And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Tonight, the ironic story of an actor who played his part perhaps too well, thus leaving
himself unable to better his performance.
So now with Hans Conrad as Sam, here is tonight's Suspense play, Rave Notice.
When I'm walking across Times Square like this, I'm just an ordinary man, plain, unnoticeable.
It's as though I were invisible, invisible.
But wait, come here, come with me through this door, through here and into the darkness.
Now I breathe deeply of the thick dark air and I become taller.
My eyes drink in the gloomy shadows, become lustrous, bird-like, noble.
Here in this temple of the passions, I throw off my cloak of invisibility and I reveal
myself, my true self, for this is the theater and I, I am an actor.
Up there on the stage, beyond the empty seats, lit by the single bare bulb, are my fellow
workers.
We are here to make a play.
Friend Norman, sitting alone in the third row, is our director.
This is the fifth day of rehearsal.
It's not a bad little play, but you know Norman.
Norman will manage somehow to spoil it.
Norman will misdirect actors and lose values.
I've known Norman for years.
Oh no, no, no, no, no.
Norman, why not?
Why not?
Because I am the director and I say no.
No?
Very well.
No, no.
Try again.
I wish somebody would tell me what it's all about.
Like, I mean, I wish somebody would give me the words.
Now that is adequate.
Well, thank you very much.
Oh, please.
All right, cat, take five.
Norman.
Oh, that's the bar?
Norman.
Hello there.
How are we coming?
Oh, this is, uh, oh, Sam.
Come over here.
We don't want to talk to you.
Sure, Norman, sure.
What is it?
Now, Sam, I have had to turn over the bell ringer to Luther.
The bell ringer?
Well, that's my part, the bell ringer.
What do you mean, Luther?
No, please, don't make it difficult for me, Sam.
Difficult, I'm not making it difficult, the bell ringer role is mine.
That's all, there's no difficulty involved.
Oh, please.
Oh, you joke.
No, it's not as if I hadn't warned you.
Well, tell me what's wrong.
Tell me where I've stepped off, what irritates you, what doesn't fit,
and I'll fix it.
I'll fix it.
Where shall I start?
That's my role, Norman.
I carry the whole cast with that role.
No, don't start.
Sam, you're just making a fool of yourself.
Why are you doing this to me?
Because you are not right for it.
Not right?
No.
You fat pig, what do you know?
No, easy.
What do you know, what do you know about acting?
Look at you, Sam, take easy there.
Fat, fat belly, fat head, fat face.
That's enough.
You know nothing.
I know you, I know actors.
You know actor, you stink.
I'll kill you for saying that, I'll kill you.
Witness says he threatens me again.
Yes?
Well, listen well.
Norman, I'm going to kill you.
You see, you can't even deliver that line.
Oh, you stink.
Yes, sir?
I want to buy a gun.
Oh, yes, sir.
And what sort of gun do you wish to buy, sir?
One that will shoot through fat.
Sir?
Pardon me, I was thinking, what kind of gun?
Well, what was it you wished to use the gun for, sir?
I want to kill a rat.
Oh, well, a.22 would be about your best bet.
Now then, let me see here.
Here's a nice little item here.
That looks pretty small.
This is an awful big rat, a fat rat.
Oh, well, I think a shotgun, a.410.
Yes.
You think that'll do it?
Oh, mister, this is a truly beautiful weapon.
Yeah.
Bullets.
You have bullets?
Oh, bullets.
Shells you're using this weapon.
Very well, I want one.
One box?
No, one bullet.
One?
Yeah.
This rat, I'm not going to miss.
It's time now.
He'll come out the stage door and he'll walk this way
because he's going to Sardis for a drink.
I slide it out from under my coat.
I smile and I say, goodbye, Norman.
And I pull the trigger.
Heart or belly?
Belly.
Belly, yes, his cultivated paunch fatted with actors' hearts.
Am I invisible now?
Mustn't be noticed until the moment.
Perhaps standing a little too tall.
Sag.
That's perfect.
The actor plays himself as a non-actor.
You should see this, Norman.
Now, goodbye, Norman.
Sam, no!
Yes!
Please!
I am shot.
Norman?
Norman, you're dying.
Please, someone call an ambulance.
Please.
Is this how you play your death scene?
Please, Sam.
Norman, you're dying.
Please, play it.
With a shotgun, he did it right in the middle of 45th Street.
Wow.
It brought him in an hour ago.
Give you any trouble?
Well, like a lamb.
Hello.
Just thought you'd like to know that guy, he's still kicking.
Alive?
He's alive?
Yep.
So, you're not a murderer.
Not yet.
Oh.
Hey, I brought your lawyer.
What's that?
I'm your lawyer.
Oh, how do you do?
Sit down, won't you?
Thank you.
They say he's still not dead.
No, but he's sinking.
When he dies, I become a murderer.
Yes.
They'll electrocute me.
Yes.
I must have been crazy.
I thought of that.
What do you mean?
Temporary insanity.
I thought we might plead that.
Well, why don't we?
Because you threatened him before witnesses, at least twice, went to a store, chose a gun
with great care, waited for him to appear.
You did all this, and then you shot him.
That's right, I did.
That's premeditated murder.
First degree murder.
So, the temporary insanity thing is out.
Way out.
The only other thing I can think of is if we could prove you were insane all along.
What would happen?
I mean, if I were.
Oh, they'd get the psychiatrists in, examine you, send you off to be cured.
Of course.
You seem very calm.
I'm an actor.
He's gone, and I sit here, seeming calm.
From time to time, the guard passes, looks at me curiously.
I know what's on his mind.
There sits a cold-blooded murderer.
I know.
All my life, I've studied the human beings, memorized their gestures, tones, expressions,
emotions.
I've learned to probe every moment of my own experience from earliest childhood, searched
out every reaction, emotion, learned to feel the parallel emotions of others.
The Stanislavski method of acting.
Oh, I have it.
I know it.
Of course, if we could prove you were insane all along.
But I'm not.
The insane man moves without motive.
I had a motive.
I know you.
I know actors.
You're no actor.
But I am.
No actor.
Insane.
No.
I know a joke.
A wonderful joke.
I'm gonna beat Norman even in his grave.
I'm gonna have myself exonerated of his murder.
Yes, free to the charges.
It's so simple I can hear it.
Not guilty by a reason of insanity.
I'm going to play the greatest role of my life.
Play it without makeup, without lights, without script or cue.
I'm going to play a part strangely foreign to my nature.
I'm going to play a homicidal maniac.
You are listening to Rave Nautis, tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater
of thrills, Suspense.
Radio's only adult Western drama, Gunsmoke, now comes to you twice every Saturday on CBS
Radio.
There's a thrilling daytime edition and the nighttime show as well, bringing you the Old
West as it really was, dangerous, deadly and full of action.
Meet Marshall Matt Dillon and all the other citizens of Dodge City who coped with lawless
frontier elements just as their real life counterparts did decades ago when the West
was young.
On most of these stations Saturday, daytime and night, enjoy Gunsmoke.
And now we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage, Hans Conrad as Sam, in tonight's production
of Rave Nautis, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
I'm going to play a homicidal maniac.
How?
What is the most terrible thing I ever did?
Thing closest to murder.
I must recreate that mood.
Mood, murder, killing, blood.
I killed a cat once.
I was six years old.
I had a stick.
It was in an alley.
This cat, I poked it.
Just for laughs.
He didn't run.
That's all I wanted to make him do, just make him run.
No, he scratched me and I hit him.
I hit him with the stick.
He started squalling and oh, I thought I'm going to get into trouble.
Stop that noise.
I hit him again.
Make him stop.
And again to make him stop.
And it was blood.
Red blood, gray cement.
And struck and struck and struck out the screen.
Struck out the lights.
Struck out the awful gaze of those great yellow eyes.
Strike out the light.
Strike out the spirit, the spark.
I kill.
A murderer I am.
I kill for the thrill of the silence of the cat.
I am a murderer.
A murderer am I.
I kill without reason.
I said, that's the character.
All I need for turning it on is the memory.
Those key points.
Gray cement, cat's eyes.
My feelings as a six year old.
There'll be refinements of course.
I'll refine it.
Oh Norman, if you're only here to see this scene.
Dim the house lights.
Raise the curtain.
And now to get my audience in.
Hey.
Hey you.
Hey.
Who may I ask?
Are you?
Huh?
Who are you?
I'm the one who's asking.
Who are you?
I'm the one who's asking.
Who are you?
I'm the one who's asking.
Who are you?
I'm the one who's asking.
Who are you?
I'm the one who's asking.
Who are you?
Oh come on now Mac, calm down.
No, no, I asked a civil question.
I expect a civil answer.
Who are you?
You were so nice and quiet for a while there.
Yeah.
No, just answer my question.
That's all I ask.
There's not much reward for a hero to be asking.
No, is there?
Don't you know who we are?
I think he's putting on an act.
Now don't turn your head away.
We know you hear us.
Ah, leave him be.
You think he's kidding?
What does it matter?
Yeah.
You think he's kidding?
What does it matter?
Yeah.
Well that was very weak.
You can be better than that.
You're supposed to be a murderer, a homicidal maniac.
So what's the emotion?
Guilt.
You've got to be guilty.
Guilty, guilty, guilty.
Smear yourself with the stuff.
Guilty.
Bloody hands.
Guilty and you want to be punished.
Yes, punish yourself.
That'll do it.
It'll hurt.
So what?
Not like it hurts when you stay shaved your head.
It hurts.
It hurts when you stay shaved your head, slit your trousers and strapped you to your
seat.
Oh, that seat.
Ten thousand volts coursing through this poor player's frail body.
Murderer.
Guilty.
Should be punished.
One, two, three, curtain going up.
Guilty!
That blood on my hands.
Blood and filth and disease.
I smashed him on the gray cement and smashed him.
Murderer!
I murdered him.
I'm a murderer.
I confess it.
I confess it!
Hey!
Oh, well, sir, sir, I want to confess to purge myself of this guilt.
Take it easy.
Oh, I'm guilty!
You hear?
I smashed him.
Well, you're getting so worked up about the guy ain't even dead yet.
Not dead.
He is dead.
Why, he's been dead these past 36 years.
What is this, yes?
Hey, what are you doing?
If you want to punish me, I'll punish myself!
Hey!
I am guilty and I shall be smashed!
Your hands!
As he was smashed!
You're gonna bust your head in the wall there!
No, I shall be smashed! It is written!
You know the writing in blood that lies across the counterfeiting in the bed under the window
where the little boys are supposed to be far away in slumberland?
Shut! Get the doctor!
Good, good, he's getting the doctor!
My hand, my hand is killing me!
I think I broke something then!
I don't mind the bloody scraped knuckles or even breaking the nails, but not the bones!
I want to be sure I can use the darn thing when I get out of here!
But when?
If I ever get out of here...
Two cats dead!
Murdered by my stick!
Four cats dead!
Murdered by my stick!
Four cats dead! Murdered by my stick!
How long has he been doing this?
About fifteen minutes, Doc. It's just before I send Shultz out to you.
I see.
All right, now you can stop that!
But I don't stop. I don't look. I keep right at it.
Keep in the heart. Murderer. Guilty.
Stop it!
It hurts, but I'm paying the price!
Stop! I'm paying my way out of being electrocuted!
I'm going to be free!
All right, grab him!
Come on!
No, please! Please!
I want to pay! I'm the guilty one and I want to pay the sentence of the court!
Hold it!
Let me go! Let me go! I will pay!
Hold on!
Hypodermic needle. Injection.
That'll knock me out. I can't act if I'm unconscious.
I can't play my pod!
My guilty, guilty pod!
I've got to hurt myself. I've got to hurt my self.
So quiet here.
So white. Such sweet stillness and peace.
Gone in the darkness of the sail, steel and concrete.
This white ceiling there. And they're watching me very carefully.
The taller one, he's new.
The other gave me the hypodermy.
Yes.
Hypodermy.
How long have I been out?
Did I say anything while I was out?
Perhaps if I keep still, they'll let me know.
You say he showed definite suicidal tendencies?
Suicidal, immediate or simply self-destructive.
While he was unconscious, I listened to him.
He spoke, seemed under the delusion that he's invisible.
Invisible? Well, that's a new one.
Look, he's opening his eyes.
Hello. Awake?
Who are you?
You remember me, don't you?
No.
I gave you something to quiet you a little while ago.
A little while ago?
When you were trying to injure yourself, so we'd think you insane.
You've decided to give that up, haven't you?
I have to carry out sentence, you know.
How will you carry out sentence?
Be smashed.
I'm to be smashed as I have smashed the cat.
Is that the law?
Yes. Yes, I smashed him with a stick.
Stick? You mean shotgun, don't you?
Oh, why would I say shotgun if I meant stick? I said stick.
But you shot the man with a shotgun.
You're out of your mind.
After you smashed him with the stick, what happened?
What? What came after he was dead?
I was frightened. I went home. Mama was there.
She said, how did you get blood on your hands?
I said a dog licked my hand and he had blood on his teeth.
I understand you're an actor.
We are all actors.
We try to act innocent when we are guilty.
Doctor, come outside a moment, will you?
I've got them. I've got them.
Just keep playing it cold and clear.
What are they talking about out there? I wish I knew.
It doesn't matter. I've got them. I know that.
I've got them. I've got them.
Well, I guess you'll be leaving us soon.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Your understanding, Doctor, I am guilty and must carry out sentence. You know that.
What the Doctor means is that you're going to a place where they'll help you get well.
Get well?
Of course.
We'll have the affidavits drawn up outside. We'll get a court order committing him.
Right.
Seems you were right all along.
You know, I wasn't sure until you told me about the man who was shot, about his recovering.
Oh, yes. The guards told this man he'd recovered, but he didn't comprehend, of course.
He went right on screaming and punishing himself.
I see. Well, let's go.
What would they have given him, where he's staying?
Depends. If the injured party recudes press charges, he'd be out of here in an hour. A free man.
Recovered? But they didn't tell me he'd recovered.
How could he have recovered? I shot him in his fat pawn.
When did they tell me? It was while I was screaming, maybe.
I was really into the plot then. I was deep in it. I couldn't have heard them.
I couldn't have heard. And now, now he will walk out of here, and I'll go off to an insane asylum, married to a role that I loathe, that I hate.
No! No! Doctor! Doctor, come back! Come back! It was all a joke, doctor! A game! Come back! Come back! Please, doctor!
What is it?
Oh, listen, doctor. I have a confession to make. I'm not insane. Please believe me. Believe me.
Of course you're not. Just a little confused, that's all.
No, no, no, no, no. You're wrong. Don't you see? Doctor, it was just a gag. Just a gag!
Yes, of course it was. Now, you're going to a place where you can rest, and everything's going to be all right.
No, no, no. Believe me. I am sane.
Why shout?
I'm not shouting! I only want to impress on you, doctor.
But you were shouting rather loudly.
Now, look. My lawyer said that if I could prove insanity, I wouldn't go to the chair.
Chair? I thought you were to be... you said, smack.
Forget that. That was part of the method.
Method?
Stanislavsky method. It's a system of acting.
What do you think, doctor?
Hmm. I don't know.
The man seems to be telling the truth.
Think so?
I could fool you all over again if you feel it's necessary to prove my point.
No, I don't believe you'll be able to fool me again.
Doctor?
Sane. I say the man is in full control of his faculties, is aware of his crime, committed out of what society calls sober motive.
You, sir, do you agree with the doctor?
Agree? That's what I've been telling you.
And I say, sane, that makes it unanimous.
Well, unanimous. Gentlemen, never in the history of the theatre has such a performance been rendered, nor under such adverse conditions.
Just one more question.
Of course, doctor.
Why did you kill him?
Kill him? But I did not. I shot him, that's all.
Shot? You mean shot, don't you?
Don't you?
No.
He...
Norman...
He is dead?
And you are sane, and you are going to repay society with your life.
Norman is dead?
Tragedy! Villainy! Ring down the curtain! Ring down the curtain!
Suspense, in which Hans Conrad starred as Sam.
Next week, the story of several hours spent by two people in a deserted bus shelter, and the slow realization by one that the other is quite mad.
We call it The Shelter.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Norman MacDonald, with music composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Lud Bluskin.
Rave notice was specially written for Suspense by James Poe. Featured in the cast were Lawrence Dobkin, Edgar Barrier, Parley Bear, Jack Prusian, James Nusser, Howard McNeer, and John Stephenson.
This is the CBS Radio Network.