Alfred Hitchcock Presents s01e20 Episode Script

Good evening.
This misty bit of ectoplasm forming on the inside of your television screen is one Alfred Hitchcock coming to you from across that great barrier that divides the quick from the dead: the Atlantic Ocean.
I have materialized for the express purpose of warning you that during tonight's séance you will witness a playlet entitled: "And So Died Riabouchinska.
" Oh, yes.
Before we have our play, I would like to make an announcement to those of you who can't stay until the end.
The butler did it.
How are ya', Macey.
Beat, as usual.
I see you're improving your mind again.
Yeah.
Like you do, with those confession books you read.
We're both intellectuals, Pop.
See what I got? What's that? The boyfriend went up to Las Vegas to win enough to buy me a mink coat, and this is what he came back with.
Hey, I haven't seen a silver dollar in a long time.
I'll match you for it.
No.
I'm gonna keep it for a good luck piece.
I'll tell you what I will do.
I'll match you with it.
If I lose, I'll give you a quarter.
Okay.
Who's matching who and who's paying? I'm matching you.
And if things go according to schedule I'll probably pay for it.
Go on! You made a dollar off me already this week.
Good evening.
Hi.
How are tricks, Mr.
Fabian? Fine, thank you.
Mr.
Fabian, you're the first ventriloquist I've ever known who took his dummy home every night.
Well, I can't risk anything happening.
Be a little late for me to turn into a song-and-dance man.
That's what I'd have to do if this were stolen.
He should worry if it's stolen.
I hear it's insured for thousands of dollars.
Me, I'd see that it was stolen and collect the insurance.
Come on.
Let's match.
Okay.
What'd you have to do that for? Too many vodkas last night, Dad.
The lights are on the blink down here.
I've got some matches.
What's the matter? You're afraid of the dark? Mr.
Silver, you told me earlier that you had seen Ockham once before.
Before you discovered his body at the bottom of the stairs.
Now, are you positive about this? Yes, sir.
If I hadn't seen him more than once, I wouldn't be so sure.
But I saw him a couple of times, I tell you.
He came asking after Mr.
Fabian.
That's the ventriloquist.
What'd he say exactly? Wanted to know the times of the shows.
That is, when Mr.
Fabian went on.
The time that would be the most convenient to see him.
Did you tell Mr.
Fabian this? I did.
And what'd Mr.
Fabian have to say? He said to tell him he was too busy to see anyone.
That there were a lot of crackpots around wanting to be ventriloquists and he wasn't in the mood to answer a lot of questions.
Did he act uneasy about it when you told him? No, he didn't.
He didn't seem to care when I told him that the man said he had something very important to talk to him about.
Okay, Mr.
Silver.
That's all for now.
Thanks.
Where's Mr.
Fabian's dressing room? The next one down the passage.
Okay.
Thanks for the coffee.
Okay.
I'm Mel Douglas, Lieutenant.
Mr.
Fabian's manager.
Is there anything I can do to help? Not right now.
But stick around, will you? Mr.
Fabian.
Mrs.
Fabian.
I'm Detective Lieutenant Krovich.
How do you do? How do you do? I understand, Mrs.
Fabian, that you are an assistant in your husband's act.
Is that right? Yes, I am.
How long, may I ask? Too long.
Alice, please.
My wife has been my assistant for almost eight years now, Lieutenant.
Did either of you know Ockham, the man who was murdered? No.
You ever hear his name before? No.
Mrs.
Fabian, I asked if you'd ever heard the name Ockham before? No, I have not.
Mr.
Fabian, the doorman told me earlier that he told you Ockham had been around inquiring for you.
Said he had something very important to tell you.
Well, that may very well be true.
I mean, about his inquiring for me.
But that doesn't mean that I'd seen or heard of him before.
Mr.
Silver says, too, that he told you the name of the man inquiring for you.
But that doesn't mean that I'd remember hearing the name.
Not even an unusual name like Ockham? Well, I've always had a very poor memory for names.
Let me out.
Let me out, someone.
Please let me out.
No, Riabouchinska.
This is serious business.
Now you be quiet.
That's a good girl.
What is this, Fabian? You mustn't mind her, Lieutenant.
She always wants to get into the act.
But perhaps Lieutenant Krovich would like to question me? Don't be silly, Riabouchinska.
We can do without the comedy, Fabian.
I'd like to get on with this, if you don't mind.
Please, let me out.
All right.
Give me the key.
Thank you, Lieutenant Krovich.
You are very kind.
Isn't she lovely, Lieutenant? She's appeared in Paris, Rome, Vienna, all the big cities.
Everyone loves her.
She's irresistible.
Please don't talk about me.
You know Alice doesn't like it.
Why, Alice always likes it.
Why do you say that? You know it isn't true.
I think you'd better go back into your box, Riabouchinska.
But I don't want to.
I'm as much part of this murder as Alice.
Or Mr.
Douglas.
Don't you dare drag him into this.
It's just that I want the truth to be told and if I'm locked away in my box, I know it will not be.
You see, Fabian is such a liar, and I have to watch him.
You get that thing out of my sight! I'm sick of it! You hate that dummy, don't you, Mrs.
Fabian? Well, wouldn't you if- Alice.
You don't have to tell him anything.
Tell him about Mr.
Douglas.
Will you keep her quiet? Apparently, she prefers to talk.
Mr.
Fabian, Mr.
Douglas is out in the hall.
Would you ask him to come in, please? I will, indeed.
Come along, Riabouchinska.
How long have you been married? Seven years.
I married Fabian because I loved him, and I thought he loved me.
But then I discovered that his work was really his entire life.
He'd spend hours rehearsing his act with the dummy.
I hardly ever saw him except when we were on stage.
He never had any time for me.
He was always working with her.
You mean to tell me you're jealous of a doll? I know it sounds silly, and I suppose it's the greatest tribute I could pay him as a ventriloquist.
But I began to resent her.
I couldn't help it.
Do you know he spent hundreds of dollars on her wardrobe when I had nothing to wear? Why, Lieutenant, do you know that he even- Why, Mr.
Douglas.
Come on in.
Did you know the dead man? No, I did not.
You sure that somewhere along the line in your various dealings you might not have met him and then forgotten? I have a very good memory for faces, and I certainly would not have forgotten his.
Such an ugly little man- We're not here to discuss his physical appearance! Now, a man's been murdered and someone here's not telling the truth.
Someone here is not telling the truth.
I think we've all seen enough of your dummy act on stage without getting any more of it here.
Mr.
Douglas what's your relationship with Mrs.
Fabian? Now, just a minute.
Don't get angry.
That's exactly what he'd like you to do.
I already told him what I went through the past seven years.
Isn't it natural, with so little love and understanding from my husband that I'd turn to someone else? Yes, things are beginning to shape up now.
You know, Ockham was a very poor man, down on his luck.
He came to the theater tonight because he knew about you and Douglas.
Now, maybe he threatened to speak to Mr.
Fabian about you.
If you didn't buy him off.
That would give you the best reason in the world to get rid of him, wouldn't it? Well, there was no need to kill anyone.
You see, Fabian knew all about Alice and me.
Did you? I did, indeed.
I did, indeed.
I wouldn't laugh if I were you, Fabian.
I wouldn't laugh.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much.
Riabouchinska, have you anything to say to your audience? I think you are all wonderful.
And have you anything to say to me? I think you are the most wonderful ventriloquist in the world.
And And what? I love you, Fabian.
He never went over as good with the boy dummy.
Boy dummy? Yeah.
He called him Sweet William.
The girl's better.
She's real cute, ain't she? Yes, she is.
You leaving, Lieutenant? Yeah.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Hi.
Hi.
What are you thinking, Mr.
Fabian? About you, as always.
And what were you thinking about me? I was thinking that there were nights in my life when I dreamed of the unobtainable.
And you were what I dreamed.
Good evening, Lieutenant.
I was rehearsing.
We're breaking in a new act next week.
Now, Fabian, you know we're not booked anywhere next week.
She tells the truth, doesn't she? Miss llyana Riaminolva.
Blue eyes.
Oval face.
Born 1914 of Russo-Slav parentage.
Believed to be a victim of amnesia.
You know, Fabian, it was pretty silly of me to go through the police files looking for this picture of a dummy.
You should've heard them laugh down there at headquarters.
But here she is.
Riabouchinska.
Not papier-mâché, not wood, not a doll but a woman that once lived and moved around.
And, Fabian, disappeared.
Well, there's nothing to it.
I just saw this woman's picture a long time ago.
I fashioned my Riabouchinska after her.
It's not that simple.
This morning I went through a stack of theatrical magazines, that high.
I found a very interesting article concerning an act that toured a second-rate circuit in 1934.
The act was known as "Fabian and Sweet William.
" Sweet William was a boy dummy.
Now, there was a girl assistant.
llyana Riaminolva.
There was no picture of her in the article, though.
But at least I had a name.
The name of a real person to go by.
Very simple for me, then, to dig up this picture out of the police files.
Fabian, suppose you tell me the whole story? She was my assistant, that's all.
I simply used her as a model.
You're making me sweat! Now why don't you stop fencing around and get on with the story? All right.
I have nothing to hide.
It's just as you said.
I was billed as "Fabian and Sweet William.
" And when I was in Los Angeles, this girl appeared at the stage door.
She told me she'd followed my work for years.
She was desperate for a job, and she wanted to be my assistant.
She was fresh and eager.
So, before I knew it, without saying yes or no or even perhaps there she was on stage with me.
And in two months, I was in love with her.
Well, you finally admit that you fell in love with her.
It's about time you were getting around to it.
Yes.
But there were arguments.
Bitter, bitter arguments.
Unkind.
Unfair things were said.
Once I even burned her entire wardrobe in a fit of jealousy.
She took that quite quietly.
And then, one night, I gave her a week's notice.
I accused her of being disloyal.
I shouted at her.
I slapped her and I pushed her out.
She disappeared that night.
Disappeared, Fabian? Yes.
And when I found next day that she'd really gone I was desperate.
I couldn't eat.
I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't even do my work.
So you took out advertisements in all the trades, describing her in detail and asking her to come back, is that right? How did you know that? Your wife told me.
What else did she tell you? I am asking the questions here, not you.
Anyhow, she told me plenty.
So you better stick to the truth from now on, Fabian.
Then you put a private detective on the case, didn't you? Yes.
A record of her was sent to the largest cities.
And that was the end of it for the police.
But not for me.
She might be dead.
She might be just running away, but wherever she was, I knew that somehow I would have her back.
I suppose it was through Sweet William in a way that I got the idea of how to get her back.
Sweet William? Yes.
The act wasn't doing too well.
I had imitators, many of them.
All boy dummies, they were.
So I decided to do away with Sweet William.
I bought new wood.
Beautiful fine-grained wood.
And then I began to carve slowly and carefully.
Make the little nostrils so.
Cut the thin black eyebrows round and high.
Make the cheeks small hollows.
At first, I grew discouraged.
How, after all, could a cold chunk of wood convey any idea of the exquisite features of llyana? My llyana, who was gone.
But I was obsessed.
So I continued on.
It took me a whole month just to carve her hands.
The weeks passed.
And then, one day I finally held the puppet in my arms.
And suddenly, the tiny hand moved.
And the wooden body became soft and pliable and warm.
Come on now, Fabian.
The eyes opened and she looked up at me.
Her little mouth opened just the tiniest fraction of an inch.
She wanted to tell me something.
There was a whisper.
I couldn't make it out at first.
And, then, the little head moved this way gently and then that way gently.
Then the mouth half-opened again.
And I bent my head to hear.
I love you, Fabian.
I didn't come in here to see you do your dummy act, Fabian.
Next, you'll be asking me to put my ear on that block of wood and hear a heartbeat! A man's been murdered.
I'm here to find out who did it! What's you're telling me all this prove? I'll tell you what it proves.
It proves that I was in love with llyana.
I didn't kill her, if that's what you're thinking.
If I had, why would I have put a detective on her track? I didn't say that you did! But what about Ockham? Who killed him? I tell you I don't know.
I tell you I didn't even know the man.
Ockham? Sure, I know him.
Not well.
Came in one day wanting to know if I could book him.
Danny, will you please make up your mind? Did you book him? No.
Jugglers are passé.
He tell you anything about himself? Plenty.
To hear him tell it, he was probably the greatest juggler in the world.
Okay! You got yourself a deal.
$150.
Right.
You see him only that one time? No, he came around twice.
I told him to call me once in a while, I'd see what I could do.
He did call a couple of times.
He got kind of sore when I told him there was nothing doing.
Hey, Phil, that deal is all set.
$150.
And finally on his last call he said he was going to come and pick up his press book.
He left a press book here? Yeah.
As if I wanted it.
Well, it was the best that I could do.
Seems like he spent half his life pasting his little heart away in his press book.
He never did pick it up.
I guess the only reason he didn't was that he got knocked off.
Just get that press book for me, will you? Oh, sure.
You know, guys like that would rather lose their right arm than lose their press clippings.
Do me a favor, will you? What's that? Take it with you.
I'm loaded down with press books.
Sure.
Thanks.
Hello? No, there's nothing doing today, kid.
I'm sorry.
Things are pretty slow.
Yeah, okay.
Did I know Ockham? Did I know Ockham? You're beginning to sound like a broken record.
I've told you a dozen times, I never saw Ockham until I saw him at the morgue yesterday.
You're lyin'.
Fabian, I've given you your last chance.
Don't you see that I have a show to do? You've got more than a show to do! How do you explain this? Is the world so full of Luke Ockhams that were jugglers who played on the same bill as Fabian and Sweet William at the Grand in Chicago, that this might be another one? All right.
So I knew him.
That doesn't prove that I killed him.
No.
But it proves that you've been lyin' straight down the line.
Luke Ockham's first letter came a month ago.
No.
I see.
You won't talk.
Is that it, Fabian? But she will.
Here.
Make her talk.
I think she'll tell the truth.
There was only one Luke Ockham.
And he was a juggler.
And he had been on the same bill with Fabian and Sweet William at The Grand Theatre in Chicago.
And he remembered that once there had been a woman before there was a dummy.
No.
Let her talk.
Yes.
Yes, I must talk.
I must tell the truth.
No.
There is something I must say.
I was in the I said let her talk, Fabian.
I was in the room when Luke Ockham came.
I lay in my box, but I listened.
And I heard.
And I know.
They had an argument about money.
He wanted Fabian to pay him $1,000.
I heard him cry out and fall.
His head must've struck the floor.
You heard nothing.
You're deaf.
You're wood.
I know because I created you.
I may be wood, but I can hear.
I hear through you.
And I speak the truth through you.
Go on.
What happened then? The choking sounds stopped.
I heard Fabian drag Mr.
Ockham down the stairs under the theater, to the basement.
Down, down down, I heard them going.
So you killed Ockham because he knew that you killed llyana Riaminolva and was blackmailing you? No.
He did not kill llyana, only Mr.
Ockham.
Then why, Fabian? Why did you kill him? Tell him, Fabian.
Go on.
Tell him.
He threatened to tell the world about us.
About Riabouchinska and me.
He wanted to hold our love up to ridicule, but I couldn't let him do that, could I? How could we have been happy that way? People would've laughed.
People would've turned away.
"Horrible," they would have said.
"Ugly.
Look at them on that stage.
"He's in love with a piece of wood.
Who do they think they are? "Romeo and Juliet? Tristan and Isolde? "Look at those hideous, revolting freaks!" So you see, I had to kill him.
He was trying to spoil the only beautiful thing that was left in my life.
It's spoiled now.
There's no way to go on from here.
No way.
No way? No, don't leave me, Riabouchinska.
I promise you everything will be different.
You are forever promising.
You never listen to me when I try to make you see how wrong you were.
Yes.
But I'll listen now.
From now on, if you'll only not leave me.
I must.
When you killed him, I realized that we could not go on because while I've lived with your lies.
I cannot live with something that kills.
How can I live now? Riabouchinska! Riabouchinska! She's gone.
I can't find her.
She's run away.
I can't live without her.
Help me to find her.
Please.
Help me to find her.
Please.
Please.
We'd better go.
That was pleasant.
It also reminded me of my youth.
When I was once a part of a vaudeville act called: "Doctor Speewack and his Puppets.
" But I never cared for Doctor Speewack.
He thought he was better than the rest of us.
But so much for tonight's entertainment.
Until the next time we return with another play good night.