I hope this won't take long, Mr. West. I'm due at the spa.
No, sir, it won't.
Clerk? Clerk?
Mr. Redmond.
I trust you're enjoying your stay?
Yes, thank you. The spa is an absolute tonic.
My key, please. Number 12.
Thank you. I'll be dining promptly at 8:30.
Ask the chef to prepare a soybean casserole
with, mulberry root sauce and spinach.
Uncooked, of course.
Perhaps you'd care to join me for dinner?
Well, it sounds delicious, sir.
But I'm afraid I won't have enough time.
Here we are.
You've come a long way just to get those papers signed.
Yes, sir, I have. You know the president,
he wants to move on the appropriation.
Without your signature, sir, he can't move.
Yes, of course, of course.
I tell you, Mr. West,
if I couldn't get away for a few days now and then,
the routine of it all would be the death of me.
There, that does it.
Thank you very much, sir.
You're welcome.
Good day, sir. Good day.
Now, don't forget what I told you
about those liptus herbs.
Twice a day, raw.
Raw, yes, sir.
It'll keep you in tiptop condition.
I'm the living proof.
Yes, sir, you are.
Good day again, sir.
Good day.
Where do you think you're going?
In there.
Why?
Well, to see Mr. Redmond, that's why.
There's no Redmond in there. That's our mother's room.
You wouldn't want to disturb her, would you?
You must be mistaken, gentlemen.
My associate's in there.
Who are you?
What are you doing in my room?
What do you want?
What did you burst into my room for?
I thought I had privacy in this hotel.
What kind of a hotel is this?
Clerk?
You don't have to assault me to get my attention.
Now, may I help you?
I'm... I'm sorry.
Mr. Redmond, A.T. Redmond's staying in your hotel.
Redmond?
No, there's no one by that name in the hotel.
I just left him in room 12 about 10 minutes ago.
No, you're mistaken, sir.
The party in room 12 is a Mrs. Merriweather.
She's been with us now for the past six months.
If you care to check with her two sons...
No, I... I already have.
Where's the other clerk?
The other?
There's no other, sir.
Thank you very much.
Quite welcome, sir.
Well, what did he say to you after that, Chester?
He said, "I'm gonna buy two tickets to Denver."
So naturally, you said...?
I said, "If she was my wife,
"I'd buy one ticket to Denver
and make sure I missed the train."
Hey, Artie, it's marvelous.
If the United States ever goes out of business,
you're gonna have something to fall back on.
Listen, I get more to fall back on every day.
Did you finally track down those eyeglasses?
I certainly did.
They belong to Mr. Hiram Gilbert
of 418 High Street, room 7.
I'm sure he'll be very grateful when I return them.
While you do that,
why don't I drop around at the hotel where he used to work?
Why don't you? They have room clerks that disappear,
and rooms that change occupants all by themselves.
Of course,
you know it may be quite difficult to get in there.
Difficult for you, easy for me.
Good night, Chet.
Good night, Artie.
Heh-heh-heh-heh.
Artie.
I'm told you specialize in gout cases.
I understand you're considered quite famous for it.
A reputation we hope to maintain...
Doyle, Doyle.
Colonel Doyle, retired.
Formerly of Her Majesty's cavalry.
We are honored to have
such a distinguished military man with us, colonel.
Well, thank you. Thank you so much.
Yes. Register. Here you are.
We mustn't forget that, must we?
Of course, yes, yes.
There we are.
Our head masseur, Colonel Doyle. Fingers.
Just a nickname, colonel. Just a nickname.
On account of I work miracles with these.
You've got a problem, colonel?
Yes, I'm afraid I do.
Well, don't worry anymore about it.
We'll have you up and around, kicking your heels.
You'll find Fingers of enormous help to you.
Yes, I'm
quite certain he will.
You'll follow me, colonel?
Do we start? Of course.
Hello?
Hey, boy.
I want you do me a favor, son.
I want you to get the sheriff,
tell him to come here right away.
Sure. Something wrong, mister?
No, there's nothing wrong. Just been a little accident.
Thank you, son.
Help!
Easy.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
What happened, ma'am?
I don't know. He just got out of control.
I'm afraid I'm not a very good horsewoman.
You saved my life, Mr...
James West, ma'am.
Lavinia Sedgewick.
I don't know how I'll ever repay you.
I'll get a doctor. No, no.
I'm all right. It's just a little dizziness.
Where do you live?
No, I couldn't impose on you any further.
You've been too kind.
You're not in any condition to drive.
I'm taking you home.
Thank you very much.
Redmond? Redmond?
Yeah, I remember him.
Only gave him one rubdown, though.
Had to take him away. Happens sometimes.
Had to take him away?
Yeah, he had some kind of disease.
Nothing contagious, I hope?
No, no, heh-heh.
It was some kind of blood disorder.
Had a funny-sounding name,
something like, Lovelock's Temper.
You mean Lubbock's Distemper, don't you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's... That's the ticket.
When they found out, they took him away.
How odd. I wonder why.
Well, they give them some special type of treatment
in another part of the spa.
They give them?
Are there many cases of Lubbock's Distemper?
No, no, I think we've had maybe two in the last few months.
Now, look, colonel. Yes.
I want you to lie still, let this oil soak in?
I'm gonna put the steam on.
And in an hour, you'll feel brand-new.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to sue this establishment
for every penny it's got.
Do you understand me? Every penny!
What happened, Colonel Doyle?
What happened?
Some blasted dunderhead
tried to parboil me into an early grave.
That's what happened.
Out of my way, you blithering idiot.
This is Sedgewick House.
Built over 30 years ago.
And it started decaying
from the first day it was completed.
I would like you to join us for dinner this evening, Mr. West.
I know my family would want to thank you in person.
Well, thank you very much, but...
As a matter of fact,
I'd be delighted to have dinner with you.
Wonderful.
We'll see you at 8:00, Mr. West.
My pleasure.
It's a rare blood disorder, Jim,
known as Lubbock's Distemper.
Named after the renowned Swedish doctor
who isolated the disease about 25 years ago.
And Redmond has it? Definitely.
I'm convinced there's some connection
between the disease and his disappearance.
Why, Artie?
When the hotel discovered what it was he was suffering from,
they prescribed some kind of special therapy.
And he wasn't the only one.
There were others?
Two for sure.
Each of them also received special therapy.
Each of them also disappeared.
And I bet they disappeared out of room 12.
I tell you, Jim, I don't know what's going on in that hotel,
but we better find out real quick.
Artie, if we tore the whole hotel apart,
we might endanger Redmond's life, if he's still alive.
Are you sure that that design that Gilbert traced in blood
is the Sedgewick shield?
Definitely sure.
What have you found out about the family?
Not very much, I'm afraid.
It seems that most of them
were quite brilliant when they were very young.
Then around the time they reach middle age,
something odd happens.
Some of them just fizzle out.
Some of them disappear.
And not even mentioned again later on.
Maybe I'll be able to find out tonight at dinner.
Yeah, good luck.
Thank you, Artie. See you later.
Good night, Jim.
My name is James West. I've been invited for dinner.
I said that my name...
You're mistaken.
May I see Miss Lavinia Sedgewick, please?
Miss Sedgewick has retired for the evening
and doesn't wish to be disturbed.
Now go.
Who is it, Jessica?
Just a tradesman, Miss Lavinia.
Don't be ridiculous, Jessica.
Let Mr. West in.
Thank you very much.
Jessica doesn't like visitors.
Yes, I got that impression.
It's hopeless. What is?
Trying to bring life into this house.
It's as if the whole place
resisted being looked at carefully.
Well, why don't I help you?
Nice-looking young man.
That's my brother,
my late brother,
Philip Sedgewick.
He passed away a few months ago.
He was a scientist,
a biochemist to be exact.
He was a very gifted young man
with a brilliant future ahead of him.
I'm sorry.
How did he die?
- He... - Miss Lavinia?
You're wanted.
Will you excuse me?
Won't you wait in the study?
Thank you.
Now, now, Mr. Sedgewick.
You know what happens when you exert yourself.
You only make your condition worse.
You're not going to exert yourself anymore this evening,
are you?
Grandfather, are you all right?
There's no need for alarm, Lavinia.
He was only trying to communicate with this gentleman.
This is Mr. West.
Dr. Maitland, my grandfather's physician.
How do you do, doctor?
So you're the gallant rescuer of fair damsels in distress?
Grandfather,
this is Mr. James West, a friend.
Forgive him, he's very old.
I understand.
I don't know which is more terrible:
Dying very young or growing very old.
I told you,
you are never to leave Mr. Sedgewick alone, Felix.
Brandy, Mr. West?
Please.
Lavinia?
No, thank you.
Don't you think you shouldn't...?
What, Lavinia?
It's for purely medicinal purposes.
I prescribed it for myself.
When you consider the ghosts that surround us,
it's the only cure for living here.
Or don't you know the Sedgewick history, Mr. West?
No, doctor, I don't believe I do.
The, line began in England
with the first Earl of Sedgewick
in the middle of the 17th century.
Legend has it that he was burned at the stake
for witchcraft.
His sister, Lucretia Sedgewick.
A beautiful woman, except for her soul.
She was a sadist.
She become incurably insane
and died raving in an asylum.
Next.
Next came her son,
Tristan.
An innocent-looking lad
whose only crime was to be a Satanist,
a devil worshipper.
He died mysteriously.
Supposedly a stake was driven through his chest.
The line then passed to a distant cousin
who had settled in the colony of Virginia.
He hoped to rectify
his predecessors' insanity and evil,
so he designed a new crest.
Three swords,
or stakes if you will,
driven into a human heart.
A symbol of his three nefarious ancestors.
He hoped it would end the family curse.
Tell him about
the real Sedgewick curse.
Tell him.
Felix!
No, no. He must know.
He must know about the Sedgewick ephemeroptera.
No, tell him.
He must know. He must know.
If you will excuse me,
it's time for Mr. Sedgewick's medicine.
Poor grandfather.
Sometimes he goes for days without saying a single word.
And then, suddenly,
he comes out with strange, wild,
unexplainable things.
What did he mean by, "ephemeroptera"?
That was it, wasn't it?
I don't know. He just blurts things out.
I have a confession to make to you, Mr. West.
I didn't just invite you here for dinner
or to meet my grandfather.
It's...
It's because I felt so alone.
I just wanted to see a friendly face.
I wanted to talk to someone who... Who was...
Hey, listening is an old specialty of mine.
It's going to be a terrible storm.
Perhaps it would be best if you stayed the night.
If he leaves now, he can make it back to town.
Nonsense.
He would miss dinner.
Show Mr. West to his room, Jessica.
I should get rid of her, I suppose.
But it would be on my conscience.
Her mother was our housekeeper until she died.
Jessica, Philip, and I were playmates.
If I dismissed her,
she would have nowhere to go.
Come, I will show you to your room.
You can freshen up before dinner.
Vite!
Can I help you, sir?
Yes, you may help me to my room.
And quickly, please? I'm very fatigued.
Do you have reservations, sir?
Certainement.
Would Henri Picheaux ever travel anywhere without one? Of course.
I'm sorry, sir, but we don't seem to have gotten them.
Impossible.
Someone at your hotel here has made a terrible mistake,
possibly you.
However, I'm so fatigued that I will overlook it.
Now, please, get me to my room and quickly?
But... One more thing,
do you have some form of refrigeration here at the hotel?
Yes, of course.
Then be good enough to keep that in there for me.
It is for my condition.
Are you ill, sir?
Oui, a family malaise.
Lubbock's Distemper.
I trust you will be discreet about it.
No one will ever find out, sir.
I am mostly assured.
If you'll just sign the registry, sir.
Of course.
Front.
Room number 12.
Merci.
It's all right.
I'm sorry.
It's all right.
Thank you.
Here you are.
Dinner will be ready in 15 minutes.
I think some explanations are in order. Don't you?
I came to warn you.
About what?
The gaslights,
the secret passageways, the moaning?
This is a very old house.
The wind plays strange tricks.
Mr. West, we're ready for dinner.
I'll be right there, thank you.
Listen to me.
If you stay here, you will die.
Believe me, you must leave this house.
What is that? I ordered nothing.
It's our own special mineral water, sir.
You will not put it on the bill.
I did not order any mineral water.
Compliments of the hotel, sir.
Compliment.
Zut alors. Merci, merci.
Th... Thank you.
To your health, sir.
Merci. Merci.
Au revoir.
Take it away, Felix.
I find it impossible to see Mr. West.
Nice thing about a mute, he can never answer back.
Brandy, Mr. West?
No, thank you.
You look disapproving, Lavinia.
You shouldn't.
It makes you look, somehow older.
And age will come soon enough to destroy that pretty face.
What a pity it is that beautiful things cannot remain beautiful.
Must you always be so morbid?
Are you familiar with the Galapagos turtle, Mr. West?
Why, yes, it lives for hundreds of years.
And it is that and only that
which, despite his ugliness, makes him an enviable beast.
Please, Dr. Maitland,
I'm sure Mr. West isn't interested in turtles.
But we're not talking about turtles, my dear.
We're talking about longevity.
The Galapagos turtle
on the one end of the scale,
and a creature so fragile
that it lives but a few tragic hours on the other.
I refer, of course, to the mayfly.
The sole member of its order, known in Latin as...
Ephemeroptera!
I'm terribly sorry.
I think it's about time
Mr. Sedgewick retired for the night.
Felix.
Good night, Mr. West.
Good night.
Lavinia.
I'm afraid Dr. Maitland put my nerves on edge
more than usual tonight.
Miss Sedgewick, I think there are some things
we should talk about.
Can't it wait till tomorrow?
Please excuse me. It's been a very tiring day.
Good night.
He's got to be in here somewhere.
♪ I came from Alabama ♪
♪ With my banjo on my knee ♪
♪ I've gone to Louisiana... ♪
Redmond?
Redmond, what happened?
You must talk to them.
I told them, "Twice a day, raw.
"twice a day.
"Liptus herbs,
you have to have them twice a day."
Where do you want him, Dr. Maitland?
In the laboratory.
Are you all right?
Yeah, I'm all right.
What are you doing here?
Dr. Maitland found out that I was trying to warn you.
He locked me in here.
What's going on in this house?
Don't you think you've been silent too long?
What do you know of time or silence, Mr. West?
You have been here for one night.
I have grown up in this house.
It has been my home. The people in it my family.
I was not always as you see me now.
There were kinder and happier times.
Well, that's quite a retirement plan they have.
Or does this only happen when you know too much?
It is not the Sedgewicks who have done this.
It is Maitland.
He has brought the evil upon this house.
What kind of evil?
His experiments.
He has found a drug that...
Speeds up the aging process?
He is not trying to create age.
Trying to create eternal youth.
Bull's-eye, Mr. West.
How does Lubbock's Distemper fit into your fountain of youth?
Because that disease causes a blood condition
identical to ephemeroptera.
Only such uniquely affected individuals
may serve as guinea pigs.
And you used the spa to attract them?
Room number 12.
At first, we experimented only on small animals.
We were quite successful.
But you didn't stop there.
Unfortunately, our experiments with people
turned out less than expected.
How did you hope to prevent the aging process?
By changing the metabolic balance.
When the drug is injected into the bloodstream,
it works very quickly.
Within 15 minutes,
it should be working directly on the heart,
slowing down the entire aging process.
Slowing it to where one week
is like a day in the life of an ordinary person.
Except one hour is like a year.
The drug is a mixture of several chemicals.
And I have not yet found the proper combinations.
Something goes wrong.
That's why you've seen the aging.
Within two hours, a young man is middle-aged.
You look quite shocked,
Mr. West.
What about the people you use?
I have always maintained
that the end justifies the means.
Time's up, Mr. West.
Your time.
Pleasant dreams, Mr. West.
Pleasant dreams.
Find yourself a safe place.
Dr. Maitland, may I see you for a moment?
It's urgent, Dr. Maitland.
I know how they got Redmond out of the hotel.
Have you seen him?
I've seen him.
He's older, Artie.
He looks over 100 years old.
Boy, that Dr. Maitland sounds like a prince of a fellow.
The doctor is looking for a fountain of youth in a drug.
That's why the hypodermic.
You mean, he's injected you?
Here we go, Artie!
And I did so want the evening to be pleasant.
Will you be so kind
as to raise your hands over your head?
So you're the reason for Maitland's experiments?
Yes.
The Sedgewick family has the inheritance of the mayfly.
We're very fragile.
We're old and useless before 40.
And death follows shortly after.
You're not all dead before 40.
Your grandfather.
Your grandfather is your brother, Philip.
My younger brother.
He's a victim of his own experiments.
And now that you know everything,
it's time you were leaving us.
Lavinia!
Look, look.
Lavinia, look.
Has he had the drug?
More than 15 minutes ago.
Then... Yes.
Yes, we've done it.
There are no signs of aging. We've done it!
What are you doing, Lavinia?
There's just enough left for one injection.
No, I think it would be best to wait.
- Why? - To run more tests,
to be sure! It will only take a few days. Lavinia!
But I'll be a few days older by then.
No!
No, don't!
I was never injected with that drug.
I substituted water for it.
No!
Release him.
And Felix,
hand Mr. West the gun.
I-I will be able
to keep my notes,
won't I, Mr. West?
What will become of Lavinia?
Well, in her case, it'll be a very short sentence.
Perhaps...
Perhaps someone could stay and look after her,
She will be well taken care of, doctor.
A-Artie, that was...
Yeah, greetings from the president.
He wants us to bring over some papers
to Henry P. Sidwell for his signature.
Sidwell is staying at a hotel for a few days.
We're invited to spend part of our vacation there.
It's got everything, they claim.
You know, the usual health spa,
mineral baths, waters, et cetera. Sound familiar?
Yeah, it's familiar. But I'm not gonna let it spoil my lunch.
Incidentally...
I thought I'd,
do a little experimenting with lunch.
Yeah, Artie, but what is that?
That's health food, all of it.
I thought we would start off with a little carrot juice,
and then some raw spinach with chopped soybeans.
And that isn't all.
Wait until he tells you about the pumpkin seed appetizer.
It's easy for me. It's difficult for him.