 Now, Roma Wine presents the man who couldn't lose starring King Kelly. Suspense is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wine. That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wine. Those excellent California wines that can add so much pleasantness to the way you live. To your happiness and entertaining guests. To your enjoyment of everyday meals. Yes, right now, a glassful would be very pleasant as Roma Wine bring you suspense. This is The Man in Black. Tonight from Hollywood, we bring you a star, Mr. Jean Kelly. In a suspense play by Emile C. Tepperman called The Man Who Couldn't Lose. It is a tale of dawn till midnight in a man's life. A tale of murder and money and luck. Such luck as peruse a man once in a hundred years. But first here is a message from your host, the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California. Roma Wine, made in California, are of such uniformly superb quality that they are imported by many foreign countries as the choice of true connoisseurs of fine wines. 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And now with the men who couldn't lose and with the performance of Jean Kelly as Leonard Snell, the lucky New Yorker. We again hope to keep you in touch with him. You feeling all right now? Sure. Sure, I feel swell. You'd better not talk anymore though. Oh, why not? I got nothing to worry about. That's what I'm telling you. Something's happened to me. I'm not scared. Just like old man Marphy said, it doesn't happen often, but when it does, well, it's happened to me. Something's happened to me that doesn't happen once in a hundred years. And it all happened in one day. Yeah, it began this morning. Leonard, don't try to kid me. You're not asleep. Get up. Sure, sure, sure. Okay. I cook your breakfast. I come home and cook your dinner. In between, I work behind that counter all day until I'm so tired I can't hardly stand up. The least you can do is get up and drive me to work. Sure, I will. And what do you do? Nothing. Now, listen. You don't call what you do work, I hope. When did you last sell an insurance policy? When? I bet you can't even remember. I'm sure I can. All right, all right. And when you do get up enough energy to sell one once in a while, I never see the money. Horses, sweet state tickets, and numbers, anything. Just so long as you can gamble it away. But do you ever bring a dollar home? Not that I ever hear of you. Ah, shut up. Don't you tell me to shut up Leonard Smels. I pay the rent when it gets paid. I pay the grocery bills. I pay for everything. You think at least I'd get a little appreciation once in a while. I appreciate it. I hear about it enough. Well, why don't you do something about it then? Listen, Celia, I don't feel so good today. Sure. That's what you said yesterday and the day before. That's what you always say every time anybody talks about work. Well, I'm sick and tired of it. You promised you were going to get a job this week and you're going to do it. Celia, there's something I got to tell you. Oh, I suppose you want to weed with some money out of me again. Well, if you can't even keep a little lunch money in your pocket. No, Celia. Listen, it's more than that. Oh, it is, isn't it? I suppose you got another hot tip on the races. Well, if you think I'm going to... Will you shut up? Well, I'm not... Listen, Celia, I've sold quite a few insurance policies in the last six months. Oh, you have, have you? Well, where's the money? Oh, don't pull that on me. You're going to get a job. All right. I spent the money. On the races. Yeah, and it wasn't all my money. What do you mean? I mean, I'm $1,800 short and this is the last day to settle up my accounts for the company. You stole it. Oh, I thought I was going to get it back and make it killing. I had some tips that were supposed to be sure things. I get it. $1,800. Quite a coincidence, isn't it? Well, $1,700. What's the difference? And it just so happens that I have $1,800 in a safe deposit box that Aunt May left me this spring. Quite a coincidence. Celia, I've got to get that money back to them today. Well, I don't believe a word of it. And you're not going to get that money. If I don't, they can send me to jail. And if I did believe you, you wouldn't get it. Maybe a few months in jail would teach you a little consideration. You know I got to have an operation sometime this fall. You think I want to go into a charity ward? Celia, that's been giving me five years. You've had your eye on that money ever since you heard I got it. But you're not going to get it. Why do you think I wear the key to that safe deposit box around my neck? Celia. I suppose you think I have a notice. Celia, Celia. I suppose you think I don't know all those times you tried to get that chain off my neck when you thought I was asleep. Well, I wasn't quite as sleepy as you thought, Mr. All right, Celia. And don't think you can wheel it out of me. All right, Celia. Ben, bring it away for me. I bent over. She was dead all right. The key was on the little chain around her neck just like it had always been. I anchored the chain and it snapped and the key came away in my hand. I shaved and got dressed and then I went to a purse. It was $9 and some change in the usual junk and that Irish Sweet State ticket made out in the name of I'm a winner. I put the money in my pocket and the ticket in my wallet. I was all set to go now except for writing the letter. All of a sudden I realized that what I was doing didn't seem strange to me at all. It was like one of those dreams where you think it all happened before some time. I wrote through the police. I have killed my wife in the fit of anger. I can't go on living anymore after doing a thing like that to Celia. I'm short in my account, too, so there's only one thing for me to do. Don't bother looking for me. By the time you get this letter, you can find me in the city more. Yours truly. I need to smell. Oh, good morning, Mr. Marsley. I just had some great news. I knew you'd want to hear about it right away. Well, I'm in sort of a hurry to smell. All right, all right, where do you hear this? You know that citric acid dye formula I've been working on? The government has just bought an option on us. They're going to try it out under factory conditions. When they do, my boy, it'll be worth a million dollars. What do you know? That's really great. I have decided to take out that annuity you've been trying to sell me. Is that an application with you? Oh, oh, yeah. Come on in, sir. Good morning. Oh, my land. You look as though you've just seen a ghost or something. Just hold a policy. You don't sell them like that every day, do you, my boy? What's that first premium? About $3,400, isn't it? Yeah. Well, there's a nice commission in that, eh? Well, that's about $1,800, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. 18. Well, Leonard certainly deserves it. He works very hard. I see him coming home every evening with that grease case and all those papers under his eyes. Most of those papers are the racing forms, aren't they, Leonard? Well, I... Now, my boy. Watch out for those bottles. Pick the gas. You know, I've been watching you, Leonard. You've had a hard time, but you're a gambler. You believe a lot in luck. Now, I've got a theory about luck. Yeah. Now, when were you born? Oh, March 1st, 1878. Yes, sir, luck is something that can come in big doses sometimes. Almost as though fate had planted out ahead of time. Uh-huh. Who's the beneficiary? Oh, my wife, of course. It's a perfectly good mathematical explanation for it. Of course, a number of unrelated events converge, and they all add up to the good fortune of a single man. Happens once in a century, perhaps, but it does happen. Uh-huh. You can make a check out the... Oh, well, of course. Why don't I make it out to you personally? Then I can collect that three-month wrench you owe me, huh? Well, for sure. I'm sure that'll be $3,255. Oh, fine, fine. I'll make it right out. You know, Leonard, I was saying to Sam just this morning, I'm almost as glad for your sake as for I. My would see you be surprised. I said, would see you be surprised. Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah. Hey, where is senior? She usually used to work along before this. Now, I was here, huh? Well, I see... Oh, Leonard, don't tell me there's anything wrong. I know she hasn't been feeling well lately. Oh, no, no. She's got a little headache, you know. Oh, poor thing. Why didn't you tell me? I'll go right up there. Oh, no, no. No, you better not. She told me she wanted to sleep. She's asleep now. Oh, well, then I will bother her. Well, my boy, you should check. Right. Now, don't play that on the racism. Don't worry. But you keep playing your luck just the same. Luck is a funny thing. You've had a lucky start today. Maybe your luck has changed. Yeah. Yeah, maybe it has. Why couldn't you sign it yesterday? That's all I could think of for a couple of minutes. Why couldn't you sign it yesterday? That was done now. Oh, I got in a car and drove downtown. First, I went to Celia's bank and got that $1,800 of the deposit box. Nobody said a word. Then I went to Marthory's bank and cashed his check. I had over $5,000 now. I drove over towards the park. A clock in the jewelry store said $10,000, $15,000. That was plenty of time. The park I stopped and gave them once over to the bomb sitting around on the benches in the sun. There's always a bunch of them there. Pretty soon I see a guy that looks about right. Hey, hey you. Me? Yeah, you want to make five bucks? You mean a job? Oh, you won't have to strain yourself. I just hurt my wrist. I can't drive. I've got to go uptown to meet a guy. You want to drive me? Oh. Okay. You got a license? Yeah. Yeah, I got a license. Let's see it. Okay. There. Hmm. Floyd Eustace. Omaha, Nebraska. You're kind of a long way from home, aren't you? Yeah. It's okay to drive within this state if you've got a license driver with you. Okay, Floyd Eustace. You'll do. We get in the car and head uptown. My luck is holding all right. This guy couldn't have been better if I'd looked a week. I see another clock. It's only a little past 10.30 now. I've still got lots of time, so I decided to clean up the details now. How am I doing? Okay, but turn right at the next block, Floyd. I want to go by the 43rd Street Post Office and mail a letter. Sure. You could mail her a letterbox, though. Yeah, but, well, I don't want to mail a letterbox. Oh, okay. I go into the Post Office and get a stamp and mail a letter. The letter I tell her about killing the chief is just addressed to the police commissioner, 21 Center Street. Somehow I just don't trust the letterbox because if the police don't get that letter right on time and start looking, it's not so good. I go out and get in the car and tell Floyd Eustace where to go. We head uptown, and after a while we get to Fort Hyatt Park right up on the street. We try and park right up above Riverside Drive looking over the river. It's hardly ever anybody up there this time of year, so I feel pretty safe. Sure enough, there wasn't. I got the monkey wrench out, and I had it in my hand. This right? Yeah. Just pull over there up against the rail. Gee, I never been up here. Must be quite a drop down there. A couple of hundred feet, huh? Uh-huh. Is this where you're supposed to meet the guy? Yeah. Yeah. I dragged him into the back seat and took off all his clothes, and then all mine. I changed clothes with a mic down to the underwear and socks. I put all my papers in his pocket. My license, old man Marfrey's application, my wallet, the words. Then I dragged him up front again behind the wheel. Then there was something else I had to do that I didn't like much either, but I couldn't take any chances. I held his head back against the seat and raised the monkey wrench again. I hit him in the face. I hit him a lot. Stand back now. Stand back. I tell you, officer, it didn't land more than three feet from me. Not more than three feet. What happened? This car just rolled off the palisades up there. Somehow it landed smack in the middle of the street. Gee, look at his face. He must have gone right through the windshield. Poor fella. Guy named Snow. Leonard Snow. I was free. I was free of stealing you and all that belly aching. I was free to do anything I wanted. I had five grand in my pocket, and the cop had Leonard Snow's body down in the morgue just like I told him they wouldn't have let her. Oh, my luck was holding but good. I went over to the 181st Street bus station with the bus leaving for Boston in 20 minutes. I bought a ticket. Then I got a paper in the corner and went into the cafeteria there and sat down at the counter. I was pretty hungry. What's yours? Scramble eggs with bacon, French fries, orange juice and coffee. And I got to catch a bus. It won't take long. No longer than it takes an egg to scramble. Excuse me. Well, that's all right, Mike. I like to read a newspaper while I eat myself. Kind of aids the digestion, I find. Yeah. Here's your orange juice. Thanks. Some guys have all the luck, don't they? I said some guys have all the luck. I was just noticing in your paper there about those Irish sweets. Take one of these. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah, something. What's the matter? Do you feel bad? Have all of luck? When I came to, somebody was swabbing my head with water. I paid my check and got out of there somehow and looked at the paper again. That's what I said, all right. I'm a winner draw favorite in Irish sweets. My ticket. And I went on to say how it was worth at least 40,000 and maybe 150,000 for horse one. And all of a sudden I was standing there cursing and swearing at Celia right out loud just as though she was alive. So I saw people were staring at me and I stopped. Hadn't it been for her, I'd have 40,000 dollars. 40,000 dollars. No, now that's 40,000. It's just a one-way ticket with a hop seat. Because that 40,000 belonged to Leonard Snell and that Irish sweet ticket was in Leonard Snell's wallet. And Leonard Snell's wallet was in the pocket of that bum that was supposed to be these. Now the cops would have it along with the rest of Leonard Snell stuffed down at headquarters after they put the body in the ward. Well, I still had my five grand and a bus ticket to Boston. You can't get all the breaks all the time with what I figured then. So I got in the bus. I have plenty of seats in my hair. This seat taken? No, not at all. Sit right down. Thanks. Well, well, somebody must be feeling pretty good this afternoon. Huh? You gotta check that there. I'm a winner. That's ticket and a sweet. I see it says there they're paying 40,000 dollars for it right now. 40,000 dollars. Yeah. I sure like to see in history. Wouldn't you? Yeah. And I see it says there. Do you want to read it? Well, you don't need to just do it. Just give it. Holy. One more. I gotta get out of here. Make up your mind. I don't have to make up my mind, brother. It was right then that I got the idea what was happening. It was just like old man Marth Lee said. It may only happen once in a hundred years, but it was happening to me. Oh, my luck was riding high. And when your luck is like that, you just can't lose it. Because there it was. Right in the paper again on page three. Freak explosion in Brooklyn kills three. And it was my house. And the people killed were Marth Lee and his wife and Celia. They thought it was caused by old Marth Lee's chemicals or something. I didn't know. I didn't care. All I knew was they thought Celia had been killed by the explosion in the fire. And I was in the clear. I was walking to the police station, get my sweet steak ticket, collect that forty thousand, be set for life. Oh, I knew just what I was going to tell them. It was a lead car stage. I was walking on air all the way to the police station. I was going up the steps. Then I stopped. Because I just remembered something terrible. And if I remembered a ten seconds later, I'd have walked right into the electric chair. I remembered the letter. I was led. My morning across it had that letter. Telling how I killed Celia. That letter that I'd taken all the trouble of mail at the forty-third street post office, so I'd be sure to get off all right. Well, even worse this time I had before, because it seemed like I'd almost had that money right in my hand. I was pretty shaken. I went into a bar to get a drink. Double rye. All right, sir. I could have a chance around the side, huh? No. That'll be it. Just leave the bar there. I couldn't lose. I simply couldn't lose. Because those mugs that stuck up that nail-tuck had got my letter. Nothing in the world could stop me now. Officer. Officer, I've just been held up. Held up, huh? Yeah. Well, what happened? Well, I picked up a guy who asked me for a lift about 225th Street and Broadway. I was driving along by Van Cortland Parkway. Suddenly grabbed me. Then he hit me with something. I saw how I remember until I woke up lying in the park. My car was gone. I found how to take my wallet. I will everything. I see. What's your name? Leonard Snell. Leonard Snell. Yeah, that's right. Hey, Lieutenant. Yes? The gentleman is Mr. Leonard Snell. He was held up this morning and his car was stolen. Sit in here, will you, Mr. Snell? Why? Sure. I... Is that news for you, Mr. Snell? Did you find my car? Oh, yes. I haven't seen the papers today. Not just this morning. I... I've got some good news and some bad news for you, Mr. Snell. Maybe I'd better tell you the bad news first. Pretty bad. Go ahead. Your wife was killed this morning, Mr. Snell, and a fire at your home. My wife? Killed? This probably won't interest you much under the circumstances, Mr. Snell, but you've drawn a ticket worth $40,000 in the Irish Quick Steak. Quick Steak and then lose your wife the same day. Some people sure have all had luck in the world. Luck? Well, then about 15 minutes more things were happening to me that can happen to most guys in a dozen lifetimes. And then comes a jackpot I've been waiting for. Yeah, I wish you would hold that. Well, hold it, Mr. Snell. Hold that for us right there. I've got one more thing to tell you. If you care to make a statement, Mr. Snell, would you mind telling the public how you feel? I know it's pretty tough, but you can just make a statement. Please, follow, please. I'm here to cover you with this time, Mr. Snell, but, see, the banking that I represent is prepared to offer you $40,000 in cash for your Quick Steak ticket. I have the money right here in cash. All right, but I don't care much about the money now. $430. By six, I have $45,000 in my pocket in cash. And I'm registered at the Waldorf and sitting down to send it. I'll take the Plank Steak, please. Please, meet him. Yes, sir. I'll have your order very soon. Why don't I sit down? Oh, oh, you a reporter? Not exactly. I'm proud of a collector. You owe me $40,000, pal, and I come to collect now. $40,000? Why, I don't know. Yes, you do, pal. Remember that little letter you wrote to the police commissioner this morning that you mailed it to 43rd Street Post Office? Remember that? Some friends of mine found it. They figure it's worth just about $40,000. Who one of the guys that suck at that milk? You want to make something of it? There's a big reward. There's a comp right outside the hotel. Kind of figured you'd play ball. Where's the letter? My friend's got it right outside my car. You still got that bill in your cash? Like the paper said? Yeah. Come on. All right. Dang, you're a pretty lucky guy, pal. You owe somebody else you got that letter. Don't worry, pal. You'll see what it's made with me. Here, here's the card. Hi, Franky. Yeah, and he's acting real reasonable, too. Get up the cash, pal. You recognize the letter, don't you? Yeah, here's your money. Then here's your letter. Only don't try anything funny because we still know what that letter says. And the cops could always dig up the body and find out how, well, how you're already really picked off. Goodness. All right, thank you. Guess the idea. So long, pal. Officer! Officer! Those are the gasses. Howdy! Come on, get down! I thought we were talking about gasses! Officer! Guys, there's something. You? I'll stand by this man here. Okay. What's up, Jerry? We just had a little shoot-mic with those male robbers. The other boys got him down the street, but this poor man was shot when they fired back. Hey, what's this letter here in the street? The rest of the police commission. But no other shot had it in the hand before he fell. You better open it. It might be evidence. All right. No, no. What? No. Leonard Snell again. Better put a guard on Snell at the hospital, Jerry. Well, look for this letter. He's gonna stand trial for murder. You better not talk anymore, Mr. Snell. What's the difference? What's the difference how much I talk? That's what I wanted to tell him. I'll take this letter. I'll never go to trial. Because I got luck. Don't you see? It comes once in a hundred years and I got it. I got that kind of luck. And when you got that kind of luck, you can't lose. You can't lose. Ah, you can't lose. Yeah, I got a guard. That fellow Snell as long as he's here in the hospital. But did you ever see them like that? I don't suppose one man ever had so much luck in one day in the whole wide world. Ah, well, I guess his luck has played out now, all right, though. It's funny. He said you can't lose. Well, he's long there. Look at that letter. He's gonna fry. Except be sure that my name is Jerry Malone. No, you're wrong, Jerry. His luck is still good. What? He's dead. And so closes the man who couldn't lose starring Jean Kelly. Tonight's study in Suspense. Suspense is produced and directed by William Spears. Have you discovered, as so many thousands of Americans have, how much Roma wines add to the enjoyment of your meals, how their superb taste makes special occasions feast out of everyday meals. Find out for yourself what a Marvel worker Roma wine can be in giving any meal new compliment rousing zest. Start off the meal with an appetizer, Roma California sherry, then place on the table a cool bottle of Roma California burgundy. You'll be amazed at the tremendous difference Roma wine makes in the enjoyment of your food. Don't overlook this easy way to add extra enjoyment to everyday living at a cost of only pennies a glass. Take a tip from the millions who enjoy Roma wine at meals when entertaining. Ask for R-O-M-A, Roma wines. Remember, more Americans enjoy Roma than any other wines. Jean Kelly appeared through the courtesy of Metro Golden Mayor, producers of the Technicolor production Kismet. Next Thursday, same time, you will hear Mr. John Hodiak as Star of the Ten. Presented by Roma wine, R-O-M-A, made in California for enjoyment throughout the world. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.