El virginiano The Secret of Brynmar Hall (1962–1971) Online

I suppose most TV series went for something off the beaten path at least once. Here a classic Western tries a mystery/suspense episode with nothing distinctively Western about it, set almost entirely in an elaborate Victorian mansion. Betsy Garth has been invited back to the home of her friend who died in a fire two years ago. Randy, who drives her from Shiloh, is also forced to stay by an approaching storm despite ominous hints that he is not welcome - a fortunate circumstance, as it turns out, since he seems to be the only one who entirely keeps his head during the ensuing spooky evening. In a classic mystery set-up, Mrs. Brynmar (Jane Wyatt) has also invited the other three friends (Brooke Bundy, Mark Goddard and Tom Skerritt) who were present the night of the fire, and we learn that she believes one of the four was responsible for her daughter's death and intends to find out who it is.

It's a nice little mystery, with a limited field of suspects and the usual red herring. (The only minor plot hole I noticed involved the letter; the script doesn't make it quite clear whether it ever reached its intended recipient two years before, or how it came to be where Randy found it.) The storm raging outside and sinister servants, strange noises and odd incidents indoors all add to the atmosphere. Agatha Christie it is not, nor is it film noir that makes you look behind the door after watching it, but it's a fairly intriguing and suspenseful episode and makes for pleasant entertainment.

I like when a series tries something different. This episode had an excellent cast of well-defined characters I could easily tell apart. It was interesting to see the actors when they were younger, in some cases before they got their signature roles. I lingered to watch it to the end when I really wanted to do something else, so it was compelling enough to make me stay. Even on a sunny afternoon when I watched it I found it sufficiently eerie. If I had seen it in prime time after the sun had set, it would have been creepier.

The house was quite well decorated. I particularly liked the big pot holding the palm tree next to the stairway. The inlay work in Betsy's bed and dresser were beautiful, and Jane Wyatt's final outfit was superb. There was quality all through this episode. Even the portrait of the dead girl had a mouth that was faintly irritated, a subtlety one might not expect. I kept looking at it when it came on the screen.

And because it was The Virginian, they had more than an hour to flesh out the story. Like many of the episodes, it verged on being a movie rather than just a TV show. I agree it wasn't the greatest mystery drama ever filmed, (it wasn't even in the top 100) but it was a pleasant way to pass the time and the acting was good enough to put across the VERY elderly plot.

They probably cut something that would have explained the letter better than it was covered in the final summing up that most mysteries rely on. File it under "scary stuff."

I just hope when they sell the mansion they include a warning that the beams had been weakened by the fire. We were given the impression it could barely survive a stiff wind! Strip it, sell the pieces, and then sell what is left with the land...unless someone wants to hide out in the cellar.... Ooh, spooky, spooky.

Even though this episode has a noted director in Robert Totten, even he couldn't do much with this script. I don't even know how it ends because it is so campy bad that I don't care. Jane Wyatt probably wanted to have cosmetic surgery after this episode. She is forced to act like a vaudevillian villain. Victor French with eyebrows the size of Abe Vigoda's, looks like he was pulled from a Poe parody. There's even a raven, by the way -- maybe he did it. Two good things: the guitar strings are cut (Randy was no Segovia) and I got to hear Jane Wyatt's unique pronunciation of "girl" again (and she looks good a decade or so after "Father Knows Best").