Suspense!
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That's C-R-E-S-T-A.
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Shenley's Cresta Blanca Wine Company, Livermore, California.
And now, with Mr. Donald O'Conner as star, Shenley brings you Radio's outstanding theater
of thrills.
Suspense!
Presented by Roma Wines.
That's R-O-M-A.
Roma Wines for your everyday enjoyment.
Tonight, Roma Wines of Fresno, California bring you Donald O'Conner in Smiley, a suspense
play produced, edited, and directed for Shenley by William Spear.
For 22 years, I was without trouble.
I got along with people.
They liked me.
They called me Smiley because that's the way it was with me.
My eyes, I mean.
Laughing, the way I always was inside.
And then I had this thing with the woman and the laugh went out of my eyes and out of my
insides.
That's when I learned that thing or two, especially about women, that's when I learned that some
women don't even have the right to live.
It was on my day off and sort of late at night and I was just walking along the street, not
going anywhere in particular or even thinking anything much.
Sort of whistling to myself and walking along the street.
What do you want?
Me?
Why, why nothing, nothing at all.
You've been following me.
Oh no, I haven't been following you.
What are you looking at me that way for?
What are you looking at me and smiling that way for?
I just smile at everybody, lady.
Go away, don't come near me.
Shut up.
Hey.
Shut up.
That was when the cop grabbed me and they threw me into jail just because she lied about
me.
She said I was bothering her.
She said I hit her.
She said I was staring at her.
She said I was following her, probably going to rob her.
And they all believed it too.
They didn't say so, but they were all thinking about those women that got killed lately.
I know.
So they believed the woman and about my hands.
They didn't believe that either.
They thought I was funny about my hands, about hands nobody understands.
Nobody.
The defendant will rise.
Gerald Smythe, do you have anything to say before this court pronounces sentence?
Well, I'm a decent man, Judge.
I got a job.
I'm a decent working man.
I didn't follow her.
I didn't hit her.
I didn't do anything she says.
The jury has disagreed with you, Mr. Smythe.
You say you have a job?
Yes, sir.
What kind of a job?
I'm a dishwasher.
Dishwasher, huh?
Let me see your hands.
Oh, sure.
Oh, they're nice.
I keep them that way.
Order, please, order.
Yes, I see.
They're long and smooth and white.
I keep them this way.
Mr. Smythe, you will find that lying does not help you in this court.
Your hands may be indeed are everything you say, but they are certainly not the hands
of a working man, least of all a dishwasher.
I sentence you to two years and six months in the county prison.
I didn't blame the judge.
I was there in the first place because of the woman, only because of her, and I worked
out my time with my hands.
My hands are still long, but they're not smooth.
They're not white.
They're not pretty anymore.
It was November when I got out, cold, cold outside, and I was cold inside.
I had no place to go except back to the Busy Bee Cafe in Curly.
All the way back to town, I thought of Curly.
His hands weren't like mine.
They were short and stubby, but golly, they were good.
The way he used them, I mean.
Whatever he was doing, slapping pie dough or handling a side of beef or choking the
life out of a chicken, he was purely good.
I walked into the kitchen, and there he was working.
He didn't see me because I was behind him, but after a while he must have felt me because
he jumped like he was shot.
What do you want?
I want my job back.
What you j-?
Smiley.
Smiley.
Smiley.
Good Lord, man, I didn't know-
Yeah, Curly, it's me.
How about that job?
Hey, you remember you ran out on me once.
Yeah, I drew a blank.
Yeah, yeah, you should do a big one.
You look different somehow.
Wait a minute.
Your face, your eyes, they changed, Smiley.
Well, what did you do?
Quit laughing.
You might say that.
You purely might.
I changed.
My hands, too.
See?
They're better, huh?
Yeah, they're not the same either.
Hey, remember how you used to ride me about that hot water, and how I even bought rubber
gloves once?
Well, look.
Look, Curly.
Hot water.
Now, that's hot.
Now, watch.
You fool, that's pure steam.
Now, what are you trying to do, kid yourself?
I'm just proving I'll keep the water hot.
I don't need to worry about my hands now.
Yeah, well, look, you better have something to eat, huh?
We'll talk about hot water later.
Say, Curly, where is it?
Well, well, well, laughing boy is back.
Where you been, honey?
Off on the bum?
What's the matter with your happy friend, Curly?
One of us hateful women taking over the high road.
Why don't you say something, one of you?
Smiley don't feel good cooking.
Now, you better get back in front.
We might get a customer.
You don't want me around.
That's all right with me.
Smiley, what's with you?
You haven't changed that much, have you?
You and Cookie used to be...
She reminds me of a dame.
Well, why not?
She is a dame.
I've been in jail, Curly.
Oh?
A dame sent me there.
Yeah?
I don't like dames, Curly.
I don't like dames.
I tried to tell him about it, but I knew I couldn't make him understand.
Still, I couldn't get it out of my mind.
It was still there while I was talking to him, while he was taking me up to his rooms
to show me where I could stay.
All the time, it was there for good now.
I knew that.
Well, here we are, fella.
Home.
And there's the extra bed I was telling you about.
Yeah, be it ever, so humble, this is it.
Ah, look, shit, look, you've had a rough ride, sure.
Now, you stay here with me as long as you want.
Get some rest, then we start fresh, huh?
Hey, maybe you want to be a fry cook now.
Oh, thanks.
Hey, maybe if you could teach me to use your hands, I mean, the way you do, I mean, maybe
I can learn to use them right.
Yeah, you betcha.
Look, you forget what's happened and we get to work.
Check.
It's all over.
Maybe it is and maybe it isn't.
Look here, out there on the street.
Well, look, kid, this housing pitch is rough.
If you're looking for scenery, you ain't going to get it here.
What do you see out there?
Eh, a view that's worth just about one-tenth what I paid for it.
It stinks.
I don't mean that.
You see that, Dean?
Yeah.
You know something about her, Curly?
She could get dead.
Huh?
There's maybe a thousand windows around here and a bullet from any one of them would get
her dead.
And it'd be pretty hard to find out who did it.
Yeah, now look, kid, you don't like women and I don't blame you, but you can't go around
putting slugs in people.
Even dames are.
That'd pay off like keeping your water too cool did.
Only you'd get more than any two and a half years.
Yeah.
But all I'd have to do is raise the window, aim, and a dead dame.
Get away from that window.
I don't know about you.
I just don't know.
What's the matter with you smiling?
I told you.
I just don't like dames.
Curly's face was as white as a clean apron.
He was mad a little and scared, but I still couldn't explain to him what it took me two
and a half years to figure that a man works hard.
And when he works, he's got some pay coming.
All the time I was in jail, I knew I wasn't about to get a nickel for all the work of
digging and shoveling and laying concrete.
And the one thing I was proud of was room, my hands.
And I figured to collect some pay for that work if it was the last thing I ever did.
And I figured it out good.
Guess what the pay ought to be.
One woman, one dead dame.
I couldn't explain it to Curly.
I guess I didn't have to.
He thought I was nuts.
Anyway, he drove me like a slave, but I didn't mind.
I was learning.
Let's see now.
Two apple, one peach.
Better make it two.
Two coconut, one chocolate.
Ah, well, what we got that ought to hold them.
How many of those peaches, Smiley?
Oh, sure, Curly.
Here you are.
Yeah, thanks.
Boy, oh, boy.
Gee, Curly, the way you handle things.
What do you mean?
Well, the way you pour fruit from that can and the way you're putting the rim on that
pie crust and the way you knead the dough and...
Oh, you know how to use your hands.
Hey, Smiley, listen, your hands are the most important things you got in the kitchen.
You've got to learn to squeeze hard and you've got to know just when to use the most delicate
touch.
Hands are important.
Oh, I wish I could use mine the way you use yours, Curly.
You're good.
Yeah, well, it takes a long time, Smiley, but you'll learn.
Your hands got strong when you were up there.
Yeah, what I mean is you'll learn how to use them, kid.
Yeah.
I can get along all right, only...
Only what?
Cookie.
Oh, you're letting that dame get you down?
Oh, forget it.
I wish she was gone, Curly.
I'm afraid.
Good morning, gentlemen.
The world can now be fed.
Lovely Cookie has arrived.
Yeah, fine.
Well, you better get that front end lined up, chicken.
It's time to open.
Sure.
Oh, Smiley, honey.
Smiley, say hello to the pretty lady.
Beat it.
Smiley.
Okay, Cookie, take off.
Oh, Curly, Smiley didn't say good morning.
My day will be ruined.
Oh, nuts.
Brother, ain't that a whip?
Hey, Cookie, why don't you leave the kid alone?
He's had a tough time.
He doesn't feel good.
Well, why doesn't he smile anymore?
That's all.
Just let him smile.
Well, the last time he smiled, the dame, he picked up a fistful of stretch at the county
farm.
Now, you remind him of her.
He quit smiling.
Oh, is that so?
Well, I'm used to being treated like a human, see?
And just because a guy's nuts...
All right, all right, Cookie, get to work.
Okay, but you just remember, one of these days we're gonna have a showdown and it'll
be either him or her.
Okay, but you just remember, one of these days we're gonna have a showdown and it'll
be either him or her.
Take it easy.
You just remember, someday it'll be him or me.
I heard what Cookie said.
I stood right outside the door and heard her.
Someday it'll be him or me.
There was a weight like a two-story building in my stomach and my hands were going open
and shut, open and shut.
And I knew she was right.
Me or her.
For Suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you Donald O'Connor in Smiley.
Roma Wines presentation tonight in Radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Suspense, Radio's outstanding theater of thrills is presented by Roma.
That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines, from the world's greatest reserves of fine wines.
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That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines, America's largest selling wines.
And now Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood sound stage, Vereen Tuttle as Cookie, Sydney
Miller as Curly, and starring Donald O'Connor as Smiley, who continues a narrative well
calculated to keep you in suspense.
It added up.
I was going to get my pay, but now it wasn't just some day, some time.
It was a particular day.
Cookie.
And soon when I went inside, my hands were still going like that, open and shut, open
and shut.
And all day I just watched Curly and the way he used his hands.
His technique, as he called it, the way he squeezed when he had to.
It was so important, the technique, I mean.
You had to squeeze just right, just right.
Hey, Smiley, what are you doing, kid?
I'm just squeezing mashed potatoes out of this bag, making designs like you do on cakes.
That's great, great.
What kind of design do you call that?
It's just a hand, I guess.
Hand?
Oh, brother, that hand couldn't do much.
Look how fat you got it up at the thumb.
That I guess I squeezed too hard.
Smiley, you'll be all right, kid.
You stay with it.
Well, laughing boys growing up.
This little Smiley is going to be a pastry cook.
Lay off the kid, Cookie.
Lay off.
I told you.
I know, Curly, I know when I told you.
Let the boy take care of himself.
Yeah, Curly, take it easy.
It's all right now.
Well, how do you like that?
It's all right.
Gee, are we going to be friends now, Smiley?
We can try.
How do you like this design, Cookie?
That?
Oh, well, it's okay.
What is it?
It's a hand.
A hand?
Yeah, a hand, he calls it.
Oh, sure.
See, these are the fingers here.
They're awful long for fingers.
Oh, I don't know.
See, look at my hand.
My fingers are long.
Yeah, yeah, they are.
It's just that you don't notice.
People don't notice dishwasher's hands.
That's why I'm going to be a fry cook and a pastry cook.
Then they won't be cracked and dirty like they are now.
They'll stay soft and strong too as soon as I get to be a cook.
Sure, sure they will, Smiley.
Well, now that you two are very lovey-dovey, how about breaking it up, huh?
I want to get home.
You mean you really go home when you're through here?
Of course I go home.
Where do you go?
Oh, lots of places.
Tonight I got a date with Johnny Mac, the singing sensation out at the Natural Pass.
I got to go out there and meet him.
The Natural Pass?
Yeah.
That's the joint at 7-Eleven Greengrove.
7-Eleven Natural Pass.
I'll give you a...
Get it?
Yeah, yeah, get it.
What kind of guy is he?
You got to go to him.
Oh, he's working.
He can't come in here.
He must have a peal.
You ain't kidding, brother.
How do you get out to this joint, you hitchhiker?
You're kidding?
I take a bus to the end of the line, call a cab from the drugstore and go on out.
Class.
How about that, Smiley, class?
Yeah.
I guess a crooner would rate it.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you better get that front end cleaned up, Cookie, if you're going to meet this Johnny Songbird.
I guess I better.
Boy, on the day I quit slinging hash.
Have a good time, Cookie.
Have a good time.
It would all depend on why you quit slinging hash.
Being glad about it, I mean.
When an idea puts a saddle on your brain and starts riding, and it's purely funny how many other ideas it picks up.
Like Cookie going to the natural pass.
It just fit in with everything.
I quick finished my work and told Curly I had something to do and took off like a kid on the last day of school.
You know, sort of slow until I got outside.
And then I wanted to whoop and jump up and down like I had springs instead of muscles.
I couldn't do all that, but I could walk fast, and I did.
I went up to the room and got my money and changed clothes.
And I went down and rented a car and drove out to the end of the bus line.
I stopped and waited.
I guess I waited an hour and a half watching all the buses hoping that that dame wouldn't cross me up.
She didn't.
Goodnight, honey.
Goodnight.
Cookie!
Who is it?
It's me, Smiley.
Oh, what are you doing out here?
Oh, I just wanted to get out of town for a while, so I rented a car.
When I got out here, I remembered what you said about coming out.
I thought I'd just wait for you.
Oh, Smiley, honey, you've got more stalls than Santa Anita.
You're a true planet, ain't you?
You could be a sweet guy, you know that.
Come on, I'll take you to the club.
How far is it?
About a mile and a half.
Let's go.
I guess you could be a sweet guy.
I guess I added you up wrong.
It's possible.
You're a funny guy, Smiley.
You think so?
Yeah, I don't quite get you.
You're making cracks again.
No, I'm serious. Really, I am.
You don't smile like you used to, and usually it seems to...
Well, anyway, I didn't expect this from you.
I lost the smile, I guess. Maybe for good.
In the way you're always talking about your hands.
What about my hands?
You make like they're the most important things in the world.
And they're not, is that it?
Well, it's according to how you look at it, I guess.
Now, look, Smiley, no passes.
No, no passes. I wanted to hear this. You said...
Why, I didn't say nothing just to touch your hands.
I remember. You said they aren't important.
Well, not exactly. They're kind of nice.
They're form-good, if you know what I mean.
But after all, they're just hands like anybody else's.
No, uh-uh. They're good hands.
And since I came back, I've learned how to use them right.
Yeah, Smiley, yeah.
They're more important things than hands.
Yeah?
Yeah. Women, for instance.
Women. That's a laugh.
Cookie, do you know why my hands are rough and red now?
Do you know why I don't smile? Women.
Oh, Smiley, I've been around. I know how you feel.
Golly, if women aren't important, where are they?
Cookie, there's only one way to find out if hands are more important,
or if a woman is.
You have to make the test, Cookie.
What's more important?
You said no passes, Smiley.
I'm not passing, Cookie. I'm not passing. I mean this.
Wait a minute. Take it easy. Smiley. Oh, Smiley.
Women. Women. More important.
I'll show you what's important. Women.
Payday. For two years in jail, one dead day, the whole world changed.
For a minute, my hands were going open and shut like this.
My technique was perfect, absolutely perfect.
They weren't satisfied with my hands, but they'd have to get used to it.
All I wanted inside, like, was payday, and this was the day.
I looked around to be sure no cars were coming.
I took her out of the car and dragged her into the bushes,
where she wouldn't be found for a while.
I lifted her. I felt good, purely good,
like I'd worked very hard for something and finally got paid.
All debts were paid. Everybody, including Smiley, was even with the world.
It was wonderful, just plain wonderful.
The only thing was, I couldn't tell Curly,
because even though he'd understood the technique part of it,
the rest of it was something he wouldn't get.
But could he have seen me use my hands, he'd have been proud.
I know it.
I took the car back to the U Drive, paid the man, collected my deposit, and went home.
It was still early, and Curly was up.
Oh, hi. Where'd you go, kid?
Oh, just around. I got some fresh air. I didn't think you'd be up.
Oh, sure. It ain't late.
Maybe I'd better get to bed, though. Big day tomorrow.
Okay, I'll be with you in a minute.
Hey, you know, Smiley, I've been thinking.
I've been thinking that you should maybe move over to this stove.
Oh, swell. I won't have to work in hot water anymore.
Is that? Oh, no, no, no.
I'll get another pearl diver. You can come over with me.
Hey, look at you.
What's the matter with me?
Oh, nothing. I just noticed you're making with the eyes again the way you used to.
What happened, fella?
I don't know. I didn't think about it. Why?
Well, this is wonderful. Yeah.
I'll bet Cookie will be surprised to see you.
Cookie?
Sure. One of her beefs is you don't smile. Danes don't like you to be grouchy.
Wait till she sees you like this. Yeah.
Who could that be this time of night? How do I know?
Mr. Smithrift. Oh, you're here. Hello, Mr. Smith.
Smythe, not Smith.
I'm from the U Drive. When you brought the car back tonight, you left this pocketbook in it.
Had 15 fish in it. Thought the lady might want it.
Oh. Well, yeah. Thank you very much.
Forget it. Come see us again.
Hey, what's this? Are you a drive yet? A dame's purse.
You were on the town, weren't you?
Yeah, yeah. I guess so. I'll give it back tomorrow.
Who is she? Do I know her?
Just a dame.
At least she could make you smile again.
Oh, come on. I'll turn out the light next year. She'll sleep.
Yes, Smythe. You're doing all right.
You stick to your work and we'll make a real team.
Remember the technique. Technique.
Hey, Smythe, will you answer me something now?
Sure, Curly. What is it?
What happened to that crazy idea you had when you got out of the pokey?
Remember you was telling me how you could put the blast on a dame?
Hey, Smythe, look at me. Smythe, you didn't...
Ah, that's crazy.
What, Curly?
I always said you had to be whacked up to get in the restaurant business. I'm just proving it.
I thought for a minute you'd...
Oh, I'm nuts.
Oh, boy, this bed feels good.
I really need to sleep.
Imagine me thinking you'd be crazy enough to bump off a dame.
Well, good night, Smythe.
Good night, Curly. Good night.
Good night, mate.
Sweet dreams.
Hey, what are you doing?
Hey, Smythe, take your hands off my face.
Stop it.
Smythe, what are you...
Smythe!
I'm sorry.
Oh, I didn't mean to do that. I hadn't planned on it at all.
I didn't want to hurt Curly. He was my friend.
We were going to go places together, him and me.
I was learning his techniques, and then I got scared and did that.
All on account of a woman. Every bit of it.
It was a woman who started it.
If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't have had to show my hands to that judge,
and he wouldn't have looked at them, and maybe he wouldn't have sent me up.
My hands. Look at them. They're back in condition.
I've had over six months to sit here and do nothing.
Just watch Pop out there pace up and down.
He's been keeping track of the days for me.
He told me this morning,
Two more days, son. Two more days.
Just two more days.
I wish it was longer.
My hands are so pretty again, and now they're strong,
and they've got a lot of technique.
If I was out there,
I would tell him what I could do with hands like these.
Suspense!
Smiley! Starring Donald O'Connor and brought to you by Roma Wines.
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Donald O'Connor may soon be seen in the Universal International Production,
Something in the Wind.
Tonight's Suspense Play was by Charles Glenn.
Next Thursday, same time, you will hear John Lund as star of Suspense.
Produced and directed by William Spear for the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California.
This is CBS for Columbia Broadcasting System.