Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez (EP0846)

Transcript

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez (EP0846) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

0:28
Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise. Idaholiday is your
0:34
host, Adam Greham. If you have a common email lot tell me Box
0:39
thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. I follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
0:44
and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com Slash Radio
0:51
Detectives. Today's episode is brought to you by the financial support of our listeners.
0:57
Thanks so much for your support. Well now we go back forward now
1:03
as we continue on to the rest of the series. This is the thirty
1:06
third episode. This comes from April twenty five, nineteen forty nine. I'm
1:11
and it's The Adventure of the Golden Pass, Nays. Please enjoy from New
1:22
York City, the makers of clipper Craft Clothes for Men and more than twelve
1:26
hundred leading retail stores from coast to coast present that immortal character created by Sir
1:30
Arthur coland Doyle, the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, starring John
1:36
Stanley. This week's story the Adventure of the Golden Pass. Nay, what's
1:55
in keep your barber at the ready homes the killer My dear fellow is hit
1:57
in this room with us what at Holmes, what are you talking about?
2:00
Observed Watson. The panel in this wall is LUTs. Suppose we open it
2:06
to find what is repealed beyond me. We're at the door of doctor John
2:16
Watson's study and we're about to hear another of his adventures with the fabulous Sherlock
2:21
Holmes. Well good evening, mister Harris, Our good evening, Doctor Watson.
2:25
I I hope you have another one of your memoirs available for us tonight.
2:29
Indeed I have, mister Harris. Indeed I had, and it is
2:31
a very singular adventure. Indeed, I might add here it is one of
2:36
my favorite memoirs, mister Harris, where the genius of my friend Holmes never
2:39
shone more brilliantly. And the name of this adventure, doctor, I shall
2:44
always remember it as the Adventure of the Golden Pass Knee. And after you've
2:47
taken a moment to remind our audience or the merits of Clippercraft clothes, I
2:52
shall proceed with effects of this amazing study. Thank you, doctor. Maybe
2:58
you've heard someone say, well, if I had his money, I could
3:00
be well dressed too. But that's not necessarily so, because the amount of
3:05
money you spend doesn't make you well dressed. It's what you buy, where
3:08
you buy it, and how well it suits you. You can prove it
3:13
to yourself. It's as easy as this. Just try on a clipper Craft
3:16
suit and see how well it looks on you. And you don't have to
3:21
pay a fortune for clipper craft. A fine new clipper Craft spring all worsted
3:25
suit cost you only forty five dollars, and at that moderate price of forty
3:30
five dollars, you get the greatest dollar for dollar value in America because you
3:35
benefit from the unique clipper Craft Plan Buy, which more than twelve hundred independent
3:40
local merchants pool their tremendous buying power to give you the amazing clipper Craft value,
3:46
the finest materials and the very latest in style and color made by Master
3:51
Taylor's. Yes, Sir, a Clippercraft suit at forty five dollars is a
3:55
great, great investment. So treat yourself to a clipper crafts and see what
4:00
rarely fine tailoring can do for you. And now, doctor Watson, what
4:12
about this adventure of the Golden Pass name well, mister Harris, that took
4:16
place in the year eighteen ninety four, and this time Inspector Hopkins Holmes's young
4:20
protegee Scotland Yard was involved. It began in Kent, at a great gloomy
4:26
house called Yoxley Old Place. Here lived a rheumatism written scholar and professor named
4:30
Coral, a strange and mysterious man. One night, the professor, hobbling
4:36
about the house on his stick, surprised his secretary Sergeys in his study.
4:43
I guess what are you doing at that cabinet trying to rob me? Camping
4:48
with the lock? When I came in went to I was a full tum
4:54
Sorry you went at it before. I bashed her head in with his stick.
4:57
Now leave this house. You no longer I tak thing. I'm giving
5:01
you the sack. You here, and if you ever come back to Yuctuley
5:04
Old Place, I'll kill you. So he threatened to kill you, Sergius.
5:16
Yes, Anna, He gave me the sack and took on a new
5:19
secretary, a mister Willoughby Smith. Sergius, I must get into that block
5:25
cabinet in the study. I must. I will stop it. Nothing nothing
5:28
you understand, and you must help me. No, Hona, not I
5:31
I've taken an impression of the cabinet block, and here's a floor plane at
5:35
the house. This is as far as I shall go. I see.
5:41
So you are afraid, yes, Anna, I am afraid. I will
5:46
have nothing more to do with this affair. This Professor khm is mad dangerous.
5:50
To get in his way means death. Very well, Smith, that
6:03
is all the dictation I shall give you this evening. You may go,
6:05
yes, Professor Kremen. Before I go, I have something to tell you.
6:10
What is it? I was in Chatton this afternoon. The green grocer
6:13
told me a woman, a stranger was inquiring the way to the house.
6:15
Here a woman? What woman? Did he describe her? Why? Yes?
6:19
The green grocer said. She was a foreign looking woman, sir,
6:23
black hair, tall glasses, a tiny scar on her chin in it she
6:28
she's found me at last one moment. Smith, Yes, sir, how
6:31
do you know so much about this woman? How were you able to describe
6:35
her? So? Will? I told you the green grocer she sent you
6:39
here? What you want? What I haven't a kept in my study or
6:42
spying Professor Koorm I don't know what you're talking about. It. I'm sorry,
6:46
Smith, I'm afraid I misjudged. That's my temper for a moment.
6:53
Forgive me, of course. I good night, sir, Good night Smith,
7:08
mister Smith. Mister Smith, yes, Susan, but where are you
7:13
going, sir, sir, late at night into Professor Karham's study. Well,
7:15
mister Smith, I wouldn't do that. Indeed, I wouldn't. I've
7:18
been the Professor's housemaid for more than a year, and I can tell you
7:21
he doesn't like anyone in this study. After that, I'm just going in
7:25
to get a book and the professor's in bed. Maybe he is and maybe
7:27
he isn't. But mark my words, mister Smith, don't go into the
7:31
study. Look here, Susan, suppose you go back to your room and
7:33
stop giving me advice. I'm perfectly capable of managing my own affairs. Good
7:38
night, Susan. Let's see where is that lamp? I remember who's that?
7:56
Who's there by the cabinet? Professor Karham is at you. I no,
8:01
no, no, don't. Well, mister Holmes, that's the entire
8:20
story. This Professor Korn's secretary, Willoughby Smith was found dead in the study
8:26
a ceiling wax knife in his neck. Interesting, my dear Inspector Hopkins,
8:30
Biddy, And as you say, the presence of a knife a considerable distance
8:35
from the body would indicate murder and not suicide. This ceiling wax knife was
8:39
part of the equipment in the study, Yes, sir, it always lay
8:43
on the desk I see. And other than that, Inspector Hopkins, who
8:46
found nothing, nothing to put a finger on, Doctor Watson. That's why
8:48
I returned from Kent and this beastly weather to consult you both here at Baker
8:52
Street. Mister Holmes, I need your help. Yes, quite. People
8:56
who come to the end of their wits usually do not in Hopkins a few
9:00
questions. Yes, sir, you examined the grounds. What did you find
9:03
her? A few faint impressions on the garden path. It must have been
9:07
the killer. It was the only way to enter the house since the front
9:09
door was locked and bolt of it. These footprints, Hopkins, were they
9:13
coming or going? I couldn't say for sure, sir, they were so
9:16
faint. Were they large or small? I couldn't distinguish, mister Holmes,
9:20
as I said, oh rubbish show Hopkins, I'm disappointed in you. The
9:24
faintest impressions in the earth, when fueled with open eyes, are enormously revealing.
9:28
Now in this pouring rain, they've no doubt been obliterated entirely. Watson,
9:33
get your waterproof in your hat. You mean we're going to quite?
9:35
We're going to Yoxley old place in Kent. I believe there's a train for
9:39
Chatham leaving Charing Cross in a nar Look here along the garden path there's a
9:54
narrow border of grass along some six inches in width. There is, indeed,
9:58
Woodson, what are the killer could have trod the strip of grass in
10:01
order to conceive his footprits. Perhaps that is why Hopkins saw nothing, no
10:03
nonsense, eh, whoever entered the garden gate Watson and came along this path
10:09
to enter the house had no intention of committing murder? Well, how'd you
10:11
know that with elementary, my dear fellow, a killer would have come armed
10:15
with a weapon that this assassin used a ceiling wax knife snatched from the study
10:18
desk. Hence the murder was on the spur of the moment. Yes,
10:22
Joe Holmes, you're right, yes quite. But now Watson let us joined
10:26
Hopkins in the study. My dear Hopkins, surely you're aware that the dead
10:35
man Willoughby's smith has a pair of glasses clutched in his hands. Certainly,
10:39
mister Holmes, there his He must have just taken them up when he was
10:43
attacked, since hos just the type of secretary would wear pair snay, black
10:48
thread poppycock. Eh, give me the glasses, Watson, Let me examine
10:52
them by the light of the window. Here you are, Holse Holmes,
10:56
why the juicer you try, Lama? What can you find? These glasses
11:01
tell us story? Indeed story. They belong to a woman. She's a
11:05
good circumstance, a person well dressed and refined. She's her thick nose,
11:11
eyes set close together, a puckered forehead, peering expression, and probably rounded
11:16
shoulders. Good Lord the deuce, do you know all about mister Hoyt's ampeus
11:20
Hopkins ampeus. The glasses are dainty and delicately constructed, hence a woman's.
11:24
They're handsomely mounted in solid gold, hence the owner is a woman of means
11:28
and probably fastidious, and the rest of her apparel. The width of the
11:33
bridge is wide, hence a broad nose. And yet the eyes are close
11:37
together, since I have a narrow face and yet cannot focus my eyes through
11:39
the lenders. But Holmes, how do you know, this mysterious woman has
11:43
a peering expression, a puckered forehead, and a rounded shoulders Henses Watson the
11:48
lenses that are extremely strong. And since the woman is myopic or near sighted,
11:52
it's reasonable to suppose she possesses these characteristics. Come, let's leave this
11:56
room. But to know the colidor Watson collodor leading to this room and the
12:01
professor's bedroom, you may find it extremely revealing. Well, seems to be
12:07
an ordinary cornodor to me. Yes, mister holmsn of a mime of doctor
12:11
Watson. Nothing seems amiss here. Indeed, use your eyes, Hopkins,
12:15
use your eyes. Observe. This collodor between the garden door and the study
12:20
is covered with a kind of coconut matting. So too is the hall leading
12:24
to Professor Krum's bedroom that exactly similar in nature. Is that significant home?
12:28
Very it means that the killer never left this house, Julie. The killers
12:33
here at this moment, hiding somewhere, perhaps precisely Watson. And now suppose
12:39
we have a few words with this mysterious Professor Korum. Here's some good common
12:54
sense about men's suits. When you buy your new spring suit, don't deal
12:58
in unknown. Be sure to buy that new suit from a merchant you know
13:03
and respect, and also be sure that it carries a label that merits your
13:07
complete confidence. That's exactly the sensible practice of thousands and thousands of well dressed
13:13
American men. They buy Clippercraft worsted suits at forty five dollars from friendly,
13:18
respected, independent merchants who give you real value, not once in a while,
13:22
but always. The exceptional quality of clipper Craft clothes is guaranteed by the
13:28
clipper Craft label in every suit and topcoat. The trademark derived from the staunch
13:33
Clipper ships that established honest New England quality everywhere in the world. You can
13:39
always rely on Clippercraft clothes and the store that proudly sells them. That's why
13:45
men who know insist on Clippercraft clothes bearing the Clippercraft label. So be sure
13:50
to visit the clipper Craft store in your city. These leading stores in the
13:54
metropolitan area are proud to add their names to Clippercraft in your suits and top
13:58
coats. In Manhattan, Sacks thirty fourth Broadway at thirty fourth, John Wannamaker's
14:03
Men's Stores Broadway at eighth and sixty seven, Liberty Street in Brooklyn, Abram
14:07
and Strauss. In Newark, New Jersey, Boulevard Men's Shop Kresgy, Newark.
14:11
And in Jamaica the B and B Clothes Shop, one six four oh
14:16
eight, Jamaica Avenue. Now, doctor Watson, Doctor Watson, you were
14:26
relating to us the adventure of the Golden Pass. Name Y's mister Harris,
14:31
So I was. Holmes asked Inspector Hopkins to go to the kitchen and wait
14:35
there with Susan, the housemaid, whom he proposed to interview later. Then
14:39
Holmes and I entered Professor Coream's bidroom. Professor was lying in bed in a
14:45
stifling fog of cigarette smoke. We introduced ourselves, and Coreum greeted us courtly.
14:52
Then he held out a cigarette box to us cigarette. Doctor Watson,
14:56
no, thank you, Professor, never touched mister. Yes, by all
15:00
means, I'm an avid cigarette smoker. My dear, professor homes what the
15:03
Dobson and light if you please? Oh? Oh yeah, yes, yes,
15:11
m he seemed to be an unusual brand. Oh yes, they are
15:15
a rare blendsing do you like those? To him? I do, indeed
15:18
they're mild, Professor. Now about the murder of your secretary Willoughby Smith.
15:24
Ah, yes, Smith, a great catastrophe, A fine young man,
15:28
able in intelligence. The last is paralyzing to my house. I shall miss
15:33
him, indeed, And you have no idea who killed him or why?
15:37
No thes nice. Unfortunately I knew very little of the young man. He
15:41
had no enemies that you were aware of. I do not try him with
15:46
the personal affairs of my employees. Yes, do you mind about I wait
15:50
for you in the cornor this room so heavy with smoke? No, not
15:54
at all, my dear fellow, And I have but one or two more
15:56
questions to ask. Professor caught him here, and I shall be out presently.
16:07
Ah, there you are host. Yes, but the juicers happened to
16:10
your house? Why did you tell Professor Calm you were a heavy cigarette smoker.
16:14
I happen to know you never smoked one of those things in your life,
16:15
yet you were in there puffing away for all you were work. I
16:18
was, indeed, my dear fellow, I had not one cigarette, but
16:22
two. I found them both very helpful. What well, I have high
16:26
hopes that my new tobacco had it will help me catch a killer. What
16:30
Holmes, perhaps I'm objuse, But Dasha, what the juice's smoking cigarette's got
16:33
to do with finding a killer? All in good time, my dear fell,
16:37
All in good time. Suppose we have a talk now with a housemaid,
16:41
Susan. Now, then, Susan, what happened after you heard the
16:51
scream? Why? Sir? I ran to the study and there he was,
16:55
poor mister Smith, lying on the floor. When I got to him,
16:57
he opened his eyes for a moment before he died, poor lad,
17:02
and he said something very peculiar. Indeed, what did he say? Oh,
17:06
it sounded funny like, sir, he said the professor. It was
17:10
she, the professor, it was she. She wasn't awidened to tell me
17:14
this when I first question you, because I was afraid you thinke me boy,
17:17
the inspector Hopkins, the professor, it was she. I must say,
17:22
it makes no sense, the professor being a man or. On the
17:25
contrary, remind your Hopkins. It's both a logical phrase and a legitimate observation.
17:29
It is now clear. What's that bell, Susan, Why that's Professor
17:33
Collums, Sir hasking for his dinner. I'd better take it to him.
17:37
Ace, I see by the cutlets you're bringing him on that train, My
17:40
dear, Susan, I'd say the professor is a man of healthy appetite.
17:44
He'll right their homes. There's enough there for a longshoreman, Susan. One
17:47
more question. Is a professor a man of variable appetite? Why? Yes,
17:52
sir? So it seems lately, Sir, I must say his appetite
17:55
is increased sharp, Very good, Susan. You may take your train now,
17:57
yes, sir, thank yous. Well, mister Holmes, what do
18:03
you make of it? It's one o'clock now, Inspector Hopkins, we have
18:07
only to wait an hour until two, as hos what will happen at two?
18:11
Then, Watson, we shall talk to the professor again, and I
18:14
shall produce the killer. That's a chorum. I hope that you don't present
18:27
this second intrusion. But there are one or two more questions I must ask,
18:32
of course, cigarette mister, and no, thank you, not this
18:34
time now, then, sir, what is it you wish to know?
18:38
How can I help herself? As dep Oh, I've already solved it,
18:42
sir, Indeed, I've already found the killer. A remarkable statement, mister
18:47
Holmes, A most remarkable statement. Just where is this killer right here in
18:53
this room? The professor here, I mean Watson. At last night the
18:57
professor here received a strange, an unexpected visit. He has a gun under
19:03
his pillow. There never know the truth. Do you hear? Give me
19:04
that gun? Get it? Thank Heaven, you managed to rest the gun
19:10
away and the shots went wild into the wall. The can'try Watson. They
19:12
almost reached their mark. You see, my dear fellow, the killer is
19:15
in a recess behind that empty bookcase on the opposite wall. That's a lie,
19:18
do you hear a lie? Is it? Then? Suppose we see
19:22
for ourselves. Note whats in this bookcase swings outward from the wall. Good?
19:33
So you have fun poses a woman just as you describe exactly the woman
19:38
who killed Willoughby Smith. I I didn't mean to do it. I wanted
19:42
the papers in the cabinet. I came to get them, and he walked
19:45
into the room that was dark, and he heard me, and then I
19:48
seized the knife. Allow me to complete your story, madam. You struck
19:52
Smith and the neck dropped the knife and ran. In the struggle, your
19:56
victims snatched off your glasses, these golden anstey here, Oh, Oh,
20:00
you don't know what it is like to be have blind have searched and searched
20:06
in your myopic condition, and because the corrindors appeared similar, you made a
20:08
mistake. You ran into the professor's room here instead of through the garden door.
20:14
Yes, yes, I came for the papers. I had to have
20:15
them. I head too. I know now I shall not be quiet.
20:19
It is you who are responsible. Anatole, mister Holmes, he must know
20:23
the truth, but the whole truth. This man is my husband husband,
20:27
proceed, madam. He is a Russian, not an Englishman. We were
20:32
married in Kiev many years ago, and we were Nihilists revolutionists. Yes,
20:37
yes, Then trouble came. The czarrest police my husband here between me.
20:42
To save his own skin, I was sent to Siberia and he I will
20:48
go on. I met a man in Siberia. I fell in love with
20:53
him. He's still there. I needed papers to procure his release, but
21:00
my husband had them in the cabinet in his study, and he would not
21:03
give them to me out of malice and hatred. Then why did he hide
21:07
you when you came into the room here? Because if I were found at
21:11
large and arrested. He knew I would expose him, and I have friends
21:15
fans would cut his both. Think you that is why he hit me behind
21:18
that bookcase, and for no other reason. But now, what what difference
21:22
does it mean? I've killed a man? I have killed a man,
21:26
and I think she has a file in her hand, stuffer to give it
21:30
to me. Why didn't you let me die? Why didn't you let me
21:37
die? Why didn't you let me take the points? Madam? It is
21:42
more to your advantage. Believe me stand before an English court and be judged.
21:48
Here in our country, unlike yours, we do not subscribe to tyranny
21:52
or verdict by decree. We have certain rights, and one of them is
21:56
trial by jury. And if you were the nature of your deed and the
22:00
motive behind it, thar are certain extenuating circumstances. I'm afraid I cannot say
22:06
the same for Professor Korum. Here I have done nothing, and I am
22:08
that subject to her. On the contrary, my dear professor, you've shielded
22:11
a murderer, and a moment ago attempted murder yourself. Watson as hose suppose
22:15
you admit Inspector Hopkins, he's waiting outside. Well, Watson, we should
22:32
be in London present there, hose, How did you know this woman?
22:34
Anna hadn't a skid by the garden path in order to do that watch,
22:38
and she would have had to run along the narrow border of drass to avoid
22:42
leaving definite footprints, an impossible task, certainly for a near sighted person in
22:47
the dead of night. Remember, Anna had lost her glasses. Therefore,
22:51
since Hopkins had reported no definite tracks, she had never left the house at
22:53
all exactly, and Professor Corum's voracious appetite indicated that two people were eating those
23:00
cutlets and not one. Therefore, I suspected that she was hidden somewhere in
23:03
his room. Then I noted that there was one section of bookcase built on
23:08
hinges to swing loose and hose. But did the cigarettes you spoke have to
23:12
do it? You said they helped to find the woman, badeed. Indeed,
23:18
Watson, I sprinkled the ashes on the carpet in front of the suspected
23:22
bookcase. When we returned later, I noted that the pattern of the ashes
23:27
on the carpet had been disturbed. That meant that our quarry had come out
23:30
from her hiding place you, c Watson. I may be a bachelor,
23:36
but I know that any vain woman who has lost her glasses would go to
23:41
almost any lengths to find them. Well, Doctor Watson, that was a
23:55
very interesting adventure. Indeed, yes, mister Harris, as I said,
24:00
it is my opinion that Holmes rose to share heights of brilliance on this occasion,
24:03
and of course he gave the credit to young Hopkins of Scotland. Yard.
24:07
Holmes was the soul of generosity in these matters. You know, yes,
24:11
doctor wats that I do now? And now, doctor, what about
24:15
next week's adventure? Well, next week, mister Harness, I shall relate
24:17
to you the adventure of the blood Soaked Wagon. It concerns a grotesque bonfire,
24:23
a breath taking chase across the countryside, and one of the strangest crises
24:30
ever faced by the Royal Mint. The makers of Clippercraft Clothes and more than
24:41
twelve hundred stores from coast to coast have brought you another in the new series
24:45
of broadcasts featuring the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Our stories are
24:56
based upon the character Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur con and Doyle and
25:00
the program is produced and directed by Basil Lochran. Sherlock Holmes is played by
25:06
John Stanley, Doctor Watson by George Spelton. This week's story was written by
25:10
Max Serlick, with special music by Albert Berman. If you don't know your
25:18
Clippercraft dealer, write clipper Craft two hundred Fifth Avenue, New York City.
25:30
Be sure to listen next week to Sherlock Holmes in the Adventure of the Blood
25:34
Soak Wagon. This is Sy Harris speaking for Hippercraft Pole. This is the
25:47
mutual broadcasting system. Here Bill Henry on the news, which follows in a
25:52
moment, the most comfortable shoe Soul in the world, the Neo Light Soul.
25:56
Light is Light is leather. It's smartest leather. And where where's leather?
26:03
Two to one or men, women, children get the Neo Light Soul,
26:07
step on it. This is w o R in New York serving the
26:11
largest single station audience in America. Welcome back. While there were some interesting
26:38
alterations to the story, to say the least, I just finished Greenness going
26:47
through the returner. Sherlock Holmes also saw it on the TV version and I
26:52
was struck by how this was just you know, pretty radically changed to get
27:00
a different ending. I'm not only ending a little bit different from the book,
27:07
but also revealing the woman in the story early on really did kind of
27:18
tip the story's hand and make the mystery easier to get guess, And I
27:25
don't know why they did that. I think the big surprise, you know,
27:30
when I, you know, saw this particular story on television for the
27:37
first time, was, you know, was finding out that this woman was,
27:44
you know, still in there. And you know, first of all,
27:48
there was a woman when Holmes made that call, and then you find,
27:56
uh, you know, you find she's still in the room. It's
27:59
a pretty a spinning conclusion. But I think a lot of this ended up
28:03
telegraphed here in some ways. I think they're trying to improve upon it,
28:08
and in terms of a more favorable and perhaps a little bit of modern political
28:19
message with the character turning out to be Russians. So this is not one
28:25
of my favorite adaptations, but welcome your opinions as well. Well. We
28:30
do turn before we go to listener comments and feedback, and Bobby says,
28:34
my wife and I fall asleep every night listening to Johnny Dollers Adventures. Thank
28:40
you for providing us with a great entertainment. Well, I'm glad you're enjoying
28:42
it, Bobby, and speaking of yours truly, Johnny Doller. He'll be
28:47
back with us tomorrow and then join us next tom on Thursday for another episode
28:52
of Sherlock Holmes. In the meanwhile, send your comments to Box thirteen at
28:56
Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter, Radio Detectives, and become
29:00
one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com. Slash Radio Detectives from
29:03
Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and off