Original subtitles

Good afternoon, Mr. Sutton.

All right, this letter's to Governor Appleson, State

Capitol.

Dear Joe, I just read the legislature plans

to extend the new school bond issue.

That's a big mistake, Joe.

My papers and broadcasting interests can't support that,

or any legislator who does.

I suggest you put the word out to

your people.

Now, there's an election coming up, Joe, and

I'm disinclined to help faint hearts.

Paragraph.

All right, let's play some golf next time

you and Sue come downstate.

Sailing hearts and so forth.

Beautiful day, Mr. Sutton.

Yes, yes it is.

I don't think I'll be going back to

the office this afternoon, will you?

Yes, sir, Mr. Sutton.

Good afternoon, Mr. Sutton.

Afternoon, Sarah.

Will Mrs. Sutton be joining you for lunch,

sir?

She'll be down in a minute, Sarah.

Oh, Sarah, Sarah, first, she's late to a

hospital charity auction.

Yes, sir.

Perfect weather for the auction.

We should make a considerable sum for the

hospital.

Oh, and thank you, darling, for helping us

with all that marvellous publicity.

Well, it was no great task since I

own both the newspapers and the TV station.

I know, Art, but nowadays with the independent

attitude of editors and reporters, well, ownership doesn't

seem to matter much.

Oh, which reminds me, I spoke to my

brother Henry yesterday.

Well, as you know, he's decided to run

for the Senate again.

So we must do our best to support

his efforts.

Now, haven't I always done my very best

for your brother?

Well, I must say you've always been very

good about it.

It's just that, well, Henry's getting older and

he has a very young and attractive opponent.

So we must be even more clever this

time.

Oh, and Archie, please be discreet in your,

your relationships with people.

Martha, my relationships are a figment of your

imagination.

Not quite, dear.

There was that young woman.

That young woman, to all intents and purposes,

doesn't exist.

She's happily married, has two children, lives in

Brazil.

Why do you keep dragging up a minor

indiscretion that ended 10 years ago?

Because that minor indiscretion almost cost Henry his

seat in the Senate.

Oh, there's Cora.

I'll probably join her for dinner, dear, so

don't wait for me.

You have a successful option, dear.

Thank you, dear.

Hello.

How you doing, Arch?

Just called to remind you that you're a

tad bit behind in your, shall we call

it, contribution?

I told you never to call me here,

never.

Marla, I've been very generous with you, much

more generous than those other victims of it.

Sarah, would you do that later, please?

All right, now look, you've broken our agreement.

Well, prices are going up, Archie.

There is that thing called inflation, you know.

Inflation?

Are you insane?

Marla, I am fed up with this blackmail

business.

Do you understand me?

Fed up!

Now, you'll get your usual payment today and

that's it.

He's in a terrible rage.

Price of gold must have fallen.

It's not what's fallen, it's what's going up

that's got him snarling.

Probably his blood pressure.

His girlfriend.

Ex-girlfriend, that is.

She wants more money, he's about to bust.

Yeah, that's some nervy woman, that Miss Marla

Scanlon.

Seems to me she's been blackmailing him now

for about two years.

Two thousand dollars a month, I imagine.

I imagine she saved herself a pretty penny

for her retirement.

I imagine it's a good deal more than

we've put away for ours, William.

Now, don't go worrying yourself about that again,

Sarah.

I'm doing the best I can.

I know, William.

But the best don't seem to matter.

It won't get us that sweet little Rocky

Mountain farmhouse Cousin Lee showed us last time

we was home.

Now, Sarah, you married a simple Rocky Mountain

boy.

I never claimed to be clever.

Just gonna have to make do.

Yes, sir, Mr. Sutton.

I'll be right down, sir.

Ask him, William.

Maybe he'll give you a little raise.

And that way we could send a little

something to Cousin Lee every month for the

house.

Please, William, do it for me.

I don't want to die being a maid

in somebody else's home.

I want to live out my days and

get buried in the foothills of the beautiful

Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Sarah, I'll try.

I'll try.

I'll ask him, Sarah.

Come in, William.

Same place, same person, sir?

Same place, same person.

William, I appreciate your discretion in this matter.

Not all, Mr. Sutton.

Mr. Sutton, sir?

Well, Sarah and I, we haven't forgot how

good you treated us, two Rocky Mountain hillbillies.

Gave us good jobs, decent place to stay.

Well, that's perfectly all right, William.

Well, Sarah and me, we've been talking about

maybe in a few years or so going

back up to the mountains and...

Well, perhaps we could talk about that some

other time.

I suspect our friend is waiting for her

honorarium.

Sir?

The envelope.

Well, I suppose we can talk about that

other matter later.

Good.

Good, William.

You sure are a pretty little house.

What's the matter, William?

You did go to Marla Scanlon's apartment?

Yes, sir.

She was there?

Yes, sir.

She wouldn't accept the money?

That's right, sir.

William, I simply can't believe it.

But she's...

She's dead.

Dead?

How?

Looked to me like...

Like someone strangled her to death.

I didn't hang around to make sure.

There's a scarf lying next to her and

some mean bruises around her neck.

I see.

She wasn't that same fine-looking female.

No, sir, lying dead like that on the

living room floor.

No, I imagine not.

Well, she don't look so fine now, Mr.

Sutton.

Was she alone in the apartment?

I reckon I...

I didn't feel the urge to poke around.

Just took a quick look at her and

figured I'd hightail it out of there.

Well, she was alive three hours ago.

She called me just before I came out

here.

I gave you the envelope.

You went to her apartment, found her dead.

That means she...

She must have been killed between two and

five this afternoon.

There could have been a lot of traffic

in and out of that apartment that amount

of time, Mr. Sutton.

No, no, not today.

Today she was expecting a caller with an

envelope.

Did you see anybody when you came out

of the building?

No, sir.

Did you talk to anybody, phone anybody?

Not a soul, Mr. Sutton.

Good.

You're a good man, William.

Thank you, sir.

I try to be.

And that'll be all, Mr. Sutton.

Yes, that's all for now.

You can go.

Uh, William.

Meet me in my study in about a

half hour.

A half hour.

Yes, sir.

William, you look pale.

Are you all right?

She's dead.

Dead?

Dead?

Who's dead?

Miss Marla Scanlon.

That's who.

Oh, I didn't know she was ill.

She wasn't ill.

Not ill.

Then how?

Murdered.

Strangled.

With a pretty little scarf.

Does Mr. Sutton know?

Yeah, he does.

I told him and I returned the money.

Oh, William, that was foolish.

You should have kept it and never said

a thing.

They'd have found the tramp sooner or later.

Mr. Sutton would have had no reason to

think you hadn't just made your usual delivery.

That money would have made a nice down

payment on Cousin Lee's house.

Hi, Judge.

Arch Sutton.

I think you better get over to my

place real quick.

That's right.

Right away.

Well, Arch, what's the mystery?

I have a dinner engagement.

You may not want any dinner when you

hear what I've got to say.

Now, to avoid a lot of repetition, let's

wait for the state's attorney to get here.

Bob Greenwich?

Now, what's he to do with this?

Bob, I just hear my name.

Oh, Judge, Arch.

Well, what have I got to do with

what?

I don't understand what's going on.

You will in a minute.

William, would you close the door, please?

Gentlemen.

Oh, by the way, gentlemen, William is aware

of some of the circumstances of the situation,

and he's completely trustworthy.

Go on, William.

Miss Marla Scanlon is dead.

Marla Scanlon?

Yes.

How did she die?

Murdered, I reckon.

By what means?

Looked to me like she'd been choked to

death.

When?

Sometime between two and five today.

Well, what makes you think I'd have any

interest in this?

Until, of course, the murderer is apprehended, and

I act in an official capacity.

I hardly knew Marla Scanlon.

Oh, come off it, Bob.

Marla Scanlon was blackmailing all three of us.

My information tells me she restricted her activities

to just the three of us.

I categorically deny any involvement.

Will you please shut up?

Now, none of us is on trial, not

yet.

Now, we're the three who might have killed

her, and it's reasonably certain that one of

us did.

Judge, she was milking you the longest.

I was the next victim, and you were

last, Bob.

Now, between us, over a period of time,

we contributed something like $100,000.

It's a pity we didn't tell the income

tax people about all that stashed cash.

They would have taken her off our backs.

And our hides along with it.

How'd you find out about this?

About me, I mean.

Oh, Bob, that's a silly question.

It's not difficult when you own two newspapers

and a television station.

Besides, I'm still one of the best reporters

in the business.

All right.

It's laid out among the three of us.

We were her patsies.

Adrift, you might say, in the same leaky

boat.

Now, it remains to be seen whether or

not we have a paddle.

Unfortunately, I don't have an alibi for the

three hours between 2 and 5 this afternoon.

Do you, Bob?

What?

Where were you between 2 and 5 this

afternoon?

Well, I was...

Go on, Bob.

Well, I didn't go in, you understand.

Half a block away, I turned the car.

I didn't go all the way to her

apartment.

You went to see Marla Scanlon?

Yes.

I was going to appeal to her.

Prove to her I couldn't afford that blackmail

tariff any longer.

I was going to persuade her that she'd

just have to be satisfied with less money,

or no money at all.

I just couldn't scrape the cash up anymore.

I'm not as well healed as you two.

But you got cold feet.

You didn't actually see her.

No, and that's the truth, Arch.

You've got to believe me.

Whether we believe you or not is of

no consequence.

The important thing is you have no alibi.

How about you, Arch?

Well, she called me about two o'clock

to remind me that it was payday.

I sent William out on his errand.

Then I took a long walk out in

the woods back of my place.

And in fact, when William found me, I

was examining some ferns.

So any of the three of us might

have killed her.

Well, I didn't do it.

If this scandal brushes off on me, I'm

ruined.

The three of us are ruined.

You know, there are a lot of people

down at City Hall and Police Headquarters who'd

love to have our scalps.

And we're not going to hush up anything

as big as murder, even if Arch does

own the press and the TV.

Precisely.

You know, Bob, sometimes you almost make me

think you have a mind, along with the

cunning you've shown in the political jungle.

You know, gentlemen, the truth is there's no

way we can cover this thing.

So, Arch, what do you propose?

Well, what I propose is an unbreakable gentleman's

agreement.

Whichever one of the three of us is

nailed will have to bear the brunt of

the entire thing.

He can't call on his friends for help,

and he can't implicate them in any way.

He must stand by his statement that he

and he alone was involved, Marla Scanlon.

Now, the doomed man would at least then

have the satisfaction of knowing that he shielded

his friends.

That might be rough, Arch.

When a man is slapped with a murder

charge, the natural tendency is to name others,

to confuse the issue, to direct suspicion elsewhere.

Well, I know.

That's why I've asked you all to come

here.

I think we have to decide in advance.

I think we have to agree that the

two who escape will stand by their losers'

loved ones.

Mr. Sutton, sir?

Yes, William.

Well, while you all were talking, I was

thinking.

I got an idea.

Oh, William, we have more important things to

consider than any ideas you make.

We have nothing to lose by listening.

Go on, William.

Thank you, sir.

Gentlemen, Mr. Sutton has been real good to

me and the wife, Sarah, giving us a

chance when we first come down from the

Rocky Mountains.

We have no time for these asinine emotional

speeches.

I'm sorry, sir.

The speech is done.

I just want Mr. Sutton to know one

of the reasons why I'd be willing to

do all of you the favour of standing

trial for Marla Scanlon's murder.

Well, I am...

I'm touched, William.

But I suspect that you're not finished.

No, sir, Mr. Sutton, not quite.

You see, you three are kind of sitting

on top of the world, so to speak.

I mean, fine homes and families, reputations, country

clubs and all that sort of thing.

Well, you stand to lose a whole parcel.

Now, me, all I got is Sarah.

And, well, let's say I never did have

a chance before to really put together some

real money.

How much?

Well, you've all been paying Miss Marla Scanlon

plenty.

One final payment to me would finish it

all up.

Yeah, if you each just chipped in...

It's about a $10,000 piece.

I'd take care of your little problem for

you.

William, how do you propose to do this?

Well, with your newspapers and television station being

on my side and Judge Corday here doing

the judging and Mr. Greenwich here doing the

prosecuting, I should come out all right.

Go on.

Well, I could say that I've been fooling

around with Miss Marla Scanlon and she's about

to boot me out.

And I'd say that we had a big

fight and I lost my head and killed

her without meaning to.

Nobody's gonna miss Marla Scanlon around this town

and nobody's gonna question or suspect what you

do.

I figured Judge will give me three years

for manslaughter.

I'd behave real good and probably be out

on parole within a year.

And then?

I'll just take my $30,000 and go

on back to Colorado.

I don't think any of us has to

worry about any of the others going back

on the deal.

On account, we're all in this together.

I figure together we sink or swim.

I think we have a deal.

You think it'll be just a year you'll

be away?

Well, not any longer than that, Sarah.

Even the judge has self-agreed.

Well, I guess I can manage that time

without you.

Well, Sarah, it was the only way we'd

get enough money to buy Cousin Lee's farm.

How much are they paying you?

$30,000.

A piece?

The lot.

The lot?

I think you made a bad deal, William.

$30,000 will hardly pay for Cousin Lee's

farm and there won't be anything left over

to live on.

That's true enough, Sarah.

But this $100,000 I got from Marla

Scanlon's wall safe after I strangled her, it

should do nicely.

Oh, yes, nicely indeed.

I think there'll be a bit left over

for a quiet retirement in the beautiful Colorado

Rocky Mountains.

Yes, sir, Sarah.

Well, that $100,000 I paid for Cousin

Lee's farm, even a bit more.

Yes, indeed.

I do believe.