The Firecrest
Roger Manktelow
Genre: Drama
Cast size: 8
Duration: 110 mins approx
Roger Manktelow | Drama | Full-length | 5m, 3f
Short synopsis
- Synopsis
- Characters
In 1949 Victor Barrett, a jewellery merchant working in a provincial town, is offered a fortune to locate and purchase some gems by the mysterious ‘Boris’. Amongst them is ‘the Firecrest’, an apparently insignificant garnet set in a silver ring. He soon discovers however that he can’t do this alone, he needs the expertise of his colleague Patrick Martin who in turn involves Claire Peabody, a clerk.
Victor however discovers the true value of the Firecrest, that it formed part of the Rubidian crown jewels and had been looted during WWII. Now the cruel communist regime want it back and are prepared to go to any lengths to recover it. So Victor demands a better deal from Boris, and holds onto the Firecrest as security but, before Boris can arrange this with his client, he is killed in a freak accident. Not knowing who Boris was working for, and fearing for his own safety, he hides the Firecrest in plain sight, he give it to his wife, Marjory, as a love-token.
Marjory married on the rebound from Albert, who was killed during the war, she is still in love with him. Victor is besotted with her, feelings which are not reciprocated. Marjory resents him for ‘trapping’ her in a loveless marriage, but for various reasons, cannot bring herself to end it, she wants Victor to be the one do so. She embarks on an indiscrete affair with Patrick hoping that Victor will discover it and divorce her.
Claire discovers the affair and attempts unsuccessfully to blackmail them both as Patrick flees the scene. She also discovers the true worth of the Firecrest and tries to blackmail Victor. He calls her bluff and, in a fit of pique, she reveals Marjories affair. Victor, outraged, kills her and hides her body in a nearby building site. Thereafter he has to live with the guilt of it with Claire’s ghost as his constant companion.
All of this is revealed when, many years later, Patrick turns up unexpectedly.
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