Auto Light and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. William Powell in tonight's presentation of...
Suspense!
Tonight, Auto Light presents a story based on fact.
The dramatic report of a man's desperate race for freedom,
with names and places changed in order to protect the lives of three people.
The story is called, The Man Who Cried Wolf, our star Mr. William Powell.
Okay, Mr. Wilcox, you're all set.
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In Auto Light, William Powell is appearing by arrangement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
producers of the Technicolor picture, The Naked Spur, starring James Stewart, Janet Leigh, and Robert Ryan.
And now, Auto Light presents The Man Who Cried Wolf, starring Mr. William Powell, hoping once again to keep you in suspense.
If you knew who I am, if one day you would pass me on the street and stop and point your finger at me and say,
this story happened to you, then I would be a dead man.
And therefore, I cannot tell you too much about myself, neither what I look like nor where I am.
A few things you may know which will alter nothing.
I am Russian. I was once a member of the Communist Party.
And until recently, I was attached to the Russian Embassy in Mexico City, a cipher clerk.
Three years of it, attached to the embassy in a strange new land.
Here, a thing needs emphasis. The people, the Mexican people, they worked, they sang, they laughed,
they had families, cried, played, hoped, loved, like Russian people, but with a difference.
They did these things when and how and where they wanted to, not by directives.
The word is freedom. It took me three years to know its meaning.
For this, I was almost murdered.
To you, my name is Meroz Leco.
It started at nine o'clock in the morning, when I was walking toward the cipher room in the embassy.
Comrade Leco, if you please, comrade.
Can you spare me a moment?
Of course.
In here, please, my office.
Sit down, sit down.
Thank you.
And how is your wife, Lilia, and the little one, his name?
Ivan.
Ivan. He must be, let me see, three months.
Three months. Amazing.
I believe Ivan recognizes me, comrade Zappekin.
I have heard of other children his age who travel in airplanes.
Bottles and equipment to make formula, these things are provided.
I don't...
Of course you do. Travel in airplanes. Ivan will do it. Therefore you, therefore your wife.
I have been recalled.
I have suggested it to the ambassador, the ambassador to Moscow, approved. Moscow to the ambassador, etc.
But why?
Because I suggested it to the ambassador.
I see.
Of course you do. However, you should know this.
I have written a letter which will proceed you by diplomatic pouch.
As your superior, my impressions of you. The gist of it you must know.
No, no, I don't.
You will be missed here in Mexico, I've told them that.
Thank you.
By many friends, Mexicans, Americans whom you have met through your Mexican friends.
Then I am being recalled as a poor security risk.
Exactly. Now, your key to the cypher room.
Comrade...
The key.
Oh yes, I have it here. To detach it will...
Ah. Zappekin speaking. Yes, comrade. Oh yes, one moment.
Comrade Leco, if you please wait for me in the corridor.
Of course.
Yes, comrade. Yes, ambassador. I have told him.
There is no melodrama attached to it.
Merely a simple truth.
To be sent back to Moscow is a bad security risk.
Prison, work camp in Siberia, death.
Therefore, do a thing.
Pursue a plan. Ensure my living.
Do not wait for Zappekin.
Back to the cypher room. Use the key.
Steel. Certain papers. Documents.
For the occasion of remaining alive.
You have this one. And this.
Secret documents to buy my own security.
Papers dogged for the purpose.
Stay alive.
And these. This.
Comrade Leco.
And put them into my coat pocket. Inside.
Comrade.
A moment, comrade.
Open.
I told you to wait.
But I had duties here in the cypher room, comrade.
You are relieved of them. I told you this.
No. Merely that I am returning to Moscow.
Tomorrow.
Yes.
The key, comrade.
Of course.
Here.
You will go immediately to your house. You will inform your wife.
You will pack. You will get your child ready.
And you will be delivered to Moscow.
Under escort, comrade.
Now. Good day.
Lilia.
You, Mero? Is it you?
I was but in the kitchen doing the things of the morning.
And Mero.
What?
It is morning and you are not at the embassy.
You are here. Why?
The child, Lilia. Where?
He has been fed. He is bathed and he sleeps now.
Lilia.
There is cold in your hands.
Close. I will warn you.
Lilia.
Why?
Say to me why you are of illness.
Yes, that is it.
An old illness.
Then we will call a doctor. We will...
No, Lilia.
But this chill in you that I cannot warm.
Fear.
Fear of death.
To run in streets blazing the sun and still to be cold.
What cure for that, Lilia?
Death.
To begin tomorrow. For you.
For me.
And for the child.
I do not know what there will be for the child.
Your lips for death.
I am being recalled, Lilia.
Why?
Why? You have worked hard for him.
And I have talked to people here.
And I have sat in sunlight and laughed with them.
And somewhere in darkness it was observed and reported.
There is until tomorrow.
And there is time for flight.
I will make ready the child.
No.
If we run, they will find a quicker way to kill us.
I have a plan, Lilia.
For a year now I have had this plan.
And it will keep you from death?
Listen to me.
I have stolen certain papers from the cipher room.
Documents of theirs that can buy back our life.
I have them here in my coat.
From whom will they buy our life, Meroes?
Who will now want...
Will you listen to me?
You are to take them.
Here, take them.
Yes, Meroes.
You put them in a briefcase.
And then you take the boy and dress him.
And go to the plazas of Calo.
And the bench there near the Greek fountain.
And you are there so the child will have son, if anyone asks.
And you will keep the briefcase hidden until I come to you.
You understand, Lilia?
Yes.
And then quickly get ready.
Yes, sir.
Go, Lilia, quick.
Oh, Senor Carradonis.
You give me surprise, Senor Leco.
It was not you I expected to see this hour.
But I am glad to see you.
Please come in.
The day has a beauty.
And in the streets there is fiesta.
And I thought to me, the Senora Leco would care for fiesta.
She and the Pequeño.
Ay, the Senora and the Pequeño.
Muy buenos días to you both.
Senor Carradonis.
You'd better take the child and go, Lilia.
There's not much time.
Yes, Meroes.
But Senora, I have come for you and the little one to the fiesta.
Lilia.
I'm sorry, Senor Carradonis.
Perhaps another time.
Come to us soon, Meroes.
Another time, Senora, when I will not disturb, I too will go.
No, no, wait.
Yes?
Three years we've known each other now.
Neighbors.
You've done kindnesses for us.
Are you also my friend, Carradonis?
This is a question of ridiculous.
That I am your friend?
I, who have held the Pequeño Ivan in my hands?
Who have maybe shit for him?
Listen to me.
Just listen.
I've come across certain documents.
They prove a conspiracy exists between members of your government and mine.
These papers can buy back my life.
I have only until tomorrow to sell.
Oh, I have read of such grotesque things.
Where do I buy back my life, Cardosus, and Lilia's and Ivan's?
You were a lawyer and a Mexican.
Where do I trade?
Ah, it is to ponder.
A moment.
If I were not a poor lawyer.
If I were an editor perhaps of a great newspaper
and there was a week's headlines to be had for so little price.
Oh, pardon, how frightful I am.
I did not mean the editor.
Newspaper.
Yes, yes, of course.
Oh, Bill, gracias, Cardosus.
Ten thousand thanks for our lives.
Yes?
What do you wish of me?
Ahem.
I am Maros Leco.
I, uh...
Code clerk of the Russian embassy.
I remember you well, Senor Leco, from another time.
I have a story for you with documents.
Top secret.
So?
The documents prove that there's a conspiracy
between certain members of your government with mine.
I've stolen them from my embassy.
They're yours if you want.
And the price, Senor?
I told you.
My life, my wife's, my three-month-old child, our lives.
Very cheap, Senor.
Bargain rates.
You have the courage to steal secret papers of the Soviet.
You, a Russian citizen, and this is what you want, not money?
I have been recalled to the Soviet.
There'll be a plane for us tomorrow morning.
An escort.
And after that...
Where are the papers?
My wife has them.
She's waiting for me on a bench in the plaza sopalo.
The boy's with her.
I'll go to her.
Tell her that you'll take them.
Oh, you...
You people.
Intrigue, drama, the promises of violence and of revelations
and the easy words on your mouths.
Life.
Death.
It's like the last time you came to see me, huh, Senor Leco?
What?
Not a year ago, Senor Leco, you were here.
You then had another thing to sell.
Listen to me.
The thing of Dr. Diego.
Remember, professor of electronics in the University of Mexico?
He, too, was in conspiracy, you told me then.
And it was false.
A savage lie.
You and your government wished only to relieve us of his brains.
To get him out of your evil way, to destroy him and slowly us.
It was a lie, I admit it.
I had orders to do that.
But this...
But this?
This is of a fable, Senor, of the boy who cried wolf once too often.
And now it is a man who has cried wolf.
Please, you have to believe.
Not I, Senor, I have more wisdom of you now.
Run, run into the streets, cry wolf to the masks of Fiesta.
Perhaps one of them will believe, but not I.
Go, cry wolf.
Then tell me, Lilia, the boy.
Adios, Senor.
Auto Light is bringing you Mr. William Powell in The Man Who Cried Wolf.
Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Say, Sam, did you know that 41 years ago, Auto Light designed the first two-unit,
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And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage, Mr. William Powell,
in Elliot Lewis's production of The Man Who Cried Wolf,
a story well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Music
These are the things which happen to a man who might be killed.
Walk a street, glance backward, stop.
That man in back of you, why did he stop, too?
So turn a corner, and there's a place, a building, a place you've been looking for,
the Department of Justice.
And go into it.
Find a man, a small man, a neat and dapper and meticulous and methodical and shattering man.
Leco, Maros Leco, the name I know. I am sure of it.
Pardon me.
Please, senor.
Si?
I have documents.
Forgive me. You have a story, but no documents.
You say your wife has documents, but you do not.
Pardon me.
Leco, Leco, Maros Leco. Ah, ah, si. Maros Leco.
The Department of Justice has a dossier on you. I was sure of it.
In March 1952, you reported that a certain Dr. Diego of the university
erroneously reported, I must say.
It was a lie, then. I was under orders to report.
And today, no lies, senor?
What I have been telling you is the truth. My life is in danger.
And you wish protection?
Yes. For me, for my wife, for my child.
Senor.
Yes.
You are a Russian national of the embassy.
Has your embassy been informed of these things that are about to happen to your life?
Don't you understand? Those are the people who want to kill me.
I understand only that once you endeavor to involve my government in an unpleasantness with your lies.
However, the Russian embassy, please.
Leave him. Get away from him. Flight from a cone phone call to death.
Mine.
And for a woman who sits in the plaza near a fountain and waits.
And for a child whose fingers play with drifting golden feathers of sunlight.
And try not to run through a long corridor of marble and columns.
Quick blur faces and voices and their feet murmuring through the tongues of terror.
And great doors of metal and glass open onto a pavilion of steps.
Closer now to the images of Fiesta. To the masks of Fiesta.
To the women and the music and the spinning scarlets and golds and green of Fiesta.
And across the street is a lifetime away.
And a cry of laughter and small fright.
You made a child, a young boy, sprawl against confetted pavement.
And take the precious time to help him to his feet and say you're sorry.
But a few steps to another building. To a shuttered door and beat on it.
To come here as help there and refuge in Senor Cardozes. The office of Senor Cardozes.
Cardozes! Cardozes!
Senor Leco.
Let me in.
Vengo, senor amigo, come in.
Always I close my office for Fiesta.
He wouldn't listen to me, Cardozes. He wouldn't believe me.
Huh? Oh, the man of the newspaper.
Someone has to believe me, Cardozes. Someone has to see those documents.
Perhaps...
What?
A friend to me in the secret police. I could say to him of you and perhaps he...
Maybe...
You have no wish of secret police, Senor Leco.
Get to him. Tell him.
I have got to phone to him. He's a friend from student days. He will meet us.
To your health, Meros.
Drink, drink, amigo.
Where is your friend?
He will meet us here in good time. Drink.
Meros.
Yes?
Are you not worried about your wife, about the Pequeño?
They will be all right.
Yes, I'm sure of it.
That man who came through the door.
Pepe, aqui.
Siéntate, Pepe. Amigo Pepe, amigo Meros.
Buenos dias.
How do you do?
You are in trouble, senor?
Yes.
What trouble?
Pepe, may I call you that?
Si.
I have stolen some documents from the Russian embassy.
Where are they, senor?
My wife has them.
And where is your wife?
She's waiting for me. When you hear my story, if you believe me...
No one believes in Pepe.
The story, senor?
Tomorrow, I'm to be sent back to Russia. I have stolen documents to prevent this.
That is the part that is difficult for authorities to understand, Pepe.
My friend Meros talks of documents and has no documents.
Si, this I notice.
To give them to my wife and separate from her is part of a plan.
By this time, surely the theft of the documents has been discovered.
By this time, the embassy looks for me. If they catch me, they cannot harm me.
Si, the blackmail of the documents.
Do you believe my story?
Senor, I wish to tell you something.
Do you believe me?
To us of the police, the names of all members of your embassy is known.
Yours. I will not conceal from you the fact that I know of the tricks you played with us last year.
The matter of the professor at the university.
It's the truth. What I tell you is the truth.
Believe him, Pepe.
Why should I believe you, senor?
Because it is the truth.
Si, I saw his wife, Lilia, leave.
I will take you to her.
I do not wish to be made a fool of.
I will give you the papers.
Believe him, Pepe.
I have a car outside. We will go to your wife.
Turn here.
My wife waits for me at the plaza of Zogalo.
And she will wait?
With my son.
Yes, Pepe. Three months.
Senor?
Yes.
Your wife is Russian also?
Yes.
And a member of the party?
Yes.
How can you be sure she did not return to the embassy, deliver back the papers, and when you arrive at the plaza, a trap?
Oh.
For me?
Very.
The plaza, senor. Where is your wife?
Oh, slowly. Ah, yes. Yes, there she is. At the fountain where I told her to be. With the child.
Let's see.
Do not look at me so, Cardozes. The police motions to stop the car. So I must stop.
The procession. We can't get to the other side, anyhow. We have to wait.
Idiots.
A parade. Such a solemn parade. How ridiculous. And they bow their heads.
You're communists. Both of you. Spies.
You tricked me. You won't get away.
I'll show you. Hold him. These people.
People, listen to me. You are fools. Listen. You are being exploited by your ignorance.
Meros, they'll kill all of us. Meros.
Exhausted.
I know.
Look to us. We, the people of the world. All of these people are here to keep the floor.
And that's the way it ended. The crowd ended it. The crowd I enraged with lies.
The old lies. Communist lies. The lies I had once lived. The envelopes. They turned over the car.
And the last thing I saw. Cardozes and Pepe. Communists who tricked me.
The terror on their faces. The last thing I saw.
Meros. Meros.
Oh, Lilia.
Are you all right?
Yes. And Ivan?
At home.
Home? Where?
At another place. Meros, you are released. I will take you there.
And the papers? The documents?
The police.
They believe you?
Yes. Oh, yes. We are free, Meros. Not to return to Russia.
A new homeland. That is freedom. And no fear. Freedom.
Where we are now, we are not known. And it is freedom where we are.
And there are hopes. And there is love. And I am alive.
But if one day you would pass me on the street and stop and point your finger at me and say,
this story happened to you, then I would be a dead man.
Suspense. Presented by Autolite. Tonight's star, Mr. William Powell.
This is Harlow Wilcox again speaking for Autolite,
world's largest independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment.
Autolite is proud to serve the greatest names in the industry.
That's why during these early months of 53, the Autolite family joins together
in saluting the leading car manufacturers who install Autolite products as original equipment.
Our Autolite family is made up of the nearly 30,000 men and women in 28 great Autolite plants
from coast to coast and in still other Autolite plants in many foreign countries.
Our family also includes more than 18,000 people who have invested a portion of their savings in Autolite,
as well as 98,000 Autolite distributors and dealers in the United States and thousands more in Canada
and throughout the world.
Our Autolite family will salute the National Safety Council and its accident prevention work
on the next Autolite Suspense television program.
If you live in a television area, check the day and time of suspense
so that you'll be sure to see this program.
Next week, a true story, the tragic history of the most famous of all early California bandits.
The story is called, The Love and Death of Joaquin Murrieta, our star, Mr. Victor Mature.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian Morrowick
and conducted by Lud Bluskin.
The Man Who Cried Wolf was written for suspense by Morton Fine and David Friedkin
from research gathered by Larry Thorpe.
In tonight's story, Lillian Byup was heard as Lillia,
featured in the cast were Joseph Kearns, Jack Crouchon, Steve Roberts, Byron Cain and John Danaer.
Remember next week, Mr. Victor Mature as Joaquin Murrieta.
This is the CBS Radio Network.