 Roma Wines, R-O-M-A. Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California, bring you... Suspense! Tonight, Roma Wines bring you Miss June Havoc in Stand-In, a suspense play produced, edited, and directed for Schenle by William Spear. Suspense, Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills, is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wines. That's R-O-M-A. Roma Wines, those better tasting California wines enjoyed by more Americans than any other wine in the world. And thanks to this tremendous popularity, you can now serve Roma wine more often. Roma prices have been reduced to save you money on every bottle you and your friends enjoy. We'll tell you more about this money-saving opportunity later on. And now, Roma Wines bring you Miss June Havoc in a remarkable tale of... Suspense! She's here! Diana, get W-S-C. Tell him, will you? And Genshin, take on those 40 Western Union boys that were supposed to come out and sing. Here comes the bride. Lady Goods, sir. And everybody take it easy now. Keep calm. What do you want to do? Give her a nervous breakdown? Drive this way, boys! Hello! Damn, it's home again! I was always away with Madame, a grand entrance for her and utter confusion for everybody else. She was rotten and spoiled. But what could you do? On the screen, she looked like an angel. And she was the top box office drawer of the biggest studio in Hollywood. Everybody heard the story by now. Of course, that is the nine-day wonders version that the newspapers carried. But there are only two people in the world who know the real story. And I'm one of them. You see, I was her stand-in. This particular little caper all began just before her latest picture was supposed to go in front of the camera. And she suddenly decided she simply couldn't bear to be making only $10,000 for a whole week's work. And took off with Florida. Nobody heard a word of her for two months except in the newspapers. Little things like she'd married her fifth husband and lost $40,000 in one night at Roulette and bought an old Spanish monastery and was going to bring it back to Hollywood, stone by stone. And then all of a sudden, she was coming back. At very day, with husband and monastery and everything. And everybody had to jump. Loretta and you had been waiting all afternoon and going not so quietly, crazy. Particularly Mike Foss, her publicity agent and me. I was having a whole duplicate set of dresses fitted so we could start the picture the minute she got back. She swept in and I took a look at the new husband. And the minute I saw him, I knew there was going to be trouble because he wasn't taking it well. He wasn't taking it at all well. Madam for the love of Pete, where have you been? WC's been blowing his top all day and the newspaper's going to go... Now, Michael, darling, everything's been taken care of. I sent WC a big box of orchids from the airport. And I brought a few of the newspaper boys along with me. You did! Hello, Polko, darling. I want to talk to you first. I wanted to give you... Oh, by the way, everybody, this is my new husband, Dennis O'Brien. He blew me out. We bought them four-seaters. He's gorgeous. Gorgeous. Such an improvement on Romana. Say hello to the folks, Danny, huh? Say how about a couple of nice pictures of the bride and groom? Oh, darling, I think that's a splendid idea. Come on, Dennis, come on. A little to one side, I think, darling. Leading over perhaps. That's right. Not too far into the picture. Now, where are you saying? There. Now, isn't that about right, boys? Oh, that's fine. I want to be along, madame. Oh, certainly. You can go now, Dennis. I'll join you a little later, darling. Just look around the house. Make yourself at home. Thanks. Hold it, madame. Thank you. Good-bye. Madame, I was wondering about your hair. Are you going to wear it up in the cafeteria? M. Trey Beach. Lawrence and our minus party was bokew. Madame. Madame, I wonder... Diana, darling, I hardly noticed you. How are the new dresses coming? That one you have on looks lovely, dear. You look lovely, too. Well, thanks, madame. I was wondering... Please, will you go? Diana, dear, I shall have to go and have that awful ordeal with W.C. and the Schwartzes will be here. Well, certainly. Good night, madame. You see what I mean? I won't say I didn't hate her because I did. But I was used to it by now. With a living and better than pounding a typewriter or getting mauled in a modeling agency. And I made my way back to the big gloomy house to the study where I left my thing. As I opened the door, I saw her husband, Dennis. He was standing with his back to me in the semi-darkness, looking out the big French windows that lead to the formal garden. He turned his head a little when I came in and then back again, staring out the window. But even from where I stood, I could see that his big shoulders were bunched into knots. I could kill you when you liked that, Maggie. What do you think I am, one of your great dames that you can haul around on a leash and put through Pollard Tray? But I... I'm not listening now, Maggie. I'm telling you. Now, cut it out. Cut it out or so. Help me some night. I'll murder you. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. O'Brien. I didn't mean to... Oh, I thought it was Maggie. So I gather. Excuse me. Oh, that's all right. Forget it. I know you didn't mean it. No. That's where you're wrong, sister. I meant every word of it. I looked at him. Handsome, weak, and violent. And I think I saw it all right then. For one split second of flash of intuition, the future lit up in front of me like a marquee sign. A sign in big red letters that said, Murder. Spence Roma Wines are bringing you June Havoc in stand-in. Roma... I don't have the right face for the screen, but I've got everything else. And Denny knew it. I didn't keep it a secret from him, either. Not that I had to flaunt it at him. He was married to a slightly sagging movie queen at least ten years older than I was. And he was only human. Not that I said anything, either, or a week I hardly spoke to him. First because of a smart. And then being madame stand-in because I was busy. There was all the flurry of getting the picture started, costumes and tests and so on, and finally the Academy Award dinner. Perhaps the less said about that, the better. But for the Olivia DeHadland who got the award, of course, not madame. And she found out about it just before the dinner and threw off winging. But we got her out of there and brought her home before she caused too much damage. And Mike called a doctor and he gave her a sedative. And then Denny and I were alone for the first time. All alone in that big rambling mausoleum of a house. Diane? Yes? I'll come over here, won't you? I'm all right here. Then I'll come over there. I'm not used to these big spaces. But keep a little space, huh, Denny? I'm not used to no space. I know. I've got no business even looking at you. But... But what? For a week now I've been watching you. Thinking about you. I know. Do you? Did you? Well, those things don't usually happen to just one person, Denny. Takes two. I am. Wait a minute, Denny. Why? I have a couple of things we'd better get straight. All right. Denny, you poor, big, beautiful character. Why did you have to marry her? Well, things look a little different sometimes from where you are and they do when you get there. And where were you? I was a lifeguard. Just as simple as that. And you thought this looked even easier for you? It wasn't anyone else and I thought, well, Hollywood, glamour, luxury. I might even get a break myself funny things that happen. Now you know. Yeah. Now I know. But you still want those things that you married her for, don't you? Sure, I suppose so. But I want something else now. Me? Yeah. Sure. You got what you want, but I haven't. And I'm not settling for anything less. I'm not going to be the little girl that you see when you want to and then come back and lie around in your swimming pool. I want a swimming pool too. Maybe there's a way we can have it together. Sure. There is a way. What way are you thinking about? A way that people like us would never want to take. Hmm. I suppose we did. That would be different. Is that a deal? Sure. That's a deal. Casual. The light touch. But it was there just the same. I never spoke about it after that. Things went along and, well, I'm only human too. But there was always that understanding between us. All that time we were just waiting, I guess, for what they call in the crime stories, the opportunities. And then on the last week of the shooting schedule on Madame's new picture, it came. There was only one more take before we knocked off that day, so I was free to go home. But everybody else was jumpy and irritable as usual, particularly Madame. And then I saw Denny walking down the stage. Blame me for holding up the picture. You're the director. I'm not. Are you ready any time you say? Make it ten minutes. Okay, Paul. Let's move in. Put it close up. Oh, hello there, Maggie. Yeah, when are you quitting? Oh, Dennis, how do I know? I'm not the director. I'm merely the star. You know we're supposed to be aboard the yacht by 7.30. There'll be people who will. All right, all right. Let them wait. Yeah, but yesterday you said that you were... Oh, yesterday, yesterday I said one thing. What? I'm your husband, remember? Yes. And I've had about all of that. I can stand too. Now you get out of here. Do you hear me? Get out of here! Hey, Maggie. And you might start looking for a good divorce lawyer. I think you're going to need one. Hello. Oh, hello there. Let's take a little stroll out of the cage, shall we? I could use some fresh air. Come on. We'll duck out the big stage door here. Okay. Well, it doesn't look like I have much longer, does it? Not much. Now or never. Sure, I know what you're talking about again. Let's quit kidding ourselves. You'll know what I'm talking about. If she divorces me, we're finished. You're finished. All right, I'm finished. If we are ever going to do anything, it's got to be now. All right, let's quit kidding ourselves. Are we going to do anything? I would. If I knew how. There's the guard at the gate. Good evening, Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Burt. Hey, Madame, can I please have your autograph? I'm afraid you got the wrong girl, Sunny. I'm not Madame. You can't fool me, Madame. You're shooting that picture caramelina. I haven't seen you in the same dress. Oh, sure, they fixed me up to look like Madame, but I'm not. I'm only your stand-in. Stand-in? Come on, Diane. Wait a minute. Look, Sunny. They got to have somebody standing in there so they can focus everything just right, and that's me. Then when they're ready to shoot the scene, Madame comes out all fresh and pretty in place. Have you seen her? Oh. You sure look like her, though. Well, that's what they pay me for. Diane. What? That's it. That's the how, right there. The what? The how. The kid just told us just now. Don't you get it? Sure. Out of the mouths of babes. How to murder your wife. The whole thing would take about 20 minutes, but it had to be timed and planned for a split second. We planned it for the last day and the last shot of the picture. When everybody lets down and gets sort of half hysterical at the idea that the thing is finally over, a shooting schedule was made for us. The last shot with Madame was on an enormous set of a cathedral interior with a camera pulling back half the length of the stage. The shot was silent. There was no dialogue and no sound. We figured the shot for about 10.30 at night and we were almost right on the nose. They finished the close-ups and the sound men had shoved their mics and things over to one side of the set and the director and the cameraman were lining up for the long shot. You've been ready in about 20 minutes, Madame. Well, I'll be in my dressing room call me if you please. What a relief. What a festive relief. It's almost over. Madame. Yes, my dear. Oh, you won't need me anymore, will you? Dear, run along. Run along and enjoy yourself and thank heaven you're not a star. Thanks. Good night, Madame. Good night, dear. Well, oh well. Dennis. Hello, Maggie. I've been beastly to you lately, Dennis, really. Come along to my dressing room. We'll have a little talk. As I was leaving the stage, Denny was taking her back to her dressing room. It was 10.40 and I knew exactly how he'd look at her and what he'd say and what he'd do. Close the door, Denny. Yes, that's it. Do sit down. Make yourself comfortable. Oh, don't be silly. There's just one more take. You're not going to make it though, Maggie. What do you mean? I mean you're through, Maggie. Through. Dennis, Dennis! Leaving us, Denny? Yeah, I got my orders. She said to call her when you're ready. Okay. Night, Denny. Night. Seven minutes. Seven minutes were gone. Now he'd be passing the guard at the stage door. Good night, Mr. O'Brien. Night. And now he'd be walking down the studio street and turning the corner at the other end of stage one and strolling over to the guard at the main gate. Hello, Mr. O'Brien. Going home now? I wish I knew. You married Matt? I know what you mean. Well, I got my orders and all I can do is carry him out. Our is not the question why, eh? Yeah, that's right. You're waiting for Madame? Yep. She told me to wait until exactly 11 o'clock and if she wasn't out here to go on home, so I got 10 or 15 minutes to kill. You think I ran? Oh, thanks. Don't mind if I do. He'd stay there now. He'd stay there until it was time. It was 10.49. Just five minutes before, I had passed that same guard on the stage door. Good night, Miss Burke. Night. And I had walked down the same studio street at the same guard as the main gate. Well, finally knocking off, eh, Miss Burke? That's right. Good night. Yeah, good night, Miss Burke. Good night. I had walked straight ahead, as though I was going to the bus line. And then, when I was out of sight of the main gate, I ducked up the little side street that runs along the west end of the lot. I kept in the shadows now, watching every move. About 100 feet in the corner, there's another gate. It's usually locked and never used, but they'd been shooting in exterior and they'd taken the gate off the hinges. But every 15 minutes and then round to the corner, he was passing now. I waited in the shadows. Now. Now was the time. I took a quick look around. There was no one in sight. I dashed to the gate and was over the barricade in an instant, running as softly as I could toward the back of stage one. The big door at the back where they moved in the scenery and the flats was open about a foot, we'd seen to that. And I squeezed in and I made my way behind the scenes to Madame's dressing room. I opened the door and closed it behind me. And then I knew for sure that Denny had been there and done his part. She was lying on the floor with the marks of his big hands still on her throat. She was dead. It was 10, 57. I had on the costume with the veil over my face and there was nothing to do but wait. Wait there, shot up in a little room with a dead woman. For them to call her and for me to play her part. I tried not to look at her lying there and finally I waited for the steps to die away. And then I opened the door. As Denny had said it was now or never. I walked out and took my place on the steps. I nodded my head. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the camera on the big boom slowly beginning to pull back. It seemed a million miles away. I began walking down the aisle of the cathedral. There was no sound so I was getting direction all the way. Remember you're overwhelmed with grief. Now you kneel. That's it. Now you clasp your hands together cast your eyes upward. That's it. Perfect. Hold it. A little longer. A little longer. A little longer. Cut. That was all. I had to keep myself from running as I started back to the dressing room. But when I got there I sprinted around the corner and out of the big door. Denny's car was the door. I put the back door open and I slipped into it and lay down on the floor of the back seat. It was eleven o'clock. Well orders is orders. Yes that's right Mr. O'Brien. I could hear his steps coming over the car and then we were starting off. And I could still ride. You back there Diane? Yes. I'm here. Well we made it baby. We made it. We knew they probably wouldn't find it until the next day. Even a director wouldn't stare at the server if he got no answer at the dressing room door and that's what happened. We got the news about mid-morning and of course everybody in the lot was grief stricken. And that afternoon everybody who'd be on the car called into projection room A. That's when we first met Lieutenant Malone. I know you folks all feel bad about this but we might as well lay it on the line. The lady's dead and someone who was on that set is the one who killed her. Now you're the husband aren't you Dennis O'Brien? That's right. Well you know how we work these things. Motive and opportunity. And just offhand Mr. O'Brien you practically got a corner on the motive market. I suppose a half. Oh but Lieutenant a dozen people saw Dennis Mr. O'Brien leave the set before she was killed before she made the last shot and he was out talking to the guard the whole time after that and then he went straight home and he couldn't have done it. Yeah I know it's a good alibi. Awful good. Well how do you know some stranger didn't kill her? He fell asleep in the dressing room after the shot and some prowl. Nah nah nah just doesn't feel right. You got the film of that last shot you made. Yeah here we got it here. Let's see it huh. You're on that last comma lead to take again please. Here we go. What was that? That's me giving directions. It was supposed to be silent shot. Of course that won't be used. There'll be music to cover that. Well let's hear it anyway. Whatever you say. That's all that is to it. Not much there. My lieutenant nobody in the studio would have touched a hair of Madame's head. We all loved her so much. Yeah you better learn a little more about the picture business before you start throwing wild accusations around. I think you got something there Mike. Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll just do that little thing. A month went by. Of course Denny and I didn't dare see much of each other but things were going along. I'd even had a couple of small parts on the strength of all the publicity about Madame. Somebody discovered that maybe I did have the right face for the screen. And then one day we got a call to go to projection room A and there was Lieutenant Malone again. Ah just make yourselves comfortable folks. I got something to show you. I hope it's more than you had the last time. Yeah Mike yeah I've been learning the picture business like you said. I learned a lot too. All about silent shots and sound shots and wild track and dubbing and stand-ins. You were Madame stand-in weren't you Miss Burke? Yes I was. You look quite a lot like her too. Well a little like I suppose. Oh you'd fool me all right if your back was turned. Well I've been fooling around down in the cutting rooms. I never realized before how much stuff got thrown away. I made a little collection of it. I want to show it to you. There we go. That is a wild soundtrack. You make that separate and mix it in after you've made your film right? You can make sound without pictures just the same as you can make pictures without sound right? Now that day you folks were making that last shot of Carmelita. The sound engineers were sort of slap happy. It being the last day and all. And so they just pushed their microphones out of the way. But they forgot to turn off the sound. And they pushed that mic right up against Madame's dressing room. Before the last shot. And the cameraman was running some test film. And here's what he got. I found this in a cutting room trash bin. Oh don't be silly there's just one more take. You're not going to make it though Maggie. What do you mean? I mean you're through Maggie. I'm through. I guess that's it. Huh? Mr. O'Brien? Miss Burke? Yes. Yes I guess that's it. I haven't seen Denny since the trial. I wonder if I'll see him afterwards. If what the preachers say is right I suppose I will. And of course Madame will be down there too. I can't think of any worse punishment than being her stand-in through all eternity. So I suppose that's what I'll get. Presented by Roma Wines, R-O-M-A, Roma, America's favorite wines. In a moment we'll hear again from June Havoc, star of tonight's suspense play. Meanwhile this is Truman Bradley with a suggestion that you try Roma Wines and discover for yourself the important difference, the extra taste luxury that makes Roma America's most preferred wine. You'll find that Roma Wines taste better because Roma alone selects from the world's greatest reserves of fine wines. You will also find that you now pay less for Roma's premium quality that you actually save up to 20% on these better tasting wines. Tomorrow, buy a supply of Roma California Sherry, that perfect appetizer before dinner, that gracious gesture when friends drop in. This is June Havoc. Suspense is one of my favorite problems and I got a real thrill appearing on it tonight. I'm going to be listening to next week's suspense show when Elliot Reed will be the star. Thanks a lot and good night. June Havoc will soon be seen opposite George Raft in the United Artists' production, Intrigue. Tonight's suspense play was by Robert Richards and Pamela Wilcox. Next Thursday, same time, you will hear Mr. Elliot Reed as star of Suspense. Produced by Williams Pier for the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California.