October 4, 2025 • 29 mins
Suspense was one of the most popular and successful radio series during it's run of over 900 episodes, spanning 1940-1962. Guest stars included Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Marlene Dietrich and Humphrey Bogart. The plots were mostly engaging crime dramas, science fiction and some horror - usually with a surprise ending.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Auto Light and it's ninety eight thousand dealers bring you,
mister Herbert Marshall. In Tonight's presentation of Suspense, Tonight Auto
Light presents the story of a man who, having no fear,
attempted his own death, a new dramatization of C. E.
(00:28):
Montague's action Our star, mister Herbert Marshall, what you here already?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, sir, mister Wilcox is Johnny Plumb check time gear?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So it is cold weather is coming and that means
Johnny's around to remind you motorists to get that car
prepared for winter now with a tune up, change of
oil and grease any free.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And don't forget to check those important spark plugs.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Too, Yes, sir Johnny, because the spark plugs at the
very heart of a car's ignition system. When they're right,
you'll start quicker and surer every time, even in coldest weather.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So visit your autolite spark plug.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Dealer, right Johnny. He's a tune up expert and a
specialist on spark plug cleaning and adjustment, and if replacements
are needed, he'll recommend a new set of ignition engineered
autolite spark plugs like the amazing Double Life Resist spark plug.
To quickly learn the location of your nearest Autolite spark
plug dealer, phone Western Union by number and ask for
(01:29):
operator twenty five. And remember, from bumper to tail light,
you're always right with auto light. And now Autolite presents
Action starring mister Herbert Marshall, hoping once again to keep
you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It happened very simply one Monday morning. I woke up
and there was a slight numbness all on my right side,
the arm fingers, a good deal along the leg rathereless
in my foot, and just a little in the head.
I lay still for a moment to let it pass off,
(02:17):
but it didn't, and I suddenly knew that it wasn't
going to I'd heard about such things. I were chaps
of the club the office. Now that happened to me.
I remember getting up michauld still stand, walk dress, some shave,
(02:38):
but the numbness went on.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
That morning.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Instead of walking, I took the tram to the office
to the pleasant autumn day, and there were a lot
of young people aboard, healthy young people. The conductor moved
down the passageway collecting fares.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
On Avenue. Please, Oh now we don't take I'm sorry.
I thought that's all right, said, does rather look like silver?
Speaker 6 (03:11):
And ah he is. That's happen a bit, sir.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
His taptain simple, they were perfect, and I had a
new care now site too.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Was that going sight.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Touched the whole sensory business, losing precision entering on the
long slope to decay. I don't think I got much
work done that morning going away. What I did was
good for me, kept my mind off things. I had
a quarter to one appointment with an old friend, Adrian Tillet,
who I hadn't seen for a month or two. We'd
(03:47):
arranged to meet at my club. I was a little
early and sat in my usual place to wait for him.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
I say, Bill, yes, did you hear about killor House?
And they brought his bildy back to England.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
As I know that you've.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
Done some mountaineering yourself, haven't you a bit last? If
I know what you fellows see in it? Bloody awful
way to die. If you ask me fallen off a mountain.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I suppose there are worst ways. Try to tell that
to his wife.
Speaker 7 (04:14):
Well, I'm feeling a bit peckish.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Will you join me for lunch? Thanks very much. I'm
waiting for someone, all right?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Hello, Ben, I'm sorry to keep you waiting.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
You haven't just got to hear myself.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Hold on, Teddy, I see you look c D feeling
all right?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Yes, splendid. Come along, we'll have a bade to meet good.
I'm famished.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
It's better.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Thanks. What about you?
Speaker 5 (04:56):
And I don't think so?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Look here?
Speaker 8 (05:00):
Well, is anything wrong? I mean, well, you look like
a dying.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Duck in a thunderstorm.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
Something I can do, I'm afraid now serious, I suppose
it is in a way. If you want to talk
about it, I might as well.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I woke up this morning and I felt numb the
right side had some sort of a stroop during the night.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Have you been to the doctor?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
No, I don't think I shall. You know as well
as I do what you'd say.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
My dear boy, you can't let a thing like that
just go.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I don't intend to be an invalid for the rest
of my life till it. I've seen this happen to people,
so I view end up in a bath chair being
fed by some herod and nurse who won't even let
your white barone knows those things.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 5 (05:52):
I don't know yet. The big thing seems to be
how long? How long was it? Things like this take.
Speaker 8 (06:01):
Men like you. You live to be one hundred. You're
an active chapter. There's no reason on earth why you
That's just it. I don't follow.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I don't want to live to any age like this.
Speaker 8 (06:11):
I say, why not come up to my place? On Friday,
spent the weekend change of air.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Well, do you good?
Speaker 5 (06:19):
No, I really don't think. I don't be in your Dear.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
Marjorie's dying to see you. She she always complains that
you've given us up. Now I'm going to expect you.
The stream's awfully good this year. We'll do some fishing, right.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Right, Thanks thanks to it.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
The rest of the week passed, and the sensation of
numbness remained with me, sometimes a bit more or less
at nights I thought, I thought a great deal. On Friday,
I drove down to Weybridge. It was obviously Tillat had
told his wife about me, and didn't matter much except
(07:03):
I found myself annoyed at her solicitude. I suppose she
couldn't help it, but it was one of the things
that definitely made up my mind. I knew what I
was going to do, and I told my old friend.
We were on the bank of the stream. He just
landed a nice trout and we sat down for a smoke.
(07:28):
I've made up my mind.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
What to do? Tillet.
Speaker 8 (07:31):
Oh, yes, I wondered, had an idea you were up
to something?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Who be a rather quiet?
Speaker 5 (07:39):
You know? I'm sorry?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Is it any better?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Now? I'm about to say.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I had a dream just before I came down here.
I was climbing. It was on a crag that became
steeper and steeper.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
As I went up.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
First it was vertical in it overhung more and more
until I was actually climbing a reverse slope.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Must be awkward. It's been done, you know, has it? Yes?
I bet about it, but I've never done it myself.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
What happened in your dream?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I fell woke up. I thought a lot about it.
It's that margin of safety.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
One does a lot of climbing, and if you're any
good at all, you don't slip in the very difficult places.
But supposing you you pair away at the margin of safety.
An experiment, what could you do before the margin was gone?
Speaker 5 (08:31):
If you didn't care.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I don't know. I haven't tried climbing.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
If one cut out the old fear of death, one
could do some amazing things.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Is that what you're going to do?
Speaker 5 (08:41):
I think so? Yes, look for one of those cray Yes.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I've never done that. I know of one I'd like
to try. So now the Charihach, it's a ridge of
the vice horn. Sounds impressing.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
So there are higher mountains, but not many more interesting.
If you want to be a human.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Fly, why not try the chalk? It down the road,
straight up and down, not so far to fare.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
I wouldn't do No, it wouldn't, would it. I'm not
going to say anything bad. There's nothing one can't say. Really,
I wish you wouldn't do it, and I understand why
you think you must.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
And will you leave next week?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
The snows will be coming at the end of the month.
So much sense in making it too dangerous?
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Is there? No?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Not much sense in that.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Ten days later I arrived at Zanal and met an
old guide I've known for many years.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
His name was Gaspar, and.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
He knew the mountains of the Alps as very few
men know them. He and his wife ran the hotel,
and after dinner it was my first night there. We
talked over a cognac.
Speaker 9 (09:56):
It is good to see you again, my friend, I
repeat a surprise so late in the year.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I remember July was my month, wasn't it those days we.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
Did some fine climbing, You and I fine? And where
should we go this time? My time is my own end,
now yours? The amateurs have gone. We should climb for sport.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Perhaps so I I want to try the west side
of the Charlie Hook.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Good, good, hope you won't be upset gaspar first time
I go up. I mean to do it alone alone? Yes,
did you say the west side? That's right?
Speaker 9 (10:34):
May I speak of something I've noticed? Of course, when
I saw you today, I noticed something. A slight limp.
You have been in an accident, just a little stiffness.
You have done some climbing since we last were together,
not much, But the west side of the ridge for
(10:55):
a man out of condition?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Is that why?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
I don't see? Why not when you came to start tomorrow.
I have never tried it myself. I'll give you a
full report.
Speaker 9 (11:11):
Yes, I hope you will. The last man who tried
it never came back. He fell and we still have
not found the body.
Speaker 10 (11:35):
Auto Light is bringing you, mister Herbert Marshall in action
tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding Theater of Thrills.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Suspense.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The frost is coming, so be wise. Now is the
time to winterize.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Right, Johnny plug check time for that winter tune up,
change of oil grease and somanti freeze.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And check those important spark plugs.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Too, Ayes.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Spark plugs are the very heart of your car's ignition system,
and when they're right, you'll start quicker and surer every time,
even in coldest weather. If replacements are needed, your autolite
spark plug dealer will recommend a brand new set of
ignition engineered autolite spark plugs like the Double Life Resistor
spark Plug, the greatest sparkplug advance for automotive use in
(12:31):
the past twenty five years. It gives smoother engine performance
and quick starts for twice as long as spark plugs
without a built in resistor, and the Resistor spark plug
is only one of a complete line of auto light
spark plugs ignition engineered for every use. So when you're
getting your car winterized, make.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Sure to check the spark plugs too.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
See your heir ast Autolite spark plug dealer this week.
Remember from bumper to tail light, you're always right with
auto light. And now auto light brings back to our
Hollywood soundstage, mister Herbert Marshall in Elliott Lewis's production of Action,
a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That night, before I went to bed, I sat for
a little while alone in the smoking room. I had
nothing to do, no goodbyes, no last letter to write,
no will to be made.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
That was done and accounted for.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I felt my right arm and leg with the fingers
of my left hand still numb. That's strange unfeeling feeling.
After that, I read for a bit, then, turning out
the lamp, went to my room. The next morning was
(14:08):
dazzling the soft green valley meadow and sparkling and above
against the bluest of skies the mountains. The autumn sun
was warm, and as I decided to travel as lightly
as possible, I was glad for that. Leaving the hotel,
I made my way past the cow barn, the tiny
(14:28):
post office, and on toward the path which led gently upward.
I must have been walking for about five minutes when
he caught.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Up with me. I nearly missed you. You you were gone.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
If I knew a good morning, Gasper.
Speaker 9 (14:43):
A beautiful morning for your climb.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
I thought, if you did not mind, that I would
walk with you to the bridge. I don't mind on
the least.
Speaker 9 (14:53):
My wife was worried. I'm sorry to hear there about you.
My wife is a woman who has premonitions, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Yes, she needn't worry, you know. Yes, I told her
you are one of the best.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
Still, she could not understand why you would suddenly appear
and decide to climb the most difficult place on the mountain.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
Surely she knows mountaineers.
Speaker 9 (15:17):
Yes, she knows them, and she knows they do not
attempt such things about a little practice of flexing of
unused masters.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
I'm expended from Gaspar. Up there. That is where you
go the bulge.
Speaker 9 (15:32):
Yes, and when you have conquered that, you will come back.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Not an odd question. Exactly what I told my wife.
Speaker 9 (15:43):
She had a premonition that all was not well with you.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
You will have to reassure her, won't you, Gaspar.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yes I shall, my friend. I'll say goodbye here.
Speaker 9 (15:55):
Yes, I I wish you will.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Be all right.
Speaker 9 (16:02):
Remember to conserve your energy, and when you reach the
top come back to us.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
You will come back, yes, good luck.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I left the old guide of the wooden bridge and
walked on the place I'd picked. The climb is on
the west side of the Charly Hawk. It's a dip
in the ridge that joins the Vice Horn to the
Sharly Horn. The lowest point of the dip is over
twelve thousand feet.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
The last part of.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
The rise to the ridge is a wall of ice
that undur raised like a sheet of hammered copper, concave
at one point, convex at another, and the two or
three parts that overhangs how much I did not know,
but you could see it, and it was the underside
of that overhang I was going to climb. I would
try to do it, honestly, get to the ridge. Improve
(17:00):
that in this small matter, where there is no fear
of death, a man can do more than he knows.
My timetable began quite on schedule. Three hours work up
to the uppitta out from Zynal, three more up from
the oup to the foot of the ice wall. Half
(17:21):
an hour of food, another half an hour of final preparations.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Then I was at that point the wall of ice.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
And above the great overhanging bulge. It's two large above me,
like a gigantic blister.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
On the face of the ice.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Must have been forty feet in diameter, and it jutted
so much that a stone dropped from its outermost point
would only have touched the slope against some one hundred
feet lower. To reach that outermost point, I knew I
would have to climb for about twenty feet as you
climb up the under side of a ladder that leaned
against the wall, and I would have to make the
(18:04):
ladder wrung by run fashion, each one out of ice,
with my axe held in one hand, while with the
other hand on both feet i'd cleaned to the three
rungs already made. Each rung would have to be like
a letter box in a door, big enough for the
tour of my boot to go into shape, so that
(18:26):
when my hand entered, the fingers could bend down inside.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And gripples you gripped the top of a fence.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Then I was there and the overhang was before me.
The work was amazingly hard. I'd only cowed five letter
boxes and used them and an hour, I had gone
five more, and daylight was failing. My left hand was chilled,
almost dead with the eye set had gripped, and my
(18:55):
right hand swollen and sore from the constant use of
the axe. My right knee began to shake uncontrollably, and
I almost laughed, shattering teeth. I looked up and some
eight feet above was the goal. Beyond it, I could
see nothing but a tranquil sky with a rose colored
(19:17):
flush dying out of it. And suddenly, very clearly, as
a complete mental effect, I knew I couldn't get up
those eight feet.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
My strength was going. I was about finished.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
And then, because the wood is there until the end,
I I tried again, tried, but the axe bearess, scratched
the ice. My left hand was frostbitten, fast, feeling only
five more feet to doe, but five more than I
could drive myself to. This was the finish there and
(20:01):
what I had set out to do.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I know it was the end.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I'm done. I didn't know why I was still holding
on holding, and it was queer. Something was very queer.
I felt little chips of ice stinging my cheeks as
they slid down. From above was an ice avalanche coming.
(20:30):
What did it matter that the ice do what it wanted?
My business was it was done. Then then there was
a sound annoying, a hissing sound. I saw the ice
axe slide over the bulge, over my head and move
(20:52):
out over my head to drop farther low. Someone was
above me. And suddenly, I don't know why there was,
there was a lightness in me. No more dream, no
more dying. I had to go up up pretty quickly,
no longer the care and cutting the steps. Now there
were marbles of inallopacy. I didn't think about it, just
(21:16):
ice cuts deep enough.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
For a footing to raise up the cup.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
The next and the next, and it must have been
three minutes, perhaps less, when my chest came up to
the dead central of the bulge, and I I saw what.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
I had come for.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
She was a woman dangling at the long ropes end,
her body revolving a little that hung against the steep
ice and holding the rope perhaps eighty feet above her.
The man his ice ex dridding well into the slope behind,
holding well with one hand, the other gripping the rope.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The rope caddy cuddy undone killing me. You must you
you can get down. You must, it's killing me.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Well hold on, sorry, I curry hold on. I felt
like a fool. Absolute freedom for my kneasless concerning my own.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Plight, for I still wasn't not myself. But I never
liked to roics. And this sounded horribly disgustingly heroic. And
I kept it up, and I had to there in
two minutes. Hold on, one minute more, just one almost,
hold on, hold on half a j day.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
I'm just there.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
And I had arrived over the bow a foothold on
an upward slope. I cut a big step close to
where her feet hung, planted my own family in it,
and took.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Her weight on my shoulder.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Slowly the man above paid out the rope till she
was by my side, standing safe.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Sure you're quite a happy sign.
Speaker 9 (23:05):
Have you got her?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
All right?
Speaker 5 (23:08):
Yes? Right away? Give us a moment or two, then
dig in we'll come up.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
The last daylight was gone. When the three of us
stood on the level roof of the ridge. I tried
my best not to look at him or at her.
These are things best not observed. I think she stayed
in his arms for a long moment.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
All right, are well?
Speaker 5 (23:51):
You understand. Thanks, thanks for our lives. Oh lord, I
just happened to be there. Luck, that's all.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Yes, luck, I suppose we had ben't push off getting
a little cherry.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
It was luck.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
There was a full moon, and the downward trail was
something else from the way i'd come up. Well, none
of us spoke, I don't think a single word all
the way back, and then the village, the hotel, and
she was put to bed alive, tired. It was only
(24:40):
after that, in the smoking room that I learned their names.
His name is Gonan, Theodore Gonnon. The woman upstairs, his
wife Hillary. And because he seemed to feel himself under
some sort of obligation to me, I told him about myself,
my clime, And when I finished, he.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Said, look here, I'm a doctor and I know about
such things. Tell me, when you were making that last
climb over the bows, did that numbness cramp you?
Speaker 5 (25:13):
Did you notice it? No? It had been there, but
not been last ten minutes.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
When you're in action action, yes, I mean doing something
something you're absorbed in pluston. Yes, I see, And that's
the way it should be. You know what you've got
the numbness that will stay with you. But does it
matter quite as much as you thought?
Speaker 5 (25:40):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
You won't try that sort of thing again. No, then
it's going to be all right. Yes, it's going to
be all right.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Suspense presented by auto Light The Night Star. Mister Herbert Marshall.
This is Harlow Wilcox again speaking for Autolite. It's always
good to welcome back our longtime friend, Herbert Marshall.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Bart.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
We enjoyed every minute of tonight's story.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Thanks Hallo, and may I compliment auto Light for the
excellent programs to come. Next week Van Hefton in the
Shot and the following week Jeff Chandler in an exciting
story My True Love's Hair.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
We can certainly depend on auto Light for wonderful entertainment
and friends.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
The greatest names in industry depend on auto LIGHTE for
over four hundred products for cars, trucks, tractors, planes and
boats in twenty eight plants from coast to coast. Autolite
makes such products as the famous auto Light Stayful batteries,
ignition engineered Autolte spark plugs both standard and resistor types,
auto Light starting motors, generators, coils, distributors, voltage regulators, wire
(27:17):
and battery, cable and auto light original service parts for
all auto light electrical systems. So from bumpery to tail light,
you're always right with autolite. Next week, the story of
(27:39):
a duel, an incomplete duel, since one of its participants
chose to wait and oh his adversary the shot our star,
mister van Heflin, that's next week on Suspense. C. E.
(28:03):
Montague's action was adapted for Suspense by Antony Ellis.
Speaker 10 (28:07):
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music
composed by Lucian Morowick and conducted by lud Gluskin. Featured
in the cast were Ellen Morgan, Marley Bear, Herb Butterfield,
Richard Peel and Ben Wright.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Herbert Marshall will soon be seen in Writers to the
Stars Ivan Tours technical reproduction for United Artists. And remember
next week, mister van Heflin in the shot.
Speaker 11 (28:44):
You can buy auto light resistan of standard type spot plugs,
auto light electrical parts and auto light stayful batteries at
your neighborhood Auto light dealers switch to autolight good night.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
This week and every week is a good time to
hire the handicapped surveys have proved that properly placed handicapped
workers are steady and reliable. Consult your state employment service
and hire the handicapped. This is the CBS Radio network.
Auto Light and it's ninety eight thousand dealers bring you,
mister Herbert Marshall. In Tonight's presentation of Suspense, Tonight Auto
Light presents the story of a man who, having no fear,
attempted his own death, a new dramatization of C. E.
(00:28):
Montague's action Our star, mister Herbert Marshall, what you here already?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, sir, mister Wilcox is Johnny Plumb check time gear?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
So it is cold weather is coming and that means
Johnny's around to remind you motorists to get that car
prepared for winter now with a tune up, change of
oil and grease any free.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And don't forget to check those important spark plugs.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Too, Yes, sir Johnny, because the spark plugs at the
very heart of a car's ignition system. When they're right,
you'll start quicker and surer every time, even in coldest weather.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So visit your autolite spark plug.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Dealer, right Johnny. He's a tune up expert and a
specialist on spark plug cleaning and adjustment, and if replacements
are needed, he'll recommend a new set of ignition engineered
autolite spark plugs like the amazing Double Life Resist spark plug.
To quickly learn the location of your nearest Autolite spark
plug dealer, phone Western Union by number and ask for
(01:29):
operator twenty five. And remember, from bumper to tail light,
you're always right with auto light. And now Autolite presents
Action starring mister Herbert Marshall, hoping once again to keep
you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It happened very simply one Monday morning. I woke up
and there was a slight numbness all on my right side,
the arm fingers, a good deal along the leg rathereless
in my foot, and just a little in the head.
I lay still for a moment to let it pass off,
(02:17):
but it didn't, and I suddenly knew that it wasn't
going to I'd heard about such things. I were chaps
of the club the office. Now that happened to me.
I remember getting up michauld still stand, walk dress, some shave,
(02:38):
but the numbness went on.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
That morning.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Instead of walking, I took the tram to the office
to the pleasant autumn day, and there were a lot
of young people aboard, healthy young people. The conductor moved
down the passageway collecting fares.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
On Avenue. Please, Oh now we don't take I'm sorry.
I thought that's all right, said, does rather look like silver?
Speaker 6 (03:11):
And ah he is. That's happen a bit, sir.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
His taptain simple, they were perfect, and I had a
new care now site too.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Was that going sight.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Touched the whole sensory business, losing precision entering on the
long slope to decay. I don't think I got much
work done that morning going away. What I did was
good for me, kept my mind off things. I had
a quarter to one appointment with an old friend, Adrian Tillet,
who I hadn't seen for a month or two. We'd
(03:47):
arranged to meet at my club. I was a little
early and sat in my usual place to wait for him.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
I say, Bill, yes, did you hear about killor House?
And they brought his bildy back to England.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
As I know that you've.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
Done some mountaineering yourself, haven't you a bit last? If
I know what you fellows see in it? Bloody awful
way to die. If you ask me fallen off a mountain.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I suppose there are worst ways. Try to tell that
to his wife.
Speaker 7 (04:14):
Well, I'm feeling a bit peckish.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Will you join me for lunch? Thanks very much. I'm
waiting for someone, all right?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Hello, Ben, I'm sorry to keep you waiting.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
You haven't just got to hear myself.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Hold on, Teddy, I see you look c D feeling
all right?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Yes, splendid. Come along, we'll have a bade to meet good.
I'm famished.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
It's better.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Thanks. What about you?
Speaker 5 (04:56):
And I don't think so?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Look here?
Speaker 8 (05:00):
Well, is anything wrong? I mean, well, you look like
a dying.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Duck in a thunderstorm.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
Something I can do, I'm afraid now serious, I suppose
it is in a way. If you want to talk
about it, I might as well.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I woke up this morning and I felt numb the
right side had some sort of a stroop during the night.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Have you been to the doctor?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
No, I don't think I shall. You know as well
as I do what you'd say.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
My dear boy, you can't let a thing like that
just go.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I don't intend to be an invalid for the rest
of my life till it. I've seen this happen to people,
so I view end up in a bath chair being
fed by some herod and nurse who won't even let
your white barone knows those things.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 5 (05:52):
I don't know yet. The big thing seems to be
how long? How long was it? Things like this take.
Speaker 8 (06:01):
Men like you. You live to be one hundred. You're
an active chapter. There's no reason on earth why you
That's just it. I don't follow.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I don't want to live to any age like this.
Speaker 8 (06:11):
I say, why not come up to my place? On Friday,
spent the weekend change of air.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Well, do you good?
Speaker 5 (06:19):
No, I really don't think. I don't be in your Dear.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
Marjorie's dying to see you. She she always complains that
you've given us up. Now I'm going to expect you.
The stream's awfully good this year. We'll do some fishing, right.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
Right, Thanks thanks to it.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
The rest of the week passed, and the sensation of
numbness remained with me, sometimes a bit more or less
at nights I thought, I thought a great deal. On Friday,
I drove down to Weybridge. It was obviously Tillat had
told his wife about me, and didn't matter much except
(07:03):
I found myself annoyed at her solicitude. I suppose she
couldn't help it, but it was one of the things
that definitely made up my mind. I knew what I
was going to do, and I told my old friend.
We were on the bank of the stream. He just
landed a nice trout and we sat down for a smoke.
(07:28):
I've made up my mind.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
What to do? Tillet.
Speaker 8 (07:31):
Oh, yes, I wondered, had an idea you were up
to something?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Who be a rather quiet?
Speaker 5 (07:39):
You know? I'm sorry?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Is it any better?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Now? I'm about to say.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I had a dream just before I came down here.
I was climbing. It was on a crag that became
steeper and steeper.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
As I went up.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
First it was vertical in it overhung more and more
until I was actually climbing a reverse slope.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Must be awkward. It's been done, you know, has it? Yes?
I bet about it, but I've never done it myself.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
What happened in your dream?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I fell woke up. I thought a lot about it.
It's that margin of safety.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
One does a lot of climbing, and if you're any
good at all, you don't slip in the very difficult places.
But supposing you you pair away at the margin of safety.
An experiment, what could you do before the margin was gone?
Speaker 5 (08:31):
If you didn't care.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I don't know. I haven't tried climbing.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
If one cut out the old fear of death, one
could do some amazing things.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Is that what you're going to do?
Speaker 5 (08:41):
I think so? Yes, look for one of those cray Yes.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I've never done that. I know of one I'd like
to try. So now the Charihach, it's a ridge of
the vice horn. Sounds impressing.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
So there are higher mountains, but not many more interesting.
If you want to be a human.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Fly, why not try the chalk? It down the road,
straight up and down, not so far to fare.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
I wouldn't do No, it wouldn't, would it. I'm not
going to say anything bad. There's nothing one can't say. Really,
I wish you wouldn't do it, and I understand why
you think you must.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
And will you leave next week?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
The snows will be coming at the end of the month.
So much sense in making it too dangerous?
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Is there? No?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Not much sense in that.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Ten days later I arrived at Zanal and met an
old guide I've known for many years.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
His name was Gaspar, and.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
He knew the mountains of the Alps as very few
men know them. He and his wife ran the hotel,
and after dinner it was my first night there. We
talked over a cognac.
Speaker 9 (09:56):
It is good to see you again, my friend, I
repeat a surprise so late in the year.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I remember July was my month, wasn't it those days we.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
Did some fine climbing, You and I fine? And where
should we go this time? My time is my own end,
now yours? The amateurs have gone. We should climb for sport.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Perhaps so I I want to try the west side
of the Charlie Hook.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Good, good, hope you won't be upset gaspar first time
I go up. I mean to do it alone alone? Yes,
did you say the west side? That's right?
Speaker 9 (10:34):
May I speak of something I've noticed? Of course, when
I saw you today, I noticed something. A slight limp.
You have been in an accident, just a little stiffness.
You have done some climbing since we last were together,
not much, But the west side of the ridge for
(10:55):
a man out of condition?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Is that why?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
I don't see? Why not when you came to start tomorrow.
I have never tried it myself. I'll give you a
full report.
Speaker 9 (11:11):
Yes, I hope you will. The last man who tried
it never came back. He fell and we still have
not found the body.
Speaker 10 (11:35):
Auto Light is bringing you, mister Herbert Marshall in action
tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding Theater of Thrills.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Suspense.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The frost is coming, so be wise. Now is the
time to winterize.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Right, Johnny plug check time for that winter tune up,
change of oil grease and somanti freeze.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And check those important spark plugs.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Too, Ayes.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Spark plugs are the very heart of your car's ignition system,
and when they're right, you'll start quicker and surer every time,
even in coldest weather. If replacements are needed, your autolite
spark plug dealer will recommend a brand new set of
ignition engineered autolite spark plugs like the Double Life Resistor
spark Plug, the greatest sparkplug advance for automotive use in
(12:31):
the past twenty five years. It gives smoother engine performance
and quick starts for twice as long as spark plugs
without a built in resistor, and the Resistor spark plug
is only one of a complete line of auto light
spark plugs ignition engineered for every use. So when you're
getting your car winterized, make.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Sure to check the spark plugs too.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
See your heir ast Autolite spark plug dealer this week.
Remember from bumper to tail light, you're always right with
auto light. And now auto light brings back to our
Hollywood soundstage, mister Herbert Marshall in Elliott Lewis's production of Action,
a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That night, before I went to bed, I sat for
a little while alone in the smoking room. I had
nothing to do, no goodbyes, no last letter to write,
no will to be made.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
That was done and accounted for.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I felt my right arm and leg with the fingers
of my left hand still numb. That's strange unfeeling feeling.
After that, I read for a bit, then, turning out
the lamp, went to my room. The next morning was
(14:08):
dazzling the soft green valley meadow and sparkling and above
against the bluest of skies the mountains. The autumn sun
was warm, and as I decided to travel as lightly
as possible, I was glad for that. Leaving the hotel,
I made my way past the cow barn, the tiny
(14:28):
post office, and on toward the path which led gently upward.
I must have been walking for about five minutes when
he caught.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Up with me. I nearly missed you. You you were gone.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
If I knew a good morning, Gasper.
Speaker 9 (14:43):
A beautiful morning for your climb.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
I thought, if you did not mind, that I would
walk with you to the bridge. I don't mind on
the least.
Speaker 9 (14:53):
My wife was worried. I'm sorry to hear there about you.
My wife is a woman who has premonitions, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Yes, she needn't worry, you know. Yes, I told her
you are one of the best.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
Still, she could not understand why you would suddenly appear
and decide to climb the most difficult place on the mountain.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
Surely she knows mountaineers.
Speaker 9 (15:17):
Yes, she knows them, and she knows they do not
attempt such things about a little practice of flexing of
unused masters.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
I'm expended from Gaspar. Up there. That is where you
go the bulge.
Speaker 9 (15:32):
Yes, and when you have conquered that, you will come back.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Not an odd question. Exactly what I told my wife.
Speaker 9 (15:43):
She had a premonition that all was not well with you.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
You will have to reassure her, won't you, Gaspar.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yes I shall, my friend. I'll say goodbye here.
Speaker 9 (15:55):
Yes, I I wish you will.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Be all right.
Speaker 9 (16:02):
Remember to conserve your energy, and when you reach the
top come back to us.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
You will come back, yes, good luck.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I left the old guide of the wooden bridge and
walked on the place I'd picked. The climb is on
the west side of the Charly Hawk. It's a dip
in the ridge that joins the Vice Horn to the
Sharly Horn. The lowest point of the dip is over
twelve thousand feet.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
The last part of.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
The rise to the ridge is a wall of ice
that undur raised like a sheet of hammered copper, concave
at one point, convex at another, and the two or
three parts that overhangs how much I did not know,
but you could see it, and it was the underside
of that overhang I was going to climb. I would
try to do it, honestly, get to the ridge. Improve
(17:00):
that in this small matter, where there is no fear
of death, a man can do more than he knows.
My timetable began quite on schedule. Three hours work up
to the uppitta out from Zynal, three more up from
the oup to the foot of the ice wall. Half
(17:21):
an hour of food, another half an hour of final preparations.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Then I was at that point the wall of ice.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
And above the great overhanging bulge. It's two large above me,
like a gigantic blister.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
On the face of the ice.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Must have been forty feet in diameter, and it jutted
so much that a stone dropped from its outermost point
would only have touched the slope against some one hundred
feet lower. To reach that outermost point, I knew I
would have to climb for about twenty feet as you
climb up the under side of a ladder that leaned
against the wall, and I would have to make the
(18:04):
ladder wrung by run fashion, each one out of ice,
with my axe held in one hand, while with the
other hand on both feet i'd cleaned to the three
rungs already made. Each rung would have to be like
a letter box in a door, big enough for the
tour of my boot to go into shape, so that
(18:26):
when my hand entered, the fingers could bend down inside.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And gripples you gripped the top of a fence.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Then I was there and the overhang was before me.
The work was amazingly hard. I'd only cowed five letter
boxes and used them and an hour, I had gone
five more, and daylight was failing. My left hand was chilled,
almost dead with the eye set had gripped, and my
(18:55):
right hand swollen and sore from the constant use of
the axe. My right knee began to shake uncontrollably, and
I almost laughed, shattering teeth. I looked up and some
eight feet above was the goal. Beyond it, I could
see nothing but a tranquil sky with a rose colored
(19:17):
flush dying out of it. And suddenly, very clearly, as
a complete mental effect, I knew I couldn't get up
those eight feet.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
My strength was going. I was about finished.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
And then, because the wood is there until the end,
I I tried again, tried, but the axe bearess, scratched
the ice. My left hand was frostbitten, fast, feeling only
five more feet to doe, but five more than I
could drive myself to. This was the finish there and
(20:01):
what I had set out to do.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I know it was the end.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I'm done. I didn't know why I was still holding
on holding, and it was queer. Something was very queer.
I felt little chips of ice stinging my cheeks as
they slid down. From above was an ice avalanche coming.
(20:30):
What did it matter that the ice do what it wanted?
My business was it was done. Then then there was
a sound annoying, a hissing sound. I saw the ice
axe slide over the bulge, over my head and move
(20:52):
out over my head to drop farther low. Someone was
above me. And suddenly, I don't know why there was,
there was a lightness in me. No more dream, no
more dying. I had to go up up pretty quickly,
no longer the care and cutting the steps. Now there
were marbles of inallopacy. I didn't think about it, just
(21:16):
ice cuts deep enough.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
For a footing to raise up the cup.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
The next and the next, and it must have been
three minutes, perhaps less, when my chest came up to
the dead central of the bulge, and I I saw what.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
I had come for.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
She was a woman dangling at the long ropes end,
her body revolving a little that hung against the steep
ice and holding the rope perhaps eighty feet above her.
The man his ice ex dridding well into the slope behind,
holding well with one hand, the other gripping the rope.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The rope caddy cuddy undone killing me. You must you
you can get down. You must, it's killing me.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Well hold on, sorry, I curry hold on. I felt
like a fool. Absolute freedom for my kneasless concerning my own.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Plight, for I still wasn't not myself. But I never
liked to roics. And this sounded horribly disgustingly heroic. And
I kept it up, and I had to there in
two minutes. Hold on, one minute more, just one almost,
hold on, hold on half a j day.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
I'm just there.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
And I had arrived over the bow a foothold on
an upward slope. I cut a big step close to
where her feet hung, planted my own family in it,
and took.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Her weight on my shoulder.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Slowly the man above paid out the rope till she
was by my side, standing safe.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Sure you're quite a happy sign.
Speaker 9 (23:05):
Have you got her?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
All right?
Speaker 5 (23:08):
Yes? Right away? Give us a moment or two, then
dig in we'll come up.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
The last daylight was gone. When the three of us
stood on the level roof of the ridge. I tried
my best not to look at him or at her.
These are things best not observed. I think she stayed
in his arms for a long moment.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
All right, are well?
Speaker 5 (23:51):
You understand. Thanks, thanks for our lives. Oh lord, I
just happened to be there. Luck, that's all.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Yes, luck, I suppose we had ben't push off getting
a little cherry.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
It was luck.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
There was a full moon, and the downward trail was
something else from the way i'd come up. Well, none
of us spoke, I don't think a single word all
the way back, and then the village, the hotel, and
she was put to bed alive, tired. It was only
(24:40):
after that, in the smoking room that I learned their names.
His name is Gonan, Theodore Gonnon. The woman upstairs, his
wife Hillary. And because he seemed to feel himself under
some sort of obligation to me, I told him about myself,
my clime, And when I finished, he.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Said, look here, I'm a doctor and I know about
such things. Tell me, when you were making that last
climb over the bows, did that numbness cramp you?
Speaker 5 (25:13):
Did you notice it? No? It had been there, but
not been last ten minutes.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
When you're in action action, yes, I mean doing something
something you're absorbed in pluston. Yes, I see, And that's
the way it should be. You know what you've got
the numbness that will stay with you. But does it
matter quite as much as you thought?
Speaker 5 (25:40):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
You won't try that sort of thing again. No, then
it's going to be all right. Yes, it's going to
be all right.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Suspense presented by auto Light The Night Star. Mister Herbert Marshall.
This is Harlow Wilcox again speaking for Autolite. It's always
good to welcome back our longtime friend, Herbert Marshall.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Bart.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
We enjoyed every minute of tonight's story.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Thanks Hallo, and may I compliment auto Light for the
excellent programs to come. Next week Van Hefton in the
Shot and the following week Jeff Chandler in an exciting
story My True Love's Hair.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
We can certainly depend on auto Light for wonderful entertainment
and friends.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
The greatest names in industry depend on auto LIGHTE for
over four hundred products for cars, trucks, tractors, planes and
boats in twenty eight plants from coast to coast. Autolite
makes such products as the famous auto Light Stayful batteries,
ignition engineered Autolte spark plugs both standard and resistor types,
auto Light starting motors, generators, coils, distributors, voltage regulators, wire
(27:17):
and battery, cable and auto light original service parts for
all auto light electrical systems. So from bumpery to tail light,
you're always right with autolite. Next week, the story of
(27:39):
a duel, an incomplete duel, since one of its participants
chose to wait and oh his adversary the shot our star,
mister van Heflin, that's next week on Suspense. C. E.
(28:03):
Montague's action was adapted for Suspense by Antony Ellis.
Speaker 10 (28:07):
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music
composed by Lucian Morowick and conducted by lud Gluskin. Featured
in the cast were Ellen Morgan, Marley Bear, Herb Butterfield,
Richard Peel and Ben Wright.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Herbert Marshall will soon be seen in Writers to the
Stars Ivan Tours technical reproduction for United Artists. And remember
next week, mister van Heflin in the shot.
Speaker 11 (28:44):
You can buy auto light resistan of standard type spot plugs,
auto light electrical parts and auto light stayful batteries at
your neighborhood Auto light dealers switch to autolight good night.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
This week and every week is a good time to
hire the handicapped surveys have proved that properly placed handicapped
workers are steady and reliable. Consult your state employment service
and hire the handicapped. This is the CBS Radio network.
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