WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:15.000 Tonight, Suspense brings you an all-star cast of Hollywood's finest radio players in the 00:15.000 --> 00:20.240 premiere of a remarkable story by Ray Bradbury called Rebushinska. 00:20.240 --> 00:25.920 But first, we'd like to remind you that in hotels, restaurants, and homes of distinction, 00:25.920 --> 00:37.400 wherever hospitality is a gracious art, the knowing host serves CRESTA, C-R-E-S-T-A, B-L-A-N-C-A, 00:37.400 --> 00:41.840 Cresta Blanca, Cresta Blanca. 00:41.840 --> 00:48.680 Yes, the famous name of Cresta Blanca is a symbol of good taste and good living wherever 00:48.680 --> 00:51.080 discriminating people gather. 00:51.080 --> 00:57.200 And when you serve proud Cresta Blanca California wines, you pay guests the highest compliment 00:57.200 --> 00:58.840 a host can offer. 00:58.840 --> 01:05.240 So distinguish your table by pouring Cresta Blanca Burgundy or Cresta Blanca Sauternes, 01:05.240 --> 01:08.360 yours to enjoy for gracious dining. 01:08.360 --> 01:12.520 Shenley's Cresta Blanca Wine Company, Livermore, California. 01:12.520 --> 01:20.840 And now, Shenley brings you Radio's outstanding theater of thrill, Suspense. 01:20.840 --> 01:22.560 Presented by Roma Wines. 01:22.560 --> 01:28.160 That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines of Fresno, California, for your everyday enjoyment. 01:28.160 --> 01:34.120 Tonight, starring Joseph Kearns, Laurene Tuttle, Wally Mayer, and Armina Feige and 01:34.120 --> 01:45.880 Rebushinsky, a Suspense play produced, edited, and directed for Shenley by William Spear. 01:45.880 --> 01:49.920 Mr. Ockham had a look about him in depth as he had had in life. 01:49.920 --> 01:54.640 A general appearance which might prompt one to say, there's a man who will one day be 01:54.640 --> 01:58.560 stabbed or shot or booted in the head. 01:58.560 --> 02:03.240 And although Mr. Ockham had not met his end in any of the aforementioned ways, he had 02:03.240 --> 02:04.720 been strangled. 02:04.720 --> 02:06.760 And he was dead. 02:06.760 --> 02:11.320 Dead on the floor of a theater cellar. 02:11.320 --> 02:17.800 Yes, Mr. Ockham was deceased. 02:17.800 --> 02:19.840 And nobody seemed to care. 02:19.840 --> 02:23.680 Nobody but Detective Lieutenant Krovich, who had been sent down to have a look around. 02:23.680 --> 02:30.560 On a table he saw a small polished bronze box with certain words on the lid which read, 02:30.560 --> 02:35.880 Ria Buczynska, property of John Fabian, world's greatest ventriloquist. 02:35.880 --> 02:40.040 Krovich looked from the box to the three figures standing stiffly before him. 02:40.040 --> 02:45.960 They were John Fabian, ventriloquist, Alice, his wife, and Bernard Douglas, Fabian's press 02:45.960 --> 02:46.960 agent. 02:46.960 --> 02:50.240 And as Krovich lit his cigar, it happened. 02:50.240 --> 02:52.240 Let me out. 02:52.240 --> 02:55.240 Let me out. 02:55.240 --> 02:58.160 Four people looked with startled eyes at the box on the table. 02:58.160 --> 03:01.920 Then Fabian, the ventriloquist, stepped forward and spoke earnestly. 03:01.920 --> 03:02.920 No, Ria. 03:02.920 --> 03:05.480 This is serious business, darling. 03:05.480 --> 03:07.480 You stay where you are. 03:07.480 --> 03:09.480 Please, don't, John. 03:09.480 --> 03:12.360 You should be kind to me now after what happened. 03:12.360 --> 03:16.800 If you don't mind, Fabian, we'll have the dummy act at another time. 03:16.800 --> 03:19.480 Now let's get this matter clear. 03:19.480 --> 03:23.400 Each of you testify that you don't know who this dead Mr. Akamiz, yet he told the stage 03:23.400 --> 03:27.240 manager tonight that he knew Mr. Fabian and wanted to see him about something important. 03:27.240 --> 03:28.240 Let me out. 03:28.240 --> 03:31.240 Oh, stop it, Fabian. 03:31.240 --> 03:33.640 Pay no attention to her, Lieutenant. 03:33.640 --> 03:34.640 Her? 03:34.640 --> 03:35.640 You mean you. 03:35.640 --> 03:36.640 What is this? 03:36.640 --> 03:37.640 Get together, you two. 03:37.640 --> 03:38.640 Never be together again. 03:38.640 --> 03:42.920 Never again, I'll keep the night. 03:42.920 --> 03:51.040 Give me the key to the box, Fabian. 03:51.040 --> 03:53.560 Thank you. 03:53.560 --> 03:59.120 Kravitz stood motionless, just looking down, seeing Ria Bushinska lying in her box and 03:59.120 --> 04:03.360 not believing what he saw. 04:03.360 --> 04:10.440 He thought, there were nights in life when you dreamed, and this is what you dreamed. 04:10.440 --> 04:17.880 There were women you saw in life, far down the street, walking, fragile, far away, unattainable, 04:17.880 --> 04:21.040 and this tiny figure was one of them. 04:21.040 --> 04:25.880 There were voices that you heard singing high in a dark church loft, voices that made the 04:25.880 --> 04:32.720 candle flame shudder and dance to every cadence, and this was one of those voices. 04:32.720 --> 04:38.880 On a summer afternoon, you watched a spider gracefully spinning its cloudy web, and now 04:38.880 --> 04:43.120 that web was Ria Bushinska's evening dress, here and now. 04:43.120 --> 04:48.560 You had heard of honesty and intelligence and frankness and unafraidness all your life, 04:48.560 --> 04:55.840 and now it looked straight up at you, fearlessly, shining from a puppet's eye. 04:55.840 --> 05:02.560 She was so beautiful, your throat closed, and you were sad because you knew that she 05:02.560 --> 05:05.600 was only a puppet. 05:05.600 --> 05:09.040 John Fabian tenderly picked up Ria Bushinska. 05:09.040 --> 05:12.760 Oh, isn't she beautiful? 05:12.760 --> 05:15.640 She's carved from the finest wood Ria Bushinska is. 05:15.640 --> 05:19.000 She's appeared in London, Paris, Rome, New York. 05:19.000 --> 05:21.880 Everyone in the world knows her and loves her. 05:21.880 --> 05:25.000 Many people question Ria Bushinska's authenticity. 05:25.000 --> 05:28.800 They think she's really alive, that she's a midget. 05:28.800 --> 05:33.960 People just cannot believe she's constructed of wood. 05:33.960 --> 05:39.800 John Fabian's wife, Alice, stood glaring at her husband with a look of pure hatred, but 05:39.800 --> 05:45.120 he was aware of no one but the lifelike figure he held in his arms, and speaking to him, 05:45.120 --> 05:46.120 it said... 05:46.120 --> 05:48.520 Please don't go on about me, John. 05:48.520 --> 05:50.480 Alice doesn't like it. 05:50.480 --> 05:53.200 Alice has never liked anything about you, Ria. 05:53.200 --> 05:54.200 Shh, don't. 05:54.200 --> 05:57.880 Not here and not now, John. 05:57.880 --> 06:01.440 Tell me, Lieutenant, how did it all happen? 06:01.440 --> 06:03.680 I mean about poor Mr. Ockham. 06:03.680 --> 06:04.680 What is this? 06:04.680 --> 06:07.320 You'd best return to your box, Ria Bushinska. 06:07.320 --> 06:09.440 But I don't want to. 06:09.440 --> 06:12.720 I have as much right to listen and talk. 06:12.720 --> 06:16.240 I'm as much a part of this murder as Alice. 06:16.240 --> 06:19.200 Or Mr. Douglassy. 06:19.200 --> 06:22.720 Don't drag me into this, you little witch. 06:22.720 --> 06:26.760 And the manner in which he replied made it obvious that Ria Bushinska was more than an 06:26.760 --> 06:31.240 illusion to him, for he reacted to her as to a real person. 06:31.240 --> 06:33.840 It's just that I want the truth to be told. 06:33.840 --> 06:38.040 And if I'm locked in my brun's casket, there will be no truth. 06:38.040 --> 06:43.680 But John Fabian is a consummate liar, and I must watch him. 06:43.680 --> 06:47.080 That's right, isn't it, John? 06:47.080 --> 06:50.880 Yes, I imagine it is. 06:50.880 --> 06:55.360 John loves me best of all the women in the world. 06:55.360 --> 07:01.800 And I love him, and try to understand this wrong way of thinking. 07:01.800 --> 07:03.240 We're wasting time. 07:03.240 --> 07:05.720 If you think you'll interfere with my investigation, Fabian. 07:05.720 --> 07:07.400 Lieutenant, I am helpless. 07:07.400 --> 07:09.400 But she's in your throat. 07:09.400 --> 07:10.400 No. 07:10.400 --> 07:14.920 She is in my heart, which is much deeper. 07:14.920 --> 07:16.720 Sometimes I'm powerless. 07:16.720 --> 07:18.440 Sometimes she is only herself. 07:18.440 --> 07:20.400 Nothing of me at all. 07:20.400 --> 07:24.300 Sometimes she tells me what to do, and I must do it. 07:24.300 --> 07:29.200 She watches over me, reprimands me as honest where I am dishonest, ethical where I am wicked 07:29.200 --> 07:31.400 as old sin. 07:31.400 --> 07:34.040 She lives her life, I live mine. 07:34.040 --> 07:39.000 She's raised a wall in my head between herself and me, and she lives there, ignoring me if 07:39.000 --> 07:43.520 I try to make her say improper things, but cooperating if I suggest the correct words 07:43.520 --> 07:45.360 and pantomime. 07:45.360 --> 07:49.880 So if you intend going on, I'm afraid Rhea must be present. 07:49.880 --> 07:53.960 No, locking her up will do no good. 07:53.960 --> 07:57.880 Lieutenant Krovich sat quietly for a few moments. 07:57.880 --> 07:59.360 Then he seemed to make a decision. 07:59.360 --> 08:00.840 All right, all right. 08:00.840 --> 08:02.400 Let her stay. 08:02.400 --> 08:07.840 Maybe before the night's over, I'll be tired enough to ask even a ventriloquist's dummy 08:07.840 --> 08:09.600 questions. 08:09.600 --> 08:28.320 For suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you Rhea Buczynska, Roma Wines' presentation 08:28.320 --> 08:40.400 tonight in Radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, Suspense. 08:40.400 --> 08:45.200 Suspense, Radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, is presented by Roma Wines. 08:45.200 --> 08:52.880 That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines, selected from the world's greatest reserves of fine wines. 08:52.880 --> 08:58.160 Some hosts have a way of making you feel completely welcome whenever you drop in for a visit. 08:58.160 --> 09:02.480 This is the kind of hospitality that says, come in and make yourself at home. 09:02.480 --> 09:07.320 Well, such is the hospitality of millions of Americans who always keep Roma California 09:07.320 --> 09:09.040 wines on hand. 09:09.040 --> 09:14.600 For Roma Wines lend sparkle and companionship to any occasion, and there's a Roma Wine 09:14.600 --> 09:16.840 to please every taste. 09:16.840 --> 09:23.680 For friendly entertaining, serve nut-like golden amber Roma Sherry, rich red Roma Port, 09:23.680 --> 09:27.040 or mellow flame-bride Roma Muscatel. 09:27.040 --> 09:33.320 You'll find that these better tasting Roma Wines add warmth and charm to any get-together. 09:33.320 --> 09:37.000 Brighten those restful stay-at-home evenings with your family. 09:37.000 --> 09:43.120 Tomorrow, solve your problem of what to serve when friends drop in with Roma Wines. 09:43.120 --> 09:49.640 That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines, America's largest selling wines. 09:49.640 --> 09:54.920 And now Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood sound stage our minofige as narrator Joseph 09:54.920 --> 10:01.360 Kearns as Fabian the ventriloquist and Wally Mayer as Detective Krovich in Rea Bushinska, 10:01.360 --> 10:19.040 a play well calculated to keep you in suspense. 10:19.040 --> 10:22.480 Once more, Mr. Douglas, do you recognize the dead man? 10:22.480 --> 10:23.480 No. 10:23.480 --> 10:26.200 He looks somewhat familiar, an actor type, I believe. 10:26.200 --> 10:29.680 One of you three is lying. 10:29.680 --> 10:36.320 From the condition of Alcom's shoes, his worn clothing, he needed money. 10:36.320 --> 10:37.720 Are you in love with Mrs. Fabian? 10:37.720 --> 10:38.720 Why, I... 10:38.720 --> 10:39.720 Really, Lieutenant? 10:39.720 --> 10:41.360 I've been watching you. 10:41.360 --> 10:42.360 Your actions. 10:42.360 --> 10:43.360 My actions? 10:43.360 --> 10:46.840 Yes, yes, the way you look at Rea Bushinska's box, the way you hold your breath when she 10:46.840 --> 10:51.720 appears, the way you knock your fingers when she talks, the way you stare at her. 10:51.720 --> 10:55.000 If you think for one moment that I'm jealous of a little piece of wood... 10:55.000 --> 10:56.000 Aren't you? 10:56.000 --> 10:57.000 No, I'm not jealous of her. 10:57.000 --> 10:59.000 You needn't tell him, Alice. 10:59.000 --> 11:00.000 Let her. 11:00.000 --> 11:05.760 They all stared at the figurine, even Fabian the ventriloquist, as if her cry had come from 11:05.760 --> 11:07.760 an alien throat. 11:07.760 --> 11:10.520 Alice, tell them. 11:10.520 --> 11:14.120 I married John seven years ago. 11:14.120 --> 11:15.720 He said he loved me. 11:15.720 --> 11:20.440 I loved him and I loved Rea Bushinska too, at first anyway. 11:20.440 --> 11:25.200 But then I began to see that he really paid more attention to her than he did to me. 11:25.200 --> 11:27.480 I began to feel hatred. 11:27.480 --> 11:33.520 Not for Rea Bushinska because it wasn't her fault, but I felt a terrible hatred for John 11:33.520 --> 11:35.680 because I knew it was all his fault. 11:35.680 --> 11:38.060 His cleverness, his sadistic temperament. 11:38.060 --> 11:42.200 Each jealousy on my part was a tribute to the perfection of his art. 11:42.200 --> 11:46.120 She came out of him like a woman out of a dark god. 11:46.120 --> 11:47.880 But I don't hate Rea. 11:47.880 --> 11:50.100 She's lovely, sweet and honest. 11:50.100 --> 11:51.100 Something that John isn't. 11:51.100 --> 11:54.440 Tell about Mr. Douglas. 11:54.440 --> 11:59.120 When I got no understanding, no love from John, I turned to Mr. Douglas. 11:59.120 --> 12:00.120 Aha. 12:00.120 --> 12:01.920 The dead man was a blackmailer. 12:01.920 --> 12:04.440 He came to the theater tonight to see a husband about you. 12:04.440 --> 12:06.080 You killed him to prevent that interview. 12:06.080 --> 12:07.480 I didn't kill him. 12:07.480 --> 12:09.440 Douglas might have and not told you. 12:09.440 --> 12:10.640 Why kill a man? 12:10.640 --> 12:11.880 John knew all about it. 12:11.880 --> 12:23.600 I did indeed. 12:23.600 --> 12:27.160 The next day, Lieutenant Krovich was back. 12:27.160 --> 12:31.280 Yes, come in. 12:31.280 --> 12:38.440 Fabian, I have something here which might interest you. 12:38.440 --> 12:43.200 With a tight grin on his face, Lieutenant Krovich held out the photograph of a woman. 12:43.200 --> 12:48.240 Fabian stared at the shiny picture before him and then he fell back in his chair. 12:48.240 --> 12:52.160 He shut his eyes as if with great ache in his head. 12:52.160 --> 12:56.840 Krovich turned the picture over carefully and began to read from the typewritten dot 12:56.840 --> 12:57.840 on the back. 12:57.840 --> 13:00.240 Name, Ilya Riemansk. 13:00.240 --> 13:03.360 Weight 100 pounds, blue eyes, black hair, oval face. 13:03.360 --> 13:05.880 Born 1914, New York City. 13:05.880 --> 13:08.960 Disappeared 1934. 13:08.960 --> 13:12.640 Believed a victim of amnesia of Russian Slav heritage. 13:12.640 --> 13:14.000 Oh no. 13:14.000 --> 13:18.720 You know, Fabian, it was pretty silly to go through the files for a picture of a ventriloquist 13:18.720 --> 13:19.720 dummy. 13:19.720 --> 13:21.720 They all laughed at headquarters. 13:21.720 --> 13:26.720 And yet, yet here she is, Ria Buchinska. 13:26.720 --> 13:30.660 Not paper mache, not wood, not a puppet. 13:30.660 --> 13:36.840 But a woman who once lived and moved about and disappeared. 13:36.840 --> 13:37.840 Take it from there, Fabian. 13:37.840 --> 13:41.240 Lieutenant, there's nothing to it. 13:41.240 --> 13:42.960 I saw her picture long ago. 13:42.960 --> 13:46.140 I backed her looks and copied my puppet after her. 13:46.140 --> 13:47.640 Nothing to it, huh? 13:47.640 --> 13:52.820 Listen, Fabian, this morning I went through a stack of billboard magazines that high. 13:52.820 --> 13:58.840 In the year 1934 I found an interesting article concerning an act playing the smaller circuits 13:58.840 --> 14:01.760 known as Fabian and Sweet William. 14:01.760 --> 14:04.840 Sweet William was a little male dummy. 14:04.840 --> 14:11.400 As usual in such acts, there was a girl assistant, Ilya Riamansk. 14:11.400 --> 14:13.360 Look at that picture. 14:13.360 --> 14:17.160 The resemblance between the real woman on one hand and Ria Buchinska, the puppet on 14:17.160 --> 14:21.440 the other, is startling. 14:21.440 --> 14:22.440 She was my assistant. 14:22.440 --> 14:23.440 But that was all. 14:23.440 --> 14:24.940 I simply used her as a model. 14:24.940 --> 14:28.880 It all starts and ends with Ria Buchinska. 14:28.880 --> 14:32.440 Why should you love a puppet so intensely? 14:32.440 --> 14:34.400 Because you love the original woman intensely. 14:34.400 --> 14:37.200 All right, all right. 14:37.200 --> 14:41.400 In 1934 I was billed as Fabian and Sweet William. 14:41.400 --> 14:45.800 Sweet William was a small, bulb-nosed little boy dummy I carved years ago. 14:45.800 --> 14:49.920 I was playing Los Angeles when this girl, Ilya Riamansk, appeared at the stage door 14:49.920 --> 14:50.920 one night. 14:50.920 --> 14:52.960 She wanted a job. 14:52.960 --> 15:02.080 I remember, it was autumn. 15:02.080 --> 15:07.480 John Fabian remembered Ilya Riamansk in the half-light of the stage alley. 15:07.480 --> 15:12.880 He remembered how startled he was at her fresh beauty, her eagerness, the way the rain when 15:12.880 --> 15:17.040 it came down through the narrow alley caught in her dark hair and touched her feverish 15:17.040 --> 15:18.040 cheeks. 15:18.040 --> 15:24.680 She became his assistant, worked in the act, and in four short months he who had always 15:24.680 --> 15:30.560 denied and scoffed at love became hopelessly lost with this woman. 15:30.560 --> 15:36.320 Then there were arguments and things much more than arguments, things done and said 15:36.320 --> 15:38.480 that were violent and unfair. 15:38.480 --> 15:40.000 He wanted her to marry him. 15:40.000 --> 15:41.000 She never quite accepted. 15:41.000 --> 15:45.520 He went into hysterical rages at her once he destroyed her wardrobe. 15:45.520 --> 15:50.160 Not much she had taken, but it was somewhat different on that last night when he had shouted 15:50.160 --> 16:02.920 at her, taken hold of her, and slapped her brutally three times across the face. 16:02.920 --> 16:08.120 And Ilya Riamansk vanished that night, vanished. 16:08.120 --> 16:09.320 The police questioned me. 16:09.320 --> 16:13.160 There was talk of murder, but she was gone with no trace. 16:13.160 --> 16:16.560 A record of her was sent to all the larger cities. 16:16.560 --> 16:19.960 That was the end of it for the police, but not for me. 16:19.960 --> 16:22.720 The knowledge of her going was too much. 16:22.720 --> 16:28.200 She might be dead or just run away, but wherever she was I knew I needed her. 16:28.200 --> 16:30.560 One night I returned home more depressed than usual. 16:30.560 --> 16:35.320 I collapsed on a chair, and before I knew it I found myself speaking to sweet William 16:35.320 --> 16:37.760 in the totally dark room. 16:37.760 --> 16:40.360 William, William. 16:40.360 --> 16:44.000 Oh, this is all over and done. 16:44.000 --> 16:46.080 I can't go on. 16:46.080 --> 16:49.360 Coward, you can get her back if you want. 16:49.360 --> 16:50.360 No, I can't. 16:50.360 --> 16:52.360 No, I can never get her back. 16:52.360 --> 16:54.360 Yes, yes you can. 16:54.360 --> 16:55.360 Think. 16:55.360 --> 16:58.360 Think of a way to get her back. 16:58.360 --> 16:59.360 Think of a way. 16:59.360 --> 17:00.360 Come on. 17:00.360 --> 17:01.360 You can do it. 17:01.360 --> 17:02.360 Put me away. 17:02.360 --> 17:03.360 Start all over. 17:03.360 --> 17:04.360 Start all over? 17:04.360 --> 17:05.360 Yes. 17:05.360 --> 17:06.360 Begin carving. 17:06.360 --> 17:07.360 Exactly. 17:07.360 --> 17:10.360 And slowly and lovingly carving. 17:10.360 --> 17:15.360 Make the little arching nostrils just so. 17:15.360 --> 17:20.360 And cut her black thin eyebrows round and high. 17:20.360 --> 17:24.360 And make her cheeks in small duplicate hollows and... 17:24.360 --> 17:25.360 No, it's monstrous. 17:25.360 --> 17:26.360 I can never do it. 17:26.360 --> 17:27.360 Yes, yes you could. 17:27.360 --> 17:28.360 Yes, you could. 17:28.360 --> 17:29.360 You could. 17:29.360 --> 17:30.360 You could. 17:30.360 --> 17:31.360 You could. 17:31.360 --> 17:32.360 You could. 17:32.360 --> 17:33.360 You could. 17:33.360 --> 17:34.360 You could. 17:34.360 --> 17:35.360 You could. 17:35.360 --> 17:36.360 You could. 17:36.360 --> 17:37.360 You could. 17:37.360 --> 17:38.360 You could. 17:38.360 --> 17:39.360 You could. 17:39.360 --> 17:40.360 You could. 17:40.360 --> 17:44.360 And the voice faded away like a water ripple in a dark cave. 17:44.360 --> 17:46.360 Blackness rushed over Fabian. 17:46.360 --> 17:48.360 His head fell forward. 17:48.360 --> 17:50.360 He whimpered. 17:50.360 --> 17:56.360 And sweet William sighed. 17:56.360 --> 18:06.360 And then they both lay silent and solemnly unconscious. 18:06.360 --> 18:15.360 The next morning John Fabian purchased the best grain piece of wood he could buy. 18:15.360 --> 18:18.360 But when he reached home, despair seized him. 18:18.360 --> 18:22.360 How could he fashion his warm ear from this cold wood? 18:22.360 --> 18:29.360 How could he shape this dumb block of dead substance into anything faintly approximating her glowing life? 18:29.360 --> 18:30.360 Go on, go on. 18:30.360 --> 18:32.360 It was sweet William who egged him on. 18:32.360 --> 18:34.360 You can do it. 18:34.360 --> 18:36.360 And for twenty weeks he worked. 18:36.360 --> 18:42.360 He carved her hands into things as natural and beautiful as shells lying in the sun. 18:42.360 --> 18:45.360 And sweet William lay dust cloaked in his box. 18:45.360 --> 18:53.360 From time to time, feebly corking some sarcasm, some criticism, some hint, some help. 18:53.360 --> 18:58.360 But he was dying, soon to be untouched inanimate wood. 18:58.360 --> 19:07.360 As weeks passed and Fabian molded and scraped and polished the new wood, sweet William lay longer and longer in stricken silence. 19:07.360 --> 19:14.360 Then one day, as Fabian held the puppet in his hand, sweet William seemed to look at him a moment with puzzled eyes. 19:14.360 --> 19:22.360 And then there was a death rattle in his throat. 19:22.360 --> 19:37.360 And sweet William was gone. 19:37.360 --> 19:48.360 And now as Fabian carved, a fluttering, an attempting of speech in his throat began echoing, re-echoing the sounds of Ilya Riamansk. 19:48.360 --> 19:51.360 At the air's ending he was thinned and without money. 19:51.360 --> 20:00.360 But by then he had searched his stream of consciousness, experimented and given to the Tao all the gracious mannerisms and shy gestures of the real woman. 20:00.360 --> 20:04.360 And then at last he held Ilya Riamansk in his arms again. 20:04.360 --> 20:07.360 They were together. He could talk to her and she could reply. 20:07.360 --> 20:17.360 And the first thing he made the little creature say was, I love you John Fabian. 20:17.360 --> 20:34.360 Oh Riam. 20:34.360 --> 20:37.360 I see. And your wife? 20:37.360 --> 20:44.360 Alice. She was another of my assistants. She did her work well. She loved me. I don't know why I married her. 20:44.360 --> 20:48.360 I see. What about the dead man, Archimald? 20:48.360 --> 20:51.360 I'd never seen him before until you showed me his body in the cellar. 20:51.360 --> 20:55.360 That's not true. Don't lie John Fabian. 20:55.360 --> 21:03.360 Fabian's cheeks drained white and the bones jotted out tensely. The puppet spoke looking straight at Krovich. 21:03.360 --> 21:06.360 John received the first blackmail letter a month ago. 21:06.360 --> 21:20.360 It said simply, Ria Bushinska born 1914, died 1934, born again in 1930. 21:20.360 --> 21:26.360 Fabian seemed paralyzed, unable to answer. He had a trapped, helpless, insane expression. 21:26.360 --> 21:33.360 His lips trembled. He searched the room as if seeking some way out for a frustration and a truth did not wait to bar his way. 21:33.360 --> 21:35.360 How come you threaten to expose me to the world? 21:35.360 --> 21:36.360 Go on. 21:36.360 --> 21:46.360 I wanted my love for Ilya kept to myself. What sort of a love would it be in the future if people really guessed the significance of my carving this figurine that talked and moved? 21:46.360 --> 21:52.360 People would laugh or be disgusted. Perverted, criminal mind they'd shout. Ugly, horrible, revolting. 21:52.360 --> 21:57.360 And how could I play my love scenes with Ria anymore? When they knew. 21:57.360 --> 22:01.360 Not when with every word I uttered someone in the audience would nudge someone else in a whisper. 22:01.360 --> 22:08.360 She lived once, you know, but disappeared. They say he killed her. They say he loved her. 22:08.360 --> 22:10.360 How much did Arkham want? 22:10.360 --> 22:13.360 A thousand dollars to start with. And more later. 22:13.360 --> 22:14.360 And so you killed him. 22:14.360 --> 22:18.360 No, I didn't kill Arkham, Lieutenant. I paid him one thousand dollars. 22:18.360 --> 22:19.360 We found no money on him. 22:19.360 --> 22:25.360 Nevertheless, I paid him. Alice and Douglas must have heard our conversation. They've wanted to be rid of me for years now. I'm not blind. 22:25.360 --> 22:29.360 Alice saw a way of ridding herself of me and getting some money too. Why, she's nothing but a- 22:29.360 --> 22:38.360 Just a moment. There's something I wish to say. And yet I can't say it. 22:38.360 --> 22:46.360 Skovich turned. He saw John Fabian's eyes widen in his head, as if a terrible conflict were raging, fighting within. 22:46.360 --> 22:53.360 His throat convulsed again and again, and lines cut deep as cheeks, and the hollows of his face sank in. 22:53.360 --> 22:57.360 I... I was in the room when Mr. Arkham came. 22:57.360 --> 22:59.360 No, Noria. 22:59.360 --> 23:06.360 I lay in my bunk, and I listened, and I heard, and I know- 23:06.360 --> 23:08.360 No, no- 23:08.360 --> 23:16.360 Mr. Arkham threatened to destroy me, tear me up, bury me into ashes, if John didn't pay him a thousand dollars. 23:16.360 --> 23:20.360 Alice... then suddenly- 23:20.360 --> 23:27.360 There came a falling sound. Mr. Arkham's head must have struck the floor. 23:27.360 --> 23:32.360 I heard Mr. Fabian cry out, swearing and sobbing all in one. 23:32.360 --> 23:36.360 I heard a hissing, gasping, choking, horrible sound. 23:36.360 --> 23:42.360 You heard nothing. You're deaf and dumb and blind and lifeless. You heard nothing. Your ears are calm. 23:42.360 --> 23:49.360 But they hear. And then the hissing, the hissing, choking sound stopped. 23:49.360 --> 23:57.360 I heard John drag Mr. Arkham to the door, open it, and take Mr. Arkham down the stairs, under the theater, 23:57.360 --> 24:01.360 toward the old dressing room that hadn't been used in years. 24:01.360 --> 24:07.360 Down! Down they come to the barn! 24:07.360 --> 24:16.360 It was a scene so incongruous, so impossible, so completely beyond the veil of sanity and reason that Corbett's recoil even be watched. 24:16.360 --> 24:23.360 If ever in the time of the world the forces that manipulate man struggled one side against the other, this was the time. 24:23.360 --> 24:31.360 The shocked, pallid face of John Fabian wrenching, the horrible protrusion of the eyes, the clenching of the teeth at the center, 24:31.360 --> 24:36.360 then relaxing again, the subtle move of the throat, and the high, sad and... 24:36.360 --> 24:41.360 ...crusative voice of Rio Bucinsca leaping from her tiny, shining lips. 24:41.360 --> 24:47.360 Fabian must have known what was happening, and yet he did not know. 24:47.360 --> 24:58.360 I'm not made to live this way. There is nothing for us now, anyway, because the world will know of us. 24:58.360 --> 25:10.360 Even when you killed him when I lay in my bronze box last night, I realized, we both realized that these were our last hours. 25:10.360 --> 25:21.360 Because while I've accepted your weaknesses and lies, I can't exist in murder. 25:21.360 --> 25:30.360 It couldn't have gone on. No one can live side by side with such knowledge. 25:30.360 --> 25:42.360 Fabian took her in his arms and held her high into the warm sunlight. 25:42.360 --> 25:48.360 She looked down at him with her clear, honest way of seeing him. There were angry, helpless tears in his eyes. 25:48.360 --> 25:58.360 His hands shook, and in shaking made her tremble too, her mouth closed and open, silent, gaping and shutting again and again with no words. 25:58.360 --> 26:05.360 Fabian began to sob. He closed his fingers unbelievably around his own throat, his eyes numbed. 26:05.360 --> 26:17.360 He looked like a man trying to remember something beautiful, her voice, how it sounded, how to make it sound again, how to make her take back all she had said that was the truth. 26:17.360 --> 26:28.360 No, she's gone. She's gone, and I can't find her. I try, but I can't find her. 26:28.360 --> 26:44.360 She's run off behind the dark wall, and so deep down and far away in the night, I'll never be able to find her again. Yes, she's gone. 26:44.360 --> 26:59.360 Raya Boshinska slipped bonelessly from his limp hand, folded over and glided noiselessly down to lie upon the cold, dirty floor, her eyes closed, her mouth gently sealed. 26:59.360 --> 27:19.360 Fabian didn't even look at her as Krovich led him away. 27:19.360 --> 27:32.360 Suspense! 27:49.360 --> 27:59.360 I'll tell you why. It's because Roma wines taste better. You see, Roma selects and presses only the choicest California grapes. 27:59.360 --> 28:10.360 Then, with ancient skills and unmatched winemaking resources, Roma master vintners guide this luscious grape treasure unhurriedly to tempting perfection. 28:10.360 --> 28:19.360 These finer Roma wines are placed with other mellow Roma wines to await later selection for your enjoyment from the world's greatest reserves of fine wines. 28:19.360 --> 28:25.360 This weekend, give your family and friends a surprise. Serve delicious Roma California Sherry. 28:25.360 --> 28:36.360 Roma Sherry is a glorious gold and amber wine, soft and mellow on the tongue, with a delightful nut-like taste that's a perfect invitation to dining pleasure. 28:36.360 --> 28:46.360 And remember to insist on Roma. That's R-O-M-A, Roma Sherry, because more Americans enjoy Roma wines than any other wines. 29:06.360 --> 29:18.360 This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. 29:18.360 --> 29:37.360 KMX Columbia Square Los Angeles.