The Spain.
This is the man in black.
Here again to introduce Columbia's program, Suspense.
Our distinguished star this evening is the stage and screen favorite, Mr. Paul Lupus,
whose performance is in The Lady Vanishes, and in the stage production The Watch on the Rhine,
you will recall with pleasure.
Tonight's tale of Suspense is a story by John Dixon Carr,
fire, burn, and cold and bubble.
If you've been with us on these Tuesday nights,
you will know that Suspense is compounded of mystery and suspicion and dangerous adventure.
In this series, our tales calculated to intrigue you, to stir your nerves,
to offer you a precarious situation and then withhold the solution until the last possible moment.
And so with fire, burn, and cold and bubble,
and the performance of Paul Lupus and the other members of our company,
we again hope to keep you in.
Jury Lane Theater presents the distinguished American actor,
Myron Willard, in Shakespeare's Macbeth,
with magic effects especially designed by Ludwig von Arnheim.
Double, double, toil and trouble,
fire, burn, and cold and bubble.
Historic Drury Lane Theater, a relic of old London.
On this site, in the cramped and crooked lanes of Ulwich,
there has been a playhouse since Nell Gwynn sold oranges in the pit.
The present theater, though modernized, is heavy and darkened with time.
By daylight, it is a dinginess of red plush seats, haunted by old ghosts.
But at night, when the lights bloom for some new production,
when the murmur of a crowd fills the carpeted aisles, and the orchestra begins to tune up,
it is kindled with that strange magic before the rise of the curtain.
Oh, it's this way, sir. E12 and 13. Broderon, talk it.
Thank you.
No, madam, this is Roe E. Your seat's a G4.
And backstage, where nerves crawl and there is a tendency to scream,
the three witches of the play are huddled around the peephole in the curtain,
looking out into the audience.
They are hideous-looking creatures, these witches, in gray rags like cobwebs.
But as they speak...
Oh, dear, I am scared.
Don't let it bother you, darling.
You can't even see the audience when the floats are on.
There's nothing to worry about.
Nothing except the size of the teak at the box office.
You won't even have to worry about that tonight. Look out there.
You two are as shaking as much as I am. Now don't pretend.
All right, all right. Everybody's jumpy on first nights.
What I can't understand is why they want to use young girls as witches,
and then make us talk in cracked voices as though we were 80.
Double, double, toil and travel.
Fire, burn and cauldron bubble.
Oh, oh, what's that?
Say, dear darling, it's only one of the ghost effects.
You've been hearing it for weeks at rehearsal.
I will say this for Martin Willard, as an actor and a manager too.
He's the first one who's ever had a real professional magician
to do the ghost effects of this ham show.
Oh, are they, Celia? Look there.
Where?
Out in the audience in the second of the box on the left-hand side.
Don't you see the woman who's just coming in?
Yes, I can see her.
Not a bad-looking bit of good for her age.
What about her?
But that's Marcia Blair.
Marcia Blair?
You don't mean you've never heard of her.
I can't say I have either if it comes to that.
Move over, Ivy. Give us a squint.
Marcia Blair used to be Mr. Willard's leading lady.
She was a very great actress 15 years ago.
Oh, 15 years ago.
She's had a terribly romantic history.
Well, she's made lots of money and retired from the stage.
Then she married some horrible no-good and...
Do you see that tall grey-haired man standing beside her?
Well, he doesn't look much like a no-good.
That's not the man I mean, Celia.
That's Howard White, her second husband.
Oh.
They say he loved her for years and followed her about
and practically worshipped her.
But she was married to this no-good and wouldn't get a divorce.
Then the no-good died, I suppose,
so Marcia Blair and her faithful Howard got married.
Yes.
I remember reading in the paper that they'd been married one year tonight.
I... I expect they're very happy.
Well, I'd be happy, too, if I had a mink coat and a string of pearls like that.
Well, you've got to admit she's beautiful.
All right, Katie, if you say so.
I used to go and see her act when I was a little girl.
She... she was kind of an idol.
I wonder what they're saying to each other up in that box now.
I wonder what they're saying.
Marcia, dear, I wish you wouldn't be so uneasy.
Nothing can happen to you here.
You're uneasy yourself, Howard.
Yes, I suppose I am a little.
Howard, I know I shouldn't be talking like this on our first anniversary,
but that's what worries me.
What if Barry isn't dead?
What if he isn't dead?
Oh, listen to me, darling.
Your late husband, heaven condemn his soul,
died in New York more than a year ago.
We have proof of that.
Well, then who wrote those letters to me?
I don't know, dear.
Somebody playing a joke on you.
Joke?
If you marry him, Marcia, you won't be alive a year from then.
Joke.
But you're married to me, my dear, and you are alive.
Shall I quote you something from another play, Howard?
Well...
The ides of March are come.
Aye, Caesar, but not gone.
And it's still two hours.
Two hours to the time we were actually married.
Oh, look here, dear.
This is carrying an obsession too far.
It would be just like Barry to wait until the last moment,
just to make it worse.
You knew him.
Yes, I knew him.
He was a genius.
I suppose so.
As a mere businessman, I never quite understood this theatrical temperament,
except yours, of course.
Barry was a greater actor than Myron Willard will ever be.
Barry could play anything, from a cockney to King Lear.
His skill at make-up wasn't merely good.
It was terrifying.
Oh, Howard, I am frightened.
Suppose he's managed to get close to us tonight and...
and yet we can't see him.
Well, the music started, Marcia.
I... I shall have to go.
Must you go, Howard? Really?
If I break this appointment with Ferndale, dear,
the deal will be called off.
And since I haven't got too much backing anyway, I...
All right, dear. I understand.
Go ahead.
Unless you wanted to come with me.
And Miss Myron's opening tonight?
Oh, I couldn't do that.
I tell you, you'll be perfectly safe here, dear.
Of course, Howard. I know that.
You're in full view of 3,000 people. Nobody could attack you.
The only door to this box is guarded.
Outside that door will be Miss Fenton, who's devoted to you,
and the chauffeur who's even more devoted to you.
What could happen, dear?
Nothing, of course.
And I'd prefer to be alone anyway.
Yes, I rather guess that...
Oh, please, dear.
It's just that I can't endure anybody being with me
when I'm watching a great play.
But that doesn't include you, darling.
Then if you'll accept these, madam,
in honor of our first anniversary...
Oh, Howard!
Well, they're lovely.
Of course I'll accept them.
And here's a program.
Got everything else you need?
Yes. Yes, I think so.
I'll just open the door to the passage to make sure I'll watch dogs around,
and guard.
Yes, they're out there all right.
Good night, master.
See you in an hour or two.
Good night, Howard, and good luck.
Miss Fenton, Bradley.
Yes, Mr. White.
Is there anything wrong?
Miss Fenton, you've been my wife's companion secretary
for five or six years.
Yes, Mr. White, and I've loved every minute of it.
And you, Bradley, you haven't been my chauffeur for quite so long,
but they tell me you're an ex-wrestler.
That's right, she.
Champion of the Shore Ditch Athletic Club.
And in me prime, though I says it shouldn't,
as good a man as ever climbs through the ropes.
Now, you know your instructions badly.
Yeah, trust me, sir.
Nobody gets into this here box tonight unless it's over my dead body.
Nothing must happen, do you understand? Nothing.
Please, you're as white as paper.
As for you, Miss Fenton, I'm afraid it's a little awkward.
I know I ought to ask you to go in and join, Marcia, but this...
You needn't apologize, Mr. White.
I know she doesn't want company.
She'll be leaning forward with her elbows on the box rail,
just as she always does.
She isn't merely watching a play.
She's acting, Lady Macbeth.
Every line, every gesture.
And I don't mean to disturb her.
You won't leave this door, either of you.
You trust me, sir. If...
Oh, no.
Anything wrong, Bradley?
It is a very rummy-looking cove coming along the passage, sir,
wearing a big black cloak with a red lining.
Oh, that man, Bradley, that's only her von Ahlenheim.
He's a professional magician and escape artist.
I was just wondering... Excuse me, please.
Don't worry, Mr. White. We'll look after her.
Von Ahlenheim. I say von Ahlenheim.
Thou canst not say I did it.
Never shake the gory luxe at me.
I beg your pardon.
And I beg yours, my friend.
I was merely quoting a line from the play.
You are not leaving the theater.
Surely not walking out on Macbeth.
I'm afraid I've got to.
Oh, that's a pity, my friend.
You will miss some of my best effects, to say nothing of Shakespeare's.
When Banko's ghost appears at the table.
I don't want to hear any more about ghosts, thanks.
Banko's or anybody else's.
I imagine you mean your wife's late husband.
You've heard about it then?
Yes, your wife has told me a good deal.
She seems to think that in my profession,
I might have some charm over demons or spell against ghosts.
You know, von Ahlenheim, in a muddled kind of way,
that's what I've been wondering myself.
Unfortunately, no. I am all too human.
But your problem interests me.
And I confess, it worries me.
What is you? What about me?
As I understand it, her first husband was a half-made American actor,
who later went completely mad and died in New York.
His, uh...
Oh, what's the word I want?
Our obsession?
That's it, obsession.
His obsession was Marcia Blair's eyes.
Yes, always her eyes.
They seem to hypnotize him.
It is not new, you know.
You'll find the same motif, the eyes of a beautiful woman,
all through the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Then, as I understand it, after this man's death,
she began to receive a series of letters.
Foul letters, apparently, written by him,
and threatening her with some rather horrible form of death,
if she married you.
I tell you, Barry Lake is dead.
He can't get a part of his coffin.
Oh, getting out of coffins, my friend, is not so difficult.
I have done it myself.
Oh, please stop joking, von Ahlenheim.
You don't happen to be dead.
True. There is that small difference.
Um...
Is your wife here in the theater tonight?
Yes. She wouldn't have come here except that it's
Maron Willard's first night, and we haven't seen Maron,
either of us, in years.
She's back there in box, indeed.
So I hear.
I was hoping that you might invite me to share the box.
Look here, old man, I don't want to seem inhospitable,
but she doesn't want company.
Well, that's about it.
Well, then walk back a little distance with me, this way,
so that you can see the stage from the back of the dress circle.
Now, the orchestra has stopped, and they'll ring up in a moment.
There. Look at it.
Look at what?
The stage, men.
The lights have gone out.
All except the dim yellow footlights shining at the curtain.
The last cough, the last murmur, the last rustle of program
dies away in one vast breathing hush.
The curtain goes up.
It goes my arm, von Ahlenheim. I've got to leave.
Now, what are the stage directions?
Desert place, thunder and lightning.
Enter three witches.
When shall we meet again?
Is the sun not rising or in rain?
When indeed. I wonder.
May I beg your pardon, von Ahlenheim?
No, it was nothing.
That will be the fact of the sun.
Where the place of the deep fair
chases your shadow away will show upon you a face of
darkness and a dark slave.
A feast!
In the London newspapers for that year 1936, you may read how Myron Willard triumphed at
Drury Lane as Macbeth.
But tonight, as the clock ticks on, there is another drama in the dimly lighted corridor
outside Box D.
There sits Miss Louise Fenton, Marcia Blair's companion secretary.
Beside her, burly and broken-nosed, is Big Jim Bradley, the ex-wrestler.
And when more than half an hour has passed...
There's the applause, Jim.
That was for the end of the first act.
Yes, I hear it.
Nothing's happened.
But take my word for it, nothing's going to happen.
Oh, she's such a likeable person, Jim.
And I think one of our greatest Shakespearean actresses.
I don't much care for this Shakespeare business, Miss.
You give me a good movie with gangsters in it.
That's my style.
Oh, you don't understand, Jim.
I've seen her as Juliet, as Ragland, as Portia, in our own drawing room without any props.
I've heard her as Lady Macbeth, too.
You should see her eyes.
Her eyes, Miss?
Yes, you should see her eyes when she delivers that speech.
The raven himself is horse that croaks the fatal end...
Miss, look there.
What is it?
That foreign-looking cove in the black cape coming along the passage.
Now, easy.
I beg your pardon.
You are Miss Louise Fenton, aren't you?
Yes, my name is Fenton.
What is it?
I am looking for Arnheim, a friend of Mr. White's.
And I must see Marcia Blair at once.
No, you don't, Governor.
You're not going in there.
Why not?
Because nobody goes in there.
Not if it was the King himself.
That's all this.
Now, listen to me, both of you.
When the lights went on, I happened to be looking at Box D from the other side of the
theatre.
And I think there is something wrong.
But there can't be anything wrong.
Jim Bradley and I have been sitting here the whole time.
Except, of course...
Except when?
Well, except when I went in there for a few seconds.
You went in there, Miss Fenton?
May I ask when that was?
Well, it was after Mr. White had gone and just before the play started.
I went in to ask if she wanted anything.
She said she didn't, so I came out again.
Bradley's been with me all the time, except when he went to get a drink of water up the
corridor.
That's just true as Goshbrook, Captain.
One moment, and listen to me.
Marcia Blair is leaning forward across the railing of the box.
Oh, but that's nothing, Herr von Arnheim.
That's the way she always is.
Does she always fall forward with her arms held straight out and her head down on her
arms?
Better be careful, Miss.
It's a trick.
Trick?
Why not open the door and see for yourselves?
Would that do any harm?
No, I...
I suppose it wouldn't, but...
Oh, there must be some mistake.
We haven't heard a sound from in there.
There couldn't be anything wrong.
You open the door, Miss Fenton.
I'm going to hold tight to this gentleman just in case.
Quiet, please.
Quiet.
What is it, Miss?
Walk in there with me, both of you.
Please go carefully as though nothing were wrong.
We don't want to attract attention.
Now.
Herr von Arnheim.
There's blood all over her face.
Yes.
And don't begin screaming again, Miss Fenton, when I tell you she's dead.
Bradley.
Yes, sir?
Pick Miss Blair's body up and carry her out into the corridor.
In another minute we'll have the whole theater wanting to know what's wrong.
All right, sir.
You win.
But what about the people in the other boxes?
Won't they see?
They've gone down to the bar to get a drink.
They won't see anything.
Hurry.
She ain't no lightweight, the poor lady, ain't she?
Steady does it.
Hold the door open.
That's got it.
Now, close the door.
Shall I put her down on the floor, carefully?
Yes, better do that.
I never took those threats seriously.
That's what I blame myself for.
And if something did happen, well, I thought he'd attack her.
I never thought he'd hide away across the theater and fire a shot.
And you were correct.
I was right.
M私 obaire wanted a shot.
And you were quite right, miss Fenton.
Marcia Blair was not shot.
She wasn't shot.
No.
Take a look at the wound.
Oh I can't look at it.
She was stabbed.
Stabbed through the right eye with a narrow sharp blade, which entered her brain and killed
her instantly.
Not a pretty death, but a quick one.
You seem to know a lot about this governor.
Perhaps I do, my friend.
And perhaps I can guess a lot more.
You mean somebody stood out there and threw a knife at her?
Like a ready music all turn?
No, I don't mean that either.
There's no knife in the wound and none in the box.
The murderer took it away.
Took it away?
Exactly.
Halfon Arnheim, please wait.
You're not saying someone climbed up from outside.
Twenty or thirty feet from the floor
and stabbed poor Marcia in full sight of three thousand people.
That, Miss Fenton, is what the evidence seems to indicate.
But it's impossible.
Yet it happened. There is Marcia Blair's body.
What's that?
The warning bell for the second act.
People will be coming back here any minute.
What are we going to do?
I am a man of fear.
To be strong before young Marcia's feet
and to be patient with the rabble's curse.
A woman who would be confident in our cause
being of no woman born yet, I will try the last.
Before my body I throw my water like shield.
Lay on that dust and damn people that first cry,
hold enough.
A clause, a claim, triumph.
Myron Willard is Macbeth.
Helen Gale is Lady Macbeth.
Magical effects by Ludwig van Arnhem.
Very few persons knew that there is a dead woman in the theatre.
But at the end of the play, it is a different story.
The crowd files out, past a cordon of police.
The lights are extinguished.
The great theatre is dark and mumbling with echoes.
See the stage now?
Only the theatre is dark.
The theatre is dark.
Only the great theatre is salt.
Is the theatre dark?
The theatre is dark.
Only the theatre is black.
Only the Takeshi building.
The theatre is dark.
Howard. Howard White.
Confounded, man. Can't you hear what I'm saying?
Excuse me, madame. I...
This is almost finished.
Not that I'm blaming you, old man.
Thank you, madame.
It's traditional, you know, that Macbeth's an unlucky play.
But up to the very end, I thought I'd never done better.
Eleven curtain calls. No, twelve.
How did you like my tomorrow-on-tomorrow speech?
I'm sorry, madame. I'm afraid I didn't hear it.
Yes, poor old Narsha.
She'd have heard it.
Yes, poor old Narsha. She'd have hated to die like that.
Narsha was proud of her eyes.
Always nearsighted as an owl, but too vain to wear glasses.
There's Von Arnheim looking at us from under the castle archway.
Von Arnheim!
Did you call me, my friend?
You're rather difficult to recognize under all that Macbeth make-up.
Yes, I was just thinking the same thing.
Never mind that.
Where are the police now?
At the moment, Mr. Wheeler, the police are in your dressing room.
They are using it for questioning.
No reception tonight, of course.
No, but I thought you might be interested in two items of information
that police have just discovered.
Well, go on.
We had a fairly full house tonight, I believe.
Fairly full. Every seat was reserved.
Reserved, yes, but not occupied.
I don't follow you.
One box on the ground floor, box E, to be exact, was empty.
Reserved and paid for, but empty.
And box E, oddly enough, was just underneath the one occupied by Marcia Blair.
Well, the same. I still don't see quite what you're...
Now, our next item of information comes from an usher.
An outside-eye seat in the stores, very close to that empty box, was occupied
by a very curious stranger who arrived late in the dark and slipped out again
by a nearby exit a few minutes afterwards.
Just one moment, Von Arnheim.
Are you saying the stranger climbed up and attacked Marcia in full view of the audience?
No, my friend. The murderer did not approach from that direction.
Then he must have reached Marcia through the door, guarded by Bradley and Miss Fenton?
No, not from that direction either.
I've found it, man. It must have been one way or the other.
Not necessarily.
Tell me how. Don't you think I've got enough troubles already
without this nightmare on top of it?
Hef von Arnheim! Hef von Arnheim!
You must take it easy, Miss Fenton. You must not excite yourself.
Have the police been... Yes. Look, you've got to help me.
They won't believe me.
They won't believe the young lady, sir, and that's a fact.
I've tried to help her all I can, but there's things I can swear to and things I can't.
You see, I did go into that box.
Oh, just for a couple of seconds, I admitted,
but no other person went in or could have got in.
So they say, or at least they're hinting that I killed her,
but I swear I never touched...
Who was questioning you, Miss Fenton?
Inspector Grimes or Sergeant Blake?
I'm... Well, I'm not sure. The sergeant, I think.
Then I shouldn't worry if I were you.
Inspector Grimes knows better.
He's guessed, in fact, exactly what I have guessed.
You seem on rather familiar terms with the police, my friend.
I am, Mr. Willard. I am.
Anyone who practices escapes from handcuffs, sex, chest...
And stage boxes, perhaps.
Stage boxes, if you insist.
Excuse me. Isn't that Inspector Grimes in the wings now?
Yes, and he's nodding his head.
Then I can tell you, I think, what you want to know.
Well, if you do happen to know anything, it's your duty to speak up.
Well, Marcia seems to have had some ridiculous idea
that her former husband, Barry Lake, was still alive.
Her fears weren't justified, of course,
and she wasn't killed by any dead husband.
I beg your pardon. Her fears were justified,
though not quite in the way she believed.
And she was killed by her husband.
Then Barry Lake is still alive.
No. Barry Lake is dead.
Well, you don't mean Marcia was really killed by a goat.
No. I mean she was killed by her devoted second husband, Mr. Howard White.
What? You are so...
Will you hear what they say?
That's not true. It's a slanderous statement.
I'll have you in court for it.
Everybody knows how devoted I was to Marcia.
Your devotion, my friend, was devotion to her money.
And your business affairs have been shaky for a long time.
That's not true, and you can't prove it.
Marcia Blyer was inclined to be, shall we say,
a little close-fisted with money.
That's true, anyway.
It's a lie, a lie!
Willing to marry him, but Mr. Howard White knew
he'd never touch a penny unless he killed her.
He wrote the letters himself.
Half-on-on, Harnheim. He can't be guilty.
She was alive after he left the box.
He wasn't anywhere near her when she died.
Perfectly correct, Miss Fenton.
He wasn't there, and yet he killed her.
Exactly. But you and Bradley can supply the clue that will hang him.
Me, sir, I don't know nothing.
No, I don't either.
I think you do, if you'll put your mind to it.
Do you remember what Howard White said to her
just before he left the box?
Yes, he said,
Good night, Marcia. See you in an hour or two.
And she answered, Good night and good luck.
No, I mean just before that.
I... Well, there wasn't anything.
You see, it's a slanderous statement without any proof.
It's an insult to my position on the stock exchange.
Wait. I do remember something rather queer.
Think, Miss Fenton, think.
He said to Marcia jokingly,
If you'll accept these, madam, in honor of our first anniversary.
And Marcia said, Howard, they're lovely.
Of course I'll accept them.
That's right, sir. He did say it.
And what do you think he was referring to, Miss Fenton?
What was he asking her to accept?
Well, I imagined it was flowers, a corsage or something like that.
Did you see any flowers in the box or pinned to Marcia Blair's gown?
No. I come to think of it, I didn't.
Then what did he give her?
Don't look at me, sir.
Now, here is a woman who is very nearsighted.
Yet, yet refuses to wear glasses.
But she can accept a pair of...
Opera glasses.
Miss, you can't prove it.
Hold on, let's go.
You better stay here, Governor.
Thank you, Bradley, but the place is surrounded with police.
But I still don't understand.
Now, what happens when you lift opera glasses to your eyes and they are not in focus?
You turn the little wheel in the middle to bring them into focus.
For Marcia Blair, it was deadly.
You mean that the glasses had...
Yes, they were specially constructed glasses, Miss Fenton.
They were invented by a French criminal years ago.
The little wheel is a little trigger.
It releases the spring of a sharp, thin blade which strikes through the eyes into the brain.
Oh, don't, please.
You can't prove it.
Marcia Blair died instantly.
The glasses torn from her eye by their own weight dropped over the box rail to the carpeted aisle below.
The only witnesses who might have noticed would have been the people in the box just underneath.
And that box was empty.
By arrangement, yes.
Even if anybody did see them fall, Howard White was prepared to remove the evidence instantly.
And we haven't forgotten the curious stranger.
Curious stranger?
I mean the man who slipped in after it was dark, took an aisle seat just under the box and slipped out again a few minutes later.
The pack of lies will start to finish a comp from a word of it.
I beg your pardon, my friend.
Didn't you see Inspector Grimes nod to me a moment ago?
You are going to hang, my friend, for one of the neatest and cruelest crimes in my experience.
You must have just found those opera glasses with a neat set of fingerprints in the side pocket of your motor car.
And so ends Fire, Burn and Cauldron Bubble starring the distinguished actor Paul Lucas.
Tonight's tale of suspense.
This is your narrator, Ted Osborne, the man in black, who conveys to you Columbia's invitation to spend this half hour in suspense with us again next Tuesday.
Same time when Nancy Coleman stars in Fear Paints a Picture.
William Spear, the producer, John Dietz, the director, Bernard Herman, the composer, conductor, Robert Salmon, studio technician, and John Dixon Carr, the author, collaborated on tonight's suspense.
This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.