Now, Roma wines present...
Suspense!
Tonight, a thing of beauty starring June Dupree.
Suspense is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wines.
That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines.
Those excellent California wines that can add so much pleasantness to the way you live.
To your happiness and entertaining guests.
To your enjoyment of everyday meals.
Yes, right now a glass full would be very pleasant.
As Roma Wines bring you...
Suspense!
Suspense is the man in black here for the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California.
Tonight in the absence of Ida Lupino, who was prevented from being with us because of illness.
We are fortunate in being able to bring to you as star the actress whose performance in the RKO production,
None But the Lonely Heart, has recently won her an award for one of the ten best of the year, Miss June Dupree.
Miss Dupree appears tonight in a drama of crime and passion and punishment.
As unfolded in a narrative of a celebrated actress of yesteryear.
And so with A Thing of Beauty, and with the performance of June Dupree as Madeline Tremaine,
We again hope to keep you in...
Suspense!
Suspense!
You will give me your arm? Thank you.
I think we should just miss the storm if we hurry.
A rather somber place, isn't it?
Oh, it gives her seclusion and that's all she's ever asked for since she came here.
That and what little spiritual comfort I've been able to give her.
How long ago was that, sir? That she came here, I mean?
Eight, no, no, nine years ago in March.
But it was long before that she left the stage.
Oh, she was nearly ten years in an institution. A mental disorder.
Though it's not her mind that was ever sick, unless I'm mistaken.
I do say she's a bit on the eccentric side.
Oh, I don't believe in gossip. You'll be her spiritual advisor soon enough when I've retired.
And I want you to meet her without prejudice.
And one day I'll tell you what I know, which is little enough.
And what I have reason to believe, which is more.
Oh, it seems we'll just about escape a drenching.
She lives completely alone. Her other one's servant, that's all.
Oh, Father Robinson.
Oh, Suzette, this is my new curate, the Reverend Missy Sedley.
We are here to see Miss Plain.
Really? Does she know you're not alone?
My good Suzette, I haven't any idea.
But you might let us in out of the rain while you so inform her if you will.
But if... very well, come in.
If you will wait in the study, I will ask if Mademoiselle is able to see you.
What in the world got into the woman?
She knows Miss Tremaine's been seeing me every fortnight at the same time for nine years.
There's a picture here. Is it of her?
Probably.
My words, she was a beauty.
Your father could have told you. She was a legend of two continents.
Must have been a very tragic thing to make a woman like that shut herself away.
Is it true, sir, that she sees no one but you?
As far as I know, she has never set foot outside this house in all the time she's been here.
Nor has she ever had a single visitor beside myself.
Why? I think because she hopes that somehow, someday, a man of God will help her to find peace.
And she doesn't care to face the world until she's found one.
Mademoiselle will see you now, Fabio, in her parlor across the hall.
Oh, thank you.
Well, Father Benton, come in. Come in.
I do hope you don't mind my receiving you in the dark.
But I have a mortal dread of light during a storm.
Not at all.
You'll find two quite comfortable chairs just there by the window, I think.
Thank you. Madeline, this is my new curate, Mr. Sedley.
Oh, yes, Mr. Sedley.
It's a great pleasure, Miss Tremaine, to meet such a famous beauty.
Even in the dark.
Ah, so you've heard of my beauty, of course, Mr. Sedley.
You know, as you came in, I was looking at this little gold mirror,
engraved on the back of the words,
a thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Ah, geese.
Yes. Oscar gave it to me. He said it was a magic mirror.
Was that Oscar Wilde, Miss Tremaine?
Yes. Dear Oscar, dear dead days.
Ah, I suppose you've already heard all the wild tales of my lurid past, Mr. Sedley.
Oh, no, Miss Tremaine, I assure you I have.
I don't believe that Father Bentham has ever caught me in a reminiscing mood, have you, Father?
But since you will one day be vicar here, Mr. Sedley,
perhaps it would be better if you heard the truth from me.
Miss Tremaine, don't think I...
Oh, the truth is wild enough.
It all began, I suppose, when John Gaylord got me my first speaking part.
That was all far too long ago to tell.
John and L. Garrett were the leads in my part.
Well, it was one of those obscure little parts that no one pays any attention to
until some obscure little actress comes along and makes the start of a career with it.
Because then I first experienced what will always be to me
and all the range of human feelings, the supreme exaltation,
when we hear the full friends and applause of an audience, for you, for you alone.
Yes?
It's me.
Oh, come in, John.
Madam, I'm John Gaylord.
Oh, come in, John.
Madeline, you are marvelous, simply marvelous.
Thank you, John.
And such a little fool.
A fool?
I told you to play the part down, but it's getting worse and worse.
Tonight she's absolutely furious.
She's going to make trouble for you, Madeline.
Oh, trouble? What kind of trouble?
You don't know Nelly Garrett.
But I know my audience, don't I?
Oh, Madeline, you're so young and foolish and so beautiful.
Why, thank you, John.
So terribly beautiful.
Oh, John, now you're leading up to it again, aren't you?
This play isn't going to last forever.
Even you can't keep it alive much longer.
Why don't we make plans together now?
We could have our own company.
As the great John Gaylord and Mrs. Gaylord.
Of course not.
Why, in a couple of years, you'd be as famous in your own right as Nell Garrett herself.
Perhaps I don't want to wait a couple of years.
Besides, John, I don't love you.
Do you love anyone?
No, but when I marry, it will be, oh, and often coming...
It's a fair in the dinner. Some of you must know about this.
You're in for it now, Madeline.
So there you are, my fine miss.
Go easy, Miss Garrett. She's meant no harm.
No harm?
She has merely ruined my entire last act curtain for 29 consecutive performances.
Hoisting her skirts clear above the ankle.
Ogling the stalls like a music hall Gretchen.
It's only because it's that kind of a ball.
Oh, is it?
Well, as long as I play the leads in this company,
I will not have my best speech in the whole play utterly ruined
by rowdy applause for the gutter antics of a half-baked ingenue.
Nell, you're making a fool of yourself.
And while we're on the subject, Mr. Gaylord,
there are a few points I should like to discuss with you.
When you help Miss remain down from the swing in the second act,
there is no need for you to keep your arm around her during the entire remainder of the scene.
Well, really, Miss Garrett, if you can no longer hold either your audiences or your lovers...
Oh, no.
Nell!
I'll kill you for that, Nell Garrett.
If I die for it, I'll kill you.
I left the theater and walked aimlessly out into the night.
My eyes blinded with the tears.
Young, oh, yes, and foolish as I was,
I believed my poor little heart was truly broken.
For I knew that Nell Garrett could ruin me with every theater manager in London.
And I knew she would.
How long I wandered through those misty streets, or where,
or even what I did, I shall never know.
But just as dawn was breaking, I found myself by some art twist of fate
passing by the lodgings of John Gaylord.
On a sudden impulse, I climbed the steps to his door.
Madeleine.
Hello, John.
Did anyone see you?
See me?
Come in.
Where have you been?
Just walking, walking.
Oh, good Lord, alone?
Yes. Why?
Don't you know?
Yes, John, I'm afraid I do.
My career?
Your career, oh, my poor child.
John, what's the matter?
Don't you know that Nell Garrett's been found dead with a knife in her back?
Dead?
Murdered.
John!
Police have been looking all over London for you.
I've been expecting you here, expecting them here any moment.
For me?
Of course, for you.
Me?
Madeleine, last night you threatened to kill her in front of a dozen witnesses.
Why wouldn't they be looking for you?
Oh, no!
Madeleine, listen to me.
Where did you go?
What did you do?
Didn't anyone see you?
Didn't you talk to anyone?
No, no.
You've got to tell them something.
What can I tell them?
Because if you don't, they'll hang you, Madeleine.
Please, Madeleine, you've got to think, try to remember something.
I'm so alone.
If I only had a friend...
You have got a friend, now, then I know.
...someone who loved me enough to at least say that they were with me.
Who is it?
Inspector Phillips, got the job.
Madeleine, in there, quick, the bedroom.
John.
Don't worry, I'll tell them something.
Hurry.
Coming.
I'm sorry to rouse you at this early hour, sir.
Quite all right.
Come in.
You are Mr. John Gaylord?
Yes.
Of the Queen's Players Company, Dury Lane?
Yes.
Can you tell me, Mr. Gaylord, anything of the whereabouts of Miss Madeleine Tremaine?
Madeleine Tremaine?
Yes.
Why?
Did you call me, darling?
Oh, excuse me.
Who is this lady, Mr. Gaylord?
Well, who are you?
I am from the police, madam.
Police?
There has been a murder.
Miss Nell Garrett of the Queen's Company was found stabbed in her home last night.
Nell Garrett?
Yes.
Do you know her?
Why, of course.
I'm afraid, madam, that I shall have to ask you for your name.
I'm Madeleine Tremaine.
I'm so sorry that you find me somewhat in disarray.
Miss Tremaine, I'm afraid that I shall also have to ask you to account for your whereabouts after you left the theater last night.
Very well.
Mr. Gaylord can account for my whereabouts.
Well, Mr. Gaylord, why...
You see, Inspector, it's a rather delicate matter, because since I left the theater last night, I have been here.
Is... is that true, Mr. Gaylord?
Yes.
Oh, I see.
Is that satisfactory, Inspector?
Yes, yes.
Well, I don't think I need trouble you any further for the moment.
I quite understand your position, Inspector.
It's a terrible, terrible thing.
Yes.
Well, good day to you.
Good day.
Madeleine.
Yes, John?
Madeleine, you shouldn't have done it. They'll have the scandal all over every newspaper in the city.
A scandal is better than a hanging, isn't it?
But there must have been some other way.
Now they'll tear you to shreds. They wouldn't have you in anything better than a music hall for the rest of your life.
John, there won't be any scandal if...
If what?
John, it wasn't just my tip with Mel Garrett that sent me wandering through the fog last night.
I was thinking about something much more serious.
What do you mean?
I was thinking about what you had said.
What I had said?
John, perhaps I don't really love you yet, but there's no one else.
And you're the kindest, finest man I've ever known.
Madeleine.
And now perhaps you've saved my life.
Madeleine, I love you more than anything else in the world.
But I wouldn't have you marry me for gratitude.
I wouldn't marry any man for gratitude.
Madeleine, if I were to tell you that I wasn't here last night either,
that I couldn't explain my whereabouts...
Oh, I see.
Would you still marry me?
Yes, John. I will marry you.
Tonight for Suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you as star Miss June Dupree,
whom you have heard in the first act of A Thing of Beauty,
a radio play by Robert L. Richards from a story by Elizabeth Heaston,
tonight's tale of suspense.
This is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines,
and I should like to tell you about a most interesting woman
who extracts all the simple pleasure and happiness part of her life.
She is Elsa Maxwell, International Authority on Hospitality.
She offers you some friendly counsel.
I'm always telling people to take it easy, as they say,
to be moderate and natural and at ease.
And so obviously I suggest the enjoyment of a glass of Roma California Port
after dinner or during the evening.
It's also very smart to serve when friends drop in
because this is one of the most glorious of all wines,
richly fruity in flavor, with wonderful deep red color, utterly delicious.
This is simple enjoyment, easy and restful enjoyment,
moderate pleasure that helps you feel calmly at ease and so happier.
Don't bother about special glasses, just use whatever glasses are convenient,
and I'm sure you'll find a good glass of wine for you.
Special glasses are convenient, and enjoy your wine.
You really should act on Miss Maxwell's suggestion.
Roma Port, as all Roma wines,
is the best that California's magnificent sun-ripened grapes can provide.
In glorious flavor, color, and aroma, is unvaryingly good, always enjoyable,
protected for you by the ancient skill of the noted Roma wineries
located in the choicest vineyard areas of California.
Yet, all this delight costs you only pennies a glass.
Remember, more Americans enjoy Roma than any other wines.
Roma, R-O-M-A, Roma wines.
And now it is with pleasure that we bring back to our sound stage
Miss June Dupree as Madeleine Tremaine,
who resumes the recital of her brilliant and stormy career.
It is a tale told to two clergymen in a darkened room,
a tale well calculated to keep them and you in...
suspense.
Shall I continue, gentlemen?
Oh, yes, please do, Miss Tremaine. It's completely absorbing.
Indeed it is.
Really. I hope you don't mind the light that turned off.
It's the storm. I suppose perhaps I'm a sort of elemental creature,
but I always love to sit here and have it dark when it's stormy outside.
Not at all.
Well, then...
Our marriage was a very happy one.
Perhaps not entirely in the high tradition of grand passion,
but a thoroughly comfortable civilized relationship
until something happened which is so often a tragic feature of
wedded life between two stage personalities.
For the first two seasons, John and I always played together.
And then managers began to ask for me, alone.
What could I do?
I was young and just reaching the peak of my career.
John was past his prime and popularity.
And so at last he no longer even tried to have a career,
but lived along on false hopes and idle dreams and tiresome reminiscences.
Had took up little hobbies to pass the time away and grew a little stout.
It was very difficult for both of us.
And then for me came the time and opportunity that every actress dreams of.
Ah, mademoiselle!
Hello, Suzette. I've got the most wonderful news.
The most wonderful, wonderful news!
Is that you, Madeline?
I'll tell you about it later.
Yes, John?
Come in here a moment. I want to show you something.
Where are you?
In here, in the den.
Oh, good heavens. Now what?
I thought I'd keep it a secret until I had my first exhibit, but I couldn't wait.
I've taken up etching.
Etching?
Yes. Look.
What's that?
You.
What?
It's only the copper plate, of course.
You see, the whole principle of etching is...
Madeline, look out!
What's the matter?
Almost knocked over that vat of nitric acid.
One drop of that on your beautiful white skin.
And it'll burn a hole right through you.
Well, must you have that sort of thing around?
Of course. That's the whole thing.
You see, your sketch simply scrapes the wax off the copper plate.
Then you drop it in the acid and...
Well, that's very interesting.
Yes. Well?
And what happened in town?
Anything?
Anything. Everything!
Got some plans, huh?
Anyone ask for me?
Oh, yes, everyone asked after you, John. I told them you were well.
I mean, I thought there might be a couple of decent plays for a change.
I might consider something...
John, how are you on Romeo?
Romeo?
Yes. You see, Maxwell has finally asked me to do a Shakespeare repertory.
And high time, by the way.
And I'm starting in Romeo and Juliet. And I need...
Madeline, why didn't you tell me Romeo?
Oh, it'll be a sensation and it's just the thing I need to...
But now, John...
Oh, I can do it all right. Take off a little weight brush up on the lines.
I've done it before, you know.
John...
Oh, Madeline, you're the dearest wife and the best friend a man ever had.
You know, lately I've actually wondered sometimes if you might not think I wasn't...
Oh, oh, darling.
Now, John, don't count too heavily on this.
I'm not quite sure yet how things are going to work out.
Work out? How else can they work out? But perfectly.
Very well. I'd like to begin reading here at home.
First thing tomorrow evening.
Now, shall we take it again from, uh, yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night. Good night.
Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
Sleep, dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.
Yes, yes. John, you see, on those last lines you should already be moving off stage.
You don't want to make too much of them.
After all, the scene really ends when Juliet leaves the balcony.
But you can't just throw them away, Madeline.
Those are famous lines.
But John, we mustn't think so much in terms of lines as of performance.
Excuse me, mademoiselle. Mr. Alexander Duncan is here.
Oh, yes. Show him in.
Yes, mademoiselle.
Alec Duncan. Who's that young ham coming around for?
Well, John, I've been meaning to tell you...
Hello, Madeline.
Hello, Alec. You know my husband?
Why, yes. How do you do, Mr. Tremaine?
The name is Gaylord.
Oh, oh, yes, of course, Mr. Gaylord.
Well, say, aren't I the luckiest fellow in the world?
Are you?
John...
To be playing Romeo opposite Madeline Tremaine?
Why, Madeline, when I got your cable, I could hardly believe it.
I jumped on the boat without even packing...
Is something wrong?
John, I've been trying to tell you, but I didn't want to hurt your feelings.
Well, if I've interrupted anything...
It's all right, Alec.
John, please don't make a scene.
I had to have someone to rehearse with until Alec got here,
and I knew he wouldn't be the slightest help to me if you thought...
Oh, John, why must you make an issue of it?
Madeline, I've always known you were the thoughtless, selfish woman.
But I never would have believed that you could do anything quite so vile.
How dare you speak to me that way?
You didn't really think that a man with a 40-inch waistline
and a double chin could ever play Romeo, did you?
Why, you...
Oh, I say...
Get out of here. Get out of here.
Get out, get out, get out!
Why, get out.
You'd better leave, Alec.
Oh, yes.
I'll go and apologize.
John, I want to talk...
Be careful of that acid, Madeline.
Acid? Oh, John, I...
I'm terribly sorry for what I said.
It was beastly of me.
Oh, it's quite all right.
Oh, John, I knew you'd see it that way when you came to sing.
Because, you see, I am going to play Romeo.
Oh, John, must we go through it all again?
Madeline, I've forgiven, I've forgotten
a lot of things since we've been married.
I've pushed you out in front, I've given you the spotlight
and watched your regard for me become somewhat less than that of a servant,
if somewhat more than for your dog.
John!
But this, if only for my self-respect, I will not allow
to dangle before my eyes the thing that I've wanted most in all the world,
except your beauty that I gave it up for.
The thing I've been wanting so much, I didn't dare admit it to myself.
And then to have you snatch it away from me.
No, Madeline.
Waist lines and double chins can be concealed.
But a mean spirit never.
This one thing you can do for me, and you will.
John, you're being a fool.
You see, I haven't always, I've always known
that you married me to save your career
and to keep my mouth shut.
But there's one thing you haven't known.
Where I was the night Nell Garrett was murdered.
Where were you?
I was at Nell Garrett's home.
Well, that explains quite a number of things, doesn't it, John?
Madeline, where did you get that gun?
I always thought that someday I might need one.
Madeline.
Don't come near me, John.
Very well, I warned you.
You monster, you beautiful terrible monster.
John, no, no.
You see, as he sank to the floor,
he hurled a bowl of acid at my face.
It was a frightful thing.
Because of a self-defense, I was never even brought to trial.
Particularly when I told that it was he who had killed Paul Nell Garrett.
But I suffered a complete nervous collapse.
And I suppose I've never really recovered.
And yet Providence always seems kind enough
to leave something to be thankful for,
even in the worst of tragedies.
Because not a single drop of acid ever touched me.
I suppose if it had, I should be horribly disfigured to this day.
Have I bored you, Mr. Sedley?
No, oh no, Mr. Mann.
Well, Madeline, the storm is almost over.
I think we'd best push on.
Must you?
Well, but excuse me for just a moment.
Of course.
My word.
Poor woman.
Yes.
I say, look here.
What?
This mirror.
It's not a mirror at all.
It has a picture pasted in it.
The photograph that's in the study.
Poor Madeline.
Father Benson, Mademoiselle would like to speak with you a moment before you go.
Oh, oh, oh, very well.
I'll only be a moment, Sedley.
This way, Father.
Thank you.
Ah, Father.
Well, Madeline.
You may turn the lights on, Suzette, as you go.
Yes, Mademoiselle.
So, that is your young curate, Father Bentham.
Yes, yes.
Do you like him?
Oh, he seems a dear boy.
But...
But what, Madeline?
I am afraid I can't see him again.
Madeline, why?
Because I... I don't want to hurt his feelings, and...
it would not be the same.
You have been my only true friend in all these years.
And when you are gone, I would rather be alone again.
I'm sorry, sir, but Mrs. Stokes is outside.
Her little girl is dying, and when she heard you were here, she...
Oh...
Go away.
Madeline.
Go away.
Both of you.
Go away.
Go away.
Go away.
Come, sir.
Go away.
Good Lord.
Poor Madeline.
It was... it was too much for her.
Yes.
Oh, she killed them both, of course.
The woman and her husband.
I think I always must have known it.
All these years, she's... she's lived a lie.
Yes, but that's not the lie that's hurt her.
It was the acid.
Acid?
Didn't you see her face, sir?
You forget, my boy, that I am blind.
She has no face.
And so closes A Thing of Beauty, starring June Dupre,
tonight's tale of Suspense.
Suspense is produced, edited, and directed by William Spear.
Probably no woman alive has been hostess to so many famous
and distinguished people as Miss Elsa Maxwell.
This is what she says about Roma wine.
When you entertain friends, you do everything you can think of
to add to their enjoyment.
And that is why I say, when you serve your guests Roma wine,
you not only delight them, you also smartly and genuinely flatter them.
These delicious wines add so much to hospitality
and to enjoyment of everyday meals.
Yet it's such a simple, easy addition to the joy of living,
so wholesomely moderate and so inexpensive.
Miss Maxwell gives you good advice.
Enjoy Roma wine regularly.
It's California's finest.
Always good, unvaryingly fine in flavor and quality.
Remember, more Americans enjoy Roma than any other wines.
Roma, R-O-M-A, Roma wines.
Next Thursday same time, Mr. Keenan Wynne will be your star of...
Suspense!
Presented by Roma Wines, R-O-M-A, made in California
for enjoyment throughout the world.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.