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The Price of Fear - Fish · The Price of Fear Collection

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The Price of Fear, brought to you by Vincent Price. Hello there,
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do you like fish to eat? I mean, not to look at or
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catch what I do. I am, in fact one of the world's most
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compulsive episcopores. I find there is an almost ritual purity about fish. The
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Japanese, you know, eat their fish raw, shredding and flaking the flesh
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and dipping it into peco sauces. So yeah, horseradish, that sort of
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thing. The effect can be delicious, a delicate point and counterpoint, air
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and descant plucking at the palette. The taste can be exquisite. And yet
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if you should think too hard about those raw, gelatinous strips of fish,
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you may find the feel of them, the sight of them even is somehow
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obscene. But in my attitude in these matters is colored by a most unnerving
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experience I underwent in Australia. I'll call this story simply fish, because as
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each stage of the episode unfolded, it was impressed on my memory by some
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episcatorial piece of gastronomic delight. It started in a Sydney restaurant about five years
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ago, with a dozen of the celebrated rock oysters, with lemon and cayenne
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pepper and all the usual trimmings. I was lunching with Greg Rossmark, an
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aspiring actor who wanted to come to work in London. We were just debating
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whether another half dozen would be sheer bliss or pure greed, when suddenly Vincent
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It is Vincent, isn't it Vincent Price? Well, yes, Jane Williamsy,
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I don't suppose you remember, but we did once actually work on a
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film together. Well, yes, I believe I do remember. It was
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a long time ago at Elstreet, wasn't it. That's right? I strangled
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you? What a charming fun But I only strangled the nicest people. Sorry,
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Jane, let me introduce you to Greg greg Rossmark. He's also an
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act, an eminently unsuccessful one. Hello, how do you do? Won't
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you join us? No? No, thank you very much. I must
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be going. Are you working over here? And no, missus Williamsy in
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the theater, I mean no, no, the theatre gave me out for
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dead right after Vincent strangled Well, I can't believe that I was that realistic.
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It was probably symbolic of something or other, don't you miss it?
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The theater maybe, but you can't have everything. Can you sure you won't
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join us? Now? This seems so much we might talk about No,
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No, really, I can't. Richard's already waiting at the table, and
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he's due to start glowering any moment. Now, Oh that's a shame.
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Look how long are you here for? Oh? Just a week or so.
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I started filming in Hong Kong at the end of the month. Why
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don't you come over to lunch with us on Sunday. We're only over at
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Manly and I'm a much better cook than I ever was an actress. I'd
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love to come. Oh well, very well, then we'll both come.
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Oh well, fine, Well it's number six Sandy Avenues. It's right on
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the beach. You can't miss this right till Sandy Then, anytime after twelve,
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we'll be there. Bye bye, good bye, Lovely one. I
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do apologize, Ben, since whatever before falling in on your invitation like that,
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it obviously through you. While I suppose it did, I just wasn't
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expecting it summer, neither was she. I was. I was trying to
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stampede you into accepting that. You succeeded admirably. I don't see why that.
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And I thought that you were going to refuse. Well, would that
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have been so disastrous? Not to you, maybe, but it it might
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have been to her. I didn't see how it could have been. I
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hadn't seen her for years, and I barely knew her even theirs. I
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know, I know, but there's just something about her. It's well,
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it's sort of difficult to put your finger on. But the eyes were out
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of phase with the voice all the while she was talking. The eyes looked,
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well, they looked, Oh, come on, Greg, don't let
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your imagination run away with your imagination? Be damned imagination? What is imagination?
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A mental trick? A simple piece of sleight of mind that projects facts
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into fantasy or fantasies into fact. Anyway, the following Sunday, Greg picked
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me up at my hotel and drove us out across the Sydney Harbor Bridge towards
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the North Shore and Manly. The other day in the restaurant Vincent, when
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Jane Williamsey introduced herself, did you really remember her right off? Just like
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that? Yes? Yes, she wasn't the sort of woman you'd forget easily,
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especially after her performance in that film. Was she good in it?
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Very good on it? Positively scandalous, Yes, quite literally. So she
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brought the picture to a grinding halt about halfway through the schedule, or how
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she managed. She ran off with the director. Oh yeah, she took
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off just like that, left us, her husband, everybody flattened, just
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a cough. Believe me, it was no laughing matter. It couldn't have
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been, and at least it wasn't. At that time. We had to
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get a new director in and a new lady for me to strangle, and
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we reshot every scene that Jane had been in. Oh, it was an
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absolute nightmare. And U and what happened to her, Jane was she just
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disapeated. They both did off the set, out of the business, off
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the face of the earth, for all I knew. Her husband hired some
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inkury agents to find them, and for a few weeks we were all up
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to our ears in private eyes. I sometimes wonder why he bothered. It
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could hardly have come as a surprise to him, not with a woman like
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that, A woman like what, well, she was younger then, of
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course a lot more arrogant. She seemed to generate a sort of sexual electricity.
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She had an almost animal magnetism that could devastate a man. I'll tell
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you something, Vincent, she still got it. I wonder what a husband's
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lying were more important. I wonder if he's a film director, or even
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an ex film director. I guess we'll soon find out we did and he
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wasn't a film director. Jane's husband turned out to be a broker on the
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Sydney Stock Exchange, but even that turned out to be more of a sideline.
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His real occupation was swimming, surfing, yachting, all the classic activities
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of the professional outdoor type. Richard was a good outdoor cook too, and
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what he could do with an open fire was beyond belief. It's going on
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nicely, won't belong Benson? You always eat our fresco like this, Richard.
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We only make a think of it at the weekend, and I can
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think of worse ways of passing the right. Nice to see Jen enjoying yourself
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so much, and I'm surprised takes it out of you, especially when you're
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not used to it. Greg was he was teaching me to ride the sun?
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Sure, Greg, what's that mark? But they're on your leg?
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Oh? Oh that that's a birthmak all right. It's almost a family crest.
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It occurs at least once in every generation in our family. Always the
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same place. No, but it's usually on an arm or a leg somewhere,
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and it's always but always the same shape. You see an open rose.
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Oh, yes, how you pointed out it is like a rose my
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uncle, my grandfather. There's more identical. What's extraordinary? How far does
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that go back? Well, you see, my family's name is ros Mark,
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and I suppose originally it was a rosemark. But well, god knows
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when that starts. Oh, that really does smell delicious, Richard, it's
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coming on. What is it inside the tinfoil? I mean, it's a
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whole big time. It really is very good eating. Richard carves it off
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in great chunks, and you dip it in the showy sauce. Well,
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I can hardly wait. Tell me where on earth did you learn to cook
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food? Japanese star Richid I found any style of cooking absolutely fascinating. We
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were taught this by a party of Japanese stockbrokers that we took fishing. But
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what sort of fishing? Tuna? Barrakuda? Marlon, if you're lucky,
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oh, the big game bit huh. Richard has his own boat down the
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coast at Burmagooey. We charted it out most of the time, but we
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reserve a few odd weeks for ourselves. You go fishing, Jane, No,
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he prefers to stay here. Hmm. I can imagine. It must
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be a far cry from el Street to burmagoy. Don't drag all that up
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rosmuck, for peepsake, drag all water, the theater, the bright lights
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and all that crap. It's much better up where she is. Anti Jane,
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Yes, did did you two know each other before before? What?
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Well, before before Jane gave up the theater? My yes, of course
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I married her when she was still a drama student, and in the end
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it was me that made her give it all up, wasn't it done?
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Could hardly believe it. This was the husband that she had left on her
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runaway romance. What could have happened had he found her or had she come
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back to him? And what about the flyaway film director? What had happened
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to him? Well? When I got back to London, I mentioned his
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name around a few times to see if I had got any response. I
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didn't. People remembered him, but no one had seen or heard of him
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since he had run off with that actress. As they put it, they'd
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both run off, of course, but only Jane had come back. I
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wondered, so dark a thought, So dark a thought, It lodged unnoticed
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in the shadows of my memory until last year when I went back to Australia,
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back to Sydney. Perhaps it was the same unnoticed thought that made me
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phone the one time Jane Willielmsy and her husband to invite them both to dinner.
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I remember the occasion. Well, we had a quite extraordinary Australian Hawk
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with a quite excellent lobster, a lamorica. How long will you be in
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Australia this time? It's only a few more days than I go to Japan
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for eight weeks of filming. Might come back here after that, though,
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just for a short vacation trip. Oh well, then you must come up
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to stay with us in Brisbane. It'd be lovely to see you. Yes,
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I didn't, Richard, tell you, But tell me what, Richard,
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we're moving has Well, what would you do in Brisbane? Fish?
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I've sold much this interest here in Sydney and invested in a couple of boats,
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awful engines properly fitted out. You know, chair rods, harpooned,
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rotation barrels, a lot. We can take anything, salefish, black marlin,
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the big sharks, the tigers and the great whites. Why do you
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go all the way up to Brisbane? I mean, why not stay in
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BRIMAGOUI That was Richard's decision. The charter rates are much higher up in Queensland,
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better fishing all the year round. Two Richard's going to skip a one
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of the boats himself. Well what will you do, Jay, I'm sure
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there'll be a great deal to keep me occupied. You're probably enjoyed. Once
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she gets settled in, we'll see. Have you seen Greg greg Oh?
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Greg Rossmark? You mean now, have you seen anything of him recently?
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No? Yes, not recently. How is he? Why it's it working?
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No? No? He gave up the theater. After dinner. I
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saw them to their car with a promise that I would visit them in Brisbane
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on my return from Japan. I watched them out of sight and turned to
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walk down to my hotel and the cool night air. Suddenly I became quite
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chillingly aware that someone was walking almost at my shoulder, following me. I
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stopped. Suddenly, I had to turn and face him out it been surprised.
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Yes, do you remember me, Greg greg with the rosemark on his
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leg? Greg Greg ross Mark. Of course I hardly recognized you. Are
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you all right? Let's just say that I'm sort of sick. You were
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with her, weren't you? You mean Jane? Yes, I've just had
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dinner with her and Richie. Ye I saw it. Did you mention me?
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She said, you hadn't seen you recently? No, No, he
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won't let her, not since he found out found out her. Well,
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is that why you never went to England? Yes, it happened again.
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You see we are Ah, you wouldn't understand you mean you ran away together?
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No? Everything, But that's funnily enough. She wouldn't come with me.
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She she was frightened, frightened of what of him? Of course she's
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terrified of him. Then when he found out about us, she refused to
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see me again. She sends my letters unopened. Every time I phone,
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she bursts into tears and keeps saying, well, moaning, stay away,
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for God's sake, stay away from me. Oh the way she says,
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it tears the heart out of you. And I know it's It's not what
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she wants to say, I can tell Greg maybe she's right. No,
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otherwise he wouldn't be taking her away from here, far away where he thinks
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I won't follow. Well, he's wrong. You can tell him from me
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that he's wrong. I'll follow wherever he takes her. I'll follow to the
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ends of the earth if need be. You tell her that, will you,
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to the ends of the earth, To the ends of the Earth's shuffled
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off backwards into the night until the shadows seemed to engulf him completely, leaving
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me with only the recollection of the desperation in his eyes and the strained emotion
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of his voice. As I turned into my hotel, I knew that I
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would need a vacation after my work in Japan had finished. Knew that I
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wanted to try my hand at big game fishing, and so nine weeks later
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I found myself on the open patio of Jane and Richard's new house, eating
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a homemade croiss on and drinking fresh ground coffee in the pale sunshine of an
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early morning in Queensland. Oh please, and by the way, I congratulate
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you on your Crossah, they're delicious. Not all even face today was just
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that inside of you it's a woman's records. Well, I certainly couldn't face
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the day at sea with a stubbach for of bacon, sausage, eggs tomato.
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Don't get the tomato. It keeps the corpuscles coming the right color.
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At least, that's what my old grannie used to say. But mine said,
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they gave you a pen deciple before Vincent. Now, I never seem
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to have had the time, and I've never been convinced that I had the
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patience. I know what you mean, but this is nothing like ordinary angling.
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You see, you don't just sit around and wait for the fish to
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come. You have to go out and look for them. Well, you
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have to know where to look. Presumably, well, I seem to know
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where to look for shark. Richard's landed more sharks in the past fortnight than
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anyone can remember. He's making quite a name for himself. What kind of
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sharks do you get in these waters? All the worst sorts or best sorts,
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according to your point of view. Tigers, mako, hammerheads. I've
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even taken a couple of whites, small, of course, but even the
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small ones a man eaters. What happens if you meet a big one.
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I beg you've got a fight on your hand. That could be real sport.
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Yes, well I'll just go and learn if I'll give you a hand,
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Rich, see to it. You've finished your coffee in peace? Yeah,
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you stay put. I know where everything goes. Vincent, have you
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seen anything of Greg? I saw him that night that I had dinner with
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you both in Sydney. Not since then? No, Why did he say
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anything about me? Well, he did say he'd follow you, follow me
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here anywhere to the end severe earth. That's what he said. Oh god,
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no, not again. That's rare. He's here. He's in Brisbane.
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You've seen When was that to? No? Nearly three weeks ago and
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you haven't heard from him since. No. I told him to keep,
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to go back to Sydney and forget me. Do you really think so?
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Do you? No? Go on, listen, kind to get moving.
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Why did you come, Jane, there's only us two fishing. You could
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try your hand. No thanks anyway. I want to go into town today.
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Yeah, okay, drive carefully. I will have a good day you
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too, Vincent. Have a good day, have a good week, have
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a good year, have a good life. What does it mean as if
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you can wish anything on anyone, or induce even the most mird no change
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in patterns of events that have been irrevocably pre cast in the unyielding concrete of
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too many yesterdays. A good day it was, then, in the sense
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that the sky was blue and the sun was warm, and the swell of
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the ocean was at its most pacific. Good boat and a good crew in
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the shape of Jack, a laconic x swagman from the northern Territories. All
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it needed was good fish. I wish that had been all we've got.
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Patience, mister Price, that's what's laid out here. But they're not biting
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to day Jack. I will I always do give a bag another bank.
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Yeck, right up? What is that thing? Yeah? Just hang it
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over the side of the boat and leaves a trail behind you for miles.
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As soon as anything finds it, it turns and follows it right onto the
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hook. At least that's the theory. But have you got inside it?
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That's what we call chum. That's a sort of a polite way of saying
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smelly bits of fish and meat and awful, especially awful anything that'll lose blood
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and oil into the water. But I wonder what it'll turn up today.
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Shark, that's all. He seems to be interesting. They'll have to take
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what comes, though, won't he. I mean, he can't pick and
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choose. He does, at least he seems to. Well, how can
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he? It's just not possible. You can't just whistle up which fish you
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want. No, but you can't take all the baked fish out of the
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dobby bag and just leave bloody meat in there. Then what you put into
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the water is not so much an oil slick as a blood trial that'll bring
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the sharks running. But kin Jack, I don't understand this obsession of his
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with sharks. I really, don't, you say? I do. Yeah,
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they're not as good as milin a sailfish. I don't have the heart
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the skippers said on fighting a big great white. But I only hope that's
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not a death witch. We got a visit a jack. What is it?
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Tiger? About ten foot of him? Better get into the chair,
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mister pass sir, There we go, right, Aw, he's curtaining for
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the strike, steady. Yeah, here he comes. Let him run and
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don't holding onto him yet. Don't strike until he stops and starts to bite
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on him and strike hard, and don't stop to pick the daisies. I'll
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tell you when. Okay he slow wait for it. Uh huh, he's
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turning. Here he turn Oh what happened the line broke? Oh? What
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is the breaking strain on that line? Around one thousand pounds? I had
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some fish? Had there vincent til I rig another hook? Yeah, Jack
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might as well. Do you think he's still around? It depends if he's
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still got the hook in him. Hey, there he is where right under
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the sun? Oh? What's he doing that for? He's circling what we
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would got nothing else? Here he comes, he's going to attack the boat.
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Hold on, hoss, he's crizy. It's madness of bloody maters.
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I I got it to get off, your pricey bastard. Get off.
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What the hell was all that about? I've never known that happened before.
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Whatever it was, I'd prefer it not to happen again. Truth, he
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was after the dubby bank. What see for yourself? We looked over the
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stern of the boat. The shark had indeed attacked the doubby bag. He
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torn over half of it away from its rope. The gristly gory bait or
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chum as Jack called. It was already dispersing through the water. And then
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I saw the canvas, a shredded piece of the bag that had been torn
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away from the rest. It was floating precariously just below the surface of the
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water. On it was a piece of meat, a small piece of meat
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with a yellowish bloodied skin. And on the skin was a mark, a
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distinctive mark in the shape of an open rose. Then the movement of the
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sea washed it off its canvas raft and committed it forever to the deep.
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Well, next time you eat fish, you may care to remember this little
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episode, But I hope it doesn't quit you off. I'm still a committed
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episcopore, with the single exception that I will never never eat fish and chips
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In Australia, flake and chips as they call it. It's a great favorite
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out there. But flake, of course is shark. Meet goodbye, bona
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petite that was Vincent Price bringing you The Price of Fear with Bruce bebe Lewis,
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vander Amanda Mari and Bill Kerr. The story Fish was first recounted and
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dramatized by Rainny Basilico and produced by John Dash