The Moonstone - Part One

Originally Aired: November 16, 1953

Suspense #526, "The Moonstone - Part One," presents Wilkie Collins' classic mystery starring Peter Lawford as Franklin Blake. The episode opens with a sinister ceremony as Indian mystics perform a ritual to track down a stolen sacred jewel - the legendary Moonstone diamond. Franklin Blake returns to England from Italy to serve as executor of his uncle Colonel John Herncastle's will. The notorious black sheep colonel, who fought in India and died with a ruined reputation, has left a remarkable bequest: a yellow diamond called the Moonstone, valued at 30,000 pounds, to be given to Franklin's cousin Rachel Verinder on her birthday.

When Franklin retrieves the massive gem from the bank vault, he experiences an unsettling, almost hypnotic reaction to its eerie yellow depths. Wisely placing it in a local bank for safekeeping, he arrives at the Verinder estate in Yorkshire where he'll stay for two weeks before the birthday presentation. The episode builds tension when the steward's daughter mentions that mysterious Indian jugglers recently appeared at the house, asking questions about a gentleman arriving from foreign parts - a troubling sign that the sacred stone's original owners may be closing in.