The Medium Was Rare

In this episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, a planned fishing getaway gets derailed when Marlowe is dragged into a slick, high-class con built on fear, fortune-telling, and a very convenient crystal ball. Lillian Collins hires him to recover her “stolen” jewelry—pieces she quietly removed from a bank vault to cover gambling debts. The story smells wrong from the start, and Marlowe quickly discovers she’s been visiting a mysterious hilltop house where a psychic medium and her partners run an elaborate racket: scare wealthy women with ominous “visions,” convince them their jewels aren’t safe, and then steal them the moment the victims bring them home. When Marlowe gets too close, the gang knocks him out with ether and dumps him miles away. Worse yet, Lillian herself is taken hostage to keep her quiet. With help from a small-time crook named Cookie, Marlowe turns the tables—crashing a getaway, forcing a showdown at the séance house, and holding the whole crooked crew at gunpoint until the police arrive. In the end, the fortune-tellers didn’t see their own fate coming: a pile of stolen jewels recovered, a roomful of nervous socialites lining up to reclaim them, and another vacation ruined for Marlowe by the irresistible lure of trouble.