Original subtitles

Bye.

Abby?

Oh, uh, pardon me, sir. I'm waiting on the lady.

She's in there visiting one of the prisoners. She's gonna be in there for

hour or more. Plenty of time to drive me to town and come back for her.

My Wednesday woman?

Are you kidding, Mac?

Wednesday woman?

Sure, that's what I call her.

Regular's clockwork.

Every Wednesday. For a year now.

She comes to visit her husband.

I'm afraid I still don't understand.

Not a month ago, it might have been different.

But if he isn't out here ready to go back in five minutes, I'll drive you to

town for nothing.

Leslie Stewart, you got a visitor, your wife.

I don't want to see her.

Come on, man, have a heart. What are you trying to do to that woman?

Used to be you couldn't wait to see her. Now every week for a month she...

Pardon me, ma 'am. Would you mind showing your cab to the town with this

gentleman?

I'd hate to miss the train to Los Angeles.

Is there something I can do?

He wouldn't see you again, Mrs. Stewart.

Give me your...

I'm afraid your cabbie boasted a little of his celebrity passenger.

His Wednesday woman.

Well, even those who like us can be cruel without meaning to be.

A name like that is sort of a catchphrase.

Wednesday woman visits murderer, isn't it?

That's a lie. It's all lies.

He didn't kill the man.

I've said it so many times.

No, he did not kill.

He fought with the man. He struck him, that's all.

Yes, but I... The man had a bad heart.

He died half an hour later of a heart attack brought on by the blow.

Involuntary manslaughter.

Yes, I think I remember that now. The man your husband struck was a jeweler,

wasn't he?

Your husband accused the man of having stolen something.

A diamond, wasn't it? The Jakarta diamond.

You seem to remember a great deal, Mr... Jack Mallory, Mr. Stewart.

Well, it was a sensational case. Real headline stuff.

Half a million dollar diamond stolen, manslaughter, your husband in prison.

The diamond the dead man took has never been found, has it?

You're trying to tell me something, aren't you?

Am I?

Or am I just a stranger passing the time of day trying to be, well, kind,

perhaps?

Kind, Mr. Mallory?

I think so.

Sometimes a stranger can be a friend.

Now, wouldn't you consider it really friendly if I gave you or your husband

,000 for the Jakarta diamond?

The police never connected your husband with the theft of that diamond.

No, the charge was involuntary manslaughter.

Philip admitted accusing Mr. Reed of stealing the diamond and striking Mr.

Mrs. Stewart, does your husband know where that diamond is?

Mr. Mason, my husband is not a thief.

He was chief designer and foreman of the Weber and Reed workshop.

He also had a key to the safe where the diamond was kept. If he wanted to steal

it, he could have done it at any time.

Philip will be released from jail next week on parole.

I wouldn't want him to go back to prison for all the diamonds in the world. Mrs.

Stewart, frankly, I don't understand what it is you want me to do. Mr. Mason,

I know that a man on parole must have a job and also that he can't leave the

state.

I happen to know of an opportunity of a very good job for Philip, but it's back

east. And I thought that if you and Mr. Drake could prove that by staying here,

Philip would only get in trouble.

That you, Mr. Mason, could get permission for him to work out of the

And that you could also, yourself, arrange for this Eastern job to be

him. You think this obviously planned meeting between you and Mallory was only

the first step in what could be a serious involvement over that missing

The Jakarta diamond is worth half a million dollars.

People will go to any lengths for that kind of money. Of course you've talked

this over with your husband.

Well, no, I haven't.

You see, my husband has refused to see me for the last month.

Refused to see you?

Philip and I were strangers.

We hardly knew each other.

Even though we worked together in the same place for a great many years.

We'd only been married a month when this awful thing happened.

How very awful for you, Mrs. Stewart.

I suppose we did get to know one another.

To find out about one another.

Up there at the prison every Wednesday.

Philip was just beginning to open up when...

About a month ago, I don't know why, he just refused to see me anymore.

That's why you'd rather that I made the arrangements about the job.

Yes, please, Mr. Mason.

Hi, Mr. Stewart.

Well, Paul?

Acme Casualty was the insurance carrier stuck with paying out half a million

dollars on the missing Jocarda diamond.

And Mr. Mallory? Was Acme Casualty's chief investigator for the western

Was, Paul?

Yes, was. Talk to me.

And then, after dinner, we could take in a movie. Not again tonight, Lester. I

have a headache.

Joyce, are you sure you won't be... Well, hello, Ormsby.

Now, that could make a woman say yes in a hurry. That's probably the only kind

of a woman you would know.

Joyce, I'll get you something for your headache as soon as I give this to Mr.

Webber.

He killed my husband.

Killed him.

And you bring him back to do what? To take his place?

Since I'm buying out your husband's interest in a business, I don't see

it's any concern of yours.

I suppose you'll be changing the name to Weber and Stewart.

I only gave the man a job.

But if you must know, Weber and Stewart would make more sense than weed and

bankruptcy was making before your husband died.

Oh, weren't you aware that that diamond was only the last installment in the

story of a thief?

Thank you, Rosie.

Another day, another dollar. Yep.

Sorry,

Paul. You were talking about what you dug up.

Well, nothing you can take into court, but enough to be sure that Reed was the

thief.

Go on. That's about it.

No rumble here and there about the diamond being smuggled into Hong Kong.

And about some mysterious woman seen delivering a small package to some

in San Pedro.

Paul, that sounds like the plot of a 30 -year -old late, late movie.

I'm not paid to write them, beautiful. Just report the facts, man.

Any reason why Reed would risk getting caught and going to prison trying to

steal a diamond like that?

Well, maybe because of his past, he didn't have much of a future.

Ulcers or heart trouble?

Reed was no slouch. He had them both.

Also, a secluded little apartment his wife didn't know about.

The eternal triangle.

Who was the custodian of these spare pipe and slippers?

Probably the same woman seen delivering a small package to a sailor in San

Pedro. The same mysterious unidentified woman seen leaving the apartment minutes

before Philip Stewart arrived and hung the fatal kale on Reed's chin.

Paul, are you telling us in this roundabout way that Philip Stewart just

out about this woman?

And that's why he hasn't spoken to his wife in the last month?

Figure it out yourself.

Catherine Stewart and this unidentified woman who left Reed's second apartment.

Any reason why they should be one and the same?

She was Reed's secretary for ten years before she married Stewart.

According to Officer Scuttlebutt, maybe more than a secretary.

Taxi, mister.

to even look at me.

Why?

Why?

Does it matter?

Yes. I love you.

What is it? What happened?

There must be some reason for this.

What do you want? What are you trying to do?

a long time and... You paid your interest in advance.

Look, if there's anything wrong... Keep your shirt on, Buster. I didn't say

there was anything wrong.

Here's ten bucks, too.

Have you got something I can wrap that in?

No, I didn't expect... Okay.

First class to Rio de Janeiro.

Did you say two weeks?

Make it in ten days.

Well, I'll have to confirm that.

Your name, please?

John Smith.

Your phone number, Mr. Smith?

I'll call you.

You can have something nicer if you take it by the month. Two weeks will be more

than enough. Thank you.

There was a time when you called Ormsby a creep.

You wouldn't give him the right time of day.

A lot happens in a year.

Where I've been, I wouldn't know.

Let me double -check your new address.

3506 Vista Haven Road, apartment 204.

How did you know my address?

Why, somebody must have mentioned it.

looks the same.

Except for one thing.

It's safe.

Mr. Webber had it moved into his office.

They'll let me march in the parade, but they won't let me carry the flag.

Everything else is exactly as you left it.

Well, sorry, Phil.

I guess I hoped you could just pick up the pieces.

As if nothing had happened?

No, I'm not fool enough to think that what happened didn't leave scars.

Why am I here, Mr. Weber?

To do a job of work.

And do it well, as I know you can. Don't you believe that?

No.

Well, then, why did I hire you, suppose you tell me that?

Six months before Reed was... Before he died.

The South Bay Museum offered you a half a million dollars for the Jakarta

diamond. That's right. I turned it down.

One week before he died, Catherine and I couldn't go on our... You canceled my

vacation. Something important. Something only I could do.

You certified the sale of the Jakarta to the museum for half a million dollars.

Yes. And within a week, after I had checked it out, it had been sold and

in storage with us. It was stolen from my safe.

Well, Phil, what are you trying to say? That all this adds up? That Reed or I

couldn't collect insurance stealing our own property, but the property of the

museum is another matter?

That says it. Well, it asks and it accuses.

Did Reed and I use you to carry out a criminal fraud against the insurance

company? Oh, why, it's ridiculous, Phil.

Ridiculous nonsense.

Let's say no more about it, huh?

Just forget it. No more questions.

Of course, you're working here as a condition of your parole.

Let's act as if you never left here at all.

A kind of hello.

I didn't hit you, if that's what you mean. I found you lying on the floor.

I got a feeling you're Jack Mallory.

That's right.

You missed Stuart.

He started work this morning.

Mr. Drake.

You're representing Acme Casualty, aren't you?

Oh, you know better than that, don't you, Mr. Drake?

All right.

If you do find a little bobble, how much will Acme pay you to get it back?

$300 ,000, $350 ,000. They save $150 ,000, $200 ,000.

And again, it's worth a lot more than the half million in insurance, isn't it?

Much more.

So why buy it and sell it back to Acme when you can make more fencing it

yourself? Especially when I know all the big -time western fences?

You know, you're very good at simple arithmetic, Mr. Drake.

Not bad at geography, either.

Private eye, do -it -yourself kit, how to pump a suspect for information.

Well, if I could find out, you must have.

Very true.

Now, we are talking about Hong Kong, aren't we?

But your car has probably been chopped up into half a dozen smaller stones by

now.

Hate to think we were both wasting our time here. Matter of fact, I just might

be able to save you and Mr. Mason some digging.

Reed was in trouble.

Bad financial trouble.

He did steal the diamond.

And gave it to a girlfriend for delivery in Hong Kong by way of a sailor in San

Pedro. You do get around, Mr. Drake.

There's only one trouble.

The package that was delivered in Hong Kong was empty.

No, Mr. Mason, I don't know anything about that diamond.

Actually, I... Go and read.

Only what grows between a man and his secretary in ten years?

The kind of sadness for the hell that a man can make for himself.

Yeah, Reed was pretty good at digging holes for himself and everybody else.

He had help.

She made him dig those holes.

His wife?

More, more, always more. She spent money faster than he could dream of making

it. She pushed him. She nagged him.

She reached inside and clawed that man to death.

He was drowning, just reaching out for somebody to cling to.

You? No, Mr. Mason.

I was never more to him ever than a good friend.

Then you were just doing him a friendly favor when you took that package to the

sailor in San Pedro?

What are you talking about?

The day Reed died, you did go to his apartment.

Well, yes, he called me.

Well, I'd just been married to Philip for just a few days.

Perhaps it was silly, maybe even wrong. But I was afraid Philip wouldn't

understand.

So I didn't say anything about it.

I just went to see Mr. Reed. It wasn't suicide Reed was talking about?

No, he said he was going away.

He was going to leave the business. He was going to leave his wife.

He was going to go away that very day.

That was all. He just wanted to say goodbye to me.

You left just as Philip was arriving.

He must have seen you.

What? A woman was seen leaving Reed's apartment just before your husband got

there. But that's impossible.

I was there in the morning.

It was late at night when Philip went there.

You're sure of that?

You're telling me the truth? You did not go back there that night?

No, I'm sure.

Philip, Mr.

Mason, I've never said anything about this. He's never asked me.

Do you think this is why Philip won't see me?

Mrs. Stewart, I think now we can not only clear the air between you and your

husband, but answer a lot of other questions, too.

Ten o 'clock tomorrow morning, meet me in your husband's office.

I got the information on that San Francisco account. I'd like to talk to

about it, Ormsby.

Well, I'll be in the workshop.

I'll be down in a few minutes. Wait for me.

Sure, sure.

Please wait, Philip.

Joyce doesn't know I'm here. I came in through the hallway door.

That's right.

You used to have the keys to the office.

Did you also have the key to his apartment?

The key to... The door was open. I just walked in here.

The door is still open.

Are you going to spend the rest of your life letting a lie eat you up inside?

Catherine, I killed a man. I have to live with that, and it isn't easy.

A little over a month ago, I discovered I loved a woman who had only used me.

To help a married man she'd planned to run away with.

Living with that won't be easy. So don't play any more games with me.

My shoulders aren't strong enough to carry anymore.

I did go to his apartment that day.

In the morning. To say goodbye to him.

He was going away with another woman.

All I ever felt for David Reed was pity.

Pity and disgust.

It was never, never anything more than that.

Joyce, have you seen Mallory here in the office?

Why, he... It was a lie. A dirty,

filthy lie.

What? Are you a liar?

Oh, listen. What's going on? What's going on?

I'll kill you. I swear I'll kill you. You're cool, will you, Phil? You're

Stop it.

Stop it.

Wait here.

I'll be right back. Just wait.

Please, Mr. Mason, you will help Philip.

Before we make any decision, let's go over one or two points again.

Now, Mallory visited you in prison. It was his idea to make it appear that you

had the diamond.

He planned every move I was to make. He rehearsed me in them.

He pawned the music box. He planted the jeweler's box inside it.

He told me when to go in and get it.

To be sure that Mr. Webber would be lunching across the street in his club.

The apartment.

The ticket to South America.

All part of his plans.

I wonder why it matches around something's bound to catch fire.

He was using you to get the real thief to tip his hand.

You may as well know acting casualty was aware of Mallory's activities.

At least that he was trying to recover the diamond.

Then they'll testify that Philip and Mallory were working together.

No, I'm afraid not.

They knew that Mallory was doing something, but not what the something

Quitting was his idea. They just played along with him blind.

Now, you attacked Mallory in the hallway.

Why? Because he lied to me. I only went along with him because... Because he

thought I'd help Mr. Reed steal the diamond. No, Catherine. And because he

thought David Reed and I... Catherine!

Look, forget it, Mr. Mason.

I don't want to go into it. Just write it up to the steward, Jinx.

Jinx? Well, it looks that way.

Look, I got mad. I took a poke at Dave Reed.

I left him standing, holding his jaw.

Half an hour later, he was dead.

I wrestle with Mallory. I leave him in an elevator. A minute later, he's dead.

Stuart, when you entered the elevator with Mallory, did you go

right down?

No. He took the emergency stop switch.

We talked for a couple of minutes.

About what?

He admitted he'd lied to me about Catherine to get me involved.

But he said he knew for sure who took the Jocarta.

That he knew exactly what had happened.

He was going to wrap up the whole case.

Inside of an hour.

When he switched back to the emergency stop?

Yes.

We were stopped at about the 10th floor.

He continued on down.

I went back upstairs to Catherine, my office.

We were there when Mr. Mason came in with the police.

Only one trouble with that story.

Trouble, Mr. Drake?

I have it on good authority that the district attorney can prove that you and

Mallory were the only two people inside that elevator from the 11th floor to the

lobby. Where I found him shot to death.

With your gun.

Lieutenant, I show you this gun established as the defendant's property

already proven ballistically to have been the murder weapon.

Can you tell us from what distance this gun was fired at the decedent? Just a

few feet.

As close as this?

Closer.

There.

About three feet, judging from the powder burns on the victim's clothes.

Now, it's been established, Lieutenant, that the defendant and the decedent

entered the elevator on the 11th floor.

And that the defendant left it on the 10th. Could anyone else have entered

elevator during his descent to the lobby?

No, sir.

We checked it out tenant by tenant and with everybody else we could find who

been in the building.

Nobody else could have been in that elevator.

Nobody saw it stop on the way down.

No, sir. It was just the defendant and the decedent.

Unless somebody else floated in.

Floated in? Would you explain that, please, Lieutenant?

The elevator floor had been freshly waxed, and we were able to lift two sets

footprints. There were no other footprints?

None.

Were you able to identify those two sets of footprints?

Yes, sir.

Lab tests proved that they matched exactly the shoes the defendant and the

decedent were wearing. Thank you very much, Lieutenant.

Your witness.

Lieutenant, was the gun checked for fingerprints?

Yes, it was, but fingerprints are always difficult to identify or lift from

guns. No, we were unable to raise any identifiable prints on the gun.

What about elevator buttons?

Again, too smudged for identification.

No further questions.

I have some questions on redirect, Your Honor.

Lieutenant, that elevator operates automatically, doesn't it?

Yes, it does. If someone were to push the button in the lobby, for example...

an hour to trace you here.

Almost that long to convince your friend to janitor to let me speak with you.

I'm sorry.

May I ask why you came here?

Well, before he was arrested, Philip was working on a very important design,

something the company had to get out rather quickly.

He thought as long as he was in jail, he asked me to bring this sketch pad to

him so he could finish it.

Nights sometimes when Philip used to work late, alone, I'd stand in the

and watch him.

He never knew I was here.

I love him so much.

I wanted to see you to ask about somebody else who works in the shop.

Ormsby and Joyce Headley.

What about them?

They see a great deal of each other.

Was it always that way?

Not with Joyce.

Ormsby's been mooning around her for as long as I can remember.

Following her around like a little stray puppy.

Even waiting at night across the street from her house just hoping to catch a

glimpse of her.

Looks like the puppy's been adopted.

Maybe she feels sorry for him.

No more?

My mother would have called Joyce Hadley a scheming little baggage in love with

a dollar sign.

Your mother was perceptive.

Tell me, Catherine.

Was Ormsby with Joyce when you went into Philip's office to wait for him that

morning?

I don't know.

I went into his office through the hallway door.

But isn't that door usually kept locked?

It wasn't that morning.

Thank you, Catherine.

I hope that's what you would answer.

Mr. Mason, tomorrow when you put on Philip's defense, will you be able to

that he didn't kill Mallory?

Not directly.

It will take the court's permission to explore the area and to impeach my own

witnesses.

But I may be able to prove that the person who killed Jack Mallory could be

same person who killed David Reed a year ago.

But Philip was responsible for Mr. Reed's death.

I said killed, Catherine.

Reed used medication for his bad heart.

Did he carry it with him?

Always. He had some in his desk, in every room in the house. He was afraid

move without it.

A year ago.

When he was found dead, there was no medication on his person, none anywhere

that apartment.

Yes, Mrs. Reed and I had all but concluded my buyout of her husband's

in the company.

Had the papers been signed?

No, we were to do that the morning Mallory was killed.

Where were you and Mrs. Reed to meet, Mr. Weber?

downstairs in the company attorney's office. We were to meet about 10 .30.

Would you tell the court, please, Mr. Weber, why you made Philip Stewart's

parole possible by agreeing to rehire him?

To salvage my business.

To keep from going broke, quite candidly. Dave was an expert salesman.

top promoter. Phil Stewart ran the manufacturing and did most of the

Then when Dave got sick, ran our business literally into the ground and

Well, it meant give up the business and take a beating or get Phil Stewart and

try to rebuild it. Calling your attention to the morning of the

you in your office when the defendant and the decedent entered the elevator?

No, I had gone down to the tenth floor to check an order with Ormsby in the

workshop. Did you check that order?

Why, uh, no.

Ormsby wasn't in the workshop.

No.

I know I wasn't there, but I was there.

You weren't, but you were, Mr. Ormsby.

I mean, I wasn't in the workroom. Upstairs in the offices, perhaps.

Oh, I might have been. Then you saw Stuart and Mallory go into the elevator.

No, I wasn't upstairs.

Downstairs, then, in the coffee shop, Mr. Ormsby.

That's right, in the coffee shop. Of course, the waiter behind the counter

confirm that.

No, I wasn't in the coffee shop either.

I was just out of the workroom, somewhere in the building. I don't know

exactly. Big building, lots of people.

You must have run into somebody along the way.

Nobody I know.

Nobody I could... who would identify me. Who would testify. Only because they're

strangers?

That's right.

But you remember their faces?

Yes. You're sure?

I'm sure.

Mr. Rosie Dell, would you stand, please?

Now, Rosie Dell is a cab driver, Mr. Ormsby.

Do you remember his face?

I'm not sure.

You're not sure? Suppose I were to tell you he recognized your picture in the

paper.

Suppose I were to tell you that he claimed you were a passenger in his cab

year ago.

A year? It was night.

He drove you from a certain house you were watching to David Reed's apartment.

No. And from there, you had him follow a woman all the way down to San Pedro.

No, that's a lie.

I didn't take her cab. I drove my own.

Now, that woman you followed, Mr. Ormsby, that woman was Joyce Hadley?

Yes.

Joyce Hadley.

I agreed to meet Dave Reed in Hong Kong, where he was going to collect the

diamonds.

He said with all that money, we could live like kings the rest of our lives.

That night, a year ago, just before Philip Stewart arrived, before Reed

you were the woman seen leaving the apartment.

Yes. He took the wrapped package Reed gave you, delivered it to a sailor in

Pedro for smuggling to Hong Kong?

Yes. And all for nothing?

With Reed's death, you didn't know where the diamond was or who had it.

You couldn't collect.

Oh, I collected, all right.

For a whole year, I collected.

From him, from Ormsby.

He'd followed you, guessed what you were doing.

And with that knowledge, the worm turned.

Worm? Yes.

Creepy, disgusting, filthy, rotten...

He's the one who searched Mr. Stewart's apartment looking for the diamond.

The one who knocked out Mr. Drake.

For a year, he threatened me.

He threatened to tell.

Mallory had found out too much.

He had to be silenced.

Had to be killed.

What? Stuart's gun had already been taken out of his desk that morning.

After Stuart and Mallory got into the elevator, the person with the gun ran

the stairs to the ninth floor.

The elevator was still stopped above with Stuart and Mallory arguing.

The person holding the gun with a handkerchief or with gloves pressed the

elevator button on the ninth floor.

The murderer was lucky. What are you talking about?

Stuart got out of the elevator on the 10th floor.

Not only would Mallory be alone in the elevator, but the 9th floor hall was

completely deserted. The elevator came down, stopped on the 9th floor.

The doors opened.

Mallory was shot at point -blank range.

The gun was thrown in, and the elevator went down to the lobby with a dead man

and a gun in it.

I didn't! I didn't! I swear I didn't!

Mr. Weber's appointment to meet you at the company attorney's office was for 10

.30.

I see by this memo, Mrs. Reed, that you arrived there shortly after 10. I had to

approve the contract before Mr. Weber signed it. That means, Mrs. Reed, that

must have arrived when the elevator with Mallory in it reached the ninth floor

from above. When those elevator doors opened and Mallory was shot to death.

A few moments after that, I believe.

In time to see Mallory's murderer, go to the stairs to return to the 11th floor?

Yes.

That morning, I found the package.

I unwrapped it, took the diamond out, then rewrapped the package.

It was almost funny.

I went across the street and stood out of sight and watched his girlfriend

to deliver an empty package to San Pedro.

I saw Ormsby follow her, and I saw Philip Stewart arrive.

And after Philip Stewart left, you went back into the apartment.

And after your husband suffered that fatal heart attack, it was easy, easy,

wasn't it, to take the medicine away from him?

To kill him.

As easy as it was to take Stewart's gun from his desk a year later, go to the

ninth floor and shoot and kill Mallory.

Mallory called.

He ordered me to meet him in Dave's office.

Ordered me.

He found out.

I had the gun in my purse, but I had to get him alone someplace to use it.

I told him to meet me in front of my lawyer's office on the ninth floor. I

the back stairs so nobody would see me.

Seemed forever with that elevator not moving.

And it came down, down, down, and the doors opened.

He saw me, and he saw the gun, and I...

I don't know. I still don't understand exactly what did happen in the elevator.

Let me demonstrate, Mrs. Stewart.

Now, you and Mallory were in the elevator.

He'd already pressed the ninth floor button.

He reached out and snapped the emergency stop while you talked.

You finished?

He let you out on the tenth floor.

You stepped out.

That's right.

Now, I pressed the button in the lobby.

The elevator would automatically descend to the lobby after any other stops it

made.

When it stopped on the ninth floor and the doors opened, Helen Reed was

Wearing gloves, she took the gun out of her purse and fired.