[Luis is trying to get a guillotine exhibit working] Ah, that's just marvelous, Luis. Fix it! And never mind excuses about 200-year-old wood, either. Hmm. I'm sorry, Mr. Kolchak, but you'll have to come back tomorrow. The exhibit starts tomorrow, and we're unprepared. We're totally unprepared.
Yeah, well, I'm only sorry I'm not gonna be able to make the exhibit. Maybe I can help you out with a feature story or... Even with pictures.
[Luis tests the guillotine exhibit behind them] Wax. Wax, Luis! And some good old-fashioned elbow grease!
That always helps. Yeah.
I like your idea, Mr. Kolchak. But no pictures until we get it working right.
Oh, certainly.
What, um, aspect of the Reign of Terror would you like to concentrate your oeuvre on?
Oeu...
Picture ramifications? Social problems? Historical antecedents, perhaps?
Well, actually, I was thinking more about the supernatural aspects.
The supernatural aspects of the Reign of Terror? That's inane.
But original.
[chuckles] There was nothing spooky about the French Revolution. People lopped off with the heads of thousands of aristocrats and carted them away in straw baskets, then turned the blades on themselves and killed thousands more. Just another segment of Western History.
Yeah, I know. I know that a lot of heads we're chopped off during that Reign of Terror. But, uh, were there any unearthly events resulting from that lopping off of heads? I mean, that you know of.
You're not interested in history, Mr. Kolchak. You're interested in wives' tales.
[Luis still can't get the guillotine to work properly]
Use some steel wood, Luis!
Try graphite! What about those wives' tales?
Oh, there was some... [scoffs] nonsense about, uh, burying the executed in common graves. Well, with careless gravediggers and what have you, the heads and the bodies were often separated, sent to different locations.
Oh, you mean like what happens to luggage out at the airport?
Exactly. Happened to me when I flew into Chicago.
It happens all the time here. It's terrible. What happened to those headless bodies?
Oh, legend has it that headless specters, corpses were seen wandering around the streets of Paris, attempting to wreak revenge on those that had decapitated them.
What did the people in Paris do about these wandering corpses?
A program was instituted to rebury the heads with the bodies, and to make sure that future burials were done with care.
And that stopped the dead from walking, right?
Legend would have us believe it did.
[Luis tries to work the guillotine properly, to no avail]
[sighs] Will you get off that platform? I'll do it myself, Luis!
Uh, Dr. Strig?
Yes?
Try shoe polish.
Shoe polish?
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