The Leather Funnel
starring Christopher Lee, Simon Ward, Jane Seymour
directed by Alan Gibson
Steven (Simon Ward) travels to Paris to visit Veronique (Jane Seymour), a young woman he met in London. She isn't home when he gets there. He winds up talking to Arnaud (Christopher Lee), Veronique's uncle, who shows him a leather funnel and asks Steven what he thinks of it. Steven doesn't have much time to consider it for Arnaud has drugged him with a mild sedative.
Steven falls asleep and has a dream. A young woman of a noble family accused of the murder of her father and her brothers in his dream. She shows no fear when she is convicted and sentenced to torture and then execution. The leather funnel plays a part in the torture. He wakes up before the dream gets terribly violent.
Arnaud asks him about the dream but then they are interrupted by the arrival of Veronique. Steven is happy to see her but then he notices the uncanny resemblance to the woman in his dream.
I have seen Christopher Lee in a number of movies. He appeared in one episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He is probably best known today for playing Count Dooku (in Star Wars) and Saruman (in The Lord of the Rings). I'm not as familiar with Simon Ward. I've seen Jane Seymour in a few things here and there but nothing else recently.
This episode is an adaptation of the short story of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Story is about 4,600 words in length and can be found online. I read it after watching the episode. It isn't bad but I'm not crazy about it. The story helped to explain what the titular leather funnel was for. The plot of the story is a little different from the episode but the dream sequence part of it is more or less the same.
The performances in this episode by all three actors are fairly good but the story itself lacked enough substance to intrigue or entertain me. There is a twist in the tale but it wasn't enough for me.
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