Roma wines present Suspense.
Roma wines made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
Salud.
Your health, senor.
Roma wines toast the world.
The wine for your table is Roma wine made in California for enjoyment throughout the
world.
This is the man in black here for the Roma wine company of Fresno, California to introduce
this weekly half hour of Suspense.
Tonight from Hollywood, Roma wines bring you Mr. Laird Krieger in a suspense play dealing
with a maniacal hatred and with a mental drug of hypnotics.
And so with Narrative About Clarence and with the performance of Laird Krieger supported
by Hans Conrad as Bill from whom we hear the narrative, we again hope to keep you in Suspense.
I never wanted to kill anyone, not until he came along.
I didn't even want to kill him at first.
I kept thinking there must be some other way.
If anybody had told me six months ago that I was capable of murder, I would have thought
he was crazy.
What I'm getting at is this.
There are circumstances, people, that can make anybody want to commit murder.
And he, he was one of those people.
He brought the circumstances with him, a whole set of them.
I never heard of the guy at all one day last summer.
We were having breakfast.
My wife was looking over the morning mail.
Bill, look at this.
Postmark Calcutta.
It must be from Clarence.
Who's Clarence?
He's my brother.
You never told me you had a brother.
Didn't I?
Well, it's not so surprising.
He's only my half brother and I haven't seen him since I was a child.
He's never even written to me before.
That's funny.
I wonder why he decided to write now.
I can't imagine.
What does he say?
He's coming to America.
What for?
Now, Bill, don't be like that.
Well, you're not going to ask him to stay with us, are you?
Well, what else can I do?
He says he's coming straight here from the boat.
Well, so what?
There are several first class hotels in this town.
Well, I'll just ask him kind of half-heartedly so he can refuse if he wants to.
Good girl.
There's just one thing that worries me.
What's that?
He says at the end of the letter, I'm most anxious to meet your daughter, who it has
been revealed to me closely resembles her grandmother.
Well, Jeannie does look like the pictures of your mother at that.
But how does he know?
He couldn't even know we have a child.
Unless...
Unless what?
Well, unless someone told him or unless it was revealed to him in some mysterious way.
I didn't like that.
I didn't like it at all.
There's everything I hate that's a fake.
And if that guy with his winged collar and his high-toned accent didn't look like a fake,
then nobody ever did.
But he wasn't a fake.
He didn't arrive at our house.
He seemed to materialize in the middle of the living room.
Well, Lillian, don't you recognize me?
Why...
Why, yes, Clarence.
How are you, Clarence?
This is Bill, my husband.
I know.
I hope you'll forgive my rather unconventional entrance.
As your doorbell is out of order, I didn't bother to push the button.
Well, hello.
I didn't know the doorbell was out of order, Lillian.
Neither did I.
Well, won't you sit down, Clarence?
Oh, yes, thank you.
Have a good trip.
Excellent.
But let's not dwell on the past.
I have plans, Lillian.
First of all, I intend to settle here in this town permanently.
How nice.
I intend to resume my career in America where it left off 15 years ago.
Your wife's look of distress, William, is owing to an unfortunate incident that occurred
15 years ago and made it expedient for me to leave the country for a while.
It was all a misunderstanding, Bill.
I don't quite know what you're talking about.
She's told you nothing about me.
How strange.
Well, only that you're a doctor and...
Doctor?
What an inadequate word.
It suggests a little man you call in when the baby gets whooping cough, doesn't it?
What's the matter with the little man I call in when the baby gets whooping cough?
Well, he is, shall we say, limited.
Yes, yes, that's the kindly word for it.
The mind, William, the human mind, with all its strange powers for good and evil.
That is my province.
Clarence was a mental scientist.
He had a small private hospital and...
Oh, how drab.
How unendurably drab you make it sound, Lillian.
I penetrated deep into the mysteries of the human mind.
And then I discovered a psychic power transcending the mere grey matter of the human brain.
Clarence became interested in the occult.
You mean that Indian faker stuff, going into trances and stuff like that?
How crudely you put it, William.
I'm sorry.
Go on with your story.
I'll go on with it for you.
You started using this mysterious East hocus pocus and your mental patients and their relatives
got sore, right?
Your husband, Lillian, is a man of rare perception.
Yeah.
So now you're back from India with a new bag of tricks and you're going to set up shop
again.
Precisely, William.
There's only one thing wrong with your statement, the tone of it.
I intend to establish a small private sanitarium dedicated to the treatment of the mentally
ill.
And I shall continue my investigations into what your wife chooses to call the occult.
Is that clear?
Quite clear.
Now then, Lillian, you will prepare the little room off William's study for me, the one
with the dark green walls.
Well, of course, you're welcome to stay with us if you want to, Clarence, but the house
is rather small and...
Yes, yes, yes.
It's fortunate that the house is small.
I'd counted on that.
You seemed to have counted on a great deal, Clarence.
By the way, how'd you know that the room has green walls?
Yes, and how did you know?
My dear, engaging kinsmen, all things are revealed to him who can survive the ordeal
of true enlightenment.
That is as much as I'm permitted to tell you at the present time.
And now, will you be so good as to open the outside door?
Your daughter is about to ring the doorbell, and it's out of order.
Remember?
But how did you...
You didn't...
Go and let her in, Lillian.
I'm eager to meet Jeannie.
Mama, guess what happened today?
Sally Bates fell off the seesaw and Miss Thompson had to drive her home and then...
Oh, I didn't know we had company.
This is your Uncle Clarence from India, dear.
Oh.
Yes.
She is the very image of her grandmother.
Was that Mother's mother?
Yes, dear.
Mama and Uncle Clarence had the same mother, but different fathers.
Oh, then he's not really my uncle.
He's only my half-uncle.
I think, little Jeannie, that you will find we have a great deal in common, nevertheless.
You will be very close to your Uncle Clarence.
Very close.
What do you do, those funny things with your eyes?
Never mind, dear.
Uncle Clarence is tired from his long journey.
You come on upstairs.
Mom will help you change for dinner.
All right.
See you later, Uncle Clarence.
What's so funny, Doctor?
Oh, William, I do hope that my stay here won't be complicated by your rudeness.
Why did you try to frighten Jeannie just now?
My dear fellow, it's the very furthest thing from my wish is to frighten your child.
It is essential to my plan for her that she have confidence in me.
Now, look, get this straight, Clarence.
Your welcome in this house is a guess because you're my wife's brother.
Your yogi ideas, or whatever they are, are welcome only so long as you keep them to yourself.
I quite intend to, William.
That too is part of my plan.
What is this plan you keep talking about?
For the time being, William, I will take your advice and keep that to myself.
Tonight for Suspense, Roma Wines bring you as star Mr. Laird Cregar, whom you have heard
in the prologue to Narrative About Clarence by Dwight Hauser and Robert Tallman.
Tonight's adventure in Suspense.
Let's leave the scene of our play for a moment and take a little journey.
Let a bottle of Roma wine serve as Aladdin's lamp.
I touch the label and presto, we're all transported to that capital of Geity, Havana, Cuba.
And now we find ourselves in the charming Pan American Club.
At a table nearby, an American has just voiced his delight at the uncommon beauty of the
scene.
Then his Cuban companion responds, you in America also have much that is uncommon to
boast of, such as this marvelous tasting wine we are enjoying this minute.
To enjoy uncommon fine quality, Cuba imports this wine from your own distant California.
It is your superb Roma wine.
Now just realize what it means when other countries import Roma wines from such great
distances.
Such international esteem must mean that Roma wines are truly magnificent in quality.
And then consider this, you here in America need pay no high import duty, no expensive
shipping charges.
For these fine Roma wines come from Roma's own wineries in the heart of the rich California
wine grape districts.
Because so many Americans do realize this good fortune, Roma wines are America's largest
selling wines.
So why deny yourself this taste delight?
Try an inexpensive bottle of tangy, appetizing Roma sherry, or the hearty Roma burgundy,
or any of the marvelously enjoyable Roma wines.
But remember, these days your favorite dealer may be temporarily out of the type you prefer.
Then please try again.
Ask for R-O-M-A, Roma wines, made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
And now it is with pleasure that we bring back to our sound stage, our star, Laird Cregar,
with Hans Conrad in Narrative About Clarence, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Well you see now how I was beginning to feel about my dear half-brother-in-law Clarence.
At first it was nothing but just pure hatred.
I didn't have any cause yet for fear.
And then came that day with little Jeannie.
It doesn't take much imagination to know what happened before I got home.
Mama, I'm already for school, huh?
Hello Jeannie.
Hello Uncle Clarence.
Did you see Mama?
Your mother's gone out for a while, but well, there's some good in everything, isn't there,
Jeannie?
This gives us a chance to get acquainted.
Well, I'll be late for school.
I'll bother the school.
I bet Sally Bates wouldn't worry about school if she had an uncle visiting her who'd come
all the way from India.
Do they really lie on beds of nails and all those things?
No.
Those are just the fakirs.
They do those stunts for money, like your circus performers over here.
I never saw anything like that at a circus.
Did you ever see anything like this, Jeannie?
Just a ring, isn't it?
Like a cat's eye.
Oh, it makes me dizzy to look at it.
If you look at it long enough, you'll see all the mysterious secrets of the East.
I'm afraid to look again, Uncle Clarence.
That light in it, like a cat's eye, scares me.
Oh, come now.
A big girl like you afraid in the broad daylight.
Why do you do those funny things with your eyes?
Perhaps because my eyes see so many wonderful things.
Just as yours will if you will only look at the ring.
Is it magic?
Perhaps.
Look and see if it isn't.
Look right in the center of the cat's eye.
That's it.
It... it makes me feel sleepy.
That's the way it works.
First you feel terribly, terribly sleepy.
And then you see the most wonderful things.
First you feel sleepy and... and then...
What's the matter with her?
She's coming around now.
Oh, Bill.
She's coming around.
Jeannie.
Jeannie, what's happened to you?
You needn't shout, Mother.
I can hear you quite well.
Oh, thank heaven you're all right.
She is all right, isn't she, Bill?
Huh?
Oh, sure, sure.
Do you feel well enough to go to school, dear?
I shan't be going back to that school, Mother.
Miss Thompson bores me.
What kind of talk is that?
I think we'll get a doctor for you, young lady.
Please, Father.
I will let you know when I'm in need of medical assistance.
Bill, she's not all right.
She's...
Just come outside with me, Mother.
You've got to sleep again now, Jeannie.
Bill, her whole personality has changed.
She speaks with that strange accent and a vocabulary like...
Tell me, where was Clarence?
Why were you getting that car out?
Why, in his room, I suppose.
Have you ever noticed that ring he wears?
Yes.
It's a cat's eye, isn't it?
Very well-defined cat's eye.
The kind of ring you always see on professional hypnotists.
It's dead easy to hypnotise a child, you know.
But why would he want to hypnotise Jeannie?
I don't know.
All I'm interested in is getting him out of this house as soon as possible.
I'm going in there and give him his walking papers right now.
That won't be necessary, William.
Clarence, we didn't hear you come in.
Obviously not.
William, I believe I remarked to you on a previous occasion that I hoped my stay here
would not be complicated by your rudeness.
It won't be, Clarence.
Your stay here is at an end.
Lillian, I want to talk with you alone.
You can say anything you have to say to me in front of my husband, Clarence.
I dare say it is my wish, however, to speak with you alone.
I've had enough.
I'm sorry, Lillian.
I don't care whether he's your brother or not.
I'm telling him to get out of here and get out now.
I'll call a taxi while you're packing, Clarence.
The irate brother-in-law.
What a tiresome exhibition.
I'm surprised at a woman of your intelligence becoming involved with such a bore, Lillian.
All right, you asked for it.
Don't do it, Bill.
Clarence just doesn't understand.
He's been away for so long.
I'm sick of hearing your excuses for him.
The time's come for a showdown.
No, William.
The time has not come for a showdown.
Not for a while yet.
I will let you know when that time comes.
You'll let me know?
Bill, please.
Let me explain to Clarence alone if he likes.
I won't leave you alone, William.
Oh, don't be melodramatic, William.
I'll kill you, so help me.
Bill, please, please.
All right.
I'm sorry.
I'll give you 10 minutes, Clarence.
No more.
10 minutes will be ample.
I think Lillian and I can come to an excellent understanding in 10 minutes.
Those 10 minutes seemed like an eternity.
I could hear Lillian's voice speaking very quietly as if reasoning with him and his hateful,
velvety accents replying.
And then, quite suddenly, there seemed to be only one voice, Clarence's.
I looked at my watch.
The 10 minutes were up.
The door opened.
Clarence stood there in the doorway and he was laughing.
What have you done to her?
What have you done?
Lillian was lying on the sofa, unconscious.
Her eyes were rolled back hideously so that only the whites of them showed.
She's not dead, William, only thinking over our conversation.
Bring her out of it, do you hear me?
Bring her out of it or I'll...
What will you do, William?
I'll kill you!
You're not hurting me, William.
You're hurting her.
I...
What?
Look at her.
See how she rise in agony.
See how she clutches her throat.
You win, Clarence.
Of course.
How could you hope with your poor, undeveloped, occidental mind to match wits against me,
who have penetrated the deepest mysteries of the occult?
You're nothing but a cheap hypnotist.
Any vaudeville mind reader could do the things you do if he was sufficiently lacking in human
decency.
Be careful, William.
I shouldn't like to have to punish you for your rudeness.
What do you want of us?
I'll give you anything I own if you'll just take it and go away.
It's not so easy as all that, William.
Because you see, I want the lives of your wife and child.
I knew then that he was insane, and that realization filled me with hope.
It'd be quite simple to call in an alienist and have him committed to an asylum.
When Lillian regained consciousness, she insisted on his staying, as I expected.
I humoured her along, knowing she was acting on his hypnotic suggestions.
I was reasonably certain he would do nothing violent that night.
His was the slow, sadistic way of murder.
When daylight came, I stole quietly out of the house.
I did not risk calling the asylum on our telephone for fear of being overheard.
My wife and daughter were still peacefully sleeping when I returned.
And now I slept, too.
Good morning.
I'm Dr. Millow, the state institute.
Yes, yes, I know.
Come in, please, doctor.
Are you the person who put in the call about...
Yes, yes, it would be better not to speak too loudly, Dr. Millow.
We might be overheard, and that might cause difficulties.
Oh, yes, yes, I see.
Well, tell me about the patient.
I told him the whole story, word for word, as it had happened.
It was unknown better.
When I'd finished, there was disbelief written all over his face.
Mr. Gilchrist, I don't for a moment doubt that you have an unwelcome relative on your
hands who is probably emotionally highly unstable as well.
But isn't it possible that you're exaggerating certain aspects of the matter?
I mean...
If Dr. Millow asks you to examine the man and draw your own conclusions as to his sanity...
I'd be glad to.
Where is he now?
I think William has probably been talking to you about me, doctor.
Sit down, won't you?
Thank you.
Really, I must apologize for your being inconvenienced this way, doctor.
I try to keep an eye on William, but one must sleep, you know, and, well, occasionally
he lewds me and gets out of the house.
I suppose he's told you that I'm a hypnotist and that I wish to murder his wife and child.
Why do you think he told me that?
Well, it's always the same story.
Why should I believe your story rather than Mr. Gilchrist's?
Mine is a little easier to believe, I should think.
But if you wish further proof...
Oh, Lillian!
Yes, Clarence?
Come down here, will you?
William's got out again and told that story.
I'll be right down.
And bring Jeannie with you.
You dare bring my daughter into this?
His daughter doesn't know.
You'll be tactful, won't you, doctor?
Yes, of course.
Bill, what is the meaning of this?
Haven't we warned you time and again what might happen if you go out like that?
Oh, Lillian, you don't know what you're saying.
This man is your husband, madam?
Yes.
He's been under the care of a psychiatrist for several years now.
He seemed to be getting better.
I'm sure he's getting better.
The doctor said we must expect little lapses.
Oh, she doesn't know what she's saying, doctor.
She's acting under his hypnotic suggestion.
And this young lady?
He hypnotised her, too.
Is that true?
I don't know what that means, hypnotised.
Daddy's always saying it, but he never says what it means.
Well, this seems to clear up the situation pretty thoroughly.
If you have any further trouble, Mr. Gilchrist, let me know.
You think I'm crazy?
No, I don't.
I'm sure that your wife is quite right, Mr. Gilchrist.
You're getting better every day.
He was insane and diabolically insane.
I had to face the unalterable fact.
There was only one way to cope with him, and that was to kill him.
But I had to do it while my wife and daughter were out of the house.
I couldn't risk facing with a gun.
I didn't trust myself not to fall under his hypnotic spell.
The way I decided on it was the best way I could think of.
When I'd finished my preparations, I waited for Clarence.
Good evening, William.
Clarence, for the last time...
Oh, William, I'm very tired and I have a very busy day ahead of me tomorrow.
I have no wish to repeat that very tiresome conversation with which you invariably begin,
Clarence, for the last time.
This is the last time, Clarence.
Tonight, nothing will stop me.
Tonight, I am going to kill you.
Please, don't make another unnecessary scene, William.
You know that trying to hurt me only hurts your wife.
She's no longer hypnotized, Clarence.
You stayed away too long.
She and Jeannie are safely out of your reach now.
What makes you so sure of that?
Are you sure of anything anymore?
Dr. Miller thought you were insane.
Are you quite sure you're not?
I'm crazy enough to know that I've got to kill you.
Well, do it quietly, William.
I'm going straight to bed and to sleep and I don't want to be disturbed.
Good night.
Just a minute, Clarence.
Maybe you'll win again.
I don't know.
But just in case you don't...
Yes?
Tell me, why do you say you want to kill my wife and child?
Because my mother meant more to me than anything in the world.
She died in giving birth to this silly, shallow person you call your wife.
I have hated her since the day she was born.
And I hate the child because having no right to life, she commits the sacrilege of inheriting
my mother's beauty.
They must both be destroyed, the murderer and the imposter.
You are mad.
Madder than I ever dreamed you were.
Am I?
Did I really say what you think you just heard me say?
Or is it only part of your insanity?
Take it over, William.
Good night.
I had everything ready.
The heavy boards to nail across the door, the cotton waste and a gallon of benzene.
The shutters over the window of his room I'd already nailed shut and barred.
As I nailed the boards across the door, I felt as if I were driving nails into his cup.
William!
William, stop it!
You don't know what you're doing!
Lillian and Jeannie are upstairs.
They came in the back way.
William!
Where are your great powers now, Clarence?
Where are you, fool?
Can the secrets of the East help you now?
You're trapped, Clarence.
Get out of your mind, William.
In a moment, the whole house will be in flames.
You'll be burned alive.
You don't know what you're doing, William.
Listen, Clarence.
Listen, I'm striking the match now.
You smell the smoke, Clarence?
Never mind. You will in a moment.
Oh, I wish you could see the flames now, Clarence.
They're roaring up the stairwell.
You don't know what you're doing, William.
It's beautiful.
You fool!
I'll have to leave you now, Clarence.
It's getting too warm in here for me.
But you should be used to being, though, after all those years in India.
And I laughed.
I laughed.
I guess the relief from all that tension.
Well, that's the story, Doctor.
Then I must have fainted or something from the smoke.
I don't remember anything after that till I woke up in this place.
And what about your wife and daughter?
Oh, that's just it.
I haven't seen them since that afternoon.
That's why I've got to get out of here.
I've got to find them.
Can't you understand, Clarence?
Yes, yes, yes.
I can understand that very well.
Will you talk to someone the head of this place and tell him that and let me out?
I shouldn't be locked up here in an institution.
Yes, yes.
I'll talk to him, Bill.
That's a promise.
I'll do it right now.
Goodbye.
Goodbye, Doctor.
Pardon me.
The head's office, Doctor...
Doctor Crossman.
You'll find him right through there.
Thank you.
Oh, pardon me.
Doctor Crossman?
Yes.
Oh.
Oh, how do you do, sir?
Have you found my little sanitarium interest?
Yes, indeed.
By the way, most unusual case.
I've just been talking to...
Yes, I know.
Oh, to poor William.
Bill, that is, number 27.
Yes, but...
I'm sorry that you had to be in convenience that way, sir.
We do our best to keep the garrulous patients well out of a visiting doctor's way, but accidents
will happen.
Oh, that.
I ran into him, Doctor Crossman.
His story interests me very much.
He doesn't strike me as a homicidal lunatic.
No, he's not.
This idea of his that he committed a murder is simply a fantasy.
Are you absolutely sure of that?
Of course.
Because...
Well, you see, I am Clarence, the wicked brother-in-law in his story.
You?
He began to develop these extraordinary symptoms during my stay at his home when I first returned
from India.
Parts of his story, you see, are quite accurate.
I see.
It's a pity, of course.
He was doing quite nicely under treatment until his wife and child were burned to death
so tragically in the fire that destroyed their home.
I'm afraid that that event on top of his previous delusions unhinged him for good.
And where were you during the fire, Doctor Crossman?
Oh, I dined out that evening.
When I returned, it was all over.
Well, I certainly should write this case up.
It's one of the most interesting I've ever run across.
Oh, must you, Doctor?
I mean, poor chap, I feel he's entitled at least to some privacy.
Have you any personal reasons for wanting to keep this case quiet, sir?
Yes, I have.
Do you see this scar on my face?
That's a burn, wasn't it?
A very nasty burn, too.
Precisely, Doctor.
And a very nasty coincidence.
And so closes narrative about Clarence starring Laird Cregar with Hans Conry,
tonight's tale of suspense.
Laird Cregar is currently being seen in the 20th Century Fox production, The Lodger.
We sincerely hope you enjoyed the performance of Mr. Cregar
and that of the whole cast tonight in our Roma suspense play.
And here's a thought.
To discover the enjoyment these suspense programs offer,
you first had to sample one.
And so you must first sample one of the many delicious Roma wines
to discover for yourself their wonderful taste and quality,
the excellence that makes Roma America's largest selling wines.
You'll discover, as of other millions before you,
that Roma wines are super quality, are super tasting,
and are super easy on your pocketbook, too, costing only pennies a glass.
Wipe it off this taste treat another day.
Be sure you get R-O-M-A, Roma wines,
made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
This is Laird Cregar.
It is my very great pleasure to tell you that next week,
the star who will keep you in suspense will be Joseph Cotton.
Suspense is produced and directed by William Spear.
Don't forget then next Monday, same time for Joseph Cotton in Suspense.
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made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
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