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The Scarlet Pimpernel

Saint Jack


            Margaret Fuchs (Valerie Leon) is in bed dreaming: in an ancient Egyptian tomb some priests are burying Queen Tera (also Valerie Leon) who looks like Margaret. As part of the ritual they chop her hand off, take it outside and throw it to the jackals. They go back into tomb and place the lid on the sarcophagus. Outside, a jackal dies on the ground with its throat ripped and bloody as the hand crawls away. As the priests leave the tomb a sandstorm appears and they all die with lacerated throats too. The severed hand crawls away. Margaret awakes from her nightmare. Her father Professor Julian Fuchs (Andrew Weir) comes into bedroom to comfort her. Another man, Corbeck (James Villiers), watches then from the window of an empty house opposite.Next morning the Professor gives Margaret a ring containing a large ruby. She puts it on showing she has a scar completely across her wrist before going off with her boyfriend Tod (Mark Edwards) in his sports car, observed again from by Corbeck from opposite.In a mental hospital two orderlies look at Berrigan (George Coulouris) in his cell which has a desk and some furnishings. He is seeing some lights that look like stars on his carpet.Tod inspects Margaret's ring closely. He thinks it must have come from her father's expedition. Tod says he will take it to a friend who can give them more information.At the mental hospital, Corbeck visits Berrigan. He tries to take an ornamental cobra from the wardrobe but Berrigan attacks him and the orderlies intervene and make him leave.Tod and Margaret visit expert Geoffrey Dandridge (Hugh Burden) to show him the ring but when he sees Margaret he collapses. Star-like lights appear in the ring.Fortune teller Helen Dickerson (Rosalie Crutchley) is looking into her crystal ball to read a fortune for her customer but sees the same star-like lights too. She is alarmed and asks the customer to leave.Later, at the end of the day, Geoffrey sends his assistant home then goes to a cupboard and takes out and opens a box containing a jackal's skull. Corbeck arrives and Geoffrey explains that he has seen a woman with the ring. Corbeck explains to Geoffrey she is Margaret Fuchs, daughter of Professor Fuchs, and it will soon be her birthday and soon be time.That night Margaret dreams again about the soul of Queen Tera living all these years while her mortal body has waited. Her time is drawing near and it was she who guided people to her tomb to find her. In a flashback, explorers Professor Fuchs, Geoffrey, Corbeck, Berrigan and Helen Dickerson enter Queen Tera's tomb. Around the tomb are several ornaments around including one of a cobra snake, the skull of jackal, and a cat. They open the sarcophagus and see Queen Tera's body with the hand severed. The hand is on the floor next to the sarcophagus with the red ruby ring on a finger. The Professor takes the ring off and from its inscriptions identifies the queen as Tera. At the exact same time, Mrs Fuchs is in hospital giving birth to baby but she dies in the process. The baby at first appears to be stillborn but then doctors hear its heart start beating. The severed arm of Queen Tera in the sarcophagus starts bleeding fresh blood. Margaret wakes up from her dream and tells Tod she must leave immediately.In the basement of his house Professor Fuchs opens the sarcophagus and looks at Queen Tera's body. Margaret and Tod arrive, observed by Corbeck opposite, but there is an ominous feeling and sound from the basement. They break down the door to the basement and rush to the Professor who has cuts on his neck. He instructs them to call Doctor Putnum (Aubrey Morris). They put the Professor in bed but he is unresponsive. Doctor Putnum says the Professor will be like that for a few days and cannot reveal much about Professor's wishes other than his work would astound the world of science.That night Margaret goes to the basement and looks at Queen Tera's body. Corbeck arrives and explains the ruby is the symbol of the god to come. The Professor life's work was to discover the legend of the queen and find the truth, and he and Corbeck and their team searched for her tomb together. There was an attack on one of their members in tomb and fresh blood from Tera's wrist at exactly the same time Margaret was born in the image of Tera. Tod arrives and they agree Tera has some kind of astral power which will be directed against them if they don't understand it. They agree they must contact all old members of team to help reunite Tera with her soul.Tod and Margaret visit Berrigan at the mental hospital. When he sees Margaret he is frightened. Margaret realises he thinks she is Tera so she pretends to be Tera and asks for her familiar - her snake. He says he has not got it, then breaks down causing the orderlies to enter and restrain him and Tod and Margaret have to leave.Back home, Putnum is checking on the Professor. He is still unconscious and the doctor says there will be some paralysis on one side. He says the Professor wanted to protect her from the artefacts in the basement.Tod reads the Professor's journal. The simultaneous events of the Professor entering the tomb and Margaret's birth were a unity created by Tera. Tera had prepared for an abstract metaphysical state by lying in her sarcophagus, creating an astral body with freewill and a conscious intelligence. He believes this power could be used to keep people alive for a long time in suspended animation. Margaret says she feels Tera is dreaming of loneliness, of ancient land and times, when love was a divine possession.In the mental hospital that night the orderlies tease Berrigan with the cobra then leave it on the desk where he can see it when they leave. He struggles in his strait-jacket then goes still and listens. Suddenly the snake disappears from the desk and he sees its shadow approaching him. The window bursts open and wind blows everything around but he cannot escape. The snake approaches and strikes him. He dies with his cuts to his throat.The next morning the Professor wakes up. Margaret explains he had a terrible shock. She asks about the ring and why would it protect her. The Professor explains the priest severed it because they thought it was source of her evil. She says Berrigan is dead and the snake has appeared in their basement. She mentions Corbeck but the Professor implores her not to have anything to do with him. She asks where Tera's hand is but he cannot answer. Out of the window she sees Corbeck going into house opposite and she goes across to confront him. They argue over the facts but she says they need her and she is interested in the power that she may now have. Corbeck says Tera is beyond good and evil and they need to understand her. He says the relics from her tomb are needed for her resurrection from the dead, to provide power over life and death. He says her father is weak and cannot be a part of it. She says she will do anything to have the power so Corbeck says they will do it together.At Geoffrey's, his assistant tells him about Berrigan's death as she leaves at the end of the day. He realises that the jackal skull is significant and takes it out. Margaret arrives and says she wants the skull. He panics and tries to escape out of the window and down the fire escape but he drops the box. As he looks for it he hears a jackal call. He flees in fright.Tod arrives wondering what is going on. Margaret will not tell him anything and leaves. He looks around and hears the jackal call from outside. He investigates, going down the fire escape where he finds the empty box that housed the skull. Hearing noises then a scream he finds Geoffrey's body with the throat lacerated and bloody. He sees the shadow of a jackal running away.Margaret looks at Tera's body in the sarcophagus. The wrist is still bleeding fresh blood. Corbeck arrives and together they see that both the cobra and the jackal's skull are now present in the basement. Tod arrives and tries to stop Corbeck and Margaret. When they refuse he drives away to get help. Margaret screams wishing Tod dead. Tod crashes his car into a tree, his throat lacerated and covered in blood. She is frightened but Corbeck says she must not weaken and she is coming of age. Margaret collapses to the floor.The Professor staggers down to the basement and sees Margaret lying on the floor. Corbeck explains that Margaret no longer exists and soon Tera will be reborn and the Professor cannot do anything to stop it. Corbeck leaves to get the final artefact, the third and final phase of Tera's soul.Margaret dreams in bed watched by the Professor and Doctor Putnam. The Professor insists Putnum give her an injection to ensure she will not wake but while he is preparing it she wakes up. He tries to convince her to go back to bed but she uses her willpower to kill him. He dies with a lacerated throat like the others and Margaret flees. The Professor returns to find Putnum's body, then Corbeck arrives and helps the Professor move the body downstairs. Corbeck says they need each other and they control Tera not the other way around. Corbeck knows where Margaret has gone.Margaret arrives at Helen Dickerson's house. She is afraid and tries to strike Margaret but cannot do so. Instead she concedes and gives Margaret the statue of the cat. As Margaret leaves, she uses her willpower again to kill Helen. Corbeck arrives and sees Helen's body. Margaret reappears at the door and tells Corbeck to come.The Professor finds the scroll of life in the basement then sees that the statue of the cat has appeared. He looks at the severed hand in its box, then Margaret and Corbeck arrive. Corbeck takes the severed hand and places it back in the sarcophagus next to the wrist. The Professor implores him not to read the scroll saying Tera has abused her power and to wait, but Margaret says she is ready and where there is good there must be the opposite. Corbeck reads the scroll of life, to reunite Tera's soul and body and rekindle her astral spirit. The hand reattaches itself to the wrist. Margaret says to the Professor it was Tera that lead them to the tomb. The Professor realises Tera is in Margaret and Corbeck must not finish scroll. They stab Corbeck to death with some relics but Tera awakes. They try to kill her too but she kills the Professor first. Margaret manages to stab her but the building collapses in on top of them all.In a hospital, the medical staff have no idea who the woman all bandaged in the bed is. Her eyes open wide but cannot speak clearly from underneath all the bandages.
    

James Villiers

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