Original subtitles

Thank you.

Bravo. That was beautiful.

Is that the piece you're going to play today?

I don't know. Maybe.

Hey, relax.

You know you've got the talent. All you've got to do is relax and it'll come

shining through, right?

That's what you always say.

And that's what always happens, isn't it?

I hate these competitions.

I know.

But you win this one and you get to go to the conservatory, right?

You're making such a big deal out of this, Dad. Because it's important.

Now, you want it. I know that.

And I want it bad.

I know you do.

It's late. Time for you to change.

Change?

Why can't I wear this?

Because the judging starts the moment you sit put on stage, and you're not

sitting put on stage dressed like that. Now, young lady, go upstairs and sing.

All right, Dad.

I'll get you off my back.

I just brought the judges in. How do they look?

Serious.

Juliette, you'll do fine.

You're good.

Hey.

Well, it's time.

Before I give you the order in which you'll be playing, first let me say that

Sandra and I have had all of you in our classroom, and we think you are all

extremely talented. And no matter what happens today, there are no losers among

you.

Good luck.

Darling, if you're looking for the list, I saw it on your desk at home.

All right.

First up will be Karen Stryker.

Second, Laura. Third, Becky.

Fourth, Peter.

Fifth, Juliet.

Sixth, Samantha.

Again, that was Juliette DeLong.

We nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. Nice going, Juliette. Old Frederick himself

couldn't have played it better.

And the winner of today's semi -final round of the Atlanta Conservatory Chopin

Competition is...

Ms. Rebecca Smith

No. No!

Oh, Ben. Ben. Oh, good, Frank. I just stopped by to say how sorry I am about

Juliet. I know how much she meant to you.

Well, thank you.

If there's anything I can do... Ben, would you come with me for a minute,

please?

Ben, I don't believe that Julia killed herself.

I pushed her too hard, Ben.

I know that.

But she was my daughter.

Her doing well meant everything to me.

She had to win that competition because she needed the scholarship because I

couldn't afford it.

She was under enough pressure that anyone might have killed themselves,

Somehow I know she couldn't do that.

Frank, I know it's hard for people to... When Carol was dying of cancer, Ben, I

faced that.

And when the hospital bills left me bankrupt, I faced that. But I will not

accept that Juliet tried to kill herself.

Help me.

What?

Help me to see.

Maybe she didn't.

Will you help me?

You know that girl, Juliet?

That killed herself, the piano player? Yes.

Well, I know her father, and he doesn't think she did.

And he wonders, he said he could use our help.

Our help?

Well, we could go down to the conservatory, look around, and ask a few

questions.

We... Company.

Dad, look who's here.

Hello, Ben.

Billy?

Come in.

Well, aren't you going to invite me to sit down?

Billy, sit down.

Well, aren't you going to offer me some refreshments?

Popcorn. How about some herbal tea?

Thank you, Leanne. You're a nice person.

Well, I got some good news.

My brother's coming to town.

Russ? You remembered his name?

I said you probably wouldn't.

Well, sure. Who could forget Russ?

Russ. Russ the Rhino, we used to call him. Not because he was big, because he

was fast.

Russ, he used to love to have fun.

Fun, fun, fun, Russ.

Be glad to see him, Russ.

Russ.

He doesn't know Leanne. Make sure you invite her.

Invite her to what?

To the dinner party you're throwing for him tomorrow night.

He's your brother. Why don't you throw him a dinner party?

I don't have any dining room table.

Lucy took it when she moved to Florida.

The other one left her at the altar like that. She didn't move in with Russ. No,

it didn't cause him 40 years of misery. She moved in with me.

I'll tell you what, Billy.

I'll throw him a dinner party.

Here. Tomorrow night, 6 .30.

You, me, Lee, and Russ.

How about it, okay?

Okay.

Billy, on the way to the door, don't call me a jackass.

Think of anybody that disliked Juliet or had it in for her.

The only enemy Juliet had around here was herself.

Not herself, her father.

He pushed her very hard.

Sometimes it seems she played the piano for him, not for herself.

Sounds like she was not a very happy person.

She sure wasn't after the competition.

Anything?

Frank, my daughter talked to a lot of people at the conservatory, and

she found nothing.

Nothing?

I don't think anybody killed your daughter.

Very few people knew her. Music was her whole life, and you said yourself you

pushed her too hard.

Yes, I know.

Can you let it go?

No, I can't do that. I'm sorry, Ben, I just can't. Well, the police found

of barbiturates in her body. That's common in suicides.

Will you look in the garage, Ben? At her car?

That's right.

Ben, please.

Ben? There's a phone call for you, Ben.

Somebody named Billy.

Did you find anything?

The battery's not dead.

This is an older car with an old battery.

If this car had run out of gas here and the key had been on for four hours,

the battery would be dead.

I don't think your daughter died in this car.

I don't even think she died.

Your garage.

Hi. Me again. Leanne McIntyre? Hi.

That was wonderful.

The Minute Walls, right?

One of my favorites.

It's practically everybody's favorite.

Mind if I ask you one or two more questions?

Sure.

I understand you were the closest thing Juliet had to a best friend.

Uh, that's not saying much.

Making friends wasn't a priority for her.

I hear she didn't date much.

Who told you that? Her dad.

Oh, she'd never tell her father.

But the way she acted sometimes, you know, the things she'd let slip,

I think there was a guy.

She just never talked about him.

How did you know it was me?

Your handwriting.

It took me a while, but I matched it with a sample from the faculty file.

I don't make a habit of having affairs with my students.

She's the only one. She was very special.

How long had it been going on?

About six months.

It was all my doing. She was never comfortable with it. She was always

that...

Her father would find out, or my wife would find out, or school would find

I was the one that wouldn't let go.

Weren't you afraid someone would find out? I was in love with her.

When was the last time you saw her?

At the competition.

It was the best I ever heard her play.

She killed herself before I had a chance to tell her.

We don't think she killed herself.

You don't? No.

Where were you the morning she died?

Every Friday morning, I'm at the music hall downtown rehearsing with

Philharmonic.

That's beautiful.

She meant a great deal to me.

I was just an older man trying to make her fall in love with me.

Oh, God, it's Linda.

Please, she didn't know.

Tried to get insurance, but the dry cleaner screwed up. I'll have to go back

later.

Sandra Baldwin, this is Leanne McIntyre. She's working on the Juliet Delong

case. Hello.

Frank Delong has no one to blame for this tragedy but himself.

Excuse me? Pushing Juliet to suicide like that? It was only a piano

for God's sake.

Sandra has very little patience with stage mothers or stage fathers.

I was just telling your husband Juliet didn't kill herself.

At least we don't think so.

Well, I've taken up enough of your time.

Nice to meet you.

Bye.

They're here, Dad!

Ross, Ross, Ross, come in here.

Oh, yeah.

This is my daughter, Leanne. Oh, nice to meet you.

Give me a hand.

Oh,

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Well, you're looking good, Ross.

Oh, I'm doing pretty good. You look fine. Oh, I'm just fair, fair.

I was just telling Leanne how much fun we used to have. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Remember the time we knocked over old man McCabe's outhouse and Junior McCabe

was still in it?

Well,

in honor of all the fun we used to have, we fixed your favorite meal, venison

stew.

I don't eat red meat anymore.

Well, don't worry about it. I'll eat a round of meat. It'll be fine.

Shall we?

It's a dinner party. Guest of honor's a vegetarian and you serve meat. Why

didn't you tell me? I didn't know.

It'll be fine, Billy.

Is there something wrong with your salad, Russ?

Tomatoes give me hives.

Good stew, Leanne.

Dad made it.

Kind of runny, though.

Is this zucchini?

Yeah, I always put zucchini in stew.

It's a vegetable.

I like to get these little swords around now.

What do you want? Get a drink of water.

Oh, have some tea.

Oh, caffeine makes my hands shaky.

What business are you in, Russ?

Oh, I sell commercial vacuum cleaners.

Actually, that's the reason I'm in town.

That's interesting.

Oh, yeah. This new model that we have, it's a doozy.

What the hell happened?

I must have slipped a disc when I hit the floor.

Well, don't worry about it. I'll be fine.

That's the song your husband wrote for Julia.

You knew about them.

I came across a rough draft with a song in his office one day.

Then I heard Juliet playing it before class.

I didn't want to believe it.

Then I saw the way he looked at her.

Kind of the way he looked at me a long time ago.

And then I knew that she and my husband were having an affair.

How long have you known?

About two months.

And you never confronted Michael?

No.

I'm not an easy person to live with.

I'm opinionated, blunt, selfish, impatient.

I can see why Michael strayed.

But he didn't leave me.

I was afraid that if I confronted him, he would feel obliged to move out. I

didn't want that.

You still love him.

I'm very stubborn, too. Did I mention that?

Michael said that he was rehearsing with the Philharmonic the morning that

Juliet died. Do you remember where you were?

Where I've been all week.

Right here, grading blue books.

The Conservancy Chopin competition always wreaks havoc with my schedule.

Speaking of which, I've got to get over to the auditorium. The final round

starts in 15 minutes.

Would you mind if I tanked along? I've never been to a piano competition

Sure. But I may not be the best person to sit with.

I've never won one.

And the winner of this year's Chopin competition is...

Ms. Rebecca Smith.

You believe that?

Wouldn't have been my toy. What's wrong? What's wrong? The girl stank. She

wasn't that bad. Oh, are you kidding?

Her tempo was erratic. Her interpretation was boring. She gave one

weakest performances up there. Did she really?

This is a disgrace.

Mr. Baldwin, Ben Matlock.

My daughter spoke to you yesterday.

This is Officer Wilson.

We have a warrant here, sir. It allows us to search your garage, examine it and

its contents with any fingerprints.

Fingerprints?

I don't understand.

Well, the police believe that Juliet may have died of carbon monoxide poisoning

in somebody else's garage and then moved to her own garage later on.

You suspect me?

You've got it all wrong.

I loved her.

Leanne told me.

But since your wife is now a suspect too... My wife?

Why is she a suspect?

No.

She didn't know about us.

Yes, she did.

That's not possible.

Would you like to get started, sir?

Sir? Could you open the garage?

Sure.

Ben, is that you?

Russ?

You still here? I thought Billy took you to the doctor.

Oh, Billy came by.

But when I tried to stand up, I just couldn't. My back hurts so bad.

What happened? Is it age?

You used to be so... and funny.

Ben, that was high school.

When I entered the world of vacuum cleaners, I realized I just had to

most serious side.

Maybe you ought to take some aspirin for your back.

Upsets my stomach.

Oh. You know what? It would be so nice, man, if I could have the phone just a

little closer so I could reschedule my vacuum demonstrations.

Oh,

there you go. Just reaches.

Isn't that wonderful?

Oh, would you mind?

If some of the calls were long distance, I'd forgotten my credit cards in my

other pants, and call and collect is so tacky.

Okay.

Oh, I can't quite reach my briefcase. I wonder if you could move the coffee

table just a little bit closer to the couch.

No.

Oh, now, now, watch your back. Don't you throw it out. You'll have to buy a

second couch.

How's that? You'll have to buy another couch. I say, how's that with the coffee

tape? Well, that's fine. It's fine.

It's a little dark in here.

I wonder if you could turn a light on.

What are you doing?

Trying to figure something out.

What?

You.

I thought you'd given up on that a long time ago.

You knew about Juliet?

Why didn't you say anything?

What if you denied it?

What if you didn't deny it? What if you asked for a divorce?

Didn't you want a divorce?

No.

I thought if I didn't say anything, if I didn't

rock the boat, that somehow, maybe,

I could...

Figure out how to win you back.

Oh, that's very interesting.

I've been sitting here for the last three hours trying to figure out how to

you back.

Sandra, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Hi.

Hi. Well, Michael and Sandra were doing just what they said they were doing,

Phil Harmonic and Blue Books.

Yeah, they're not the killers. Yeah.

How'd you know that?

Because the police didn't find Juliet's fingerprints anywhere in their garage.

And you had me running all over town all day for nothing? Why didn't you call

me? Well, I've been too busy waiting on Russ the Rhino in there.

Well, I have. I just got done fixing dinner.

He wanted some chicken, so I got him a bucket.

It was too greasy, he couldn't eat it, so I had to go to the store and get some

more and bake it. And I had to skin it first.

You ever heard of such a thing?

Yeah.

Let me skin it first.

Maybe this is some kind of hateful joke that Russ is playing on me.

We used to play hateful jokes on people. Maybe they're getting back at me by

having Russ play these hateful jokes on me.

Don't talk that way. Well, he is. He's hateful, he's old, he's mean, he's

and he's a hateful.

Could be worse. Could be Billy in there. I wish Billy was in here.

I could yell at Billy. I could just go ahead and kill him.

Billy drives me crazy. Russ makes me nuts.

Would you stop?

I'll take over.

I got it.

Dad. I went to the finals of the Chopin

competition at the conservatory this afternoon.

Who won?

Becky Smith.

Is that the same girl that beat out Juliet the first time?

Yeah, Frank DeLonge said she didn't deserve to win, said she didn't play

well. Of course, I couldn't tell the difference. She sounded like Van Cliburn

me.

Um... Uh... I'm on out for a little while.

Where are you going?

I'll tell you when I get back.

Ben? I'll be there right there, Ron.

I'm sorry I'm late. I had trouble finding a place to park.

There's a lot right across the street.

Yeah, but you have to pay to park there.

What's going on here? Yes, I have a plane to catch first thing in the

know you do. That's why I wanted to talk to you tonight. I have a few questions

about how you judge these competitions.

For instance, do all three of you have to agree on who's the winner?

In this particular competition, only two out of three require.

Is that how it was today, or did all three of you think that Becky Smith

Oh, please, let's not get into that again. I'm sorry, but a ten -year -old

have played as well as Miss Smith did today.

And the sonata she played Tuesday, she absolutely savaged it. You just don't

like either piece.

I don't like the way she played them.

Her fingering was awkward. She had no sense of style or virtuosity.

But the others played worse.

They played infinitely better.

Becky Smith had no right to win that competition.

Well, the two of us thought differently.

Well, the two of you should be looking for another job. Are you just... How

you? Thank you, thank you. I just wanted to find out how it worked, and now I

think I know.

So thank you for your time, and good night.

And have a...

Pleasant, safe trip.

Again, thank you. Good night.

I think I know.

It's pretty far out.

Now, you see, what you gotta know is that that works on all kinds of carpets.

works on, oh, pile, loop, everything, and it dries, it dries overnight. Now,

feel that?

That's like pushing butter on a hot skillet, isn't it?

Now, a baby could operate that thing, but let me show you something else. You

see that can of sawdust over there? Pick it up and dump it on the floor. Just

dump it right on the floor, everywhere on the floor. That's it, that's it. Now,

get it on there good now. Now, you step on it. Now, grind it down good.

Good, good, good. Now, that's perfect.

Okay, okay.

Now, stand back, because this puppy's going to suck the daylight out of this

carpet.

you look at that?

Will you look at that?

Like a tornado over a field of cotton, ain't it?

I don't mean to be a tattletale, but Russ is

grinding sawdust into the living room carpet.

He's been dumping dirt and grime, every kind known to man in there since nine o

'clock this morning.

And now the vacuum is picking up all that dirt and grime. Well, that's good.

And you know who is operating the vacuum cleaner? You guessed it.

Russ the Rhino.

You're kidding.

There's nothing wrong with him. Or his back.

He forgot himself. He had to be one with the vacuum cleaner.

He flew off that couch like he was 17 years old on his way to knock down old

McCabe's outhouse.

It was a trick.

The whole thing was a mean, nasty, hateful trick.

Did you talk to Becky?

Yep.

You got an alibi?

Mm -hmm. She said she was giving a piano lesson to this kid named Kyle over at

her grandmother's house. When I spoke to her grandmother, she said she wasn't

sure that Becky was there because she had been at the senior center that whole

day. She teaches aerobics.

Did you talk to Kyle?

Mm -hmm. He said Becky gave him a lesson, but he also said that right in

middle of the lesson, she left for about 20 minutes. Said she had to make a

phone call.

How far is it between Becky's grandmother's house and Frank's law

Less than a five -minute drive.

Did you clock them? I clocked it.

Miss Smith, hi.

You don't know me.

You don't know me, but I know a good bit about you. I'm Ben Matlock, Leanne

McIntyre, my daughter.

Haven't I answered enough questions?

Just a few more.

I spoke to Dr. Waddell.

Who? Daphne Waddell, one of the judges you paid off to make sure you'd win the

competition. I don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Well, you didn't need to win that competition for the scholarship, but you

you'd never get into the conservatory fair and square by, you know, just good

piano playing, so you kind of bought your way in, didn't you? I've heard of

people being paid off and bribed in sports and politics, but I've never

it in the arts and classical music.

If Dr.

Waddell told you I bribed her, she's lying.

Oh, no, no, no, no. She didn't say anything to me. Neither did Dr.

Chomsky, the other judge that you brought.

Then why did you come here?

Uh, for the same reason Juliet did.

What do you mean?

Well, Juliet probably figured it out, too, and wanted to give you a chance to

disqualify yourself before she turns you in. I don't know.

But one thing I do know for sure, somehow you drugged that poor girl and

her in your grandmother's garage with the car running and left her there to

You knew your grandmother would be gone all day and would never see her.

And about 2 o 'clock, you drove the body back to Juliet's house and staged it so

it looked like a suicide.

Around 2 o 'clock, I was in the middle of a piano lesson.

Kyle Hinkley. I spoke to Kyle.

He said that you were gone for a good 20 minutes. That's more than enough time

to get to Juliet's house and back.

Not only did I bribe two judges, but now you're saying I killed Juliet?

Juliet wasn't in your grandmother's garage at all that day.

Of course not.

How about opening it up? Let me take a look.

Be just a second, I'll be gone.

Promise.

Deal.

What happened in here?

What's all that blue stuff?

Police dusted fingerprints.

Your grandmother let them in. So if they didn't find anything, what are you

doing here?

How do you know they didn't find anything?

Because if they had, they'd be here, not you.

And of course, there is nothing to find.

Oh, you cleaned this place for fairly well.

Floors, walls, doorknobs, everything.

Took them close to an hour to find any prints at all.

But they didn't find Juliet's, did they?

Yes, they did.

You missed a place.

Either you didn't see it because the door was up or you didn't think of it.

See that spot right there?

I guess the drugs you gave her...

had worn off and she woke up and started trying to open this door. She yanked at

it with both hands, but she was trapped and the car was running.

The police found six real good, clear prints.

Didn't finish your soup, Russ. I didn't eat the noodles. Got egg in them.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Ah.

Russ the Rhino.

In here, Ben.

Get the magazines.

Oh, yeah.

Models.

French Knights and 90 ES.

Life as it really is on the French Riviera.

And his own private nurse.

That's real sweet of you, Ben. It'd be nice to have someone look after him.

Come in, Shirley.

This is Shirley Jawbone Breaker Hawthorne.

Rust the Rhino Lewis and his brother Billy.

Charmed, I'm sure.

Her real expertise is deep tissue massage.

According to the woman at the agency...

A couch -ridden person ought to get one of these at least four times a day. Go

to it, Shirley.

Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no,

Just wait a minute.

No, no, no.

No, wait, wait, wait. Please.

actually, Ben.

I think I'm starting to feel a little better.

I might even try to...

You know, I

think, as a matter of fact, I might be able to...

that. He's standing by himself.

You know something?

By the end of this day, I may even be able to kind of walk out of here.

Why wait till the end of the day? Why not right now? Go to it, Shirley.