 Now we present Herbert Marshall as the man called X. The Saturday Night Feature on NBC's five-show festival of comedy, music, mystery and drama. Brought to you by... RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television. By the makers of Anderson for fast relief from pain of headache, neuritis, neuralgia. And by your local Ford dealer, who is now displaying the new 1951 Ford, the car that's built for the years ahead. Herbert Marshall as the man called X. Wherever there is mystery, intrigue, romance, in all the strange and dangerous places of the world, there you will find the man called X. Here's a word from RCA Victor. Are you still a television outsider, still just reading about it, talking about it, thinking about it? Well, we'd like you to hear what some of the television insiders say. Here's what Robert J. Patterson of Bronxville, New York writes for example. Television brings the family closer together, makes new friends of neighbors who come in to enjoy it with us. Adds much to the joy of living. The Patterson's are just one of the more than a million American families who own and enjoy RCA Victor television. Why not find out the facts about television for yourself? Look at the list of big new shows going on the air every week. Look at the new sets, 18 beautiful new RCA Victor receivers now at your dealers. Look into the matter of price, too. It may surprise you to find out how little it costs today to join the insiders who own America's favorite television, RCA Victor. It happened on a quiet fall evening just across the river from Washington, D.C. in a small frame house in the outskirts of Alexandria, Virginia. Look, operator, I got a call Mr. Ken Thurston in New York, fast. What is the number, please? I don't know the number, but I want to talk to Ken Thurston and hurry. And the address, please? Oh, for Pete, I don't know the address. Get New York. Tell him he's the man called X. They'll find him. Now step on it. General Staff? Sure, Chief. How are you, Colonel? Glad to see you again, Thurston. The Colonel says he's got some business for us here at the Bureau, Ken. Oh? Yes. Thurston, do you know a man named Bill Pringle? Bill Pringle is an old friend of mine. You know him, Chief. Sure. Cryptography expert. The one who helped us crack the Japanese code during the war. Well, he's in trouble. Oh? What kind? Maybe treason. Treason? Well, that doesn't sound like Bill Pringle. That's what we thought when we put him to work as a civilian expert, helping us develop the greatest defensive weapon in the history of warfare. Maybe one that could prevent future wars. An electronic deciphering machine. Electronic deciphering? If it works as we think it will, any enemy cypher or code will be as clear as ABC to us. We'd never be caught flatfooted again by a march into Poland, Korea, or Pearl Harbor. Hmm. You said something about treason, Colonel. We'd suspected for some time that foreign agents were contacting Pringle. We'd had him under surveillance. Last night, there was a shooting scrape at his home in Alexandria, Virginia. The man who'd been covering him for us was killed and Pringle has disappeared. I see. Then you think Pringle sold us out to foreign agents? It doesn't matter what we think, we've got to know. Hmm. Well, Ken, Chief, I think I'd better visit Alexandria, Virginia. Yes? Here's Bill Pringle at home. Who are you? My name is Ken Fursten. Come in, please. Thanks. You're another government man, aren't you? Well, all right. Why do you keep on wasting time here? Can't you understand that Bill's life is in danger? They may be torturing him, killing him. They... I'm sorry. You seem pretty upset about things, Mrs. Sir. I'm Philly's Pringle, Bill's wife. Mrs. Pringle. But why are you afraid that someone might be torturing him and maybe killing him? Foreign agents were after him, trying to get him to sell out his country. What do you think happened last night? I don't know. Bill was supposed to be working late, so I went to a movie. When I came back, the house was filled with government men. And Bill was gone. I've been half crazy ever since. You're sure you don't remember anything that might give us a lead, something Bill might have said or let slip? No, nothing. I'm going through some of his things now, those notes and letters on that table. So far, there's nothing. What's this map here, Mrs. Pringle? Map? California. With a town near Monterey circled in red pencil San Merido. Oh, I've been trying to get Bill to take a vacation. Anything to get him away from his worries here. He just decided to go to San Merido next week on a fishing trip. And then last night happened. Well, thanks for your trouble, Mrs. Pringle. If there was only some way that I could help. You've been a lot of help. Thank you. Yes. I happened to know that Bill hated fishing and he wasn't married. Good night, Mrs. Pringle. But if she isn't Bill Pringle's wife, who is she? I'll leave that up to you to find out, Chief. To me? But you're right there, Ken. Look, Chief, if Colonel Blake's right, Bill Pringle or some other country's agents may have the plans for the deciphering machine. Sure, Ken, and those plans are probably on their way out of the country right now. That's why I'm going fishing. Fishing? Yep. At San Merido, California. Song, Chief. You want a private play, Mr. Thurston? Apply to San Merido. That's right. Can you fix me up? Sure, easy. Can't get you all the way into town, but there's a farmer named a Bronson who'll drive you in for a couple of dollars. How come you're so familiar with a little place called San Merido? I wasn't until night before last. Flew two men up there in the charter job. Oh? One of them named Pringle? No, Smith and Jones. Then this morning he got another inquiry about a flight up there. Funny name, I got it right. Yeah, yeah, here it is. Zell Schmidt. Zell Schmidt. Sure, who else? Hello, Mr. Thurston. Hey, Don. What the devil are you doing here in San Francisco? Oh, it's very simple. I'm here because I was a Los Angeles and wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro. So I put in a long distance call to New York. What? Sure, I had to say goodbye to my dearest, my most favorite friend, Mr. Thurston. Hey, Mr. Thurston. You mean you called collector, chiseled some money. And Miss Brooks likes your accent. So you learned what I was going and came up here to wait for me? Well, the answer is no. But I didn't even ask you yet, Mr. Thurston. I'm not giving you any money. But, Mr. Thurston. And you're not coming with me to San Merido. But, Mr. Rex. So long, Pego. But, but... How do you like that? Such ungratitude. Well, it's lucky there is more than one way to skin a purse from McKessie. Hello? This is Pagan Zell Schmidt. I got news for you. He's here. That's right. And I can spilt you plenty. For a slight consideration, of course. Mr. San Merido. Nobody lives here but them Tony fishermen. Portuguese, most of them. That's why I can't figure out why all you fellas wanted to come here all of a sudden. You're talking about the two men you drove last night? Yeah, Smith and Jones, it was. Where did they go, Mr. Brunson? I don't think, but one place to go in San Merido, Mr. Madam called us. Madam called us. Yeah, this here spot right here. Eatin' place, drinkin' place, gamblin' place. And, uh, so much as a fellow with money can buy almost anything he wants in there. Wouldn't know myself, never been in the market with them kind of things. Well, thanks for the ride, Mr. Brunson. Into the tip. Oh, forget it, Mr. Bled, do it. That's your on your own. Okay, mister? I'll go you one better. I'll buy you the first drink. Now, that's a switch. You bein' a sucker or is there a string at hand? There's a string. Okay, shoot. What is it? We have that drink alone in private. Is it a deal? Hey, that's the best offer I've had in ten years. I got a good bottle in my office. Come on. All right, mister, what's on your mind? I've had a tip that a man with enough dope can buy almost anything here, Madam called us. Like what? Like safe transportation out of the country. You don't have to pay for that. Drive down to Tijuana or over to Nagales. You can get across easy. For free. Sometimes it's not that easy. It is if you're not hot. The feds ain't after you. And if they are? That makes it tougher on you than on me. I don't mess around with stuff like that. So let's have that drink, mister, and forget it. Okay, have it your way. I guess Bill Pringle gave me a bum steer. Who'd you say, mister? Bill Pringle, a friend of mine. You wouldn't know him. No, I wouldn't know him. Did you say you were buying this drink, mister? That's fine. Some drinks come kind of high around here. Oh, how high? Maybe $500. Phew. Okay, who do I pay? Name's Captain Braga. Skipper the tuner boat's Santa Isabella. Captain Braga, where do I find him? He's aboard ship now, out in the harbor. I'll have Joe row you out there. Well, here's mud in your eye, mister, and a bond voyage. You keep the Santa Isabella pretty ship-shaped, Captain Braga. No, she's all right. I don't see much of a crew aboard, though. I thought these tuner boats carried quite a few hands. Your interest is nothing fishing, no? You stay in your cabin. Well, I handle these ship. Fair enough. As long as you get me what I want to go. See, here is your cabin. You will go in, please. Sure. I didn't know I was going to have company on this trip. I hope you don't have any objections, Ken. After all, I've come all the way from Alexandria, Virginia, to be with you. Yeah, does your husband know, please? Bill Pringle? I don't think he's in any position to care at the moment. Why not? Did you use that gun on him, too? How can you be so suspicious, darling? I'm only pointing at it you to welcome you aboard properly. Isn't that so, Captain Braga? See, welcome aboard, Mr. X. We'll return to Herbert Marshall as the man called X in just a moment. If you would like to know a quick, easy way to ease the pain of a headache, neuritis, or neuralgia, then by all means try anisin. Your own dentist or physician may, at one time or another, have handed you an envelope containing anisin tablets. Then you already know how incredibly fast and effectively anisin brings relief. Anisin is like a doctor's prescription. That is, anisin contains not just one, but a combination of medically proven active ingredients. For your own sake, try anisin. Anisin is sold to you on this guarantee. If the first few tablets do not give you all the relief you want, as fast as you want it, you may return the unused portion and your money will be refunded. You can get anisin tablets at any drug counter. Anisin comes in handy boxes of 12 and 30 tablets and economical family size bottles of 50 and 100. And now we return to Herbert Marshall as the man called X with Leon Bolasco as Pagan's elchement. Wake up, Mr. Thurston, please wake up. Why do you have to keep on acting dead this way? Wake up, Mr. X. Take it easy, you idiot. Oh, you're not subconscious after all. Not that subconscious, Pagan. Ah, I see Captain Bradwell and the beautiful Felice are gone. We locked in this cabin. Titled in the bum. Yeah, yeah. Looks like we're on our way, Pagan. Hey, how come you don't even act surprised to see me here, Mr. X? Because I saw you make that phone call back in the San Francisco airport. Call? What call was that, Mr. Thurston? The one you made of Felice. By the father of my father, Mr. X, I only told her that... Yeah, where'd you meet with the airport? That's right. Naturally, she went for me. So when she invited me to go on a fishing trip, well, you understand how all these things are. Oh, yes, yes. But there's just one little thing, one tiny thing I don't understand. What's this all about anyways? Pagan, we're on our way out of the country. And we're all after the plans for an electronic recycling machine. You mean we're not going fishing then? I think Felice is going fishing after those plans. And she figures on using us for bait. Huh? And Pagan, you better pray that she likes to fish with live bait. Sure, but what difference does it make? She doesn't like to use live bait. She'll use... Oh, Mr. X! Nice of you to invite me on deck for some air, Felice. You're here to get a briefing, Ken. So you'll know just where you stand. That'll be refreshing. We've dropped anchor off the coast of Lower California, Mexican waters. So? Captain Braga and I are going ashore at nightfall. Nice. If I don't see any town over there, someone expecting you? Smith and Jones, maybe? Or your erstwhile husband, Bill Pringle? I'm going ashore to get the plans for the deciphering machine. If I get them, Captain Braga will return alone. His orders will be to get rid of you and Zell Schmidt. What if we don't get the plans? We'll come back together. And persuade you to tell us just how we can get them. What makes you think I'll cooperate? You might be interested to know that Captain Braga served a long apprenticeship with the Gestapo, questioning prisoners at Buchenwald. I think you'll cooperate, Ken. How can you tell them something you don't know, Mr. X? I can't, Pagon. But as long as they think I can, we're in pretty good shape. Pretty good shape. He says, pretty good. If they get the plans they bump us off. And if they don't get them, they're going to... they're going to... they got us right between the frying pan. Not if we get the plans first. You're doing me that luck, Pagon. Give me a little time, Mr. X. After all, with practiconing and toothpick to be working with, I... Hey, no better, eh? What do we do? Follow Felice and Captain Braga ashore. But who wants to go swimming this time of the night? They're not going to swim, you idiot. There's a dinghy more to the stern rail. Come on. All right, Pagon. Over the side into that boat. Get it, Mr. Thurston? What are we doing here anyways? There's nothing in this wilderness but wilderness. There's going to be something around here, Pagon. Did you look at that jetty we tied up to? Maybe it was just put up there to fool people like us into thinking somebody used it for something. Maybe it was... Mr. X. You know something, Mr. Thurston? I think we should have stood on that boat. Come on. We're going to find out where those came from. But somebody was shooting at somebody with guns even. That's right. But maybe they wouldn't like us to come crashing this way. After all, it could be just a quiet little shooting party between few friends. Yeah, a few friends named Smith and Jones. Huh? Huh. This is where these shots came from. You mean this old tumbling down shack? No tool shed of some kind. Let's go in. Two woods in the old tools. The flashlight will fix that up. You always have to think of everything. Are you satisfied now? There's nothing in... Mr. X. Yeah. Looks like that quiet little shooting party ended in murder. But... but who is he anyways, Mr. Thurston? A man named Jones. Or Smith. Those guys again. And look there. Against that wall. Huh? This ain't no tool house. It's a radio station. Short wave outfit. And a good one. Hmph. Very interesting, yeah. Let's give this to you in a quick sign over there. No hurry, Pagan. I want to learn what this set's doing so far from home. Huh? Take a look at that manufacturer's print. Made in Moscow. But why do we keep hanging around here, Mr. Thurston? You did what you wanted to. You give it with the radio already? We still haven't found old Pringle, all those plans. They're pringles, plans for crazy machines. Sometimes I think, oh, this is a pigment of your imagination. You got it wrong, senor. Mr. Thurston, it's him. And with that cannon again. You were telling Pagan he was wrong about Bill Pringle and those plans, Braga. See, senor, that is so. For proof, I will take you to them now. It would only be justice that after all your trouble, you should see them before you die. We meet once more, Ken. And as usual, you're at the wrong end of Captain Braga's gun. Looks like it, Felice. Well, don't feel too bad about it. I don't need you anymore. And it really doesn't matter if you get it here in this old ranch house or on the tuna boat. That sounds like you've got the plans. You really didn't provide too much competition, Ken. No. Nor did your power back there on the radio shack. You found Andrea then? Well, that was his name, Andrea. I'm glad to know it wasn't really Jones or Smith. By any name, he was a fool, Ken, thinking he could double-cross me. Then the two of you were working on Bill Pringle together, the old gag, I suppose. You made him lose his head over you, then Andrea blackmailed him. What was the pressure, Felice? The threat to turn you over to the government as a spy unless Bill came across with those plans? Roughly, yes. It wasn't too difficult, either. Bill proved quite amenable. So, what went wrong? Bill and Andrea have disappeared two days before the time we'd planned. I figured it was a double-cross so Andrea could get the cash and glory for himself. Then how come it took you so long to start after them? We'd arranged several exit routes from the country. I didn't know which they'd taken until you found that map for me. Nice of me. Now what? You'll join Pegon and Bill down in the wine cellar where we've got them locked up. Then you'll be disposed of together. Before or after you get aboard that submarine. There are times, Ken, when you show positive flashes of genius. How did you know about the submarine? You didn't figure out that tuna boat escape routine just to hibernate here with the plans. That'll be some way to get into the country you're working for. Add that to the jetty, the mooring lines and the radio. That's not too tough to come up with an answer. You've come up with the right one, Ken. It's due in about 15 minutes. Captain Braga will see me safely aboard. Too bad you haven't any answers for what he's going to do with you after he comes back here, isn't it? Sorry, Ken, if I hadn't been so smart and figured I could trap the two of them by myself, you wouldn't be in this fix now. Don't forget I'm in this fix too, Mr. Pringle. And believe me, I'm going to sue you or something. Are you really trying to trap them, Bill? Andrej, yes, police, I don't know. That's why I tried to call you the night Andrej have blackmailed the plans away from me. I thought maybe you could get me straightened out. Only Andrej from that government man got in a gun battle and I caught a slug on the shoulder. And that finished that. Yeah. I don't care about myself now. When I think of the mess I got you into in my country... Now he thinks of that. We're all locked up here in this wine cellar place waiting for the firing squad. We've got to do something, Mr. X. It's a little late, Pagan. Ha-ha. Those than yours. I see you are all here waiting for me. I am so happy I did not disappoint you by failing to return. We wouldn't be disappointed, Captain. Honestly, we wouldn't. Go away and don't come back again. You see, I wouldn't be... at least be disappointed. But, Captain, I'm the man you really want. Let these two go. I am afraid that would be impossible than yours. They know of our communications route between here and your country. I expect my tuner boat to be quite busy in the near future. Nothing can be allowed to interfere with this journey. No. Listen. Javlo, that's him. Help, please. Mr. Rex, help, please. That's right, Pagan. United States Coast Guard planes and probably a squadron of Mexican fliers, too. That is not possible. How could they know about this place? That shortwave radio in the Shackbagger. In case you didn't know, it can be used for other purposes of contacting submarines. So, you call for help and believe they will rescue you? You are mistaken, Senor. By the time they arrive here, you will all be quite dead. Now, if I can help in Bragger, you will only be first, Senor. Not if I can help in Bragger. I'll kick that gun, Bragger. Quiet, Pagan. Gather yourself together and come up behind those wine barrels. Of course, Mr. Rex. Of course. I was only trying to help you, understand? Oh, sure. Hey, what's the matter with Pringle? He doesn't look very good. He's not, Pagan. He took Bragger's shot so I could get a crack at him. Oh, the poor guy. I guess that makes up for a lot of things. Yeah, a lot of things. Too bad he couldn't have stopped that Feliz cookie from getting away in the submarine with those plans that would have made him happier. But the way they see it... Mr. Rex, what's that? A gift bomb, Pagan. Gift bomb? Oh, then she's not getting away after all. No. No, she's not getting away. They don't get away. Our star Herbert Marshall will return in just a moment to tell you about next week's story. Ladies and gentlemen, America's newest car, the fine new Ford for 1951, is now on display at your neighborhood Ford dealers. And when you see it, you'll find that inside and out, in every detail of design and construction, the 1951 Ford reflects true fine car quality. And in addition, it offers 43 look-ahead features, designed to keep the 1951 Ford young in appearance and young in performance. For example, there's Ford's smart luxury lounge interiors with their exclusive color-harmonized Ford craft fabrics. There's the new automatic ride control that automatically adjusts spring reaction to the type of road to give you a level ride and easy ride. And there's the automatic mileage maker that lets you get the last mile out of every gallon of gasoline for utmost economy. Visit your Ford dealers soon and see the 1951 Ford yourself. You will agree, you can pay more, but you can't buy better. Now here again is our star, Mr. Herbert Marshall. Thanks for being with us. Next week, Mr. X goes to Guatemala to fight against one of the most insidious threats to mankind known in the world today. And I don't mean Leon Balasco will be along as usual as Pagan Zelchman. So join us, won't you, when next I return, as the man called X. It's a Saturday night feature of NBC's five-show festival comedy, music, mystery and drama, brought to you by RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television. And by Whitehall Pharmacal Company, makers of Anison, Cardinos, by Soudal, and other fine drug products. And by your local Ford dealer, who is now displaying the new 1951 Ford, the car that's built for the years ahead. Good night. The man called X, starling Herbert Marshall, by Richard Kennedy Production, with music composed and conducted by Felix Mills. Tonight's story was written by Sidney Marshall. All characters and incidents on the program are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual characters or incidents is purely coincidental. Be sure to listen tomorrow evening for the big show with Tallulah Bankhead, Fred Allen, Ed Winn, Lawrence Melchior, Ed Archie Gardner and Jack Carson. And until next week, same time, same station, this is Jack Latham saying good night for the man called X. Oh, and by the way, winterize your driving habits, will you? Drive slow in rain, sleet, or snow. Remember, Ed Winn and Fred Allen join the big show tomorrow on NBC.