Suspense.
Produced, edited, and directed by William Spear.
This radio's outstanding theater of thrills presents the last of a special series of Friday
night performances at this hour.
Tonight from Hollywood, we bring you a most unusual broadcast.
Starring a famous radio couple who have never before appeared in a story of this kind, Mr.
Ozzie Nelson and Miss Harriet Hilliard.
You are accustomed to hearing our stars in their own comedy show, but tonight Ozzie and
Harriet appear for us as a couple who are driven to the plotting of murder in Too Little
to Live On by Robert Richards, a play well calculated to keep you in suspense.
I tell you, it doesn't matter now.
How do you think anything could matter anymore to me now?
You should have let me die.
That was the best way.
That's all that matters to me now is that I want to die.
That's all I care about, being dead.
I don't know whether we ever thought about it before this morning or not.
It might have crossed our minds sometime, one or the other of us, I don't know.
But we never talked about it, never.
Never before this morning.
And then this morning, everything just seemed to come to a head.
Every little thing that happened all those months and years just seemed to pile up at
once.
It just seemed as though this morning was the last straw.
Hi, honey.
Hello, darling.
Your breakfast is there keeping warm on the back of his toe.
I'd get it for you, but I'm already late with his.
That's all right.
You'd better hurry, though.
I'm not going to the office today.
You're not?
He wants me to stick around, his lawyer's coming over sometime today.
His lawyer?
Yeah, don't you remember?
I guess I forgot.
His lawyer's coming over, so I have to stick around the house all day.
Couldn't you go over to the office and come back?
No, that's not the way he wants it.
He says the lawyer's coming, but he doesn't know when.
At least that's his story.
Well, maybe he really doesn't know.
Oh, he knows all right.
Not that it matters much.
I don't have any appointments today anyway.
People around here wouldn't have their teeth fixed if you paid them to.
Well, they can't help it if they're poor, Dave.
I didn't say they could.
I just said they can't afford to go to the dentist.
I'm the dentist they can't afford to go to.
I know.
Oh, darling, if we could only move to another neighborhood, then at least you could start
building a decent practice.
Sure, how?
With what?
I know.
With Uncle Ed's money, when we get it.
At least that's what we've been telling ourselves the last three years.
Couldn't we talk to him?
Couldn't we make him see this?
He likes to see us have it tough.
He likes to have us dependent on that money.
That's all he lives for, and he'll probably live to be a hundred.
We've just got to be patient, Dave.
Oh, there he is.
He's up.
I've got to hurry.
I think at least he's spent enough dough to have some decent tires put on that wheelchair
of his so it wouldn't bump around over our heads like a ten ton truck day and night.
Well, I suppose we ought to be thankful he doesn't spend his money.
In a way.
Have you seen him this morning?
Uh-huh.
How's he feeling?
About the same, I guess.
He made me bring his lemon juice and water down and heat it up again.
Said it wasn't hot enough.
Willie almost bit me again.
Yeah, that mutt.
Well, the dog's getting old.
I suppose he can't help it.
Any more than Uncle Ed.
They could both help it.
He wants it that way.
He gets a kick out of it.
Now it's got so even, we have to kowtow to a snarling little mutt.
He sits there and laughs.
We've just got to be patient, Dave.
One thing, when we get that $30,000, we sure will have earned it.
Dave.
Yeah?
What about the lawyer?
What about it?
I mean, what do you suppose it means?
What should it mean?
He's always getting that guy over here every three or four months and going into some kind
of a huddle.
But why should he want you here?
Probably needs us both as witnesses to something.
You know, he's been talking an awful lot lately about that orphanage over in Brooklyn.
Sure, and last winter all he could talk about was some foundling home for stray dogs down
in Pennsylvania.
He's just cracking the whip, that's all, to see us jump.
Oh, Dave, if he was to change his will now after all we've been through.
Oh, don't worry, he won't.
Oh, there he goes.
He's something for his breakfast.
Coming right up, Uncle Ed.
Let's see.
I hope his eggs are right.
Get the coffee off the back of the stove, darling, while I get a cup.
Okay.
Take it easy.
It's all right, honey.
It's only a little bit of a mess.
It's all right, honey.
Only a cup.
I know.
Sometimes it makes me so nervous.
I feel as though I'm going crazy.
Take it easy, dear.
Here, let me get the coffee.
No, no, I'm all right now.
There's a pan of milk warming on the stove.
Fill this bowl about half full and break up a handful of those little dog biscuits in it.
Okay.
Sugar, salt, pepper, cream.
All right, come on.
Open the door for me, will you, darling?
Here, I'll carry the tray.
No, he likes to have me bring it.
What's the difference?
Oh, don't ask me, Dave.
Oh, the paper for him.
Oh, you've got it.
Oh, I haven't read the paper yet myself.
Shh, shh, shh.
You can read it later.
Come on.
Is your breakfast, Uncle Ed?
All right.
I'm sorry I was a little late.
Well, set it down, set it down.
I heard what you said about the paper, David.
If it's getting so, you even begrudge a little thing like that to a helpless invalid.
No, I don't begrudge it, Uncle Ed.
Here's your paper.
So important for you to read the paper, why don't you subscribe for two of them?
I'm afraid the budget in this family won't stand for little luxuries like that.
When I was your age, I had my first thousand dollars in the bank.
Things were a little different in those days, Uncle Ed.
I was a little different.
That's what the difference was.
All right, set Willie's breakfast down for him, Ira.
No, no.
Not there, over by his bed where he can get at it.
Yes, Uncle Ed.
I'm afraid Willie doesn't like me anymore.
Here, I'll give it to him.
Hey, hey, hey, stop that.
Don't you dare strike that dog, David.
I wasn't going to hit him, I just wanted to let go of my skin.
Poor Willie.
Oh, hell, if Myra would take him out once in a while, he wouldn't feel that way.
I take him out any time you ask me to, Uncle Ed.
I forget sometimes.
You ought to do it without my asking.
Well, you can go now.
I know you don't want to stay any longer than you have to.
Oh, Myra, hand me my glasses over on the bureau.
Glasses?
Yes, Uncle Ed.
Here.
Oh, Myra, you fool.
Oh, Uncle Ed, I'm so sorry.
Maybe I can mend them.
Of course you can't mend them.
They're broken, you idiot.
Don't talk to her like that.
What's that?
I said don't talk to her like that.
Dave, please.
Oh, I see.
Now you're trying to bully me.
A helpless old man in a wheelchair.
Well, I won't stand for it.
Uncle Ed, he didn't mean anything.
I made my bargain with you, David, and I intend to keep it as long as you do.
And I've never complained about the care you've given me, although heaven knows it's been
a little enough.
But don't think for a minute I'll stand for anything like this.
I'm sorry, Uncle Ed.
Don't grade that scarcely enough.
Well, it won't happen again.
Look, I'll get the glasses fixed.
I know a guy that can do it right away.
Probably take a week, and in the meantime I'll be as blind as a bat.
And don't expect me to pay for it.
No, don't worry.
I'll pay for it.
You'll have them back tonight.
Oh, this reminds me, David, be sure that you're here when my lawyer comes today.
I'll be here.
That's why I stayed home from the office.
Well, that's all for now.
Oh, and I suppose neither of you's taken the trouble lately to find out which of my prescriptions
need refilling.
Oh, yeah, I was thinking of that yesterday.
Oh, were you?
Well, let's do it now.
Bismuth's entirely gone.
Look, entirely gone.
You better get another bottle of iron tonic.
You see, the drops.
Well, that's all right for now.
And the thionic cyanide.
You better get that refilled too while you're at it.
Take the bottle and the bismuth too.
I'll go right away, Uncle Ed.
Yes, you do, and you come right back.
You know that I must have my bismuth not later than 20 minutes after each meal.
Yes, I know.
Come on, Myra.
I hate myself.
I'll take it easy, dear.
It's all right.
It's all right now.
I'll tell you what, I've tried.
I can't go on like this.
I'll take it easy, honey.
It will be much longer.
We've been saying that for three years. We're like prisoners.
We can't go out of the house together because somebody has to be with him.
We can't have friends in because they disturb him.
Oh, Dave, we can't even have a baby.
I could kill him.
Sometimes I could kill him.
Dave, don't.
I mean it. When I see what he's doing to you, when I see him making a slave out of you,
making a nervous wreck out of you so you can't even call your soul your own.
No, no, Dave, please. Please, I'm all right now.
Sure, we made a bargain, like he said.
But not this kind of a bargain.
Oh, darling, I know it's just as bad for you as it is for me.
It's just that I'm here alone with him all day.
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let myself go that way.
Oh, I hate myself, Myra. If I'd known I was going to be like this.
It's not your fault, darling. I knew what we were doing.
I'm not even a man anymore.
I let him sit there and say things to my wife that a man wouldn't take from anybody on earth.
But I take it.
I take it in a smile.
Oh, Dave, Dave, it's not your fault.
Oh, it is my fault. If I was any kind of a man, I'd do something about it.
But there's nothing to do, don't you see?
I should never have acted like this.
We've just got to be patient and wait, that's all.
Wait. Maybe another three years, maybe ten more years.
Oh, honey.
Oh, what's the use of kidding ourselves?
How do we know how long it's going to take him to die?
Sometimes I don't even think he's sick.
Sometimes I think he's just putting it on to make us wait on him.
But the doctor said...
Don't be a fool, doctors. It's been done.
Even when he does die, how can we ever be sure?
Dave, you don't...
I think he's just that mean, yes.
Snatch the money away at the last minute and die laughing at us.
But he said it was a bargain. He said he promised...
You think promises mean anything to him?
Well, could he do it without... I mean, with...
Do what?
Change his will.
Well, sure he could do it any time he wanted to.
Without even telling us?
Nothing that says he has to tell us anything.
Oh, Dave's a lawyer.
Yeah, I know.
Today?
Why does he have to come today of all days?
After I broke his glasses and you hollered at him?
Yeah, I know.
Could he do it just like that today?
Sure.
If he'd do it today, he could do it any time.
We'd never know until he told us.
Oh, he wouldn't. He couldn't.
Why not?
He might just as well do it anyway.
He'll hold it over us in the last minute like he did just now...
Till we probably die of heart failure before he does.
But you said just a few minutes ago...
No, I've been kidding myself for three years, but not anymore.
Dave, what are we going to do?
What can we do?
I don't know, Myra.
I don't know.
Yet.
If only something could happen.
Like what?
Nothing's going to happen, Myra.
Unless we make it happen.
Dave, we couldn't...
We can't go on like this either.
We can tell him to go...
And throw away three years of our lives?
The three years we've rotted in this dump?
We've earned that money.
Ten thousand dollars a year isn't half enough for what we've gone through.
Dave, I don't care about the money.
Well, I do.
Anybody but him, I'd feel different.
I don't have any more feeling about him than I do that dog up there.
Dave, you don't really mean...
I don't know what I mean.
Listen, I've got to go over to the drug store and get his medicine.
All right. Hurry back.
I'll only be a minute. It's just across the street.
Dave.
Yeah?
What about the lawyer?
What about him?
What if he should come now?
Yeah, well, keep an eye out for him.
But what if he comes?
I don't know. I've got to think.
Stall him off. Tell him something.
What should I tell him?
Tell him the old man's sick. He can't see him.
Sick?
Yeah, yeah, sick.
All right, Dave.
Oh, Dave, have you got his glasses?
Yeah, I'll give them to Mr. Herman at the drug store.
He knows an Oculus right here in the neighborhood.
He wouldn't mind sending them over.
All right. Hurry.
Well, good morning, Dr. O'Connor.
Oh, morning, Clancy.
Taking the day off today?
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Take him easy.
Say, how's the old gentleman this morning?
Oh, he's all right.
I'm glad to hear it. Glad to hear it. He's a fine old man.
Hello, Mr. Herman.
Well, Dr. O'Connor, you're coming for your regular batch of medicines, I suppose.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
How is Mr. O'Connor? Better, I hope.
Well, I'm afraid he's been having a little pain lately.
Oh, that's too bad. He's such a courageous old man, so cheerful.
Yes.
Every time I go by and he's sitting up there by his window, he waves.
All his sentences and remembrance are quickened.
Yes, your uncle is a real gentleman.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Well, what will it be today?
Oh, the iron tonic business, 100 tablets, and refill the thiocyanate prescription.
Here, I brought the bottle.
All right, I'll get it for you right away.
You got a prescription for the thiocyanate, a new one?
No, but I'll sign it.
Oh, sure, that's right. You can sign it.
You know how it is, Doctor, we've got to be careful of these things.
You better give me the big tablets this time.
Sure thing.
You reach just over the counter there, you'll find the prescription blank.
Just below there. You got it?
Oh, yeah, yeah, thanks.
There we are.
Don't bother, Rappi.
All right. Let's see, that's 487.
487. Here, I've got it even.
Oh, and say, Mr. Herman, I wonder if you could do me a little favor.
Why, surely anything, Doctor?
My uncle broke his glasses this morning.
Oh, say, that's too bad.
He's almost helpless without them.
Yeah, that's right. I know he is.
I wonder if you could send him around to a good oculus in the neighborhood.
Why, sure, sure I could. No trouble at all.
I could go myself, but he's not feeling too well this morning,
and I ought to get right back.
Whatever the bill is, you know I'm good for it.
Don't you worry about that.
Why, sure, I'll do that right away for you, Dr. Connors.
Well, thanks.
Thank you, Dr. Connors.
Give the old gentleman my best, Doctor.
Sure, sure, I will.
Dave?
Yeah, did the lawyer come?
No, did you get the glasses?
Yeah, I gave them to Mr. Herman. Come on in the kitchen.
I got the medicine, Myra.
Oh.
Myra, do you know what these things are that he's been taking?
No, not exactly.
Well, this is bismuth, stuff he takes after each meal, three or four of them,
the stuff he's due to take right now.
Dave.
No, no, wait a minute. These are thiosinate.
He only takes these once in a while for his heart, just one of them,
plus that one because I got bigger tablets this time.
Dave, what are you trying to say?
I'm trying to say if he took three or four of these instead of his bismuth,
by mistake, he would kill them.
Dave, no.
By mistake, I said.
It couldn't be.
Yes, it could. Look at the tablets.
Can you tell them apart?
Hardly.
If they were in the wrong bottle.
Afterwards, they'd know if they were in the wrong bottle, they'd know that somebody was...
No, he'd think it was all right from the shape.
Afterwards, we'd put them back in the right bottle.
Well, then they'd know it couldn't be a mistake.
They'd know he could read right on the bottle from the label.
No, they wouldn't. They'd know he couldn't read the label.
They'd know he couldn't read anything.
His glasses.
That's right, his glasses.
And the oculus, they'd have to swear to it.
Dave, are you sure...
Are you sure he can't see?
He's blind as a bat without them. That much I know is real.
Dave.
Don't you see? It's the only way, Myra.
The chance of a lifetime. No tampering with anything.
No changing labels so they could analyze glue if they got suspicious.
None of that.
I know, but...
And don't forget his lawyer's coming today.
Couldn't we just tell him to go?
What about the money?
Dave, I... I can't think.
The front door.
That must be the lawyer now.
Yeah, it is.
I can see him standing outside.
What should we do?
Get rid of him.
Well, hurry, before he rings again, he might hear us.
Will I tell him?
Well, what you told me to tell him, that he's had a bad turn, we're calling the doctor,
and if he asks any questions any time, we could say it was...
Yeah, all right.
Good morning, Mr. Eldridge.
Well, how do you do, Dr. O'Connor?
Say, I'm sorry you had to come way out here, but my uncle has had sort of a bad turn.
Oh, I'm so sorry. Nothing serious.
No, we're calling the doctor. I don't think it's anything serious, Mr. Eldridge.
I don't see how it could be.
Why, no.
But he was wondering if you could come back some other day.
Oh, I see. Well, it's just a matter of his signature on the document.
Yeah, well, I'm really afraid he is not good, Mr. Eldridge.
I see. Well, perhaps I could phone him later in the day.
Could...
I say I could phone him.
There'd be no objection to that, would there?
No, no, no. But if there's any message, I could give it to him later.
Yes, well, you might say that I've made the changes that he requested.
He'll know what I mean.
All right, I'll do that, and thank you, Mr. Eldridge.
Thank you, Dr. O'Connor. Good day, sir.
Goodbye.
Has he gone?
Yeah.
Did he...
No, no, no. It was all right.
What is it, Dave? Did he say anything?
Oh, he said that he made the changes, whatever they were, and that he'd understand.
He said that all he wanted was his signature on some document.
His will?
We didn't say that.
Oh.
No, or never, Myra.
Oh, Dave, let me just think. Just for a minute.
Come on, what about it?
Yes. All right.
All right. Here are the two bottles.
Come on now.
Oh, Dave, no.
You've got to come.
Why?
Because... because you have.
All right.
You don't have to say anything.
All right.
Oh, hey.
Got here someone at the front door.
No, there hasn't been anyone here. Has there, Myra?
No.
Oh, I thought it might have been Mr. Eldridge.
I got your medicine.
You took long enough about it.
I'll put it over here by the bed where you can get it.
Well, what do you want, Myra?
I... I just came to get your tray.
Didn't Willie like his breakfast?
Oh, it was too hot, of course.
Let me give it to him now.
Have you got water for your pills?
Yes. What about my glasses?
Oh, they'll be ready this evening.
All right.
Are you sure Mr. Eldridge is up here the minute he arrives?
Yes, yes, I will, Uncle Ed.
This.
Want me to take the tray?
No.
I've got it.
Oh, Dave, how could we?
The use of that, it's done now.
It's horrible.
Don't you realize that we're...
that it...
Murder? All right, it is, and I'm glad.
Dave, don't say that.
What's the difference what you call it?
It was the only thing to do.
It's even better for him this way.
David, I'm afraid.
There's nothing to be afraid of.
Listen.
Yeah.
He's wheeled himself over to take his pills.
Dave, does it...
Will it...
Take long?
That is age, and if his heart is anything like what the doctor says it is, no.
Is it...
Painful? No.
Like a heart attack, that's all.
What was that?
He must have fallen.
Then he...
Yeah, yeah.
A minute anyway.
We ought to go up.
No, no, wait a minute.
But the bottles.
That's plenty of time.
Shouldn't you wear gloves or something?
No, I thought it would look funnier if there weren't any fingerprints.
David, we ought to go up, even if...
I mean, it would look better.
All right.
We'll have to call the doctor.
We'll have to anyway, either way.
I suppose.
Don't worry.
It won't be like that.
The wheelchair is empty.
He's not here.
Quick, look in the closet.
No.
Under the bed.
Dave.
Look, Willie.
He's dead.
The dog is dead, Myra.
But how?
There's a note on the chair.
What?
Dave, what is it?
It's from him.
It says, My dear, dear niece and nephew,
the thing has at last occurred which I have always known would someday inevitably occur.
Poor little Willie has given his life to save mine.
It may interest you to know that from my window I saw Mr. Eldridge leaving the house.
I also suspect that the incident of breaking my glasses was not quite an accident.
And so, my dear children, I have gone to the police.
And the little bottles with their transposed contents are in my pocket
as final and conclusive evidence of your murderous intent.
Fortunately, I have never been quite as helpless as I allowed you to believe.
And I have in fact conserved my strength for precisely such an emergency,
a circumstance to which it now appears I owe my life.
For your further information, Mr. Eldridge was not coming to change my will.
Dave?
Now my would-be heirs and assigns, a fond farewell.
I will see you in court.
Your loving Uncle Ed.
P.S.
Did you hear my body fall?
I thought you would like that.
I did.
How could he have gotten out?
Down the front stairs while we were...
You said he couldn't read the label.
He didn't.
He tried it on the dog.
What can he do?
Attempted murder.
Twenty years to life.
But would they believe...
They'd believe what everybody else believes.
A fine old gentleman.
Why?
There it is.
There it is.
David.
Yes.
Are there any more?
What?
The pills.
Myra.
There isn't anything else to do, is there, Dave?
No.
I guess not.
Are there more?
Enough?
Yes.
Of the little ones in my pocket.
These?
Yes.
How many?
Half a dozen.
You said it didn't hurt?
No.
Not much.
Oh, David.
I didn't want to have children.
What do I do?
Look out the window.
See who it is.
Oh, David.
I'm afraid.
What's there to be afraid of now?
Couldn't we go away somewhere?
Some other country?
With what?
With what?
It's probably the police now.
David, here.
You'd better go down and tell them something, anything, just so they'll leave us alone
and give us some time.
Yes, all right.
Myra.
Yes.
Goodbye, darling.
No, wait.
Go on.
Goodbye.
Yes, officer?
Good evening, Mrs. O'Connor.
I'm sorry, but...
Yes, Clancy, I know.
I'm afraid you don't, ma'am.
I've got some bad news for you, Mrs. O'Connor, about your uncle.
Yes, Clancy, yes.
I don't know how he could have got out there, but he was just hit by a car.
Yes.
Yes, ma'am.
He's dead.
Dead?
Yes.
Dead?
David!
David!
David!
That's all.
I tried, but they stopped me.
David had died before I got there.
That's all.
I just wanted to have children.
I wish I was dead.
Suspense.
Produced, edited, and directed by William Spear.
Tonight you heard Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard as stars of Too Little to Live On.
Now Mr. Spear joins our stars at the microphone.
Ozzie and Harriet, may I tell you sincerely that you are great.
Well, thank you indeed, Bill.
You really mean it?
I certainly do.
Well, thanks.
It's been a real experience to do a show of this kind, Bill.
I don't know about Ozzie there, but I never plotted a murder before.
Now, he had such a fine accomplice in the control booth, too.
I'm blushing attractively.
Incidentally, I'm told that you inherit this broadcast time next week.
Yeah, that's right, Bill.
Next Friday night at the same time, Harriet and I will be acting like ourselves again in our own show,
The Adventures of Ozzie.
That's me and Harriet.
That's her.
This is our last Sunday coming up.
Uh-huh.
How about Suspense, Bill?
You're changing time, too, aren't you?
We are, and we have some pretty exciting things planned.
Beginning a week from tomorrow, that's Saturday, January 3rd,
Suspense will be broadcast as a full-hour series every Saturday from 8 to 9 o'clock Eastern Time.
Oh, a full hour. That's wonderful.
Tell more.
Well, with us every Saturday during the series, as the man who will lay down the welcome mat
and play host to our listeners, will be a very, very distinguished star.
I'm very happy and very honored to have him with us.
I'll give you another hint. He's an actor-director.
I guess you're going to make us wait for his name, huh?
Just creating suspense, Harriet.
The gentleman's name is Mr. Robert Montgomery.
Oh, that's really something.
Oh, McBob is great, Bill.
It ought to be a wonderful series.
Well, shall we wish each other some kind of good luck or something?
Fine. I'm sure you've had a Merry Christmas,
so let's put in a plug for a Happy New Year to you,
and a Happy Friday from now on, too.
And a Happy Saturday to you, Bill.
Ozzie and Harriet appeared through the courtesy of International Silver Company,
creators of International Sterling, in 1847, Roger's Brothers Silver Plate.
Tonight's Suspense play, Too Little to Live On, was written by Robert Richards.
Appearing in it were Joseph Kearns, who played Uncle Ed,
Wally Mayer, Frank Albertson, and Jerry Hausner.
Music composed by Lucian Morrowek was conducted by Lud Gluskin.
Next week at the same time, listen to the adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
Next Saturday night at 8 o'clock Eastern time,
listen to Mr. Robert Montgomery in Suspense.
Music
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.