 Get this and get it straight crime is a sucker's road knows who traveled wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave There's no other end, but they never learn From the pen of Raymond Chandler outstanding author of crime fiction comes his most famous character in the adventures of Philip Marlowe Now with Gerald Moore starred as Philip Marlowe. We bring you tonight's exciting story the soft spot So much for the news from abroad Here Los Angeles two persons were killed and eight injured today in three separate automobile accidents Attributed directly to the thick fog that has blanketed the city ever since yesterday morning And according to the weather bureau the fog which is rolling it from the sea will be with us for Hello, Philip Marlowe, please early Hanley speaking. This is Marlowe. How I am is to Hanley house a newspaper circulation business Can you come out to my join the Las Villas Boulevard 3810 I'd like you to work for me again And you write your own ticket as usual. No, no, thanks. They play too rough in your league, Hanley Besides it's a bum night to ride around in a cold newspaper truck watching out for hijack No, no, no, it's nothing like that. This is personal business. Oh, it's an old man who's disappeared I'd like you to find him for me still a dark night double your fee. I See you like mr. Hanley outside the city was wrapped up tight in the kind of wet ceiling zero fog that Leaves you feeling damp and all alone Hanley's joint on Las Villas was an old English stone mansion sprawling smothered naivety and about as cozy income hither is a scream in the night Inside I followed an aging round shoulder but those footsteps didn't make any noise along the type of High wide nice cold furnished cardy. You find only in museums When we finally arrived at Hanley study, however things change It was a small room with bright lights heat and a desk cluttered with friendly brick-a-brack Hanley himself was standing against the far wall and for a moment The contrast was jarring because the self-made man in shirt sleeves built like a boxcar and chewing on a cold cigar Didn't it all match the collection of stiff family photos 1890 styled and hung on the wall behind him What is it my love? I'd define the family resemblance from here your folks mr. Hanley. Yeah Left to right my mother she passed on a year ago. He is a kid my father a lush and my grandfather He claimed to have killed more Indians than ever existed All born and raised and a lot of nothing Couldn't hold you Couldn't bring me back either even when my dying I was only a little tight when I ran away monum couldn't stand my grandfather even then nothing but a rod and a bottle bad combo How about your father? Oh, I wrote a few nice words to him My sister wrote me that Ma died and I sent a fat check for flowers and a tombstone, but He never answered probably drank the dough up. He never could save a buck in his own. They told me Anyhow, I'm not letting her hair down. I'm on them. Let's get out of business sit down. So thanks sure You you said someone disappeared mr. Hanley an old man. Yeah. It was a gardener here my little names Cooper John Cooper He's 60 65 mami tall and skinny And he got a fringe of curly hair around his ears the rest is strictly cue ball And he shoved off yesterday with what handling that with You catch on fast you know, it's my tray. Yeah, yeah Well the stuff don't amount to too much and half a dozen fancy silver drinking glasses those goblets now goblets Worth about a hundred a piece nothing that'll dent me and also I'm insured, of course well then the goblets mean something else they do Let's call them a present from a lady. All right, let's What the back mother? Why me why not the insurance company of the law? No? Mm-hmm that I don't want And if you laugh when I tell you the reason I'm gonna punch your right square on the nose and have some skies No, thanks. Go ahead. No Drink alone then if you don't mind. I don't mind It's this old that Cooper in her I feel sorry for him. Yeah, he came in here one day last week had in hand Looking beat as an alley cat. So I gave him a job helping one of the gardeners, but I was on to him right from the start What does that mean? He was a gardener like I'm a ballet dancer. Oh, I could tell And from there on it got worse First couple of days he watched me and everybody else around here pop out as a shoplifter loose and Tiffany's but you didn't fire it No, no Now I figured if you square meals some sleep a little dough in his pocket it'd come him down So I just put a new master padlock in my trophy room and let it go with it. That was your mistake, huh? Yeah, yeah But just so you don't think I'm losing my marbles Phil I better tell you about another mistake, but I'm gonna have to make this short dinner. Guess you know another mistake 15 years ago Phil. I was in a spot just like this Cooper. I Was broke hungry mad at the world and in a position to do the wrong thing. I did and I got caught The boss understood read me the Ryan act and let me go Today it's my turn Want to laugh not very much Tell me what have you got for me to go on? No thin air Aperture good Muller you'll make out the aim of description already give you that All right, here's the rest of it according to the servants one Lived somewheres around skid roam To he never touched anything that kicked harder than ginger ale and that he went for in a big way Three he had a buddy in his neighborhood who was teaching him how to whittle You know make stuff carbon wood. Yeah, I know and that's it, huh? Well that plus the fact that he smoked these pint-sized cigars. We found a pack of them the overalls it won Mm-hmm They're called aces up made in a downtown LA shop also on skid row. Oh the addresses in the box there could help could Well, see what I can do mr. Hanley. Okay, Marlon. Call me as soon as you get close. Will you sure and Marlon? Yeah, I Want those goblets pretty bad there, but Take care of the old man. Will you I know what you mean? Yeah Also Hanley, I think it's pretty decent thing. Yeah, you'll have to excuse me man. Oh, I got a change for my gas. I'll talk to you I followed Hanley back along the museum car to pass the guests who included a spy beautiful lady dressed in too much black chatting with a crisp vitamin bankers gray flannel who looked like he'd been born holding an hors d'oeuvre and Didn't see how they could have much in common with their host But when the big front door he's closed behind me, I forgot about them and Concentrated on finding a needle in a haystack A needle in a haystack and a fog yet Well, it's a back-o manufacturer responsible for the handmade black rope called aces up was my first try His shop was a two-by-four dirty glass door front labeled H Andrave in dry peeling gold foil that flaked off when I opened and closed the front door And what had to be the proprietor was alone rolling cigars on a rickety table. It was stacked high with damp dark tobacco leaves He didn't look up when I described the man. I was after Last defeat seen him Moment later when he did turn his head my way down. So I realized why I am sorry, senior. I don't see nobody I Am blind Fine start, huh? And for some cock-eyed reason like the fog of the kind of man I was after of the neighborhood of derelicts I moved through which could have used a few sprays of sweet air didn't get any better Not at least for the next hour during which I stuck to the wood carving angle and covered every possible tie-in I could think of Including a visit to a nearby home for retired men of the sea looking for someone who's teaching a man to whittle That's right. He's teaching an old man named John Cooper ever here. No can say I have put lots of lads here Whittle, why don't you have a chat with them? Okay in the morning? They're all bedded down now mate wouldn't want to pipe them out over a silly question like yours, would you? No, no skipper. Let him sleep Right there the whittling went the way of aces up cigars, and I turned to my last hope John Cooper's mania for ginger ale However, asking about that in the cheap noisy bars without at Main Street was even a sillier question And it gave all the local comics their big break Finally in straight ginger ale you say and now let me see I get so many orders for a chill It could have been the time Carrie nation stopped in or and was it the night some joker who was eating pigs knuckles Call for a finger ball look bright eyes. Let's work a little less on the gags and a little more They see that guy over there in the corner booth a little fellow whittling on that stick, you know him Come on come on his five-year trouble. Who is he the name is skater been doing his drinking and wood shopping here for five years He's always alone not always Sometimes he has a buddy with a lately an old ball. He's trying to teach how to cut them Oh, a guy who never orders nothing at all. So don't get what a skater drink skater. Yeah, why you always has bourbon it Bourbon and ginger ale The guy you want must drink skaters chases that figures. Thanks. Well, I'll mention it's grow ball All right Making me nervous What is it mister lose something sort of John Cooper? Oh, have you seen him skater? He told me I could get in touch with him through you here at this bar said you were a friend and I am Say is he in trouble mister? Maybe what makes you ask because he didn't show tonight and last night He was all out of sorts had something on his mind couldn't pay attention to the lesson. I was given is it bad No, not if I can get next to him in a hurry. Tell me skater. Do you know where he where he stays sure do a rat hole over on South spring number two Hey, wait, you ain't a cop. I know a friend skater. Yeah What kind of cigars does he smoke friend aces up? Do I pass? Uh-huh, it's two ten south spring to ten south spring. Thanks. So long skater. I'll get in touch if I need any more help Sorry, buddy. I was in a hurry. I didn't see you. You lost up my shoe shine sweetheart Where you run it get your mitts off? I said I was sorry. What do you want the time you invest in the shiny your ears Slap down into the pockets of that zoot suit witch Okay, we'll let it go. I thought we would so long again skater and thanks After I made my call to my client and told him how we stood I drove the half a dozen blocks to 210 South spring Street The place was the kind of stale smelling beer can littered dingy two-story affair that Made you wonder if the garbage collector got around anymore When I knocked on the cracked glass front door that sported a laundry shirt cardboard that said rooms for rent my brow pencil I was ready for anything That's what I got Puffy red eyes bad teeth smell of cheap gin all in a cold cream shiny face That was half hidden by enough bleach blonde hair to Stuffing out of them. Hey handsome. I can catch my death of cold here. What's up? You're the landlady? No, she passed out. I was drinking with her so I'll do What do you want an old man named John Cooper is he in the skinny duffer? Yeah, I guess so I've seen him earlier It's that door back there the one on the right Hey This way miss it was that Cooper's room the fella just came out of last on the right Yeah, that's it. My loss probably swiped your friend's bottle. He's the kind Empty too bad, you know he drinks you under the table and then takes what's left which in this case would be ginger ale Hope it doesn't drink. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know about that Hey Hey, you got company Hey Cooper lights on try the knob, huh? You're kind of anxious. Yeah Sure game mister He doesn't drink, huh? What do you call that spread eagle position on the floor now? No, not with that knife in his chest. I call that murder In just a moment. We will return to the second act of Philip Marlowe But first one of your favorite laugh shows and stars my favorite husband starring Lucille Ball Will return to CBS this Saturday night Formerly heard on Sunday nights Lucille Ball and her favorite husband will now be heard on most of these same CBS stations Every Saturday night be listening this Saturday when Lucille plunges that favorite husband Into a mad and merry mix-up over who is the town's best or worst-dressed man? Now with our star Gerald Moore the second act of Philip Marlowe and tonight's story the soft spot The old man's body was rumpled and death like a discarded bundle of rags Loosely pinned at the center with a knife that had killed him And as the frowsy blonde gradually realized he was dead The look on her face was dumb slack mouth for a potion Gee death's an awful looking thing ain't it? Ain't it? Hey, don't touch him mister. It don't seem decent to decency is strictly relative system There's a scratch here on his neck like a woman's fingernail raked it where Hey, his locket's gone lock it. Yeah, this old guy wore a locket Yeah, I seen it on him yesterday when the cops hauled off that redhead from upstairs This old guy was shaving and he came out in the hall without his shirt on to watch and I seen the locket around his neck What did it look like? I was a little square one on a gold chain not ain't there Ripped off and in a hurry that much old gold is not worth murder even in this backwash Baby, what do you use for closets? Closets are you kidding and this dump you hang your stuff on the plumbing and like it Why? Well, and there's no place here that six big silver goblets could be hiding I guess you couldn't hide a shot glass in this joint. Not for long anyway. Well, the old boy travel light There's nothing here, but Hey, what'd you find? What'd you find? Oh, this newspaper story on the table Torn out of the day before yesterday's paper says Nelson root wealthy Beverly Hills broker dies in a freak car smash up Though to survive by his wife former showgirl Evelyn Lansing now What do you suppose that old guy was saving that for they have sold his shoes with maybe oh sure Now look as long as you get your brain and gear tell me where I can find that guy around out of here Chalky. Hey, listen, mister. I don't want to get mixed up in this. I just live here. I'm back here You're already mixed up in it. Yeah, but that chalky's awful hard, mister I wouldn't want to cross now listen that old man there was murdered. Remember it's for keeps you tell me here And now are the cops down at headquarters. Come on. Where does he live? I don't know for sure I think I heard once he's got a shack in the alley behind some warehouse over on San Pedro Street Which warehouse? I don't know honest. I don't know Hey, you might find out a Dooley's diner. I think he shoots craps over there. Okay. Thanks, baby And do yourself another favor before you cool off. Call the police It took a solid hour of devious back alley trails before I finally broke down the intimidated loyalty of the skid row brotherhood with a Well-placed $10 bill and got a bona fide lead The thick fog that crawled along the alley Chalky's shack had all the welcome home look of a wet gutter Was wedged in under the hulking concrete base of an overpass like like dirt under a giant fingernail Sick yellowish light oozed out through a single tiny window to murky to see into So I did the next best thing and hope that he was alone inside Yeah, I got a tip for you Chucky Dooley sent me it's about the John's they're after you What's the tip fellow it? Hey? Hey, where are you right here? Buster, I'll kick your head off. Hey. Hey, what's the idea? I want fast answers Chalky nice straight ones Why tonight the old guy tonight nice to go? Hey, who are you? What's the idea? I want answers not questions Chalky. Why'd you do it? I didn't kill him. I never used the ship He was already dead when I went in there. I lifted that locket off to the old koot. That's all so help me Give me that locket. You got it no more Mom Murphy's got it now. I I hacked it already. She gave me three and a quarter on it Look, I I got a buck left if you want that you can have lying grifty You're killing old man to get the trinket for two cents. Oh, no, I didn't I Seen that guy with the big ears run out of your koot's room. So I went up to wait a minute guy with big ears Yeah, yeah, it was a zoot suitor. I never seen him around before. I'd remember them flaps of his He ran out of the old guys joined the big steams. What hey now listen, buddy He was the guy you've done it honest ain't no doubt about it. He was Hey, wait a minute. You were you ain't a friend of his are you is again? Reason unless he was telling on our listen, buddy I never put the finger on the guy before in my life, but when it's protecting my own high Yeah, I could have been the finger so long chalky and drop dead It was still foggy outside, but my own personal fog began to lift Big ears must have been telling me overheard me on the phone and got to the old man first but why Why the clipping that old man Cooper had about Nelson roots accident? Nelson roots survived by a widow widow holy smoke Callahan of the Daily Star gave me half a dozen pictures of Evelyn Lansing root From her early cheesecake days right on up to the roll of widow and morning There was no doubt left. She was the lady in black one of my client's dinner guests By the time I'd driven through the fog out to Las Feliz again and up to Hanley sprawled out house I'd lined the whole business up to where it made a twisted kind of sense There's nothing left to do but nothing as lap. I found him in a study. Well, what's wrong Marlowe? Have you better tell me tell you what did you find Cooper or didn't you sure? I found him. I found him dead. What? The old man is dead. You know perfectly well. He's dead. Come on. Marlowe sit down have a drink you'll be no thanks I've covered a lot of ground tonight. Most of it pretty slimy Let me in a big circle. It started here and ends here and now it's late We're both fairly intelligent. Let's give each other a break shall we go on let's suppose That a man was in love with a woman a married woman who was tired of her husband so So uh, she and the man arranged for the husband to die in a freak uh accident. Yeah, yeah, that's right And let's suppose a strange old geezer overheard them planet and then disappeared. Oh, that's rough I imagine they'd have to find them and shut them up, wouldn't they or eat blackmail them to death possibly And how do you suppose they go about that hand we hire a private detective maybe Give them a song and a dance about a theft a trumped up story about some missing silver goblets. Maybe maybe Only uh, he'd be much too reputable to do their killing Yeah, so they'd hire a professional killer one with big ears to follow the detective And when the old man was located the killer would step in and go to work with a knife and then vanish completely Because he'd be a good professional man Well, henley well marlo Oh, yeah, that's a that's a great yarn. Have a little fantastic, isn't it? Yeah Oh good boy, that's the way I figured too weird to take seriously only I'm gonna make it stick Yeah, marlo You try to embarrass me with a crackpot theory like that and I'll make you the laughing stock of this state Dear here, I'll have you hooted right out of the business because you don't have one shred of proof Marlo and you'll never be able to get one or what's more, you know it. Don't you don't get your hands off me henley Oh, come on phil come on come on Let's have that drink now and then you go on home and forget all about this, huh? Oh after all the old jerk was just a skid row drifter. He didn't belong any place who ever miss him It was nobody phil get it Mr. Nobody he's no loss. So let's just forget it marlo. Well, oh wait a minute. Marlo come back here I had to get out What made it even worse to us that I knew he had me I couldn't even begin to prove the first word of what I knew was the truth I couldn't sleep with it either That was why an hour later I leaned against the lamppost back on skid row again And looked across a lifeless intersection through the eddying fog at the gaunt flop house where the old man had died A wayfaring stranger in the night Hiya pal. Vaded. Wait a minute wayfaring stranger Couldn't you accommodate me to the extent of a match or would that break your back? Here Keep them. Thanks Why don't you go home pal? Hmm? Nothing happens here on cooper street after two in the a.m As a matter of fact, nothing happens anywhere anymore cooper street Cooper That's one right out of the book. I'll bet 50 bucks on it nine out of 10. They'll take the name of a street Huh, who never mind you live around here. You're kidding. Where's my murphy's pawn shop? Hey easy watch the lapels pal. Well, come on. Where is it? Mars join us three blocks down on filbert downstairs middle of the block But there's no romance there pal Good notion to call the cops the idea Getting me out of a warm bed in the middle of the night to give you a look at a cheap little locket And all in a dizzy hunch you said. Yeah, wild one. You know the locket. I mean mark. Come on. Try it out Do you know good anyway, sonny? Can't sell it to you for 30 days yet the law, you know Yeah, sure, but you've been waking at the law so long. You're blind in one eye ma Is that so? Well, here you are See Is it hot sonny? I don't know in a minute. It's the inside. I want to see if it's Oh What is it sonny? Is something the matter? Yeah, my hunch paid off mark's hot. All right hot enough to burn a guided death Here's my cut. I'm taking this along what now. We'll hold on a minute you hey stop Don't bother, honey. I'll call him myself The lights were still on in early handway studies So I pulled over and parked on the street and went up the walk on foot And as I moved to the door the fog slid around me in thick swirls When Hanley answered his face was hard and ugly. He had a gun in his hand. Our business is over with Marlo Not quite Hanley. What do you want? I got a tag for our fantastic little just supposed story. You're either drunk or stupid Marlo I warned you once now beat it not till you've heard my punchline Hanley. It goes like this Suppose a wife died after 40 years of marriage and left her husband alone A lonely lost old man who's mellowed with the years Suppose he doesn't have much time left himself and he knows it, but he's gotten obsession An old unhappiness he wants to set straight He wants to see a fella not cause any trouble Just be around where he can look at him now and then come on get to the point. Sure. This is the point Hanley Here here take it Where did you get this lock at Marlo? Where where just suppose it has your picture in one side and your mother's in the other What then I gave this lock into my mother when I was a kid What did you get it come on? Tell me it came from around the neck of a harmless sentimental old man who was stabbed to death tonight by a hired killer He'd never have turned you in or blackmailed you Hanley Because that old man was your father I had my own father killed I ordered my own father's death I didn't know it Yeah Mr. Nobody remember Come on Hanley. Give me the gun We can go now It went quietly All the way he kept a little locket clenched in his fist But as I let him up the stairs of police headquarters, he broke loose long enough to shatter both his hands against the marble pillar He wound up in a straight jacket But it didn't matter much because When they picked up Evelyn root the lady in too much black She filled in the rest of the story Including a lead to big ears When it was over and I was sitting outside in my car alone in the fog that pressed close against the windows I could see nothing of the city Nothing but the soft swimming white mist which hid the black outlines of skid row Funny thing, you know Some people can get out of skid row, but Skid row will never get out of some people The adventures of Philip Marlowe bringing you Raymond Chandler's most famous characters star Gerald Moore are produced and directed by Richard Sanville and written for radio by Robert Mitchell and Gene Levitt Featured in the cast were Bill Boucher, Vivi Janus, Verna Felton, Edgar Berrier, Peter Leeds, Nester Paiva and Paul Dubov The special music is composed and conducted by Richard Arrant Be sure and be with us again next week when Philip Marlowe says This time there were five masks one for greed one for cowardice one for cruelty And one for deceit and they all covered a murder But it was the fifth mask that really counted because it uncovered the killer For some easy to listen to music on sunday afternoons be sure to hear those favorites the symphonat and the corollers Which return to cbs this sunday afternoon The symphonat brings you musical favorites from the lighter classics played by a group of outstanding instrumentalists The corollers sing rousing marches popular songs of the day and familiar music of the past Hear the symphonat and the corollers this sunday and every sunday afternoon on most of the same cbs stations Roy Rowan speaking This is cbs where next week you will hear philip marlowe and hour and a half later eastern daylight saving time On the columbia broadcasting system