Original subtitles

Let's get out of here.

♪♪

How do you feel, Joe?

I don't know.

Oh, yes I do.

Like an earthquake hit me.

Either that or...

Or a steamroller ran over me.

You had a bad fall.

What?

From a bridge.

It's a wonder you're still alive.

Bridge?

Can I come in?

Hi, Lieutenant.

Well, you don't look too bad.

Joe, I hate to rush you at a time like this,

but I'd like a description of the hoods in those cars.

A newsboy saw them.

Morrie, just take it easy, huh?

Now what's with these questions.

I haven't got the slightest idea what you're talking about.

I don't think he remembers, Lieutenant.

Joe, some guys in cars were playing hockey

and using you for the puck and you can't remember?

The last thing I remember is I got up to go out

and look for a place for Sunday brunch.

Well, you didn't come back.

Aw, come on.

He's right, Joe.

Your bed hasn't been sleep in and your car's not in the garage.

And they're still looking for it.

Why should my bed be slept in?

I couldn't have been gone for more than a couple hours.

More like 24 hours.

Joe.

Today is Monday.

Monday.

Well, what happened to Sunday?

Sunday's buried somewhere in there, Joe.

When your brain was jolted against the casing of your skull

some of the cells were roughed up and the information stored in them,

what we call memory, was lost.

But why just Sunday? Why only the last 24 hours?

I can't give you the answer to that, but it's not at all unusual.

Happens all the time in sports.

Take football.

A player can suffer a mild concussion and stay in there until the final gun

and never know he was in the game.

Doc, somebody tried to kill me and I don't know who or why

or when they'll try again.

But this is no football game.

It's a matter of survival.

I have to remember.

Maybe you will.

Maybe the missing pieces will drift home to your brain

and you'll get back that 24 hours you lost.

A gas receipt.

Mm-hmm. Dated yesterday.

So you probably drove around a bit.

Oh, and this was in your wallet.

Yeah.

- Whoever drew it is pretty good. - Yeah.

Look, Peggy, restaurants sometimes hire caricaturists.

See if you can run down this place mat, huh?

Right.

Joe, what's the matter?

I'm not sure.

I seem to remember other caricatures in the same style.

Celebrities.

You probably saw them in a magazine somewhere.

Among them J. Lester Vail.

What connection could there be between Vail and what happened to you?

Vail heads up a committee of businessmen

who have been trying to keep hood money out of legitimate enterprises.

And I know Lester Vail.

Personally?

I've raced against him.

Hey, you got a drink, Jerry.

Hey, Joe!

Why aren't you racing today?

I kind of miss you trying to run me up the wall.

Well, next time, Les.

Say tell me, was I with you, yesterday?

Don't you know?

Uh, it seems I drew a blank.

Well, I wish I had been there. Sounds like fun.

But no, huh?

No. I just got in this morning. I've been in Palm Springs for the past week.

Listen, if I can help you out though, let me know.

Thanks, Les. Luck!

Okay, Mr. Vail, good luck!

Mr. Mannix' office.

Hi, Joe. Any luck?

Well, mine's been better.

I traced that place mat.

It came from a place called The Monkey Bar.

Bloody Mary, right?

Right.

And heavy on the tabasco.

Hey, not bad.

Forty years tending bar... Matching drinks and faces comes easy.

Then I guess you'd remember that I was in here for brunch yesterday.

Sure.

Alone?

You're putting me on.

No, no.

Aw, come on.

Let's just say that we're testing your memory for faces.

Well, uh...

You were sitting right there with this middle-age fellow.

He was scotch rocks.

And two ladies.

The blonde was a whiskey sour

and your girl... your girl had the most beautiful reddish brown hair

just about the same color as her drink.

Manhattan. Two cherries.

Go on.

Well, the scotch rocks and whiskey sour left after a while.

But the Manhattan and the Bloody Mary lingered on.

And on and on.

Just like the old song.

What's the matter? Too much tabasco?

Huh? Oh, no, no no.

It's fine.

Listen, do you recall if I came in with the lady with red hair?

No. You were sitting alone at the bar

and the blonde called you over to introduce you to the others.

Would you happen to know their names?

I'm sorry.

Ever see them before?

No.

Uh, who was waiting on us?

Well, now that would have been Carol.

But weekdays she works the dinner shift.

Well when she comes in,

would you have her give me a call?

Sure. My pleasure.

Thanks.

Do you always put the license number on the parking stubs?

Yeah, it saves arguments with drunks.

Do you still have the parking stubs from yesterday?

Sure.

They're right here in the drawer.

How many, Joe?

43, including mine.

Check them out with the DMV.

I want the name of everyone who parked there yesterday.

Okay.

Oh, a girl named Billie called.

Billie?

Billie.

No bells.

What did she want?

She didn't say.

But she said you'd know.

Oh, great.

You're supposed to meet her at a place called The Beauty Parlor.

The Beauty Parlor.

It's not a place where you get your hair done.

I know, Peggy.

Hi, lover.

Hi.

My usual, honey.

Scotch and water for the boyfriend.

With a lemon twist.

How are you, huh?

Well, I'm breathing.

Hey, that's good.

Me, I'm panting.

You know this smog is something else.

You do things to me, Mister.

Okay, I know the feeling's not mutual.

Oh, wait a minute. Don't sell yourself short.

Joe, what do I get if I tell you what you want to know?

What's that?

His name?

Whose?

The guy you followed in here last night.

Oh, him.

Oh, him?

Maybe it's not important now, but you were sure bugging everybody.

Oh, incidentally, you don't have to worry about the damage.

I convinced the manager you didn't start it.

I bet that creep is still counting his teeth.

The only edge he had on you was running.

He was out of sight before you got to the door.

Anyway, what do I get?

You name it.

Maybe you'll take me out to dinner some night.

It's a date.

Hmm. Well, I asked around.

The guy's name is Ted King.

Ted King.

Well, what does he do?

That's all I could find out was his name.

Well, thanks, Billie. I got to run.

You'll call me?

That's a promise.

The old Princess Louise

carried a great-uncle of mine to the Orient and back 17 times.

He was one of the world's great authorities on Japanese culture.

Especially geisha girls.

Just hear me out, will you Morrie?

Now I met this girl, now don't ask me her name.

I don't know it.

Anyway, we spent most of Sunday together.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped and danced at a place

that was directly across where the Princess Louise is docked.

And that night somebody killed her.

Why?

I don't know why.

Maybe they were after me and she got in the way.

Anyway, they threw her off of some high place, and I saw it.

Okay, where's the body?

Morrie, it happened.

A high place.

A cliff, a building, what?

Uh, I seem to remember a balcony.

Joe, if anyone falls from a high place they get hurt.

And if anyone gets hurt, we get a report on it.

We haven't.

And no report on any murder yesterday, either.

Well, you got one, mine.

Okay, okay.

Well, what about that character I tangled with at the Beauty Parlor?

Ted King. What have you got on him?

Look, Joe, what worries me is these guys who want to use your body for a drag strip.

Why don't you get out of town for a while?

No.

We can't guard you around the clock.

Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it.

Peggy, talk some sense into that thick skull.

Yes. She'll do that.

While you're getting a make on Ted King.

Mr. Mannix' office.

Speaking.

It's Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Yes.

Yes, I see.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

There's only one place in the harbor district that has dancing Sunday night.

It's a place called the Sea Breeze.

And it's right across from the Princess Louise.

We're closed Mondays, Mister.

Yeah, I know. I know.

The old Princess Louise

carried a great-uncle of mine to the Orient and back 17 times.

He was one of the world's great authorities on Japanese culture.

Especially geisha girls.

It's nice to dance with a man who's light on his feet.

Was Jack that bad?

Jack? Oh, Jack doesn't dance at all.

Except maybe with joy when the stock market goes up.

What's with this character Jack you keep mentioning.

Who is he?

He's not important anymore.

Now that I will drink to.

Is this the works?

All the people that parked at the Monkey Bar lot yesterday.

There's not a name on there I recognize.

Maybe the people you had lunch with came in a cab.

Well, that's a possibility.

Try and check that out with the parking attendant, will you, Peggy?

Right. What about the gas receipt?

Yeah, that's my handwriting.

Do you remember me?

You know we get a lot of people in this station.

Well, I may have had a lady with me.

I wasn't in this car. I was in a dark-green convertible.

Wait a minute.

This lady had reddish hair?

Right.

Sure. I remember. We were kind of jammed up that day.

Yeah, you took the lady for a walk over the park over there.

Uh, fill it up with high-test

and check under the hood will you, please?

Right.

Thanks.

Would anyone mind if I took just one?

Joe, the camera.

That man over there.

Let's get back to the car.

Say, when the lady and I returned from the park, was she upset?

Now that you mention it, she was kind of uptight.

Did she say anything?

Well, I was running your card through the credit machine.

So I didn't get it all

but the part that I did get was kind of oddball.

Yeah, she said something about he wasn't spying on you Joe.

He was spying on me.

Spying? You're sure she used that word?

Sure. It's not the kind of word you hear every day pumping gas.

His name is Hayward. Thomas Hayward.

Ring a bell?

Hayward.

Yeah, he's the newspaperman who did a series about the Syndicate

trying to muscle in on legitimate business.

Why?

He flew into L.A. from New York last Tuesday.

The newspaper chain he works for said he had a 7:30 appointment

to interview J. Lester Vail at Vail's house in Benedict Canyon.

Vail never showed up.

Well, somebody got their wires crossed.

Vail was in Palm Springs all last week.

- How do you know? - He told me.

Well, anyway, Hayward went right from the airport to Vail's house.

And when they told him Vail wasn't there, he left.

He hasn't been seen since. He never even checked into his hotel.

Why did Hayward want to see Vail in particular?

Well, it's my guess Hayward wanted to write about

Vail's own campaign against the Syndicate.

But maybe the boys figured he did see Vail

and learned something they didn't want published.

That could be why he's among the missing.

- That's possible. - Now where do I fit in?

Well, you tell me.

Maybe in your wanderings around yesterday you found out something.

It makes sense.

The Syndicate wouldn't try to kill you without some good reason.

We're not even sure it was the Syndicate.

Oh, yes we are.

I got a make on that Ted King guy you roughed up at the Beauty Parlor.

His real name is Ted Kinsella.

He's a Syndicate contract man.

Well, if I get any ideas about Thomas Hayward, Morrie, I'll let you know.

Well, hold it, Joe. We found your car.

Where?

1600 block on Dwyer.

Where is it now?

You can pick it up downstairs.

Thanks, Morrie.

Police department.

Lieutenant Straus, please.

Morrie, I found the house.

Yeah, the one with the balcony.

Her name's Vera Rawlins. She works for a magazine called Metropolis.

Vera.

Now I remember.

Come on out to the balcony, Morrie.

None of the neighbors heard anything unusual last night.

And this is where she was thrown over.

They must have taken her body away.

I'll have the bright boys examine the lawn for blood.

We got most of the missing pieces now.

Joe, let's go over it again.

Someone introduced me to Vera at the Monkey Bar.

Later we went for a ride.

Then we took a walk in that little park near the VA in Westwood.

She said someone was spying on her. Someone with a camera.

Then we came here.

She changed.

And then we went dancing at a place in Long Beach called the Sea Breeze.

I brought her home.

I went down to my car, to leave.

When I spotted somebody watching the house.

He took off. I tailed him to the Beauty Parlor.

Lost him.

Ted Kinsella, alias Ted King.

I put out an APB on him.

Then I came back here in time to see

two men throw Vera over the balcony.

As I went up to her, three or four hoods came after me.

I ran.

I got back to my car, but they came after me.

I couldn't shake them.

I finally wound up on a dead-end street on Dwyer and took off on foot.

You pretty much know the rest of it.

Well, all right. Let's go.

I'll get the fingerprint boys over.

Yeah, you go ahead, Morrie.

Okay. I'll see you later.

♪♪

Are you carrying a torch for this Jack?

I never carried a torch for any man.

But I might just decide to light one if you disappear.

Vera Rawlins?

It's shocking.

Beautiful girl. Talented.

Is there any evidence it was the Syndicate?

No, no, no, no real evidence, but the police

are pretty sure something will turn up.

Why would anyone want to kill her?

Maybe because of you.

Because of me?

After all, to the Syndicate, you're enemy number 1.

And she was pretty close to you, wasn't she?

Maybe even part of your campaign against them?

Oh, you're way off base, Joe.

I hardly knew her.

Oh, Les what does the J stand for in J. Lester Vail?

John. Why?

Did she ever call you Jack?

She called me Mr. Vail.

Well, she was talking about some guy named Jack she was seeing.

That wasn't you, was it?

Definitely not me.

I met her when Metropolis Magazine was doing a profile on me.

She did the cover and that was the end of it.

But you did take her out to dinner?

Well, as a matter of fact I did take her out once or twice.

I admired her talent.

I wanted her to work for my advertising agency.

She wasn't interested.

It was strictly business.

Excuse me.

Yeah.

Well, put it on 213. Joe, it's for you.

You want to take it over there?

Hello.

Joe, I think we've struck pay dirt.

Good what have you got?

Well, the waitress at the Monkey Bar, Carol, she just called.

No. What's his address?

I got it. Thanks, Peggy.

I'll see you later.

Uh, Les.

I'm sorry if this sounded like a cross-examination.

Oh, forget it, Joe.

If I can help the offer still stands.

I'll see you, huh?

Send in Gerber.

I want you to hear this.

Hello.

Joe, I think we've struck pay dirt.

Good. What have you got?

Well, the waitress at the Monkey Bar,

Carol, she just called.

The man you had brunch with yesterday, Mr. Scotch Rocks,

well he paid the check with a credit card.

His name's Johnson X. Chandler.

Know him?

No. What's his address?

1431 South Walden Drive.

1431 South Walden.

Darling, what a wonderful surprise.

Come in. Come in. Come in.

Imagine, I was just this second thinking about you.

And Johnson insists there's nothing to ESP.

Why don't you just sit yourself down and tell Mama

II the sinister things that you've been up to.

Hey, the sun's over the yardarm.

What would you like?

- Oh, nothing for me, thanks. - Mind if I do?

No, not at all.

Gloria James.

How delightfully Freudian.

Since just yesterday you learned

that I'm now the third Mrs. Johnson X. Chandler.

That means subconsciously you still care.

San Francisco. 1966.

Baby doll, we hashed that all over yesterday when I was playing matchmaker.

Which brings me to the burning question...

What did you do to poor little Vera, you rake?

Well, I was hoping that maybe you could tell me.

Well, all I know is she phoned me late last night after you took her home.

That, my sweet, was a mighty upset girl.

Tell me more.

Well she asked if she could use Hideaway for a few days.

She said that things were kind of closing in on her

- and she wanted to get away for a while. - Hideaway?

That's what Johnson calls this little place we have.

It's our private decompression chamber right in the middle of nowhere.

No phones, no neighbors, nothing.

Just peace and quiet.

I thought Vera and I were getting off to a pretty good start, didn't you?

Yes, until I got the phone call from her.

I mean, at brunch she seemed to like you very much if not more.

Then, suddenly, the tears began to flow.

Oh, do you think maybe something I said... Something she could have taken wrong.

No. it was something I said.

Oh, What?

Well, it really doesn't make much sense.

All I said was that you're a private detective.

Now, in my book that isn't exactly sordid.

I mean, there was a Sherlock Holmes.

It isn't as if you were a tax collector or a skip tracer.

And that's when she began to cry.

Yes.

Then she said something like, um...

Let me see, "Then he must be spying on me, too."

Were you, Joe?

No, no. Then what?

Well, I tried to dig a little deeper,

but then she said someone was at the door and hung up.

At the door?

Joe, what is it?

What's wrong?

Mannix.

Joe, Lieutenant Straus called.

He wants you to know that they found Thomas Hayward's body.

Where?

In 50 feet of water off Catalina.

Two skin divers found him.

Okay. Well, tell Morrie I'm on my way to Hideaway.

Hideaway? Where's that?

Right. I'll tell him.

Vera?

Vera, it's all right.

I've got to talk to you.

Call the boss.

She's there.

Dead.

Poor Janice.

Oh, Joe, it's horrible.

Who was she, Vera?

An old friend of mine.

We went to Art School together.

We were really close... Always went around together.

People called us the Bobbsey Twins.

Then she married an art director at one of the studios

and we fell out of touch.

I didn't see her again until last night.

She phoned me after you dropped me home.

She was really shook.

Her marriage was on the rocks.

She wanted to come by and stay the night.

So it was Janice who arrived when you were on the phone with Gloria.

Yes, I had to hang up on Gloria to let her in.

Anyway, had a little heart-to-heart talk over a drink

and got misty-eyed about the good old days.

And then I tucked her into bed and left to come here.

Then it's obvious.

The men who killed Janice thought they were killing you.

Who would want to kill me?

I don't know yet.

Who's Jack?

Vera, it's important that I know.

J. Lester Vail.

He likes his friends to call him Jack.

Why is it important?

A reporter named Thomas Hayward was found dead today.

The last person to see him alive was Vail's secretary at the house

in Benedict Canyon, Tuesday night.

Tuesday night?

The story is that he had an appointment with Vail.

Vail was in Palm Springs all last week.

No, he wasn't. I saw him on Tuesday night.

Where?

At his house.

There was something I had to put a stop to.

Jack's an insufferably jealous man.

I found out he'd hired a firm of detectives to keep track of me.

What I was doing. Who I was seeing.

That was why when Gloria told me on the phone that you were a detective

I was upset.

I thought you were working for Jack.

I should have known better.

Go on.

Well, anyway, Tuesday night,

about 8:30 I drove up to the house.

I was going to tell him to call off his watchdogs.

But just as I got there,

I saw him driving out the back way.

Then you could knock holes in his alibi.

Alibi for what?

My guess is he murdered Thomas Hayward.

Except for a few of his trusted staff,

you're the only one who could place him in town at the time of the murder.

Joe, he knows I saw him there.

How?

That phone call last night, when you were mixing the drinks,

it was Jack.

I told him I saw him leaving the house.

That's why he wanted to kill you.

Come on, Vera. We'd better get back into town.

Vera, get down!

After this shot, head for that bush.

Ready?

You're shot.

It's all right.

Head for those trees, Come on!

Quick, down there. And stay out of sight.

Morrie, it's good to see you.

You all right?

- Yes. - Let's go.

- Hi. - Hi.

How do you feel?

Well, I remember everything this time.

I can't say it's much of an improvement.

You luck into a few cases like this,

maybe the hospital will give you a fleet rate.

Hmm, tell me about our friend J. Lester Vail.

All out in the open now.

Vail's campaign against the Syndicate was only a smoke screen

to hide the fact that his whole empire was financed by racket money.

I guess Hayward, being a good reporter,

went to see Vail to give him a chance to deny it.

Vail, seeing his little kingdom going up in smoke, killed him.

It's a...

Hi, Joe.

I have a couple of calls to make.

Are you all right?

Never better.

I talked to Lieutenant Straus.

He says you don't remember much about our Sunday together.

I remember enough.

Joe.

Yeah.

Metropolis has offered me an assignment in Europe.

My plane leaves tonight.

For how long?

Two months.

That's too long.

Will you keep a day open for me?

You name it.

I think I was falling in love with you, Joe Mannix.

You can tell me again...

some Sunday.