The evil Granny Herrod
Granny Herrod (Jeanette Nolan; 1911-1998) was the hidden main villainess from "Parasite Mansion," episode 1.30 of Thriller (airdate April 25, 1961). She was the matriarch of the Herrod family; the grandmother of siblings Victor, Lollie, and Rennie Herrod.
In the episode, school teacher Marcia Hunter ended up taken to the Herrod household after crashing her car due to being shot at by Rennie, with Granny and the others preventing Marcia from leaving. Marcia was led to believe that the family was protecting Rennie, but she later learned that it was Lollie that they were hiding, as she was introduced as having supernatural abilities. After seeing blood on Lollie, Marcia deduced that Lollie was plagued by stigmata, only for Victor to ignore the claims.
Granny stated that the family was haunted by a demon of sorts, which caused two other women--the siblings' aunt Elizabeth and their mother--to be driven insane and taken away. She cackled over the "demon" affecting Lollie while they dined, and afterwards, Granny informed Victor that they had to kill Marcia to protect their secret, with Victor refusing to do so. In the episode's climax, Granny sent Rennie to stab Marcia to death, only for Rennie to refuse. After the villainess ejected Rennie out of the room, she revealed her true secret to Marcia when she caused the knife to float to her on its own.
As it turned out, the "demon" was actually Granny Herrod herself; she had perfected her powers of levitation and used them to drive the aforementioned women out of the house, and had been tormenting Lollie as well. The villainess spent the entire episode voicing her hatred of the Herrods, while boasting that she wasn't a true Herrod, and after her reveal, the evil Granny informed Marcia that she would kill her and the rest of the family. However, the villainous matriarch's attack resulted in a lantern to be knocked over, leading to Granny being set on fire and perishing after running out of the house.
Trivia[]
- Jeanette Nolan later played villainess Mary Fitzgibbons on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
Videos[]
Boris Karloff's Thriller - Parasite Mansion