Alfred Hitchcock Presents s02e16 Episode Script

Good evening.
Tonight's play is entitled, "Nightmare in 4-D.
" It will be presented in only two dimensions, however.
We could present it in 3-D.
In fact, we did in America, but the viewers kept getting involved and during one of the more violent scenes, we lost half our audience.
We wouldn't want that to happen here.
In this case, 4-D indicates the number of an apartment.
And "Nightmare in 4-D" concerns the goings-on in that apartment.
The goings-on will begin going on in just a moment.
Oh, darn! Hold it! Hold it! I got it.
All right.
All right.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Parker.
You're a lifesaver.
Give me that one.
No, no, I can manage this one.
Oh, that's much too heavy for you.
Well, let me get the elevator.
No, no, I'll get that, too.
I don't know how you do it.
Oh, it's nothing for an old cliff dweller.
Say, Miss Elliott, I haven't seen you around lately.
Must be two weeks now.
Well, didn't I tell you? I got my first break, a Broadway musical.
No.
Yes.
We started rehearsals last Monday.
That's wonderful.
Congratulations.
Well, I suppose you'll get to be a big star now and forget all about your old friends.
Well, I won't forget about you, Mr.
Parker.
You're about the only friend I have.
Here, I'll get the button.
I got that.
Well, you don't know how hard it is being alone in a big city.
Oh, go on.
I bet you have company all the time.
You didn't buy all this stuff just for yourself.
Champagne? Oh, a friend of mine is coming by this evening to help me rehearse my song.
Uh-huh.
Hey, you know If I thought you'd go to opening night, I'd send you a ticket.
Well, you just try to keep me away! Of course, I'll come.
That's wonderful I'll take them in for you.
No, no, no, no.
Now, I can get them.
You think you can handle them? Mmm-hmm.
Well, all right.
There you are.
Thanks so much.
You're very welcome.
Bye.
Bye.
How are you, Mr.
Parker? Never felt better, Charlie.
How is everything in your happy life, huh? Oh, you know, bottles and cans, cans and bottles.
That's the way it goes.
That's the old fight, boy.
You going up? Yeah, going up, going down, I don't care.
You're late.
I stopped to help a young lady with her packages.
Well, aren't we the boy scout.
Who was it? Tenant in 3-D.
Oh, that one.
She's got every man in the building turning handsprings.
What did you expect me to do, let the packages fall all over the floor? Well, I thought you might stand on your head for her, dear.
I was merely being neighborly.
Your dinner will be ready in a minute, lover-boy.
You know what would be fun to have with dinner? No, what? Champagne.
Are you kidding? I think there's some cooking sherry left.
No, thanks.
You're safe now, Miss Elliott.
But it was a good thing I got here on time.
You and your dirty gang.
Well, you'll get me.
But, remember, there are still nine bullets in this Luger and I intend to take a few of you with me.
What happened? I think you took a few of them with you.
Oh Oh, I had a terrible nightmare.
You always do when you read this stuff.
This one was terrible, just terrible.
What time is it? It's after midnight.
I think I'll read a little.
Not in here you won't.
I sat around all evening and listened to you snore and now I'm going to sleep.
Well, I'm not.
Maybe I can get a good movie on the late show.
Keep the volume down or you'll have Mrs.
Bolton pounding on the ceiling again.
All right.
All right, all right.
Don't wake up the whole house.
Oh, Miss Elliott.
Mr.
Parker, I am awfully sorry to bother you Well, I saw your light on the fire escape.
Well, that's all right.
Is something wrong? Yes.
Something's happened and I don't know what to do.
I was hoping Listen, could you come down to my apartment? You mean, right now? It's 2:00 in the morning.
Can't it Can't it wait till tomorrow? No, tomorrow will be too late.
There's nobody else I can turn to.
Nobody I can depend on.
Well, if it's an emergency.
You just give me a minute to get dressed.
No, no, no, no, please.
There isn't time for that.
But if anybody saw me going in your apartment, dressed like this Mr.
Parker, everybody knows you're a perfect gentleman.
Please, I need your help.
Well, all right.
Well, I guess we really ought to have some light.
Now, what seems to be the trouble? That.
Who's that? Bill Neilson.
Oh, that piano player in 2-A.
Yes.
He was just helping me rehearse my song when it happened.
And I can't move him.
Well, let's pour a little cold water on him.
He hasn't been drinking.
Then why is he lying there? I think he's dead.
Dead! He just passed out or something.
He was shot.
You mean with a gun? From out there.
He was just pouring his champagne when somebody shot him from right here.
See? Miss Elliott, that's murder.
I know it is.
We'd better call the police right away.
No, no, no! You've got to help me get him out of here.
You mean, carry him? He's too heavy for me to lift and you're strong.
Miss Elliott, we can't go moving a dead body, we'll get in trouble with the police.
The police never even have to know that he was here.
Nobody knows he was visiting me.
We could put him down in the basement.
Miss Elliott, I can't get involved in a murder.
I'm a married man.
If I did a thing like that people would think we were What would people think of me if he was found here? My reputation would be ruined.
Now listen, Harry, if this gets out, they'll take me out of the show.
And I already wrote home and I told my family all about it.
And now this.
Oh, please help me.
Well, maybe we could drag him out in the hall.
It'll be so much safer in the basement.
And nobody would ever know.
And I won't lose my part.
Oh, couldn't we just see if we could lift him? You grab his hands.
Now pull as hard as you can.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Now, turn him.
Oh, gee.
Now hold him.
I am.
Hold him.
Now let him go.
I'll get the door.
Wait.
Okay, come on.
The rug's all covered with blood.
I'll think about that later.
You can put him down now.
Put him down? I will never get him up again.
Where are the lights? Over there.
Behind the trunk, would that be a good place? Any place.
Okay, let's get out of here.
Okay.
Wait.
What? We ought to make it look as if he's been robbed.
Then nobody would ever suspect us.
What do you mean us? Uh I'll get his wallet.
Oh, please don't Oh, come on.
Miss Elliott.
What are you doing? Well, just a minute.
Well, I Here, you can have No, I don't want it.
I'm involved enough in this Come on, let's get out of here.
Oh, Harry, I'm so grateful.
I don't know how to thank you.
I just don't know what I would have done without you.
Hey, sleeping beauty.
Come on, wake up.
It's after 8:00.
I didn't kill him! I didn't kill him! I only helped her hide the body.
I hope you have it well hidden.
It's down in the cellar.
Behind the trunks.
You had a double-feature last night.
Oh.
Oh! Oh, Norma.
This wasn't a dream.
Somebody shot him from the fire escape.
There was blood all over the rug.
In Technicolor yet.
I'll get you some coffee.
Listen.
This really happened.
At 2:00 this morning, I heard a knock at the door and I went to the door and Miss Elliott was there.
Do you mean she was up here last night? Yes.
She came to the door.
It was an emergency.
So you went galloping off, like Sir Galahad, in your robe and slippers.
Well, I wanted to change but there wasn't time.
I thought a pipe had burst or something.
So you went down to her apartment.
What could I do? I didn't know there was a body there.
A man? That piano player from 2-A.
Neilson.
Somebody shot him here.
At 2:00 in the morning? And nobody even heard the shot? Well, I had the TV playing pretty loudly.
So she murdered her boyfriend and you helped her do it.
No.
She didn't kill him.
The shot came from the fire escape.
You believed that? Well, of course, I believed it.
Listen, Norma, I'm an accessory to a murder.
I'll go to jail.
Well, don't give yourself up just yet.
Don't you understand? I carried the body down to the cellar and hid it.
I lost the sash to my bathrobe and I had to go down there again to get it.
Did you find it? It's in the pocket of my bathrobe.
You almost had me believing it for a minute.
It was just another nightmare.
Oh, no.
It wasn't.
Well, it isn't in the pocket.
It's through the loops.
I remember stuffing it in the pocket.
Maybe you put it back.
I haven't touched your robe.
It was just another nightmare.
Well, it was awfully real.
Well, remember the time you dreamed that somebody broke into the apartment? That was awfully real, too.
Yeah.
It sure was.
You're not just saying this to make me feel better? You really think it was a nightmare? Why don't you go down there and find out? I don't want to go down there.
Oh, Harry.
Good morning.
Oh, hi.
Going up? Yeah.
Don't think I've met you yet.
Harry Parker.
How do you do, Mr.
Parker? My name's Orsatti.
You just moved in? Uh-huh.
I think you'll like it.
It's a nice apartment, nice neighbors.
Plenty of storage space, too.
You could hide a body down here.
Yes, you could, if you wanted to, I suppose.
I guess somebody wanted to.
We just found one over there.
A dead body? Yeah.
Behind that trunk over there.
I'm investigating it.
You're a detective? Lieutenant Orsatti, didn't I tell you? No, I don't think you mentioned it.
Yeah.
Fellow named Neilson.
Bill Neilson.
Do you know him? Well, I've heard him playing the piano and all.
Kind of a lover-boy, we've been told.
Somebody shot him.
Here.
Here, eh? Way we figured it, he was murdered upstairs and the body was brought down here at night.
Probably took two people to handle it.
Going up, Mr.
Parker? Oh, yes.
Just a few questions, Mr.
Parker.
Won't take long.
I dare say, you two know each other.
Miss Elliott, Mr.
Parker.
You live upstairs, don't you? Yes, I do.
So, this is the guy, huh? Yes, Sergeant.
No, I'm not the guy.
You mean, you don't live in 4-D? No.
I do, but I certainly didn't kill him.
Neilson was shot between 1:10 and 1:30.
Where were you at that time? I was upstairs watching the late show.
You can ask my wife.
She knows I was there.
The way we figure it, we got a jealousy angle here.
Neilson was romancing Miss Elliott and He was only helping me rehearse.
At 1:15 in the morning? Yes.
Well, whatever it was, somebody didn't like it and shot Neilson.
We found the revolver in the alley, one bullet fired.
Matches up.
Well, I didn't shoot him.
I only carried him downstairs.
Oh, Harry.
That's very interesting, Mr.
Parker.
Why? For her.
I see.
No, you don't.
I scarcely know Miss Elliott.
I have only carried her packages a few times.
Now let me get this straight.
You mean you made yourself an accessory to murder for a girl you hardly know? That's not exactly the way it was.
I didn't think so.
Miss Elliott didn't kill him.
You don't seriously think she did, do you? He was shot while in her apartment.
Anybody could have climbed up that fire escape.
You've got a point there, Mr.
Parker.
And if she didn't kill him, I'm not an accessory to murder.
You moved the body.
That's tampering with the evidence.
I guess I didn't think of that.
If you don't mind my saying so, that was a pretty stupid thing to do.
And the DA is going to want to talk to you about that.
You can go now.
Miss Elliott, did you get a look at the person who fired that shot? I told you, no.
I didn't even know what had happened at first.
Then when I finally got over to the window, there was no sign of anybody.
And you've no idea who it might be? No! And I've got to get to rehearsal.
Harry, what are you doing back? Why aren't you at the office? They found Neilson's body.
Did you hear what I said? They found the body.
I know.
They've already talked to me about it.
I told them everything.
I told them I I took the body down to the cellar and hid it.
What did they say? I may be charged with tampering with evidence.
It's all that girl's fault.
The shot came from the fire escape.
How do they know? It could have been fired from inside and the window broken later.
How did you know the window had been broken? That's probably the police.
Shall I let them in? What else can you do? Mrs.
Parker, I'm afraid you haven't told me the truth.
You said, you scarcely knew Neilson.
Now we find out that you were in the habit of seeing him regularly while your husband was at work.
Norma, you weren't It wasn't what you think.
He was nice to me.
At least he didn't seem to find me dull.
You don't even notice what I'm wearing anymore.
Seems Miss Elliott moved in and kind of busted things up between you and Neilson.
Isn't that what happened? I can't believe it.
I can't believe you were I wasn't.
It was just because I was lonely.
You haven't paid any attention to me since that blonde moved in.
Oh, I didn't kill Neilson.
I don't know anything about it! Somebody must have come up the fire escape and shot him.
I'm sorry, Mrs.
Parker, but that's impossible.
The killer couldn't have come up the fire escape because the retractable ladder hasn't been lowered.
You know, there's only one way he or she could have gotten out there and that's through the window of your apartment.
Or the apartment upstairs.
Mrs.
Bolton's apartment? She's 74 years old and has arthritis.
I'm sorry, Mrs.
Parker.
I'm going to have to take you downtown for questioning.
Don't say anything more, Norma.
I'll get you the best lawyer I can.
No matter what you've done, you're still my wife.
That's mighty decent of you, Mr.
Parker.
But you better get that lawyer for yourself.
I'm arresting you for the murder of William Neilson! Me? You.
You had the same motive and the same opportunity.
You were jealous of Neilson because you had a yen for Miss Elliott and he beat you out.
There was never anything between us.
Because he got there first.
And you had a wife.
So you killed Neilson and almost got your wife arrested for it.
That's ridiculous.
You thought you'd have a clear field.
You're trying to frame me.
I was sitting right in this chair watching television.
I fell asleep.
She could have slipped past me.
Harry.
She could have.
But she didn't.
She was in the bedroom.
Mrs.
Bolton had her on the phone complaining about the TV being too loud.
The murder was committed while they were talking.
Any other ideas, Mr.
Parker? I didn't think so.
You can call your lawyer now if you like.
That was amusing.
Although I think Norma was a poor sport about it all.
And now the time has come for us to part.
But, please.
No long goodbyes.
Don't even look back.
I want to remember you as you were.
So, until next time, good night.