WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.000 Suspense. 00:07.000 --> 00:11.000 And the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, 00:11.000 --> 00:13.000 the master of mystery and adventure, 00:13.000 --> 00:15.000 William N. Robeson. 00:16.000 --> 00:18.000 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, 00:18.000 --> 00:20.000 what is the rest of it? 00:20.000 --> 00:21.000 Well, no matter. 00:21.000 --> 00:25.000 Childish prattle can be dangerous in its pristine innocence. 00:25.000 --> 00:28.000 So if you are about to do something you shouldn't, 00:28.000 --> 00:31.000 we advise you not to do it around your mopets. 00:31.000 --> 00:35.000 They can be such blabbermouths as the upcoming story demonstrates. 00:35.000 --> 00:36.000 Listen. 00:36.000 --> 00:40.000 Listen then as Miss Mercedes McCambridge stars in 00:40.000 --> 00:42.000 America's Boyfriend, 00:42.000 --> 00:45.000 which begins in exactly one minute. 00:45.000 --> 00:48.000 Folklore isn't always something out of the past. 00:48.000 --> 00:52.000 Each day a new legend, anecdote, joke, or colorful character 00:52.000 --> 00:55.000 is added to our collection of Americana. 00:55.000 --> 00:59.000 Like the story about the man who was nailing shingles on his house. 00:59.000 --> 01:02.000 Somebody noticed that he was throwing half the nails away 01:02.000 --> 01:04.000 and asked him why. 01:04.000 --> 01:06.000 Because, he said, 01:06.000 --> 01:10.000 the heads are on the wrong ends on those. 01:10.000 --> 01:13.000 Well, you dope, said the other man, 01:13.000 --> 01:16.000 those are for the other side of the house. 01:17.000 --> 01:21.000 Folklore belongs to every nation's legendary past 01:21.000 --> 01:24.000 and I guess we Americans have our share of some tall ones. 01:24.000 --> 01:26.000 Like the one about... 01:26.000 --> 01:30.000 But we'll have to save that one for the next time we travel your way. 01:30.000 --> 01:31.000 See you then. 01:31.000 --> 01:33.000 And now. 01:35.000 --> 01:40.000 Miss Mercedes McCambridge in America's Boyfriend. 01:40.000 --> 01:43.000 A tale well calculated to keep you in... 01:44.000 --> 01:46.000 Suspense. 01:48.000 --> 01:51.000 They used to call him America's Boyfriend. 01:51.000 --> 01:53.000 His face was known everywhere. 01:53.000 --> 01:55.000 From South Dakota to Saudi Arabia. 01:55.000 --> 01:58.000 Those mischievous eyes, that lovable teenage grin, 01:58.000 --> 02:01.000 the lock of blonde hair over his forehead. 02:01.000 --> 02:04.000 Remember First Love, his most popular movie? 02:04.000 --> 02:08.000 His freckled face was on billboards everywhere in four colors. 02:08.000 --> 02:11.000 Dickie Keith, that bad boy who steals your heart. 02:11.000 --> 02:16.000 That bouncing, laughing, wisecracking, all-American boy. 02:16.000 --> 02:18.000 It's funny. 02:18.000 --> 02:21.000 Every picture of Dickie that could be found was like that one. 02:21.000 --> 02:26.000 The police are looking for a murderer's face that doesn't exist. 02:32.000 --> 02:34.000 When he came into the kitchen that morning, 02:34.000 --> 02:36.000 I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for him. 02:36.000 --> 02:38.000 I was too busy to do either. 02:38.000 --> 02:40.000 I had to fix breakfast, get the kids washed and dressed and fed 02:40.000 --> 02:42.000 and be at work by nine. 02:42.000 --> 02:44.000 Between putting the coffee on the perk 02:44.000 --> 02:46.000 and getting the bobby pins out of my hair, 02:46.000 --> 02:49.000 I kept glancing at his calypso pants and monogram T-shirt 02:49.000 --> 02:52.000 and the tennis racket under his arm. 02:52.000 --> 02:54.000 Maybe I said the wrong things. 02:54.000 --> 02:58.000 I guess I've been saying the wrong things for a long time. 02:58.000 --> 02:59.000 Coffee ready yet? 02:59.000 --> 03:01.000 What are you dressed up as, juvenile delinquent? 03:01.000 --> 03:03.000 Oh, I got a call from the studio yesterday. 03:03.000 --> 03:05.000 I told you, Harry Landon wants to see me. 03:05.000 --> 03:07.000 What's he got, amnesia? 03:07.000 --> 03:09.000 Did he forget the last picture you made was so bad 03:09.000 --> 03:12.000 it smelled up the theaters before it was taken out of the can? 03:12.000 --> 03:14.000 Just black for me. 03:14.000 --> 03:16.000 You know, maybe if you grow up you might get a job again. 03:16.000 --> 03:18.000 Oh, wait till I see Harry today. 03:18.000 --> 03:22.000 He brought The Sidewalk to Nowhere, terrific book about a teenage murderer. 03:22.000 --> 03:25.000 I'll convince him I'm not too old for the lead. 03:25.000 --> 03:27.000 How old does he think I am anyway? 03:27.000 --> 03:30.000 Oh, please, Dickie, he's got your Social Security card. 03:30.000 --> 03:32.000 All right, all right, so I'm 31. 03:32.000 --> 03:34.000 Thirty-three. 03:34.000 --> 03:36.000 Time certainly flies. 03:36.000 --> 03:37.000 Doesn't it? 03:37.000 --> 03:41.000 Married to me four years already, parents of a bright two-year-old boy. 03:41.000 --> 03:43.000 And if you'd like any more vital statistics, 03:43.000 --> 03:45.000 you've been out of work for more than three years. 03:45.000 --> 03:47.000 This coffee tastes like formaldehyde. 03:47.000 --> 03:49.000 I'll have it next week in a fort. 03:49.000 --> 03:51.000 What time's your appointment? 03:51.000 --> 03:54.000 Don't worry, I'll leave Lumpy with Mrs. Vogel for a few hours. 03:54.000 --> 03:56.000 Be sure you wait for the laundry man first. 03:56.000 --> 03:58.000 Okay! 03:58.000 --> 04:01.000 Okay, you support me, you pay the bills. 04:01.000 --> 04:03.000 If you like, I'll do the laundry myself. 04:03.000 --> 04:06.000 I'm sorry, Dickie. 04:06.000 --> 04:09.000 I'm all tied up and nuts. 04:09.000 --> 04:13.000 That last check that I gave the supermarket bounced. 04:13.000 --> 04:16.000 Our credit is down the drain. 04:16.000 --> 04:18.000 Not at all. 04:18.000 --> 04:21.000 No, and Lumpy, I know he's a lot of trouble for you to take care of. 04:21.000 --> 04:22.000 No trouble. 04:22.000 --> 04:25.000 Now the park's peppered with kids his age. 04:25.000 --> 04:27.000 What do you do there? 04:27.000 --> 04:29.000 Just sit around with the sand pile? 04:29.000 --> 04:32.000 Hmm, yeah, with the other doting mothers. 04:32.000 --> 04:35.000 Are you learning anything about child psychology? 04:35.000 --> 04:37.000 Why? 04:37.000 --> 04:40.000 Oh, just that Lumpy's almost two years old. 04:40.000 --> 04:42.000 Have you noticed he's learning to talk? 04:42.000 --> 04:45.000 Oh, he's been talking since he was 11 months, that one. 04:45.000 --> 04:48.000 Just sounds, just separate words. 04:48.000 --> 04:51.000 I mean, he's just put together his first sentence. 04:51.000 --> 04:53.000 And hide time. 04:53.000 --> 04:55.000 His first real sentence. 04:55.000 --> 04:57.000 Funny the way he keeps repeating it. 04:57.000 --> 04:59.000 Maybe you're right at that. 04:59.000 --> 05:02.000 Maybe I ought to wear something more dignified. 05:02.000 --> 05:05.000 Get Lumpy ready while I change. 05:05.000 --> 05:07.000 Come on, Lumpy. 05:07.000 --> 05:09.000 You can't dawdle over your breakfast this morning. 05:09.000 --> 05:11.000 If you want to go with Daddy. 05:11.000 --> 05:17.000 Go see pretty lady. Go see pretty lady. 05:17.000 --> 05:19.000 Who is she, Lumpy? 05:19.000 --> 05:23.000 Go see pretty lady. 05:28.000 --> 05:30.000 The first time he said it was a week ago. 05:30.000 --> 05:32.000 It hit me right between the eyes. 05:32.000 --> 05:34.000 His first sentence. 05:34.000 --> 05:37.000 Something to cherish to put in his scrapbook with his first tooth. 05:37.000 --> 05:39.000 And a curl from his first haircut. 05:39.000 --> 05:41.000 His first sentence. 05:41.000 --> 05:44.000 Go see pretty lady. 05:44.000 --> 05:47.000 It burned in my mind all day long. 05:47.000 --> 05:51.000 But it burned deeper that night when Mrs. Vogel delivered Lumpy herself. 05:51.000 --> 05:55.000 Dicky hadn't picked him up as he was supposed to. 05:58.000 --> 06:02.000 After I got Lumpy to bed, I canvassed the neighborhood bars by phone. 06:02.000 --> 06:04.000 Nothing. 06:04.000 --> 06:06.000 Then I just sat and waited. 06:06.000 --> 06:11.000 My insides gnawed by fear and anxiety and plain old-fashioned jealousy. 06:11.000 --> 06:16.000 Then about ten o'clock the front door opened and there he was. 06:16.000 --> 06:19.000 He swayed in the doorway. There was blood drying on his face. 06:19.000 --> 06:22.000 His eyes looked stupid and beaten. 06:22.000 --> 06:26.000 The only reason he was able to stay on his feet was the hand steadying him from behind. 06:26.000 --> 06:29.000 The big powerful hand of Harry Landman. 06:29.000 --> 06:33.000 Dicky took one step inside and then he pitched forward. 06:33.000 --> 06:36.000 The table crashed to the floor with him. 06:36.000 --> 06:38.000 I'm sorry, Jean. 06:38.000 --> 06:40.000 Oh, Harry, what happened? 06:40.000 --> 06:43.000 Came to my house a couple hours ago. 06:43.000 --> 06:44.000 Lucky I wasn't alone. 06:44.000 --> 06:46.000 Should have heard of the things he called me. 06:46.000 --> 06:48.000 I wouldn't let my own mother-in-law talk to me that way. 06:48.000 --> 06:50.000 Oh, but he didn't mean it, Harry. He must have been drinking. 06:50.000 --> 06:53.000 Yeah, that's what I thought till he grabbed the poker from the fireplace and tried to kill me. 06:53.000 --> 06:55.000 Me, who feels like a father to the boy. 06:55.000 --> 06:56.000 He tried to kill you? 06:56.000 --> 07:00.000 Me and my house man had to beat him right down into his shoes before he quit trying. 07:00.000 --> 07:02.000 Oh, he must have been drunk. 07:02.000 --> 07:04.000 Oh, he's out of his head. 07:04.000 --> 07:06.000 I could put him away for ten years for this. 07:06.000 --> 07:08.000 Harry, what did you tell him at the studio this morning? 07:08.000 --> 07:12.000 The truth. Once and for all that he's washed up. 07:12.000 --> 07:16.000 Now, if you're smart, you'll get him out of this town, take him back east where he can be himself. 07:16.000 --> 07:17.000 Himself? 07:17.000 --> 07:22.000 Where he can grow up, where he can get a job without his pride getting all mixed up in it. 07:22.000 --> 07:25.000 Here in Hollywood, he can't stop being America's boyfriend. 07:25.000 --> 07:30.000 He's turning into a full-fledged schizophrenic, a homicidal maniac. 07:30.000 --> 07:33.000 You're afraid of him, of Dickie. 07:33.000 --> 07:35.000 I'm telling you, he's dangerous. He tried to kill me. 07:35.000 --> 07:43.000 That's really funny. You're afraid of this thing you created, this lovable tap-dancing monster, this horrible spirit of yours. 07:43.000 --> 07:44.000 You're blaming me? 07:44.000 --> 07:47.000 For years you kept him a teenager. You didn't let him grow up. 07:47.000 --> 07:49.000 You made this stunted thing out of him because there was money in it. 07:49.000 --> 07:51.000 He made plenty of money himself, didn't he? 07:51.000 --> 07:53.000 And he spent it faster than he made it. 07:53.000 --> 07:56.000 Oh, he lived the part all right. It was cute how irresponsible he was. 07:56.000 --> 08:01.000 Look, Gene, I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you, get him out of my hair. 08:01.000 --> 08:05.000 Take him back east anywhere, but do it inside of 24 hours or I'm... 08:05.000 --> 08:06.000 Oh, what? 08:06.000 --> 08:09.000 Well, I'll bring charges against him for assault with intent to kill. 08:09.000 --> 08:13.000 You're forgetting something, Harry. I'm only his wife. I don't have much influence with him. 08:13.000 --> 08:14.000 24 hours. 08:14.000 --> 08:17.000 He's got other attachments in Hollywood besides his family. 08:17.000 --> 08:19.000 Another woman? 08:19.000 --> 08:20.000 Yeah. 08:20.000 --> 08:21.000 Who? 08:21.000 --> 08:26.000 I don't know. I heard about it from somebody. 08:26.000 --> 08:30.000 Somebody who won't talk. 08:30.000 --> 08:35.000 Well, that's a problem I can't help you with, Gene. That's strictly your problem. 08:35.000 --> 08:40.000 Just remember, 24 hours or I'll charge him with attempted murder. 08:46.000 --> 08:49.000 I tried to help Dicky up, but he pushed me off. 08:49.000 --> 08:54.000 I was on my way to the bedroom like a bulldozer, knocking over a lamp, a chair, anything in his way. 08:54.000 --> 08:59.000 He sprawled face down on the bed and for a long time I could hear his heavy breathing. 08:59.000 --> 09:05.000 I don't know what time it was when I fell asleep on the sofa, but in the morning, a little before seven, I looked in. 09:05.000 --> 09:10.000 He was gone. 09:10.000 --> 09:14.000 I left Lumpy with Mrs. Vogel, but I didn't go to work. 09:14.000 --> 09:19.000 I went to three bars, three Turkish baths, every alleged friend he had. 09:19.000 --> 09:24.000 By noon there was still no trace of him, so I went back to Charlie's and sat down at the end of the bar. 09:24.000 --> 09:28.000 Charlie shuffled toward me, his eyes refusing to meet mine. 09:28.000 --> 09:30.000 Mrs. Keaton, I'm sorry. Are you wasting your time here? 09:30.000 --> 09:36.000 Listen, I've got to find Dicky. It's terribly important, Charlie. He couldn't just disappear into thin air. 09:36.000 --> 09:39.000 The air in this town ain't as thin as you think. 09:39.000 --> 09:44.000 Okay, maybe you can remember something. Somebody he's been in here with. 09:44.000 --> 09:47.000 Oh, Charlie, please tell me. Tell me who that woman is. 09:47.000 --> 09:50.000 You mean that the dame he was with last night? 09:50.000 --> 09:53.000 Last night? He came back here last night? 09:53.000 --> 09:58.000 Yeah, around two in the morning. They were just sitting together right here. That's all I know. 09:58.000 --> 10:01.000 What did she look like, Charlie? Could you describe her? 10:01.000 --> 10:08.000 To me, Mrs. Keaton, the dames that come in here all look as much alike as a row of bar stools. 10:08.000 --> 10:10.000 Was she tall or short? 10:10.000 --> 10:11.000 Kind of in between. 10:11.000 --> 10:14.000 Well, was she a blonde or redhead or brunette? What? 10:14.000 --> 10:15.000 I don't remember. 10:15.000 --> 10:16.000 Oh, she had hair, didn't she? 10:16.000 --> 10:21.000 Oh, yeah. Yeah, she had dark hair. 10:21.000 --> 10:27.000 Well, thanks, Charlie. That's something, anyhow. At least I know she has hair. She isn't a midget. 10:27.000 --> 10:40.000 At five o'clock, I gave up. There was only one thing to do, see Harry Landman and explain that Dickie disappeared and that there was really nothing to worry about. 10:40.000 --> 10:48.000 Harry lived up above the strip. I climbed a steep incline, made a sharp turn that almost broke my steering gear, and there it was. 10:48.000 --> 10:54.000 A low pink house sitting back against the hillside. There was an ugly iron dog beside the front door. 10:54.000 --> 11:01.000 I went to the door and I pushed the bell, and somehow I knew that the man who answered the door didn't belong in that house. 11:01.000 --> 11:02.000 Yes? 11:02.000 --> 11:06.000 I'm Mrs. Keith. I must see Mr. Landman right away. 11:06.000 --> 11:07.000 You want to see Mr. Landman? 11:07.000 --> 11:11.000 I didn't wait. I brushed right past him into a dim hall and I stopped it. 11:11.000 --> 11:15.000 Whatever it was that had been holding me together all day snapped. 11:15.000 --> 11:21.000 I closed my eyes to shut myself in darkness, but the thing I saw was still there, as if painted on the inside of my eyelids. 11:21.000 --> 11:28.000 It was Harry Landman, faced on on the floor with a knife sticking out of his back. 11:28.000 --> 11:37.000 In just a moment, we continue with... 11:37.000 --> 11:40.000 Suspense. 11:40.000 --> 11:48.000 Do you know the Social Security benefits to which you will be entitled when you separate from the service and take a civilian job? 11:48.000 --> 11:52.000 Here's a tip from Social Security. 11:52.000 --> 11:57.000 1940. An important year in the security of American families. 11:57.000 --> 12:04.000 It was in 1940 that the first Social Security checks began to find their way into the mailboxes of the nation. 12:04.000 --> 12:09.000 That was the year that retired people and their families, and the families of working people who had died, 12:09.000 --> 12:17.000 began to get payments from the government insurance program to partly take the place of earnings that were no longer coming into their homes. 12:17.000 --> 12:22.000 Social Security has done much through the years to relieve the grinding worry of old people, 12:22.000 --> 12:27.000 to keep widows and their children together living as families beneath the family roof. 12:27.000 --> 12:34.000 Just recently, within the last five years, Social Security has helped to relieve the financial plight of the disabled. 12:34.000 --> 12:41.000 Find out about Social Security, what you can expect from it for your security and the security of your loved ones. 12:41.000 --> 12:49.000 Go to Social Security, Department 15, Hollywood 28, California, and ask how it will work in your case. 12:49.000 --> 12:56.000 They'll be glad to give you the information and to send you a free booklet, a booklet that tells the Social Security story. 12:56.000 --> 13:07.000 And now, we continue with the second act of America's Boyfriend, starring Miss Mercedes McCambridge. 13:07.000 --> 13:13.000 A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. 13:13.000 --> 13:23.000 It was a beautiful knife. It had a carved pearl handle about four inches long. 13:23.000 --> 13:31.000 It seemed to grow bigger as I stared at it, until it crowded everything else out of my mind, until it floated there, huge, in my nightmare. 13:31.000 --> 13:38.000 Then a small gray-haired man touched my elbow, and the knife got smaller like a punctured balloon, and I knew it wasn't a nightmare. 13:38.000 --> 13:43.000 It was a knife sticking out of Harry Landman's back. 13:43.000 --> 13:49.000 I'd never seen a corpse before, not even a dead grandmother. I thought I was going to be sick. 13:49.000 --> 13:55.000 I was helped gently into a chair. The room was hot and stuffy with cigarette smoke. 13:55.000 --> 14:02.000 Three other men were busy there, working as calmly and thoroughly over details as bookkeepers in an office. 14:02.000 --> 14:04.000 We've been looking for you, Mrs. Keith. 14:04.000 --> 14:05.000 For me? 14:05.000 --> 14:07.000 My name is Carlson, homicide. 14:07.000 --> 14:11.000 Actually, we're looking for your husband. We thought you might be able to tell us something. 14:11.000 --> 14:12.000 Oh, he didn't do it. 14:12.000 --> 14:14.000 Any idea where he is? 14:14.000 --> 14:18.000 Well, he couldn't commit murder. He couldn't. He's not the kind who could do a terrible thing like that. 14:18.000 --> 14:24.000 After 20 years' experience, Mrs. Keith, I know what kind of people commit murders. 14:24.000 --> 14:25.000 What kind? 14:25.000 --> 14:26.000 Murderers. 14:26.000 --> 14:30.000 But you're wrong about Dickie. You don't know Dickie Keith the way I do. 14:30.000 --> 14:35.000 I know quite a few things already. I know that he threatened to kill Mr. Landman. I know he even attempted to. 14:35.000 --> 14:36.000 But he didn't mean it. 14:36.000 --> 14:37.000 It looks like he did. 14:37.000 --> 14:43.000 Oh, you don't understand. He was out of work. He was trying to cope with all the responsibilities of a family. 14:43.000 --> 14:46.000 He was always trying to cover up for a feeling of insecurity. 14:46.000 --> 14:53.000 If you don't mind, let's leave Freud out of this, huh? I'm no psychiatrist. I'm a cop. My job is to put together the facts. 14:53.000 --> 14:56.000 There's more than facts. There's the truth. 14:56.000 --> 14:58.000 The truth is he's disappeared. Now, why? 14:58.000 --> 15:02.000 Well, maybe... maybe to look for a job. 15:02.000 --> 15:04.000 He wasn't looking for a job early this morning. 15:04.000 --> 15:05.000 Early this morning? 15:05.000 --> 15:07.000 When Harry Landman was killed. 15:07.000 --> 15:13.000 Well, there's a... there is somebody who knows where Dickie was then. 15:13.000 --> 15:15.000 Who's that? 15:15.000 --> 15:18.000 It's a woman. And you've got to find her. 15:18.000 --> 15:19.000 What's her name? 15:18.000 --> 15:19.000 I don't know. 15:19.000 --> 15:22.000 Can you give us any information about her? Description? 15:22.000 --> 15:26.000 She has dark hair and she's meeting him height. 15:26.000 --> 15:28.000 Well, go on. 15:28.000 --> 15:30.000 That's all I know. 15:30.000 --> 15:34.000 Mrs. Keith, that description fits about half the women in this town. 15:34.000 --> 15:36.000 But there must be some way that you could trace her. 15:36.000 --> 15:42.000 Don't count on it, Mrs. Keith. That knife's been identified by Mr. Landman's secretary. 15:42.000 --> 15:49.000 Well, you recognize it, don't you? Landman brought it back from Hawaii a few years ago. Gave it to your husband for his birthday. 15:49.000 --> 15:54.000 Listen, I know how she can be traced. I know how she can be traced. That woman who can prove that Dickie's innocent. 15:54.000 --> 15:55.000 Mrs. Keith. 15:55.000 --> 16:00.000 No, there's somebody who has seen her, who knows her. And if Lumpy sees her again, he'll recognize her. 16:00.000 --> 16:04.000 Okay, okay. Just tell me who Lumpy is and I'll go have a talk with him. 16:04.000 --> 16:05.000 No, you can't. 16:05.000 --> 16:06.000 Why not? 16:06.000 --> 16:12.000 Because he can't talk. I mean, he's a two-year-old. It's my child. 16:12.000 --> 16:14.000 Oh, now look, Mrs. Keith. 16:14.000 --> 16:20.000 No, you've got to listen to me. Since I got a job, Dickie's been taking care of him. 16:20.000 --> 16:25.000 Well, don't you see, he was meeting her somewhere, but he had Lumpy along. 16:25.000 --> 16:29.000 And she made quite an impression. The pretty lady. That's what Lumpy calls her. 16:29.000 --> 16:34.000 His first sentence, he's just learning to talk. That's the first time he put a kind of sentence together. 16:34.000 --> 16:39.000 Go see pretty lady. That's what he says whenever he knows that Dickie's taking him out. 16:39.000 --> 16:42.000 Well, if he sees the pretty lady again, he can identify her. 16:42.000 --> 16:45.000 Don't you see, we could take Lumpy to the park where Dickie took him every single morning. 16:45.000 --> 16:52.000 And we could start from there. It's a chance. Maybe one in a thousand, but it's worth trying. 16:52.000 --> 16:57.000 Mrs. Keith, this beats anything I ever heard in 20 years on homicide. 16:57.000 --> 17:01.000 Every case we get crazy information. We get tips from psychopaths, confessions from cranks. 17:01.000 --> 17:03.000 But this beats the whole... 17:03.000 --> 17:13.000 Alright, I'll find her myself. I will, I'll find her myself. 17:13.000 --> 17:20.000 Know where we're going, Lumpy? To see the pretty lady. 17:20.000 --> 17:21.000 What, Daddy? 17:21.000 --> 17:23.000 No, no, no, just us. 17:23.000 --> 17:25.000 Go see pretty lady. 17:25.000 --> 17:31.000 Uh-huh. Now, which way, Lumpy? Which way do we go? 17:31.000 --> 17:34.000 Go see pretty lady. 17:34.000 --> 17:40.000 For a moment, feeling the warm early morning sun and hearing the sane normal voices of children in the park, 17:40.000 --> 17:44.000 I decided I was out of my mind. It was crazy to think I could find her that way, 17:44.000 --> 17:48.000 dragging Lumpy into it using a two-year-old to track her down. 17:48.000 --> 17:54.000 And he seemed to forget all about it, attracted by the more immediate joys of the sandpile. 17:54.000 --> 18:01.000 A couple of hours went by, and then Lumpy came trotting over to me with his one sentence. 18:01.000 --> 18:04.000 Go see pretty lady. 18:04.000 --> 18:10.000 That was it. The pretty lady didn't come to the park. Lumpy and his father visited her. 18:10.000 --> 18:17.000 But where? Maybe in the neighborhood. It was worth a try. Anything was worth a try. 18:17.000 --> 18:23.000 Dickie might be a crazy mixed-up kid and a faithless husband, but one thing I knew for sure, he was not a murderer. 18:23.000 --> 18:25.000 How about this street, Lumpy? 18:25.000 --> 18:28.000 Go see pretty lady. 18:28.000 --> 18:34.000 On this street, Lumpy? This the street where pretty lady lives? 18:37.000 --> 18:45.000 I turned up cross streets, I circled blocks, I drove on until Lumpy began to get restless and lose interest. 18:45.000 --> 18:48.000 How about this street, Lumpy? 18:48.000 --> 18:57.000 Darling, when we get to the pretty lady, do you know what we're going to have? Chocolate ice cream and marshmallow cookies and toys? 18:57.000 --> 19:00.000 Hey, lady! 19:00.000 --> 19:06.000 I slammed my foot down on the brake. The way Lumpy bounced off the seat, the way his eyes got wide with expectation. 19:06.000 --> 19:10.000 I knew that I was in luck. He pulled me like a puppy on a leash. 19:10.000 --> 19:15.000 He pointed to a house across the street, an old house. The downstairs was used as an interior decorator studio. 19:15.000 --> 19:19.000 Hey, lady! We were just getting out of the car when I swung Lumpy around and slammed the door. 19:19.000 --> 19:23.000 The woman coming out of the house was a pretty lady, all right. 19:23.000 --> 19:28.000 A very pretty lady of medium height with dark hair. 19:32.000 --> 19:39.000 As soon as I left Lumpy with Mrs. Vogel, I hurried back. The sign downstairs read, Maurice Byrne, fine interiors. 19:39.000 --> 19:48.000 I went in. A tall man with a blunt nose came toward me. The deep, regular waves in his yellow hair must have taken plenty of time and attention. 19:48.000 --> 19:52.000 And he had an off-balance smile like a man with something stuck in his teeth. 19:52.000 --> 19:53.000 Good afternoon. 19:53.000 --> 19:58.000 I'm looking for the woman who lives upstairs. I don't remember her name. 19:58.000 --> 19:59.000 Upstairs? 19:59.000 --> 20:00.000 Yes. 20:00.000 --> 20:01.000 There are three apartments upstairs. 20:01.000 --> 20:02.000 Three? 20:02.000 --> 20:08.000 One is occupied by Joe Courtney, an electrician. He threw his wife out a few months ago. I don't think she's back yet. 20:08.000 --> 20:09.000 What about the other two? 20:09.000 --> 20:11.000 Well, there's Farley McClain and his wife. 20:11.000 --> 20:14.000 Is she an attractive woman? 20:14.000 --> 20:22.000 The last time I saw Mrs. McClain, she had an ugly gash running the length of her throat and up one side of her face as if someone had slashed her with an axe. 20:22.000 --> 20:24.000 With an axe? 20:24.000 --> 20:31.000 There are a couple of old hams who get an occasional bit part in pictures. They're always practicing makeup. Don't go near them at night. 20:31.000 --> 20:36.000 No, no. The woman I'm looking for, she has dark hair. 20:36.000 --> 20:40.000 Oh? A beautiful woman with an expensive look? 20:40.000 --> 20:41.000 You know her? 20:41.000 --> 20:48.000 Not yet. She's new here. She still ignores me, which should give you an idea of how discriminating she is. 20:48.000 --> 20:51.000 I wonder if you could tell me her name and where I could get in touch with her, right now? 20:51.000 --> 20:57.000 I'm afraid not. How do I know you're not serving summons or maybe a bill collector? 20:57.000 --> 21:01.000 Oh, no, no, no. It's nothing like that. This is something very personal, but it's terribly important. 21:01.000 --> 21:08.000 Really, I must find her for her own good, as well as for somebody else's, somebody that she can help. And if I don't find her, the police will. 21:08.000 --> 21:15.000 Her name is Alice Evans. She's a model at Maison Chic, the exclusive dressmaker. 21:20.000 --> 21:24.000 The saleswomen were a little startled when I walked past them toward the dressing room. 21:24.000 --> 21:28.000 The way my hair was blown, I looked like a neglected sheepdog. 21:28.000 --> 21:34.000 She glanced up at me from a long mirrored table, where she was putting the finishing touches on her street makeup. 21:34.000 --> 21:35.000 Yes? 21:35.000 --> 21:38.000 I'm, uh, I'm Dickie's wife. 21:38.000 --> 21:40.000 Congratulations. Who is he? 21:40.000 --> 21:44.000 Oh, please, please. I know everything. And you're the only person who can save him. 21:44.000 --> 21:46.000 Save him from what? 21:46.000 --> 21:52.000 I know. You don't want to get mixed up in this, but Dickie's facing a murder charge, and you've got to tell the police that he was with you when Harry Landman was killed. 21:52.000 --> 21:55.000 What is this, a gag? You've got me mixed up with a couple of other women. 21:55.000 --> 21:56.000 Please, I'm only thinking of Dickie. 21:56.000 --> 21:59.000 I don't know your husband. I never laid eyes on him. 21:59.000 --> 22:00.000 If you care anything about him... 22:00.000 --> 22:05.000 Me? Why did you pick on me? Of all the women in this town, why me? 22:05.000 --> 22:07.000 If you don't go to the police, I will, and I'll tell them everything. 22:07.000 --> 22:11.000 I tell you, I don't know your husband. I never saw him. I never spoke a word to him. 22:11.000 --> 22:12.000 I understand how you feel, but... 22:12.000 --> 22:15.000 You do. Then be a good girl and go away. 22:15.000 --> 22:21.000 Listen, if you don't want to get involved, your name might be kept out of it. I'm sure that the police would cooperate. 22:21.000 --> 22:23.000 Just tell me, where were you and Dickie that night? 22:23.000 --> 22:25.000 You're raving mad. 22:25.000 --> 22:29.000 If I could find somebody else who saw me there, you won't be dragged into this at all. 22:29.000 --> 22:30.000 I'm getting out of here. 22:30.000 --> 22:32.000 No, not until you tell me what happened. 22:32.000 --> 22:34.000 Oh, dear. 22:37.000 --> 22:44.000 My head's raw. I remembered the lovely crystal bottle in her hand, and then a couple of saleswomen were helping me to my feet. 22:44.000 --> 22:55.000 I was reeking of cologne and spattered with broken glass, and Alice Evans was gone. 22:55.000 --> 23:00.000 She was obviously panic-struck, and I had to press this advantage, so I hurried back to her house. 23:00.000 --> 23:05.000 The hall was dark, and I struck a match to look at the names on the mailboxes, and then I felt... 23:05.000 --> 23:07.000 ...the gun in my back. 23:07.000 --> 23:09.000 Why don't you leave me alone? 23:09.000 --> 23:12.000 You were with Dickie that night, and you can't help him. 23:12.000 --> 23:16.000 I don't know your husband, but you know plenty about me, don't you? 23:16.000 --> 23:18.000 You know enough to come looking for me here. 23:18.000 --> 23:20.000 Where else would I look? You live here. 23:20.000 --> 23:23.000 I live in a pink house in the hills with an iron dog at the front door. 23:23.000 --> 23:26.000 But that's... that's Harry Landman's. 23:27.000 --> 23:29.000 You! 23:29.000 --> 23:31.000 The door seemed closer as if it moved. 23:31.000 --> 23:34.000 The door from the hall to Maurice Byrne, fine interiors. 23:34.000 --> 23:37.000 It was crazy and desperate and clumsy the way I knocked the gun aside and got through the door. 23:37.000 --> 23:40.000 Hurry! Oh, hurry! Get the police. She killed him. 23:40.000 --> 23:42.000 Don't be silly, Mrs. Keith. 23:42.000 --> 23:45.000 She's the first one the police checked and double-checked. 23:45.000 --> 23:48.000 They know she was in Las Vegas that night. 23:48.000 --> 23:50.000 Lock the door, Alice. 23:51.000 --> 23:54.000 You said there was nothing to worry about. 23:54.000 --> 23:55.000 There isn't. 23:55.000 --> 23:57.000 Why did she come here looking for me? 23:57.000 --> 24:00.000 I'm not sure. I can't figure out what she knows. 24:00.000 --> 24:04.000 You said there wouldn't be any suspicion. You had a made-to-order fall guy, a perfect dupe. 24:04.000 --> 24:06.000 Fall guy? Dickie? 24:06.000 --> 24:08.000 You're a clever woman, Mrs. Keith. 24:08.000 --> 24:12.000 I don't know how you managed to trace Alice here, but it was clever... 24:12.000 --> 24:14.000 in a suicidal way. 24:14.000 --> 24:17.000 You... I've seen you somewhere long ago. 24:17.000 --> 24:20.000 Of course. In one of Dickie's early pictures. 24:20.000 --> 24:23.000 He came walking by here with Lumpy a few months ago. 24:23.000 --> 24:25.000 First time I saw him in years. 24:25.000 --> 24:27.000 And I know why he kept coming back. 24:27.000 --> 24:28.000 He was lonely. 24:28.000 --> 24:31.000 He needed somebody sympathetic to talk to. 24:31.000 --> 24:33.000 About how he hated Landman. 24:33.000 --> 24:36.000 How Landman had given him a dirty deal. 24:36.000 --> 24:40.000 And one day he brought in that beautiful pearl-handled knife. 24:40.000 --> 24:41.000 Here. 24:41.000 --> 24:47.000 Wanted to know if it was worth $50, if I could use it in some decorating scheme. 24:47.000 --> 24:50.000 Then you killed Landman. It was you. 24:52.000 --> 24:55.000 $50. Such ingratitude. 24:55.000 --> 24:59.000 A knife that Harry Landman gave him as a birthday present. 24:59.000 --> 25:02.000 Do you know how much that knife was worth to Alice and me? 25:02.000 --> 25:06.000 $200 grand. Left by her late, unlimented husband. 25:06.000 --> 25:08.000 And who would believe Dickie? 25:08.000 --> 25:12.000 Of course it wasn't as decorative as, say, this silver candlestick. 25:12.000 --> 25:13.000 Oh, no. 25:13.000 --> 25:14.000 I'm sorry you traced her here. 25:14.000 --> 25:15.000 No. 25:15.000 --> 25:17.000 Sometimes the less people know, the smarter they are. 25:17.000 --> 25:19.000 No! No! No! 25:24.000 --> 25:28.000 I saw the blood trickle down the sand and onto the candlestick. 25:28.000 --> 25:33.000 And the next thing I knew, the police were looking down at me over the edge of a dark, deep well. 25:33.000 --> 25:38.000 Only it wasn't a well. It was an elegant sofa at Maurice Byrne, fine interiors. 25:38.000 --> 25:40.000 All right. Now, take it easy, Mrs. Keith. 25:40.000 --> 25:43.000 When you feel better, I guess you and your husband can go home together. 25:43.000 --> 25:44.000 Dickie? 25:44.000 --> 25:48.000 Everything's okay, Jean. I even picked up Lumpy on the way here. 25:48.000 --> 25:50.000 How did you... I mean, where... 25:50.000 --> 25:53.000 I was running away from everything. 25:53.000 --> 25:55.000 When I heard the police were looking for me, I came back. 25:55.000 --> 25:59.000 You know, funny thing, we had a man following you, Mrs. Keith, since you left Lammon's house. 25:59.000 --> 26:01.000 Thought you might lead us to your husband. Instead... 26:01.000 --> 26:03.000 See, pretty lady! 26:05.000 --> 26:07.000 Where? Where, Lumpy? 26:07.000 --> 26:09.000 See, pretty lady! 26:09.000 --> 26:11.000 Where? 26:12.000 --> 26:14.000 Oh, no. 26:16.000 --> 26:18.000 No, it can't be. 26:18.000 --> 26:21.000 That's the only pretty lady Lumpy ever saw around here, Jean. 26:21.000 --> 26:23.000 That portrait on the wall? 26:23.000 --> 26:25.000 It was going to be a surprise. 26:25.000 --> 26:27.000 A painter Byrne knows did it from a photograph of you. 26:27.000 --> 26:29.000 Me? 26:29.000 --> 26:31.000 It was going to be your birthday present. 26:31.000 --> 26:35.000 Me? The pretty lady I was looking for? 26:35.000 --> 26:38.000 Yeah, they had set me back 50 bucks. 26:38.000 --> 26:53.000 I sold that pearl-handled knife to Byrne to get the 50 dollars to pay for it. 26:53.000 --> 26:56.000 Suspense. 26:56.000 --> 27:03.000 In which Miss Mercedes McCambridge starred in America's Boyfriend, written by Sidney Ranthal. 27:03.000 --> 27:05.000 Listen. 27:05.000 --> 27:13.000 Listen again next week, when we return with The Twist is Murder, starring Raymond Burr. 27:13.000 --> 27:17.000 Another tale well calculated to keep you in... 27:18.000 --> 27:21.000 Suspense. 27:21.000 --> 27:29.000 Supporting Miss McCambridge in America's Boyfriend were Norma Jean Nilsen, Joan Banks, Dick Krenna, Jack Crouchon, Byron Cain, and Alan Reed. 27:29.000 --> 27:35.000 Suspense. 27:59.000 --> 28:27.000 Suspense. 28:27.000 --> 28:36.000 Suspense has been brought to you through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. 28:57.000 --> 29:12.000 Suspense. 29:12.000 --> 29:27.000 Suspense. 29:27.000 --> 29:53.000 Suspense.