Alfred Hitchcock Presents s01e02 Episode Script

Good evening.
Have you ever had a premonition? A feeling that something dreadful was about to happen? I mentioned that, obviously, because tonight's play is about a young man named Kim Stanger.
About his strange homecoming and of the mystery he found when he arrived.
Follow him if you will, as he attempts to unravel this mystery hindered at every step by his friends and haunted always by a vague sense of foreboding.
This story is appropriately entitled Premonition.
I defy you to guess the nature of Kim Stanger's premonition although we shall give you numerous clues in the prologue which we now present immediately.
At first, I didn't know what it was that brought me home.
A sudden impulse, a hunch.
A restless feeling that wouldn't leave me until I gave in and got on the plane.
I'd been so far away for so long.
It seemed incredible that in such a very few hours I was home again.
Welcome home, Mr.
Stanger.
Have a pleasant visit, sir.
Good day.
Bryant's drug store.
Charlie the barber.
The Wilson real estate office.
Everything exactly as it was when I had left over four years ago.
Nothing ever changes in Stangerford.
Kim? Doug? Doug Irwin.
When did you get home? Just arrived from Paris.
Paris? How are you? Fine.
Working hard.
Working? Yes.
My music.
Advanced composition at the Sorbonne.
Been doing a little conducting on the side.
Been there two years, and two in Rome before that.
What brought you home? I don't know.
I suddenly felt homesick and I grabbed a plane.
Does a man have to have a reason for coming home? Family know you're here? No, I thought I'd surprise them.
I'm on my way to the office.
Wanna come along? We'll phone them from there.
Where's your baggage? So you just felt like coming home? Yes.
And I wanted to see my father.
Does he still hate me, Doug? Never quite fit the pattern, did I? Greg never understood that.
Kim, your father never hated you.
Then why doesn't he answer my letters? I don't know exactly what to say.
I got to be getting home, see the family.
I'll probably see you tonight.
Kim, you won't find anybody home.
They're all out this afternoon.
Where? Perry is playing in a tennis tournament.
How is my brother? Oh, he's great.
Well, Kim, I I don't think this is a good idea.
What? Coming home like this without warning.
Why? Well, the family will be disappointed if you don't give them a chance to stage a little welcome.
Why not come up to the office, clean up a bit? We'll phone them you're coming.
Doug, what's wrong? Nothing, Kim.
You sure? Yes, Kim, I'm sure.
Come on.
Doug, I said I'm going home.
See you tomorrow.
All right.
Something was wrong.
I could feel it.
I'd felt it before, miles away in Paris.
A premonition.
A sense of dread that came from nowhere like thunder on a clear day.
I knew now that it was this that brought me home.
Hello.
Anybody home? There he was still holding court from his throne over the fireplace.
Looking at him, I could see white sails and blue water.
Hear the crack of the canvas as he slammed the wheel over and we came around on a tack.
The rest came back, too.
The tennis games.
The singing of the reel under The skiing and polo and deer hunts in Maine.
But something was wrong.
Susan.
Kim.
How are you, Su? All right.
I wasn't here for the festivities.
Mind if I kiss my sister-in-law? Oh, Kim.
Why did you come back like this without telling us? Your father just asked me the same question.
Is it a crime to come home to your family? Greg hasn't written me in four years.
I thought if he knew I was coming, he might walk out.
Is that why you came back? Why didn't he answer my letters? Why does he make me choose between him and my music? Won't he ever understand that music is born into a man like a heartbeat and you can't rip it out without killing him? Kim, there's something you- A man can't hate his son to the end of his days.
Time's running out, Susan.
We've got to get together before it's too late.
Greg understands.
Then why doesn't he say so? Why doesn't Susan.
There's rust on his guns.
He never would have stood for that in the old days.
Where is he, Su? Tell me.
Where is he? Where's Greg? Kim? Perry, where's Greg? I don't know any way to soften this for you, Kim.
It's all over and done with.
Greg is dead.
When? Some time ago.
What do you mean, "some time ago"? Kim, he He died of a heart attack on the tennis court.
How long ago? Four years.
October 10.
Four years? I was in Rome.
Why didn't you cable me? Why did you let me go on believing - Look, it's a long story, Kim.
There was this feud between you two.
We were afraid you might feel responsible.
It did upset Greg.
He was awfully fond of- Good Lord, Perry.
What are you saying? You let me believe that he's been alive for four long years? And all the time I've been planning to come back and make it up to him.
So we were wrong.
It seemed like the only thing to do at the time.
Try to understand, Kim.
I wish I could understand.
Look, Kim, we should have told you.
We didn't.
And once we got started on this thing, we couldn't stop.
It was a bad mistake.
Mistake? Perry Look, Kim.
A heart attack? It was very sudden.
Yes, it must have been.
He applied for his life insurance only five years ago.
His heart was fine then.
A coronary can hit anybody, any time.
Yes, and I suppose you and Doug Irwin handled all the details of the estate? I don't like the way you said that.
I don't like what I'm thinking.
If you're wondering about the will he changed it just after you After you left.
He left everything to me.
Congratulations.
Kim.
Good work.
You've got it all.
Greg's love, Greg's money, and my girl.
Kim.
I'm so worried about him.
What are we going to do? I don't know.
Well, he can't stay here.
Take it easy, darling.
We'll get him away from here, somehow.
He's up in Greg's bedroom.
He mustn't be in there.
See what you can do.
Kim? Kim.
It's 7:00.
Would you like some food? Please tell Perry I'm sorry.
I was just dreadfully shocked and upset.
I know.
You look so tired.
Would you like something to eat? No.
I'm not hungry.
Why don't you take your old room down the hall? It's just like it used to be.
Nothing's like it used to be.
Please leave me alone.
I've got to think.
Everything was here.
Greg's hunting prints his books his pipes his papers his hunting cap.
Everything was here except Greg.
There was an eternity between us now.
His hunting license filled out in his strange, careless handwriting.
Date.
: October 11, four years ago.
October 11? He went on a hunting trip on the 11th.
Why had Perry told me he died on the tennis court on the 10th? Doug Irwin.
Hello! I went by your house.
They told me you were here working late.
Join me? You know I didn't come here for a drink, don't you? Yes.
So you heard about Greg? I heard he dropped dead after a hot set of tennis.
Yes.
Coronary.
I warned him, but he wouldn't listen.
Little unusual, isn't it seeing you curled up with a bottle of Scotch? Yeah.
Got a special reason tonight? You look just like your father.
He never had heart trouble before, Doug.
At his age, you don't have to.
You don't play tennis, period.
He wasn't.
You'd better have a drink.
He took out this hunting license the day after Perry said he dropped dead on the tennis court.
Perry got his dates mixed.
He said the 10th.
It was the 12th.
A day after he filled this out? Yes.
He took out a hunting license to play a set of tennis? We were going hunting.
We called it off.
Why? Bum weather.
Rained like the devil.
But you played tennis? It let up after a while.
Astonishing how the courts dried off.
Doug - The death certificate is on file, my boy.
Gregory Stanger, age 64.
Died October 12.
Cause: coronary thrombosis, acute.
You can check with the constable at Stangerford you can check with the newspapers of that date.
And you can check with the most critical authorities of all Greg's life insurance underwriters.
You can buy a lot of affidavits for $3 million.
Where did you go on that hunting trip? Kim, won't you take some advice from me? Not as the family lawyer, but as your friend? Forget it.
Let Greg sleep.
Who killed him, Doug? Nobody killed him.
He died on his own tennis court.
I'll be back.
Where are you going? To find who killed him.
Hamlet and the ghost on the battlements.
Mr.
Stanger, there's nothing more to tell.
It's getting late.
There's a great deal more you can tell me.
Was my father's casket open or closed during the services? I don't remember.
Think, Mr.
Eaton.
Think.
Closed.
Why? Family's instructions.
Did you see the death certificate? Yes.
Did you see the body? You can always check - You did see the body, didn't you? Do you think Do you think my father died of a heart attack? As I said before, you can always check.
I know very well whom I might check with.
There's only one witness I'll believe.
Who? My father.
Mr.
Stanger, I - You run the cemetery, don't you? You have the key to the family crypt.
Are you suggesting I- I must have that key.
Get it for me.
Get it! I can't permit you to violate a grave, no matter what the reason! Stop it! Why? Does it offend your taste? Or are you afraid of something else? Like perjury.
How much did they pay you? How much, Mr.
Eaton? I can't tell you anything about your father because I never saw him.
Why? We held services over an empty coffin.
There's no body in the grave.
Why? I don't know where the body is.
I simply did as I was told.
As for the flowers, I was requested to send them to a place in Sheridan Falls.
Some place up in Maine.
I know where it is.
Please don't tell your brother.
I don't know what he'd Going somewhere, Kim? Yes.
I want you to change your mind.
I want you to come home with me.
I don't want to argue, Kim.
Come on now, please.
Want to save me a trip? Want to tell me about Greg? There's nothing to tell.
You know the story.
All right.
Better gather up the clan now and make up a better story.
I'll call you from Sheridan Falls.
Stanger, you say? Gregory Stanger.
He was here about four years ago on a hunting trip with a lawyer named Irwin.
Were you coroner then, Mr.
Dobbs? No.
Who was? George Rutherford.
What happened to him? Retired.
What were you doing here then? Helping Rutherford.
I was the assistant here.
You can't remember anything about a party of deer hunters that checked in here around October 13 or 14? Don't know.
What do you mean, you don't know? Long time ago.
We get a passel of hunters through here in season.
My memory's not as good as it used to be.
It might need a little help.
Anything I can do to help? Hell, no, I I can't cross your palm like my brother does but I've got something just as good.
What happened to Rutherford? What did he retire on? Legacy from an uncle? Let me go.
I don't know anything about- You know about Gregory Stanger.
Now talk! We We had a call that Mr.
Stanger had a sick spell and they hauled him back in his private plane.
Back to Stangerford.
There was some talk and George Rutherford went up there to look into it but nothing come of it.
That's all I know.
Three went in, and two of them came out.
Three went in.
I only heard.
I wasn't there.
There was Stanger and Irwin.
Who else? Stanger's son.
They went into Tamarack Lake.
Thirteen miles of rough mountain trail between me and Tamarack Lake.
I was exhausted, but something drove me on It was ahead of me.
Somewhere in the wilderness, the answer to everything.
Then I was there.
Kim I've been waiting for you since noon.
My dad's plane is down on the lake.
Let's go home.
You won't stop me now.
Kim, for heaven's sake, listen to me.
You've got to stop.
Please believe me.
I've got to know.
I came all the way from Paris to settle this.
I've got to know! Listen to me.
You've never been in Paris.
You've been in a hospital in Arizona.
What? You made it all up.
All this about Paris and Rome you believed it because you wanted to.
When was I discharged from the hospital? You weren't.
You ran away.
Greg was murdered.
After it happened, Perry and I arranged everything so that it would appear that he died naturally.
We bribed the undertaker.
My dad helped with the death certificate.
No one has any idea of the truth.
We thought it was the only thing to do at the time.
Now I'm not so sure.
Susan, who killed him? You did, Kim.
It was an argument.
A loaded hunting rifle.
An accident.
And after it happened you went all to pieces.
I thought so.
I had a premonition.
And as the cold New England sun slowly sinks behind the coroner's office we take leave of mysterious, far-off Sheridan Falls land of enchantment.
And as the night breeze carries our little craft away from these beautiful wooded shores we slowly turn our eyes back to the charms of television advertising and the lyrical chant of our sponsor's message after which I'll float back.
I see it's time for our intermission.
You may leave your seats if you wish and have some light refreshment, chat with your friends but please hurry back for our next play.
That will be in just One week.
Good night.