.

Now, how many real estate agents would supply these sensitive little touches?

Only those with a guilty conscience, dear.

Actually, Liz, we practically had to force him to take our money. Here's what

really sold us.

You never have heard my pitch, have you?

Well, better late than never.

I propose a toast to your new home at Cape Caution, folks.

That year-round playground where there's never a dull moment, something stirring

every second.

For example, in the wintertime, you can sit on the east side of your house and

follow the sun around to the west.

And in the summertime, you can sit on the west side of your house and follow

the shade around to the east.

It's a sheer drop down there, over 100 feet down to the reef. But I saw him!

Fine, fine. You saw him. In the meantime, I'm bleeding to death.

What happened?

When you let out that howl, I dropped the blasted bottle and cut my hand.

Let's take a look at it.

Can you flex your fingers?

Oh, it's nothing serious.

But you might have some broken glass in it.

Broken glass?

Sure.

Now, just a minute, Marshal.

Oh, forget it. I just cut my hand. That's all there is to it.

Liz, just what was it you thought you saw?

Well, I don't know now.

It was a face.

A man's face with a beard.

In a jolly red suit with a pack on his back?

I didn't imagine it.

You probably saw my reflection.

Or Adam's. No, no, it was moving and blurring. A firelight would have done

that. Flickering.

Maybe, but... I don't know.

Well, there goes our celebration.

Anyway, your carpet's been christened.

I'm so terribly sorry.

Never cry over a spilt champagne.

It's good for the rug.

You better have a doctor look at that.

But if it was the firelight... Oh, Liz, drop it.

But he had a hook. A hook for a hand.

Fine, fine. Next time we'll get him to open the champagne.

I'm such a fool.

No, no, no. My little Liz is nobody's fool.

Except maybe mine.

There's one thing for me to knock you.

But don't let me hear you doing it or you'll have a fight on your hands.

But I spoiled our party.

Oh, and your precious hand.

And all that champagne.

I'll grow a new hand and we can get more champagne.

In fact, we will.

Tomorrow night.

Beware of geeks bearing bubbles.

Now that's a promise. Make it eight sharp and I'll spoil some steaks.

Oh, I think it's only fair to tell you that when my wife is having a real good

time, she's apt to scream a little. Fine, fine.

I'll hike down the hill two miles and warn the neighbors.

Come on, woman, let's quit while we're ahead.

Marsha, let me bring something. I fixed a marvelous potato salad without

potatoes. Fine, fine, and I set a beautiful table without a table.

That's what floors are for.

What else?

Welcome home, dear.

I really mean it.

Thanks, Liv.

Quite in the left hand, Gil.

Lots of luck. Thanks, and be sure and have that looked at.

Well, I'm gonna get fitted for a hook.

Well,

honey, we finally got ourselves a house.

Oh, Gil, it's gonna be all right, isn't it?

I mean, it's gonna be a good place to live.

Gil?

Sure, honey, sure.

It's gonna be fine.

I'm sorry, honey. I started you.

Oh.

Oh, Gil.

I saw your reflection, and I thought... What did you think, Marshal?

What have you done to yourself?

Oh, cut myself sharing.

Guess we both got the shakes.

But that's a terrible gag.

It wasn't your fault, honey.

My fault?

Well, next time when you whistle or blow a horn or something and I don't just pop

your head in while I'm all tensed up over that two-bit pocket mirror, I could

have cut my throat.

Oh, you saw me in the glass.

So now we're even.

One good turn deserves another.

Gil? Mm-hmm?

I haven't been out of this room since you left it.

I thought I saw you or something.

I mean, just for a second, you seemed to be moving behind me.

Must be that cheap glass, some sort of reflec... Gil, do you believe what

you're saying?

Of course I do.

What little light we get on that side of the house bounces in off the ocean,

reflects all over the place.

Like the firelight last night.

Look, let's level with each other.

We've both been having some pretty peculiar sensations, right?

All right.

They've all had to do with mirrors.

Glass.

Now, there's nothing more powerful than the power of suggestion.

If you let it take hold of you... When I had the fever in Korea, I saw things you

wouldn't believe.

They said I was delirious, but I knew better. What I saw was real. The doctors

were delirious.

But you're not delirious now, and neither am I. No, but, uh... Point is,

we're both very susceptible to suggestion.

All this garbage about no mirrors. I mean, just because some oddball couldn't

stand a sight of himself and had them all jerked out, even the medicine

cabinet... But why?

Why would anybody do that?

I still stick to my original theory. It was Dracula.

Now, Gil, be serious. Liz Talmadge saw something, too.

How do we know that?

Really, what do we know about Liz?

I mean, she's bright, attractive, built.

But she could also be a kook.

Who knows? Maybe she's jealous. Maybe she wants the place for herself.

Well, it's true Adam didn't want to sell it. Oh, I'm not saying that, honey. I'm

not saying anything, except... What?

Except let's not jump to conclusions. There's never been a question that

didn't have an answer. I mean a plain, common-sense answer.

Yet it's as if somebody doesn't want us here.

I never felt so...

Unwelcome.

Well, if anybody's staging these things to get us out... Well, that's

ridiculous.

Who'd want the place?

We did.

Hey, don't use the past tense. We still do.

And whether we do or not, we're stuck with it.

It's simple economics.

We got the place cheap because nobody else would have it. We couldn't sell it.

We couldn't give it away.

There you go.

Electricity's on.

That's a good omen.

Gil, I never had the slightest intention of giving up this place.

Why, what can we tell our friends or even ourselves that there were boogeymen

in the looking glass?

Okay, that's settling.

Let's make a pact.

We don't holler till we're heard.

Deal? Deal.

Now, we've got ten million things to do before Liz and Adam get here, so let's

not be tripping all over each other.

You start setting up your darkroom in the cellar, and I'll look around for

places to put things.

I think I'll take a few horrible shots of the interior first before you turn it

into a Joan Crawford set.

That's me, nightmares into daydreams and pants pressed while you wait.

Thank you.

job.

Thank you.

Hello there, Marsha.

You're not afraid of mirrors, are you?

Why should you be?

You have nothing to fear.

Not yet, anyway.

Not for a few more years.

Marsha, where are you?

I'm up here, darling, in the attic.

I found the mirrors.

What?

Fat mirrors, thin mirrors, it's like the fun house.

Hey, look at all the junk.

Somebody sure pulled out in a hurry.

But it's not all junk. You'll see, we'll find enough authentic antiques up here

to pay for the place.

I've already found a screen that'll buy us a car.

Hey, how about old Adam didn't know about this?

Maybe we did latch onto a bargain after all.

Want to see the monkeys more fun than a barrel of?

Well, look inside.

Go ahead. They don't bite.

Ooh.

Ever see so many funny faces?

I don't like to look in one mirror, let alone 50. Those three-way things in the

clothing store are bad enough.

That's because you're not a woman.

You know, darling, I didn't realize what I'd been missing around this house until

I stumbled into that room.

Why, mirrors bring a house to life.

Well, you ought to know. You spend half your life looking into one.

All right.

I'm vain, foolish, and female, and I like mirrors.

And they like you, baby.

First thing I'm going to do is dust them all off again and put them off again all

over the house. Let's not lose our heads.

You know the old saying, people who live in glass houses shouldn't.

And my old granddad used to say that if I didn't stop staring at myself in the

mirror, I'd go blind. You know what I said to him?

What? I said I'd quit when I needed glasses.

Say, um, speaking of little girls, did you take a picture of one with my

camera? Me? Of course not.

You know I can't tell a shutter from a tripod.

Why? Oh, I...

Got a double exposure on one of my negatives. Can't figure it out. It's

supposed to be a brand new film.

Well, you'll just have to hike right back to New York and get yourself a

refund. Yeah, I'll do that right after dinner.

Dinner? What time is it?

It's getting on towards six.

Liz and Adam, they'll be here any minute. It'll be two hours yet.

But I've got to start the charcoal for the steaks, set the floor, bathe, dress,

make up. Oh, Gil, be a doll.

Help me move that big stand-up mirror.

Down to the bedrooms. I just can't get dressed in that traveling cape. You want

to take that chance? Chance?

I mean, somebody did think you had a reason for putting them all out of sight

up there.

And I once knew a lady who had three French telephones pulled out of her

apartment because they kept her awake singing the Marseillaise.

All right.

We'll stick by the deal. We don't holler till we're hurt.

I'll start rustling that thing through the door. You get some blankets and rope

to wrap it up in.

Right.

God knows, Marsha, God knows.

Now tell me, Gil, what was it? What happened?

I told you.

The attic.

That stuffy little room.

Got the sweating, got the shakes.

It was the old trouble.

But you've been over that for years.

Gil, you saw something, didn't you?

No.

I don't know if I saw it before I passed out or afterwards.

But you did see something.

In my mind, yes.

Ever since we got to this place last night, my imagination's been working

overtime, playing tricks.

Listen, believe me, this is nothing to what I went through before... when I was

really sick.

Gil, you've got to see a doctor.

What for?

The army doctors told me I'd have to expect recurrences now and then. You

never get the stuff completely out of your system.

when I was burning up with the fever.

All my friends used to come calling on me.

All my buddies from Korea.

All the dead ones.

I could see them playing.

And was it one of them you thought you saw upstairs?

But it wasn't any more real than they were.

It looked... It looked like an old woman.

With a fan.

You see?

I've just been doing too much. I'm all keyed up, overstimulated. I've just got

to take it easier, that's all.

I'll call Liz and Adam and tell them not to come. You do no such thing.

They're no strain.

They'll help me unwind. They'll be good for me.

For you, too.

Are you sure? Are you sure you're up to it?

I'll tell you the truth, Marsha. I wish we had a whole house full of people

coming tonight.

Here's champagne to our real friends and real pain to our sham friends.

Mmm.

Well, I don't know if it's the sentiment, the food, or the champagne,

but it's very satisfying.

I feel so... so neighborly.

And in this house, too.

You know, Marsha?

I'm beginning to think you can work miracles.

There's really nothing to it. All it takes is a little concentration, plus a

bell, a book, and a candle.

Oh, don't forget the pinch of hogweed, ground up with the right ear of a bat

killed by the dark of the moon.

Adam, stay off the spooky talk, even in fun.

Oh, I'm sorry, dear.

Aren't you in good voice tonight?

Liz had an offer from the Met today. They heard that high note of hers in New

York. Oh, Adam, aren't you awful?

He won't let me forget it.

Why should I? I'm proud.

I've got the only stereophonic wife in Cape Caution.

Come on, Liz. You don't have to listen to that. Let me show you what I'm going

to do with the rest of the house.

Well, if we don't come back, it's been fun.

I'll go with you.

No, no, stay put. You boys can talk about girls. If you want anything, dear,

just scream.

Barrel of chuckles, that boy.

Kind of quiet tonight, Gil.

You in a reflective mood?

Reflective? That's a funny word to use.

Is it?

Never got a laugh with it. I mean, this house has a reputation for reflections,

hasn't it?

Oh, you've been listening to the local prophets of doom again.

No, Adam, I've been waiting for you to tell me the story.

Story?

You know what I mean.

What is it about this place? What do they say?

You've skipped around the subject long enough.

Gil, listen.

I've been giving a lot of thought to this deal of ours. I haven't felt quite

right about it from the start.

So if you want to back out, I'll refund your down payment. Fair?

Why? Why would you do that?

Well, it's more important to me to make a friend than to make a deal. Pardon me

if I don't think that's the reason. Well, what other reason would I have?

You're the businessman. Suppose you tell me.

If I were a businessman, I'd have never taken on this place.

No local agent would touch it.

Just another reason for the townspeople to resent me.

And that's why you want it back. I don't want it back. I'm giving you a chance to

get out. Thanks, but we're staying.

Well, that's your privilege.

Oh, what's wrong, Gil? Really?

Why do you keep evading the issue? I've asked for the truth about this place.

I'll find it out anyway, so why try to hide it? It's not a question of hiding

anything. I didn't see the point of repeating a lot of careless talk.

I did tell you the place had a reputation for being unlucky.

You laughed. I expected you to laugh. But just the same.

That's why the place hasn't been occupied for the last 20 years. That's

why it's been standing here just like this without a single living soul inside

it. Living soul? Oh, you're clever with words, Adam. All right, you want the

story? Then keep quiet and let me tell it.

Your wife says she can turn this house into a showplace.

Well, it was a showplace in the 1860s when it was built.

A man named Jonah Bellman built it.

He said he'd make it a jewel box.

Pulled the sunlight silver off the sea He built it for the

most beautiful bride in New England the most admired the most desired woman he'd

ever known Laura Laura Bellman He was madly in love with her She was

madly in love with herself It was more than vanity. It was a tragic sickness

But she was so beautiful that he was blinded to that

He couldn't blame her for loving him less.

And she never did belong to him.

Only to her own reflection in the glass.

They say he died of a broken heart.

Then she was alone.

Alone with the house, the servants, and the mirrors.

And the years passed. The house grew old. The servants grew old.

But Laura?

Laura never grew old.

Not in her mirrors.

She never saw herself as anything but young and beautiful.

When the last servant died of old age, Laura's nephew brought a doctor to take

charge of her.

She was very old, very ugly, painted and powdered like a bad job of embalming.

The doctor said she belonged in a madhouse.

But they kept her here.

They locked her in a room away from the mirrors.

But she wasn't beaten. Not yet.

She found she could still see herself in the window glass, as beautiful as ever.

One night, she danced happily toward that glass.

She danced right through it.

That was how she died.

But the story goes that she lives on in her mirrors because there's been more of

her living there than there'd been in her own body.

They say that she still guards her privacy.

They blame her for the other accidents.

What other accidents?

Well, there have been several.

Right after she died, the nephew took over the house.

He was taking down one of the mirrors.

It fell on him.

Killed him.

Of course, he was a seafaring man. He was clumsy around the house. And he lost

one hand to a shark.

Now tell me he had a hook in place of it.

It's a fact, Gil.

Now look.

I'm not saying my wife saw him. Certainly, she's heard the story, too.

Well, she saw something and imagined the rest.

And I suppose I imagined the old lady in the mirrors?

What mirrors?

Mirrors in the attic.

Oh, yes, I forgot. You don't know about that.

So, that's where they are.

No, I didn't.

I don't... I'm getting so I don't know who my friends are or my enemies.

I've been driven half crazy with suspicion.

Just plain fear.

Maybe you didn't know about the attic, but somebody did.

Somebody rigged a pretty good trick up there.

You know the kind of illusion they do with mirrors?

That doesn't make sense, Gil. What does? That I saw something supernatural?

That I imagined it?

I don't know. I really don't. But try to believe this.

I'm on your side.

If there's any human agency behind this, let me help you uncover it.

You haven't said anything about the little girl.

Little girl?

I suppose she's been dead for 50 years, too.

A pretty little girl.

Blonde, about five or six.

Mary Lou Dempster.

But that's not ancient history.

Why, I was living here on the Cape when she disappeared.

It wasn't two years ago.

She was playing here, near the house.

She'd been warned against it, but, well, I say she just stumbled and fell from

the cliff.

The local people blame it on the house.

They say the sun shining on the windows must have blinded her.

Anyway, I never found a trace of her.

No?

Well, I took a picture of her this afternoon.

It's her.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

You're awful positive.

The police would never accept anything as blurred and washed out as that for

any kind of identification.

What are you saying? That I'm lying? That I don't recognize her?

I don't know.

I don't know what I'm saying.

Adam, tell me I'm not losing my mind.

That I'm not back in Korea somewhere having myself a nightmare.

Or better still, tell me that I am.

Well, you didn't imagine this, Gil.

But it has to be some sort of hoax, hasn't it? I mean, a camera couldn't

photograph a... Go ahead, say it. A ghost.

That's what we're talking about, isn't it? Why do we keep dodging the word?

All right, then answer the question.

The answer is yes.

You've heard of spirit photography? It was all the rage a few years back.

Easy, Gil. You're working yourself into a nervous breakdown. I'm sorry. I'm

sorry.

I'll be all right.

I'll pull myself together.

Well, we can't allow ourselves to accept that kind of evidence.

I mean, it has to be a trick.

Like you said, a double exposure.

And all the rest of it. There are ways of getting those effects.

Projected images on the window, slides, something like that. I don't know how

they do it, but they do it.

Sure, they... They sit up in the attic.

For 20 years.

In a stuffy little room with a slide projector.

And they wait.

They wait for somebody to pry the catch off the door.

Gil, please, get out of this house.

Don't stay another night.

What's the point? What do you have to prove?

You're right.

There's nothing else I can do now.

They say if you can't lick them, join them.

I don't think I want to do that either.

Do me a favor, will you, Adam?

Don't tell Marcia about the picture.

I've already destroyed the negative.

I understand.

Poor Marcia.

She had her heart set on this place.

I'm doing it over.

And those mirrors.

She fell in love with them at first sight.

Almost like... What can I tell her? I can't tell her the truth.

What is the truth, Gil?

The truth is, we don't know.

Nothing is worth this. Hello down there.

How exclusive can you get?

Oh, hello, Liz.

We're fresh out of cigarettes. Marsha sent me down to bum a couple.

Down from where?

We've been up in the attic having a party of our own. Nobody there but us

chickens. You let her alone up there?

Why, sure.

But that's one place you can be alone and still have a crowd.

I've never seen so many mirrors.

What's the matter with him?

For God's sake, stay there!

Marsha's here. Look.

Look down. Look at the floor.

Look at...

He was trying to break through, trying to reach you.

Through the glass.

You see how it was.

There was this... this madam.

And she saw herself in the glass.

It was vanity.

All vanity, nothing but vanity.

And you see... she danced herself

into the glass.

and died there.

But somehow... she stayed on... and pulled others in there

with her... into the glass.

And that's how it happened.

That's how I... happened to... kill my wife.

Don't talk about it, Gil.

You didn't know what you were doing. You thought she was in danger. You tried to

help her.

You thought you saw her in the glass.

But I did see her, Adam.

She was there.

She's there now.

In the window.

No, Gil.

None of that ever happened. Not really.

She is there, Adam.

She needs me.

Easy, Gil.

You must rest. You need a long rest. Don't worry, Marsha. I'm coming.

No! Don't go without me.

Marsha! Wait!

Marsha! Wait!

Thank you.