 RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television, proudly presents... Screen Directors Playhouse, star Douglas Fairbanks Jr., production The Fighting O'Flynn, director Arthur Pearson. Hollywood Screen Directors present transcribed to play on high adventure. The motion picture story, The Fighting O'Flynn, starring Douglas Fairbanks in his original role of The O'Flynn with Meg Randall as Lady Benedetta. 1797 was a hotbed of plot and counter plot, intrigue and violence. Napoleon Bonaparte's wars seemed far away, but his agents in Ireland were setting the stage for further confessions. I, O'Flynn of O'Flynn, was a soldier of fortune, returning to the small green land of Ireland. There was one other passenger in the coach, posting for Dublin that fine moonlit night. A layman. English, lovely, and most interestingly, a loof. You're pardoned, Milady, but what did you say your name was? I did not say. She did not say, she does not say, but who can say that she will not say? Coachman's seat. Grasping the reins from him, I swung the coach, screechingly in a hard turn that sent the coach sideline, blocking the road and tearing the wheels. I did not say to step into the room, collect all those wheelspokes and pile them up beside me. Hurry! Me! I'm ready! You- Chalely's now, Milady, crude, but work of a lighter, Chalely. He spoke and let fly. So, here we are, who's left afoot. We've pistols too. Driver, select their three best horses. I'll keep these beggars covered. Well, the moment we were all mounted and still keeping the robbers covered, we wheeled off and raced into the night. We should be starting for Dublin again, O'Flynn. You're even prettier than I dreamed you'd be. What's your name? Benedetta. Benedetta? Benedetta, I like that. I like you. Thank you, O'Flynn, but you mustn't talk so to me. Oh. I'm engaged to be married. Engaged to be? I'll not admit it. Lord Sedgemouth, in my father's service in Dublin. Oh, it's a whim. I'll win you somehow. Lord Sedgemouth or not, I'll let a lord in your father's service. My father's a viceroy of Ireland. Sure, it's the class I've stumbled on to this time. There was highwaymen knew somehow that I was carrying a certain packet to the viceroy. Packet? Yes. It contains a report of Bonaparte's plan to invade England by way of Ireland. The devil it does. Let me take care of it. Here. Now then. And now then. I think we'd better ride for Dublin, O'Flynn. We found his excellency, the viceroy of Ireland, was in the palace garden with Lord Sedgemouth, Benedetta's fiancé. Sedgemouth was very handsome, to be sure. But I felt rather wretched in the stomach when he took my Benedetta in his arms and kissed her. And the viceroy looked very grave as he finished reading the documents we had brought him. Sedgemouth is his most serious. Bonaparte's best troublemaker, General Van Dranc, has been sneaked into an old abandoned castle on the coast. Castle Nockmore. Oh, yes, I know the mossy heave of stone. But do you know Van Dranc? I do, by reputation only. A bitter and moody man, but a great soldier. Nevertheless, I shall myself recruit a force to march on Van Dranc. Accept it, O'Flynn. But Castle Nockmore will take a regiment of trained troops, not amateurs, to capture it. Then see to it, Sedgemouth, at once. Your excellency, Benedetta. Goodbye, Phillip. Wait, Sedgemouth. Join me on the terrace. I have some suggestions to offer. O'Flynn, I just want to thank you. Benedetta, I have so much to say to you. Please, not now. Phillip will be looking for me. I have been looking for you ever since my grandfather first rested eyes on my grandmother. Good morning to you, O'Flynn, of O'Flynn. Benedetta, wait! I must join Phillip and my father. Come down those steps again, but a moment. No. Well, if I rhyme your rhyme for each step of that stair, will you then come down to me? Oh, my gift of gab befriend me now. If patience you'll be, and not mark the time, each step you descend, I'll rhyme your rhyme. Come here to Dublin, sworn to your king. Admit for a start that that's quite a thing. I'll do all such deeds as you may entreat, and all that I'll do, I'll lay at your feet. There is no more enchanted a man ever grew than I standing here because I love you. My hand, here it is, your heart put therein, protected from hurt by Flynn of O'Flynn. One more step, Jingle. My rhyme may not be as good as my prayers, but yet you have come to the foot of the stairs. A genius, O'Flynn, if not exactly immortal. Now, when will you marry me? It's useless. Your words are very nimble, very nimble, and very Irish. Give me your scarf. Why? For my regimental flang. O'Flynn, you're incorrigible. A kiss then? No. Yes. O'Flynn, I... I insist. And you shouldn't have done that. Goodbye, O'Flynn. We're in a stew, a foul stew. First I lose your Lady Benedetta on the highway thanks to that Irishman, and now you're in a foul stew. Explain, Sedgemouth. Until Bonaparte invades Ireland, my usefulness to him is in serving the Viceroy. True, Sedgemouth. But now the Viceroy has ordered me to capture Castle Nockmore, to capture Van Drunk, our own man. Then capture Van Drunk. What will Bonaparte say to that? I will arrange with Bonaparte for the surrender of Castle Nockmore to your lordship. You will take his place, ready to open the gates of Ireland when Bonaparte is ready to invade and to reward you for your judicious treason. Down the coast, flowning on the Irish sea, stood Castle Nockmore, ably and grimly commanded by General Van Drunk, the bloody Saturnine hero of Bartha. On a plain west of Nockmore, Sedgemouth's regiment waited and took no action. I wondered why. I hadn't seen Benedetta for two weeks, and again, I wondered why. So thoroughly likable a fella as I was. Until one evening, as I left a staff meeting at Sedgemouth's headquarters, a carriage rolled to the entrance with Lady Benedetta about to step out of it. Benedetta! Why, oh, Flynn! Come in the evening, come in the morning, come when expected, come without warning. Please go. Thousands of welcomes you'll find here before you in the afternoon you come, the more I'll adore you. Why are you here? Well, a staff meeting with Lord Sedgemouth in which your fiance made the bold decision to remain rooted to this plane. You're not to criticise Philip, and you're not to see me. Why? The pattern of my life is fixed, and it can't be changed by your lilting Irish phrases. Your words and your deeds don't match, oh, Flynn. Oh, what is this now, mid-arlin'? You criticise Philip, but can you do any better? No. You're a trifler, a braggart, and an empty kettle. Braggart is it, empty kettle? Oh, I'm sorry, oh, Flynn, but I just... Go, Benedetta, greet your leaden soldier in there whose tailored tactical trousers have their share of lead in them. Before this night is over, I'll take Castle Nachmore for you, alone. You are listening to the screen director's playhouse production of The Fighting Oh Flynn, starring Douglas Fairbanks and presented by RCA Victor. Here's a word you'll hear a lot this Sunday for describing the hat-and-dress combinations my lady wears in the Easter parade. It's the word ensemble. You'll also hear that word ensemble wherever people are talking about the newest in America's favourite television, the handsome, practical RCA Victor tele-ensemble. The tele-ensemble is Deluxe 12.5-inch RCA Victor eyewitness television in a handsome, deep maroon, modern metal cabinet. It's called a tele-ensemble because it's a compact table-model television set that nevertheless rests on its own legs of beautiful matching wood. Two more important features are the built-in antenna and the phono-jack. Picture quality is tops, bright, clear, and steady. And the RCA Victor tele-ensemble is a terrific dollar-for-dollar value, only $229.95 suggested list price, plus small federal tax, of course, and only slightly higher in some locations. Yes, the television set you'll want in your home is RCA Victor's tele-ensemble. Now back to the screen director's playhouse production of The Fighting Oh Flynn starring Douglas Fairbanks and his original role of The Oh Flynn with Meg Randall as Lady Benedetta. I had no plan, only a purpose without a method, to capture Castle Nachmore from within. A raised drawbridge hung over the moat around the castle, black and monstrous in the thick darkness. Who's there? Captain Oh Flynn of His Majesty's Dragoons. Dessert him. I have news for General Van Drunk. Enemy deserter, lower the drawbridge. Here on the pretense of being a deserter has a faint glimmer of imagination, a spark of light in the darkness of my boredom. Thank you, General. The military information you bring is worthless. It turns out you are a stupid, torpedoed, uninspired, backward, untutored, charmless, harmless, and in every other detail as much a lurching oaf as any man. You don't admire mankind, eh? Can you at least play chess? Chess? Is it chess, you're saying? Well, in County Wicklow I am esteemed and remembered by a man who was a lad of three, conquered... Sit down! Yes, Mons General. Never mind the Mons General, I'm not French. I am simply Van Drunk, supremely bored. You are unarmed. Quite. I will place this pistol on the table between us. Beat me at chess and it is yours. The... the pistol. I lose, you shoot me. You lose, I shoot you. Play. But where is the chessboard? You have a mind, have you not? Well, I'm fond of thinking so. Then imagine a chessboard and chessmen, his men so earthbound that he cannot even dream a chessboard. Play. Very well. My pawn to the queen's fourth square. My pawn to the queen's fourth square. Pawn to the queen's bishop's fourth square. Pawn to the king's fourth. My queen's pawn captures your pawn. Pawn to the queen's fifth. Knight to the king's bishop's third square. Pawn to the queen's bishop's fourth. Porn, Porn, Knight... I can't remember, I can't remember our moves! Yes. Your pawn to the Queen's forth, my pawn to the Queen's forth. Your pawn to the Queen's bishop's forth, my pawn to the King's forth. Your Queen's pawn captured. My pawn, my pawn to the Queen's fifth. Your knight to the King's bishop's third, my pawn to the Queen's bishop's fourth. Your move. Yes, thank you. My move. Um, my rook captures your queen. My rook to the bishop's eighth and check. Come in. General Van Dromk. A dispatch from Bonaparte. Move of Flynn. Of Flynn? Shh, my queen to the queen's square. General, this man is a spy, an Irishman and a spy. I know. He's a hard game of chess to... resign. You too. Congratulations, O'Flynn. The gun is mine. Don't move. General, you let him get that gun away from you. Do not be dull. He wanted fairly. Sedgemouth, read your dispatch from Bonaparte. If I refuse... I'll shoot you and take it from you. Better read it, Sedgemouth. Very well. To General Van Dromk. After a token resistance, you are to surrender Castle Nockmore to Lord Sedgemouth, who will facilitate the impending landing of French forces in Ireland. Signed. Bonaparte, first consul. Lord Sedgemouth, I arrest you for high treason. The pistol is not loaded. What? Pull the trigger. Go ahead. The devil. Arrest the O'Flynn. O'Flynn, when this castle falls to me tomorrow, you will be found here. As British commander, I will order you shot as a traitor. Pretty business, Sedgemouth. Shot, O'Flynn. Day after tomorrow. At dawn. Who's outside that window? Benedetta. O'Flynn. Benedetta, my darling. Come in. You shouldn't have come back to the palace. Very curious. Surely you know I was shot this dawn, but you don't exclaim that I'm alive and unhurt. Only that I shouldn't have come back here. But they know of the hoax now, and this time they'll surely kill you. Ah, Benedetta, my darling. It's mischief bribing fire in squads to fire mock volleys. But since you did it for the love of me, I lovingly forgive you. Please, please go. I'll not leave until you know I'm not a traitor, Benedetta. Oh, I no longer know who or what to believe. I only know that I want you to live. Oh, I wish that... What do you wish? I wish your arms weren't so tender and strong, and the right size to hold an unwilling woman in them. How unwilling is she, really? I have my pride and my honor and a duty to the man I've promised to marry. So be it. I've wooed your faithful and I've wooed you true, and no has always been your answer. But now I'm going to see this through before your eyes. What are you doing? Holding this bit of blank writing paper from your desk, my lady. Oh, Flynn, you can still go through the window. No. Please. Come in. Benedetta, my dear. Oh, Flynn. My dear, Sedgemouth. Benedetta. Ah, this time you will not escape death, Irishman. What have you to save yourself? First of all, sir, it's not me that's the traitor, but our stylish friend here, Lord Sedgemouth. Impersonance, absurdity. He's under orders from Bonaparte to surrender Nockmore to the Frenchies, and I can prove it. These are serious charges, oh, Flynn. Ridiculous charges. Are they? And here. Here's the letter, Your Excellency, from Bonaparte to Sedgemouth, which I had the luck to filch from Sedgemouth's pocket. How did you... Your hand goes to your breast pocket, Sedgemouth. But this paper is blank. That one, yes. But not the one in his lordship's pocket, I'll warrant. Whatever this Irish hothead tells you, Your Excellency, isn't he just... Then show him the letter in your pocket. Show him or be called the guilty man if you do not. Show him the letter, Philip. Or be declared under arrest. If you capture me, then here's... Stop him! Yes, Your Excellency, stop me! Good! Castle Nockmore! He's gone to signal the French ships. Warbridge was up and under heavy guard when I again arrived at the gloomy castle. I saw a torch flickering high on the seaward battlement, the rocket platform. Wearily, my heart and my throat, I started up the thick IP, clothing the sheer walls of Nockmore Bastion. Ever so slowly, I lifted my head over the parapet. Sedgemouth's torch in hand, peered seaward. A signal rocket at the ready. Two guards, no choice but to be ruthless. I took aim with my one pistol. Reversing the empty pistol, I flung a chalele fashion at the other guard and caught him squarely on the brow, and he went down as I scrambled over the parapet, just in time to meet Sedgemouth's naked sword with mine. Traitor! I'll flin more correctly. I'll flin! Break! The climb of the ivy tired me. Break, I say! And bleed! Oh! To say, Irishman, what? A drop. On guard, traitor. I warned you. The climb weary me. No, Bennett. Kills you! Enough, my lord. Enough. Over the horizon somewhere were coming Bonaparte's great men of war, but they could wait and wait and wait some more for a signal that would never come. Nearly dawned when I came back to Dublin Palace, and Lady Benedetta waiting for me in the garden at our marble rhyming steps. Oh, flin, is it over? Oh, Benedetta, my darling. I've a trifling wound which in no way influences the size of my arms for holding. A willing woman? Flen of a flen. The woman is unwilling. No longer. Benedetta! Six o'clock. The sun is risen. And all's well. This is Jimmy Wallingson speaking. You have just heard the last act of the fighting of flin. And our star, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., with our guest screen director, Arthur Pearson, will be with us in just a moment. Next Friday, the day belongs to baseball, as another great star brings one of his most amusing performances to the screen director's playhouse. Our story is, it happens every spring, and recreating his original role will be Ray Milland with screen director Lloyd Bacon. Now, here again is tonight's star, Douglas Fairbanks. Doug, we can really call you the fighting Fairbanks, couldn't we? You mean, oh, Fairbanks. Any fancy foreign titles, please. I'm talking about plain Douglas Fairbanks, star of all those fighting and adventure pictures. Oh, now, wait a minute, my friend. I guess I've been mixed up in as many smooth plots as I have in the must-em-up-and-knock-em-down variety. You know, at heart, I'm really a very peaceful citizen, far more interested in the pursuits of peace than anything else. Like your great work with care, you mean. And perhaps like puttering around that beautiful home of yours. Oh, that's right, yes. And I suppose you still get a bang out of slapping paint on canvas and maybe doing a little sculpting now and then? Well, now and then. Well, how about music? Oh, well, of course, yes. Well, then, Doug, you're just the man I want to talk to. Do you know about the RCA Victor 45? A little bit, but not near as much, Jimmy, as I understand you know about it. You know, Doug, I'm practically in love with the 45 system. First of all, it sounds so much better. A musician's dream. Imagine a thrill it gives great musicians like Toscanini and Horowitz to play the music exactly as they recorded it. Perfectly reproduced on the distortion-free 45. Oh, I should think so. Doug, those RCA Victor 45s are tops in sound. Not only that, they play so much easier. So I understand, but why easier? Well, because with one hand, you can load 10 records out of the big center spindle with no fishing around for a small center hole. Well, that's a help. Then you press one button once and you have up to 50 minutes of music. Wonderful. These new 7-inch records have it. They're an average book, which means you can store RCA Victor 45 records on ordinary bookshelves. What's more, the 45 records are non-breakable. Well, how many 45s has RCA Victor released, Jimmy, so far? Over 2100 titles now and more are pouring out each week. Good. All the new pop tunes, all the classics, in fact, every new record RCA Victor issues is released on 45. But what's even more important to a lot of people is their low cost. 45 RPM record prices begin at 46 cents plus tax. Automatic 45 changes start as low as $12.95. Oh, that's cheap enough. Doug, what you should do, and that goes for everybody listening in, is to visit your RCA Victor dealer tomorrow and see how easy it is to make the swing to 45 and enjoy the benefits of the record system of the future. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a kind of delicate interrelationship between a screen director and a film story. For instance, take the fighting of Flynn. The director made a motion picture out of the story and the story... made an Irishman out of the director. This last took some doing in view of the fact that he was born in Norway. Now I'd like you to meet him, an accomplished stage and screen director, actor and writer, and my director in the fighting of Flynn, Arthur Pearson. Thank you, Doug. But I think we all came out of the of Flynn with a touch of Shalini in our hearts. And better men, we are for it, too. Doug, I hear you've deserted the Emerald Isle for Central Europe in your next picture, State Secret. That's right, Arthur. State Secret is out of Ireland and into modern dress for an exciting tale of totalitarianism. But for all that, we're still a couple of celluloid sons of Dublin. And here's my thanks for a beautiful job of directing in the fighting of Flynn. You made it easy for the actors to tell the story, but I suppose that's because you were an actor and writer yourself. Well, I tried. As a matter of fact, Doug, I used to write for the radio, a program called The Lincoln Highway. What kind of shows, Arthur? Well, once in a while, I'd write one of those interviews where the actor talks to somebody after the drama. Oh, yes, I've heard of those. You know, the ones that always ends with the people saying, um, good night? Good night. Good night, Doug. Good night, Arthur. Good night, everyone. And good night to you, Douglas Fairbanks and Arthur Pearson. Remember next Friday, Ray Milland in It Happens Every Spring with Green Director Lloyd Bacon as leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television. The Fighting of Flynn was presented through the courtesy of the Fairbanks Company of Universal International Studios, now releasing One Way Street, starring James Mason, Marta Toran, and Dan Derye. Meg Randall can now be seen with Marjorie Mayne and Percy Kilbride in Ma and Pa cattle go to town. A Universal International picture included in tonight's cast were Ramsey Hill, Dan O'Hurley, Raymond Burr, Frank Gerstle, Paul Freese, and Frank Barton. The Fighting of Flynn was adapted for radio by Milton Geiger, and original music was composed and conducted by Robert Arm Brewster. The Screen Directors Playhouse is produced by Howard Wiley with dramatic direction by Bill Karn. Portions of the program were transcribed. You are invited to listen again next Friday when RCA Victor presents Screen Directors Playhouse star Ray Milland production It Happens Every Spring Director Lloyd Bacon Ladies and gentlemen, all of us who have read the dread figures on cancer in America have learned to fear the disease. Today we are fighting both fear and cancer itself. The American Cancer Society is carrying on that fight right now, but with pitifully inadequate funds. If the work is to continue, all of us must help with contributions. In the sternest meaning of the phrase, cancer research is a race against time, to save hundreds of thousands of lives. In 1950 alone, 200,000 Americans will die of the disease and the fatal figures will continue year after year unless you help to strike back against cancer by joining the 1950 Cancer Crusade. Contact your local branch of the American Cancer Society or simply address your contribution to cancer care of your local post office. Stay tuned for Jimmy Durratti. He's the great Rupert, you know, on NBC.