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Roma Wines present the MGM star Robert Taylor in Suspense.
Tonight, Roma Wines bring you Mr. Robert Taylor, a star of The Argyle Album, a suspense play
produced, edited and directed for Roma Wines by William Spear.
Suspense. Suspense. Radio's outstanding theater of thrills is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wines.
That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines. Those 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 Mr. Robert Taylor in a remarkable tale of...
Suspense.
Back when I got my first job on The Herald, Alan Pierce was its star reporter.
A little later he went to Washington and became top dog of all syndicated political columns.
Pierce could tell you what the President said when he didn't like his breakfast.
Or what? Who was getting paid off? Or what? By whom? And how much?
He was a national big shot, so naturally his coming back to the hometown late January got local front page.
Especially since the first thing happens, he checks into the Belden General Hospital from a heart attack.
Heart attack he had on the train right as it pulled into the station.
Quite an entrance. And time.
Remember, well...
Maybe you remember. Just when 22 million anxious readers were waiting for his promised expose of the contents of the Argyle album.
The thing he'd been building up in his columns for about two weeks before.
Teapot Dome was going to be a church club misunderstanding compared to this.
Naturally all the boys hung around the ante room of his hospital suite during visiting hours.
But nobody from the press cracked the door to the sick room for the first three days.
On the fourth morning, Van Sullivan, the doctor, came smiling out into the ante room to us.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, Mr. Pierce would have willingly seen you all the first day.
Of course, as his medical advisor, I couldn't permit anything of the sort.
However, today I'll allow you to see him one at a time.
I suggest that you gentlemen draw straws or something to test.
That is except the man from the Herald. Mr. Pierce asked expressly to see him first.
The Herald man? That's me.
Is the Herald representative here?
Yeah, right over here, doctor.
Do you want to come in now?
Right with you, doctor. Pinky, come here.
Yeah, Harry.
Dr. Van Sullivan, this is Mr. Melvin Pinkus, the Herald's best and, believe me, the quietest photographer.
He's very good for patients. I wonder...
I'm not a great, not Mr. Mitchell.
Okay, doctor. Stand by, Pinky.
Right.
The nurse left this gentleman in. I'll be on the fifth floor.
Hello there.
Say, you're Harry Mitchell, aren't you?
That's right, Mr. Pierce.
Just make it, Al.
Right, Al.
So you're young Mitchell.
Well, how time flies.
I spoke to the old man on the phone. I said, send your next Alan Pierce over, and he sent you.
Do you consider that a compliment?
Compliment? I'm going to hit him for a nice fat raise.
Well, Harry, have you got your questions all written down like a good reporter should?
No, I don't work that way.
Neither do I.
I suppose you want to know what the Argyle album is.
Yeah, that's about it. Only it's your business, whatever it is, so I can't ask it.
You're a smart boy.
But I'll ask anyhow. What is the Argyle album?
Good. Now, how shall I begin?
You're not really going to tell me.
Harry, it's got to a point where I think I ought to share it with somebody, preferably somebody like myself, who thinks like me.
But I'm going to ask you not to use this unless I'm not in a position to.
It's a deal.
Well, you know what an album is.
This is quite a fancy looking one.
White tooled leather bound and a flaming crimson double headed eagle crest etched on the cover.
It's an impressive item.
Maybe you better take it easy, Mr. Pierce.
You were going to call me Al.
Okay, Al, maybe you better just.
No, I'm all right. I'm all right.
It's.
I guess I'm.
I guess I'm a little dizzy.
You want the doctor?
No.
No, just a drink.
A drink of water, please.
The man back on his trip was breathing terribly.
There was a thermos on the bed stand that turned out empty.
I grabbed a glass and ran it to the bathroom, filled it from the tap.
I'll be right there, Al, boy.
I called him.
When there was no answer, I just about guessed what it was.
Mr. Pierce.
Al.
Stood there for a while, feeling awfully bad, thinking awfully hard.
I finally figured an idea.
Hey, Pinky.
Here I am, General. Is he going to pose?
Yeah, he's going to pose. Come on in here.
Pinky, look at him. He's dead.
Huh?
Passed out while we were talking.
This is our beat. It's big. It's a scoop.
I don't want those other tin horns out there cutting in.
What are you going to do?
Go on out and phone.
You stay here and don't let anybody through that door.
You're not letting me along with him.
An old hound like you, are you kidding?
I don't like it. I don't like it.
I went out to the pay station in the hall and phoned in the story.
Then I found Dr. Van Selben on the fifth floor and broke the news.
Between the fifth and the seventh floor, where Pierce's suite was,
we picked up the chief surgeon, superintendent, poor nurses, and litter bearers in attendance.
We went through the ante room where the reporters were.
The newspaper boys smelled something was up.
Nobody let them in Pierce's room.
The official hospital gang and me barged in and headed straight to the bed where the corpse was.
I got a funny feeling. Pinky wasn't in the room.
Dr. Van Selben and the chief surgeon went over to the bed and pulled back the covers.
You could feel the shock go through the whole crowd.
A long steel scalpel was sticking right up in the middle of Alan Pierce's chest.
Lieutenant Horslips Sampson, who was top man in homicide, strutted in and took over.
He got the story from us and just sat there for a while thinking, very professional, exuding brilliance.
His majesty spoke.
Dr. Van Selben. Yes, sir.
In your opinion, did your patient die from a heart attack as our reporter friend here claims, or from the knife wound?
I can't really tell you yet. Indications are that it might be either.
You see, in either case, the heart was stopped.
Yeah, the heart usually stops in case of death, doesn't it, Doc?
The only thing is, I took his pulse before I left the room. There was no pulse.
That scalpel could just as well have been stuck in a loaf of bread for all the damage he did.
Mr. Mitchell, why did you leave a dead man unreported? Why'd you leave that photographer here without telling the nurse?
I was a reporter by the scoop. Would you expect me to leave here? Somebody from the Express?
Nurse, were you outside the door the whole time?
Yes, sir. We're the reporters. And nobody came out except Mr. Mitchell.
The photographer went in, but he never came out.
No.
Take a gander to the bathroom, Haggerty.
There's nobody here, kid.
No.
Michelson, are those windows locked?
Yes, sir.
In that room, Kay's horse lips should bring out your Scotland yard training.
Mitchell, you're in too tough a spot to be fresh.
Oh, if I could just get an angle.
Must be an angle.
He got up, sower, and started looking around himself.
He walked over to the white bed screen in the corner.
It's funny, it stood there all the time, such a natural piece of hospital equipment, you never noticed it.
But now, even before he touched it, I knew what he'd find there.
He started to pull it aside like somebody looking hopelessly in any unlikely spot for a lost collar button.
Before he had his hand on it, I was at the door.
I was practically on my way out to the ante room when they let the screen fall over,
showing Pinky all huddled up among his photographic equipment with a surgeon's scalpel sticking out of his neck.
Hey! Hey!
Michelson! Get him!
I yelled at the reporters in the ante room that they could go in now.
The crowd coming out after me met the crowd going in, and I was in the corridor while they argued it out.
I was around the corner in the elevator before they got to the car,
and I was in a borrowed ambulance before anybody could ask embarrassing questions.
I walked right through the Waldorf lobby up to the second floor.
Nobody said a thing. Time was still with me.
I knew Pierce's secretary was keeping Suite 213 for him until he was supposed to get out of the hospital.
One moment.
Yes?
May I come in?
Well...
I'm a friend of Mr. Pierce's, Mitchell the Herald.
Well, what is it, Mr. Mitchell? Something I can do.
Yeah, would you let me rifle your boss's desk, files, papers, and possessions?
I'll put them back real neat. There's something I have to find.
Are you crazy?
Uh-huh. I was afraid that would be your answer.
What are you going to do?
I'm sorry.
Don't!
I really am.
And I really was. I didn't like to hit a woman.
Especially that cute.
I searched that sweet top and bottom.
But if Pierce ever had the R.Gal album, he took no chances keeping it around.
I found his personal address book. I figured it was no more use to him than it might be to me.
Now, I needed a place where I could sit down and think.
Then I remembered I was carrying a key for my pal, Joe Walsh's apartment while he was sending himself somewhere in Florida.
At least nobody could figure my going there.
At Walsh's place, I spent about 20 minutes with Pierce's address book.
He had Washington phone numbers in it that hadn't been in public directors for the last 30 years.
But there was one in this town that had a red crayon circle around it.
It was a query.
Jor Broad. J-O-R-B-R-O-D on Worcester Street.
Not the kind of neighborhood that Alan Pierce used to socialize in.
I was just about deciding I'd go see this Jor Broad.
And somebody decided to pay me a visit.
I checked through the keyhole. Didn't see much.
What there was to see was females. So I took my chances and opened the door.
She stood there.
About five foot seven of the most interesting stuff I ever remember seeing.
Not young, mind you, nor angelic, but gorgeous and smart-looking and sweet-boiced.
Hello there.
Who are you?
May I come in?
Yeah, sure. It's your risk.
Who are you?
You may call me Marla, Mr. Mitchell, and I want the Argyle album.
Just like that?
No, not just like that. I could be nasty, you know. After all, the police want you.
Somehow, Marla, that doesn't worry me at all. I just don't think you make it a policy to have traffic with the police.
And a stooped youngster. I like you.
I like you too, but I haven't time.
I'll give you $500 for it.
I don't even know what it is. What is the Argyle album?
Ten thousand.
Without a breath, that's some jump.
Ten thousand?
I'm really sorry, Marla.
That's what I wanted to know. It's not for sale. Well...
She moves her casually and directly to the door and opens it so quickly that I hadn't even gotten out of my chair before her two boyfriends stepped in.
The first one looked like a round-faced, pleasant businessman. Hair slightly gray, nice smile.
The one who followed him had the square, low-cut, irresistible appearance of a medium-sized tank.
Mr. Winter and Mr. Hobrey. Mr. Mitchell.
How do you do?
Mr. Mitchell.
He's not terribly cooperative.
Oh, no?
He doesn't perform not for love nor for money. Very stubborn.
She really didn't try love, Mr. Winter.
From what I know of Marla, that's hard to believe, eh, Marla?
So... so you're stubborn, Mr. Mitchell. A stubborn murderer.
I'll repeat my question. What is the Argyle album?
You are a gifted actor.
Never mind. Forget it, Mr. Winter.
Isn't $10,000 enough? That's the best we can offer and still make a profit.
Let's not waste time.
Have it your way, son.
Gill!
The big guy stepped toward me. I ducked and took the table from his.
Gill pushed it aside like it was magic.
His left hand lashed out and he had the lapels of my coat and I was lifting till only my shoe tips touched the floor.
I was helpless as a baby. He started slapping my face, front hand and back.
He kept up and up like a flick on the drums and the acne was unbearable.
He stopped. I waited like the wait between pauses at the dentist's drill multiplied by a million.
I must have moved suddenly because I saw the small eyes flicker and a huge fist come swinging in my face.
I wanted to duck but I couldn't.
My hands were torn from the front of my face and it came shocks of incalculable pain like searing flames.
Then the flames went out.
For suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you a star, Mr. Robert Taylor, in The Argyle Album by Cyril Enfield.
Roma Wines presentation tonight in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Between the acts of suspense, this is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines.
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And now Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood Soundstage Robert Taylor as reporter Harry Mitchell in The Argyle Album.
A play well calculated to keep you in suspense.
This is the bedroom of the apartment. Marla was bathing my forehead with a damn panty-chief.
I lay quiet until things cleared up a bit. That's it. Rest a little, that's the boy.
Marla. Where's the album, darling? Where's the album?
I swear I don't know. I don't know. You don't want me to call him again, do you Harry?
No, no, no, no, please. They're both in the kitchen. I'm supposed to help you wake up and then call.
No, no, just don't. If you haven't got it, do you know where it is?
I swear, Marla, I swear I don't even know what it is. All I know is it's tulle, white leather or something.
You don't? You don't? All right. Here's what I know.
Winter found it originally. He was in occupied Europe then.
He doesn't admit it, but I think he was the leader of a looting party after an American raid.
It was a sheaf of documents recording the transfer of large sums of money by certain individuals, both German and American.
Big men, who wanted to make sure that they'd come out right no matter whose armies won.
Winter knew that he found a fortune that day, a fortune in blackmail.
What happened?
He kept it in a public locker in a bus station. Normally the safest place in the world.
It was in a town down here in Virginia, Argyle. On a million to one twist he lost it.
A gang of young hoodlums blew open that section with a dynamite stick.
And it's been missing ever since, until Alan Pierce started hinting about it in his column in the international scandal it involved.
So, when Pierce died, you see, Winter had a right to suspect that Pierce's murderer might have the album.
Naturally, the big men wanted to. Lots of people wanted badly. Including me.
You? What for?
Resale value.
I see. That's a decent motive.
I'm a decent person.
Yeah, you are. Come here.
You're nice. You're a nice boy.
You know, I could just press my thumbs here at your windpipe and you couldn't even yell.
You don't think I'd have given you a chance like this if I really cared?
You're not kidding me.
That's the excuse I'll give to Winter. That you choked me and I couldn't yell.
You go down the fire escape. I'll give you plenty of time before I call him.
I figure. What's in it for you?
We'll see each other again, won't we? You'll find it. Hurry up.
Okay, honey, you ask for it.
Not too hard.
It was a funny experience choking a woman deliberately.
I squeezed pretty hard, scuffing bruises at her throat to make it look good.
I got some mixed up. I didn't know what I was doing. I took her once and kissed her very hard.
I ripped her clothes a little and mustered hair. And when she looked pretty battered, I kissed her again and crawled out on the fire escape and down.
I gave the cabbie the Worcester Street address from Pierce's book.
It was a junkyard. Joe Broad's junkyard.
What do you want?
Are you Mr. Broad? Joe Broad?
That's my name. What do you want?
The Argyle album.
What? What? How did you?
Oh, I know you. You are that Mitchell guy the police want for the murder of Ellen Pierce.
If you move, I'll kill you.
I got you figured, Broad. You're the fence for all the juvenile crooks around here. Some junkyard.
I'm on lots better terms with the cops than you are, Mitchell. And I'm phoning them right now.
Sure, sure. One of your kids brought you a nice white leather book with a two-headed eagle on it.
Maybe you stretched and gave him two bits for it.
Then you found you had something too big for a little guy.
You knew it was worth dough, but your stomach wasn't tough enough for big-time blackmail, so you figured a way to be a right guy and still make dough.
Sell it to Ellen Pierce.
Selling is no crime.
I'm really guessing, but good, huh?
No.
You invested the price of a couple of photostats and a train ticket to Washington.
You got to Pierce and sold him the photostats and told him he'd have to come here for the rest.
There's nothing to keep me from killing you right now.
I guess not.
You're a fugitive, aren't you? An escaped killer. They wouldn't touch me.
Wait a minute. Don't...
Oh!
Well, don't you even say thanks when your life is saved?
Thanks, nice shot.
Don't mention it. Do you wonder how I knew you were here?
You watched me take the cab from the window and got the number. I know that one now.
You're bright as well as nice. Maybe we can play this game together now that we have the album.
Have we?
Well, it can't be far in the desk drawer or the filing cabinet.
I think we both saw Broad move at the same time.
The gun at the edge of his fingers was somehow in his hands again.
It wavered weakly between Marla and me.
It was like watching a slow motion movie.
Marla didn't waste time.
I... I saw the sweet little body jump as the slug tore into it, but he's...
His gun kept waving and it went off.
Marla sighed and fell down at my feet.
She smiled at me once.
That's all.
I walked through three cops in the halls of the police station, getting no more reaction than a nod of greeting, and entered Horslip Samson's office.
Oh! Thanks for the phone call, Mitchell, but you gave us a bump steer.
What's your angle?
Bump steer? I saw the shooting.
We found a woman very dead indeed, but there was no man.
Sure, Broad? He didn't look alive when I saw him last.
Well, he wasn't there.
I'm only telling you what I saw.
Now what do you expect us to do with you?
Oh, put me on suspicion of murder.
The murder of who, might I ask?
Alan Pearce, naturally.
Hey, do you want to confess?
It's not bargain day today, Lieutenant.
Oh, it's just an angle.
Say, did the autopsy on Pearce come through?
I was wondering why you gave yourself up, yeah.
He died of heart failure, like you claimed. Only because he was so loaded with dope, even a normal heart would give out.
Dope? You mean poison?
Same thing, too much medicine. And Dr. Van Selben, the one who dosed him, has disappeared.
Took a powder. You're not even runner-up for suspect now, Mitchell.
Hey, maybe... maybe the one who stuck the scalpel into Pearce just wanted to create suspicious circumstances around the death just to be sure there'd be an autopsy.
That's an angle.
And how about Pinky? And how did the murderer get in and out of the room?
Well, that's an angle.
Hey, look, Mitchell, do you want to be held?
No, I don't want to.
Then stop asking questions I can't answer. Go on, beat it.
I still wanted to crack it.
I found myself nursing a deep belief that there must be equal justice for the murderers of a man I loved, another I respected, and a woman I... I admired.
There was only one place I could figure where to start.
I picked my way through Jor-Brod's junkyard.
The shapes of skeleton cars stood out dark in the moonlight.
At the far end of the yard was a lighted shack. I went up to it, almost to the door.
Somebody pushed from behind and my own body knocked the door open.
Get in there.
Rod was propped up in a chair facing me, his eyes wide.
Winter stood beside him and Gil walked up from behind me alongside.
Get in there.
Come in, Mitchell.
Thanks.
Well, Mr. Mitchell, this is a proper ending.
Another demonstration of the ascendancy of will.
Is he alive?
Oh. Oh, oh, Rod here. No, not now.
He was very weak and had no resistance, but we learned what we needed.
He had the album, quite cleverly hidden, but we have it now.
Here, want to see it?
Thanks.
Say, uh, who hired Dr. Van Selben to kill Pierce?
A very powerful and very wealthy individual most concerned with retrieving the album, Mr. Mitchell.
But you didn't want it to be heart failure. You wanted to force an autopsy.
That's why you stuck the scalpel into the corpse.
That's rather clever of you, Mr. Mitchell.
In the hospital, you were dressed as an attendant, right?
You got behind that bed screen sometime early in the day, probably early in the morning before Pierce woke up, right?
You were willing to wait a long time for what you wanted.
It was very tiresome.
You hoped to find out from Pierce where he had hidden the album.
You found out instead that Pierce didn't have it.
But you knew that Pierce was going to die anyhow from the overdose,
so you decided to put the doctor in a compromising position with the scalpel forcing the autopsy.
There's only one conceivable reason for you to have placed yourself in a hazardous position just for the sake of compromising the doctor.
And what, may I ask, can that conceivable reason be?
That you are the powerful and wealthy individual who got Dr. Van Selben to do Pierce's murder.
That you're no more Mr. Winter than I am.
Winter?
The original Mr. Winter who smuggled the album out of Europe you eliminated when he first tried to blackmail you and your fellow thieves.
By that line of reasoning, I was able to do a little research in the files of my reporter's memory.
And in spite of the fact that you have no mustache and that there are several other slight physical changes that could easily be adjusted,
you have an amazing resemblance to the very powerful, very wealthy Mr. Gerald K. Avery.
Huh? What's that?
A theory. But isn't this indulgence in violence a strange occupation for a man like Gerald Avery?
Not at all, Mr. Avery. A man doesn't become an international power by going to Sunday school every week.
You decided nobody could do your dirty work for you better than yourself.
I suppose you felt you needed help so you got a professional adventurer like Marla to work with you on the grounds that you yourself were an adventurer, a blackmailer.
Same goes for Gil here.
Your time's run over, Mitchell.
And Pinky. Of course, it doesn't bother you that you killed a nice guy with a nice family. To you, he was only in the way.
You stuck the scalpel into Pierce's corpse to save yourself some more trouble, the trouble of paying off Dr. Van Selvin.
He'll probably show up floating. You dragged Pinky behind the screen and you got behind with him and hid.
Then when all the doctors and attendants broke into the room and rushed around Pierce's bed, you stepped out casually from behind the screen and mingled with the crowd.
You were dressed for the part.
As a reporter, Mr. Mitchell, would you describe that exploit as daring or brilliant?
Oh, Mr. Avery, I'd use the word selfish, traitorous, foul.
Your morality sickens me. No, Mitchell.
Now there's only one more thing you didn't count on. Gil here.
Gil has nothing to do with this.
Oh, yes he has.
Keep your mouth shut, Mitchell.
I'll do nothing with the sword. I'll tell Gil not to...
Let him talk. I fear you fool. Let go of my arm. Let him talk.
Thanks, Gil. And just keep hold of his arm, will you?
Talk.
Okay. As I was saying, Mr. Avery, you forgot that Marla and Gil have been playing along with you because they figured you were their kind.
There's a certain honor among little crooks, but not among you big timers, Mr. Avery.
Now you have the album, the album that couldn't hurt anybody but yourself. Who's the blackmail? Where's the payoff?
Gil's wondering what's going to protect his interests, aren't you, Gil? He knows now what's happened to Dr. Van Selvin.
You see, he figured you for an honest crook, not a big timer.
You're not listening to him, Gil. He's only playing for time, only trying to save his own miserable skin.
I'll pay you off, Gil. I'll pay you more than you ever dreamed.
So you really are Gerald K. Avery, huh?
Don't be an idiot, Gil. You cooperate with me on the...
That was a bad mistake for Mr. Gerald K. Avery. You see, he figured his gun was bigger than Gil.
He moved fast, but not quite fast enough. The lead that hit Gil in the shoulder, but didn't even seem to faze him.
I understand he broke Avery's arm. That's when Avery screamed.
The next blow broke Avery's neck.
It was an awful lot of excitement because horse-lip shadows caught up with the proceedings just about this time, and the details aren't too clear.
All I know is that it had been a big day, and I was awfully tired.
I went home, climbed into bed, put my head on a nice pillow made of tulle-white leather, and slept a long, long time.
Suspense! Starring Robert Taylor in The Argyle Album.
Presented by Roma Wines, R-O-M-A. Made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
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Robert Taylor appeared by courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, producers of They Were Expendable.
Next Thursday, same time, Roma Wines will bring you Keenan Wynne and Hume Cronin as stars of...
Suspense! Radio's outstanding theater of thrill.
Produced by William Spear for the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.