Captain John Elwood (Boris Karloff) has been on a long sea voyage. Part of the trip they had to deal with poisonous snakes that came aboard in Florida. While he is packing to go ashore a snake gets into John’s luggage. John has his first mate Logan (Russ Bender) take his trunk to his home while he heads to the local tavern for a drink.
John’s wife, Ruth (Kay Stewart) loves her husband but is aware that he only married her for her family wealth. Now that the money is gone John spends more time at sea than at home. Ruth goes looking for her husband at the club and ends up embarrassing John in front of his captain friends. It culminates in a fight at home. When Ruth goes to unpack her husband’s trunk she is bitten by the snake. John kills it and saves Ruth’s life. Ruth has hope that because he saved her live things may be different.
John finds out that a local widow has come into a sizable inheritance. John is now sorry that he saved Ruth’s life. If she had died, he would be free to pursue the widow. John hatches a plan to do away with Ruth. But Ruth isn’t all that easy to get rid of.
“Food on the Table” is the fourth episode created for the series “The Veil”. It was one of 4 episodes compiled for the feature film "Jack the Ripper". The other episodes in the movie anthology were "Summer Heat," "Genesis," and "Jack the Ripper."
Sometime in the 90’s at least ten of the episodes were combined to create three feature length films that were broadcast during the 60’s as late night fodder. At the time only ten of the episodes were known. They were then released on VHS for home viewing. The films were “The Veil”, “Destination Nightmare” and “Jack the Ripper”. There are several alternate versions of the films. Some have three episodes in them, and some have four. There are also versions that have only two episodes. It all depends on which video companies combined whichever episodes. The general consensus of the episodes in the three films are:
- The Veil: "Vision In Crime", "The Doctors", "The Crystal Ball" and “Summer Heat”
- Jack the Ripper: "Jack The Ripper", "Food on the Table", "Genesis" and "Summer Heat"
- Destination Nightmare: "Destination Nightmare", "Girl On The Road", “Whatever Happened to Peggy” and "The Return of Madame Vernoy"