 Suspense! Autolight and its 96,000 dealers present Miss Rosalind Russell in consideration. A suspense play produced and edited by William Spear. Uh, Hollywood and Vine, driver. And can you make it snappy? I'm late. Can I make it snappy? I got Autolight spark plugs. What's snappier? Autolight spark plugs? Which type? Regular or resistor? Why, resistor, my hurried huckster. Only Autolight resists a spark plug. Hold on, my haloed hackster. Let me say it. Only Autolight resistor spark plugs can give you smoother performance on leaner gas mixtures. Greater gas savings and double life under equal service conditions. You're right there, all right. Of course I'm right, and it's all because every Autolight resistor spark plug has an exclusive built-in 10,000 ohm resistor that permits a wider gap setting and makes all these advantages possible. So friends, next time you have your car serviced, ask your dealer to install a set of Autolight spark plugs. Remember, whether you choose Autolight regular spark plugs or wide gap Autolight resistor spark plugs, you're always right with Autolight. And now, with consideration and the performance of Rosalind Russell, Autolight hopes once again to keep you in suspense. Well, Gloom, don't I rate a good morning? I'm sorry. Good morning, darling. You know, the Masons have asked us to cocktails tomorrow. I told them I didn't know. I checked with you. Oh, oh, by the way, I'm completely out of aspirin again. Would you mind picking me up a bottle on the way? Charles, you're not reading the paper, are you? No, Ellen. I'm not. Oh, what's the matter? Everything's the matter, darling. Everything. What is it? Whatever? Oh, come, dear, nothing could be as bad as the look on your face. I'm afraid it's worse. Well, dear, what on earth can... Well, in bad trouble, honey. Charles, what do you mean? The business has been pretty bad since the war, and our contracts ran out, and so you wouldn't have to go without it. I took out a mortgage. Mortgage? On everything. House, car, even your jewelry. I figured on business getting better, but the note came due, so I paid it off of company funds. Oh, don't look at me like that. Tom and I had a Navy contract coming up that would cover it, and I wouldn't have to dip into our savings with the Navy canceled, and now next week the auditors are coming into examine the books, and I have to go. Why didn't you tell me I... I figure roughly we should have between 15 and 18,000 in the safety deposit box. I want you to go down this morning, take out 10,000, put it into a cashier's check, and bring it to my office before three this afternoon. Charles, I... I know all I can say now is that I'm sorry, but, well, just do it. Will you please? Charles, I've got to tell you something. I can't bring the money down to you this afternoon. Honey, you have to. Because... because there isn't any. What did you say, Ellen? Well, you know how I love to go to the races? You took me by first one, remember, Charles? We went with Zell and Tom, and, well, you always used to say that if you lose, so what, you'd spend it on a nightclub and you'd hate the floor show, remember? Go ahead. Well, I don't know how it happened. I started betting here at home on the phone, and I got in deep and began doubling up. Ellen, I'll go to prison if I don't have that money. How I had to catch us one winner? Just one, and I've been even. Just one, Charles, but it wouldn't come in. I don't believe it. You couldn't do that to me. Charles! In one month, I'd gone through $22,000, including some money I borrowed from the bank. Charles! Charles! I didn't mean to! Oh, Charles, don't hate me! Charles! That night, he didn't come home till very late. Very late. And when he did, he... he was different. He wasn't angry with me. It's all right, darling. Don't you worry. What are we going to do? It won't be so bad. Oh, you can't go to jail! Of course not. Well, have you... have you worked out something? Everything. Oh, I'm sick, huh? I'm so sorry. What are you going to do? No worrying now. Oh, but I do worry and I should. Darling, don't work yourself up. I've already made arrangements and everything's going to be taken care of. Now, take your aspirin and go to bed, hmm? Aspirin? Even in the midst of all this, you didn't forget. No, Ellen. I'm never going to forget anything that'll make you rest easier. From then on, he began to work a great deal at night. Worked for hours alone in his little laboratory that he had built out there in the garage. I could feel a tension mounting inside me. Building and building and building till my nerves became so taut that I couldn't sleep. The least sound awakened me. One night in particular, I thought I heard the muffled whine of a dog in our backyard. We had a high wire fence completely enclosing our grounds. It would be impossible for any animal to get in. I raised up on one elbow, listened intently. There it was again. I got up and went to the window. Saw nothing. There was no reason to arouse Charles. He'd worked late out there again. I slipped on a robe and went down the stairs. I opened the back door. Then again, this time it was distinct. There was no doubt. It was coming from the laboratory. I walked across the yard to the garage and waited. No more sounds. As I reached for the latch, I noticed that my hands were wet. And then I stopped. There was a new lock on the laboratory door. In the practical light of the next day, I convinced myself that I had a very bad dream and that I'd better watch my nerves. That evening, Charles brought home a dinner guest, Bill Dover, an old friend of the family and our insurance agent. After dinner, Bill leaned back and did a cigar. Well, how about it? What, Bill? The insurance, darling. He's talking about increasing our policy. Oh, well, I don't know. Maybe sometime... You've come a long way. Your standard of living is higher. Well, maybe things seem more prosperous than they are. Right now I don't think we can even... Let him talk, Alan. See, we have a new family plan talking to Chuck about it this afternoon. Where both of your policies could be increased to 30,000 a piece. In other words, troubled. While your premiums would only be twice what you're paying now. We can't afford anything like that right now. Don't you agree, dear? There's anything we can afford. It's this. We've discussed it before. Write up the papers, Bill. Oh, well, as the fellow says, I just happened to have them here in my briefcase. This is very wise. But now, please, wait a minute. No, I don't mean it as a salesman. Insurance is always a wise investment. Security. It isn't pleasant, but... Should something happen to either of you, the other would receive $30,000. That's security. I watched with a sort of numb helplessness as Bill filled out the papers. Charles signed his name and handed them to me. He looked at me. And then he lowered his eyes. I looked down at the application form that he put into my hand. It was a massive fine print. All those clauses. But one word jumped up at me. One word that stood out as if it were printed in bold type in big letters. The word was murder. I found myself reading. Suicide by the insured within two years. Following date policy is in effect. Voids all claims. Murder of insured by beneficiary. Or any party connected in a fraudulent manner with beneficiary in said murder. Voids all claims. Any fraudulent act. $30,000. Well, Ellen, sign it. Yes. Yes, of course. That night Charles did something I'd never known him to do before. He got drunk. Bill left finally about midnight. And I got Charles upstairs somehow. I helped him out of his clothes and he stumbled into bed and fell into a troubled sleep. I reached down and picked up a letter that had fallen out of his pocket. The letter head said the city health department. Office of the veterinary surgeon. Dear Mr. Forrester, the autopsy you requested to be performed on your dog revealed no trace of poison in a place in his system. Blood and all organs seem normal. Therefore, it is the belief of this office that your dog died of natural causes. Probably a hidden heart ailment. And that there are no grounds from this examination to be suspicious of your neighbor. Sincerely yours, Dr. Lois Morrill examiner. I stood there over my sleeping husband. All these terrible words that I'd heard and seen tonight. Fraud. Beneficiary. Autopsy. Murder. And two other words the Charles was mumbling in his sleep. $30,000. $30,000. $30,000. $30,000. Dear Rosalind Russell, in consideration, tonight's production in radio's outstanding theater of thrills. Suspense. Hey, driver, how is it you know so much about white-gap auto light resistor spark plugs? I used to have a set of worn-out spark plugs, and this old buggy jumped and jumped like a fucking bronco. Then I heard a guy named Wilcox on the radio. Oh, did he say that auto light resistor spark plugs let your engine idle smoother than silk? Run better on leaner gas mixtures and actually save gas? Yeah, and he... And did he say that with auto light resistor spark plugs your engine starts like a whirlwind and gets off to a galloping start in cold weather? Yeah, he said that... That auto light resistor spark plugs hold the life of ordinary spark plugs under equal conditions? Yeah. Everyone with old worn-out spark plugs should tell his dealer to install a set of auto light spark plugs right away. Either auto light regular spark plugs or white-gap auto light resistor spark plugs, because you're always right with auto light. And now, auto light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage our star, Rosalind Russell, with John McIntyre, in consideration, a tale well calculated to keep you in... suspense! The next morning, I woke with a frightful sense of lurking danger. Charles was up and gone. There was a note that said... Sorry, darling. As I got out of bed, I stepped on something cold. It was a key to a padlock. The key to the new laboratory. I went out there. I stood in the tiny room, a maze of odd-shaped bottles, test tubes and boxes. I was about to leave when my hand brushed against the side of an old steamer trunk. It was ice cold and damp. It was locked, and I couldn't force it open. So I called a locksmith and he came over. Please, hurry. You just let this little rod in like this. A little turn and... Don't open it. I thought you wanted me... No, no. Just open the lock. Don't lift the lid. Well, I can't very well... Don't lift the lid! There. You always keep dead guinea pigs in trunks? Oh, no. It was just part of an experiment. What killed him? There ain't a mark on him. Well, the experiment. Give me my money. Yes, yes, of course. Thanks. After the locksmith left, I forced myself to look through the trunk. There's nothing else in it. Nothing but a few pieces of wrapping paper. Wrapping paper with the words Frozen Carbonic Company. Dry Ice. Printed on it. Dry Ice. A guinea pig. A dog. I got in the car and went to our doctor's office. Dr. Hansen might tell me. I'll sit down here. Thank you. What's our trouble, Ellen? Jay, maybe I'm being silly. Oh, nothing silly if it worries you. Charles has been puttering around his laboratory. You know how he does. And he's been doing some experimenting with... with dry ice. And I... I've heard some things about it. What kind of things? That it was dangerous. Say, if left in a closed room, it might even kill a person. Oh, now listen. Of all the chemicals he plays around with dry ice is the least of your work. Would it kill a person? Oh, really? Well, would it? Well, I suppose it would. If it evaporates into carbon dioxide gas, it would actually cause suffocation. The heart would go... There wouldn't be any trace of poison in the system. It would seem like natural causes. What's that? And then, if it evaporated, there wouldn't be anything left, like water. No way to know. Nothing to trace. What are you driving at? Oh, I don't know. I'm upset. I guess you're right. I am being silly. Now, look, Ellen. Charles is really a brilliant man. He knows exactly what everything he experiments with can do. Yes, of course. Of course. You didn't sleep well again last night, did you? No, no, I... I'll take two of those sleeping tablets and get to bed early. Sleeping tablets? Those are the ones I gave Charles for you. Oh, yes. Yes, of course. That night I sat in the upstairs den, read until my eyes burned without having the least idea what was written in the book. An hour passed by. Two. Three. And he knows more sounds coming from the bedroom. Charles was asleep. I wanted to sleep myself. Desperately, I had to sleep, but I wouldn't go into that room with him. I remember hearing the clock in the living room strike three. The night breeze shaked loser, shut her downstairs. The distant cry of a tomcat, and then, unmistakably, I sensed a chill coming over the room, surrounding me. A pale light was filtering through the Venetian lines. Morning wasn't here. The room was like ice. Ice! You fell asleep. I just brought a blanket for you. I thought maybe you were cold. No, I... I... You've been dreaming. I don't want a blanket. All right. Here, take these. Take what? A couple of your aspirin. Here. No. No! No, I don't want them! I apologized an hour later for getting so upset. I even made coffee for him before he left for work. I was wary now, you see. It was far better not to let him know that I'd found out. And I'd have the advantage on him. And he wasn't able to deny it and change his tactics. So now I held the advantage, and I... Hello, darling. Surprise. Oh, Charles. You're home early. Well, don't look so disappointed. Expecting the ice, ma'am? Look. What is it? Open it up. An orchid, it... it's beautiful. Not half as beautiful as my lovely wife. That ain't all. More? Lots. Tonight, my darling, we're going out. Dinner at the plaza, the show at the Green Hat, the gypsy violinist at Little Asia, and champagne. Nothing but champagne. All the champagne we can drink. We're going to pack into this night everything you ever wanted, ever loved, all the places we used to go. Tonight's yours. Why, Charles? Why? Who does there have to be a why? Usually. Not with this husband. Well, I mean, I don't think... You deserve it. That's enough. Now, upstairs and into your best. Tonight's the night. We started on the merry-go-round, but all that I could think of was... tonight is the night. We went to all those places. Charles laughed a lot. But there was something horrible in the back of his eyes. They didn't laugh. It was very late when we got home. There was one of those notices on the door you get when a telegram has been delivered and no one was home to receive it. He called Western Union, listened while they read it to him, and then he put his coat back on, came over and put his arms around me. Ellen, there's a new contract that came in this afternoon. I've got to go down to the office. But it's nearly three in the morning. I'll call you when I get there. Well, if you have to. It's a rush deal, and I've got to figure out a formula so the boys can work on it in the morning. So, go to bed, darling. Union, please. This is Mrs. Charles Forrester, 1552 Carlton Manoway. You sent a wire that was just read over the phone. My husband wanted me to get the exact wording. Would you read it again, please? One moment, please. Go ahead. Charles, call office immediately. Signed, Tom. Thank you. The auditors were still working on the books. Charles' boss was trying to contact him. Well, Charles wasn't worried. He'd have the missing money, and a little extra besides. The difference between $30,000 and... Hello? All right. Tonight's the night. Yes, of course he wouldn't be home when it happened. He'd be out of town. Then what? Where would it come from? I was aching so that I could hardly see. I took three Aspen and sat down to wait for him. Hello? Is Charles Forrester there? Well, who's calling him? Well, I'm terribly sorry to bother you at this hour, but I'm not sure that this is the Forrester I want. This is the frozen carbonic company. You wouldn't know whether your Mr. Forrester ordered some dry ice for tonight. Well, why? Well, the plant shutting down for the night, and this fellow made such a fuss about it, said it was so important that I wanted to make sure he found it. He said Forrester leave it on the back ramp, but he hasn't picked it up yet. I guess he'll find it all right. You must have the wrong Forrester. Oh, I'm sorry to bother you. The upstairs den. That's why he wanted me to sleep there. A small room where dry ice could do with suffocating faster, more surely, more believably. And realizing it, I wasn't excited. My heart wasn't beating fast anymore. In fact, I felt quite cool. Drowsy. Drowsy, I shook my head. Oh, it still ached the aspirin. Why hadn't it stopped my headache? I'd have to take two more. I started to the medicine cabinet. I couldn't walk straight. I opened the cabinet and got out the bottle of aspirin. I'd already taken five. Why didn't they? They weren't aspirin at all. They were sleeping tablets. He tricked me. I'd been drugged. I had to run. Stop him. I got to keep awake. Yes, who is this? This is Tom. Where's Charles? Well, isn't he there? He said he was going to the office. No, I've been trying to get him all night. He even sent a wire. Oh, no. Now, Ellen, things aren't as bad as all that. Look, I've known you for 20 years. Think I haven't made mistakes show wrong. I knew he took that money months ago, and I figured it must have been for a pretty good reason. All I wanted was for Charles to tell me about it. I've already made up for it out of my own pocket. Well, you and Chuck can pay me back whenever you can. He's much more valuable to me than a few dollars. Yes, Tom, I hear you. He doesn't know that, does he? It's all right. It's all all right. That's why I wanted him to come down. All he had to do was ask me. Well, after all, that's what friends are for. Oh, God, this is awful. I've got to stop. You go to sleep, Ellen. We'll get it all straightened out in the morning. Give Zella a ring one of these days. She's home a lot. Maybe you two could... Sleep, yes. Thank you. Thank you. It's all right. I've got to tell him. I've got... What is the number of the frozen carbonic company? Please. Yes, sir. All right, nine, nine, two. Two. Hello. This... This is Mrs. Forrester. Yes? My husband is coming down to pick up some dry ice from you. I want you to tell him what I called and said everything was all right. Understand? Well, lady, your husband picked up the dry ice about 20 minutes ago. Mrs. Forrester? I hear you. If he comes back, I'll... I'll be home, sir. This is Ellen. Is Tom home? No matter. I... I want you to talk to me. Ellen, do you know what time it is? No matter what happens, keep talking. Don't let me go to sleep. Please, just talk. Tell me what you've been doing. Tell me everything you did today. Oh, I had a terribly fascinating day. I got up at eight and made Tom's breakfast. I got low-loft school and at 10.30, I just didn't vacuum the living room. Then at 12, how are we doing? No, no, no, it's Tom, Ellen. What? Tom, Chuck's boss. What are you doing here? Well, you fell asleep while I was talking to you. I tried to call you back then. When Tom got home, I told him about it. Well, I can wait, Zell. Listen, I have to talk fast. Are you awake now, Ellen? Yes, just go ahead. Well, look, Charles is downstairs. I brought him home. He doesn't know anything about our conversation last night. And he doesn't want you to know that he wasn't at the office. He got it. Where was he? Well, the police picked him up in his car. I went down to the station and got him. He was so groggy they thought he was drunk. Crazy guy had taken a couple of sleeping pills, put her off to the side of the road and gone to sleep. They noticed his car because the windows were frosted up. Frosted up? Yes, yes, all frosted on the outside. The cops couldn't understand. Come in, Charles. Come on, let's go, Zell. Yeah, sure. $30,000. You wanted me to have the money. And you were going to die, so that... Gosh, darling, gosh. They're just seeing the only way to make things right. They could never be right without you. Well, Ellen, I love you. I know, darling. Suspense, presented by Autolite. Tonight's star, Russell and Russell, with John McIntyre as Charles. Here we are, Hollywood and Vine. Say, I just figured out something. You're a hollow will cop. Right, my friend, and next time I see you, I'll tell you about Autolite Bullseye Sealed Beam Headlights, the new safe headlight that's guaranteed to function even when the lens is cracked or broken. Got them, Mr. Wilcox. Got them. Well, they're unbeatable, just like Autolite spark plugs, and they're only one of more than 400 products made by Autolite for cars, trucks, planes and boats. These include complete electrical systems used as original equipment on many makes of America's finest cars, batteries, spark plugs, generators, coils, distributors, starting motors and bullseye-sealed beam headlights. All engineered to fit together perfectly, work together perfectly because they're a perfect team. So don't accept electrical parts supposed to be as good. Ask for and insist on Autolite, original factory parts at your neighborhood service station, car dealer, garage or repair shop. Remember, you're always right with Autolite. Next Thursday for Suspense, Kirk Douglas will be our star. The play is called Never Steal a Butcher's Wife. It is, as we say, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. Tonight's Suspense play was produced and edited by William Speer and directed by Norman MacDonald. Music for Suspense is composed by Lucian Moraweck and conducted by Lud Bluskin. Consideration is an original play for radio by Richard Bodra. Rosland Russell will soon be seen in the Columbia Pictures comedy, A Woman of Distinction. You can buy Autolite regular or resistor spark plugs, Autolite staple batteries, Autolite electrical parts at your neighborhood Autolite dealers. Switch to Autolite. Good night. This is CVS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.