Original subtitles

Okay, 129.

Oh, geez, the thing weighs a ton.

What's the occasion?

We got something new in.

You call this new?

Roy, remember those hawk tickets I said I might be able to get you? Yeah.

That's great.

That's really nice. Thank you.

The new suits finally came in, huh?

Nice, huh?

Very nice.

Reminds me of the suit they buried my grandfather in.

Sid's all right.

He can't help it if he lives in a time warp.

Ben?

Good to see you.

Ross. How you doing? Good.

Help you find something? Well, as a matter of fact, I was thinking about

a new suit.

No kidding. Yeah. Hey, you talk about timing. We just got something in here.

me show it to you.

Huh?

Oh, it's you, Ben.

Feel it.

Nothing like the look and feel of genuine gabardine, is there? No. No,

isn't.

Oh, that's it.

That's it.

That's it.

I pulled it out as soon as I heard your voice. What do you think? Oh, I think

you got a sale.

I'm sure we have your measurements on file, but let me get Enrique about here

just to make sure. Okay, Sid.

Do you think you could throw in a couple pairs of socks?

Well, Ben and Matlock.

Lamar. Hey.

How are you? I'm fine. How do you think?

Oh, that's beautiful.

Yeah. Beautiful.

You're supposed to be inventorying shirts, aren't you?

Right away. Yes.

What's this I hear about your daughter getting married?

Oh, yeah. This Saturday, would you believe?

That's if she doesn't get cold feet.

That's if my checks don't bounce. Either of which is quite positive.

Yeah.

My oldest, most favorite customer.

Oh, Enrico.

Enrico will check your measurements to get right to work. How does Monday

Monday? You don't have to rush on my account. No rush.

No problem.

Please, step up.

Yeah,

Ben, I'm going to leave you with Enrico. Sid and I have some business to talk

about.

Just at the bank, you know.

You ask them about the loan?

No, I went in there to buy a couple of CDs. Of course I asked them about the

loan.

They turned us down.

We'll just go somewhere else. We'll just get turned down somewhere else.

How are we going to make the payroll next week?

How are we going to pay the rent?

Face it, Sid.

We're not.

So now what?

Bankruptcy?

There's another option.

What? Well, we have insurance. People on the building, they have insurance.

So? So we hire some guy to torch the place and we collect the insurance. We

start over again.

You can't be serious.

Yeah, I'm dead serious.

I've given this a lot of thought.

We'll get caught.

No, George Glassie didn't get caught.

That was an accident.

No, it wasn't. No accident.

That fire was set.

What if somebody gets hurt?

Nobody was hurt in George Glassie's fire.

This is our business.

We started it. We built it.

We put 32 years of our life into it, and now you want to destroy it? Oh, damn

it. Will you open your eyes? It is destroyed.

It's gone, Sid. It's gone.

We can either let the creditors pick up the bones, or we can use what little we

got left and make it work for us.

George Clancy's over in the mall. He's selling more shoes than he ever did.

It's wrong.

He gave me the name of the guy he used.

And we can talk to him.

Talk.

He's not going to show up. Let's get back to this. He'll show up.

Probably casing us right now. Make sure that we're not cops or something.

You mean the police are looking for this guy? We're going to be associating with

a known felon?

Sid, will you relax? Relax? What if the police are casing him?

Mr. Shea?

Yeah, I'm Marv Shea.

Al Brown.

Do you mind if I sit down? No, sit down.

Sid Franklin is my partner. Mr. Franklin, nice to meet you.

You know, you fellas have got a very nice little store.

Two stories, nice big window out in front.

Two more in the rear.

A couple of rooms in the back.

Incidentally, how many are there in the back? Two or three? That was difficult

to tell.

Three. Three back there.

There's the office, a sewing room, and a bathroom.

Ah, that's good, that's good.

You got a gas furnace?

Downstairs.

You were in the store.

This morning.

I was there from 8 .30 on. I didn't see you.

Mr. Franklin, I didn't want you to see me.

When would you like it to be done?

This Saturday night.

Your daughter's getting married this Saturday. Yeah, I know. That's why.

The store will be empty. Everybody will be at the reception.

How much?

$40 ,000.

$15 ,000 before, $20 ,000 after, and $5 ,000 right now. That's the earnest money

that we talked about.

Look at that. You didn't say anything about giving him money.

Che, Mr. Franklin, thank you very much. I will be in touch.

No, that's fine. No, I understand.

I understand.

I thought it over, Ma.

What?

Yeah, 9 .30. I'll be waiting. I can't let you do this.

We built every inch of this business honestly and fairly.

And I just as soon lose it honestly and fairly than see it burned to the ground

by some criminal. Sid is done.

That was him on the phone. Now listen to me. Saturday night.

9 .30.

I am going to leave the reception. I'm going to meet him in the alley right

behind the ballroom. I'm going to give him some money. No.

He's going to come back here, and he's going to burn this place down, and we

going to have something to show for 32 years of what? No.

Sid, we declare bankruptcy.

We are never going to get out from under it. Do you understand that?

We are too damn old.

Now, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life living off of the government.

Or what's worse, living off of my kids.

Sid, collecting on the insurance, that's the only way out for us.

God help us.

God help us.

Where's your babe?

Didn't bring one.

Have you thought about it?

Are you still planning to do it?

Of course.

Well, think.

Think about her.

If something went wrong, then we got caught and sent to prison.

It would kill your daughter.

You just can't risk it, Ma.

Why don't we meet with Mr. Brown and tell him the deal is off?

Not so much. Please, Ma.

Try to get the $5 ,000 back.

I don't know what we'll do about the store, but we just can't go to jail.

I'll go with you if you like.

I didn't like the idea of Marv being some kind of a fugitive all by himself,

I followed him.

I heard something and went to take a look, and there he was.

Did you see anybody else in the alley at all?

No, but it had to be the arsonist, Ben.

Marv had $15 ,000 on him.

Last thing I said to him was, think about it, it's not too late.

You know, maybe he did change his mind and put up a fuss, and then the guy,

had them grab the money, and he took off, and he heard me coming.

What's the fellow's name?

Al Brown.

George Clancy recommended him.

He was the guy to burn his old shoe store down.

Mom and I were partners, Ben, and we didn't always agree, and sometimes we

fought over things, but... It was real cheap, you know.

I know it was.

But why would I kill him?

Enrico overheard that argument between the two of you the other night in the

office.

And he told the D .A. that you were very, very mad at Marvin.

I was.

I swear to you, Ben, I didn't kill him.

I've been a satisfied customer of yours for 20 years.

And I'm going to do my very best for you.

Oh, wow.

Probably an alias.

How am I supposed to find it?

Same way Marv shared it, through George Clancy.

Mr. Matlock, you haven't touched your eggs.

No, ma 'am. I'm just having coffee this morning.

George Clancy has a brand new shoe store in the mall.

The old shoe store burned down.

Anything wrong with them?

Oh, no, no, no. I'm just kind of watching it.

Your client ever see this Al Brown guy?

Yeah. He's medium height, late 40s, grayish hair.

That's about it. He's got an accomplice, but Sid didn't get a good look at him.

I've always cooked my scrambled eggs that way.

Nice and fluffy and a bit on the loose side.

Miss, Miss McCarver, I'm sure your eggs are wonderful.

But the fact is, I had a fitting for a new suit the other day, and it was a

little tight.

It's not that I've gained.

My late husband, William, loved my egg.

Very Catherine, he'd say.

You've done it again.

He was a darling man.

Darling. Just for a few days.

It was a pleasure cooking for a man like that.

Oh, he could stuff his face.

Well, maybe on the weekend we could. I'll bet that if he was here right now,

he'd know what to do with those eggs.

He'd dig in.

McCardle?

McCardle? Look.

Look at him, McCardle.

Oh, that's so beautiful.

Well, perhaps since you're here, you should try it on. Oh, that's a good

Here. Yeah.

All right. You made that beauty.

You've been working at this store as long as I can remember.

Oh, uh, since the first day it opened. Yeah.

It must have been...

Quite a shock when you heard Marv say he was going to burn it down.

It was an outrage.

It made me furious.

It made all of us furious.

What do you mean, all of us?

All of us.

Me, Sid, Ross, Cheryl.

How did Ross and Cheryl find out about it?

I told them.

How could I keep something so horrible to myself?

Ah, how does it feel?

Perfect.

Maybe just a little tight right to there.

Huh?

A little tight?

It's a miracle you can breathe.

Have you gained weight?

No!

Gained weight. I'm very careful. Look at that.

You sure this is the same cut?

There's only one cut.

Go right back in there and take them off.

Enrico will fix it.

Gained weight.

Your sewing machine probably zigged when it's supposed to zag.

Hi. My salesman said you wanted to talk to me.

George Clancy? That's right.

I like this place better than your old place.

Oh, thank you.

Must have collected a lot of money on your fire insurance to pay for this kind

of lease, huh?

What do you want?

Name is Conrad McMasters. I have a friend who has a little restaurant

Losing his shirt, so he's interested in doing to his place what you did to your

old place.

Hey, this is a shoe store.

You want shoes?

I can help you. You want something else? I can't help you.

Okay, you got this in brown?

Yeah, Brown, Al Brown.

Who'd you say you were?

Just somebody who's looking to retain his services, that's all.

Wow.

Ben, hey, you got the new suit on, huh? It looks great.

Well, actually, this is my old suit.

Enrico's still working on the new one.

Oh.

Listen, Ben.

How's Sid doing?

Pretty good. He's out on bail. I sent him home to get some rest.

I can't believe anybody would think he committed murder.

He's the most decent guy I know.

I hear you knew that Marv was going to go talk to the arsonist that night.

Yeah, I know.

Did you happen to notice if anybody left when he did?

I didn't even see him leave.

Next thing you know, the police showed up.

I thought they were going to say the store had burned down.

Not that Marv had been murdered.

Tell me the truth, Ben.

Are you going to be able to get Sid off?

I'm going to give him my best shot.

You Conrad?

Yeah, who are you?

Albro.

You're not Al Brown.

How do you know?

I know what Al Brown looks like.

Al's a busy man. I do his research.

And if you don't like it, hey, it's been real.

Wait. Hey.

All right.

The restaurant's at 1715 High Top.

It's called the Rio Bar and Grill.

My friend wants it done before the end of the week.

I'll look it over tonight, talk to Al, and get back to you with an estimate.

Is that okay by you?

No money till I talk to the man.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

Hey, Cheryl, I've been looking for you. I'm missing an invoice.

I can't find it.

Have you got it?

No. As a matter of fact, I don't. I told Mar's wife I'd stop by and help her

with the funeral arrangements.

To tomorrow, maybe?

Uh, sir. Yeah.

Uh...

You just grabbed the manual phone?

Yeah, uh, 5 '9", thin, red hair, wearing a blue jogging suit.

Conrad, are you okay?

Yeah, I'm fine. They were just trying to scare me, I think.

The doors were locked from the outside.

They were trying to kill you. Who's they?

The arsonists who probably killed Marvin Shea.

You feel like looking at some mugshots?

Damn right.

I'm gonna get these guys.

Oh, no.

Ross! Oh, thanks.

Thanks. Get me two trips.

Ross isn't here.

She gave him the day off.

I just thought about it. Pick up my new suit.

Oh, well, you want me to get it for you?

Enrico already did. I'm wearing it.

Oh, it looks nice. Thanks.

Thinning.

Oh, I was poking around in Marv's office the other day, yesterday after you

left, and I found this way back in one of his drawers.

Why would Marv have a clipping from a hit -and -run three years ago?

I was going to ask you.

I have no idea.

Jeff did?

He didn't know either.

So, uh...

at the reception the other night, huh?

You bet.

Anything if you get off that man free and not work 14 hours, I was for that.

Marv was cheap, all right.

So you were there.

Well, with a hundred other people stashing it away just like me.

Did you stay in the ballroom the whole time?

Yeah.

With your husband?

Well, I hung out with a lot of people, with Enrico and his family and Ross.

Come to think of it, he wasn't there the whole night.

Who? Ross.

I wanted to introduce him to this girl that I was talking to, but I couldn't

find him.

Seems it was right around 9 .30.

Well, hi, Ben.

Can I talk to you for a minute?

Sure, yeah. Come on in and sit down. Okay, okay.

Can I get you something to drink? I have to be something soft. I've been on the

wagon for a couple of years.

That's right.

You used to play the way pretty good, didn't you?

Oh, yeah.

But that's over.

What, you just quit?

Yeah, wasn't hard. Huh.

So.

You lied to me.

Excuse me?

You left the reception that night. How come?

All right.

Mr. Matlock!

Mr. Matlock!

McCardle, what are you doing here? Your lunch. You went off without breakfast.

And you've got to have something if you're going to be arguing with judges

killers and the like.

Now, why don't you sit right down here on this bench?

Now, this was my late husband's favorite lunch. A meatloaf sandwich with a slice

of onion and a garlic pickle.

He'd say, Mary Catherine, you've done it again.

Well, I've worlds of work to do, so enjoy.

Ta -ta!

His lunch is a meatloaf sandwich with a slice of onion and a garlic pickle.

Well, goodbye!

Mr. Gordon, would you please tell the court what you saw the night Marvin Shea

was murdered?

Well, I was at his daughter's wedding reception, along with him and all the

other guests, when around 9 .30 I saw him slip out one of the side doors, so I

followed him. Why'd you follow him?

Well, because Enrico, the tailor at the store, had told me that Marv planned to

leave the party and meet with the arsonist who was going to burn down the

Well, I went after him because I wanted to stop him somehow.

and make him see that what he was doing was wrong.

Well, did you stop him?

No. By the time I got to the alley, he was already talking to the guy.

So I just hung back and watched.

I saw him hand the guy an envelope, and then it sounded like he was demanding

more money.

The next thing I knew, the other guy had a knife in his hand, and Marv was

struggling with him.

Finally...

The guy raised his hand and brought it down in Marv's chest.

Marv went down, and the guy took off.

What did this man look like?

Medium height, longish hair. That's about all I could see.

I didn't get a good look at his face. It was too dark.

Sure it wasn't the defendant?

Positive.

You said it was dark.

You don't have to see someone's face to know who they are.

What you can tell by their build, the way they move, their clothes.

Now, I've worked for Sid Franklin for five years, and the man that I saw in

alley that night was not him. I am absolutely 100 % positive.

Mr.

Gordon, why did you wait?

Why didn't you come forward with your story right away?

Because I figured if the man that I saw killed Marvin Shea, he'd have no qualms

about killing me.

I'm not much of a hero.

I was afraid.

Thank you, Mr. Gordon.

Mr. Burgess?

No questions, Your Honor.

Witness may step down.

So where are we now?

Well, if we can find this Al Brown, we're in business.

Hello, B.

What's up?

You know that guy that wanted you to torch that restaurant?

The guy who didn't check out?

The guy you took care of?

Yeah.

I was wrong.

I'm really sorry.

Al, it's so nice to finally meet you. Pete has told me so much about you.

He's also told Lieutenant Lasky over there, Sergeant Powell,

Sergeant Gutko, and Officer Evans over there.

It may be a deal.

Let's go, Mr. Brown.

Come on in, Ben. Meet Marvin Latham, who is known as Al Brown.

I'm Ben Matlock, defense attorney in the Marvin Shea case.

Pleasure to meet you.

Likewise, I'm sure.

Is your lawyer here?

No. No, the fact is I'm doing just fine without one. He's agreed to talk about

the Marvin Shea case in exchange for our dropping one charge of arson against

him. All right, if I... No, no, please be my guest.

I understand that Marvin Shea arranged for you to burn down his clothing store.

That's right.

And you arranged for him to meet you in the alley in back of the Kingston Hotel

to get your down payment. That's right. And you met him there and found that he

was backing out of the deal and argued with him and stabbed him to death.

No, no, no, no.

That's not right.

It's not?

No.

I never made the meeting.

Oh, come on.

I had flown to Chicago the day before on business.

Furniture store out in Lincolnwood went up in flames that night.

Really?

Boy, that is some coincidence, isn't it?

Anyway, they had closed the airport because of foul weather for four hours

next day. Really screwed up all the flights.

Just about the time that I was supposed to be meeting Mr. Marvin Shea in that

alleyway, I was actually flying over Tennessee.

That's a lie.

You were seen arguing with him and you were seen killing him.

I'm sorry.

Well, show him.

We found this in his pocket.

The ticket stub.

His flight to and from Chicago.

He was on the plane, Ben.

I keep very meticulous records.

You know, for tax purposes.

Ben, your witness lied.

He lied and I traded off.

An arson charge for nothing.

No, I didn't lie to protect myself.

I was trying to help Sid.

By committing perjury?

Sid is a good guy.

And Marv was a creep.

It isn't right that Sid should suffer just because Marv finally got what he

deserved.

Ross, I want you to tell me something.

Did you do any drinking that night?

I never had a drop.

Well, I quit on August 25th, 1988, and I haven't had a drop since.

Mr. Matlock? Oh, hello, Cheryl. I was just in here poking around to see what I

could find.

Oh, you must be Mrs. Shea.

My condolences.

I'm Ben Matlock, Sid's lawyer.

How do you do?

She came to pick up Marv's things.

Oh, is there anything I can do to help?

No.

Oh, are these the wedding pictures? I got them yesterday. I thought you might

like to see them.

Your daughter looked so beautiful.

And Marv never looked so happy.

Look, he even got his arm around Ross.

Could I just look at those for a minute?

Sure. Why not?

I love to look at wedding pictures.

Oh, they had some swell time. I hate the day.

I recalled you to the stand, Mr. Gordon, because the other day you

didn't exactly tell the whole truth, did you?

No, sir.

Well, now, if you can tell the whole truth today, maybe, just maybe, the

district attorney won't file perjury charges against you. You think you can

the truth today?

Yes, sir, I can.

Good, good.

Now, before we...

Before we start talking about what happened the night Marvin Shea was

let's talk about what happened the night of August 24th, 1988.

I am afraid you lost me. Well, the night of August

24th, 1988, a man and woman were killed in an automobile

accident. Out on the old Ridge Road, a hit -and -run driver forced their car

the road and into a tree. And witnesses at the scene say that hit -and -run

driver had to be drunk.

I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about.

Of course you do.

And if Marvin Shea were here, he'd know too, wouldn't he?

I found this hidden away way in the back.

One of the drawers in his desk.

See? You didn't know he had that, did you?

Yeah.

Good run.

He kept this because he knew that drunk driver

was you, didn't he?

That's not true.

You used to drink quite a lot, didn't you?

I don't drink.

Yeah, but years ago, you used to put it down pretty good, didn't you?

Yes.

When did you get sober?

Close to three years. You got sober August 25th, 1988, the

day after the accident. And you got sober because you knew your drinking had

killed two innocent people.

No.

Witnesses say that that hit -and -run car was dark in color, four -door sedan.

You used to drive a car like that, didn't you?

Well, yes.

And you sold that car two and a half weeks after the accident, didn't you?

I don't remember.

Yeah? Where did you take the car to get it repaired?

Your Honor, we fail to see the relevancy of this line of questioning.

Relevance?

I found where he took the car to have it repaired.

And traces of green paint were found on the right -hand side of that car. And

the car that was run off the road was green.

Overall, Mr. Matlock, please get on with it. Yes, sir.

Somehow, Mar and Shea knew you were that drunk hit

-and -run driver. But he didn't say anything. He kept quiet about it. And

didn't go to prison.

As long as you kept up a little arrangement.

Like taking home half commission.

No, that's not true. He worked you unreasonable hours.

And you took home less than half the pay the other salesman took home. And you

even worked at his house on weekends.

But you did it because you knew that at any moment...

He could pull the string and destroy you. So you put up with his insults, his

cheapness, the horrible way he treated you.

Well, you got tired of it. Found an opportunity and killed him. No!

Yes, you did.

These are copies.

Here you go.

Some photographs that were taken.

At the party the night he was killed.

In this first one, he was still alive.

See, there's you next to him and his daughter and the rest of the people from

the store.

This one was taken after he was killed.

It's hard to see, but that clock says 9 .50. Can you see that?

Yeah. The security guard who found the body called the police at 9 .40.

That means this picture had to have been made just moments ago.

Before the police arrived.

I suppose so. The odd thing is, you're

wearing two different ties.

Look at this.

Look at this.

You're wearing two different ties. You changed ties in the middle of the party.

How come?

And what's even odder is this tie that you're wearing in the second picture is

exactly like the tie Marv was wearing.

See that?

How do you explain that?

Well, I went out and rented two tuxedo ties,

exactly like the ones in that picture.

See that?

And you know something about clothes. They're easy to take off and put on,

aren't they? Yeah. Well, how about this?

You left the party shortly before Marv did.

Waited for him.

And when he walked out into that alley, you jumped up and stabbed him.

And he grabbed that knife in his chest.

And then he grabbed at you. That's right.

And all he could touch was your tie.

Run!

Run! And that's what you would have done. Run!

But you realized he had blood on his hands and there'd be blood on your tie.

So that's why when you came back into

that party you were wearing Marv's tie.

more photograph proves it.

The coroner's photograph of Mark.

You see?

He's wearing the tie you were wearing in that first picture.

Yeah, I remembered his coroner's picture.

And I remembered the blood on the tie.

And I remembered these pictures of you.

And it really wasn't hard to figure out how the blood got on that time.

We find the defendant not guilty.

Honey, would you look at people, please?

Hey, Ben.

You made it.

Business is certainly big. Oh, it's been this way ever since the trial. I guess

it was all that publicity.

Come over here. I want to show you something.

Our new salesman's got lots of great ideas.

He wants to update our lines and stop carrying the slower -moving suits.

You don't mean... I'm afraid so.

But this is the only place I can get them, and if I have to have them custom

-made, it'll cost me an arm and a leg. What am I going to do?

You're going to have to stock up.

That's wild.