 Family Theater presents Eleanor Powell and Paul Piccierni. From Hollywood, the Mutual Network in Cooperation with Family Theater presents Gambler's End starring Paul Piccierni. And now here is your hostess, Eleanor Powell. Thank you, Tony LaFranco. Family Theater's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we are to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families and peace for the world. Family Theater urges you to pray, pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama Gambler's End starring Paul Piccierni as woods. Come in, come in. I'd like to talk to you a minute, Colonel, if I may. I think so? Sit down. Thank you, sir. It's, uh, not a complaint, I hope. Oh, no, sir. You're in a fine hospital. The hand-bothering you? Oh, no more than usual, sir. A few ghost pains. At least that's what Dr... I mean, Major Corey calls them. I lost the end of my thumb and some of my wrist action. Not much else. End of your thumb. Oh, yes, yes. Dr. Corey told me you might come to see me. Your name is, uh, Bob Woods. Are you a corporal? Yes, sir. Well, what's on your mind, corporal? It's about one of the men you're treating, sir, Wendell Lambert. Oh, yes. Not in very good shape. But he'll be out of here in another six months. Buddy of yours? Uh, no, sir. No? As a matter of fact, sir, I guess you could say he's my worst enemy. Then what exactly did you want to see me about? Well, sir, I'm being discharged from the hospital today and, uh, I wanted to find out how he was doing and I wanted to ask your advice. About what? Well, I suppose you'd call it ethics, sir. What do you want to know? Have you got a few minutes? Well, I think so, yes. Then maybe I'd better tell you the whole story. It'll be between us, sir. I don't want to confess another man's sins. If you want it that way. Well, sir, it started just after the outbreak of the Korean War. I was a civilian then and I made my living as a, as a gambler. Oh, not in Reno or Vegas or any one of those places where it's legal. So I guess you could say I made my living just outside the law. The biggest money I ever made in either cars or dice was the night before I was supposed to report for induction. And I want to see it. Would you bet? Yeah. I got 20 says you don't make it. You're covered. Hey, listen, I'll take some of that. Here's 10. 10 that says you wind up nowhere. 10. At least you're smarter than woods. Here we go. Come on, a seven. Oh, no. 11. Thank you, boys. Wait a minute, honey. You call me? Yeah, yeah. Give me a pack of cigarettes out in the car. Out of the car? Here, smoke mine. No, I'd like my own brand. Well, come on, honey. Okay, okay. I'll make it snappy. All right, all right. Money in the line. Let me see some green. I'll bet 10. You're running too hot. I'll give you five more, I saw. Oh man, this sounds like a kid's game. Come on, roll. Sure thing. Read them and wait. Come on, seven. Four. Easy point. Easy point. Double sauce says you're wrong. And you would? I'll stay. Come on, boys. Come on. Make it a double and stay out of trouble. That's enough for me. Yes, your funeral. Read them and wait. That's better. Six, sir. I thought four was your easy point. Yeah. Come on, little Joe. Four. This is my lucky day. Man, sometimes it just doesn't... Sometimes it watt, little man. Nothing, Grubbin. Nothing. Nothing. What he means is sometimes it doesn't look like luck. Luck, Sharpie? You mean you think there might be something a little not so honest about this game? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Nobody else is complaining. Just you. Oh, come on, Grubba, you... Amber, you weren't complaining, were you? What? You got no gripe. No, me? Oh, no, Grubber. I got no gripe. Of course not. See, Sharpie? Only one man here chipping his teeth. And that's you. I don't like your dice, Grubba. Don't make me lose patience with you, woods. The way it looks to me, you're just beginning to run a little low on luck. Well, that's not the way it looks to me, Grubber. Man, you're as much as saying I'm a cheat. That's right. And I'm not the first guy to say it either. But you could be the last. No, you don't scare me, Grubber. In fact, for two cents, I'd treat you... Bob! Now, just a minute, honey. You'd better take your smoke and cool off, little woods, before you buy yourself some trouble. Bob, please. Listen, you... Bob, don't start nothing, huh? But this guy's asking... No, buts, you start something and somebody's got to get hurt. You know that, now, why don't you go have a smoke, huh? Or get some air, huh? Well, I... And besides, look, it'll just break up the game. We'd never have a chance to get even. Yeah, he's right about that. Come on, honey. What do you say, huh? Go on, take 10, huh? All right. Maybe it's a good idea. Well, sure, it's a good idea. We'll save you a place, tough guy. Always got room for a pigeon, huh, boys? Let's see who's going to be a pigeon. Go on out, Annie. Bob... Oh, Bob, sometimes I think you're out of your mind. Oh, you do, huh? Sometimes I think I'm out of mine. Why do I stick to you? You're always sitting on the edge of trouble. Maybe it's because it's your job. Look, Annie, you knew what I was when you married me. Yes, I did. But, Bob, don't you know Grubber Lambert? I think no more killing you than he would... Oh, Annie, that guy's only a two-bit punk. Yeah, that two-bit punk can kill you just as dead as the atom bomb. He won't. I promise you, nobody's going to get hurt. Now, look, did you get the dice from me out of the car? Bob, don't. Don't do it. If you break out in the... Annie, I've got to. I have to make a killing tonight. I figured to do it to betting the odds, but Lambert's worked his own dice into the game, so I'll have to do the same thing only better. Well, you stop worrying about it. I know what I'm doing. Do you? Do you know what you're doing? Annie, I've been a gambler all my life. I've been dealing with guys like Lambert for years. Now, I'll be all right. Give me the dice. Here. I wish you'd get yourself some honest work. Six, eight, five, nine, and pass. That ought to do it. Can I take these back to the car? They don't match Lambert's dice. Bob, if you could just only get a job. Like pumping gas or selling something. Anything legitimate. Annie, would you call soldiering legitimate? Soldiering? Yeah. I didn't want to tell you till well, till I had to because, well, I guess I didn't want you to worry. I got my draft noticed. I'll leave tomorrow. You're leaving tomorrow? That's why I've got to make a killing tonight. So I can leave you with some money. Good morning, Bob. Honey, look, we've both been sweating this out for a long time. You know it was just a matter of time till I got called. I'm one A and somebody started a war. You heard of it, Korea. What about me? Well, I put a call into your folks. My folks? You call my folks? I know they haven't got much use for me, but they have for you. They want you to visit them and I figured you could go up to LA until I know where I'll be stationed and I'll send for you. What makes you think you'll get stationed in the States? 10% of the guys who get called see combat. Don't worry about me. I'll work an angle. Why didn't you tell me? Annie, it wouldn't have done anybody any good. You'd only have worried. But I'm your wife. I have a right to know things like that. Bob, don't you think I have? Look, some things people are happier not knowing. You've been happy these last three weeks, haven't you? Yes, I suppose so. Would you have been happy knowing I was going away? Maybe not, but Bob... Look, honey, we'll talk about it later. I'll take you out and I'll buy you a nice big steak, okay? Bob, this is our last night together for a while, isn't it? I'm afraid so. Don't go back in there. Annie, Grubber Lambert's got half my bankroll and you say don't go back in there. But if anything should happen... Nothing's gonna happen, didn't I promise you that? And besides, I can't go off and leave you without any money. What can you hope to do? Take Grubber's money away from him. The same way he took mine. Now, honey, don't worry about it. I'll be all right. It was the way it sounded. I've been figuring the deal from the day I got my notice. I picked my pigeon, set up the game, and I'd known from the start that if I was going to make any of the long green off Grubber Lambert, I'd have to break out, introduce my own dice into the game. But I didn't tell Ann that. Actually, I guess you could call it just a case of a small-time punk trying to clean out a big-time punk. And a small-timer was me. Lambert proved it about an hour after the game broke up. I just don't feel right about it. I can't help it. I can't. Annie, look at it this way. How does Grubber make his living? Well, from what you say, he's a racketeer of some kind, but still... That's right. So who better deserves to be trimmed of his cash than Grubber? No good, Bob, and you know it. You'll... you'll... you call it rationalizing. All right, then look at it another way. Who started to cheat first? He did. Well, didn't I have to do the same then to protect myself? Look, Annie Grubber just changed the simple dice game from a game of chance to a game of skill. Let's just say I'm a little more skillful than he is, that's all. $9,000. He ever finds out? If he does, if he does, we'll cover there, too. That's why I stage the game tonight. Tomorrow, you'll be in LA, and I'll be on my way to Fort Ord or Roberts or Bispo or somewhere like that. And we need to get out. Are we always going to have that in the back of our minds? A man like that just doesn't forget $9,000. Who does? Come on now, honey. Forget it. Eat your steak. Come on. What did we do then? What did we do then? Well, I was going to save it for a surprise. Surprise? Annie, we're not coming back to this town. We're going to move somewhere else. Honey, I made up my mind. I'm going to get a job. Job? Oh, now, Bobby, you're not just saying that. Why not? It's what you want, isn't it? Anything would be better than gambling. Selling cars, maybe, or just about anything. It'll be something good, honey. I'll have my GI bill. Maybe I'll even learn a profession. Would you like that? You mean what you're saying? Hello, Sharpie. Grover. Took a lot of looking, but I found you. I, uh, I found something of yours after the game broke up. Some, uh, something mine? Yeah. Recognize these? Dice. Found them in a package of cigarettes. Well, they're not, they're not mine. Cigarettes were your brand, and I figured these would belong to the winner. Nice dice. And not anything crude like, uh, mercury drops or shot spots. These are nice, educated edges. Oh, in case you don't understand what that means, Mrs. Woods, feel the edges of the dice. Some are sharp, some just a little bit rounded. This pair almost always comes up six. But then I guess being married to this guy, uh, you'd know all about things like this. I tell you, they're not marine. Then I must be mistaken, huh? Got a cigarette? Sure, I got a cigarette. I, I had them writing to you and stopped filling your pockets. This is your pack. The one I found at Dyson. I want my nine G's, you two-bit punk and me. You started it first. Even I saw your breakout. Bob called you on it. Maybe so, lady, but I'm not quite as good at it as Sharpie here. But there's one difference. Anybody who tries to make a fool out of me can get himself dead. Now, punk, the money. I, I haven't got it with me. Don't give me that, Buster. I haven't, really. I put it in a safe. You know, until the bank's open in the morning. A safe? Yeah, yeah. Pawn shop at 12th of May. I got half a mind to shake you down right here. Oh, it searched me. Maybe I will. Come on, you two, on your feet. Oh, now, wait a minute. I'm not pulling. You better tell your wife that, Sharpie, on your feet. Now, wait a minute, brother. Why don't you leave her out of this? You and I'll go to that pawn shop first thing in the morning. You, you can, you can pick me up in my place. You'd like that, wouldn't you? Give you time to run with the money. Well, I'll tell you something. Even if you did, I'd find you. I'd find you if it cost me nine grand more and took five years. But I think I'll do it the easy way. First, we'll shake you down, then maybe you and I'll go to that pawn shop. All three of us. And afterward? What afterward? Oh, none. Not just a minute, grubber. Put some money on the table. Enough to cover the bill for your celebration. That's right. Now, we're all going out through that front door. What are we going to do? I don't know. Maybe I could distract him and you could make a run for it. No. That's enough talking, too. Okay, move over toward the alley. What about after? Never mind about after. But grubber, she didn't have anything to do with this. All right. That's far enough. Now, you first, Sharpie. That'd be your pockets. Right there and on top of that garbage can. I got you comb, keys, my wallet, change, and this. Hey, what's that? That's my knife. This is for you, grubber. That got him. He's dead. I don't know. I hit him as hard as I could. Let's see. Now, he'll be all right. Are you sure? I'm sure. Come on, honey. Help me pick up this stuff. We've got to get out of here. Well, they sent me to Fort Ord where I took my basic training and then I put in for clerk typist school. They sent me there to learn how to handle army paperwork. I thought I had it made, but then things started going a little too hard and heavy in Korea and I got shipped. At first, I guess I thought it was all a mistake. And maybe they sent me down to a typewriter in Japan. So I told them in Japan, I'm a clerk typist and I told them in Seoul. In fact, I told them all the way to Namsun where the fighting was. And that was about the last time I even had time to think about clerking or typing. And one day after I'd been there a couple of months, my author tried to take a hill. The going was too tough, so we pulled back and called for the big stuff to soften things up for us. A special job. How was it? Listen, I got a little special job for you. Hey, Bowen? Over here. What's up? We moving out again? Yeah, you two are. Us two? Yeah. What are you talking about? With all that stuff coming down? Last time up that hill, we got hurt. Now, this time I want to know what to expect. Well, you're sending a patrol? You two is it. Now, you don't have far to go, just a couple hundred yards. Won't you see if you can spot anything? Now, you see that point of high ground up there? Where? Where? Well, right there where the brush is. Yeah, I see it. Yeah, all right. You get up there. You'll be safe enough. Now, get going. Now, listen here. I want a picture. What? I want to know what's going on. And we'll try. Come on, Bowen. Yeah. Good luck. We kept bowing, worked our way out into the hog's back of high ground, about two or three hundred yards ahead of our outfit. And we studied the hill until Bowen spotted something. A little out of the ordinary. Hey, hey, looky there. Huh? About 50 yards. I'll sight my rifle on it. Yeah, now take a look. Why, it's just why he's moving. Well, it's just from where he is. He ain't a real bright thing to do. You're right. They'll then call me, spot him. They'll be lobbing their ankle busters all over this area. I think he's hurt. Where are your glasses? About here. Let me see. Well, how do you like that? What do you see? Here, give me those things. Take them. What's the matter? Is your friend yours? No. No. No, he isn't. But I know him. Well, he's in trouble and he's hurt. We've got to get that boy out of there. Why? What did you say? I said why? Do you know anything about that man down there? All I need to know is what I can see. What's the matter with you? That could be you down there, you know? Yeah, yeah, I guess, I guess it could be. I'm going back for Merrick. Well, good idea. That could be me. Or I could have gotten mine back there in that alley. An ant, too. Hey, Grubber! Help! Help me! No, no, don't wave your arms. You'll draw fire. You idiot, you stupid idiot. Grubber! Grubber, lie still! I'm coming! I'm coming! There wasn't anything heroic about what I did because, well, it was just as much to save my own life as his. I knew if he was spotted, the res would probably open up with their mortars. And a mortar barrage would have covered his area, mine, and a lot more. So I worked my way around the edge of the clearing, using the brush for concealment, and made it to Grubber without being seen. Lie still. Grubber? Miss Lie still. Get me out of here, buddy. You've got to get me out of here. Look at me, Grubber. You know who I am. I don't care who you- I said, look at me! You- you woods. That's right, woods. The guy here was going to leave in an alley for nine grand. I wasn't, I wasn't. I don't care about any nine grand. He didn't keep it wood. Just- just get me out of here. Get me out. And turn you loose on the world again? Woods, you- you've got to. I'll have to drag you. Can you hold on? Around my neck? Right. I'll have to tie you on then. Give me that belt. There. Now around the wrists. Feel a little like handcuff, Grubber. Spot at us. If you're not a prey, Grubber, prey. Prey, they've got a meathead working that mortar. Got to get out. Got to get out. We're getting- we're getting to hang on. Stand close to the ground is no place to be when mortar bursts are walking all around you. And I guess we didn't get more than a hundred yards. They told me Boland and some crazy medic ran out in the middle of it and pulled us back to where the company was. I guess you know the rest there. Aid station to Japan, then back here to San Francisco. Interesting story, Woods. You- you say you want to ask me a question about ethics. What did you want to know? Oh, well, sir, it's about the $9,000, really. My wife- well, she wouldn't spend a nickel of it. She still won't. And I- well, I don't feel like spending it either. Even though the guy probably enlisted just to get me. He didn't enlist that much, I know. His serial number starts with a U.S. He was drafted. Where he was? Does that change the way you feel about the money? Oh, not really. Instead it would be like, well, like I made him buy his life with it. That's the way it feels. You know what I mean, sir? You're wrong there. Let me ask you this. Why did you save the man? Why? Well, I- I told you why. Oh, no, no, no, you didn't. I've seen a few morta barrages in my time. When you see one forming up, the most natural impulse is to leave in the opposite direction. If you'd done that, your worst enemy would be dead, and the money would be secure. I guess that's right. You did something good. Maybe there's no real reason for looking too deeply into the motives. More than the money. It isn't yours. He started cheating you in a game, so you merely outcheated him. You can never right a wrong with another wrong. It's that tired old platitude. Two wrongs don't make a right. Yeah. Anything else? Well, yes, sir, there is. Would you give him this? It's all right there in that envelope. 9,000. Yes, sir. Well, I guess I better be going. My wife's waiting for me. Are you going to keep that promise that you made to her? Promise, sir? About using your GI bill, making something out of yourself. I'll have to. It's been taken out of my hands. You don't deal cards, and you don't dare try to break out with half of your wrist action gun, and no end on your thumb. And that, sir, I'm no gambler anymore. Well, woods, I'd say you're leaving the army with more than you brought in anyway. I'm pretty sure about one thing, doctor. What's that? I'll give you eight to one. I live a lot longer. This is Eleanor Powell again. You know, of all the personal insults, human beings are capable of visiting on each other. About the hardest to endure is ingratitude. Most of you know the feeling. Most of you have had a gift ignored at one time or another, and if you're like many people, you probably made a little mental resolution never to waste a gift on such an ungrateful person again. It's a good thing God doesn't work that way, isn't it? Because I'm afraid most of us are pretty negligent about thanking him for his gifts, homes, loved ones, friends, a chance to work, the wonders of the earth. In fact, life itself. We take all these things for granted most of the time, so most of us are guilty of ingratitude. A good remedy for it is prayer, and particularly daily family prayer. When the members of the family spend perhaps as little as two or three minutes a day, praying together, thanking God for the blessings he has given them, they are ensuring themselves against ever being guilty of ingratitude, and they are assuring themselves of God's continued blessings while strengthening family bonds for the family that prays together, stays together. More things are wrote by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood Family Theater has brought you transcribed Gambler's End starring Paul Piccerini. Eleanor Powell was your hostess. Others in our cast were Alice Bacchus, Frank Gerstle, Larry Dobkin, and Paul Dubov. The script was written and directed for Family Theater by Robert Hugo Sullivan with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program. By the mutual network which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage screen and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Tony LaFranco expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home, and inviting you to join us next week when Family Theater will present Second Chance starring Barry Sullivan. Joan Banks will be your hostess. Join us, won't you? Family Theater is broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is Mutual, the radio network for all America.