Airdate: November 2, 1968
Writer: Albert E. Lewin
Director: Gene Reynolds
Guest Cast: Stafford Repp* as Buzzie Fenwick
Diana Herbert as Binnie Fenwick
Olan Soule as Newley Fickett, the antique expert
(Stafford Repp is more widely well-known as the Chief of Police in the campy Batman series of the 1960s, starring Adam West.)
Recurring cast: Dabbs Greer as Norrie Coolidge
Mason Curry as Deke
Rating: 4 bells
Synopsis:
After sending Martha and the kids off to the beach, Carolyn checks the barometer on her way upstairs and comments on the Captain's fine mood. He is not pleased when she explains that she can predict his moods from the barometer readings. A knock at the door interrupts them, revealing Buzzie and Binnie Fenwick, antique hounds who have been trying to get a look inside Gull Cottage for years. The barometer needle dips into the stormy range when Carolyn lets them in, with the understanding that she cannot sell anything.
Buzzie Fenwick is enthralled by the "one big antique store" represented by Gull Cottage, and especially by the telltale barometer. Just before they leave, he asks Carolyn who (or is that whom) owns the house. The predicted moodstorm drenches the couple as they leave.
The Captain is angry that Carolyn has pointed the collecting couple to Claymore, who will happily sell anything for a profit. She tells him to keep her out of his disputes with Claymore from now on.
The Fenwicks visit Claymore in his office, wheeling and dealing to get their hands on the barometer. Though at first discouraged by Captain Gregg's tactics, Claymore's greed overcomes his fear of the Captain when he learns that the barometer is worth two thousand dollars. He calls Carolyn (the barometer drops accordingly) and asks her to bring the barometer to him. She refuses, telling him the barometer issue is between him and the Captain and that she will not be caught in the middle again.
Claymore visits Deke's antique shop and commissions Deke to make a replica of the barometer for him. He sneaks into Gull Cottage with the imitation that night to make a switch. While he is hiding from Martha, Captain Gregg switches barometers on him, so that Claymore leaves with his imitation.
Claymore is happily counting his ill-gotten gains when Constable Norrie arrives with the Fenwicks, who demand Claymore's arrest for antique fraud. Carolyn visits Claymore in the Schooner Bay Jail and Juvenile Hall (aka Norrie's storeroom.) Claymore admits to his subterfuge, and Carolyn realizes that Captain Gregg must have caused the mix-up. She assures Claymore that she will try to "cultivate a spirit of forgiveness."
Captain Gregg, in a fine mood as indicated by the barometer, doesn't cooperate with Carolyn's attempt to talk things over with him. She confronts him on the balcony the next morning, arguing that he cannot let Claymore go to jail for something he didn't do. Technically Gull Cottage and its contents belong to Claymore, but the Captain doesn't have the same point of view.
Claymore's hearing convenes the next morning in the dining area of Norrie's Lobster House (before the lunch rush and between dealing with customers.) An expert is on hand to appraise the barometer in question. As he bends over the instrument, the windows fly open and a fierce wind invades the room. In the ensuing confusion, the barometer floats out the open window and another one takes its place. The appraiser pronounces the barometer the real James Gatley, and Carolyn knows the Captain has intervened again. At home, he brushes off her gratitude, declaring that he was motivated purely by self-defense against female whining!
Carolyn is startled later by Claymore, who has slipped in again to replace the barometer. He explains that he sold the Fenwicks the imitation at cost (actually twice what he paid for it!) Captain Gregg then implies that he has bought back the imitation, and Claymore rushes out in panic to try to catch the Fenwicks before they leave town. Carolyn can't help but laugh with him over the joke on Claymore.
Favorite quotes:
Captain: One Claymore Gregg boarded my vessel without permission and attempted an act
of piracy.
Carolyn: Your vessel? You seem to forget, Captain, that this house and everything
in it belong to Claymore Gregg.
Captain: Not while I am aboard!
Carolyn: Well, you're not aboard! You've been dead for over a hundred years.
Captain: Dead, but not departed.
Carolyn: Captain, you've put Claymore in a terrible mess.
Captain: He put himself into it. I merely nudged him along.
Carolyn: Well then, "nudge" him out of it.
Captain: Madame, what is it you would have me do, appear in court? Besides, only yesterday
you asked not to be put in the middle.
Carolyn: But he could get ten years!
Captain: Yes. Think how long that would keep you out of the middle.
Captain: You are evidently under the delusion, Madame, that I have done something
worthy of your gratitude.
Carolyn: Somebody else saved Claymore?
Captain: I'd as soon confine that blasted ninny to the brig for the rest of his days!
Carolyn: But your conscience wouldn't let you.
Captain: Conscience be blown, woman! Pure self-defense. If I hadn't saved his scurvy hide,
the female whining 'round here would have driven me stark staring mad!
Favorite moment:
The expression on the Captain's face when Carolyn cuts him off with "Now hear this!"
Notes:
I've always enjoyed the compassion of Carolyn's character, evidenced most often in her dealings with Claymore. While seeing him for all that he is, she also sees any potential good qualities in him that might be lurking deeeeeep within. This insight plays very well off another main character who initially tends to have more one-sided views.
Scruffy must have been suffering from a terrible chest cold during the shooting of his scene with Claymore. The barkovers sound like they're from a much larger dog.
Contributed by Rhonda Nichols