Enemies, A Love Story
Out of Intense Hatred Grew A
Shakespearean Romance for ANOTHER
WORLD's Carl and Rachel
One would be hard-pressed to find a stranger pairing than Carl Hutchins and Rachel Cory. He's a former Mafioso who held a long-term grudge against her family; she's Bay City's preeminent society matron. But despite their differences, their love affair has flourished through family opposition, wedding day shootings and a crazy look-alike named Justine.
1984
Felicia Gallant (Linda Dano) returned from a European trip with a mysterious new lover: Carl Hutchins (Charles Keating). Unfortunately, Hutchins had more than romance on his mind. He blamed Mac Cory for his father's death and vowed to seek revenge against the whole Cory clan. "I have fond memories of going toe-to-toe with Douglass Watson [Mac]," exclaims Keating. "I loved him dearly and had great respect for him as an actor." Carl's unscrupulous nature sabotaged his relationship with Felicia, but he quickly found comfort in ex-wife Donna Love's bed.
1985
Carl thought he had bested Mac when Mac's son, Sandy, left Cory Publishing and went to work for Carl. In truth, the young Cory was acting as a double agent. After fatally poisoning nurse Emily Benson, Carl went on the run, taking Rachel (Victoria Wyndham) and her half sister, Nancy, hostage. "Initially, Rachel was scared to death," notes Wyndham, "but then it became some sort of sick victim behavior, where there was something magnetic about him. I remember the strange little room he was keeping me in. He dressed me as if I where Queen Anne and we actually did the famous Shakespearean] scene between Richard III and Queen Anne." Mac attempted to rescue Rachel; she took a bullet meant for him and developed amnesia; Carl was carted off to jail.
1986
After cooperating with the authorities, Carl was set free. He teamed with Daphne Grimaldi to locate the remains of an ancient Egyptian treasure that he, Reginald Love and Frederick Chapin had discovered. When he found an empty vault, a furious Carl planted poisonous dust in a souvenir that Nancy had bought for Mac. When Carl had a showdown with Nancy and Chris
(Frederick's son) Hutchins fell into a "bottomless lake" and was presumed dead. Back home, Rachel and Carl inhaled the dust and nearly died. "Oh, the nutty dust--that's what I used to call it," laughs Wyndham. "It was so easy to turn those scenes into comedy that it was almost impossible to play it straight."
1991
Fast-forward five years. Senator Grant Harrison (code name: Signet) was gunned down on the docks by one of Carl's henchmen for giving info on Hutchin's dirty dealings to the feds. Rachel, an unwitting witness to the shooting, was knocked unconscious. She awoke with blurred vision. Soon after, the henchman (played by stuntman Jake Turner) tried to kill Rachel before she could finger him. "I did all my own stunts," Wyndham states of her chase scenes at TV station KBAY. "But the trouble with working with a stunt coordinator is that when they start acting, they forget about all the principles of stunts. Jake got a little too into his role. I finally just shoved my elbow into him about as hard as I could. Then, he realized, 'Oh, I'm choking her!'" Eventually, Carl was tricked into confessing and was locked up, again.
1992
After Carl was sprung from jail, he returned to Bay City and revealed that he was police officer Ryan Harrison's biological father (the result of an affair with Justine Kirkland). Through his love for Ryan, a kinder, gentler Carl emerged.
1993
When the oh-so-devious Jake McKinnon teamed up with Spencer Harrison to take over Cory Publishing, Rachel cut a deal with her nemesis: She would date Carl publicly- if he would agree to help save her family's company. When that failed, Rachel stepped down as CEO and fled to New York City; the now lovestruck Hutchins followed. "Carl continued to pursue her in New York: gently, letting her take her time," explains Wyndham of the whirlwind romance that had the twosome quoting poetry while strolling through the streets of Manhattan. "I think Rachel finally realized what she was feeling when she was sculpting a nude form-and it turned out to be Carl. Her subconscious had taken over."
1994
Scheming Iris Wheeler, Mac's daughter, wasn't pleased about the impending union. She toted a gun to halt Carl and Rachel's nuptials. But unbeknownst to her, Evan Frame had replaced her blanks with real bullets. A wounded Carl developed amnesia and feelings for Iris. "The gun was problematic because blanks often misfire," recalls Wyndham. "We only had one white jacket that Charles was wearing, so we had to be very careful about getting the blood bag on it. We had to have a good take with a good gun sound." Carl recovered and was arrested for tampering with Evan's car, which crashed and caused Amanda's paralysis. But Carl's manservant, Ito, confessed.
1995
Carl's crazy ex-lover (and Ryan and Grant's mother), Justine Kirkland came to town, shipped Rachel off to a Swiss asylum and assumed her identity. Carl realized the swap after he slept with Justine. He teamed up with Ryan (Paul Michael Valley) to bring her down. But when Ryan was trying to capture Mom on the train trestle, he was shot and killed by Grant. Justine fell under a moving train, but lived. After convalescing in a convent, Justine returned- her face mangled and missing an arm- but deadly as ever. "I thought to myself, 'If you're going to make me into a gargoyle, then stand back- we're going to go Grand Guignol,'" says Wyndham with a smile. "We even used a real prosthetic device [for Justine's claw hand]. I went home with it on one weekend to see what I could do. I greeted a friend holding stemware with the claw." Justine died at Carl's hands. "It was kind of awful, really," says Keating of the gruesome stabbing. "Even to pretend to kill somebody...I wouldn't want to make a career of it."
1996
Ryan's death tested the fabric of Carl and Rachel's already-shaky marriage. While Carl devoted most of his time to mourning his son and plotting revenge against Grant, he and Rachel grew farther apart. In time, Grant went to jail for Ryan's shooting. Carl, dressed as a guard, tried to kill Harrison, but instead, Grant saved Carl's life during a prison riot. Hutchins declared a truce, but his dark side continues to emerge. Do Carl and Rachel have a future? "I think they do," nods Keating. "If for no other reason than because we play very well together. And if you get a couple of musicians who play certain tunes, well, then you have to play them. I think there is good mileage for the show in keeping the relationship active."
Soap Opera Digest
June 4, 1996