Alfred Hitchcock Presents s01e17 Episode Script

This is an axe.
I say this for the information of those of you whose television tubes may have burnt out.
I wish to reach the widest possible audience.
Tonight we have a story based on one of our most celebrated murder cases.
One that rocked Fall River, Massachusetts and the entire country late in the last century.
The crime was and still is a shocking one.
But since it actually happened and is a matter of record we felt it unwise to pretty up the details to make them palatable for the squeamish.
Tonight's theme song will be that familiar little ditty everybody knows.
"Lizzie Borden took an axe "And gave her mother forty whacks "And when she saw what she had done "She gave her father forty-one" I venture that by this time you can see we are not presenting a romantic comedy tonight.
However, we shall not re-enact the crime.
We had intended to but casting difficulties interfered.
We had no trouble casting the mother and father but we kept losing them in rehearsals.
So, instead, we shall show you a slightly different interpretation of the Lizzie Borden story.
It begins just one year from the time of the murder.
~ Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks ~ ~ And when she saw what she had done, gave her father forty-one ~ ~ Lizzie Borden took an axe gave her- ~~ That's a wicked thing to say.
You come right home now and stop annoying Miss Lizzie.
You'll miss your train, Miss Emma.
Have you got everything, Miss Emma? My grip, my lunch my purse, my gloves.
My umbrella? I'll get it.
Your ticket, now.
I have that, Margaret.
Then hurry.
She'll be down any second.
Best be going in time.
Margaret will you tell Miss Lizzie that I've gone to Fairhaven? No, Miss Emma, I won't be here.
I'm leaving, too.
Margaret.
I only stayed this long for your sake, Miss Emma.
I couldn't bear to leave you alone with her.
I know.
But when I come back from my vacation She'll have another servant in the kitchen before then.
How can she get another? I don't know I only know I can't stand it no more.
I'll be minding my own business there she'll be, standing there just looking at me.
She knows every move we make.
It's more than a body can stand.
Never a party, no callers.
Not even a friend to drop in of an evening.
I know.
I can't stand it any more than you can.
That's why I'm going to Fairhaven for a while.
That's why I decided to leave, too.
I can't stay here alone with her.
I suppose you're right, Margaret.
Don't miss your train, Miss Emma.
I still have half an hour.
And besides, there's another one soon after.
I know you, don't miss them both.
Good day.
Is Miss Lizzie Borden in? Miss Borden is out.
Hello.
Miss Borden? No, you mustn't come in.
We don't see anyone.
Of course I'll come in.
I'm leaving, Miss Emma.
Margaret, don't go now! So this is the scene of the crime.
And this is the picture that got so much attention at the trial.
I'm surprised you haven't replaced it.
It must bring back very many unpleasant memories.
I see you've had it cleaned.
You are Miss Lizzie Borden, I presume.
I must say you're not exactly what I expected.
I'm not Miss Lizzie.
I'm Emma.
The sister.
Hmm.
Let's see, it's been a year since your mother and father were- My stepmother and my father.
Well, it's the same thing.
I missed your sister's trial.
She's quite an old girl, they tell me.
My sister was acquitted.
And we never talk about it.
Of course you don't.
But the public is interested, you know.
Now, I represent the Sacramento Record.
You're one of those reporters? That's right.
And I'm here to collect a few impressions for my newspaper.
"Second Street revisited.
" All that sort of thing, you know.
Dear Lizzie hates reporters.
She won't talk to you for a moment.
Say, isn't this a gold nugget? Yes.
Uncle Morse brought it back from the goldfields.
Well, now isn't that a coincidence? I'm from those same goldfields myself.
Uh Is your Uncle Morse an old codger, around sixtyish, maybe? With a drooping moustache and a - That sounds like him.
Do you know Uncle Morse? Knew him well in Sacramento.
Put her there, Miss Emma.
How do you do, Miss- Nell Cutts, just call me Nell.
You know an interview with Miss Lizzie Borden twelve months after might be real interesting.
Dear Lizzie will never see you.
She hates reporters.
You must excuse me now.
Tell me, Miss Emma, is it true that on the morning of the murders breakfast consisted of bananas, cookies, and cold mutton soup? I don't know.
I wasn't here.
I was in Fairhaven.
Cold mutton soup in August.
No wonder somebody committed murder.
Miss Emma, now tell me, how does it feel to take three meals a day with the woman who was a murderer Who was tried for murder? I have to get away.
That's why I'm going to Fairhaven for a while.
Oh, dear, I mustn't miss the 3:37.
You won't miss it.
I suppose that living with Miss Lizzie must be very trying on the nerves.
She can hear everything we say.
Her room is right up there.
Yes, but she wasn't in her room on the morning the murders were committed, was she? She was in the barn eating pears, so she said.
Yes, she was.
She was out there.
Now, let me get this clear in my mind.
Mrs.
Borden was found upstairs, wasn't she? That's right.
And there was no one in the house at the time excepting the servant.
Where did she go? I'd like to get a statement from her, too.
It wasn't Margaret.
We had another girl then.
But she left us when it happened.
They all leave us.
Well, it doesn't matter.
The servant hears your father at the front door.
She goes to let him in.
But the door is triple-locked.
Nobody could have gotten in that way.
The servant is unlocking the door, and meanwhile upstairs the murderer is gloating over the first victim.
The servant goes out to market.
Your father enters he locks the door behind her and relaxes on the sofa not knowing that his wife is lying dead upstairs.
Don't.
The murderer comes down the stairs sees him there alone, asleep.
She creeps up on the old man from behind with the axe and brings it down.
Stop! Stop! Please don't! It was Miss Lizzie, wasn't it? Wasn't it? No! It couldn't have been.
She was out in the barn.
Yes.
Just standing there quietly eating pears? Now how could anyone from the outside have done it? That door was locked but she could see the side door.
How could they escape right under Miss Lizzie's eyes if Miss Lizzie was telling the truth? Was she, Miss Emma? I told you, I don't know.
I wasn't here.
I was in Fairhaven.
Fairhaven.
My train.
You must excuse me now.
What about the kitten, Miss Emma? Oh, dear.
The kitten was found dead in the cellar.
It had been killed with an axe, too.
The kitten was the hardest.
I cried for a week.
It brought my neuralgia back again.
But Lizzie didn't cry.
And it was her kitten.
Miss Emma, you'll have to forgive me, but I have to ask this question.
Is there a history of insanity in your family? Certainly not.
That was the first thing they started asking about.
Especially about Uncle Morse.
Oh, yes, he arrived for a visit the day before the murders, didn't he? Yes, he did.
And the police were horrid about him.
They kept asking people if he was quite right in the head.
Uncle Morse is as sane as I am.
Where was he the morning of the murders? Visiting around.
Lizzie was the only one who didn't have an alibi, so they arrested her.
But she was acquitted.
I know.
Beats me how they ever acquitted her, though.
It's simple.
You said yourself there were stains all over.
Whoever did it would have been stained, too.
But the whole world saw Lizzie within 10 minutes of the crime and she hadn't a spot on her.
Maybe she used an apron, one of those big coverall aprons.
They never found one.
They never found the axe, either, did they? No.
I often wondered where the axe got to.
It'll be easy enough to hide one of them in your own house.
But they searched the house.
Yeah, did they take up the carpet? Yes, they did.
What about the chimney? Did they open the flue? Of course not.
We couldn't have them tearing up the house.
I'd tear it up.
That horrid child.
~ Lizzie Borden took an axe ~ ~ Gave her mother forty whacks ~~ Lizzie Borden took an axe You've been told never to play here.
And gave her mother Emma, you know we don't see anyone.
But, Lizzie, this is different.
This is a friend of Uncle Morse.
Go upstairs, Emma.
All right, Lizzie.
Now, Miss.
Miss Borden, I represent the Sacramento Record.
You're a friend of Uncle Morse, eh? What color hair has the old man got? Gray.
What there is of it.
There's plenty of it and it's completely white.
You never saw Uncle Morse in your life.
Good day.
Miss Borden, my paper wants an interview.
I don't give interviews.
Then just answer this one question Miss Lizzie, what became of the apron? I have nothing to say.
And the axe? Why wasn't the fireplace searched, Miss Lizzie? Good day.
I missed my train.
That's too bad.
But, Lizzie, I missed it.
Lock the front door.
That's the axe.
Yes, Emma.
You hid it.
I had to in the fireplace.
I always wondered where the axe got to.
I didn't see how they could search and search and never find it.
Father kept money hidden there.
He thought no one knew about his hiding place, and once he was dead, nobody did know except me.
There's a way to tell, isn't there? Who's been handling a weapon, I mean.
I don't know, Lizzie.
You've always been the clever one.
I don't see any marks on it.
I don't either.
But they say the police can tell.
Besides, the store mark is etched on it.
Lots of people buy axes.
This one was bought in Fairhaven.
I don't know what you mean.
Yes, you do, Emma.
You bought that axe.
Then you knew all the time? I saw you from the barn.
You came out the side door.
I saw your face.
That was all I needed.
You ran into the street.
I came in and found father.
You shouldn't have used my apron, Emma.
It was the handiest, Lizzie.
I only had a minute.
I threw it in the fireplace and it burned.
But I had to hide the axe.
There was only one place.
It was safe.
Until that newspaper woman started getting ideas.
Why did you do it, Emma? I hated her, too, but not enough to You couldn't have hated her as much as I did.
Lizzie, don't you see? She was wicked.
She ruined everything for us.
We could have been married and happy now, but she prevented it.
She even turned father against us.
So you killed him, too.
I had to, Lizzie.
He was wicked, too.
She made him wicked.
I've wondered so long.
Time after time I wanted to ask you.
When they were examining me, and cross-examining me, and hounding me I wanted so much to know the truth so I'd know what to say.
Lizzie why didn't you ask me? I'd have told you.
I never dared.
I made so many mistakes.
I shouldn't have said that I hadn't seen anyone leave by the side door.
I should've said that I'd seen a big bearded man carrying an axe.
But I wasn't used to lying.
Oh, Lizzie.
All the time I was in Fairhaven, I kept seeking for an answer.
And then the answer came to me.
And I went to the shed and got out the axe and came back to Fall River.
What a risk you ran.
They might have found out that you'd been away from Fairhaven.
It was no risk.
Nobody saw me.
Someone protected me.
I protected you.
Why? Why? Why did you let them arrest you? Why did you protect me, Lizzie? Because you're my sister, Emma.
There's no one else I cared about.
You're all I have left.
Lizzie I'm sorry about your kitten.
I didn't have to kill your kitten.
That was bad of me.
Forgive me.
Oh, Emma.
Lizzie what would you have done if they'd found you guilty? Gone through with it, I suppose.
I used to think: "I've had enough, I'll tell them now.
" And then that prosecutor would come in with his pious face and I'd say to myself: "They shan't break me.
" Lizzie you always had a will of your own.
What would you have done, Emma if they'd found me guilty? I didn't worry about it.
I knew the answer would come to me when the time came.
So you didn't worry about it.
You let me go through with it, sitting in court the crowd hating me, hissing at me, wanting me dead.
Listen! There she is Mrs.
Borden going upstairs.
There's no one on the stairs, Emma.
Can't you hear? I'll have to hurry.
She's gone, Emma.
Mrs.
Borden has been dead for a year.
Don't stop me now, Lizzie, I've got to do it.
Emma, what are you doing? I'll need my apron.
Put down that axe, Emma! We're going out.
Where? Just across the street to see Dr.
Bowen.
No.
So they can put me away? Do you want to shut me up, Lizzie? I wasn't meant to be shut up.
We'll just go and see Dr.
Bowen.
No.
They'll put me away.
I won't have it, Lizzie.
I'll die first.
But I don't have to die, do I? Nobody knows but you.
Think, Emma you can't escape twice.
Yes, I can.
I do what I have to do.
The rest takes care of itself.
I took care of you.
I hid the axe for you.
I know.
That's how I knew there was to be another.
As soon as I saw the axe, I knew.
Wait, Emma.
Don't talk, Lizzie.
Take off the apron, Emma, and answer the door.
Answer the door, Emma.
Hello, Miss Emma.
Missed the 3:37 after all, did you? Miss Lizzie I just had to come back to get a statement.
My editor will have a fit if he doesn't get one.
Very well, young woman.
But be quick about it.
I've been thinking about that murder weapon that was never found.
Now, what's your opinion? Where did it get to? I think that the murderer carried it away with him.
Fine.
That's good.
I need something to write on.
Emma, get your friend a book to write on.
The axe isn't around here or the police would have found it.
It's not easy to destroy.
You could burn the handle, but what about the head? Say, I never thought of that.
Say, isn't this the Providence Journal? I'd like to take a look at this.
I hear it's a It's time to go, Emma.
Yes, I must get to Fairhaven.
Write when you can.
I will, Lizzie.
Good-bye, Emma.
Good-bye, Lizzie.
Now will you give me a statement? I have no statement to make.
You killed them, Miss Lizzie, didn't you? No, I didn't kill them.
Come on, now, come on, give me a statement.
You've been acquitted, you can't be tried again.
I know that.
Then you have nothing to lose.
I didn't kill Mama.
Then who did? It had to be somebody in the house.
The murder weapon is still here.
If it wasn't you, who was it? And I know you'll have a lovely visit in Fairhaven, Miss Emma.
It's not a visit.
You're never coming back? No.
I've said good-bye to Lizzie.
I'm never coming back to this house again.
Emma? Was it Emma, Miss Lizzie? Stop talking nonsense! Wouldn't that be something.
Why that'd be the greatest sensation since the gold strike.
Emma Borden.
All right I'll make a statement.
I killed them both with the axe.
All right, if you say so.
But why did you kill them? Because I don't like cold mutton soup.
I bet Emma doesn't either.
What a scoop.
It isn't a scoop if you can't print it.
And I'll sue you if you do.
All right, go ahead.
I'll prove what I write with this.
Stay away! I certainly will not.
I have a duty to my paper.
Get out! All right, Miss Lizzie.
I never meant to take it anyway.
Now I know why Emma left.
Good-bye, Miss Lizzie Borden.
Did she seem a trifle overwrought to you? She did to me.
But you know, I react in precisely the same manner whenever I hear a child singing Davy Crockett.
Being more civilized than Lizzie, I don't go about hitting tables.
I hit the child instead.
Not with the axe, of course, but in a nice way.
It's so much better to end the program on a pleasant note.
Don't you think? Good night.