July 16, 2025 • 59 mins
Please enjoy Wet Saturday August a great episode of the legendary Suspense - Old Time Radio show OTR - a Old Time Radio OTR classic.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Suspense, Radio's outstanding theater of thrills bring you an hour,
a full sixty minutes of suspense, directed by Anton M.
Leida and produced by Robert Montgomery. Tonight two great suspense dramas,
(00:36):
John Collier's.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Wet Saturday and W. F.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Harvey's August Heat, performed by two distinguished casts of radio actors.
Two complete stories joined in one hour of suspense.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
This is Robert Montgomery with a forecast, a weather forecast.
If you doubt my qualifications as a meteorologist, I don't
blame you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I have none, but I do.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Have more specific information than the chap in Walt Mason's
poem The Statesman. Perhaps you remember the Statesman throws his
shoulders back and straightens out his tie and says, my friends,
unless it rains, the weather will be dry.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I can do much better than that. Even with the
same elements rain and dry weather, I can improve on
that forecast. For the next hour. I predict rain followed
by a sudden hot spell. Further, and you can check
me on this. I predict that the rain will fall
in the first half of the hour, and that the
second half will be given over.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Exclusively to heat.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I guess you could say, I predict weather in two
acts unusual Weather too, a unique combination of Wet Saturday
and August Heat. Each of these dramas is set in England,
each is complete in itself, and each is conditioned by
its own weather and by its own suspense. Because these
(02:02):
plays exemplify two classic studies in radio suspense drama, we
have selected established radio stars to interpret them, Dennis Hoey
as mister Princey in Wet Saturday and Barry Kroger as
James Clarence Witherencroft in August Heat, with supporting casts of
distinguished radio players. Next week, when we present the suspense
(02:23):
version of the screen drama Night Must Fall, we shall
feature a cast of motion picture actors. As Danny I
will be joined by Dame May Whittie in her original
role of Missus Bramson together with Heather Angel and Richard May.
But now to the first half of our show and
my prediction for rain. With the performance of Dennis Hoey
(02:45):
as mister Princey and with John Collier's English classic Wet Saturday,
we again hope to keep you in suspend on this
(03:07):
rainy afternoon. We should like you to meet the Princey
family and their visitor.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They are, of course.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
At home, Missus Princey, daughter Mellicent, George the sun and air,
sprawled on a couch, and finally, Mister Princey.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
Biting on a dry pipe.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Their living room is dull and overstuffed, rain beats at
the windows. They are any middle class family at home
on a wet day, except for one small item. As
you sit with them in the living room, you can
see through the door to the sun porch a pair
of man's feet encased in black boots. They look like
(03:51):
the feet of a er curate.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
There is a tenseness in the room. The air is
charged with excitement, but the feet are very still.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
Don't keep staring at them. Listen to me, all of you.
Don't you see.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
They'd hang her, That's what they'd do. They'd hang her. Oh, Fred,
it's too awful. It's catastrophe.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
A supposedly sweet, gentle, intelligent girl, respected love for the
whole village doing a thing like this. Think of the publicity,
the disgrace. You think I'm going to resign from the
bench the vestry sell off, live in some foggy hotel abroad.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
Oh no, no, I'll kill myself.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
I will, I.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
Will any morn.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
You have been the governed me required.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
You'd be so bad if it were you, George. Everybody
in the village knows you're not responsible. George, get off
that couch, sit up on your spine. It might be
of a little use here if you could.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Think of I say, Governor, this isn't my funeral.
Speaker 7 (05:08):
As long as I can remember, George, you've been a
trial and a tribulation.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
I can't stand it.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I can't.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
You've gotta stand it, my dear. Can that a sthetical
note out of your voice? You hear, Yes, we are.
We are talking.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
About the weather.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Now, George, George.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
If he fell down the old well, saying, striking his
head several times, what about him?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
I really don't know.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Don't be an ass. I'm asking you to think.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
You'd have had to hit the side several times and
thirty or forty feet and at all the correct angles.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
No, I'm afraid not. I'm afraid not.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
We'll have to go over it all again, medicine, No, father,
and no, I couldn't, Melicent. We must go over it
all again.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Your face.
Speaker 6 (06:13):
Facts matter with him, lying as though you're pretending it's
a pain.
Speaker 7 (06:16):
He might ha Melicent, Oh, stop that shaking stopping here.
You must stop it. You must keep your voice quiet, Medicent, Medicent,
we are talking of the weather.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Now we will proceed.
Speaker 8 (06:35):
I can't, I can't boots.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
You should have thought of that, Millie.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I'm not moving.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Set up, George and stop shuffling your Feeture now, Melicent,
look at me. Answer me truthfully, you hear answer me.
You were on the Crooky card. Yes, you who knew
you were in love with this Richard cured.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
All the whole village. They've been sniggering about it in the
pub for three years. Shut up, George, listened, we continue.
You were on the Krooky cord. Yes, you were putting
the Crookie set in its box.
Speaker 8 (07:16):
Yes, it was starting to rain. I was carrying the
balls and the mallets into the sun port. The box
was there.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
You heard someone enter the garden gate and come across
the yard.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Yes, could you see who it was?
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Not?
Speaker 7 (07:29):
At first?
Speaker 8 (07:29):
I was going into the sun port. I threw down
all the mallets, the red one and turned around.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
It was with us.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yes, so you called him?
Speaker 7 (07:38):
Yes loudly? Did you call him loudly? Could anyone have heard?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No?
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Father, I'm sure not.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
I didn't really call him, I just poke his name.
He saw me when I went to the door. He
just waved his hand and came over.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
How can I find out whether there was anyone about
whether he could have been?
Speaker 8 (07:58):
Said, I am sure not, father, I'm quite sure right.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
So you went on to the sun potch, Yes, it
was raining hot. Then what did he say?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
He said, hello, Milly, and excuse him coming in the
back way.
Speaker 9 (08:12):
But he set out to walk over to Lyston.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Yes, and he said, passing the park, he had.
Speaker 8 (08:18):
Seen the house and suddenly thought of me, and he
thought he'd just look in for a minute. He had
something he wanted to tell me.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
He said.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
He was so happy and he wanted me.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
To share it.
Speaker 8 (08:31):
It heard from the bishop that he was to have
a vicarage, and it wasn't only that, it meant that
he could marry. And he began to stutter and get
off confused, And of course I thought.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
He meant me, don't tell me what you thought, tell
me exactly what he said, and nothing else.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Well, well, stop crying a luxury.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
You can no longer fald.
Speaker 8 (08:54):
Tell me what happened, he said, He said, No, it
wasn't me, It's.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
It's Ella bragged and Davis.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
He was sorry and all that, and then he went
to go, and then I went mad.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
He turned his back.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I had the red mallet of the.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Croquet, said in my hand.
Speaker 9 (09:23):
I'd forgotten to drop it.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
When he came in, I went, did you shout or scream?
I mean as you hit him?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
No?
Speaker 6 (09:31):
No, I'm sure I didn't. Did he come on?
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Speak up?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No? Father?
Speaker 6 (09:36):
And then I threw it down. I came straight in here.
I went to look for mother. That's all my poor
and you sure no one else was about?
Speaker 5 (09:43):
No, no one, no leave the child friend or.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Not such a child made.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
I had no idea quiet time drinking.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
You see, George, he probably told people he is going
to Lyston. Certainly no one knows he came here. And
he didn't decide until he crossed the park. Might have
been at tapped in the woods. Just consider every detail.
Cure it with his head better, and curre it with
his head bendin. He would want to kill with us.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
When I would with pleasure.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Captain Smart.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Captain Smart said down, pray mustn't get up for me,
missus Pincy, you are the medicine my worm, just being neighborly.
On a bad day, I wanted to ask you about
those Dallier bulbs pincy Mm took a short cut on
a cut of the rain and walked right in.
Speaker 7 (10:46):
And you wouldn't mind, father Dear, We can have our
little jokes. Don't pretend to be shocked this way. Smart
If this Jefface in the fireplace sat down, ladder.
Speaker 10 (10:58):
The curtains on the sun porch, it looks so gloomy
out there, and might as well shut the rain.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
We were just talking about a little theoretical parson killing
Smollett like young people these days like thrillers, and.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
For a sonicide justifiable PARSONO side? Have you heard about
Ella Bragdon Davis? I shall be most properly laughed at.
Why where should you be laughed at?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Smollett?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Oh? I had a shot in that direction myself. She
half said yes too, And you heard she told most
people that look as though I got turned down for
a white rat and a dog collar.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Too bad?
Speaker 7 (11:43):
Oh well, fortune of war, yeah, I had fortunes of war.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Odd how it happens? Isn't he sit down?
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Smartlett?
Speaker 7 (11:54):
Mother Willison console Captain Smotett in your best like conversation.
George and I have sudden to look at outside this
great no bad, very bad.
Speaker 11 (12:07):
At home?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
U a cigarette, captain.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Smaller, thank you?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Last du going out.
Speaker 10 (12:14):
It's something about the old well just off the sun
porch door.
Speaker 9 (12:19):
You know.
Speaker 10 (12:20):
It's a terrible sudden weather seemed to have loosened some
of the stones.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
There's to ben spoils the tennis and cokaine.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I mean a day like this, doesn't it?
Speaker 12 (12:32):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 10 (12:33):
She was practicing out in the crooked quite earlier. That
do pull your chair near the fire, captain.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It was so damp we thought it would be cozy
to light it.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Thank you. I'm quite comfortable.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
I hope you don't feel too bad about Ella Breton Davis.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Well, I can't always winer know, can't understand though, what
you women see in these bloodless clerics.
Speaker 10 (12:58):
Oh, I always thought Miss the Waders is a very
charming man.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
That's quite agreeing. But why should anyone want to marry him?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
You wouldn't want to marry him, would you?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Many? Not?
Speaker 8 (13:11):
No, that is I I are you?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Oh? No, no, couse not not? Yes? Oh, good world man,
you do come in on a fellow sudden man.
Speaker 7 (13:23):
Yes, oh, don't mind this old double bell shut, John,
I have been working on it today. Smollett, May I
have your attention for a minute. There's something on the
sun porch I like to ashow you. Yes, of course, Smollett,
George and I went out to see if we could
(13:44):
shoot some rats which would be driven out of the
old world with the high water, afraid they might get
into the house. From now now you must listen to
me very carefully, very carefully, or you will be sure
what by.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Accident I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
What's God meant to?
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Well?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
You let me ask as you came in, who would
kill Withers?
Speaker 7 (14:12):
You also heard medicine make a comment, an unguarded comment, Well,
what of it? Very little unless you were to hear
that Withers had met a violent.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
End this afternoon, and that, my dear Smallett, is what.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
You are doing to hear what Wethers?
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Then?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yes, well who who killed him?
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Milic Oh? Lord, yes, it's a mess. And of course
you would have remembered and guessed.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Maybe yes, I suppose I shouldn't.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
Therefore, you constantly if you had a problem, why did
she kill him? It's one of those disgusting things, you know,
pitiable too. She deluded herself that he was in love
with her.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Good Heavens Manette.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
As of course, I say he told her about the
Davis girl, Ella Brandon Davis.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
I understand I have no wish as you.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Will comprehend that you should be proved either a lunatic
or a murderess. I could hardly go on living here
after that. Besides, I'm I'm rather fond of Manette. On
the other hand, you know about it, Yes, I say
that makes me a problem.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You're wondering if I could keep my mouth shut if
I promised.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
I'm wondering if I could believe you. But if I promised,
if things went smoothly, yes, but not if there was
any sort of suspicion, any questioning. You would be afraid
of being an accessory.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
I don't know, I do. What are we going to do?
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Well?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I can't see anything else. You would never be fool
enough to do me and can't.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Get rid of two corpses, you know.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
I regard that as a better risk than the other.
Could be an accident, you know, or you and Withers
could both disappear.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
There are possibilities in that.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I see here.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
You can't.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
I can, but there may be a way out. There is, Smollett.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You gave it to me yourself. I I did what.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
You said you would kill Withers. You have a mootive.
Oh look here I was jo listened. Smollett.
Speaker 7 (16:54):
I can't trust you. You must trust me else I
will kill you now in the next minute. I mean
that you can choose between dying and living.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Mm hmmmmm. Gone.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
There's the old well just outside the sunch porch door.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
That's where I'm going to put Withers.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
No one outside knows hees.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Come up here this afternoon.
Speaker 7 (17:19):
No one will ever look in there for him unless
you tell them.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
Now, you must give me evidence that you.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Have murdered with us. I murdered him. I do want that,
so that I should be dead.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
Sure that you will never open your lips on the subject,
I say, what evidence?
Speaker 4 (17:39):
George hit him in the face.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Sure, don't, don't you Captain.
Speaker 9 (17:46):
You shall be more careful of what your teeth did
to my knocking George, you king.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
I am sorry, Scarlett, but there must be traces of
a struggle between you, and then it will not be
altogether safe for you to go.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
To the police.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
George, get the crooked mallet. Take your handkerchief to it.
There it is on the port, captain as your weapon.
As I told you, Smillet, Now you'll just grasp the
end that meshed with his head.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I shall shoot you if you don't.
Speaker 6 (18:22):
It's for good lords, you cannot or.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Right, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
I deposited by the side of the house, outside, out
of the rain.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Of course, I will wait to George.
Speaker 7 (18:36):
First, you'd better pull a few hairs out of his
head and put them under the nails of withers right hand.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
Started to mess up your hair.
Speaker 7 (18:42):
Careful, shut up, smilett.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Smarlett. You may turn round.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Withers is just there in the sun porch the curtain.
Good lord, yes, missy, now you Smollet.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
You've just got to drag him through the door and
dump him in the old web.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
I won't touch all right, stand aside on a rain
show at any place, but I want this shop to
go only one place.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Keep out of this minam is not to show. Wait
a minute, I, Smolet.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Much better go on.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Now go ahead. You have to take him outside.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Keep quiet, George, go on, smartlet go on. You've seen
a dead man before.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Drag him, drag him.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
I'll just hold the gun here to make sure everything
goes all right.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Come away from the window.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
Did don't look?
Speaker 10 (20:02):
Your father is a very resourceful man.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
I'm sure what he's doing is a captain.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I can't.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Oh yeah, you must, dear father, trouble around him a lot.
Your blobbing.
Speaker 8 (20:15):
Don't you call me blubbering?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Yourcition? Everything you knows that Withers came here. Everyone thinks
he walked over to Lyston.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
That's five miles of country to Search'll never look in
our well. You see how safe it is, I guess, sir,
good Heaven's venue dripping wet.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Why didn't you slip on your raincoat? You ready, my dear,
and just a little dear.
Speaker 7 (20:45):
Exactly what you need? Smile the cavity vesty in the
world of water?
Speaker 6 (20:48):
A cold sit down? Won't you sit down?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Don't mind getting a chair?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
Wet cigarette?
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Help yourself. I stick to my pipe. Funny how you
get attached to them? My wife always say.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Oh yes, bridget put the train in front of me.
Here here on the table, I say.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Say, captain, you've capturly.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Eh, I just knocked it.
Speaker 10 (21:15):
Oh, why, how dreadful you're bridget here, give the captain this.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
Car, no, thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I I think I'll be running along if you don't mind.
Speaker 10 (21:24):
Why Captain smartt without any tea?
Speaker 3 (21:26):
If you don't mind, missus pincea, if I could just
have my raincoat, I'll get it for you.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
This is very distressing, Smillet, very as well.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
I'll be all right past sharp. Let me help young
man there.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Better go out the front way, Smillet, walk is dry.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
Let me hold the door for you. And don't worry,
old fellow.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
I don't worry at all.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
I won't oh.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Mmm, nothing serious. I imagine a little rest and you'll
be as right as read. But way, medicine, you're not
looking any too well, not.
Speaker 9 (22:11):
Well at all.
Speaker 10 (22:12):
I'm sure it was a clocking car. Being up joys
and weather like this is is simply fool hearted.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
You saw what happened to Captain Smileet. Come along, dear.
I shall give you a hot foot that and put
you to.
Speaker 10 (22:25):
Bed a couple of days, and then.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Get tenty of rest, medicine, and don't worry about a thing.
That's the best cure.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I guess I'll have a little rest too.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Gum No, it's a fine from there, indeed, it is,
indeed it is, and enjoy yourself. See you later.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
We'll see you all later.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
That pump ain'tumund well? Uh oh, would you give me
the police station?
Speaker 9 (23:03):
The police station? Ye, Sergeant Yancy speaking.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Oh hello, sergeant, this is Princey of Abbatrode.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I believe you know.
Speaker 9 (23:19):
Me, Indeed I do, mister Princey.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
The sergeant.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
A rather horrible thing has just occurred, quite extraordinary murder,
in fact, murder.
Speaker 7 (23:32):
I'm afraid it looks rather bad for well, for a
close friend of ours. Unfortunately we saw him do it.
I think you'd better send someone over right away.
Speaker 9 (23:43):
A man should be there right about now, mister Princey.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
I beg your pardon.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
I say our man should be there now. Constable Martin
has his post right below.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Your house there.
Speaker 9 (23:55):
I just rang him.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
Seems Captain Smollett was with him. Captain Smollett, he reported
some rather queer goings on at your place, but.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
I certainly didn't understand it was murder. Now, just don't
touch anything, mister Princey, and don't worry. Don't worry at all, No,
I won't.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
Sergeant, thank you? Where are you going? Right here? To
stop shouting? We have some visitors. Governor. Yes, I can
see that. Good afternoon, Princey, and small it.
Speaker 7 (24:42):
I say, what a remarkable fellow you are coming back
like this here to reenact the crime.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
Only the one against me.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Prince say so when I get.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
Secured, I leave to you people extraordinary sense of you,
mister Princey, I just said, and look at what's in
your well not to put this not forget all, Yes, Constable,
Captain Smollett was thorough, if nothing else.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
You saw him when he did it, sir, out in
the bed quite We were just returning from a walk.
Speaker 7 (25:11):
Smollett evidently had been laying for the curate, hiding out
there in those bushes of the road.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
I imagine he was never inside this house.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Never never.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And you say, keptain, I say that while I was
inside this house a guest to the family, I was
coerced and dragging the current's body outside and dumping.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
It into the world. Yeah, there, we are not entirely, Constable.
I'll just remove my raincoat.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And demonstrate how damp I got my clothes when I
went outside without it.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
It's interesting, isn't he descried. He He unaptedly removed his
skirt at some point between here and your purse. I
might as well tell you that his weapon, a red croquet,
manages out to the side of the house. I shouldn't
be at all surprised, but you might find his finger
prints all over.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It, all over the end of the manet, Constable, the
end that mashed Wither's head, but the end I'd have
to grasp in order to do the mashing.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Cavner.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
That's a decent trice, Mollet, but it won't work. Must
be it must be other evidencies it, Constable.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
You undoubtedly find them when you examine the body.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
He means my hair under Wither's finger nails. Well, sir,
you know I happen to notice something when young George's
there opened the door for them.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
If you lump look carefull.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Them, I believe you'll find a few.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Of my precious hairs under his nails too.
Speaker 7 (26:38):
What do you tan, Constable, This is an utter waste
of time so far as violent struggle between Smollett and Withers.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
It's concerned.
Speaker 7 (26:47):
Smollett's face speaks with itself quite eloquently, I believe, oh yes.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
But no more eloquently than your son's knuckle. As you see, Constable,
look at your hair a fresh abrasion.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
He did that on my teeth?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Or did he? But I say?
Speaker 6 (27:05):
Or did he?
Speaker 5 (27:08):
You know?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
He might have done that on with us, Steve. I see,
I see what you mean.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
But I didn't have it. He said that I keep stealing.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Quit me think, Let me think.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
As a matter of fact, George, the more I think
of it, the more I'm convinced it was your voice.
I heard quite a vigorous quarrel, something about the you're
a jilting your sister.
Speaker 6 (27:35):
Don't be ridiculous, Smollett.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Very well, princey.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
If he didn't do it, who did?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
That's what I'd like to know.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
How about it, mister Pincy? That that is a sticker, right?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
George, my boy, it looks like you're elected.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
Makes you What do you mean? I didn't do.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I would.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
I'm not going to tell them playing for her Millie
did it? You did it with that mariet I saw
did prove as?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (28:05):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Her fingerprints on the mallet on the handle.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Why George, don't you remember when you made me touch
the mallet when you picked it up with your handkerchief. George,
I'll show you what that handle green? Oh? Eh, yes,
I could hardly expect you to remember that if you
can't even remember killing the carrot.
Speaker 7 (28:29):
Governor, I told you to keep still, George, I'm thinking, Governor.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
You're not understanding and say, as long as I can remember, George,
you've been a trial and a tribulation to me. Hmm,
you shouldn't have done it. George, you really shouldn't have
done it. Now, let's all have a cup of tea.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Have you like this?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
So ends Wet Saturday, the first of two half hour
stories combining dramatic weather and dramatic suspense. Our thanks to
Dennis Hoy for an excellent performance and to Harold Medford,
who adapted John Collier's story True to our prediction. We
will return in a moment with August heat, a second
study in suspense.
Speaker 12 (29:43):
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And now back to our Hollywood sound stage and to
our producer, mister Robert Montgomery.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The rains of Wet Saturday are gone in their stead.
A blazing sun burns down on the damper of the
English countryside, steaming the atmosphere with a heat that's humid
and smothering, like a tight outer garment, like a shroud,
which cannot be loosed and cast aside. Such a heat
weighs upon your entire being and SAPs from you the
(30:14):
last strength of hope and freedom. This is the setting
for the companion piece to our first drama, Wet Saturday.
This then is August Heat, the second of two suspense dramas.
Complete in this hour and now, with the performance of
Barry Kroger as James Clarence Withencroft and the reappearance of
Denis Hoy as the Man, and with W. F. Harvey's
(30:37):
August Heat, we promise a narrative well calculated to keep you.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
In suspend.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Less.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Stone Road, Clapham, August twenty, nineteen forty seven. I have
had what I believe to be the most remarkable day
(31:22):
in my life, and try the events are still fresh
in my mind. I wish to put them.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Down on paper.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
As clearly as possible. Let me say at the outset
that my name is James Clarence Withincroft. I must remember
that in order to have the full implication of my story.
James Clarence Withincraft. I'm thirty five years old, in perfect health,
(32:10):
never having known a day's illness.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
By profession, I'm an artist not a.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
Very successful one, but I earn enough money by my black.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
And white work to satisfy my necessary ones. My only
near relative sister died.
Speaker 6 (32:26):
Five years ago, so.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
That there is no one in particular to whom I
addressed this manuscript, only you, who might by chance read
it someday. For because of the peculiar circumstance about which
you will soon hear, I have this strong premonition that
I shall never live to tell anyone about it. I
(32:56):
breakfasted this morning at nine at the usual time. It
was no different from any other morning, and after glancing
through the morning paper, I lighted my pipe. I proceeded
to let my mind wander in the hope that I
might chance upon some subject for my pencil. The room,
though door and window were open, was oppressively hot, and
(33:19):
I just made up my mind that the coolest and
most comfortable place in the neighborhood would be the deep
end of the public swimming bath. When, when I was
suddenly shaken, the feelings swept over me such as I'd
never experienced before.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I attempted to rise to my feet.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
How it seemed as though I had suddenly been fastened
to my chair.
Speaker 6 (33:42):
My help and in effort to brace myself.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
And then before I knew what I was doing, my
pencil was in my hand and I.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Began to draw.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
It was as though someone had taken my hand and
was moving across the paper swiftly and false hoax. And
then I seemed to take over, and my hand, under
its own power, began to draw. So intent was I on.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
The sketch which began to appear before me.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
I soon forgot the oppressive heat, the roughness of the table,
everything was forgotten, this frantic feeling. The sketch must be
finished as soon as possible. Huh. I had no idea
how long I worked until I heard the clock of
(34:39):
Saint Jude's in the distance. It was four o'clock and
I had started just after breakfast. Now, for the first
time since i'd begun, I actually seemed to see what
I had been sketching.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I was surprised.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
The final result was, I felt sure the best thing
I had ever done. He show a criminal in the
dark immediately after the judge had pronounced sentence.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
The man was fat, enormously fat.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
The flesh hung in rolls about his chin that creased
his huge, stumpy neck. He was clean shaven, perhaps, I
should say a few days before. He must have been
clean shaven, and he was almost bald. He stood there
before the judge, his short, clumsy fingers clasping the rail,
(35:34):
looking straight in front of him. The feeling that his
expression conveyed was not so much one of horror as
of utter absolute collapse. There seemed nothing in the man
strong enough to sustain that mountain of flesh. And then
(35:56):
I saw that the sketch was not complete, for the
man's other hand seemed to be clutching an instrument of
some kind of weapon, but had not been completed. I
had made this sketch, yet I had no recollection of
what I had intended the man to carry in his
other hand. I took up my pencil again and I
(36:16):
attempted to fill in the fuzzy outline. It was useless.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
It was as though my fingers had suddenly turned a lead.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
And I sat down.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I felt the.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
Moisture slowly forming on my forehead, and I was conscious
of the oppressive heat again. And then I knew that
there would be no finishing of the sketch at any rate.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Not for the moment. So I rolled up the sketch
and without quite knowing why I placed it in my pocket.
Parte of my peculiar inspiration.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
I was filled with the rare sense of happiness which
the knowledge of a good thing well done gives.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I believe that I set.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
Out with the idea of calling upon Trenton, for I
remember walking along Litton Street and turning to the right
along Gilcrist Road at the bottom of the hill, where
the men were at work on the new tram lines.
From there onward I have only the vaguest recollection of
where I went through parks along crowded streets, always fully
(37:40):
conscious of the awful heat came up from the dusty
asphalt pavement as an almost palpable wave.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And I remembered too.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
The hollow sound of my footsteps as I moved along.
Although walking aimlessly, I somehow knew that there was a
something to which I was drawn. I longed for the
thunder promised by the great banks of copper colored clouds
that hung low over the western sky.
Speaker 6 (38:14):
I must have walked five or six miles.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
I've really no idea how far I walked. When a
small boy roused me from my reverie twenty minutes to seven.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
Thanks isn't it yes?
Speaker 5 (38:32):
When he left me, I began to take stock of
my bearings. I found myself standing before a gate that
led into a yard bordered by a strip of thirsty earth.
There were flowers purple stark and scarlet geranium, and great
numbers of bees droned over them. I stood looking down
(38:53):
at them a moment.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Then for some reason, I looked up over the entrance
to the place.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
There was a board with the inscription Charles Atkinson, Monumental
mason worker in English and Italian marble. From the yard
itself came a cheering whistle, the noise of hammer blows,
(39:25):
and the cold sound of steel meeting stone. A sudden
impulse made me enter and went in the direction of
the noise. There was a man sitting with his back
towards me, who was busy at work on a slab
of curiously vaned marble. He was not conscious of my
presence as I stood there watching him for some time. Then,
(39:50):
without turning, his hammer stopped in mid air as he
was about to.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Bring it down on his chisel.
Speaker 5 (39:57):
He looked up, and then he held his position a
moment before turning. But I knew that he was aware
of my presence, and when he turned I saw his face.
It was although I had never seen him before, it
was the face of the man I had been drawing. Yes,
(40:28):
it was the face of the man whose sketch was
in my pocket. He sat there on his low stool,
huge and elephantine, he sweat pouring from his scalp, not speaking.
Then he took a red silk handkerchief and he mopped
his brow. Although this face that looked up at me
was the same as my sketch, the expression was absolutely different.
(40:52):
And suddenly the puzzled expression left his face, and he
smiled as if we were old friends. And he walked
over him and he took my hand.
Speaker 6 (41:00):
Good day, sir, Good day.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
I'm sorry to intrude you're at all.
Speaker 5 (41:06):
Everything's hot and glary outside. Yeah, this seems there's an
oasis in the wilderness.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (41:11):
About the oasis, but it certainly is hot. Take a seat, shirt.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
He pointed to the end of the gravestone on which
he was at work, and I said, down, very hot.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
It's a beautiful piece of stone you've got.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Hold of there.
Speaker 6 (41:23):
Yeah, you know, wait, it is.
Speaker 7 (41:25):
The surface is as fine as anything you could wish
but there's a big floor at the back of the way.
Don't expect you'd ever notice it.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I shouldn't think so.
Speaker 7 (41:33):
Ah, I could never really make a good job of
a bit of marble like this. Be all right in
the summer right now, wouldn't mind have blasted eat? But
wait till the winter comes.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Winter.
Speaker 7 (41:45):
Yes, there's nothing like a bit of fust to find
out the weak points in stone and gravestone.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
You see, Oh, I see, then what's this one for?
Speaker 7 (41:55):
He'd hardly believe me if I was to tell it's
for exhibition, But it's a true artists of exhibition, of
grocers and butcher's. Well, we as of do all the
ladies little dead stones, you know.
Speaker 5 (42:09):
He went on to talk of marbles, which sort of
marble best withstood wind and rain, and which were easiest
to work. Then of his garden, and a new sort
of carnation he'd bought the end of. Every other minute
he would drop his tools, wipe his shining head.
Speaker 7 (42:28):
This heat, this heat spelled. I mean it's not responsible
for what he does in this.
Speaker 5 (42:35):
Heat, I said little, for I felt uneasy. There is
something unnatural, uncanny in all of this, The feeling that
i'd experienced it all before, exactly as I was experiencing
it now. The oppressive heat, the fragrance of the purple
stark in the air, the conversation about the marble, the flowers,
(43:00):
everything as though I'd experienced it before, And yet I
knew that I'd never even been in this section of
the town before. I tried to persuade myself that at
least I had seen him before, that his face, unknown
to me, had found a place in some out of
the way corner of my memory. But I knew that
I was practicing little more than a plausible piece of
(43:22):
self deception. As I sat there quietly watching him, he
looked up at.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
Me and he said, here, what do you think of it?
Speaker 5 (43:33):
He said it with an air of evident pride of
a job well done. I could sense that he was
experiencing the same feeling I had experienced when I'd finished
my sketch. Then he got up with a sigh of relief.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
What what ain't it?
Speaker 5 (43:52):
I was seated in such a position that I was
unable to see his work, and for some reason I
didn't move. Suddenly he began to read what he'd carved
on the tombstone. He spoke deliberately and with a flat voice.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
In the midst of life.
Speaker 7 (44:07):
We are in deaf born January eighteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
I looked up with a start. This man had read
my exact birthdate.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
He passed away very suddenly, on August twentieth, nineteen forty six.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
That's today.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
I usually used the present date on these exhibition stones.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
De easily put a name on them too.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
Yes, sacred to the memory of James clans Vencroft.
Speaker 5 (45:00):
I just sat there in silence. The sound of birds
and crickets seemed loud in my ears as we stood there,
looking at each other, saying nothing.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
And then he mopped his brow again.
Speaker 5 (45:18):
Hot hot, I was finally able.
Speaker 7 (45:22):
To speak, Well, whether'd you see that name or I
didn't see it anywhere? I wanted some name, and I
put down the first one that came into me. Eight.
Speaker 5 (45:33):
It's a strange coincidence, but it happens to be mine.
It's your name, your James Clarence within Craft.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yes, whoa.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
Angela in the dates?
Speaker 2 (45:54):
I can only answer for the birthday. It's correct, it's.
Speaker 6 (46:00):
Sir, it's a run go.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Hall.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
I met a sketch this morning of you, of me,
why you never seen me before?
Speaker 3 (46:15):
No?
Speaker 4 (46:16):
Oh, oh.
Speaker 5 (46:21):
Took my sketch from my pocket and I showed it
to him. As he looked, the expression on his face altered,
and it became more.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
And more like that of the man I had drawn.
Speaker 6 (46:33):
It was only the day before yesterday, and I told
Mariah there was no such things as ghosts.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
Neither of us had seen a ghost. But I knew
what he meant. Then I spoke to.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Him, you probably heard my name some place.
Speaker 7 (46:50):
Yes, you must have seen me somewhere and forgotten, as
he will you and Clacton On sea a last at July.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Now, I've never been to Glacton in my life.
Speaker 7 (47:04):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Then we were silent for some time again, and we
stood bare, looking at one another, and at the two
dates on the gravestone, and the birth one was right,
and the other was the.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Day coming shride and have some shapper.
Speaker 5 (47:39):
His wife was a strange little woman who was pallid,
with the look of those who lived their lives indoors.
Her husband introduced me as a friend of his who
was an artist, and informed her that I was staying
to supper. I spoke, making some comment that I hoped
I would not be an intrusion, and she looked up
at me.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
She said, you have a pleasing voice, mister Widencroft, and you'll.
Speaker 5 (48:05):
Welcome in my own.
Speaker 6 (48:07):
I'm sorry Charles has not brought you here before.
Speaker 5 (48:21):
Very little was said during the meal, and after the
sardines and water pless had been removed, she walked over
to a cupboard. She took down a thin black book,
and as she handed it to me, she spoke, would you.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Read aloud?
Speaker 5 (48:42):
Mister Withdencroft. Puzzled, I looked down at the book, which
she'd opened and placed before me. It was a very
tiny book the Prophet. It was called by an author
unknown to me, the straight Eastern name Khalil Gebrad. My
(49:05):
eyes fell across the page, and suddenly I was reading
aloud as she'd asked me to. Then Almetris spoke, saying,
we would ask now of death, and he said, you
would know the secret of death, But how shall you
(49:27):
find it unless you seek it in the heart of life.
The owl, whose night bound eyes are blind under the
day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would
indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide
unto the body of life for life and death are one,
(49:50):
even as the river and the sea are one. In
the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent
knowledge of the beyond. And, like seeds dreaming beneath the snow,
your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in
(50:13):
them is hidden the gate to eternity. Your fear of
death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he
stands before the king, whose hand is to be laid
upon him in honor. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath
his trembling that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling? For
(50:39):
what is it to die but to stand naked in
the wind and to melt into the sun. And what
is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath
from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand
and seek God unencumbered. Only when you drink from the
river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you
(51:04):
have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limb, then shall
you truly dance. When I looked up, mister Atkinson had gone,
(51:34):
but his wife stood before me, and as she took
the book, she spoke.
Speaker 7 (51:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (51:46):
Then I went outside and I found Atkinson sitting on
the gravestone and smoking.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
He looked up at.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
Me, short, hot.
Speaker 7 (51:57):
A man's not responsible for what he might do in
this each. Hey, she never asked anyone to read aloud before.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
And then we talked about the sketch again.
Speaker 6 (52:11):
He looked at it, and likeness is me all right?
On trial?
Speaker 5 (52:17):
You must excuse my asking. But do you know of
anything you've done for which you could be put on trial?
Speaker 4 (52:22):
Dear, I'm got nothing, not yet.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
He got up, fetched a can from the porch, and
he began to water the flowers.
Speaker 7 (52:33):
Twice a day regular in the hot weather. And then
he sometimes gets the better, the delicate ones and ferns.
Good lord, they could never stand it.
Speaker 4 (52:44):
Where do you live?
Speaker 5 (52:46):
I told him my address. It would take an hour's
quick walk to get back home. Then he stopped watering,
and he faced me squarely.
Speaker 7 (52:56):
It's like wish we look at the matter straight. If
you go around tonight and take your chance of accidents,
a cart may run over you, And whose banana skins
and orange peals, to say nothing of fallen letters?
Speaker 5 (53:11):
He spoke of the improbability with an intense seriousness that
would have been.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Laugh about six hours before, but I did not laugh.
Speaker 7 (53:20):
The best thing we can do is for you to
stay here till twelve o'clock.
Speaker 6 (53:25):
Then it'll be tomorrow to see.
Speaker 7 (53:28):
We'll go upstairs and snowy sho it may be cool
out inshide.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
To my surprise, I agreed.
Speaker 5 (53:45):
We are sitting in a long, low room beneath the eaves.
Atkinson has sent his wife to bed. He himself is
busy sharpening some tools and a little oil stone, smoking
(54:08):
one of my cigars. The the wire, and as I
look at my sketch before me, I suddenly see the
fuzzy outline of what the man in the picture holds
in his hands. While I had not been able to
sketch it before, I am able to do so.
Speaker 4 (54:28):
Now it is a chisel.
Speaker 5 (54:34):
It is stained with dark liquid. The sketch is completed.
Now the air seems charged with thunder, and I hear
it in the distance. It is ominous, but it carries
the hope of rain. Perhaps this daminable heat will be
(54:56):
broken soon, and the day will soon be over. It
is close to twelve. In seconds, the day will be over.
I am writing this at a shaky table before the
open window. The leg is cracked, and Atkinson, who seems
(55:21):
a handy man with his tools, is going to mend
it as soon as he has finished putting an edge
on his chissel. There. It is twelve. The day is over,
(55:50):
and I shall be going home. But the heat is stifling.
(56:15):
This heat is enough to send a man mad.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
This is Robert Montgomery again, with thanks to Barry Kroger
and Dennis Howey for superb performances in August heat, and
to Meldonelli, who adopted W. F.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Harvey's story.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
Our appreciation and our applause too, goes to the cast
of both plays who made our weather experiments so very successful.
Next week we'll turn a full hour's attention again to
the English scene and to Emlyn William's great play Night
Must Fall. You'll meet Missus Bramson, Olivia Graine, and Hubert Laurie,
(57:27):
and you'll meet Danny.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Danny with the quick.
Speaker 3 (57:29):
Smile, happy, cheerful Danny whose appearance is as pleasant as
the melody that's always.
Speaker 13 (57:35):
With him, Mighty like a rose. That's Danny, Yes, that's Danny.
Speaker 3 (57:56):
Next week with Dame May Wittie, Heather Angel, Writy and
myself and with Night Must Fall, will again hope to
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 12 (58:06):
Good night, Mister Montgomery. May currently be seen in the
Universal International production Ride The Pink Course. Wet Saturday by
John Collier was adapted for suspense by Harold Medford. August
Heat by W. F. Harvey was adapted for suspense by
Mel Dinelly. Both were directed by Anton M. Leader and
(58:30):
produced by Robert Montgomery. Blud Gluskin is our musical director
and conductor, and Lucian Morroweck composes the original scores. Next
week here, Night Must Fall, starring Robert Montgomery with Dame May, Whittie,
Heather Angel, and Richard Nay on Radio's outstanding theater of Thrills,
One hour of Sharspain, A program you won't want a miss.
(59:21):
That's report Card, the next production of the famed CBS
documentary Unit. Overcrowded schools, out of date equipment, and a
shortage of trained teachers. All of these are contributing to
a breakdown in American education. For a dramatic report here
Report Card, Wednesday, March twenty fourth, Over many of these stations.
This is CBS where ninety nine million people gather every
(59:42):
week the Columbia Broadcasting System
Suspense, Radio's outstanding theater of thrills bring you an hour,
a full sixty minutes of suspense, directed by Anton M.
Leida and produced by Robert Montgomery. Tonight two great suspense dramas,
(00:36):
John Collier's.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Wet Saturday and W. F.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Harvey's August Heat, performed by two distinguished casts of radio actors.
Two complete stories joined in one hour of suspense.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
This is Robert Montgomery with a forecast, a weather forecast.
If you doubt my qualifications as a meteorologist, I don't
blame you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I have none, but I do.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Have more specific information than the chap in Walt Mason's
poem The Statesman. Perhaps you remember the Statesman throws his
shoulders back and straightens out his tie and says, my friends,
unless it rains, the weather will be dry.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I can do much better than that. Even with the
same elements rain and dry weather, I can improve on
that forecast. For the next hour. I predict rain followed
by a sudden hot spell. Further, and you can check
me on this. I predict that the rain will fall
in the first half of the hour, and that the
second half will be given over.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Exclusively to heat.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I guess you could say, I predict weather in two
acts unusual Weather too, a unique combination of Wet Saturday
and August Heat. Each of these dramas is set in England,
each is complete in itself, and each is conditioned by
its own weather and by its own suspense. Because these
(02:02):
plays exemplify two classic studies in radio suspense drama, we
have selected established radio stars to interpret them, Dennis Hoey
as mister Princey in Wet Saturday and Barry Kroger as
James Clarence Witherencroft in August Heat, with supporting casts of
distinguished radio players. Next week, when we present the suspense
(02:23):
version of the screen drama Night Must Fall, we shall
feature a cast of motion picture actors. As Danny I
will be joined by Dame May Whittie in her original
role of Missus Bramson together with Heather Angel and Richard May.
But now to the first half of our show and
my prediction for rain. With the performance of Dennis Hoey
(02:45):
as mister Princey and with John Collier's English classic Wet Saturday,
we again hope to keep you in suspend on this
(03:07):
rainy afternoon. We should like you to meet the Princey
family and their visitor.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They are, of course.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
At home, Missus Princey, daughter Mellicent, George the sun and air,
sprawled on a couch, and finally, Mister Princey.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
Biting on a dry pipe.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Their living room is dull and overstuffed, rain beats at
the windows. They are any middle class family at home
on a wet day, except for one small item. As
you sit with them in the living room, you can
see through the door to the sun porch a pair
of man's feet encased in black boots. They look like
(03:51):
the feet of a er curate.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
There is a tenseness in the room. The air is
charged with excitement, but the feet are very still.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
Don't keep staring at them. Listen to me, all of you.
Don't you see.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
They'd hang her, That's what they'd do. They'd hang her. Oh, Fred,
it's too awful. It's catastrophe.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
A supposedly sweet, gentle, intelligent girl, respected love for the
whole village doing a thing like this. Think of the publicity,
the disgrace. You think I'm going to resign from the
bench the vestry sell off, live in some foggy hotel abroad.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
Oh no, no, I'll kill myself.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
I will, I.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
Will any morn.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
You have been the governed me required.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
You'd be so bad if it were you, George. Everybody
in the village knows you're not responsible. George, get off
that couch, sit up on your spine. It might be
of a little use here if you could.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Think of I say, Governor, this isn't my funeral.
Speaker 7 (05:08):
As long as I can remember, George, you've been a
trial and a tribulation.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
I can't stand it.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I can't.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
You've gotta stand it, my dear. Can that a sthetical
note out of your voice? You hear, Yes, we are.
We are talking.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
About the weather.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Now, George, George.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
If he fell down the old well, saying, striking his
head several times, what about him?
Speaker 5 (05:40):
I really don't know.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Don't be an ass. I'm asking you to think.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
You'd have had to hit the side several times and
thirty or forty feet and at all the correct angles.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
No, I'm afraid not. I'm afraid not.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
We'll have to go over it all again, medicine, No, father,
and no, I couldn't, Melicent. We must go over it
all again.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Your face.
Speaker 6 (06:13):
Facts matter with him, lying as though you're pretending it's
a pain.
Speaker 7 (06:16):
He might ha Melicent, Oh, stop that shaking stopping here.
You must stop it. You must keep your voice quiet, Medicent, Medicent,
we are talking of the weather.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Now we will proceed.
Speaker 8 (06:35):
I can't, I can't boots.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
You should have thought of that, Millie.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I'm not moving.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Set up, George and stop shuffling your Feeture now, Melicent,
look at me. Answer me truthfully, you hear answer me.
You were on the Crooky card. Yes, you who knew
you were in love with this Richard cured.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
All the whole village. They've been sniggering about it in the
pub for three years. Shut up, George, listened, we continue.
You were on the Krooky cord. Yes, you were putting
the Crookie set in its box.
Speaker 8 (07:16):
Yes, it was starting to rain. I was carrying the
balls and the mallets into the sun port. The box
was there.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
You heard someone enter the garden gate and come across
the yard.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Yes, could you see who it was?
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Not?
Speaker 7 (07:29):
At first?
Speaker 8 (07:29):
I was going into the sun port. I threw down
all the mallets, the red one and turned around.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
It was with us.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yes, so you called him?
Speaker 7 (07:38):
Yes loudly? Did you call him loudly? Could anyone have heard?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No?
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Father, I'm sure not.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
I didn't really call him, I just poke his name.
He saw me when I went to the door. He
just waved his hand and came over.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
How can I find out whether there was anyone about
whether he could have been?
Speaker 8 (07:58):
Said, I am sure not, father, I'm quite sure right.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
So you went on to the sun potch, Yes, it
was raining hot. Then what did he say?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
He said, hello, Milly, and excuse him coming in the
back way.
Speaker 9 (08:12):
But he set out to walk over to Lyston.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Yes, and he said, passing the park, he had.
Speaker 8 (08:18):
Seen the house and suddenly thought of me, and he
thought he'd just look in for a minute. He had
something he wanted to tell me.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
He said.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
He was so happy and he wanted me.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
To share it.
Speaker 8 (08:31):
It heard from the bishop that he was to have
a vicarage, and it wasn't only that, it meant that
he could marry. And he began to stutter and get
off confused, And of course I thought.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
He meant me, don't tell me what you thought, tell
me exactly what he said, and nothing else.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Well, well, stop crying a luxury.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
You can no longer fald.
Speaker 8 (08:54):
Tell me what happened, he said, He said, No, it
wasn't me, It's.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
It's Ella bragged and Davis.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
He was sorry and all that, and then he went
to go, and then I went mad.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
He turned his back.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I had the red mallet of the.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Croquet, said in my hand.
Speaker 9 (09:23):
I'd forgotten to drop it.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
When he came in, I went, did you shout or scream?
I mean as you hit him?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
No?
Speaker 6 (09:31):
No, I'm sure I didn't. Did he come on?
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Speak up?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No? Father?
Speaker 6 (09:36):
And then I threw it down. I came straight in here.
I went to look for mother. That's all my poor
and you sure no one else was about?
Speaker 5 (09:43):
No, no one, no leave the child friend or.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Not such a child made.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
I had no idea quiet time drinking.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
You see, George, he probably told people he is going
to Lyston. Certainly no one knows he came here. And
he didn't decide until he crossed the park. Might have
been at tapped in the woods. Just consider every detail.
Cure it with his head better, and curre it with
his head bendin. He would want to kill with us.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
When I would with pleasure.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Captain Smart.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Captain Smart said down, pray mustn't get up for me,
missus Pincy, you are the medicine my worm, just being neighborly.
On a bad day, I wanted to ask you about
those Dallier bulbs pincy Mm took a short cut on
a cut of the rain and walked right in.
Speaker 7 (10:46):
And you wouldn't mind, father Dear, We can have our
little jokes. Don't pretend to be shocked this way. Smart
If this Jefface in the fireplace sat down, ladder.
Speaker 10 (10:58):
The curtains on the sun porch, it looks so gloomy
out there, and might as well shut the rain.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
We were just talking about a little theoretical parson killing
Smollett like young people these days like thrillers, and.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
For a sonicide justifiable PARSONO side? Have you heard about
Ella Bragdon Davis? I shall be most properly laughed at.
Why where should you be laughed at?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Smollett?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Oh? I had a shot in that direction myself. She
half said yes too, And you heard she told most
people that look as though I got turned down for
a white rat and a dog collar.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Too bad?
Speaker 7 (11:43):
Oh well, fortune of war, yeah, I had fortunes of war.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Odd how it happens? Isn't he sit down?
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Smartlett?
Speaker 7 (11:54):
Mother Willison console Captain Smotett in your best like conversation.
George and I have sudden to look at outside this
great no bad, very bad.
Speaker 11 (12:07):
At home?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
U a cigarette, captain.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Smaller, thank you?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Last du going out.
Speaker 10 (12:14):
It's something about the old well just off the sun
porch door.
Speaker 9 (12:19):
You know.
Speaker 10 (12:20):
It's a terrible sudden weather seemed to have loosened some
of the stones.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
There's to ben spoils the tennis and cokaine.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I mean a day like this, doesn't it?
Speaker 12 (12:32):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 10 (12:33):
She was practicing out in the crooked quite earlier. That
do pull your chair near the fire, captain.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It was so damp we thought it would be cozy
to light it.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Thank you. I'm quite comfortable.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
I hope you don't feel too bad about Ella Breton Davis.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Well, I can't always winer know, can't understand though, what
you women see in these bloodless clerics.
Speaker 10 (12:58):
Oh, I always thought Miss the Waders is a very
charming man.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
That's quite agreeing. But why should anyone want to marry him?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
You wouldn't want to marry him, would you?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Many? Not?
Speaker 8 (13:11):
No, that is I I are you?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Oh? No, no, couse not not? Yes? Oh, good world man,
you do come in on a fellow sudden man.
Speaker 7 (13:23):
Yes, oh, don't mind this old double bell shut, John,
I have been working on it today. Smollett, May I
have your attention for a minute. There's something on the
sun porch I like to ashow you. Yes, of course, Smollett,
George and I went out to see if we could
(13:44):
shoot some rats which would be driven out of the
old world with the high water, afraid they might get
into the house. From now now you must listen to
me very carefully, very carefully, or you will be sure
what by.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Accident I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
What's God meant to?
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Well?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
You let me ask as you came in, who would
kill Withers?
Speaker 7 (14:12):
You also heard medicine make a comment, an unguarded comment, Well,
what of it? Very little unless you were to hear
that Withers had met a violent.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
End this afternoon, and that, my dear Smallett, is what.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
You are doing to hear what Wethers?
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Then?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yes, well who who killed him?
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Milic Oh? Lord, yes, it's a mess. And of course
you would have remembered and guessed.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Maybe yes, I suppose I shouldn't.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
Therefore, you constantly if you had a problem, why did
she kill him? It's one of those disgusting things, you know,
pitiable too. She deluded herself that he was in love
with her.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Good Heavens Manette.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
As of course, I say he told her about the
Davis girl, Ella Brandon Davis.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
I understand I have no wish as you.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Will comprehend that you should be proved either a lunatic
or a murderess. I could hardly go on living here
after that. Besides, I'm I'm rather fond of Manette. On
the other hand, you know about it, Yes, I say
that makes me a problem.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You're wondering if I could keep my mouth shut if
I promised.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
I'm wondering if I could believe you. But if I promised,
if things went smoothly, yes, but not if there was
any sort of suspicion, any questioning. You would be afraid
of being an accessory.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
I don't know, I do. What are we going to do?
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Well?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I can't see anything else. You would never be fool
enough to do me and can't.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Get rid of two corpses, you know.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
I regard that as a better risk than the other.
Could be an accident, you know, or you and Withers
could both disappear.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
There are possibilities in that.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I see here.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
You can't.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
I can, but there may be a way out. There is, Smollett.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You gave it to me yourself. I I did what.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
You said you would kill Withers. You have a mootive.
Oh look here I was jo listened. Smollett.
Speaker 7 (16:54):
I can't trust you. You must trust me else I
will kill you now in the next minute. I mean
that you can choose between dying and living.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Mm hmmmmm. Gone.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
There's the old well just outside the sunch porch door.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
That's where I'm going to put Withers.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
No one outside knows hees.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Come up here this afternoon.
Speaker 7 (17:19):
No one will ever look in there for him unless
you tell them.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
Now, you must give me evidence that you.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Have murdered with us. I murdered him. I do want that,
so that I should be dead.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
Sure that you will never open your lips on the subject,
I say, what evidence?
Speaker 4 (17:39):
George hit him in the face.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Sure, don't, don't you Captain.
Speaker 9 (17:46):
You shall be more careful of what your teeth did
to my knocking George, you king.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
I am sorry, Scarlett, but there must be traces of
a struggle between you, and then it will not be
altogether safe for you to go.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
To the police.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
George, get the crooked mallet. Take your handkerchief to it.
There it is on the port, captain as your weapon.
As I told you, Smillet, Now you'll just grasp the
end that meshed with his head.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I shall shoot you if you don't.
Speaker 6 (18:22):
It's for good lords, you cannot or.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Right, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
I deposited by the side of the house, outside, out
of the rain.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Of course, I will wait to George.
Speaker 7 (18:36):
First, you'd better pull a few hairs out of his
head and put them under the nails of withers right hand.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
Started to mess up your hair.
Speaker 7 (18:42):
Careful, shut up, smilett.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Smarlett. You may turn round.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Withers is just there in the sun porch the curtain.
Good lord, yes, missy, now you Smollet.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
You've just got to drag him through the door and
dump him in the old web.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
I won't touch all right, stand aside on a rain
show at any place, but I want this shop to
go only one place.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Keep out of this minam is not to show. Wait
a minute, I, Smolet.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Much better go on.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Now go ahead. You have to take him outside.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Keep quiet, George, go on, smartlet go on. You've seen
a dead man before.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Drag him, drag him.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
I'll just hold the gun here to make sure everything
goes all right.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Come away from the window.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
Did don't look?
Speaker 10 (20:02):
Your father is a very resourceful man.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
I'm sure what he's doing is a captain.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I can't.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Oh yeah, you must, dear father, trouble around him a lot.
Your blobbing.
Speaker 8 (20:15):
Don't you call me blubbering?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Yourcition? Everything you knows that Withers came here. Everyone thinks
he walked over to Lyston.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
That's five miles of country to Search'll never look in
our well. You see how safe it is, I guess, sir,
good Heaven's venue dripping wet.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Why didn't you slip on your raincoat? You ready, my dear,
and just a little dear.
Speaker 7 (20:45):
Exactly what you need? Smile the cavity vesty in the
world of water?
Speaker 6 (20:48):
A cold sit down? Won't you sit down?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Don't mind getting a chair?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
Wet cigarette?
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Help yourself. I stick to my pipe. Funny how you
get attached to them? My wife always say.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Oh yes, bridget put the train in front of me.
Here here on the table, I say.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Say, captain, you've capturly.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Eh, I just knocked it.
Speaker 10 (21:15):
Oh, why, how dreadful you're bridget here, give the captain this.
Speaker 6 (21:19):
Car, no, thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I I think I'll be running along if you don't mind.
Speaker 10 (21:24):
Why Captain smartt without any tea?
Speaker 3 (21:26):
If you don't mind, missus pincea, if I could just
have my raincoat, I'll get it for you.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
This is very distressing, Smillet, very as well.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
I'll be all right past sharp. Let me help young
man there.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Better go out the front way, Smillet, walk is dry.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
Let me hold the door for you. And don't worry,
old fellow.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
I don't worry at all.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
I won't oh.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Mmm, nothing serious. I imagine a little rest and you'll
be as right as read. But way, medicine, you're not
looking any too well, not.
Speaker 9 (22:11):
Well at all.
Speaker 10 (22:12):
I'm sure it was a clocking car. Being up joys
and weather like this is is simply fool hearted.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
You saw what happened to Captain Smileet. Come along, dear.
I shall give you a hot foot that and put
you to.
Speaker 10 (22:25):
Bed a couple of days, and then.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Get tenty of rest, medicine, and don't worry about a thing.
That's the best cure.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I guess I'll have a little rest too.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Gum No, it's a fine from there, indeed, it is,
indeed it is, and enjoy yourself. See you later.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
We'll see you all later.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
That pump ain'tumund well? Uh oh, would you give me
the police station?
Speaker 9 (23:03):
The police station? Ye, Sergeant Yancy speaking.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Oh hello, sergeant, this is Princey of Abbatrode.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I believe you know.
Speaker 9 (23:19):
Me, Indeed I do, mister Princey.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
The sergeant.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
A rather horrible thing has just occurred, quite extraordinary murder,
in fact, murder.
Speaker 7 (23:32):
I'm afraid it looks rather bad for well, for a
close friend of ours. Unfortunately we saw him do it.
I think you'd better send someone over right away.
Speaker 9 (23:43):
A man should be there right about now, mister Princey.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
I beg your pardon.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
I say our man should be there now. Constable Martin
has his post right below.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Your house there.
Speaker 9 (23:55):
I just rang him.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
Seems Captain Smollett was with him. Captain Smollett, he reported
some rather queer goings on at your place, but.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
I certainly didn't understand it was murder. Now, just don't
touch anything, mister Princey, and don't worry. Don't worry at all, No,
I won't.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
Sergeant, thank you? Where are you going? Right here? To
stop shouting? We have some visitors. Governor. Yes, I can
see that. Good afternoon, Princey, and small it.
Speaker 7 (24:42):
I say, what a remarkable fellow you are coming back
like this here to reenact the crime.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
Only the one against me.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Prince say so when I get.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
Secured, I leave to you people extraordinary sense of you,
mister Princey, I just said, and look at what's in
your well not to put this not forget all, Yes, Constable,
Captain Smollett was thorough, if nothing else.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
You saw him when he did it, sir, out in
the bed quite We were just returning from a walk.
Speaker 7 (25:11):
Smollett evidently had been laying for the curate, hiding out
there in those bushes of the road.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
I imagine he was never inside this house.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Never never.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And you say, keptain, I say that while I was
inside this house a guest to the family, I was
coerced and dragging the current's body outside and dumping.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
It into the world. Yeah, there, we are not entirely, Constable.
I'll just remove my raincoat.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And demonstrate how damp I got my clothes when I
went outside without it.
Speaker 7 (25:45):
It's interesting, isn't he descried. He He unaptedly removed his
skirt at some point between here and your purse. I
might as well tell you that his weapon, a red croquet,
manages out to the side of the house. I shouldn't
be at all surprised, but you might find his finger
prints all over.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
It, all over the end of the manet, Constable, the
end that mashed Wither's head, but the end I'd have
to grasp in order to do the mashing.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Cavner.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
That's a decent trice, Mollet, but it won't work. Must
be it must be other evidencies it, Constable.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
You undoubtedly find them when you examine the body.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
He means my hair under Wither's finger nails. Well, sir,
you know I happen to notice something when young George's
there opened the door for them.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
If you lump look carefull.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Them, I believe you'll find a few.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Of my precious hairs under his nails too.
Speaker 7 (26:38):
What do you tan, Constable, This is an utter waste
of time so far as violent struggle between Smollett and Withers.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
It's concerned.
Speaker 7 (26:47):
Smollett's face speaks with itself quite eloquently, I believe, oh yes.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
But no more eloquently than your son's knuckle. As you see, Constable,
look at your hair a fresh abrasion.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
He did that on my teeth?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Or did he? But I say?
Speaker 6 (27:05):
Or did he?
Speaker 5 (27:08):
You know?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
He might have done that on with us, Steve. I see,
I see what you mean.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
But I didn't have it. He said that I keep stealing.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Quit me think, Let me think.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
As a matter of fact, George, the more I think
of it, the more I'm convinced it was your voice.
I heard quite a vigorous quarrel, something about the you're
a jilting your sister.
Speaker 6 (27:35):
Don't be ridiculous, Smollett.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Very well, princey.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
If he didn't do it, who did?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
That's what I'd like to know.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
How about it, mister Pincy? That that is a sticker, right?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
George, my boy, it looks like you're elected.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
Makes you What do you mean? I didn't do.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I would.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
I'm not going to tell them playing for her Millie
did it? You did it with that mariet I saw
did prove as?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (28:05):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Her fingerprints on the mallet on the handle.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Why George, don't you remember when you made me touch
the mallet when you picked it up with your handkerchief. George,
I'll show you what that handle green? Oh? Eh, yes,
I could hardly expect you to remember that if you
can't even remember killing the carrot.
Speaker 7 (28:29):
Governor, I told you to keep still, George, I'm thinking, Governor.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
You're not understanding and say, as long as I can remember, George,
you've been a trial and a tribulation to me. Hmm,
you shouldn't have done it. George, you really shouldn't have
done it. Now, let's all have a cup of tea.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Have you like this?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
So ends Wet Saturday, the first of two half hour
stories combining dramatic weather and dramatic suspense. Our thanks to
Dennis Hoy for an excellent performance and to Harold Medford,
who adapted John Collier's story True to our prediction. We
will return in a moment with August heat, a second
study in suspense.
Speaker 12 (29:43):
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And now back to our Hollywood sound stage and to
our producer, mister Robert Montgomery.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The rains of Wet Saturday are gone in their stead.
A blazing sun burns down on the damper of the
English countryside, steaming the atmosphere with a heat that's humid
and smothering, like a tight outer garment, like a shroud,
which cannot be loosed and cast aside. Such a heat
weighs upon your entire being and SAPs from you the
(30:14):
last strength of hope and freedom. This is the setting
for the companion piece to our first drama, Wet Saturday.
This then is August Heat, the second of two suspense dramas.
Complete in this hour and now, with the performance of
Barry Kroger as James Clarence Withencroft and the reappearance of
Denis Hoy as the Man, and with W. F. Harvey's
(30:37):
August Heat, we promise a narrative well calculated to keep you.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
In suspend.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Less.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Stone Road, Clapham, August twenty, nineteen forty seven. I have
had what I believe to be the most remarkable day
(31:22):
in my life, and try the events are still fresh
in my mind. I wish to put them.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Down on paper.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
As clearly as possible. Let me say at the outset
that my name is James Clarence Withincroft. I must remember
that in order to have the full implication of my story.
James Clarence Withincraft. I'm thirty five years old, in perfect health,
(32:10):
never having known a day's illness.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
By profession, I'm an artist not a.
Speaker 7 (32:15):
Very successful one, but I earn enough money by my black.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
And white work to satisfy my necessary ones. My only
near relative sister died.
Speaker 6 (32:26):
Five years ago, so.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
That there is no one in particular to whom I
addressed this manuscript, only you, who might by chance read
it someday. For because of the peculiar circumstance about which
you will soon hear, I have this strong premonition that
I shall never live to tell anyone about it. I
(32:56):
breakfasted this morning at nine at the usual time. It
was no different from any other morning, and after glancing
through the morning paper, I lighted my pipe. I proceeded
to let my mind wander in the hope that I
might chance upon some subject for my pencil. The room,
though door and window were open, was oppressively hot, and
(33:19):
I just made up my mind that the coolest and
most comfortable place in the neighborhood would be the deep
end of the public swimming bath. When, when I was
suddenly shaken, the feelings swept over me such as I'd
never experienced before.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I attempted to rise to my feet.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
How it seemed as though I had suddenly been fastened
to my chair.
Speaker 6 (33:42):
My help and in effort to brace myself.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
And then before I knew what I was doing, my
pencil was in my hand and I.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Began to draw.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
It was as though someone had taken my hand and
was moving across the paper swiftly and false hoax. And
then I seemed to take over, and my hand, under
its own power, began to draw. So intent was I on.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
The sketch which began to appear before me.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
I soon forgot the oppressive heat, the roughness of the table,
everything was forgotten, this frantic feeling. The sketch must be
finished as soon as possible. Huh. I had no idea
how long I worked until I heard the clock of
(34:39):
Saint Jude's in the distance. It was four o'clock and
I had started just after breakfast. Now, for the first
time since i'd begun, I actually seemed to see what
I had been sketching.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I was surprised.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
The final result was, I felt sure the best thing
I had ever done. He show a criminal in the
dark immediately after the judge had pronounced sentence.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
The man was fat, enormously fat.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
The flesh hung in rolls about his chin that creased
his huge, stumpy neck. He was clean shaven, perhaps, I
should say a few days before. He must have been
clean shaven, and he was almost bald. He stood there
before the judge, his short, clumsy fingers clasping the rail,
(35:34):
looking straight in front of him. The feeling that his
expression conveyed was not so much one of horror as
of utter absolute collapse. There seemed nothing in the man
strong enough to sustain that mountain of flesh. And then
(35:56):
I saw that the sketch was not complete, for the
man's other hand seemed to be clutching an instrument of
some kind of weapon, but had not been completed. I
had made this sketch, yet I had no recollection of
what I had intended the man to carry in his
other hand. I took up my pencil again and I
(36:16):
attempted to fill in the fuzzy outline. It was useless.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
It was as though my fingers had suddenly turned a lead.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
And I sat down.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I felt the.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
Moisture slowly forming on my forehead, and I was conscious
of the oppressive heat again. And then I knew that
there would be no finishing of the sketch at any rate.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Not for the moment. So I rolled up the sketch
and without quite knowing why I placed it in my pocket.
Parte of my peculiar inspiration.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
I was filled with the rare sense of happiness which
the knowledge of a good thing well done gives.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I believe that I set.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
Out with the idea of calling upon Trenton, for I
remember walking along Litton Street and turning to the right
along Gilcrist Road at the bottom of the hill, where
the men were at work on the new tram lines.
From there onward I have only the vaguest recollection of
where I went through parks along crowded streets, always fully
(37:40):
conscious of the awful heat came up from the dusty
asphalt pavement as an almost palpable wave.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And I remembered too.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
The hollow sound of my footsteps as I moved along.
Although walking aimlessly, I somehow knew that there was a
something to which I was drawn. I longed for the
thunder promised by the great banks of copper colored clouds
that hung low over the western sky.
Speaker 6 (38:14):
I must have walked five or six miles.
Speaker 5 (38:16):
I've really no idea how far I walked. When a
small boy roused me from my reverie twenty minutes to seven.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
Thanks isn't it yes?
Speaker 5 (38:32):
When he left me, I began to take stock of
my bearings. I found myself standing before a gate that
led into a yard bordered by a strip of thirsty earth.
There were flowers purple stark and scarlet geranium, and great
numbers of bees droned over them. I stood looking down
(38:53):
at them a moment.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Then for some reason, I looked up over the entrance
to the place.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
There was a board with the inscription Charles Atkinson, Monumental
mason worker in English and Italian marble. From the yard
itself came a cheering whistle, the noise of hammer blows,
(39:25):
and the cold sound of steel meeting stone. A sudden
impulse made me enter and went in the direction of
the noise. There was a man sitting with his back
towards me, who was busy at work on a slab
of curiously vaned marble. He was not conscious of my
presence as I stood there watching him for some time. Then,
(39:50):
without turning, his hammer stopped in mid air as he
was about to.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Bring it down on his chisel.
Speaker 5 (39:57):
He looked up, and then he held his position a
moment before turning. But I knew that he was aware
of my presence, and when he turned I saw his face.
It was although I had never seen him before, it
was the face of the man I had been drawing. Yes,
(40:28):
it was the face of the man whose sketch was
in my pocket. He sat there on his low stool,
huge and elephantine, he sweat pouring from his scalp, not speaking.
Then he took a red silk handkerchief and he mopped
his brow. Although this face that looked up at me
was the same as my sketch, the expression was absolutely different.
(40:52):
And suddenly the puzzled expression left his face, and he
smiled as if we were old friends. And he walked
over him and he took my hand.
Speaker 6 (41:00):
Good day, sir, Good day.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
I'm sorry to intrude you're at all.
Speaker 5 (41:06):
Everything's hot and glary outside. Yeah, this seems there's an
oasis in the wilderness.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (41:11):
About the oasis, but it certainly is hot. Take a seat, shirt.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
He pointed to the end of the gravestone on which
he was at work, and I said, down, very hot.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
It's a beautiful piece of stone you've got.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Hold of there.
Speaker 6 (41:23):
Yeah, you know, wait, it is.
Speaker 7 (41:25):
The surface is as fine as anything you could wish
but there's a big floor at the back of the way.
Don't expect you'd ever notice it.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I shouldn't think so.
Speaker 7 (41:33):
Ah, I could never really make a good job of
a bit of marble like this. Be all right in
the summer right now, wouldn't mind have blasted eat? But
wait till the winter comes.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Winter.
Speaker 7 (41:45):
Yes, there's nothing like a bit of fust to find
out the weak points in stone and gravestone.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
You see, Oh, I see, then what's this one for?
Speaker 7 (41:55):
He'd hardly believe me if I was to tell it's
for exhibition, But it's a true artists of exhibition, of
grocers and butcher's. Well, we as of do all the
ladies little dead stones, you know.
Speaker 5 (42:09):
He went on to talk of marbles, which sort of
marble best withstood wind and rain, and which were easiest
to work. Then of his garden, and a new sort
of carnation he'd bought the end of. Every other minute
he would drop his tools, wipe his shining head.
Speaker 7 (42:28):
This heat, this heat spelled. I mean it's not responsible
for what he does in this.
Speaker 5 (42:35):
Heat, I said little, for I felt uneasy. There is
something unnatural, uncanny in all of this, The feeling that
i'd experienced it all before, exactly as I was experiencing
it now. The oppressive heat, the fragrance of the purple
stark in the air, the conversation about the marble, the flowers,
(43:00):
everything as though I'd experienced it before, And yet I
knew that I'd never even been in this section of
the town before. I tried to persuade myself that at
least I had seen him before, that his face, unknown
to me, had found a place in some out of
the way corner of my memory. But I knew that
I was practicing little more than a plausible piece of
(43:22):
self deception. As I sat there quietly watching him, he
looked up at.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
Me and he said, here, what do you think of it?
Speaker 5 (43:33):
He said it with an air of evident pride of
a job well done. I could sense that he was
experiencing the same feeling I had experienced when I'd finished
my sketch. Then he got up with a sigh of relief.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
What what ain't it?
Speaker 5 (43:52):
I was seated in such a position that I was
unable to see his work, and for some reason I
didn't move. Suddenly he began to read what he'd carved
on the tombstone. He spoke deliberately and with a flat voice.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
In the midst of life.
Speaker 7 (44:07):
We are in deaf born January eighteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
I looked up with a start. This man had read
my exact birthdate.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
He passed away very suddenly, on August twentieth, nineteen forty six.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
That's today.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
I usually used the present date on these exhibition stones.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
De easily put a name on them too.
Speaker 7 (44:39):
Yes, sacred to the memory of James clans Vencroft.
Speaker 5 (45:00):
I just sat there in silence. The sound of birds
and crickets seemed loud in my ears as we stood there,
looking at each other, saying nothing.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
And then he mopped his brow again.
Speaker 5 (45:18):
Hot hot, I was finally able.
Speaker 7 (45:22):
To speak, Well, whether'd you see that name or I
didn't see it anywhere? I wanted some name, and I
put down the first one that came into me. Eight.
Speaker 5 (45:33):
It's a strange coincidence, but it happens to be mine.
It's your name, your James Clarence within Craft.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yes, whoa.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
Angela in the dates?
Speaker 2 (45:54):
I can only answer for the birthday. It's correct, it's.
Speaker 6 (46:00):
Sir, it's a run go.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Hall.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
I met a sketch this morning of you, of me,
why you never seen me before?
Speaker 3 (46:15):
No?
Speaker 4 (46:16):
Oh, oh.
Speaker 5 (46:21):
Took my sketch from my pocket and I showed it
to him. As he looked, the expression on his face altered,
and it became more.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
And more like that of the man I had drawn.
Speaker 6 (46:33):
It was only the day before yesterday, and I told
Mariah there was no such things as ghosts.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
Neither of us had seen a ghost. But I knew
what he meant. Then I spoke to.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Him, you probably heard my name some place.
Speaker 7 (46:50):
Yes, you must have seen me somewhere and forgotten, as
he will you and Clacton On sea a last at July.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Now, I've never been to Glacton in my life.
Speaker 7 (47:04):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Then we were silent for some time again, and we
stood bare, looking at one another, and at the two
dates on the gravestone, and the birth one was right,
and the other was the.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Day coming shride and have some shapper.
Speaker 5 (47:39):
His wife was a strange little woman who was pallid,
with the look of those who lived their lives indoors.
Her husband introduced me as a friend of his who
was an artist, and informed her that I was staying
to supper. I spoke, making some comment that I hoped
I would not be an intrusion, and she looked up
at me.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
She said, you have a pleasing voice, mister Widencroft, and you'll.
Speaker 5 (48:05):
Welcome in my own.
Speaker 6 (48:07):
I'm sorry Charles has not brought you here before.
Speaker 5 (48:21):
Very little was said during the meal, and after the
sardines and water pless had been removed, she walked over
to a cupboard. She took down a thin black book,
and as she handed it to me, she spoke, would you.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Read aloud?
Speaker 5 (48:42):
Mister Withdencroft. Puzzled, I looked down at the book, which
she'd opened and placed before me. It was a very
tiny book the Prophet. It was called by an author
unknown to me, the straight Eastern name Khalil Gebrad. My
(49:05):
eyes fell across the page, and suddenly I was reading
aloud as she'd asked me to. Then Almetris spoke, saying,
we would ask now of death, and he said, you
would know the secret of death, But how shall you
(49:27):
find it unless you seek it in the heart of life.
The owl, whose night bound eyes are blind under the
day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would
indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide
unto the body of life for life and death are one,
(49:50):
even as the river and the sea are one. In
the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent
knowledge of the beyond. And, like seeds dreaming beneath the snow,
your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in
(50:13):
them is hidden the gate to eternity. Your fear of
death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he
stands before the king, whose hand is to be laid
upon him in honor. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath
his trembling that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling? For
(50:39):
what is it to die but to stand naked in
the wind and to melt into the sun. And what
is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath
from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand
and seek God unencumbered. Only when you drink from the
river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you
(51:04):
have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limb, then shall
you truly dance. When I looked up, mister Atkinson had gone,
(51:34):
but his wife stood before me, and as she took
the book, she spoke.
Speaker 7 (51:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (51:46):
Then I went outside and I found Atkinson sitting on
the gravestone and smoking.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
He looked up at.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
Me, short, hot.
Speaker 7 (51:57):
A man's not responsible for what he might do in
this each. Hey, she never asked anyone to read aloud before.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
And then we talked about the sketch again.
Speaker 6 (52:11):
He looked at it, and likeness is me all right?
On trial?
Speaker 5 (52:17):
You must excuse my asking. But do you know of
anything you've done for which you could be put on trial?
Speaker 4 (52:22):
Dear, I'm got nothing, not yet.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
He got up, fetched a can from the porch, and
he began to water the flowers.
Speaker 7 (52:33):
Twice a day regular in the hot weather. And then
he sometimes gets the better, the delicate ones and ferns.
Good lord, they could never stand it.
Speaker 4 (52:44):
Where do you live?
Speaker 5 (52:46):
I told him my address. It would take an hour's
quick walk to get back home. Then he stopped watering,
and he faced me squarely.
Speaker 7 (52:56):
It's like wish we look at the matter straight. If
you go around tonight and take your chance of accidents,
a cart may run over you, And whose banana skins
and orange peals, to say nothing of fallen letters?
Speaker 5 (53:11):
He spoke of the improbability with an intense seriousness that
would have been.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Laugh about six hours before, but I did not laugh.
Speaker 7 (53:20):
The best thing we can do is for you to
stay here till twelve o'clock.
Speaker 6 (53:25):
Then it'll be tomorrow to see.
Speaker 7 (53:28):
We'll go upstairs and snowy sho it may be cool
out inshide.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
To my surprise, I agreed.
Speaker 5 (53:45):
We are sitting in a long, low room beneath the eaves.
Atkinson has sent his wife to bed. He himself is
busy sharpening some tools and a little oil stone, smoking
(54:08):
one of my cigars. The the wire, and as I
look at my sketch before me, I suddenly see the
fuzzy outline of what the man in the picture holds
in his hands. While I had not been able to
sketch it before, I am able to do so.
Speaker 4 (54:28):
Now it is a chisel.
Speaker 5 (54:34):
It is stained with dark liquid. The sketch is completed.
Now the air seems charged with thunder, and I hear
it in the distance. It is ominous, but it carries
the hope of rain. Perhaps this daminable heat will be
(54:56):
broken soon, and the day will soon be over. It
is close to twelve. In seconds, the day will be over.
I am writing this at a shaky table before the
open window. The leg is cracked, and Atkinson, who seems
(55:21):
a handy man with his tools, is going to mend
it as soon as he has finished putting an edge
on his chissel. There. It is twelve. The day is over,
(55:50):
and I shall be going home. But the heat is stifling.
(56:15):
This heat is enough to send a man mad.
Speaker 3 (56:54):
This is Robert Montgomery again, with thanks to Barry Kroger
and Dennis Howey for superb performances in August heat, and
to Meldonelli, who adopted W. F.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Harvey's story.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
Our appreciation and our applause too, goes to the cast
of both plays who made our weather experiments so very successful.
Next week we'll turn a full hour's attention again to
the English scene and to Emlyn William's great play Night
Must Fall. You'll meet Missus Bramson, Olivia Graine, and Hubert Laurie,
(57:27):
and you'll meet Danny.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Danny with the quick.
Speaker 3 (57:29):
Smile, happy, cheerful Danny whose appearance is as pleasant as
the melody that's always.
Speaker 13 (57:35):
With him, Mighty like a rose. That's Danny, Yes, that's Danny.
Speaker 3 (57:56):
Next week with Dame May Wittie, Heather Angel, Writy and
myself and with Night Must Fall, will again hope to
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 12 (58:06):
Good night, Mister Montgomery. May currently be seen in the
Universal International production Ride The Pink Course. Wet Saturday by
John Collier was adapted for suspense by Harold Medford. August
Heat by W. F. Harvey was adapted for suspense by
Mel Dinelly. Both were directed by Anton M. Leader and
(58:30):
produced by Robert Montgomery. Blud Gluskin is our musical director
and conductor, and Lucian Morroweck composes the original scores. Next
week here, Night Must Fall, starring Robert Montgomery with Dame May, Whittie,
Heather Angel, and Richard Nay on Radio's outstanding theater of Thrills,
One hour of Sharspain, A program you won't want a miss.
(59:21):
That's report Card, the next production of the famed CBS
documentary Unit. Overcrowded schools, out of date equipment, and a
shortage of trained teachers. All of these are contributing to
a breakdown in American education. For a dramatic report here
Report Card, Wednesday, March twenty fourth, Over many of these stations.
This is CBS where ninety nine million people gather every
(59:42):
week the Columbia Broadcasting System
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