Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Philip Marlowe: The Last Laugh (EP1379)
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boys the Idaho. This
- 0:35is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, I send
- 0:39it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. Follow us on Twitter
- 0:43at Radio Detactives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot
- 0:48com slash Radio Detectives. Today's episode is brought to you by the financial support
- 0:53of our listeners, and I particularly want to thank Arnold so much for his
- 0:56support. You can support the show at support Great Detectives dot net. Well,
- 1:03now it's time for today's episode of the Adventures of Philip Marlowe. The
- 1:07original air date April the second, nineteen forty nine. The title The Last
- 1:14Laught. It was a grim joke that started when six airs came to an
- 1:19ugly house on a rain swept island to hear a madman's will. But the
- 1:23joke soon turned to murder, and in the end it was hard to tell
- 1:26who had the last laugh. From the pen of Raymond Chandler, outstanding author
- 1:33of crime fiction, comes his most famous character in the Adventures of Philip Marlowe.
- 1:48Now with Gerald Moore starred as Philip Marlowe, we bring you tonight's exciting
- 1:52story, The Last Laugh. I'd spent a week waiting through moldy beer joints
- 2:06and cheap hotels after a dancer on the down great and when I found her
- 2:09she was two days dead in a coal cellar, all of which left me
- 2:13with orinsid taste in my mouth. But when I woke up after a night's
- 2:16sleep to the tune of a robin on my window sill, I realized it
- 2:21was spring, in time for Marlow to take a long, easy weekend someplace,
- 2:24someplace where the surf meets sand like it does a't say en sonata.
- 2:30Without so much as a second thought, I threw some clothes in a bag,
- 2:32phoned the Riviera Pacifico for reservations, and charged out the door, where
- 2:37I ran head on into a funny man with a studious face charging in.
- 2:42I'm awfully sorry. Why are you Philip Marlowe? Yeah, yeah, I
- 2:46know. My name is dow when I represent the law firm that handles the
- 2:50interest of Julius Spangler. Therefore you say Julius Spangler. Goodbye, mister Dawel.
- 2:53Now wait, mister Marlow. Lesson, I had a run in with
- 2:57that screwball Spangler. Less than a month ago, a man was knocked out
- 3:00on a flight a stairs. I got shot at, and the popping house
- 3:01was set on fire, and Julius called it a practical joke and laughed himself
- 3:05silly. The best I could do for him was three days in jail.
- 3:07It should have been three years. Goodbye, mister Darwin, and that sort
- 3:10of thing is all over now, mister Marlowe. Mister Spangler is dead.
- 3:14Spangler's dead. Yes, he died last week can Brazil, the result of
- 3:16a hunting accident. And he has named you in his will. His named
- 3:20me. You mean I precisely you wanted mister Spangler's heirs. I shall read
- 3:24the will tonight at eight o'clock in his home on Catalina Island. I trust
- 3:28you'll be president, not on your life. It's me for end Sonata,
- 3:30and nothing's gonna stop me. Goodbye, mister. There are only five other
- 3:32airs, and the estate runs well. All the five hundred thousand dollars,
- 3:37oh almost any way you split that much up, mister Mallowe, it comes
- 3:39out something more substantial than a weekend at en Sonata. Goodbye, mister Moto.
- 3:49It was fantastic, but then so was Julius Spangler. Who knows,
- 3:53maybe he actually admired me for throwing him in jail. After all, what's
- 3:58old Mexico got that Catalina doesn't happen? What could I lose? It was
- 4:01only a matter of minutes before I was in Wilmington and climbing the gangplank of
- 4:04the last boat to Catalina Island. She nose past the breakwater and headed to
- 4:09the open sea, in the green water, glistening with gold in the sun,
- 4:13slanting into a bank of clouds on the horizon. Ah, this was
- 4:16the life. I sat back and relaxed for all of ten seconds before the
- 4:20name Spangler came up again, this time being follied between a matron meticulously tailored
- 4:26by ij Fox who clung to a pipe smoking gentleman at the rail, and
- 4:30a cute blonde ball of fire facing them. The ball some of my friends
- 4:33are a horn and I don't want to be seen with you. Look,
- 4:36you may be your highness milicentberg Ash beat of those snooze, but you're still
- 4:41just Millie Spangler to me, you overstuffed social climber. Why are you insufferable
- 4:45little upstart? Eye? All nothing? I'll give him a good show like
- 4:49you take me away from your eys. I'm not well what are you staring
- 4:58at? Buster? Haven't you ever seen red jersey sweater before? Eh?
- 5:02Yeah, that's sweater plus that right hook of yours adds up to quite an
- 5:05exhibition. You must belong to Julius. He was my uncle. But now
- 5:10wait, don't tell me you're in his will too, then you'll Philip Marlowe,
- 5:14Yeah, I got him three days, Nicolas, and I'm an air.
- 5:15Who are your two friends? Millisent Burke, Ashby my half sister,
- 5:18a professional snob. I'm gonna get mad enough, have to kill one of
- 5:21these days. A jerk with her is Bennett Haynes, a cousin. Not
- 5:26enough times removed. They are also airs, which still leaves two more.
- 5:30Yeah, an old geezer who collects butterflies, and that blockhead Roderick, who
- 5:33passed for secretary and companion to uncle Julius. Yeah, I know rhetoric.
- 5:39And what do you pass for? Nikki? As if I couldn't sell you
- 5:42can't have it been a Knicks bar and grill along a braa marlow Well,
- 5:46I'm nick no kidding. And if this inheritance hadn't come along, I'd have
- 5:50lost my shirt. Boy. I'm really in a money jam, and Uncle
- 5:54Julius is saving the day for me. Everybody had to die to do it.
- 5:57Well, sure, that's the only way he ever would. He wrote
- 6:00and asked him for a ten thousand dollars loan. Once got a check back
- 6:02in the return nail, but it was signed by Alexander Hamilton. So I
- 6:08came out here to Catlina to see him, but he'd already left for Iceland.
- 6:12I spent a week by myself painting his launch for amusement. Then I
- 6:15went home again without a sin. It was a charmingly whimsical old man.
- 6:19By the way, where's his house over on the deserted side of the island?
- 6:23Naturally, naturally, the only way to get to it is by launch.
- 6:26Roderick's going to make a meet us when we dock at Avalon. No
- 6:29fine, you mean we'll be stuck at Spangler's old house all night. That
- 6:31bad film. It's quite lovely in a lot of ways. Two hours later
- 6:43we ducked at Avalon, and the clouds that had been on the horizon were
- 6:45now overhead and looking very soggy. Roderick, the late mister Spangler's secretary in
- 6:49a striped silk shirt, gold hiccock couplings poked about boats Eie and derby.
- 6:54I was waiting for us with a launch, and after we had all shivered
- 6:57through another spray, splashed, waved bucking hour and a half, we finally
- 7:00pulled into a small coal a house spotted alone on a point of rocks one
- 7:04hundred practically vertical feet above the water. And as we laboriously made our way
- 7:09up to what the rains came, Julia Spangler would have loved it. When
- 7:13the door closed behind us, everyone dashed for the nearest fireplace except me.
- 7:16I was cornered by a septagenarian with a shock of white hair, a scraggly
- 7:20yellow mustache, and spectacles so thick it looked like shot glasses with horn rims.
- 7:26He rolled up in a wheelchair, which he handled like it was a
- 7:28hot rod, skidded to a stop and shoved a fist full of brandy out
- 7:30of me. Hardy, young fella. This I figured was the butterfly collecting
- 7:34cousin Matthew Spangler. They ever slugg of this before pneumonia set you in?
- 7:39Well? Sure, I suppose you're here for the reading. The cousin Judish
- 7:41is well yeah, yeah, oh oh, wouldn't mission for the world.
- 7:45He's leaving me his collection and in flydium butterflies. You know I don't like
- 7:49money, just BUGI yes, sir, been an entomologist for fifty years,
- 7:54lepidopters for forty I've got specimens of twelve thousand species, only a few thousand
- 7:58left to go, practically nothing. Hey, you've a keep mind, have
- 8:01Scott? Thank you? No, I go on, go on, go
- 8:03on. It's the best. Save it for later when you got something to
- 8:05celebrate. H there's Roderick. He'd show you around. I want to go
- 8:09meet these young ladies. Shut up, shut I see you at the way
- 8:13water crazy wheelchair jockey almost ran me down. We almost tomorrow. Is nice
- 8:18to have your will us? Yeah, yeah, I'll bet look Roderick.
- 8:22Why did Julius stick me in his will along with all his relatives? I
- 8:24don't know. Maybe it was nothing. You can say that again, keeping
- 8:26all his junk, for instance, junk or these are trophies that burnt match
- 8:31there was using the first hot foot, Julius perfected that jag of nineteen oh
- 8:35three spang a contribution to American culture, and we'll get you. What did
- 8:37you ever do? Wait, wise guy, this one's even better. He
- 8:41panicked the whole city with this prty newspaper headlined here a report of baby snakes
- 8:46and city water system falls. Yeah, he tells them there's nothing to it,
- 8:50and they still blow their tops. That's tremendous. Huh yeah, Yeah,
- 8:54Quaint Julius was right. He's got no sense of humor. Lawyer dar
- 9:00when we'll read the will in thirty minutes, so be ready. I passed
- 9:13a half hour at the window with Nikki, watching the rains slash at the
- 9:16glass and the eight o clock on the button. The library door swung open
- 9:18and Dow in some of the six of the cent of the room. As
- 9:22we sat down, the lawyer showed his way through the legal preliminaries for the
- 9:26first time. It was a tense hush. Half a million dollars changing hands
- 9:31was an impressive occasion, and what was more impressive was that I might get
- 9:35some of it. I even caught myself wondering about inheritance taxes. Dow and
- 9:39completed the introduction of the will. She would bring us up to the disposition
- 9:43of the real and personal property of Julius Spangler, who passed away this light
- 9:46March twenty six, nineteen forty nine. Oh, poor old Julius. I
- 9:48can't believe he's really gone medicine. You know it was a darling beneath it
- 9:52all, Bennet's poor lonely dear uncle Julius. Quiet, get on with a
- 9:56jewels really great? Yes, go on, please very well. First to
- 10:03my dear cousin Matthew, I leave my sinaide jar, the silt ned and
- 10:05the collection of Nimphilidia. He good old Judish, I knew he do it.
- 10:11Bless his old boats as well. To Philip Marlow in trepid shamers.
- 10:15Oh that's a private textic yes, with no sense of humor. Ten thousand
- 10:20empty beer bottles worth five cents apiece? They clean? These aren't? Yes?
- 10:24Well for this I skipped that Sonata I should learn. Well, I'm
- 10:26so sorry, y what did you except? Really milicine to be quiet?
- 10:33Go ahead, Darwin, what about us is real? Yes? Well?
- 10:37Well to milicin burg Ashby gran needs fifty thousand dollars, which is uncle,
- 10:41Which is the value of a fish market? That's central Northrup Streets on the
- 10:45condition that she personally operates this market for one year. Oh good heavens,
- 10:50I'm going shut up. That's you go on, Darwin? Am I nextay?
- 10:56Yes you are? Yes? Yes? Seventy five one thousand dollars and
- 11:01a dog sled, dog sled? What's that for? To get your claim?
- 11:05You see? The money is the essay minimum value of a gold claim
- 11:09at Point Anxiety, Alaska, which which it says here you must develop with
- 11:11your own heads. This typesty of a will through every cod the street.
- 11:16You'll never get. Oh wait a minute, if you've never worked for anything
- 11:20in your life, Bennett, oh, you two got no more than you
- 11:24deserved. What about me, Darwin, I've worked at least well, missus
- 11:28Spangler. I believe you better sit down to my grand niece Nicola, who
- 11:31has learned how to work hard for what she wants. I leave my sincere
- 11:35congratulations and one dollar. Oh no, he won't. I need money now.
- 11:41And finally, all the remainder of my property, real and personal,
- 11:45I bequeathed to a most genteel, brilliant and loyal man, my secretary,
- 11:48Frederick D. Driskin, three of the Old Man, about three hundred thousand
- 11:54dollars to this baboon here. You'll never get it. It's too bad,
- 12:03baby, when he can have my five hundred dollars fortunate old beer bottles me
- 12:05for insan. What's so funny? He got what he wanted. Nicky let
- 12:11him laugh. I'm saying I didn't wall he stern. I sure am,
- 12:26you know, But Matthew, we all stood there with our mouths hanging open
- 12:35as the old invalid leaped to his feet, tipped over his wheelchair, made
- 12:37a grab for a shock of white hair with one hand and ripped it off.
- 12:41It was a wig, and a good one. But the other hand
- 12:43he saw the phoney yellow mustache off his lip. Him still laughing like a
- 12:46ticklish hyena, he identified himself as the one and only Julia Steindler, alive
- 12:50and in the flesh. Yes, this is the crowding achievement my career.
- 13:00Look at you, Look at your silly faces. I wasn't going to give
- 13:03it away till tomorrow, but I couldn't hold it back. This is rich
- 13:09the best gag we ever pulled. Right, Roderick, Roderick, huh oh
- 13:13yeah, yeah right, I'm calling the firm at once. You're mad,
- 13:18joyous, absolutely in a why why? Because you can't stand the spell of
- 13:26fish? What about you? Marlow? Did I get the last laugh on
- 13:31you? Or didn't I did? Yes, tell nothing but a mixed up
- 13:35jerk. You're just wonderful, But I want to see you mixed up with
- 13:37those dirty beer bottles. Wash the labels off, get a nickelback. You
- 13:41know, I'd like to break every one of them across the bridge here.
- 13:43I know is funny, man, That's what I like. A good sport.
- 13:46How about it, Nick? He isn't it funny? Not therey?
- 13:50What do you mean? I said it into reading of my own wheel.
- 13:52So now I know what you really think of me. Not quite you don't
- 13:56because I think this but fiction spit on me? How damn you are to
- 14:03kick stop it, to lay a hand on her? Off flat you in
- 14:05spite of your years. That goes for you too, Rhetoric's take back,
- 14:11Letty, you can take a joke. Look after these fools, Rhederic mean
- 14:16anything they want. I'm going to have a good laugh old by myself.
- 14:28After the master mind of the impractical joke had guff thought his way out of
- 14:33the room, Roderic took his life in his hands. And invited everyone to
- 14:35coffee and brandy. But the zest had gone out of the earthWhile airs like
- 14:39a snap from a second hand girdle, so without as much as a backward
- 14:43glance, they all went their separate ways their rooms. All but marlow I
- 14:48drank coffee and brandy in since the rain had stopped, tried for twenty minutes
- 14:50to threaten, bribe and argure Rotoric out of a way back to Avalon,
- 14:54but he swore it was impossible, and I was about to swear back at
- 14:56him when we heard it. We ran to the French doorse at the end
- 15:01of the room and out. Melicon was on the walk outside, her hands
- 15:03clanked against a mouse tearing down at the rocks near the surging water eighty feet
- 15:07below. This is thirsty, What happened? Why is it medicine? What's
- 15:09the matter? Julious, he's still there. He has to fall. Why
- 15:18the letter? He was pushed by somebody who couldn't take a choke. In
- 15:35just a moment, we will return to the second act of the Adventures of
- 15:37Philip Marlowe. But first, it stands to reason. It's a proven fact.
- 15:43If we all work together to produce more per man per machine, per
- 15:46hour, every one of us will gain from the cooperation. This is the
- 15:50American economic system. It operates for the benefit of all the people. We
- 15:56can and should cooperate for better jobs, higher incomes, more of the good
- 16:00things of life. For your free copy of the booklet The Miracle of America
- 16:06right box, ten Times Square Station, New York City. Now with our
- 16:11star Gerald Moore, we returned to the second act of Philip Marlowe and Tonight's
- 16:15story, The Last Laugh. It was eighty feet from Spangler's balcony to the
- 16:30ugly jumble of sharp black rock that lined the shore, and it was there
- 16:33minutes after Millson's all out screamed that Rodderick and I have found the brooken body
- 16:37of the man whose rocous slab still seemed to be tangled in the wind around
- 16:41us. And when we turned our eyes up from the death at our feet
- 16:45back to the balcony above, we could barely make out the cross piece of
- 16:48the porch rail, still dangling at a crazy angle from its single remaining support.
- 16:53Though the ominous silence of the gallows. Gee, mister marlow I can't
- 16:57believe that he's cooling at all. This really happens, mister Marlow. What
- 17:02are you looking at up there on the balcony. There's someone moving, Rohderick,
- 17:07which makes this a good time to start counting noses. Let's go.
- 17:10What about Mellicine? Should we look after her? Oh? No, the
- 17:12time being. Come on, come on, Roderick. I want the fastest
- 17:15way over those side stairs there. They lead us back up to the balcony
- 17:18because right now I'm in one big hurry. There's nobody here. Mallow,
- 17:30you're sure you're shot? Hold it, holy, somebody's coming. Get back
- 17:33away in the rail boy, it's been at Hanes. Yeah, I'm very
- 17:38interested in the spot where that Crosby's came loose from the top of that post.
- 17:41What's he doing right now? I mean a way he's scratching something across
- 17:45the top of it. But gentleman Roderick has forgotten that it rained. He's
- 17:48trying to strike a match on wet wood. Mister Haynes, would you like
- 17:52to hear it was my thumbnail? That's dry. What are you and Robert
- 17:57doing here? Carl'spying you, mister Haynes. I am here, Marlow,
- 18:00because I think it's very strange that this accident should have happened less than an
- 18:03hour after Julia Spangler left a room full of people who hated him, which
- 18:07incidentally included you. Yes, but I know that I had nothing to do
- 18:11with this. Now Here a couple of matches for that stellar thumbnail. But
- 18:15don't go too close to the edge, Marlow, thanks Rohderick. I won't.
- 18:18I'll only go close enough, Marlow. If you're staring at that mark
- 18:22across the top of the post, stop wasting your time. I just made
- 18:26it with that match that wouldn't light on wet would remember. But that mark
- 18:32is not what I'm staring at. It's this green one here on the edges
- 18:34of the top of the post, a mark that could mean somebody pride the
- 18:38cross piece loose with an object that was covered with green paint. All of
- 18:41which points up two things. Huh, First that someone murdered Spangler by loostening
- 18:47this rail. And second, but I've still got a couple of noses left
- 18:49account. One belongs to a lawyer named doh One and the other fancy owner
- 18:53of Nick's Bar and grill It's Miloson third, trouble, come on, just
- 19:02followed the leader with me out in front, back down the wooden stairs and
- 19:03over to the spot where Melicon burke ashby. The tailored Lady was sprawled over
- 19:07a lot of soft ground, unhurt, but coming apart of the scenes in
- 19:10more ways than one. I sent Bennett Haynes off to find doll And and
- 19:12then helped melicin to her feet, shook well and waited for hisself. Makes
- 19:18sense? Come on, take you back top, wait here? Tell us
- 19:21what? Yeah? Running away from the house. Go on, she wasn't
- 19:26running water. And when you try to stop if she knocked her down,
- 19:33did you keep her mind? Could she say? Why? No? You
- 19:37just something about green paint? What about it? Come on, Medicon think
- 19:41had what about the paint? I don't know what does it? Meanwhile,
- 19:48we'll get against Nikki's tangled fast Roderick. She was headed down toward the water.
- 19:51How many boats are tied up there, just to launching a little Yeah,
- 19:53no, wait to take them. There's the outBut she used to run
- 19:56down herself. All right? Then we split you for the launch and meet
- 19:57for the outport. Now where is it? We're down there and I'd put
- 20:00it behind the trees, but you better let me take care of that model.
- 20:03It's stock and slipper on there and I know my way around. Thanks,
- 20:04I'll take my chances. At the moment, I'm very anxious to meet
- 20:07up with that lady again in person. Now you get to the launch and
- 20:11you medicen back to the house. Whoever finds he Yeah, Gordon Roud Bullshit
- 20:25was a one room bungalow on stools. When I started inside, slowly,
- 20:29unsure of both my footing and the company on hand, I was suddenly very
- 20:33sorry that I'd left my thirty eight back in La. But the next minute
- 20:36I began to breathe easier because just visible ahead of me was a Spangler outboard.
- 20:41When I got closer, I saw that it was empty, and I
- 20:44heard somebody behind me. I turned just in time to see a thick,
- 20:48crooked branch coming at my head fast. Oh oh oh, I couldn't I
- 20:57couldn't tell if the warm blood trickling from the cut just flow my ear was
- 21:02what's from where the branch had hit my head off where my head hit the
- 21:06planking. It didn't matter, because either way it hurt. I got to
- 21:14my feet slowly. I reached into my pocket for one of the matches that
- 21:17Haines had given me in the faint hope that a little light might like reveal
- 21:21something about whoever had been guilty of or relecting me like a chocolate soldier in
- 21:23a circush bass. But then, even as I was about to strike the
- 21:26match, I stopped, framed at one side of the open doorway. It
- 21:32was a silhouette of a man. I stood where I was and waited,
- 21:34motionless, willy slowly to the step. Taught me another when he started on
- 21:40his third. In your arm, just in case you're still carrying a thick
- 21:47brush a ketuying hands. All right, what are you doing here? Come
- 21:52on? Embarrassed at the moment, and my witness, I'll talk. Why
- 21:56are you here? I spoke to mility. How mister Marlow is is the
- 22:02witness? Relieve? I guess so sorry about your arm, Dowan. But
- 22:06the last visitor here wasn't efty handed this time. I wanted to be ready.
- 22:10Do you have any idea who this visitor was? No, no,
- 22:12I don't. I was just going to strike this nice to see if I
- 22:15oh, oh my, oh, let's let me strike it for nice.
- 22:21I doubt if I'll do it any good? How there you see anything?
- 22:26Oh? No, nothing that it was a long shot anyway. And what
- 22:33what do you see, mister mallow? What is it? Something I should
- 22:37have seen a long time ago. By that, I mean that the launch
- 22:41and nikiy Spangl is my next stop. Goodbye friend, Thanks for the interruption.
- 22:45It may save a life. It was a four forty with plenty of
- 22:52obstacles and no lights from the boat shed down to the launch. But even
- 22:55as I got there, out of breath, with the shooting pains in my
- 22:56head making a dot board out of the lining of my scalp, I knew
- 23:00who had murdered Julia Spangler, but I didn't know what the wiz and ware
- 23:03force of the green paint that had everybody running. A minute later, I
- 23:08quietly climbed the board the launch and started slowly to the stern, where I
- 23:11could hear voices. I knew that the explanation wasn't far off. When I
- 23:15was close enough to see Nikki standing in the reflected light of the moonwash,
- 23:18I didn't have to hear anything, because, clenched in her hands and held
- 23:22close to her side was the answer to the marks I'd seen on the post
- 23:25on Spangler's balcony. It was a crowbar the business end of it covered with
- 23:30green paint. Opposite her was the reason for the fear in her voice.
- 23:33It was the man who had killed the practical joker, Julia Spangler's ever faithful
- 23:37secretary of Roderic. You're being awful stubborn, Nikki, which is something you
- 23:41must have got from your late granduncle. Now give me that crowbar. Why
- 23:45so you'd get rid of it me too, and then return to the others
- 23:48and more and the loss of your employer. Sure, I just love everyone.
- 23:52I think that I miss him terribly. One of the truth is that
- 23:55I kill him. I hated him in the stupid jokes, every minute of
- 23:57every day that I worked for him. I hate you when you're snoopid way,
- 24:03don't over, Roderick. I'll play your head off, Marlow, Thank
- 24:07goodness. I'll get back bus to get away from her and stand in one
- 24:08place, or I'll show because I help me, Marlo. He did.
- 24:11He killed Julius because he hated him. I have no chance at a half
- 24:14a million bucks, right, Broderick. I don't know what you're talking about.
- 24:17Then, Oh, oh, oh my god, what is it?
- 24:19Mar Nothing? Honey. I walked into a branch that our friend here was
- 24:22holding a little while ago. I still don't know what you're talking about it.
- 24:26I'll make it a real plane, Roderick. You killed Julius Spangler because
- 24:29you wanted to turn his greatest practical joke into a bonanza for yourself. You
- 24:33wanted that scrowey willis tan. Nobody else was in on the gag, not
- 24:36even the lawyer, so nobody else would ever know that it was only a
- 24:38gag. No would anybody care that some wacky old cousin who liked butterflies accidentally
- 24:42fellow is death. But Marlow Julius was killed after we all knew the whole
- 24:47thing was only a practical joy. Yeah, yeah, but that wasn't part
- 24:48of the original plan. Nikki Julius wasn't going to one mask himself in the
- 24:52joke about the will until the next morning. That also correct, Roderick,
- 24:56Yeah, yeah, that's correct. Smart. I was gonna get over with
- 25:00when that felt. I still wanted him to die, and I would have
- 25:03got away with that. Of this dame here hadn't been so curious about those
- 25:04green markings on the writing, and Roderick, it's the same name, hadn't
- 25:07also remembered a crowbar that she once built some green paint. Yeah. Hey,
- 25:12for the time being, I guess I guess you have Mana, mama's
- 25:18your head again, isn't it? Yeah, isn't it? The poor boy?
- 25:21You don't love her? Say, Mala, Mala, you are right?
- 25:26Are No? He's not exactly honey? Did you did you get him?
- 25:32Yeah? But the crow bar? I know that. Could you better
- 25:34give me your gun in case he wakes up suddenly? Okay that I haven't
- 25:38got one, baby, you don't have one, but you're going to have
- 25:41passed out. What I do with him? There's only there's only one thing
- 25:45to do. Let him have it again? Mana, Marna, Marla?
- 25:57Are you all right now? Oh? Yeah, I'm all right. What's
- 26:02going on? Oh? Nikki Nikki? And before you can say where am
- 26:07I? I'll tell you, honey. This is Avalone, a lovely spot
- 26:10on the island of Santa Catalina. It's now two o'clock in the morning.
- 26:12Your head isn't so much as fractured, and you're sitting up in a chair
- 26:17that belongs to the nice lady who rented you this room at a reasonable price,
- 26:19and the others all back of the place except, of course Rodert.
- 26:23Last I heard of him, he was still answering questions for policemen, which,
- 26:27by the way, brings me right to the point this. I gotta
- 26:30know, Phil, how did you figure that Rodrick was guilty? Wet wood,
- 26:33Nikki, wet wood that should have been dry was up on Julius Spieglgain's
- 26:37balcony. The top of the post that had green moss on it was wet,
- 26:41even though the tight fitting cross piece that rested over it should have kept
- 26:44it dry. So obviously the rail was pride loose just before the will was
- 26:47red while it was still raining. How do you figure mola now? Because
- 26:49it had stopped raining and the moon was shining by the time Matthew identified himself
- 26:53as Julias Spanglet. But no one would have wanted to kill Uncle Julius without
- 26:56having heard the will. Nobody but Roderick, who was in on a whole
- 27:00old joke and knew that he was going to get three hundred thousand bucks out
- 27:02of the phony wheel, so he merely pushed the old man off the balcony.
- 27:04Made it look like an accidency. Yeah, and you droped all this
- 27:10out just like that? Well, no, not just like that, Nikki.
- 27:14Finally I caught on, and now, Sweetheart, in spite of the
- 27:18bandage, I think a little stroll on the beach is going to be a
- 27:19lot of good. You know, I'm officially on vacation, rest in recreation
- 27:23for two full days, at least here in an Avalon, baby where else?
- 27:29See you later, Nikki. I got outside and down at the pretty
- 27:45strip of beach that runs along behind the spot where the steam of ducks.
- 27:48I felt a lot better. I sat down on the moon drenched sand and
- 27:53relaxed the first time that night. As I sat there, I reached into
- 27:57my breast pocket for a cigarette, but instead came out with the expensive cigar
- 28:02that Matthew Spangler had given me. It wasn't until I had lit it and
- 28:06was puffing along that I suddenly remembered that Matthew Spangler had really ben Julius.
- 28:11So I got rid of a cigar, hey, just in time. I
- 28:15wasn't sure, but maybe Julius Spangler, wherever he was, was having the
- 28:19last laugh. All The Adventures of Philip Marlowe created by Raymond Chandler, star
- 28:41Gerald Moore, and are produced and directed by Norman McDonald. Script is by
- 28:45Meldon Li, Robert Mitchell, and Gene Levitt. Featured in the cast were
- 28:49Alan Reid as Julius Spangler and Doris Singleton as Nicky, with Anne Morrison,
- 28:55John Dayner, Paul Duboff and Peter Leeds. The special music is by Richard
- 28:59o'roon. Be sure and be with us again next week. When Philip Barlow
- 29:07says, the partner from Mexico City, the stranger dead in Nevada, and
- 29:11the man with a culliflower ear all added up to a copse a concrete floor.
- 29:15But I couldn't figure why until I'd found out that there was one name
- 29:19above all that had to be remembered. Tonight CBS's great hour long Saturday night
- 29:36fun show Sing It Again. We'll be back on the air after a week's
- 29:38absence. Be sure to be around later tonight when Sing It Again returns with
- 29:42its phantom voice mystery and its riddle songs which pay off in wonderful prizes.
- 29:48This is Roy Rowan speaking. Now, stay tuned for the Case of the
- 29:52Redheaded bank Robber Tonight's Gangbusters drama, which follows immediately over most of these same
- 29:57CBS stations. This is CBS the Columbia Broadcasting System. Welcome back. The
- 30:22one thing that really stands out in this episode that I wanted to discuss was
- 30:26Alan Reid, and he was in an episode a few weeks back back in
- 30:33The Grim Hunters. And it's interesting because if you say Alan Reid, the
- 30:37one thing that occurred to most people is, of course Fred Flintstone, his
- 30:41most memorable role. However, he had an entire career in the Rearview Mirror
- 30:48prior to taking on Fred Flintstone. It's true that for most of his career,
- 30:52really it's his comedic roles that he was remembered best for. He worked
- 30:59with Bred Allen in the role of False Staff in Allen's Alley, and probably
- 31:03his second most well known role was as Bisqually on Life with Luigi. But
- 31:11he could have a turn as a good, solid character with some villainous tints,
- 31:17as was the case in today's program. There was one episode of Let
- 31:21George Do It where he played a similar character, though even a bit more
- 31:25sinister. Radio really gave its chance for actors to prove their reign. It's
- 31:29the same that sometimes the casting was less than innovative. I really one Johnny
- 31:36Dowler, Cereal that I really had issues with the casting was the Laughing Matter,
- 31:41where there was a role of a charismatic comedian played by John Dayner,
- 31:47who, despite all of his fine talents as an actor, couldn't carry it
- 31:51off. I would have loved to who have heard them get someone like Alan
- 31:56Reid in that role, or if you really wanted to be bold, to
- 32:00see if you could get Danny Thomas at any rate. You will find these
- 32:04castings where a voice actor who we've known as one thing since we were kids,
- 32:10actually has an entirely different sort of role, and it's always fascinating to
- 32:15see different ranges by these actors. Well, that will do it for today.
- 32:20Join us tomorrow for Nick Carter, and next Wednesday we'll be back with
- 32:23another episode of the Adventures of Philip Marlowe. In the meanwhile, send your
- 32:28comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
- 32:32Radio Detactives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com,
- 32:37slash Radio Attractives From Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam
- 32:40Grahamson and off