Suspense.
Auto Light and its 96,000 dealers present Ms. Lana Turner in The Flame Blue Glove, a
transcribed suspense play produced and edited by William Spear.
Now let's see, are we going to put the tree over there again?
Uh-huh, and we'll have Santa Claus hang presents for Uncle John, cousin Joey.
Oh, I'm going to ask Santa Claus to fill their stockings with Auto Light Resistor spark plugs.
Look honey, you're home.
This is me, your wife.
You can get away from business.
Business?
It's a pleasure to give such a Christmas present.
But hollow Christmas is a time for sentiment.
Sentiment, sure, why?
Uncle John and Joey will love us because Auto Light Resistor spark plugs will make their
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Oh my goodness.
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Cut down spark plug interference with radio and television too.
My Uncle John and cousin Joey will say just as I do, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now with the flame blue glove and with the performance of Lana Turner, Auto Light
hopes once again to keep you in suspense.
The trouble is you never had any feelings, Dutch.
You don't know what it is to feel, not like other people feel.
You've spent too much time looking out at the world through dirty windows.
I never liked working for your detective agency.
I never liked you, Dutch.
I never liked you at all.
This is my last case.
And this is my last report.
You'll have to train someone else to go out and get tangled up in other people's lives.
I thought I was through working for you when I married Jimmy Conway, but I was wrong.
You showed up again last week.
I was working in my garden.
Even above the smell of the roses, I could smell trouble.
Hello, Shadow.
What?
Dutch!
Where did you come from?
Just from the neighborhood.
Here, give me those things.
What do you know about a rose bush?
I know this one's got thrips.
Trim it, use nicotine spray for a week or 10 days, clear it up just like that.
Death, taxes, and Dutch.
You know everything.
You haven't changed a bit.
Same pipe, same awful tobacco.
How's the detective business?
I miss you, Shadow.
You're the best operative I ever had.
I'm flattered, Dutch.
This gilded cage stuff, okay?
Gardens, clothes, car, time on your hands.
You really like it?
What do you think?
Would you rather be a lady detective if you were me?
Maybe.
I don't know.
You wouldn't be interested in working on a case, would you?
I am now a happily married bride working on keeping her handsome husband.
Besides, my license expired.
You can fix that.
This one's right up your alley, Shadow.
You did the groundwork when you were with me.
Sorry.
I know the case was closed, but it's been nagging me.
I still think it was murder.
What case are you talking about?
The Conway case.
Mrs. Conway.
I looked at you.
You weren't kidding, but you were smiling.
And you only smiled when something might go wrong to somebody.
Yeah?
I still believe your husband killed his first wife.
Hate me?
Who hired you?
Nobody.
Just nagged by the facts, Shadow.
Eloise Conway, wealthy wife of not-so-wealthy Jim Conway, drinks ten dissolved sleeping
tablets New Year's Eve.
Coroner's jury says suicide.
I just can't buy it.
The police accepted the coroner's verdict.
That day at the coroner's inquest, you disappointed me, Shadow, refusing to go on the stand.
You'd been tailing him for two months.
You could have told about his three lady friends.
Telling those things to a coroner's jury wouldn't have helped one way or the other.
Jimmy's clean and decent Dutch.
He would have been arrested on suspicion of murder if you'd spoken up.
Those girls meant nothing to him.
They were just friends.
Maybe.
And he might have fed her those pills so he could have one of those friends.
Then why did he marry me instead of whoever it was?
You saved his hide, Bidge, and you didn't tell the coroner about his friends.
Maybe he married you to play it safe for a while.
Maybe...
Jimmy had nothing to do with Eloise's death.
You know, I keep thinking what she said when she hired us.
How did she put it?
Yeah.
Jimmy married me for my money.
He was in love with somebody else.
As soon as he thought it was safe, he went back to her.
Went back to who?
Who do you mean?
Want to work on the case with me?
No.
No, I don't.
Shadow, did you ever stop to think what might happen to you if he isn't innocent?
If you let some little suspicion slip out somewhere and he gets it into his head, that...
doesn't ever scare you.
That song's just right, darling.
Oh, Jimmy, you're home early.
No, no, please.
Keep playing.
Did I ever tell you I love you?
You wouldn't if you knew how really bad I am.
But I love you.
Well, you certainly know how bad I am.
I'll bet there isn't a husband in the country married to the girl who tailed him all over
town before she...
Please, Jimmy.
I'm sorry.
We've kidded about this before, I...
It's just that I've had a bad day, that's all.
My fault.
Oh, you're trembling.
Poor darling.
Sarah.
Yes, Jimmy?
Maybe you stay around this house too much.
Or maybe it's around you too much.
What do you mean?
Well, after all that's happened here, this is where Eloise died.
I just thought maybe it gives you the creeps to live here.
We can sell it, darling.
Get another place.
Oh, no, Jimmy.
This is our house now.
I never was really jealous of Eloise.
Well, there's nobody else.
But Jimmy, when Eloise did what she did, you had other friends...
No, Sarah.
Were you in love with any of those girls?
Kathy Dane, you used to sit around that nightclub listening to her sing, and Judy...
Sarah, I never loved anyone.
Not Kathy, not Judy, not Eloise, anyone, until I met you.
You believe that, don't you, Sarah?
I want to, Jimmy.
I want to so much.
The next afternoon, walking down Hollywood Boulevard, I saw an ugly second-floor office,
and there was an ugly sign to go with it.
Dutch Detective Service.
I came up to see you, Dutch, to tell you to drop it.
I won't drop it.
They blow their heads off and take poison and jump off of buildings and chew sleeping
tablets.
But they don't go around hiring detectives to watch their husbands before they do it.
Eloise Conway was bumped, and I'm going to find out about it.
You're not going to pin it on Jimmy.
He didn't have anything to do with it.
If he didn't, one of his little friends did.
Look, these old reports of yours include the names of three Dames he went out with while
you were tailing him.
Yes, that's right.
A torch singer named Kathy Dane, his private secretary Millicent Taylor, and the Miss Million
Dollars named Judy Fleetwood.
And what about them?
Look, Dutch, I asked Jimmy about those girls last night.
They didn't mean anything to him.
A woman knows her husband.
Yeah, well, I know a woman.
And if they want a guy bad enough, they'll kill for him.
And one of them left this glove on the floor of the bedroom the night our client passed
away.
Oh, that old glove.
The police weren't even interested in it as evidence.
Well, I am.
The police didn't have any Cinderella's to fit it on because you didn't mention Jimmy's
girlfriends at the inquest.
Which one of them doesn't fit, Shadow?
Size six and a half.
The most ominous size in the world fit anybody.
Look, even fits me, Dutch.
Well, the color's a little unusual.
You'll grant me that.
Flame blue?
Yes, I guess so.
All right.
If we find the partner to this glove, we've got something.
You going to help?
I can't.
All right.
There's other female ops in this burg.
I kind of thought you'd like to do it.
You know, see that your husband's handle fair and square, no frames or anything like that.
Oh, all right, Dutch.
I'll give it a whirl.
Good.
But in a week, you'll come to me and tell me I was right, that Jimmy's innocent.
Oh, I'm sure I will, Shadow.
I'm sure I will.
Auto Light is bringing you Miss Lana Turner in the Flame Blue Glove, tonight's production
in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Harlow, if you're through rapsidizing about Auto Light Resistor spark plugs, I'd like
to plan out the rest of our Christmas.
Oh, sure, of course.
Now, I've asked Aunt Helen to drive over for the day.
Aunt Helen, I haven't seen her for a long time.
Wonder if she's got Auto Light Resistor spark plugs in her car.
Everybody else is dreaming of a white Christmas.
Not my husband, Harlow.
He's dreaming of an Auto Light Christmas.
I'll tell Aunt Helen that with Auto Light Resistor spark plugs, her car will idle smoother,
give better performance on leaner gas mixtures, actually save her gas.
Look, my super salesman.
I'll tell her that Auto Light Resistor spark plugs never worry radio and television reception,
that they have 200% longer electrode life.
Yeah, I know.
What a Christmas party we'll have.
I'll bet Aunt Helen's eyes will light up like the famous Auto Light bullseye headlights.
And I suppose you'll tell her to get a set of Auto Light Resistor spark plugs at her
dealers?
Oh, no, I'll have a set on the tree for her.
Or maybe she'd prefer the famous regular type Auto Light spark plugs, long recognized for
their dependability.
Well, anyway, it's a present you can't go wrong with because you're always right with
Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood sound stage our star Lana Turner in the flame
blue glove, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
May I help you, please?
I want to buy some gloves, a size six and a half.
Certainly.
Any particular shade in mind?
Yes, blue.
Blue?
Yes, of course.
Here's a lovely shade, hand stitch.
I was thinking of, well, more of a flame blue.
Flame blue.
Oh, I'm afraid.
Oh, I do happen to have a pair, six and a half.
Yes.
Here you are.
What about these?
Yes.
Yes, that's the pair.
Exactly what I want.
Oh, don't wrap them.
I'll wear them.
Lovely for cocktails.
Yes.
That's what I'm going to use them for.
Mrs. Wingate?
Yes, I'm Mrs. Wingate.
Oh, won't you sit down, please, Miss Dane?
I've always admired your singing so much.
I've always been a fan of yours.
Kathy Dane records are favorites with all my friends.
Oh, I took the liberty of ordering martinis.
Well, thank you, Mrs. Wingate.
I don't go on here for another half hour.
Oh, I didn't come to hear you sing this time, Miss Dane.
I came to ask you a favor.
Oh?
I want you to sing at a party I'm giving next month at my Bel Air home.
Oh, well, I'm flattered, but I'm afraid I couldn't possibly accept any private engagements.
Oh, I wish you'd reconsider.
Such a special occasion for a very dear friend who's spoken of you.
Oh, who?
Jimmy Conway.
Jimmy?
Yes.
He's my neighbor.
You know, he's been through so much in the last year with Eloise's death and everything.
I felt this party might...
You, uh, you know Jimmy's wife?
Yes, I've met Sarah.
She's very nice.
I'm glad for Jimmy.
I know I talk too much, but since I've met you, I can't help wondering why you and Jimmy...
It's really quite simple, Mrs. Wingate.
I'm a singer.
I need backing.
Jimmy couldn't help me then.
He didn't have the money he inherited when his...
Well, anyway, by the time I got my backing, what's her name?
Sarah had come between us.
I never met her, but...
Oh, I'm sorry.
Did any get on you?
No, no, but I'm afraid those beautiful gloves of yours are ruined.
Oh, what a shame.
Well, I hope it won't take the color out.
Flame blue is my favorite.
Mine too, I guess.
I had some gloves pretty much like those ones.
Oh, really?
I lost one of them.
Oh, really?
Well, I've ruined one here.
Perhaps we could make a pair between us.
Which one did you lose?
Oh, I can tell by just looking at yours, they'd be too small.
I wear a seven and three quarters glove.
I have to have them made to order.
My piano teacher used to call me Ham-Hans.
Sorry, I'm not your girl.
No, I'm afraid you're not.
No she wasn't, Dutch.
I'd played the scene well.
Smart.
Oh, you'd have been proud of me, Dutch.
It wasn't easy.
Because I was playing with my own life.
My happiness.
But I did it just the way you taught me.
And I gave you the report just the way you taught me.
All facts, no emotion.
All right, shadow, so it isn't Cathy Dane.
But that glove fits somebody.
Dutch, I hate it.
I'm shaking from it.
Oh, Jimmy will know I'm up to something.
Look, drop the whole thing.
I'll give you 15,000 I have in my check.
I want more than that.
Dutch, I won't let you break this up for me.
Jimmy and I have too much.
You mean you're going to try hanging on to him and his money even if Eloise was murdered?
Stop it!
You...
That make you feel better?
I'm sorry.
OK.
One down and two to go.
A secretary and a grass widow.
Who's first, shadow?
I'm so tired, Dutch.
Sure, kid, sure.
You need a good night's sleep.
I'll drive you home.
Oh, by the by, do you sleep good in that house?
Very well.
Just ask, shadow.
Just ask.
You drove me home.
I don't know what I was thinking to let you do it.
When we got there, we spent an hour sitting in the car while you gave me all the details
about Millicent Taylor again.
She'd been Jimmy's secretary for four years.
She'd been out of town at the time of Eloise's death.
You wanted to know where.
We said good night finally.
You drove off.
Good night.
Since when have taxis been slipping up to the house without lights?
Oh, Jimmy.
Didn't you get my message?
Sure, darling.
You wouldn't be home for dinner.
Why are you so nervous?
Who'd you have dinner with?
Oh, Louise Dollans.
You remember Louise.
She just got in from Honolulu.
How is Lou?
Oh, fine.
Jim, she asked about you.
Well?
What is it, darling?
Don't you kiss your husband when you get home?
Oh, of course.
Well, what's the matter?
You smoking a new brand of cigarettes or something?
No, I...
Your hair's full of a tobacco smell I seem to remember from somewhere.
Oh, the cab driver was smoking a pipe.
Well, I remember now.
That man you used to work for, he smoked an awful tobacco that I couldn't...
It's just an old cheap brand.
So two people smoke it.
Yes.
Yes, of course.
I was too clever for him, the way you taught me to be clever.
In the next day, Dutch, I used everything you taught me.
I had to.
Because on my way back from Hollywood, I noticed that a gray coupe had turned with me off the
boulevard.
Not because it looked exactly like my old car that I sold when I got married.
And when it turned with me again at sunset and followed me out to Laurel, I knew that
it was tailing me.
Oh, I used what you taught me so well, Dutch.
I time-tracked lights, dodged up narrow streets, and got away from them.
I would have taken his license number and looked him up, Dutch, but I had other things
to do first.
Things like playing sick.
And a scene for my husband's secretary.
Come in.
Oh, Millicent.
Millicent, it was so sweet of you to come.
Sit over here by the bed.
Are you ill, Mrs. Conway?
My green headaches.
Unbearable sometimes.
Oh, Jane.
Oh, but I never let Jimmy know about them.
Sick wives are such a nuisance to a man.
Yes, they certainly are.
I called you, Millicent, because I've been planning a surprise for Jim's birthday.
A costume party.
And you want me to call it off?
All right.
What guests are coming and what...
Oh, no.
No, no.
I don't want to call it off.
Jimmy needs relaxation.
I wondered if you'd play hostess for me.
Me?
Hostess?
Well, if this stupid headache persists, it ought to be a great favor to me.
I know Jim would like it.
Say you will, please.
Oh, really, Mrs. Conway?
I...
I have the costume.
I don't know what...
Well, mine's in the closet.
I got it from Hollywood customers today.
It would fit you.
Which one?
The colonial with the...
Oh, oh, yes.
Yes.
Well, it's lovely, Mrs. Conway.
Oh, you'd look beautiful in it.
I'd almost be afraid to let Jimmy see you wearing it.
Would you?
Now, the only thing it needs is some blue gloves.
A flame blue, don't you think?
Of course, they're rather difficult to find.
Well, that's no problem.
I think you'd be able to get a good look at it.
I'm not afraid of them.
I'm afraid of them.
I was that kind of wife.
You're very fond of my husband, aren't you, Nelson?
Yes.
Yes, I am.
Are you in love with him?
Yes.
Last winter, it got so bad
that I had to go to a sanitarium for a while.
Oh, you poor dear.
Everyone thought I was spending the holidays with my sister.
When I came back, a lot of things had happened.
Eloise had committed suicide, and I was married to Jimmy.
Well, here.
But aren't you going to take the costume with you?
I've got a feeling you'll be up and around by party time.
If there is a party.
Oh, just in case you want to check in.
On New Year's Eve, I was in Riverview Sanitarium, Mrs. Conway.
Goodbye.
Just another secretary carrying a torch for a boss.
Another bad lead Dutch.
You checked on it next morning.
Well, that's that shit okay.
But there's still the grass widow.
She's smart.
Judy Fleetwood.
Look, she was in Reno getting her divorce.
Clean service is good, and that glove might fit her.
Okay.
Well, anyway, we're getting near the end, aren't we?
You won't say uncle, will you, Dutch?
Nope.
I drove over to Encino to Judy Fleetwood's ranch,
a big rambling place that sprawled over several acres,
complete with stables, swimming pool, and pictures.
The one above the mantle was an oil of Judy herself.
But a modest photograph on the desk below
was the real eye catcher.
It was Jimmy.
So you're Sarah Conway.
Yes.
Well, this is cozy.
Sarah the winner.
Judy the loser meet like two ladies
and talk about the battle.
What do you have?
Oh, nothing, thank you.
Oh, prim too.
Cheers, Dutch.
What are you doing here?
Well, I'd like to have you over for dinner.
Say, tomorrow night?
I think that would be positively nostalgic.
Want me to bring someone with me?
If you wish, yes.
The guy across the road just left his wife.
Shall I bring him along?
Anyone you want.
Yeah.
You know what?
I only wanted one guy and you got him.
Have a drink, this is quite an occasion.
Meeting you after seeing so much of you.
After seeing so much of me?
Sure, last year, every time I was out with Jimmy,
I'd see you lurking in the bushes somewhere
with your magnifying glass and bloodhounds.
I didn't like doing it, Miss Fleetwood.
It was a job.
You made it pay off, honey.
Now come off it.
Tailing a man, getting the dope on his private life,
and scaring him into marrying.
That's a lie.
It is a lie.
Night Eloise died, I went to see her.
You, you were with her the night she died?
That's what I said.
And she told me she was more scared of you than any of us.
Oh, you're good, sister, you're real good.
But you're not going to keep him.
You hear me?
It would have been me if you hadn't interviewed me.
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]
Give it to me.
Dutch, Judy Fleetwood was there the night Eloise died.
She told me so herself.
That's how smart she is.
Good, anything else?
Well, I didn't get a chance to find out about the glove.
I got so mad.
I found the glove, Shadow.
What?
Yeah, the other flame blue glove.
Well, where'd you find it?
Where every dame, even the smartest one,
can lose a glove when she's driving a car,
tucked down on the cushions.
Oh, I see.
Cost me a lot of time and money, Shadow,
but I expect to get it back.
Girl who owned that car got lots of money, loaded.
Well, what happens now?
We'll wind it up tonight.
Shadow, you know that little house outside the gate
to the Fleetwood dames place?
Yes.
Meet you there at nine.
Oh, I have to hang up.
Sarah.
Goodbye, Mr. Dameron.
Sarah, who are you talking with?
Oh, just a friend.
Jimmy, do you think I'm lying?
Two nights ago, you were having dinner with Louise Gowans.
She just come in from Hawaii?
Yes.
Louise called me at the office today.
She tried to get you at home.
She told me she just got in today from New York.
Well, Sarah?
I hoped you wouldn't catch me, darling.
Actually, I had to meet a man.
Well, it was for your birthday.
A surprise.
It's hard to keep up with you sometimes, Sarah.
Who do we know drives a great coupe?
I know you once owned one, but I...
Well, I'm sure I don't know.
Coming home twice now, I've seen him sitting
and it seemed to be interested in our house.
Thought he might be your doctor.
My doctor?
Oh, what are you talking about?
Migraine headaches, darling.
Oh.
Millicent shouldn't have mentioned it.
They're really nothing.
It's funny.
Louise used to have migraines.
Here.
What are those?
Take two of these.
Put you right to sleep.
I don't want you to suffer anymore.
You shouldn't take too many of these, of course.
Well, that's awfully sweet, Jimmy,
but I feel perfectly fine.
Do as I say.
Here, take them.
But Jimmy did...
All right.
Now go on up to bed.
Sarah, I'm sorry I found out about my birthday surprise.
Yes, darling.
I'll have to plan a surprise for you someday, won't I?
My palm is sleeping pills, of course.
Another little trick you taught me.
I waited in my room for a while,
and I could hear Jimmy listening outside my door.
Then I quietly dialed the operator
and told him my phone seemed to be out of order
and asked her to call me back.
As soon as it rained,
and I heard Jimmy race to answer downstairs,
I was down the back stairs and out of the house.
I was still ten minutes early
for our appointment at Judy Fleetwoods.
I was quite calm.
The night was dark, and I had my gun.
I stood in the shadows and waited for the call.
I expected to hear your car first,
but you fooled me, Dutch.
I couldn't make out the shadow across the driveway,
but I could smell the pipe smoke, and I fired.
Dutch! Dutch!
All right, Shadow. Drop it.
Dutch!
I said drop it.
You never did learn how to shoot a gun, did you, Shadow?
But you learned everything else.
It's money you want, isn't it, Dutch?
What good would it do me, Shadow?
I'd be asking for something like this
every time I came around to collect from you.
And you might learn to shoot straight after a while.
So this is it, Dutch?
This is it, baby.
I've got the glove in your old car,
the mate to the one you left in Eloise's room
the night you fed her those pills.
Even got you now on attempted murder.
Nothing much for me to say, is there?
Nope.
That enough for you, Lieutenant?
I guess it is.
Sarah Oliver Conway,
you're under arrest with the murder of Eloise Conway.
Jimmy came to see me today.
He said you phoned him yesterday
and told him I would attempt to kill you
because you were closing in on me for Eloise's murder.
Dutch, Jimmy gave me two sleeping pills
after he talked to you.
He was trying to keep me from doing anything
until he could think of some way out of all this.
But you wouldn't understand what that means to me, I guess.
You never loved anybody, Dutch.
Suspense presented by Auto Light.
Tonight's star, Lana Turner.
Well, Harlow, with all you talk about,
Auto Light resists as far as you can.
And Auto Light resists to spark plugs.
I still love you.
Ah, you're a swell wife.
One in a million.
Just like Auto Light resists to spark plugs,
are one of more than 400 products made by Auto Light
for cars, trucks, planes and boats in 28 plants coast to coast.
These include complete electrical systems
used as original equipment on many makes of America's finest cars.
Batteries, spark plugs, generators, coils, distributors, starting motors,
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So don't accept electrical parts supposed to be as good.
Ask for and insist on Auto Light original factory parts
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Remember, you're always right with Auto Light.
Next Thursday for Suspense, Eddie Cantor will be our star.
The play is called Double Entry.
And it is, as we say,
a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Tonight's Transcribed Suspense play was produced by Auto Light.
Tonight's Transcribed Suspense play was produced and edited by William Spear
and directed by Norman MacDonald.
Music for Suspense is composed by Lucian Moraweck
and conducted by Lud Bluskin.
The Flame Blue Glove is an original radio play by Lois E.B. and John C. Fleming.
Adapted for Suspense by E. Jack Newman.
Lana Turner appeared by arrangement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
producers of Doris Sherry's Battle Brown,
starring Van Johnson, John Hodiac, Ricardo Montalban and George Murphy.
For the second consecutive year,
Lana Turner has been named the most popular star
by the readers of Modern Screen magazine
in its motion picture popularity polls.
In the coming weeks, you will hear such stars as
Ida Lupino, Danny Kay and Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.
Don't forget, next Thursday, same time, Auto Light will present Suspense,
starring Eddie Cantor.
You can buy Auto Light resistor or regular spark plugs, Auto Light staple batteries,
Auto Light electrical parts at your neighborhood Auto Light dealers.
Switch to Auto Light. Good night.
Friends, once again, the Salvation Army is busy bringing new hope and cheer
to many less fortunate than ourselves.
Help where you can. Help the Salvation Army. Help others.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
The Salvation Army is here to help others.