Now, the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California presents...
Suspense!
Tonight, the Roma Wines bring you Dane Clark, a star of This Will Kill You,
a suspense play produced, edited and directed for Roma Wines by William Spear.
Suspense! Radio's outstanding theatre of thrills 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 Dane Clark in a remarkable tale of...
Suspense!
Listen, get a load of this. This will kill you.
I got a story that should be written up by one of those big magazine writers.
Only mine is true. The whole thing is true, sir, help me.
You know, they say truth is stranger than fiction, don't they?
Well, get this. I was working down at the Acme Engineering,
an outfit making hydraulic valves for gun turrets,
and we had a former named Charlie Harris, one of those big good-looking guys
who thought he was a big shot because he was a boss.
Well, this guy was always picking on me.
Like, for instance, one morning I come to work a few minutes late and this Harris says,
Well, good afternoon, Jordan. I saved those gags for Jack Benny.
It's only a quarter after eight. Well, get here at eight and you'll be spared my sense of humor.
Ain't a guy got a right to get here a couple of minutes late once in a while?
Yes, sure, once in a while, Joe, but not every other day.
Oh, gee, Charlie, my alarm clock's on a bump.
You know you can't buy a new one these days.
Oh, save that for the teacher. Now, come on, Joe, come on, get on the ball.
Save that for the teacher, he said.
Always throwing up to me that he graduated from engineering school
and I never even had a chance to go to high school.
As if you need an education to be a smart guy.
Well, I could tell you a hundred guys who never even went to school
could buy and sell that guy a million...
Well, that's another story.
Anyway, this Charlie Harris kept giving me the needle.
Joe, can I talk to you for a minute?
What is it now, Chief?
Quit calling me Chief.
Now, look, kid, look, I don't know what's wrong, but you're slowing up.
The other boys are turning out a hundred parts a day and you're only averaging 80.
Now, what's the trouble, Joe?
Well, I don't know, my eyes hurt.
This work gets tough on the eyes and I got to stop once in a while.
My eyes hurt bad.
You complained last week too, Joe,
and the company doctors report that there was nothing wrong.
Ah, what does that quack know?
All right, all right, now quit the complaints and get on the job, Joe.
We've still got a war on our hands.
Even though you and a lot of other guys have forgotten it since Germany took the count.
There's a war on. Did you get that?
At the time, he was technically right,
but give me the business just because he didn't like me,
waving your flag and singing, oh, say, can you see?
Look, I'm just as patriotic as him or any other guy.
Could I help it if my eyes hurt bad?
But he had to go make a big thing out of it just because I got in the habit of,
well, stepping out a little here and there, and he found out.
Well, ain't a guy got a right to have a little fun once in a while
just because those japs are still popping away?
So my eyes hurt a little the next day. Is that so terrible?
Are the japs going to win a war just because I've had a little fun?
Anyway, he keeps picking on me and picking on me.
And one day while I was knocking my brains out, Joe!
Oh, let me ride in the wide open spaces that I love.
Don't offense me.
Joe!
What?
Yeah?
Look, Joe, look, I don't like playing cops,
but you know there's oil and gasoline all over the place.
Yeah?
And that a cigarette dropped in one of those pools could burn the plant down.
So what?
So read the sign beside your machine.
I'd like to read it, Charlie.
Go on, read it.
No smoking.
Drop that cigarette.
Why, what cigarette, Charlie?
You stupid jerk!
Why, you, I'll break your head for that!
Oh, you will, eh?
You're a
fool!
I would have mobilized the guy, but he hit me a lucky punch.
Never would have happened again in a million years, but, well, he knocked me out.
Charlie was standing by the cop when I came to, looking worried,
he acted as if he were doing me a big thing by not snitching,
but it was because he was scared of me.
He thought I'd forget.
Joe Jordan never forgets.
Remember that.
And Joe Jordan always gets even.
But I played my cards right.
I didn't let him know I was still sore.
That was smart, wasn't it?
I went out working as if nothing happened,
even though the rest of the guys started picking on me, too.
Because he was a boss and they were trying to get in good with him,
they kept it after me every day until I thought my head would explode,
always, always rubbing it in.
Hey, Jack Dempsey, still leading with your chin?
Ha ha ha ha!
Quit using my tools all the time, Joe.
Hey, Joe, you ain't smoking again, are you?
You'll have to get another lucky punch from Charlie.
Hey, quit throwing your shavens on my machine, Joe.
I used to get splitting headaches from the pounding of my brain.
Well, you were, too, getting it from all sides like that, wouldn't you?
It wasn't so bad during the day that the machine drowned out the noise in my head,
but at night, at night that pounding would start steady like my machine,
banging away all the time so I couldn't sleep.
It might have got another guy, but not me, not me.
I'm too tough and I got plans for Joe Jordan.
Be a big guy someday with my brains,
no foreman of some small time outfit,
be head man of the biggest shop in town with a classy car,
a big house with servants and a beautiful wife.
Yeah, yeah, beautiful wife.
And I had her all picked out.
Her name was Harriet Slayton.
She was a stenographer at Acme.
All the guys was on the make for her, but she had a end for me.
Not that she ever said anything, but I can tell.
You see, I know them.
Well, at the water cooler this day, I managed to bump her as I got a paper cup and...
Oh, pardonz-moi.
Oh, you speak French.
Oh, little, I knew a guy from Paris, France once
and he taught me a couple of things.
Cherchez la femme.
Commettez à l'ivou.
Quite an accent.
Excuse me, Joe, I gotta get back to my...
No, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
I got a lot of accomplishments. I'm a good dancer, too.
Did you know that I took second place in the jitterbug contest at Ocean Park last year?
No, I didn't.
Oh, are you Lindy?
No, I'm sort of on the conservative side.
Well, I can do the square stuff, too.
We must have a dance sometime.
Excuse me, Joe, I must...
No, wait, Harriet, I just happened to think,
how about going on a company dance with me on Friday?
I'm very sorry, Joe, but I can't.
Why, aren't you going?
Yes, but I have a date with Charlie.
Charlie who?
Charlie Harris.
Charlie Harris, Charlie Harris, Charlie Harris.
He moved into my life,
then he moved into my head and he started banging,
and now he moved in with my girl.
That guy was doing everything he could to burn me up.
He knew I was gonna ask Harry to the dance, but he beat me to it.
Okay, I said to myself, I can wait a week,
but I'll get to dance with that little lady,
and once I get her in my arms and I show her a couple of steps,
she won't want to dance with him again.
Well, it was a long week,
and I kept hearing reports that Charlie and Harriet were engaged,
but that was just to burn me up, see?
And then came the dance.
Hey, didn't you bring a dame, Joe?
I got a doll here, pal.
Who is she, dancing with some other guy?
Yeah, she's dancing with some other guy.
Don't stand there with egg all over your face.
If my dame was dancing with another guy, you can bet I'd cut in.
Well, that's a good idea.
Pardon me, I'm cutting in.
Oh, no, you're not, Joe.
Look, I wasn't asking the pleasure of you, Charlie.
Now, if you don't mind...
This is our favorite number, Joe.
Well, why can't I cut in once?
Just because he's a big foreman or something?
No, because you're the big dope.
Dope.
Did you get that?
He called me a dope,
but he didn't know I was smart.
You know, all good things ain't on the surface, you know.
I went home, I tried to sleep,
but the pounding on my brain was coming like a sledgehammer.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, and I could hear her laughing at me.
I, that dirty double-crossing dame, laughing at me, laughing at me.
And the bang on my head was coming louder and louder
and crashing against my brain, exploding on my forehead.
And then the pounding stopped.
And for the first time in weeks, there was silence in my head.
That soft, cool, quiet, like Sunday morning when you were a kid
and no one was awake in the house, but you,
like Christmas night after the excitement was over
and you went to bed and you thought about the new sled
and the wonderful dinner you just ate,
and there was peace on earth and...
And then I got the idea.
No more pounding on my head now.
I was going to eliminate the cause of the pounding, kill the root.
Yeah, I was going to kill two birds with one stone.
Charlie Harris was going to burn for murder.
And the murder?
The murder of Harriet Slate.
For suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you as star Dane Clark in
This Will Kill You by I.A. Finley.
Roma Wines presentation tonight in radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, Suspense.
Here's a suggestion from the internationally renowned hostess Elsa Maxwell,
who says this about smart and gracious hospitality.
Next time you entertain, flatter your guests by serving glorious,
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R-O-M-A, Roma Wines.
And now Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood sound stage,
Dane Clark in This Will Kill You, a narrative well calculated to keep you in...
suspense.
Are you still with me? Well, listen, like I was telling you,
I decided to kill Harriet and pin the rap on Charlie.
Fooled you, didn't I? You thought I was going to knock off Charlie myself, didn't you?
No, no, no, no. The law was going to do that. You see? You get the switch?
Now, get this. I knew how I was going to knock off the dame,
I knew how I was going to pin the blame on Charlie.
But the only thing missing was the motive. You understand the motive?
So before I killed her, I started supplying the motive.
Every day down at the plant, I drop something here and I drop something there to the guys.
Hey, I just heard that Charlie and Harriet was having an argument down the hall.
Oh, lovers' spat, probably.
No, no, I understand things aren't so hot shot between those two.
Oh, you're crazy, Joe. Well, that's what I heard.
Hey, Charlie's been doing a lot of bowling these nights, hasn't he?
Yeah, he loves it. Well, he didn't seem to when he and Harriet were so palsy walsy.
I heard something about that, but I don't believe it.
Oh, I do, I do. I heard him arguing plenty in the hall the other day.
Say, did you hear that Charlie and Harriet had a big blow off last night, something about another guy?
Yeah, I heard things weren't going so hot with those two lately.
Hey, listen, did you hear that Harriet and Charlie had a big scrap the other night?
Old news, Marty, it's old news. I understand she's got a guy up north and Charlie is burning.
Oh, he ought to bust her head wide open. It'd serve her right for two-timing a white guy like Charlie.
There was the motive. Signs sealed, wrapped up in a big red ribbon.
Now, was that smart or was that smart?
The next afternoon, I heard Charlie making a date with her for that night.
He didn't know it, but it was going to be his last date.
When the five o'clock whistle blew, Charlie went in to wash his hands.
I slipped over to his workbench. I grabbed the steel pipe he used on his drill press and I slipped under my coat.
I wore gloves so my fingerprints wouldn't show on it. Smart, huh?
Only Charlie's fingerprints were on the pipe.
I waited outside the plant and in a little while, Charlie walked by.
Uh, got a minute, Charlie?
Huh? Yeah, yeah, I guess so.
Look, there's an idea I've been working on that can speed production in our department.
Now, can I talk to you tonight for an hour or so?
Oh, I'm sorry, Joe, I can't tonight. I got a date with an angel.
But Charlie, with my idea, each man can turn out 200 valves a day easy.
I got it all worked out and I'm modeling my room. Can't you make it tonight?
Look, Joe, I told you I got a date.
Oh, fine, fine. You always give me that patriotic stuff when it doesn't cost you anything.
Huh? Okay, Charlie, I took you up on it.
I've been giving up my nights to work on this idea I have.
Now, look, I don't expect nothing out of it.
But when I ask you to give up a measly hour, you're too busy.
Now, why can't you come up after your date?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there, Joe, easy.
I didn't know you were so hot about all this.
Okay, okay, if it means so much to you.
Look, suppose I leave my girl about 11 and get to your room a few minutes later, huh?
Gee, you're swell, Charlie, swell. I'll be waiting for you.
Now, look, I may be out for a minute or two to get a packet of butts or something,
but the door will be open, so will you wait for me?
Yeah, sure, okay. I'll see you later.
You sure will.
Everything was working out just like I planned.
Pretty good for a dumb guy, huh?
I grabbed a bite of dinner and then I dropped over to Charlie's boarding house.
He lived on the first floor on the back.
I looked at his window and it was open. Perfect.
I waited until dark. I pushed up the window and I dropped in.
It took only a few seconds to find what I wanted.
A handkerchief with Charlie's initials on it.
I was outside and walking down the street before I had a chance to even get nervous.
I killed time till about 10.30, and then I drove over to Harriet's house
and I waited across the street.
In a little while, Harriet and Charlie walked up,
and they talked, and then Charlie looked at his watch and he kissed her goodnight.
Kissed her goodnight.
I waited for a few minutes after he left,
and I walked up to her room and knocked on the door.
Who's there?
It's me, Harriet. It's Joe Jordan. I've got something to tell you about Charlie.
What is it, Joe?
Don't get nervous. Nothing's happened.
I'm just playing a little trick on Charlie.
You're going to be scared for a second.
Come on in, Joe. I was just making a little home recording of the song on the radio.
You know, sing along with the band. I know Charlie will get a big kick out of it.
That's your favorite song, isn't it?
Mm-hmm. It's Charlie's, too. We love it.
You really go for that guy, don't you?
Is there any question about him?
Joe, we were going to tell everybody in a few days anyway,
so you may as well know now.
Charlie and I are going to be married in three weeks when we get our vacations.
Isn't that wonderful?
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Only you're taking your vacation a little sooner than that, baby.
What do you mean?
You're not marrying him or anybody else.
Are you kidding?
Get out of here, you big dope.
Oh, I'm a big dope, huh?
I'm a big dope.
Joe. Joe.
What are you going to do with it?
Joe! Joe, don't!
Joe, don't!
I did it.
It was done.
I looked at the clock. It was 1110.
He'd just be getting to my room now.
Five minutes to kill.
Hey, did you get that?
Now I had time to kill. That was a good one, wasn't it?
I dropped Charlie's handkerchief on the floor,
then messed up the joint to look like a struggle.
Then I waited till 1115, and then I smashed the clock.
It stopped dead.
Did you hear that one?
The clock stopped dead. Good, huh?
I dropped the steel pipe on the floor, blew the place fast, and raced home.
I ran up the stairs, worried that maybe Charlie had left,
but he was still there.
Well, where have you been, Joe?
I was just getting ready to leave.
Oh, I'm sorry, Charlie. I...
I got stuck.
Okay, okay. Where's the model you were talking about?
Oh, gee, I'm sorry to drag you all the way over here for nothing.
It's still at the welders.
I thought it would be here sure by tonight.
Can we make it tomorrow?
You're a corker, Joe. You've messed up my whole evening.
I sure did.
I kept chewing the fat with Charlie about this and that
until I was sure he wouldn't get home until late.
And then I dropped off to a nice, restful sleep.
The next morning, I was on the job at 8 on the dot.
Charlie was there already, but that didn't worry me.
It wouldn't be for long.
And about an hour later, the kid from the front office came up
and said something to Charlie, and he left the shop.
Now, that was it. Those were the dicks, and Charlie was a dead pigeon.
I went on with my work, not doing very much, just faking, you know,
because I knew I was gonna be next.
And I was.
The same kid came at lunchtime and told me I was one of the front gate.
Got a little nervous when I saw the two big coppers,
but as soon as they spoke, I felt it was gonna be all right.
Joe Jordan?
Yeah, yeah, it's me.
I'm Lieutenant Sullivan, Homicide Squad.
This is Sergeant Carter. Hello. Hop in.
Hope you don't mind coming down to headquarters with us
when I ask you a couple of questions.
No, I don't mind. What's it all about?
Where were you last night, Jordan?
Uh, last night?
Well, I... I hit the hay early.
What time?
I was awful tired. I had a tough day at the shop yesterday.
I guess it was about 9.30.
Did you see Charlie Harris last night?
No. I saw him when we left the plant yesterday, about five, but...
Hey, wait a minute. Where's Charlie now?
He left the shop about 10 this morning.
Never mind.
But he says he was in your room at 11.15.
He says he was in my room at 11...
Well, maybe he was.
No, Charlie Harris is a white guy. He don't lie.
If he says so, then he's probably right.
I thought you said you went to bed about 9.30.
Well, I... I did.
Maybe I was asleep when he came,
and maybe I was talking to my sleep when he was there.
You know, I wouldn't want to do anything to contradict Charlie.
Say...
So what are you guys trying to pin on me?
If Charlie's in a jam, I gotta know what he said,
because I gotta back him up.
Save it, kid.
Tell me, do you know Harriet Slate?
Why, that no-good, two-timing dame,
double-crossing a good guy like Charlie.
Why, you know, he was telling me yesterday,
when we left the plant yesterday,
that he was going to get a settle last night, once and for all.
As a matter of fact, he...
Say, what are you guys smiling at?
Did I say something?
Why, did I say anything to make Charlie...
to Charlie...
Smart, huh?
I handled that smart, didn't I?
You see now how I worked the whole thing out?
Every little detail.
Remember now how I planted that night in bed
and the pounding stopped like I told you before?
Oh, the trial was a cinch.
The D.A. had all the evidence he needed and a little more.
Charlie was with her that night, proved.
The steel pipe was his, wasn't it? Proved.
There were his fingerprints on it, wasn't they? Proved.
And the motive?
The boys in the plant furnished that.
They were perfect witnesses.
They liked Charlie, they tried to help him,
but they had to admit the stories that were going around.
And the piece, the resistance...
That's French, you know,
was the way I knocked his alibi for Luke.
That's why I smashed the clock at 11.15, do you?
It was airtight.
Charles Harris, will you rise and come before the court?
Charles Harris, the jury of your peers
have found you guilty of murder in the first degree, and I...
Oh, boy, what a day.
You should have seen him.
He stood there trying to put on the big-shot stuff,
even then, trying to act like he wasn't scared.
But I could tell he was ready to faint right there and then.
But the newspaper guys were taking it,
and they said he stood straight and fine and brave,
like a soldier facing a firing squad.
That's what they said to dopes.
But I knew he was yellow.
I knew he was a man of the heart.
I knew he was a man of the heart.
I knew he was a man of the heart.
But I knew he was yellow.
Or else he wouldn't have picked on me
just because he was boss, would he? Would he?
Huh?
So, you see, I was smarter than he thought,
than anybody thought, even the D.A. of those dicks.
Now, there was a funny situation for you, wasn't it?
The real murderer was in court furnishing that testimony
that convicted that poor...
and no one knew it.
That's a good one, isn't it, huh?
Isn't that wonderful, Father, huh?
Isn't that marvelous? The real guy was in court...
It's time, Father.
Be brave now, Joseph. We must go.
All right, Father, but let me tell you the punch line.
Come on, Joe, it's time.
Will you quit, or we'll be a minute late,
so you'll pay the guy who pulled the switch a minute overtime
to stay and can afford it.
I've been telling Father the whole story.
Let him finish, Warden. Go on, my son.
You see, it was a fluke, Father.
A minion to one shot.
They never would have got me if not for just one thing,
one little mistake, Father.
The night I knocked the doll off, she up and told me
that she was making a recording of that song on the radio.
She told me to, you hear?
And I forget all about it.
So all the time I was spilling my guts to Harriet,
that machine was taking down every word,
and I forgot about it.
If I had only thought of the record,
if I only smashed it that night.
But I didn't.
Then Harriet's old lady got a hold of her stuff,
and months later she decided to play the records,
and she heard the whole thing, my whole confession,
just as if I spilled it to the dicks.
We must go now, Joseph.
Okay, Father.
I'm coming.
Come on, Warden. Come on, come on.
Watch that real man walk down the last mile.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down...
You seen plenty of guys walking down this road,
didn't you, Warden, huh?
I bet none of them ever took it as good as me, did they?
They say guys crack up on this little walk, don't they?
Not me.
I got guts.
I bet Charlie would have cracked up by now, huh, Warden?
You know, those... those newspaper guys said he stood straight and fine,
and brave that day.
He wouldn't be standing that way now, would he, Warden?
He'd be... he'd be screaming his yellow head off.
He wouldn't be taking it like me.
See, there's nothing to be scared of.
Guy pulls a little switch, it's all over.
They say you don't feel a thing.
You don't feel nothing, do you, Warden?
You should know, you've seen plenty of it.
It doesn't hurt.
Does it?
I would have been a big man in this town.
Classy car.
Big house with servants.
Beautiful wife.
It's a beautiful wife, but I...
I got a tough break.
You know what? One in a million, I tell you, but...
it's all in the game, see?
Come see, come saw her.
It's French, you know.
I'm taking it pretty good, ain't I?
Nobody take it like me, nobody.
Not many of them, do they? Do they, Warden, huh?
Do you think the paper will say I stood straight and fine and brave?
Like a guy facing the firing squad, huh?
Do you?
I'm taking it pretty good, ain't I, Warden?
Ain't I, Father?
Tell me!
I said, tell me!
I'm not afraid.
You hear me? I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid to burn.
Look, I'm laughing.
Aha!
Aha!
No, don't take me in there, oh, God!
Please don't take me in there!
Don't take me in there!
Don't take me in there!
Don't take me in there!
Oh, please, Lord, my spirit!
I don't need any of this, me!
Romo Wines have brought you Dane Clark,
as star of This Will Kill You.
Tonight's study in...
Suspense.
Before Dane Clark returns to our microphone,
this is Truman Bradley for Romo Wines,
the sponsor of Suspense.
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This is Dane Clark.
It's been a great pleasure, as always,
to make an appearance here on Suspense.
Mr. Spear wanted me to pass along to you the word,
which I know will be of interest to many thousands
of listeners, and that is that two weeks from tonight,
on September the 6th, in response to overwhelming
public demand, Suspense will again bring you
the Lucille Fletcher's Studying Terror,
Sorry Wrong Number, starring Agnes Moorhead.
That's the show you remember about the woman
on the telephone.
It's certainly one of the landmarks of radio.
Next Thursday, you will hear Peter Laurie
in a Suspense play, which also promises
to be most unusual.
I know you will want to be listening, as I will.
Dane Clark appeared through the courtesy of Warner Brothers,
and is currently being seen in their production
prior to the Marines.
Next Thursday, you will hear Peter Laurie,
a star of Suspense, radio's outstanding
theater of thrills.
Presented by Roma Wines, R-O-M-A,
made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.