Just started watching this series on Talking Pictures here in the UK. Good old-fashioned mystery stories with a twist, which you might guess before the closing credits.
In this episode, related in flashback to a former acquaintance, Charles Boyer plays Doctor Roland stranded in a small French village when his car breaks down. He arranges temporary accommodation with a young woman and her invalid father who can neither speak nor move since a car crash in which the rest of the family perished. At dinner a bizarre ritual is played out. Places are set for the missing family members and the daughter Gallia asks Roland to play along and engage them in conversation for the benefit of her paralysed father. Roland does this reluctantly but, over time he falls in love with Gallia, even staying on. after his car had been repaired. Eventually he asks Gallia to marry him but she refuses due to having to look after her father. However, she asks Roland if there is "anything" he can do for the invalid. Though confused, when the old man suffers a seizure, Roland administers an overdose of sedative. Now free, Gallia marries Roland and they honeymoon at a villa. Roland suggests they dress for dinner, but when he enters the dining room he recoils in horror when he sees that Gallia has set out the table for the deceased family members, and realises that the charade was for her benefit, not her father's!
Back in the present he reveals that Gallia was committed to an institution and that he has been in prison for the last ten years after admitting his part in the death of the old man.
The episode makes the most of its small cast. Boyer plays his usual urbane self which makes the final reveal even more effective. The series was known for making use of the same actors in several stories. So I'm looking forward to seeing him again.
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