Now, the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California presents...
Suspense.
Tonight, Roma Wines bring you the distinguished actor, Mr. J. Carroll Nash, a star in Footfalls,
a suspense play produced, edited and directed by William Spear.
Suspense 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 a remarkable
tale of suspense.
And with the drama called Footfalls and with the performance of Mr. J. Carroll Nash, Roma
Wines hope indeed to keep you in...
Suspense.
How are you feeling, Bose?
Good, Charlie.
I feel good for a man who is going to die.
Oh, don't be silly.
What do you want to talk that way for?
Oh, it is true.
I know.
But I do not feel bad.
I asked you to come here only because I feel like talking a little while.
You mind if I talk a little while, Charlie?
Sure, sure.
You talk as much as you want to.
Charlie, all these years a cop, but a good cop and a good friend.
You know I'm your friend, Bose.
Yes, I know it.
All these years I knew it.
All those years when I keep silent, waiting to kill a man.
There are not many people now who still remember my Manuel.
But you remember, even when he was a little boy.
Yes, perhaps it was true I was too fond, too easy on him after his mother died.
But it was only because he was not so strong.
And he was a good boy.
Always Manuel was a good boy.
You were like the others too, Charlie, the way you thought of him, but you, I know it
was because you were afraid he would bring sorrow to all boys.
I even remember the first time you were afraid, when he was just a little fellow.
Papa.
Yes, Manuel?
What are you doing?
What am I doing?
What I always do.
I work.
I mend shoes.
How do you?
What kind of questions do you ask me?
How do I?
You see, ever since you were a little baby, how I do?
With my knife, my hammer, with the little nails.
But how can you work when you can't see?
Why do I have need to see when I have my hands and my ears?
Papa, what is it like to be blind?
Oh, it is not like anything.
What I touch with my hands, what I hear with my ears, those things I see with my mind,
as well as you do with your eyes.
Oh, it is nothing to be blind.
Ah, good morning, Miss Evans.
Good morning, Boaz.
Hello, Manuel.
Hello.
Papa, is it really true that you can tell everybody by their footsteps?
Oh, of course.
Didn't you see just then?
And you really can't see them at all?
Not even a little bit?
Not even a little bit.
To me, a footstep is as to you a face or a voice, each one is different.
That is how I know people and remember them, even for many years.
All right.
Tell me who's coming down the street now.
But you mustn't look.
Oh, somebody is coming now.
Well, well.
That is the easiest of all, Manuel.
That is our policeman, Mr. Rug.
Now, am I right?
Mm-hmm.
Oh, hello, Charlie.
You come for your shoes?
No, just passing by.
But I'll pick them up if they're ready.
Well, not yet, Charlie.
But do you come back this afternoon and they will be ready?
Papa, can I have a nickel?
Always the piece for the pocket, huh?
Here, here's what they have.
Now, you take a nickel out, huh?
Thanks, Papa.
Here, here you young scamp.
Let me go.
Well, what is it?
It wasn't a nickel he took, it was half a dollar.
Well, oh, that was only a mistake.
Oh, Manuel, you keep the half dollar.
Now, go on, run along.
Thanks, Papa.
Bye-bye.
I didn't mean to butt in between you and your young men, Bose, but I thought maybe you didn't...
That I did not know.
Oh, I knew.
But Manuel, he needs things now and he is not like other boys.
Well, he's not so strong.
Yeah, it's none of my business, but spare the rod, you know.
He is a good boy.
My Manuel is always a good boy.
So it was like that through the years, a quiet life, my work, my shop, my house behind the
shop, a quiet life until that day he came.
My Manuel, he was a big boy now, almost a man.
Still, he was not strong.
I remember that day, it was evening, and Manuel had just come into the shop.
I knew what he wanted.
Hello, Pop.
Oh, hello, Manuel.
Well, have a good day today?
Sure, pretty good.
So, well, what were you doing today?
Oh, just walking around and thinking.
Thinking, uh-huh.
Thinking about what?
Just about people and things.
Do they pay much for that kind of work, Manuel?
You want me to get a job, Pop?
Oh, Manuel, no, no, you do that when you want to.
To work is good, but to think is good, too.
You're a swell guy, Pop.
Well, now, maybe a piece for the pocket, huh?
Well...
Five dollars, ten maybe?
If it's all right.
Sure, here.
Here you are.
Huh?
It's a stranger coming down our street.
You hear?
Not the way you do, Pop.
Why, he's stopping at our door, I think.
Well, I think I'll be going, Pop.
Yes, Manuel.
Good night.
Good night, Pop.
Mr. Negro?
Mr. Boaz Negro?
Yes?
I'm a stranger in town, Mr. Negro, and I...
Yes, yes, I know.
What? What was that you said?
Oh, nothing.
I was merely thinking out loud.
Please continue, Mr.
Mr.
Wood.
Campbell Wood.
Wood.
Mr. Campbell Wood.
Well, as I was saying, I'm a stranger in town, and I was told down at the depot that you
had a room to rent.
Matter of fact, I have.
Well, I'm just starting at a new job in the bank, and I can't afford to pay too much,
but...
I always like to help a young fellow to get a start in life.
How would five dollars a week suit you, Mr. Wood?
Oh, that is if you like the room, of course.
That would be just fine, Mr. Negro.
Now, if I could see the room.
So you are making your start in life, eh, Mr. Wood?
Well, I hope so, Mr. Negro.
You know, I can tell something about you, Mr. Wood, by your voice, but even more by
your footsteps.
By my footsteps?
Oh, that is a sort of specialty of mine, yes?
I think you will, as they say, go places, Mr. Wood.
Well, I'll certainly try.
Oh, yes, yes, you will, Mr. Wood.
Very definitely you will go places.
Yes, and I was right.
He did go places, maybe even a little too fast, and there was talk.
That fine young Mr. Wood who lived with old boys, Negro, they said, what a contrast to
that son, that Manuel, who did nothing.
Then that night, that night when he came home late.
Oh, good evening, Mr. Wood.
You are out rather late tonight.
Yes, I had to attend a special board of trade meeting.
And you, you're up rather late tonight yourself.
Yes, I had to attend to my special shoes.
Mr. Boas, I'd like to speak to you.
Well, do you need my permission?
Well, this affair is none of my business.
Well, go on, go on.
Well, Don, I hate to see a hardworking man like yourself support a lazy son.
Why doesn't he get himself a job?
You know, my Manuel is not strong.
Well, that's what I've heard you tell your friends, but he doesn't appear undernourished
to me.
Mr. Wood, my Manuel is not too strong.
Well, couldn't he learn your trade then?
Shoemaking?
Well, it may be good enough for a blind man, but for Manuel...
Well, I'm feeling a bit tired, so I guess I'll be going upstairs.
Oh, darn it, getting as careless as a newborn baby.
Now, let me see.
Oh, dear, gee whiz.
Oh, I'm glad it's all here.
I'm responsible, you know.
For what?
For the gold I have in this sack.
It's government money for the breakwater project.
Indeed, but why have you...
I know what you're thinking, Mr. Negrow, but I'm keeping the money for the bank until tomorrow
morning.
You see, too many people in town know that we received the funds, and I don't trust that
old safe we have down at the bank.
Well, very, very clever, Mr. Wood.
So you take the money home for you with safekeeping, and nobody is any wiser.
Very clever.
I'd rather think so myself.
I'm glad I dropped the sack in front of you, Mr. Negrow, because I know I can trust you
as far as, well, as far as I can trust myself.
That is a fine compliment for an old cobbler, Mr. Wood.
Well, I'm going upstairs now.
Remember, I have your word.
Yes, you have my word.
What's that?
Oh, well, a mouse, I suppose.
I will have to set a trap.
Is Manuel home?
No, no, no, Mr. Wood, he is not here.
Good night.
That was the first time I was frightened.
That was the first time I ever thought of such a thing.
Manuel was home, and he has heard everything I thought.
Manuel has heard the tinkle of gold, the tinkle of gold.
Manuel, Manuel.
Yes, Pop?
Did you hear my boy?
Yes, I heard, Pop.
You won't say anything.
Why should I?
Ah, you are a good boy, Manuel.
Are you short of money?
Perhaps $10?
Thanks, Pop, but I don't need it now.
Well, are you sure, Manuel?
A fiver or a tenner?
Not now, Pop.
Some other time, huh?
Sure, Pop.
Sure, some other time.
Some other time.
My Manuel was a good boy.
Yes, but I wished he did not know about the money.
I tried to return to my work, but I could not, and suddenly I knew that I was listening.
First I heard footsteps there in the house behind the shop, the footsteps prowling here
and there, halting, advancing again, then others pacing back and forth, back and forth.
A door opened, a voice.
Hello, Casino, or Gin Rummy?
Sure, why not?
The steps again, the door closing, and then silence.
Oh, how I wished to know what that silence meant.
And yet, though I wished to know stronger in me than that, I wished not to know.
It was cold, and I pulled my old coat around me, still listening to the silence.
A little later I thought I heard a little sound like the rustling of the wind outside
my shop, but I could not tell, and then perhaps I dozed there in my chair.
Smoke!
Yes, there's fire in my house, fire!
Help!
Fire!
The rest was like a nightmare, because I knew.
Even as they poked and searched through the ashes of my house, I knew.
Hey, look here.
A body, a man's body.
Yeah, what's left of it.
Oh, a dreadful accident.
It wasn't an accident.
Well, why not?
A guy can fall asleep with his clothes on.
But this guy's got his skull smashed in, and that makes it murder.
Murder.
For Suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you a star, Mr. J. Carroll Nash, whom you've heard
in the first act of Footfalls by Wilbur Daniels Steele, which is Roma Wines' presentation
tonight of Suspense.
Between the acts of Suspense, this is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines.
Elsa Maxwell's ideas on gracious entertaining are followed by women all over America.
The other day, she said this about Roma Wines.
One of my favorite wines is distinguished Roma California Sherry, a glorious gold and
amber wine, delightfully light and nut-like in taste.
Roma Sherry is ideal for any occasion, before dinner with appetizers, or during the friendly
evening hours.
Yes, good Roma Sherry, like all Roma wines, is always delicious, unvaryingly good.
The goodness of carefully selected grapes, brought slowly to perfection in California's
choicest vineyards, gently pressed, then unhurriedly guided to flavor richness by Roma's ancient
winemaking skill.
Yet, all this goodness is yours for only pennies a glass.
Remember, because of uniformly fine quality at reasonable cost, more Americans enjoy Roma
than any other wine.
R-O-M-A, Roma Wines.
And now, Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage J. Carol Nash, who in the character
of Boas Negro, the Blind Cobbler, continues a narrative well calculated to keep you in
suspense.
It is very kind of you to listen, Charlie.
I feel suddenly so old.
I feel that it is right for me to tell about it, because sometime tonight I am going to
go.
Oh, but that nightmare day when the body was found in the ashes of my house, when I was
forced with my heart breaking to agree with you that a dreadful crime had been committed.
You remember, Charlie, you came to me here and...
Listen, Boas, we have identified the body every way there is.
The clothes, the cufflinks, the watch they gave him at the bank, you know that.
And the money is gone.
Yes.
All right, then.
For the hundredth time, where is Manuel?
Where is Manuel?
And for the hundredth time, I do not know.
Come on, Boas, quit stalling.
Where is he?
I am not stalling.
I don't know, I tell you.
All right.
When did you see him last?
After supper.
He was in the shop.
You knew about the government money, Boas?
Yes.
And Manuel, he knew too?
Manuel knew?
Yes.
I see.
As I thought.
Well, you must not think those things about my Manuel, Chief.
He is a good boy.
What happened after you saw Manuel?
Nothing.
He went into sleep.
He stayed in the shop and worked.
I see.
Did you hear anything, Boas?
Yes.
I heard a man, the man, moving about.
What man?
Mr. Wood upstairs and my son down here.
Ah, then Manuel wasn't asleep.
No, he was not asleep.
Go on.
A while later, the noise stopped and...
We must know everything, Boas.
Well, a while later, Mr. Wood called down to Manuel and asked him if he cared to come
upstairs and play cards with him.
You heard him ask that?
Yes.
He was talking to Manuel who asked Mr. Wood.
Yet this is...
This is as I said, I do not lie to you.
All right, all right.
Did Manuel go up to Mr. Wood's room?
Yes, he went up.
I see.
Now, did you hear anything else after that?
No, no nothing.
Nothing?
Hmm?
Well, there is something else.
Sometime during the night, I thought I heard something, footfalls perhaps, stealing past
my shop.
I see.
That you wouldn't swear in court that you heard them.
No, not in court or here in my shop.
I cannot swear to something I am not sure of.
Boas, you're a good man.
We don't want to cause any trouble, but you understand a man has been murdered, government
funds are missing and your son is gone.
What else can we think?
As far as I'm concerned, it's an open and shut case.
I've issued a warrant for Manuel's arrest.
Oh no, no, you cannot.
Yes.
And if you know where he is, it'll go easier for him if you pass on that information.
I've told you all I wish to tell you.
All right, be stubborn.
Stubborn?
Do you wish me to dance a jig?
I tell the truth and you do not believe me.
What more can I do?
Gosh, put yourself in my place, Boas.
This is serious business.
And will you change places with me?
I have lost everything, my house, even my honor, my only son.
I'm sorry.
Someday that murder will return to the place of his crime and when it does, I shall be
waiting for him.
Yes, then, then I will show you for I shall be waiting for him.
Two questions, I gave no answer.
Two threats, I gave no heed.
I scarcely heard them for my ears were deaf to all sounds save one, the sound of footfalls.
The footsteps of a murderer.
Patiently as the weeks, the months, then the years moved by.
I listened for three years.
I listened, wondering only when they would come.
For three years more, I wondered if they would come.
Only the last three years was I troubled by the growing of a terrible doubt.
Suppose the steps had come and gone and I had not heard.
Suppose I were to make a mistake.
Suppose my ears should fail me and I could not remember.
Could not remember.
From that first hour of doubt, every waking moment, yes, even in my dreams, I lived in
a nightmare of echoing jumbled footsteps.
Footsteps slow and halting.
Footsteps quick and running.
Pounding heavy footsteps.
All those like as a cat's tread.
More, more, faster, faster.
Footsteps, footsteps, footsteps.
It was the evening of the winter holidays.
The Portuguese festival of Menuhesu.
Christ was born again in a hundred mangers and a hundred tiny altars.
There was cake and wine and song.
And in all the houses there were lights.
Even in my shop, the shop of Bois Negro, a customer had just called for his shoes and
gone out again.
Now I was thinking of putting out those lights.
I reached up to turn the switch and stopped.
And I entered the shop.
The newcomer stood by the closed door.
I wondered why I had not heard the footfalls leading into the shop.
Yes, what can I do for you?
Well, I don't know.
To tell the truth.
You will have to come nearer, please.
I am a little deaf.
Oh, all right.
Can you hear me now?
Fine, just fine.
I have a pair of expensive boots with me and they're in need of repair.
Could you fix them?
I think so, if you care to leave them with me.
Well, darn it, I haven't got them with me now.
I just thought I could I look around a bit, you know, look around.
Well, you are welcome, but I assure you there is not much interest in a poor copper shop.
Well, that may be true, but I...
The lights.
Put on these lights.
I can't see.
Why did you turn them off?
I can see much better in the dark.
You're crazy.
You can't see at all.
How did you know?
Put on those lights.
Stay where you are.
I can hear every move.
What are you going to do?
Keep away from me.
Don't touch me.
Murderer, murderer.
I have waited nine years.
I have lived for this day.
Murderer.
Then as he died, suddenly I realized this man that I had killed has a beard, a full beard
over his face, over his throat where my fingers strangled him.
I could have been wrong, but no, the footsteps I was certain of.
Then perhaps others would not know him for who he was if suddenly I knew what I must
do.
That his last cries had been heard, I knew, for I could hear the crowd gathering outside
my locked door.
But I set about my task as carefully as though he had been alive.
With a sure, unhurried touch, I continued at my work even as you battered at the door.
All right.
Stand back, all of you.
Stand back.
Come on, Martin.
Yeah, all right.
Lord only knows what we were finding here.
Bose.
Dark as pitch.
Bose, where are you?
Put on the lights, Martin.
I can't find...
Oh, here it is, Chief.
Yeah, that's much better.
Bose.
Bose, what are you doing there on the floor?
Bose, are you all right?
Chief, he's shaving someone.
Bose, what are you doing there?
It's all right, Charlie.
I'm through.
Now, I'm going to go.
I'm going to go.
I'm through.
Now, tell me, is it that murderer?
This guy on the floor is dead, Chief.
He's strangled.
Tell me, is it that murderer?
Manuel, Bose?
You mean Manuel?
Not Manuel.
I told you my Manuel was a good boy.
But I ask you, is it that murderer?
Well, it...
Good Lord.
What's up, Chief?
That man on the floor.
It's Campbell Wood.
The bank fellow we thought was burned.
Burned?
Him burned?
No, it was my boy that was burned.
That murderer killed my boy.
He put his clothes on him and set fire to my house.
I knew that all the time.
Why didn't you tell us all this before?
And have you laugh in my face?
Could I tell you that I thought those footfalls moving along the side of the shop belonged
to Mr. Wood?
A blind man with crazy ideas, you would say.
Could I stop him and ask where he was going?
If I were not blind, he would have killed me too.
No, it was not my son that ran away.
It was this murderer all the time.
But I told you he'd come back.
And I killed him.
I showed you.
Now you can hang me for my crime.
You remember, don't you, Charlie?
And you did not even bother to arrest me.
Perhaps you did not believe old boy had such strength in his hands, huh?
He died of heart failure.
Did he?
Well, so be it.
But you believe now that old boy has no trouble with these ears, huh?
Ah, yes.
I hear.
I hear everything.
Even a voice close in my ear.
Hello, Bob.
Mr. Manuel?
Yes.
Yes, I hear.
Oh, Manuel.
How are things with you, Manuel?
Fine, Pop.
Fine.
Do you need a little money?
A fiver perhaps?
A tenner?
No, thanks, Pop.
Not now.
Some other time.
Pop, I'm waiting for you, Pop.
Yes, I know you are waiting.
And I am glad to come with you.
My Manuel is a good boy.
And so closes Footfalls, in which Roma wines have brought you J. Carol Nash,
the star of tonight's study in Suspense.
This is Truman Bradley with a word for Roma wines, the sponsor of Suspense.
July, one of the warmest months, calls for tall frosty iced drinks.
And famous hostess Elsa Maxwell recently said,
I have discovered the perfect hot weather drink, wonderfully cooling and refreshing,
one that guests really go for.
I mean Roma wine and soda, made with distinguished Roma California Burgundy or Sauternes.
Yes, Roma wine and soda is simple to prepare.
Half-fill tall glasses with Roma Burgundy or Sauternes.
Add ice cubes, sparkling water and a bit of sugar,
and for a decorative touch, garnish with cherries or fruit.
And be sure to use Roma wine, always uniformly good, yet costs only pennies a glass,
so you can serve it often.
And the next time you use vermouth, choose Roma vermouth, sweet or dry.
Zestful, full-flavored Roma vermouth is blended and developed
with all the traditional winemaking skill of Roma wineries.
It's made and bottled in the heart of California's famous vineyards,
yet surprisingly low priced.
Try Roma vermouth soon, won't you?
J. Carol Nash appeared through the courtesy of Paramount Pictures
and is currently being seen in their production, A Medal for Benny.
Next Thursday same time, you will hear Bonita Granville as star of Suspense.
Presented by Roma Wines, R-O-M-A.
Made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.