WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:19.000 Suspense. 00:31.000 --> 00:37.000 This is the man in black, here again to introduce Columbia's program, Suspense. 00:38.000 --> 00:44.000 Our star tonight is Mr. Sydney Greenstreet, one of Hollywood's most sensational newcomers in a number of years. 00:45.000 --> 00:51.000 The famed fat man who lent his suspenseful talents to the Maltese Falcon across the Pacific. 00:51.000 --> 00:59.000 As the Greenstreet is with us to create on the air, John Dixon Carr's celebrated detective, Dr. Gideon Fell. 01:00.000 --> 01:06.000 The story called, The Hangman Won't Wait, is tonight's tale of suspense. 01:07.000 --> 01:15.000 If you have been with us on these Tuesday nights, you will know that suspense is compounded of mystery and suspicion and dangerous adventure. 01:15.000 --> 01:27.000 In this series, our tales calculated to intrigue you, stir your nerves, to offer you a precarious situation, and then withhold the solution until the last possible moment. 01:28.000 --> 01:34.000 And so it is with The Hangman Won't Wait and Mr. Greenstreet's performance, we again hope to keep you in... 01:35.000 --> 01:37.000 Suspense. 01:37.000 --> 01:45.000 He comes striding towards us now, beaming like old King Cole. 01:46.000 --> 01:53.000 You can probably hear him chuckle. If he wheezes a little, that's due to weighing more than 300 pounds. 01:54.000 --> 02:00.000 You notice the three chins in the bandit's mustache and the eyeglasses on the black ribbon. 02:01.000 --> 02:05.000 He removes his hat with old school courtesy. Don't try to bow, Doctor. 02:05.000 --> 02:11.000 He is Gideon Fell, Doctor of Philosophy and expert in crime, if he tells us something about the Barton case. 02:12.000 --> 02:16.000 Sir, I have only one remark to make about the Barton case. Everybody was wrong. 02:17.000 --> 02:18.000 I'm afraid we don't quite follow that. 02:19.000 --> 02:23.000 The judge was wrong, the jury was wrong, the prosecution was wrong, the defense was wrong. 02:24.000 --> 02:27.000 But Dr. Fell, you can't have a murder case in which everybody is wrong. 02:28.000 --> 02:30.000 In my cases, sir, you can have practically anything. 02:31.000 --> 02:32.000 Oh yes, that's true enough, but... 02:32.000 --> 02:36.000 I want you to imagine yourself in the position of that girl, Helen Barton. 02:37.000 --> 02:38.000 Well? 02:39.000 --> 02:41.000 Imagine yourself waking up suddenly in the middle of the night. 02:42.000 --> 02:46.000 You're terrified, but you don't know why. The room is cold and nearly dark. 02:47.000 --> 02:50.000 All of a sudden you realize it's a room you've never seen before. 02:51.000 --> 02:54.000 There's a queer smell like old stone and disinfectant. 02:54.000 --> 03:01.000 There's no sound except... 03:12.000 --> 03:18.000 I...I...what is it? What was that? 03:19.000 --> 03:21.000 Now, lean back in your bed, dearie. It's all right. 03:21.000 --> 03:23.000 Yes, take it easy, miss. 03:24.000 --> 03:26.000 I...I was dreaming. 03:27.000 --> 03:32.000 You were having a nightmare, dearie. But it's all right now. Nothing's going to hurt you. 03:33.000 --> 03:34.000 Not yet. 03:35.000 --> 03:36.000 Be quiet, Anna. 03:37.000 --> 03:39.000 All right, all right. Would you like us to turn on all the lights, miss? 03:40.000 --> 03:41.000 Please, would you do that? 03:42.000 --> 03:44.000 You see, I...I don't understand this. 03:45.000 --> 03:48.000 Where am I and how did I get here? And who are you? 03:48.000 --> 03:51.000 Well, don't start that all over again, please. 03:52.000 --> 03:53.000 Start what all over again? 03:54.000 --> 03:57.000 Saying you've lost your memory and don't even know what your name is. 03:58.000 --> 04:02.000 Are you insane? Of course I know what my name is. I'm Helen Barton. 04:03.000 --> 04:04.000 Ah. 04:05.000 --> 04:10.000 But it's all I do know. Where am I? Why on earth is it so cold? 04:11.000 --> 04:14.000 Well, that's not unusual, you know, for England in the middle of December. 04:14.000 --> 04:17.000 Did you say December? 04:18.000 --> 04:20.000 That's right, dearie. 18th of December. 04:21.000 --> 04:23.000 You're fooling me. You're playing a trick on me. 04:24.000 --> 04:26.000 My head feels queer and I want to start crying, but I won't. 04:27.000 --> 04:29.000 It's not December. It's the end of August. I was going up to see Philip. 04:30.000 --> 04:32.000 Oh, that's it. I was going up to see Philip. 04:33.000 --> 04:34.000 Philip? 04:34.000 --> 04:35.000 Philip Gale, the man I'm going to marry. 04:36.000 --> 04:38.000 Be quiet, Anna. And don't turn on these lights yet. 04:39.000 --> 04:40.000 She's air than a sun. She's... 04:40.000 --> 04:41.000 Anna! 04:41.000 --> 04:44.000 I'm going to be half shaken all over. And so help me, she don't know where she is. 04:45.000 --> 04:49.000 Listen, dearie, I'm going to sit down on the bed beside you. 04:50.000 --> 04:55.000 Now take my hand. Olden. Tight. 04:56.000 --> 04:58.000 What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? 04:59.000 --> 05:02.000 This is Maidhurst's prison, miss. 05:03.000 --> 05:06.000 Steady, dearie. 05:06.000 --> 05:13.000 I'm still dreaming. I must be. You can't mean I'm in prison. 05:14.000 --> 05:17.000 Now look, dearie, I'm afraid it's worse than that. 05:18.000 --> 05:19.000 Worse than that? 05:20.000 --> 05:22.000 Look over there. You see where there's a little bit of fire in the grate? 05:23.000 --> 05:24.000 Well... 05:25.000 --> 05:27.000 And paper on the wall and pictures and a carpet on the floor. 05:28.000 --> 05:30.000 Why don't you come out straight and tell her? 05:31.000 --> 05:34.000 They're going to hang you in the morning, miss. 05:34.000 --> 05:37.000 This is the condemned cell. 05:37.000 --> 05:54.000 In sudden shock, the prison clock smote on the shivering air. 06:07.000 --> 06:10.000 But I won't quote that any further. 06:11.000 --> 06:14.000 I have too vivid a memory of sitting up that night with Colonel Andrews, the governor of the prison. 06:15.000 --> 06:17.000 Over here you'd call him the warden. 06:18.000 --> 06:21.000 There's a little office with a lamp shade, tilted so that I could see his face. 06:22.000 --> 06:25.000 And he said, I hate executions. Loathe them. 06:26.000 --> 06:28.000 Can't even sleep the night before. 06:29.000 --> 06:31.000 If you hadn't offered to come here and save my life... 06:32.000 --> 06:35.000 This is a strange place, sir, to talk of saving your life. 06:35.000 --> 06:38.000 No, it's no good being sentimental about the thing. That's the law. 06:39.000 --> 06:40.000 I didn't make it. 06:41.000 --> 06:43.000 But I gather you're not exactly happy about this case. 06:44.000 --> 06:45.000 I'm not. That's a fact. 06:46.000 --> 06:48.000 Mind you, there's no doubt whatever about the girl's guilt. 06:49.000 --> 06:50.000 I'm gratified to hear it. 06:51.000 --> 06:54.000 But if only she confess. Most of them do, you know. 06:55.000 --> 06:56.000 They confess to you? 06:57.000 --> 06:59.000 To me or to the hangman? Not often to the chaplain. 07:00.000 --> 07:02.000 Because they think he'll threaten them with the hereafter. 07:02.000 --> 07:05.000 But when Kirkwood goes in with the strap to bind their arm, he says to them... 07:06.000 --> 07:11.000 I don't like to think I'm doing something that would be on my conscience. 07:12.000 --> 07:14.000 So if you'd care to tell me... 07:16.000 --> 07:18.000 Quite a sensitive fellow, your hangman. 07:19.000 --> 07:20.000 No, look, here, I'm serious. 07:21.000 --> 07:22.000 So am I. 07:23.000 --> 07:25.000 Sometimes I wish I had any job in the world but mine. 07:26.000 --> 07:30.000 If only the girl would confess. If she just said, I'm sorry. 07:30.000 --> 07:34.000 If she confessed. If she just stopped this nonsense about not remembering. 07:35.000 --> 07:36.000 Not remembering what? 07:37.000 --> 07:40.000 Not remembering how, well, not remembering how she shot Philip Gale. 07:41.000 --> 07:42.000 Not remembering anything, even her own name. 07:43.000 --> 07:45.000 Total amnesia, covering a crime. 07:46.000 --> 07:47.000 Sir, you frighten me. 07:48.000 --> 07:52.000 You mean to say that a woman suffering from loss of memory can be tried and sentenced to death? 07:53.000 --> 07:55.000 No. Not if she really has lost her memory. 07:56.000 --> 07:57.000 Well, then... 07:57.000 --> 07:59.000 Her defense was a fake. Are you quite sure of that? 08:00.000 --> 08:06.000 Naturally. The judge would never have allowed it to come to trial if he hadn't been convinced that she was shaming. 08:07.000 --> 08:12.000 Even then, she might have got off of the life sentence or even with manslaughter, if it hadn't been for the nature of the crime. 08:13.000 --> 08:14.000 She didn't cut anybody up, I hope. 08:15.000 --> 08:20.000 No, but it was almost as bad. She shot a man who had raised his hands and begged for mercy. 08:21.000 --> 08:23.000 That completely damned her in the eyes of the jury. 08:24.000 --> 08:25.000 And yet... 08:25.000 --> 08:26.000 You have doubts. 08:27.000 --> 08:31.000 I tell you, I haven't any doubts. And in any case, it's none of my business. 08:32.000 --> 08:33.000 How has she acted since she's been here? 08:34.000 --> 08:41.000 Oh, a model prisoner. But I wish she'd stop this business of seeming to be in a daze. It's getting on my nerves. 08:42.000 --> 08:44.000 I'd rather think the prison itself would get on my nerves. 08:45.000 --> 08:49.000 I looked into your execution shed once and I don't want to look again. 08:50.000 --> 08:52.000 You'll get used to it after a while. Helen Barton won't. 08:52.000 --> 08:57.000 Tell me about a nice girl, too. I knew her grandfather. 08:58.000 --> 08:58.000 You live near here? 08:59.000 --> 09:05.000 Yes. Born and bred in Meadhurst. She got mixed up with a farrow-going swine named Philip Gale. 09:06.000 --> 09:12.000 Crazy about him. Wouldn't hear a word against him. Then he threw her over for a woman with money. 09:13.000 --> 09:13.000 I see. 09:14.000 --> 09:17.000 He had a bungalow on White Rose Hill. She went up there one Sunday afternoon. 09:18.000 --> 09:18.000 Alone? 09:18.000 --> 09:25.000 Yes. Herbert Gale, Philip's brother, heard them screaming at each other. He ran in to see what was wrong. 09:26.000 --> 09:32.000 Philip was trying to chase the girl out. She grabbed a.32 revolver out of the table drawer and told Philip to put up his hands. 09:33.000 --> 09:37.000 That scared him and he did put up his hands. Then she shot him dead. 09:38.000 --> 09:38.000 And afterwards? 09:39.000 --> 09:41.000 Afterwards she couldn't remember. 09:44.000 --> 09:45.000 Didn't remember anything? 09:45.000 --> 09:51.000 No. Pretended she didn't even recognize her own family. She said, Who is Philip Gale? 09:52.000 --> 09:55.000 And you hang her tomorrow morning? 09:56.000 --> 09:56.500 Yes. 09:57.000 --> 09:59.000 Without ever hearing her side of the case? 10:00.000 --> 10:01.000 Confound it, man. There's no doubt about the evidence. 10:02.000 --> 10:02.500 Are you sure? 10:03.000 --> 10:09.000 She killed Philip Gale. Gale's brother Herbert saw her do it. This hypocrisy about not remembering. 10:10.000 --> 10:12.000 Emotional shock could do just that, you know. 10:12.000 --> 10:19.000 She wasn't so emotionally shocked that it disturbed her aim. She drilled him clean through the heart at 15 feet. 10:20.000 --> 10:26.000 The bullet entered in a dead straight line through coat, waistcoat, shirt and heart. You could have run a pencil through the holes. 10:27.000 --> 10:32.000 Now don't sit there puffing out your cheeks and waving a cigar at me. I'm only... 10:34.000 --> 10:38.000 Tell me, Colonel Andrews, aren't you talking to convince yourself? 10:38.000 --> 10:43.000 No. Suppose that girl is telling the truth. Suppose she has lost her memory. 10:44.000 --> 10:44.500 Yeah. 10:45.000 --> 10:52.000 All right. You don't believe that. Suppose it. And suppose in some black eye just before the hangman comes that her memory returns. 10:53.000 --> 10:54.000 Don't talk rubbish. 10:55.000 --> 11:00.000 I've lived long enough to know that mental suffering is the cruelest form of suffering on this earth. 11:00.000 --> 11:07.000 Imagine yourself in that position. Come out of a daze into what you thought was a safe and pleasant world. 11:08.000 --> 11:16.000 You don't know where you are. You don't know what's happened. You only know that when the clock strikes eight, they're going to take you out and... 11:19.000 --> 11:22.000 Eh... Did you hear that? 11:23.000 --> 11:23.500 Yes. 11:24.000 --> 11:26.000 Are you thinking what I'm thinking? 11:27.000 --> 11:27.500 Yes. 11:27.500 --> 11:29.500 It isn't possible. 11:29.500 --> 11:31.500 Very much fear it is. 11:31.500 --> 11:34.500 Sometimes, you know, we have to use drugs. 11:34.500 --> 11:35.500 Drugs? 11:35.500 --> 11:44.500 Yes. We take them to the execution shed. It's only a short distance and we try to get it over in a matter of seconds, but sometimes they can't walk. 11:45.500 --> 11:46.500 Yes? What is it? 11:47.500 --> 11:51.500 Big pardon, sir, but I thought I'd better get you, or the doctor, or the chaplain, or both. 11:51.500 --> 11:54.500 What's the matter with you men? You're as white as a ghost. 11:54.500 --> 12:00.500 I can't help that, sir. I've been a warder at this place for a matter of fifteen years, but I never knew anything like this. 12:00.500 --> 12:04.500 It's the upstairs room, I suppose, Miss Barton? 12:04.500 --> 12:05.500 Yes, sir. 12:05.500 --> 12:06.500 Aesthetical? 12:06.500 --> 12:09.500 Yes, sir. She says... Well, she says she remembers now. 12:09.500 --> 12:10.500 I see. 12:10.500 --> 12:15.500 She's carrying on something awful, sir, but that ain't all. She claims she never done it. 12:15.500 --> 12:16.500 What's that? 12:16.500 --> 12:18.500 She claims she never killed Mr. Gale at all. 12:18.500 --> 12:19.500 Never killed? 12:19.500 --> 12:21.500 That's all, Harris. You may go. 12:21.500 --> 12:22.500 Yes, sir. 12:22.500 --> 12:23.500 Any other disturbances in the building? 12:23.500 --> 12:25.500 Well, sir, they're a bit restless and a-wing. 12:25.500 --> 12:26.500 That's usual. 12:26.500 --> 12:31.500 Yes, sir. And there's a bloke outside the prison, I mean, who keeps angin' about in front of the main gate. 12:31.500 --> 12:35.500 You can see him by the streetlamp. First he'll take a few little quick steps back and forth, 12:35.500 --> 12:40.500 then he'll run and stick his face against the bars of the gate, then he'll go back to pacing again. 12:40.500 --> 12:43.500 Fair guide me the creeps he did even before this other thing. 12:43.500 --> 12:45.500 You don't happen to know who he is? 12:45.500 --> 12:49.500 It's the other Mr. Gale, sir. Herbert Gale. I envy art to chase him away. 12:49.500 --> 12:52.500 All right, Harris, go ahead. And be along in a minute. 12:52.500 --> 12:53.500 Yes, sir. 12:53.500 --> 12:56.500 So the girl claims to be innocent. You heard that, eh? 12:56.500 --> 12:58.500 Yes, I heard it. 12:58.500 --> 12:59.500 What do you mean to do? 12:59.500 --> 13:03.500 I'll see the girl, of course. But it won't affect the issue. 13:03.500 --> 13:05.500 Not even if she does happen to be innocent. 13:05.500 --> 13:09.500 Fairly in the name of heaven, try to understand my position. 13:09.500 --> 13:11.500 Believe me, I do understand it. 13:11.500 --> 13:15.500 The jury convicted this girl of murder. Her appeal was dismissed. 13:15.500 --> 13:19.500 The Home Secretary has refused to intervene on behalf of the King. 13:19.500 --> 13:22.500 You couldn't do anything even if you wanted to. 13:22.500 --> 13:25.500 You couldn't even appeal to the Home Secretary without new evidence. 13:25.500 --> 13:27.500 Exactly. And it's too late for new evidence. 13:27.500 --> 13:29.500 Because you can't just accept the word of Helen Button. 13:29.500 --> 13:32.500 All the same, I'm dreading this interview. 13:32.500 --> 13:38.500 It's against regulations, but I wish you'd come along with me. 13:38.500 --> 13:39.500 Oh, if there only... 13:39.500 --> 13:41.500 Oh, there isn't. 13:41.500 --> 13:46.500 Where's the whiskey? I think a little stimulant. 13:46.500 --> 13:48.500 She will need the stimulant. 13:48.500 --> 13:49.500 It's a cold night. 13:49.500 --> 14:18.500 It'll be cold to get where she's going. 14:19.500 --> 14:26.500 I didn't do it. I tell you, I didn't do it. 14:26.500 --> 14:27.500 Daddy, Miss. 14:27.500 --> 14:29.500 It's all right, dearie. 14:29.500 --> 14:32.500 The governor and the big star gentlemen believe you didn't do it. 14:32.500 --> 14:34.500 Oh, no, they don't. You needn't try to fool me. 14:34.500 --> 14:36.500 Look at them over there on the corner, whispering. 14:36.500 --> 14:42.500 I heard that. You said, fell she's lying, but I'm not lying. I'm not. 14:42.500 --> 14:44.500 Miss, you've got to pull yourself together. 14:44.500 --> 14:46.500 And have a nice breakfast. 14:46.500 --> 14:49.500 What would you like for breakfast?