 RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television, proudly presents... Director's Playhouse stars Bert Lancaster, Corinne Calvay, production Rope of Sand, director William Dieterley. The Hollywood Screen Directors present an action in the desert. Tonight transcribed for the first time on the air the motion picture adventure drama Rope of Sand, with Bert Lancaster and Corinne Calvay and their original roles of Mike and Suzanne. You'd think I'd have known better. You'd think that after the unmerciful whipping I'd gotten in that very town, Diamondstatt, South Africa, two years before that I'd have known enough to stay in New York. But oh no, there was half a bushel of diamonds out there in the desert, the forbidden area of the Diamond Syndicate, and they belonged to me. I'd paid for them when I was back to collect them. The minute I walked into the Pretoria Cafe in Diamondstatt, I saw Mottengale. I knew Mottengale all right, one of the more unscrupulous directors of the Diamond Syndicate there. But I didn't know the sultry brunette with him. I didn't know her. But anyone sitting with Mottengale was up to no charity. Mottengale saw me and he stood up to welcome me with that polished, bond-spread smirk on his face. Michael, how good to see you again. You look so well. Yeah. Now how would you like to look at my back? Not in present company. Mrs. Anne Renault, Mr. Michael Davis of New York. How do you do, Mr. Davis? Pretty well, if I watch my step. Mrs. Renault is here from Paris to see for herself the irresistible glamour of Africa at the Diamond Country. And the men who live in it. What about the men who die in it? Mr. Mottengale told me I'd find Diamondstatt quite durable. Why? If I like young rude Americans, I should be devoted to this place for life. Michael is lightly jaundiced about women, Suzanne. Very common among professional hunters and guides. Oh, a hunter. Retired, looking for a game of poker. Not spin the bottle. Excuse me, please. If I may say something, Michael. Make it quick. I regard the unpleasant incident of two years ago as ancient history. I'm willing to give you back your guide in hunter's license. If you'll tell me where the Diamonds are. Mottengale, I didn't like what your company cop coming down Vogel did to me. After that beating he gave me, I forgot where the Diamonds were. Did you? You guess. I'll find that poker game if you don't mind. He has bad manners, hasn't he? If you're going to find out from him where the Diamonds are, you'll have to do better, my dear. Or go back to dancing, shall we call it, at Cape Town? Your American hates command on Vogel. They hate each other robustly. And the commandant likes me. Davis is your business now, Suzanne. Men are my business. And playing one against the other is often good for business. Excuse me. I think I will watch Mr. Davis play cards. Good luck, Suzanne. Aren't you going to play poker, Mr. Davis, at advertised? I'm waiting to get into the game. I thought you might want company. I'm used to being alone. That's right, you're a hunter. I wasn't allowed to work out of thanks to Monningale. Mr. Davis, you need a friend. I do, huh? And where do you fit into that? I could be a friend to you. I like courage. What do you like, Mr. Davis? I think I'll call. Honesty, Miss Reno. Oh, you impetinent. Davis, well, commandant Vogel. Davis, you will apologize to Mademoiselle at once. Go away, pig. Are you contemptible? Oh, please. Just get out, Davis. Sorry, I have business at the poker table. In fact, I need money so badly that I'll even play with you. Ah, indeed. And if I break you, you must leave Africa. Maybe. Sit down, Davis. He was good, but not good enough. By midnight, I played and bluffed and then outluckied him out of 2,000 dollars. Then at midnight... More chips here. And I want a fresh stack of cards. By 2 a.m. it was all over. All right, Vogel, you win. I'm broke. Then join me in Champagne. Champagne, please, all around here. Not for me, Paul. But, Suzanne... The lady says no champagne. I mean, not here. Not here, Mocamada. My car is outside Mademoiselle. Thank you, Paul. Good night, Mr. Davis. I sat down again. For an hour, I nursed a peeve of cheap beer and a deck of cards. And I noticed something about those cards. It was a discouraged old Dr. Frenner, my Doc Willis still hanging around town. I got him to drive me out to Vogel's fancy villa in the desert. And sure enough, there was Vogel's Lagonda parked in front. I sent Doc home and I patted over to an open French window. Vogel was turning on that phony, central European charm of his. Using a valuable-looking vase as a sophisticated prop. Then he put the vase down. I saw it was going to be a pass, and that's when I decided it was time to discuss Mark Carr's with Commandant Vogel of the Diamond Fields Patrol. You'll excuse the interruption, Commandant. Davis, how dare you? Call the police, Paul. I wouldn't, Vogel. Put down that vase. Expensive, isn't it? There's only one other like it in the world. Put it down. I'm a coward, Vogel. Hit me, or call the cops, and I'll drop this vase. Is this how an American gentleman defend himself? This is how one resents Mark Carr. No, it's a lie, of course. I'll have that money you took from me with those cards. It's a lie, but under the circumstances, here. Here's the money. McEast, your car. I sent my chauffeur home. There. Now you, Red Riding Hood. I? You're coming with me. That there is a wolf wearing Grandma's bonnet. My vase, if you please. Oh, sure. Your vase. Here. Catch. No. Don't crowd me when I drive. I'm cold. Don't blow on your hands. I'm still cold. Now listen, just a minute. I get this straight. I didn't come after you. No. I came after my dough. You just happened to be there. Is that all? That's all. You like honesty. So do I. All right. You ask for it. Probably a mistake. Oh, no, Mike. Believe in me. Tell me what happened two years ago. You wouldn't be interested. I want to be your friend. Well, I was stupid enough to let an Englishman I was guiding one ear into the prohibited area. The diamond fields. I went in after them. In the heat. In the desert. In the killing sun. I found more. I did. Lying in half a bushel of dull pebbles that didn't even glisten in the sun. Diamonds. He'd scratched a fortune in diamonds out of the sand there. And died. I left them there because just then my horse keeled over dead and I figured that finished me too. Oh, I don't know how many days I wanted in the desert, but one of the things I hate Vogue for is finding me out there, taking me back in this patrol tractor. I must have battled about the diamonds because back here, Vogue went to work on me. The diamonds, Dave. Where are the diamonds? They whip again. The diamonds, Dave. Tell us where the diamonds are. We'll whip you to death. They whip again and again. Beating like that does something to some men and makes them stubborn. I wouldn't talk. You've come back for the diamonds. I paid for them. 100 lashes and then some. Now Fogol hits you more than ever. How long do you think Matt again can hold him back? Until he's sure I won't need him to the diamonds. Mike, you're alive. Be satisfied. Go away. I won't leave here until I get what I paid for. Oh, please, Mike. If not for yourself. Please. Then for me? I don't know if you mean that much to me, Suzette. Oh. Yet. I understand. Take me home, please. I was afraid I'd said too much to Suzette. I got busy. Doc Willis told me about one of Vogue's men. Patrol tractor driver named Thompson. Hating Vogue, liking liquor and interested in a thousand dollars and then making Vogue look bad. I found Thompson. Considered him reliable and gave him a few simple instructions. Well, that's it, Thompson. Have you got it straight? Got it. Let's hear it. At 10 tonight, I go out and patrol. 10-5, you stop me tractor and knock me cold and take me off track and drive away into the diamond fields. Yeah. That'll fix Vogue all right. And I'll get what I've already paid for. A big hatful of diamonds. Yeah. You are listening to the Screen Directors Playhouse production of Rope of Sand starring Bert Lancaster and Kareen Calvay and presented by RCA Victor. What Shakespeare is to writing, what Babe Ruth is to baseball, what the Alps are to mountains, that's what RCA Victor is to television. Right now, all the world and his wife are visiting their RCA Victor dealers to see the perfect television set for their homes and budgets among the 14 stunning new models for 1950. There are 10 inches, 12 and a half inches and 16 inches from table sets to complete home entertainment consoles in a wide variety of cabinets, dials and finishes. They all carry the privilege of buying the exclusive RCA Victor factory service contract for tailor-made installation and service. And of course, they all give you the greatest performance and dependability and lasting delight, synonymous with the name RCA Victor Eye Witness Television. America's first, America's finest, America's favorite. Now back to the Screen Directors Playhouse production of Rope of Sand starring Bert Lancaster and Kareen Calvay in their original roles of Mike and Suzanne. At exactly 10.05, the roar of Thompson's patrol tractor came over the dunes. Then his headlights swept the unbroken sand board where I was lying and stopped a few feet away. The headlights blink, all clear. I stepped into the road and I walked to the heifer. Good work, Thompson. I'll take over now. I didn't tell him. He caught on, Davis. I swear. Shut up. I was expecting something like this. I had you watched constantly. Now let Martin Gale try to restrain me from what I have every justification to do to you. Take him away for the time being. Recuperating nicely for the next beating? No, you mustn't. You'll kill him. I can restrain Vogel no longer, Suzanne. Make him stop beating Mike and... and I'll tell you where the diamonds are. You don't know? I'll get Mike to tell me. I promise it. You're in love with him. Stop, Vogel. And I'll find out what you want to know. I shall speak earnestly to the commandant and you, my dear, may go in and soothe your American. Thank you. Oh, don't move, darling. Lie still. Rest. Suzanne, tell me something. Why didn't Vogel finish me? He was going to... because he knew it's useless. They know you'll never tell them what the diamonds are. But they know I won't quit until I get them myself. Mike, darling, forget those miserable stones. I'd crawl out of my grave to get what I came back here for. Then... then let me do it for you. You? But how have they catch you there? If they catch you, they'll kill you. And if that happens, my life stops, too. Vogel loves me and Mountingale trusts me. I can get a passing to the diamond field. Just... just tell me where the diamonds are and let me do the rest. Darling, I don't want them to kill you. All right, come in, change those dressings. Come in, Doc. You know Suzanne, Doc. I know Suzanne. Think about what I told you, Michael. I will. Take good care of him. Yeah. What's the matter? Suzanne's pretty friendly with Martin Galen Vogel. Or used to be. You haven't been talking a lot to her, have you? That's a funny tone. Suzanne is trying to help me. She's going to help me get the diamonds. Mike, Vogel and Martin Galen want those diamonds, but they know you'd never tell them. Would they have let you live if they hadn't thought you might tell somebody? Somebody? Suzanne? A Cape Town dancer to phrase it politely. A Cape Town dancer? Oh, she's from Paris. She... I see. Doc, how am I? How are you, or how are you if somebody should ask me? How am I if Vogel should ask you? He'll be laid up for two weeks. Thanks. Hand me my shirt. I got work to do tonight. Here's the map, Suzanne. When you come to the dry spring, they'll be the skeleton of my horse. And that's it. Believe me, Mike, this is the best way. I want it. Good luck, baby. Take care. That night, Doc well-estubbed the air out of his tires and took me as far out on the desert as the sand would let him. Then Doc went back, and I waited in the patrol lane, giving myself even money on who'd be in the half-track swaying across the dunes, coming toward me. The headlights swept over me, and I slipped the safe to catch on my automatic and waited. Ten seconds later, I had my answer. Vogel! David! Stop or I'll shoot! How did you get out here? Never trust a woman or a phony map. Get down. I refuse. Get down, I tell ya. You'll suffer for this. You and your accomplice, Doc Willis. Oh, I know what goes on. I'll tell you. Get down, or I'll drag you down. Dark of an American. Stop! Stop! I pulled him down beside me, and I flung my gun into the dockless and the swirling sand. Then I shot my right towards the map. He went down, sprawled. He got up slowly on his hands and his knees, and I thought I had him. Suddenly he shot out both feet, and he caught me, pulling the stomach. I went down, gasping, and retching. Vogel on top, driving his fist into my face, and fell pretty soon. I didn't mind it anymore. I couldn't have been out very long. A few seconds later, I could have heard something. A half-crack. The headlights falling across me and moving. Vogel was going to run me over. I strained and I struggled to do something. At the last moment, I twisted lengthwise between the wheels of a catapult of treads and lay there petrified. Well, the four-ton machine roared six inches over my head. Then I jumped up and I ran after it. My brain shouting cursors at Vogel. My lips got dry with fear. I caught hold of the tailboard and I pulled myself up into the half-crack, and I picked up a shovel just as Vogel stuffed his machine and turned to face it. Davis, don't! Beg me. Beg me not to break your legs and leave your head to die. Don't hit me with that shovel! Don't hit me! Please, wait a minute! Please, wait a minute! Please, please, I beg you, I beg of you! I was standing there cursing and threatening. And somewhere, beyond the dawn, was what I'd come back here for. And there was more than enough gasoline to take me to a hut full of diamonds in the desert. And on to Angola. And to safety. Well, I had my diamonds and a bitter taste in my mouth. In Angola, I stayed drunk for a week to forget Suzanne and her treachery. I came out a bit slow. And something in the paper drew all the fumes out of my brain. The picture was Suzanne. And the lines read, Suzanne Renaud, Dancer, held for the murder of Dr. Francis Willis in Diamondstack. Suzanne murdered Doc Willis. She didn't have a motive, but Vogel did. And there I knew what I was going to do. I'd go back, too. Morning, Gail. Vogel. Oh, back in Diamondstack to stay, Michael? You wouldn't dare shoot both of us, Davis. Or even one of us. I've come to make you an offer. Very simple. The diamonds for the girl. It appeals to me, Vogel. Does it appeal to you? Possibly. Then sign this paper, I brought, Vogel. Let me see it. You're a most durable fellow, Michael. Persistent, too. I will certainly not sign this outrageous paper. Why not, Commander? It says that Suzanne Renaud is innocent of the murder of Dr. Willis. I was questioning her and Willis in my office about your escape, Davis. Willis made an uncomplementary remark about her. She seized the paper, waiting... Sign the paper, Vogel. Or you will shoot, eh? Sign it. Now, Vogel, I urge you to sign the paper and allow me to deal with Michael later. Now. He's telling us about the diamond's commandant. Very well. Give me the pen. But wherever you go with her, I'll follow you. And now, let's all have a friendly smoke. Waringale got up and offered Vogel a walnut humidor, mockingly. Cigar, commandant? Vogel reached in. He came up with a gun, fired first. Too bad, commandant. As a matter of curiosity, who did murder Dr. Willis? I did. This wine. Helping Davis escape. Waringale, you thought I'd be killed? No, no, I... I had faith, Vogel would miss you and that you would shoot him in self-defense. It worked. Why did you do it? Who liked Vogel? Also, why divide the diamonds with him? Also, I'm sentimental about young people in love. I'll bet you are. You might care to know that Suzanne did what she did, even taking your map to Vogel, to save your life. There was nothing in it for her, except you. Let's go get her. It's goodbye to Africa, Mike. Irresistible Africa. You do love me, don't you? If you tried to get away from me, I'd follow you till I wore the earth's smooth, until I got what I came for. This is Jimmy Wallington speaking. You have just heard the last act of Rope of Sand, and our stars, Burt Lancaster and Corrine Calvay, with our guest screen director, William Dieterle, will be with us in just a moment. Next Friday on Screen Directors Playhouse, another great star brings you the words and music of a show from the heart of show business. Our story is, when my baby smiles at me, and recreating her original role will be Betty Grable, with screen director, Walter Lang. Now, here again is Burt Lancaster. Say, Burt, is it true that your name, Lancaster, indicates that you're descended from a branch of the royal family of England? Well, that's what the women in the Lancaster family like to think, Jimmy. I suppose they can just picture you ascending the throne. Yep, telling the kings where to get off. Why bring up this king stuff, anyway? Well, I'll tell you, Burt. I've been saying that RCA Victor's new 45 RPM automatic record changer and records are fit for a king. And you're the closest thing to a king I've been able to dig up. I don't like to dig up, Jimmy. I have admiration for the 45. Then tell me, Sire, you've been a collector of records all your life. How did you happen to shift from the conventional 78 RPM records to the 45? I didn't shift, Jimmy. I was shifted by the power behind the throne. Ah, your wife, my wife. I'll bet two bits she first fell in love with the 45 records because they're so tiny you can store 150 of them on one foot of ordinary bookshelf. Thus, leaving a little room in the house for the people. I can see that you have a power behind your throne too, King James. Yes, haven't we all? Say, what model 45 did your queen buy? The complete phonograph, the Victrola 45. For only $29.95? That's right. Well, you'll soon make that up by what you save on purchases of 45 records. You know, they cost from 25 to 50% less than conventional records. Soon? Well, I made it up in the first six weeks in two days. Hey, you're really interested in economy, aren't you, Burt? Well, I named my dog Cash. Then you'll appreciate a special 45 value even more amazing than the usual one. Right now, Burt, in celebration of the first birthday of the 45 system, RCA Victor Dealers are offering a special first anniversary album of 10 top records by artists like Perry Como, Freddie Martin, and Vaughn Monroe with each Victrola 45 purchased for the usual price of the Victrola 45 alone. Only $29.95. Now, Burt, wouldn't you call that a bargain fit for a king? Even better than that, Jimmy. It's fit for a queen. Don't miss this royal 45 birthday bargain at your RCA Victor Dealers now. And now, ladies and gentlemen, if Corinne Calvay will join me... Burt, you are now joined. We want to introduce a friend of ours. If you allow me the privilege of making the introduction, Burt, I would gladly give up my woman's spaghetti. What's that, Corinne? Let me have the first word and you can have the last one. The words are yours. Thank you. Then I would like you all to meet one of the world's outstanding directors. I was very proud to have been directed by him in Rope of Sin. And I am again very proud to introduce a director of such magnificent film as The Life of Louis Pasteur, All That Money Can Buy and Love Letters. Ladies and gentlemen, our director, William Diderley. Thank you, Corinne and Burt. As you both know so well, a motion picture is made in a kind of isolation. It's all cameras and lights and the actors and the theaters seem very far away. Then suddenly the film is finished and on the screen, but I think for the director at any rate the final satisfaction comes when the picture makes an appearance in an entirely different medium, the screen director's play house. Your splendid performance will steal that last word from both of you. Good night and good night everyone. And good night to you, Burt Lancaster, Corinne Calvay and William Diderley. Remember next Friday, Betty Grable in When My Baby Smiles at Me with screen director Walter Lang brought to you by RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television. Rope of Sin was presented through the courtesy of Paramount Pictures, currently releasing Captain Carrie USA, starring Alan Ladd and Wanda Hendricks. Burt Lancaster is soon to be seen in The Flame and the Arrow, a Norma FR picture to be released by Warner Brothers. William Diderley's current picture is the Hal Wallace production for Paramount Paid in Full, starring Robert Cummings, Elizabeth Scott and Diana Lin. Corinne Calvay will soon be seen in the Hal Wallace production for Paramount, My Friend Irma Goes West, co-starring John Lund, Marie Wilson, Diana Lin and Martin and Lewis. Included in tonight's cast were Bill Johnstone, Stan Waxman, Norman Field, Don Morrison and Frank Barton. Rope of Sin, from the original screen story by Walter Doninger, was adapted for radio by Milton Geiger, and original music was composed and conducted by Robert Armbruster. Screen director's Playhouse is produced under the supervision of Howard Wiley and directed by Bill Karn. Portions of tonight's broadcast are transcribed. You are invited to listen again next Friday when RCA Victor presents star Betty Grable production When My Baby Smiles at Me director Walter Lang Stay tuned for Jimmy the Great Rupert Gerardi on NBC.