Original subtitles

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Nice work, Bradley. Keep it up.

Hey, Stan, you gonna be talked about tonight?

I'm in the stack.

No!

No. No.

Please...

Hold it. Hold it.

Hey, this bit is too long.

Shorten it, Simon.

Read my lips, Junior,

stick it!

I am warning you, Simon.

Whose picture is on all those posters out there,

yours or mine?

All right, just look at the tape then, huh?

See for yourself.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

I've been doing that bit for years.

Now, Tomberg says it's too long.

What do you think? Sorry, I missed it.

The hell you did. You never miss it.

Don't think I don't know what you're doing.

That's my cue.

No, go ahead, watch me, study me.

Memorize my routines.

You'll never headline.

You know why?

You can't mimic talent.

You can't buy it, you can't steal it,

and you don't have it.

And you're stupid to boot.

Watch this one. Hey, look, look at this.

Is this funny? Look at this.

Hey.

You got ten minutes.

Hey, Yolanda.

How about tonight, hmm? Knock it off!

Oh, come on, a little "Simon Says," hmm?

She's busy.

Who are you, her booking agent?

Let go of her.

Don't drop him now.

See ya later.

That's tasty.

Some day you're gonna drown in your own slime, you know that?

Whoo!

What's the matter with you?

Your timing was way off.

I know.

Sorry.

Sorry doesn't cut it.

You sound terrible.

I gotta catch my breath.

You're gettin' too old for this, Homer.

You're blind as a bat.

Half the time, you miss your marks.

The writing is on the wall.

It's time to find myself a younger partner.

You couldn't.

You wouldn't.

You can't. We got a contract!

You just broke it.

I broke it? You can't do it!

Null and void.

You can't do this to me!

Wake up, old man!

I just did.

You lousy little rat! Hey, shut up!

Both of you!

You do this on your own time.

We're opening next week.

You keep rehearsing until I tell you to stop.

Go on! MAN: Okay, okay.

Go on!

Hey, Junior!

You're half the man your father was,

and he was a bum.

You're history.

Yeah.

Simon, what's the matter with you?

And now, ladies and gentlemen,

may we present to you the lovely, the death defying

Yolanda!

Yolanda, who has vowed never to work with a net,

who's about to risk her life just for your entertainment,

ladies and gentlemen.

Simon, it's not funny anymore.

Get out of there, it's over.

Oh, my God.

He's dead.

Okay.

Homer Fleming?

I thought Bob Brooks was kidding,

but you're a genuine, bona fide clown.

I have been for 40 years.

Ever since I was a kid.

You're not one of those people

that expects a clown to be funny all the time,

are you?

Oh, no, no, no.

It's just a job, you know.

Nothing more, nothing less.

We put our pants on one leg at at time

just like everybody else.

We eat, we sleep.

And we sometimes get ourselves into very deep trouble.

Hmm.

Did Grayden Sinclair tell you what happened?

He called me from Florida.

Uh, he thinks you're innocent.

How long has he been your lawyer?

I don't know. Uh,

ten or 15 years. Oh, oh, oh.

Well, tell me about your partner.

Well, actually, partner's not the right word.

You see, Simon was the one people came to see.

I was just there to, uh, give him someone to play off of.

Did, uh, did that bother you?

Oh, no.

Simon was a genius.

He had everything.

Talent, timing.

He wrote all our bits.

He was also the most miserable,

hateful, self-centered, greedy human being

I-I've ever known.

For 23 years, he treated me like absolute dirt.

Oh.

But I didn't kill him.

You want to know something else?

I miss him like hell.

Are all your rehearsals videotaped?

That's Al Tomberg's idea.

He's the owner.

Says it's good for us performers

to get what he calls visual feedback.

Oh, well.

You still rehearse after all these years?

Always at the start of a tour.

Now, here, watch this.

Ten years we do the same routine,

all of a sudden he ad-libs sneezing.

Just like him to throw me a curve.

What a pain in the neck.

Hey, there. Oh.

Watching movies? Oh, come on in.

Uh, Homer, this is Conrad McMasters.

We work together. How you doing?

I'm an investigator.

Yeah, Homer's a clown.

Oh, so, what are you doing, watching a tape of the show?

Uh, rehearsal.

Now-now, here's the part

where I pretend to strangle him.

Now, I've done it exactly the same way as I've always done it

and so did he. Mmm. Yeah.

So, you pretend to strangle him,

he pretends to be dead,

and you-you put him in the clownmobile

and then you push the car in the clownmobile garage,

and that's the end of the act.

The spotlight goes out on us and comes up on Yolanda.

While everybody's looking at her,

Simon gets out of the garage and joins me offstage.

Well, yesterday he never got up.

How long was it before you realized he wasn't behind you?

Couple of minutes, I guess.

What was the cause of death?

Broken neck.

He was alive when I let go of him, I swear.

Okay.

Spotlight goes off, you walk away.

Killer runs into the clown garage from somewhere nearby,

breaks your partner's neck and he runs off and hides.

I've got no problem with that.

The whole thing takes place in less than 40 seconds.

I got a problem with that.

From the time I left the ring

to the time we found the body, it felt like at least

five minutes.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

36 seconds.

Hey, now, there's a bright side to this.

I get to join the circus.

Yeah.

That's funny.

Al?

Al?!

Hi.

Hi.

Uh...

You got a snake around your neck.

What's it to you?

Oh, nothing. It's just that...

Have you seen Al Tomberg?

No, I was just looking...

I have told him ten times Goldie and Ralph need a new cage.

So, where is it?

Goldie...?

My cobras.

Their cage door hinge is sprung.

I can't lock it.

Anyone could come along and take off with them.

Who would want to steal a snake?

For your information, snakes have a bad rap.

They're clean, you don't have to walk them.

Go ahead, pet Eddie.

Oh, no, no, no.

You pet Eddie. Poor Eddie.

You want a new cage, don't you, darling, huh?

Maybe...

Maybe-maybe Mr. Tomberg will get him one.

Oh, he's too cheap.

Rumor is we're about to shut down.

Because of what happened to Simon?

That's the word.

Even dead, the guy's a troublemaker.

If you see Al, tell him Sheila's looking for him.

Okay.

Hey, hey, Sh-Sheila?

Where is, uh, uh, Simon's trailer?

Over there.

Right. He's working on the flip-flop now.

Alley-oop!

One more, come on.

Easy, easy.

Whoa. WOMAN: Whoo!

Uh, excuse me.

Are you, uh, are you Dodo the Clown?

Yeah, who are you?

Uh, I'm Ben Matlock, Homer Fleming's lawyer.

Uh, you dropped this back there.

Oh, thanks.

Uh...

it's not your notebook, is it?

It was Simon's.

I saw you coming out of his trailer.

It's not really a notebook.

It's, uh, more of a ledger.

You were paying him a thousand dollars a month.

That's what it says.

Huh.

Homer made a list of...

everybody he did not see

when all the people were lining up for the big finale,

just before he found Simon's body,

and you were on that list, Dodo the Clown.

I'm impressed.

A thousand dollars a month.

A lot of money.

What, did he, uh...

did he know something on you?

I mean, was it... gambling?

Did you, uh...?

Sure.

Yeah, I just put my hands around his neck and gave it

a little twist, and I walked away.

You're a woman. Hmm.

You're a woman.

Strong, though.

All right, kids, come on, we have to go now.

Here you go.

Uh, uh, Jim Roper?

Yeah.

Uh, Ben Matlock.

I'm Homer Fleming's lawyer.

Oh. That's nice.

Yeah. A few fans, huh?

Yeah, more than a few, I hope.

You're Homer's lawyer, huh?

Yeah.

How is he, how's he doing?

Oh, he's doing all right.

Poor guy... Nobody wonders why he did it,

only why he didn't do it any sooner.

Simon didn't have many friends.

As far as I know, he didn't have any.

But then I've only been with the Santini

a couple of months.

Uh, I hear that you didn't like

the way he was going after, uh, uh...

oh, yeah, Yolanda.

I didn't like him, period.

Did you kill him?

You're out of your mind,

aren't you?

Well, where were you when, uh, everything happened?

Preparing for my act.

Reason I ask... Homer doesn't remember

seeing you lined up for the big finale.

Homer knows I'm not in the parade.

I go on just before it.

Look, I, uh, I got to get going.

If you have any more questions, though, you call me.

Okay.

Excuse me there,

sir, watch yourself, watch your back.

Wouldn't want to get anything on that spiffy suit.

Hi, Mr. Tomberg.

Oh, Mr. Tomberg,

uh... Ben Matlock, uh, Homer Fleming's lawyer.

You got a minute?

Sure, come on in.

Oh, thanks.

There we go.

Okay.

Oh...

Does this... does this run?

Oh, would you look at that?

Have a seat.

Thanks.

So what can I do for you, Mr. Matlock?

Well... you seem to be in a good humor today.

Why wouldn't I be?

Well, I-I don't know.

Somebody killed your star performer,

and there's a lot of bad publicity,

and I heard a rumor that you're going to have to close.

Well, I have insurance policies

on all my performers, Mr. Matlock.

Of course, we still may go belly-up.

Well, you don't seem worried.

That's life.

Yeah, well, I guess so.

Uh, your father left you this circus?

Yes.

This was Dad's favorite toy.

Not yours?

Do you want the truth?

Yeah.

I hate it.

I hate the crowds, I hate the noise,

I hate the smell, I hate the sawdust,

I hate the cotton candy and those little toys

that bob up and down on the little sticks.

Simon Le Simple?

He was a miserable creep.

Homer did the world a favor.

Uh, Homer's innocent.

Um, do you happen to remember

where you were, say, uh,

from the time Simon finished his act

till they found his body in the clownmobile?

Yes. I was in my usual seat at rehearsals...

Section four, row D, seat one.

Ask anybody.

Okay.

Thanks. Anytime.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah.

Uh, that girl, uh, she has the snake around...

Sheila? Yeah.

Uh, she told me that... to tell you she's looking for you.

She's afraid somebody's going

to steal her cobras. Steal her cobras.

Yeah.

Not me.

I can't believe you, Al.

You are so cheap! I need things.

I need cages. I need whips.

I'm a professional.

Are we still on for tonight?

No, we're not!

Okay.

You know what I'd do before I got in a cage with that tiger?

Pray?

I wouldn't get in a cage with that tiger.

Would you?

No, I would not get in a cage with a tiger.

What, do you think I'm crazy?

You want to know if I got anything?

Yeah.

You know that lady that walks

around here wearing a snake?

Sheila.

Yeah, I saw her arguing with Tomberg.

She wants a new cage for her cobras.

What?

She's afraid somebody's going to steal

her cobras.

Oh, yeah, sure.

And listen, I saw Mr. Tomberg sneak

into his bookkeeping trailer.

Oh. Sneaking, huh?

Yeah.

Did you know that Dodo the Clown is a woman?

You're kidding.

Is she pretty?

I couldn't tell.

Strong, though.

I felt her arm.

You did not.

You want to keep an eye on her?

All right.

That fella, Roper, too.

The guy with the cannon.

Something... something about him is...

Ben.

Ben.

Ooh! Ooh!

Take anything.

Anything you want, okay, it's yours.

Oh, no, no, no.

You're making a mistake.

Do you want money?

You want tickets?

Just take them, okay?

They're yours.

Just-just don't kill me.

I'm not going to kill you.

You-you don't understand.

Freeze! Or you are a dead man!

Holy cow.

Oh, man.

I never thought I'd get the chance

to use this thing. This is not what you think it is.

Do you have to do that?

Oh, man, one more word, and you will not live

to see Georgia State Prison.

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

Look, look, look, look, look.

I'm just here for the... the-the time-time cards.

I'm an employee.

- Uh-huh, and I'm Peter Pan. - Just ask...

Al, I've got to talk to you. Hey! Hey!

Call security. I caught a burglar.

I'm not a burglar.

I work here!

Get on the horn, will you, please?

This thing might go off.

He's telling the truth, Al.

What?

Yeah, he-he said I'm telling the truth, Al.

He works here.

I've seen him around.

What idiot told you I keep time cards

in here? Right.

I know. I know.

I made a mistake, and I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. It'll never happen again.

Thank you.

Damn.

They were yelling at each other

at the top of their lungs.

Homer was, uh, blowing a gasket.

Did you witness their, uh...

their act 15 minutes later when, uh, the defendant

was pretending to strangle Simon Le Simple?

Yes.

How many times would you say

you've seen them perform that routine?

Hundreds?

Oh, no, more like thousands.

Did you notice anything different

about the way they performed that day?

Oh, yes.

What was that?

Well, there was a much stronger tone of violence.

It was, uh, uh, more physical.

Much more realistic.

Mm-hmm. Like Homer Fleming was, in fact, strangling him.

Objection.

Leading. Calls for speculation.

Withdraw the question.

What happened at the end of the routine?

Homer picked up Simon,

threw him in the back of the clownmobile, uh,

gave it a shove, walked off,

and the spotlight went off.

Then, what happened? Well,

Simon didn't get out of the clown garage.

As it turns out, he was dead.

No more questions.

Your witness, Mr. Matlock.

Yep.

Now, Mr. Tomberg, uh,

um...

Ron LeMere,

Gary Etchells,

Connie Peters.

Would you tell us who those three people are?

Boy, those names sound familiar, but I, uh...

Those are three accountants

that were hired and fired by you

in the last 18 months.

Objection.

Whether it's three accounts or a hundred,

I can't see the relevance to this court.

Uh, Your Honor, we're going to be talking

about, uh, a motive and opportunity here,

uh, if the court will bear with me.

Overruled for now, without prejudice.

Now, tell us about those accountants.

I fired them because they didn't know what they were doing.

Or maybe they caught on to what you were doing.

And they found out that you were skimming.

You're out of your mind.

Didn't your father leave everything

to charity except the circus?

Yes.

And you got the circus, and you hate the circus.

Let's just say that I am not the fan that my father was.

Why don't you sell it?

I would if I could.

But you can't.

Because your father left a provision in the will

prohibiting you from selling it.

Dad hung this circus around my neck

and made sure that it would stay there, yes.

So, if it went bankrupt, you'd finally be rid of it.

Yes, my creditors would see to that.

That's why you've been altering your books and skimming.

So that each year, the circus would show a loss.

That's ridiculous.

The Santini Circus is a profitable business.

Was, Mr. Tomberg. Was.

Now, you say that you saw

my client kill his partner during their routine

in your regular seat in the stands...

Section four, row D,

seat one.

That's right. Wrong.

At the very moment Simon was being killed,

Sheila Carver, your snake charmer,

was in section four, row D, seat one,

looking for you.

You were not there.

Shall I call her to the stand?

Where were you, Mr. Tomberg?

I was altering the books.

The office manager was, uh, on her lunch break,

and I figured that no one would, uh,

miss me from the rehearsal.

You were right about everything, but I did not kill Simon.

You were in your office.

Yes.

Alone?

No. I mean...

I called my broker, Jim Price, in New York.

You can check with him or-or the phone company,

and they'll-they'll-they'll tell you which number I called from.

They'll verify that I was there. They'll prove it.

I don't like that man.

I let it affect my judgment.

I hate that man,

and I let it get into my stupid mind.

Any further questions, Mr. Matlock?

What, sir?

Anything more?

Uh, no.

No further questions.

Birdbrain.

Idiot.

Should I get another lawyer?

No.

Up.

All right, girl.

Come here.

Hey.

It's Conrad, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah.

How you doing? Good.

Good.

Can I buy you a beer?

I mean, it's the least I can do

seeing as you kept ol' Tomberg from blowing my head off.

Sorry about that. I think, uh, Al's seen one too many

Dirty Harry movies. Yeah.

Now, I thought your thing

was getting blown out of a cannon.

It is, but I've been a circus performer

since I was three years old.

Old Tiny over there, she's my therapist.

She keeps me sharp. That's great.

So, what about that tavern

on Route 81? All right.

You give me 20 minutes to get showered up?

Yeah. Good.

I'll see you there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

How about this fella here?

You just barely can make out his face.

Uh, wait a minute. My eyesight's so poor.

Oh, oh, that's Peter Mathias, the lighting director.

He's always on the floor during dress rehearsals.

He's in the old tape, too.

You don't wear glasses in your act.

If your eyesight's that poor,

how do you do it? I've done it so long,

I could do it in the dark.

Oh. You know, Ben,

there's nobody standing outside that ring

that wasn't also standing there nine months ago.

If the killer was waiting in the shadows, let's face it,

cameras didn't pick him up.

Boy, I'm so tired.

If I could see, I couldn't see straight anymore.

Well, go home and get some sleep.

Maybe tomorrow, you'll see better.

Okay. Good night.

Yeah.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Uh,

did you know that Dodo the Clown

was paying Simon, uh, a thousand dollars a month?

Her kid was in a car accident,

and Simon lent her the money for the hospital bills.

Oh, that was nice.

At 23% interest?

See you in the morning.

Ben, thanks.

Yeah.

Hey, this is Conrad.

I'm not home right now, but if you leave a message

when you hear the beep,

I'll call you back ASAP.

Uh, it-it's Ben.

Call me as soon as you can.

I think I have a pretty good idea who killed Simon.

Where are you, anyway?

Hey!

Somebody!

Hey, anybody, help!

Oh...

Oh...

Uh...

You back!

Um...

Uh, uh...

Jambo!

Jambo! Yeah.

Uh, up!

Yeah!

Um, uh...

Yeah.

All right, yeah.

Yeah.

Nice.

Jambo.

Jambo. I knew that.

I knew that.

Jambo.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Conrad?

What are you doing in there?

Ben, do you...

Look, without making...

without making any sudden moves,

do you think maybe you could...

you know, open the door?

Oh, man, thank you.

Whoo. What happened?

I don't know. I don't know.

I got clobbered over the head.

Next thing I know, I woke up,

thing's looking at me for lunch.

Who'd do a thing like that?

Well, I was in Roper's trailer looking around.

I thought he was in the shower.

Maybe he wasn't.

No kidding.

Jim Roper? Uh-huh.

Are you all right? Oh, I'm fine. I'm fine.

Come on, let's go. Let's go.

I understand when-when, uh,

when it comes to the circus,

you're kind of a jack-of-all-trades, Mr. Roper.

Yes, sir, that's right.

Have you ever been a clown?

When that's what I had to be to get paid, yes.

Well, uh, you recognize this?

Yes, I do.

It's a wig.

Yeah, it's a wig.

But, uh, uh, whose wig?

Take a close look.

This has been identified

as the wig that Simon was wearing

the night he was killed.

Uh, you kind of grew up in the circus, didn't you?

You performed with your parents and your sister,

The Daring Davises.

That's right, yeah. Yeah.

I changed my name when I struck out on my own

when I was 17. Yeah, but you kept up with your parents.

Of course. Yeah.

Uh, Your Honor, would it be all right with you

if I take my coat off?

You certainly may.

It's hot in here today.

Everybody get as comfortable as possible.

Now, two years ago,

the Daring Davises

joined the Santini Circus, didn't they?

Yes. Yeah.

Uh, well, uh, what happened to them?

They were fired.

But they were supposed to be good.

That's right, the best.

Well, why were they fired?

Objection,

Your Honor.

There's no relevance to this.

Your Honor, the court has been very forgiving with me,

and I beg your indulgence for a few more questions.

They are relevant.

Last chance, Mr. Matlock.

If it doesn't tie together,

I'll be granting the district attorney's motion to strike.

Yes, sir.

Now, Simon Le Simple was chasing after your sister's skirt.

But your sister didn't want to have anything to do with him.

So to get back at her, Simon forced

Al Tomberg to fire the whole family, didn't he?

Yeah.

What circus are they with now?

None, nobody would hire them after that.

Simon spread rumors about your father.

Said he was undependable,

didn't show up for performances,

a lot of other lies, isn't that true?

My father was convinced of it, yes. Yeah.

What happened to your father?

He died in a car accident about six months ago.

He ran headlong into a tree.

The police ruled it a possible suicide, didn't they?

They said he was very distraught for several months

all because of Simon Le Simple.

When did you join

the Santini?

About three months ago.

But you were a big attraction

at the Colossal Circus in California.

Why-why change that for the Santini?

I just felt it was time for a change.

Oh. Time for a change or...

time for revenge? Objection!

Argumentative.

Mr. Matlock, do you have any evidence

that would persuade the court

to tolerate this line of questioning any further?

Indeed I do, Your Honor.

Overruled. Thank you.

Now, Your Honor, what I'm about to show this witness,

two videotapes.

Ah.

One is of... thank you...

The clown act

that was taken the night Simon was killed.

The other, is a tape of the same act

nine months ago.

The one of the left is the most recent and last rehearsal.

The one on the right is the old one.

Now, as you can see,

they're practically identical.

Except for... watch.

Right there!

Do you see Simon's hands?

In the old tape,

he threw the torn up traffic ticket

in Homer's face with his right hand.

And then the one that was made

at the last rehearsal, he used his left.

Are you... right-handed

or left-handed? In this business, it pays to be ambidextrous.

But you sign your autographs with your left hand, don't you?

Sometimes, yes.

Sometimes, sometimes.

What...

what if the man

wearing that clown outfit

wasn't Simon Le Simple at all?

What if, in fact,

it was the killer?

A man who had been a clown before,

was left-handed,

had a damn good reason to want Simon dead?

What if that man was you?

That's ridiculous.

I was right there when they found him dead

and I sure as hell wasn't wearing any clown costume.

Yeah.

What if you overheard that argument

between Simon and Homer, and saw it as a wonderful opportunity?

What if you followed Simon to his trailer

where he was making up for his routine?

What if you waited till he finished, killed him,

then took his place in the routine?

And when Homer pushed that car offstage

into the clownmobile garage with you in it,

you got out, gathered up Simon's body

from where you had stashed it

and put it in the clownmobile?

You're wrong. You're wrong.

And while the light

was on Yolanda at the top of the tent,

you ripped off your clown outfit.

Underneath was your cannon suit.

You put on the helmet that covers your face

and got in the cannon.

That's a complete lie.

You don't have one shred of proof.

But I do.

I do.

Watch this.

Ah!

See that sneeze?

Homer and I talked about this at great length.

Homer can't see very well, you know.

And he could never understand

why his partner of 23 years

suddenly ad-libbed a sneezing fit

into the routine.

Didn't make any sense.

And why would someone trying to impersonate Simon

give himself away by changing the routine?

But what... what if the killer

didn't sneeze on purpose?

What if the killer sneezed

because he was allergic to something he was wearing?

What if the killer was allergic

to this wig?

Oh, it must've been

very difficult for that man.

Trying to impersonate a famous clown

and do it so perfectly

that even his partner didn't notice.

And all the time, the man's eyes

were getting itchier, itchier,

itchier and itchier,

beginning to water.

Oh, if only he could just rub them one time.

Oh, the itching must've driven that man crazy.

Mr. Roper, your eyes are getting red.

There's nothing wrong with my eyes.

And your nose is all stopped up.

This is clean. I'm fine. Thank you, thank you. I'm fine.

Let's take one more look

at that tape.

Just one more little look.

Doesn't that sound like

an allergic sneeze to you?

Your Honor, I strenuously object

to this line of questioning.

Your Honor... We're getting nowhere!

Your Honor, just a few more questions, please?

Your Honor...

I'm afraid I must sustain.

Mr. Matlock, you've been indulged long enough.

No further questions.

Gotcha.