01x09 - The Black Curtain

[bunniefuu]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen

I'm pleased you can spend this hour with me.

Quite please if you don't mind.

I have some very interesting pets on sale here

For yacht owners I would suggest an

albatross.

they are intensely loyal and

will follow you anywhere

circling for

hours over the spot where your ship sinks.

For those of you with swimming

pools

if your friends and neighbors are

taking advantage of your generosity,

may I suggest one of two pets?

The ever popular hammerhead shark

or the Siamese crocodile.

Both are quiet but efficient,

They can clear a pool as fast as a TV

commercial can empty a room.

Which brings us to this next item

at pet TV.

Here he comes.

This is Ennsville, man. He knows you.

He ain't gonna see me.

Don't miss, huh?

You have the time, mister?

Yes, no problem.

Let's go.

Put him over there.

Take it easy, Mac.

What happened?

A couple of Bolvanchiks mugged him.

He's gonna get you something.

He must live around here.

I've seen him in here a

couple of times before.

Sorry.

You've got quite a while up.

What happened?

I got out.

I was paying you my fare.

I felt dizzy.

How's that again?

I told you I was feeling kind of funny.

You trying to say that you was in my cab?

What do you mean?

Oh, look, Mac, if you're trying to cook up

some kind of an insurance deal,

forget it.

You weren't in my passenger.

I had a bundle.

A package with my army uniform inside.

Two punks slogged you out there.

You saw it through the window.

You were taking me to City Hall.

I was going to meet my girl.

We're gonna be married.

At one o'clock in the morning?

You're not the same driver.

You could make book on that.

He must have had some bachelor party.

I better call a doctor.

No, no, I'm all right.

I think we ought to call the police.

No, no, no.

They couldn't have

gotten away with anything.

I'll report it in the morning.

That's your skull.

I keep telling everybody,

this is no neighborhood

for walking at night.

I gotta get to my girl's place.

She'll be worried.

What's your name? Phil Townsend.

Where does your girl live? Riverdale.

It's quite away from here.

Will you take me there?

Look, Mac, that's what I get paid for.

You said your name was Phil Townsend?

Yes.

I was just discharged from

the service this morning.

I went to buy some clothes.

Can we go, please?

Remember, I picked them up right here.

That's funny.

I thought there was a

vacant lot over there.

Thanks a lot.

Forget it.

I'm sorry about what

happened, but I thought

you were some kind

of a nut or something.

I don't blame you for that.

Good night.

Bye.

Virginia?

Virginia, it's me, Phil.

What's going on out there?

Virginia?

Virginia!

What do you want?

Tell your friend to be quiet, Mr. Green.

We've got other tenants.

I don't even know the guy.

Mrs. Fisher!

Who is it?

Who do you want?

It's me, Mr.Townsend.

Who?

Virginia's fiance.

There is no Virginia here.

Virginia Morrison.

She introduced us last weekend.

We were supposed to be married today.

You are drunk. Go away.

No, no, I'm not Hey, take

off before I call the cops.

What kind of a place is this?

I've got to get up at 6 o'clock.

He ain't drunk.

He's got a clap on his head.

He's looking for his girl.

Virginia Morrison.

I guess I must have forgotten.

Morrison?

She's not here anymore.

Look, I know she must be mad at me,

but if you could just

tell me where she went.

Can't you help the guy out?

I'll look if she left an address.

She must think I stood her up.

She probably got into

some friends or something.

Sure.

What was he? In a fight?

Nah, he was mugged.

Ain't you afraid of

getting cold or something?

I never catch nothing.

Other guys that get pneumonia.

This is the address she left.

It ain't far.

Come on.

All right, Frank, I'm coming.

How do you

Get out, Phil.

Get out of here.

Virginia, something happened to me.

I don't care.

Just get out of here.

What are you doing here?

Whose place is this?

What do you want from me now?

What do you mean?

Now?

That's my baby.

It's time for her feeding.

My husband may be

coming home any minute now.

You have to leave.

Your husband?

What husband?

We were supposed to be married today.

What are you talking about, Phil?

I haven't even seen you

for three years.

Three years?

I took a taxi to meet

you at City Hall.

That's all I remember.

Phil, you can't stay here.

You don't know what my husband is like.

I'm looking for three years of my life.

Well, you won't find them here.

I must have lost my memory.

Didn't you even try

to find me?

Oh, yes.

I went to the police.

Do you have any idea what that was like?

The whispers to each other?

The funny smiles?

It happens all the time, Miss.

No hospital reports, nothing in the morgue.

Some people just get nervous and

they disappear on their wedding day.

You believe I'd leave you like that?

No.

So I went to a private detective.

I borrowed everything I could to pay him.

My furniture,

my car, my salary.

But who is he?

I've got to see him, talk to him.

No, you can't do that.

Why not?

Because he can't help you.

He never found out anything,

he never found a trace of you.

But what would be the harm?

He's my husband.

I was lonely.

And he was very kind to me.

Until after I married him.

And then it started.

He was just like the police.

That same smile,

the sly little questions about how

things had been between you and me.

After that, it was any

man I ever talked to.

I can't leave this house.

Because he might telephone and

come home and I won't be here.

You've had a life for three years, Bill.

Go back to it.

Go back to where?

Anything come to

you?

Initials again.

D.W.

A key to a place

I don't remember.

$87 and change.

It's a nice watch.

To David with love.

Ruth.

Does it ring a bell?

Well, at least we know

what the D stands for.

I guess you better take

me to the police station.

Maybe Ruth,

whoever she is, is looking for

me a little higher than Virginia did.

Ain't you got any relatives?

No.

You bling's drugs.

That's where I drove you from.

You didn't get these tonight.

Could I live around there?

The drugger said he'd seen you before.

Look, Mack,

maybe I'm sticking my neck out.

You know what I mean?

I don't think the police

is such a good idea.

Well, you know, the money, the

clothes you're wearing,

the watch.

It don't go with that neighborhood.

I don't get you.

Maybe D.W. is in some kind of trouble.

I've never been in trouble in my life.

I'm not talking about you.

I'm talking about him.

Well, I'm hot, Charlie.

Let's get out of here.

Hey.

You left your lights on.

I k*lled him for you.

Thanks.

The first time was maybe two,

maybe three weeks ago.

How often did I come in?

Not more than half a dozen times, I'd say.

Did I ever get a prescription filled,

anything with a name on it?

All you ever bought was cigarettes.

Always at night he came in?

Midnight till 8 a.m.

That's my shift.

Maybe you could talk to the day man.

And you ought to see a doctor.

Thanks.

If it helps any, it seems to me

you always come from that direction.

What do I do?

Do I knock on doors?

Who am I?

Where do I live?

I'd ask you to spend the

night at my house, but

but my old lady, she's

okay, you understand?

She gets upset easy.

You've done enough.

You want to get in touch with

me, call the company. Ask for Mari.

Mari Epstein.

Let me know how you

make out, huh?

Sure.

Well, what day is it?

It's Friday.

Oh.

It's Saturday already.

September 24th.

Virginia and I would have

been married for three years.

Ah, you never know.

That might have been worse

than the problem you got now.

After a good night's

sleep, you'll be a new man.

Look, there's a hotel over there.

It's cheap, but clean.

Everybody's known as John Smith.

Okay? Okay.

Thanks.

Let's go.

Let's go for a walk.

Let's get it.

All right.

All right, ready,

guys? Here we go.

Okay, ready? Ready, hike it.

One, two, three, four, five.

Hey!

Dave, what are you doing here?

Harlan followed me again.

Now, go back to your room.

Please, don't go.

He's just a few feet behind me, Dave.

Are you Ruth? No, I'm not.

What's wrong with you?

Uh, anything wrong there, miss?

Oh, no, no, nothing.

What?

He's a policeman.

Will you please go?

I've got to talk to you.

I'll come to you tonight.

Now, just go.

You remember the address?

Of course I remember the address.

Then tell me.

I want to be sure.

431

Come, Dave.

Where? Look back.

Harlan, no!

Let me go!

Why don't you get off my back?

I'll get off your back when you

start doing some work around here.

Couldn't even empty the garbage.

I don't eat here.

Where do you eat, I'd like to know.

With what? You don't work.

Horses work.

And mothers with sons like you.

My key seems to stick.

Bernie, come help.

The judge's key gets stuck.

After you?

The keys are kind of tricky sometimes.

Yeah, it's a tricky world.

Leave it open a minute.

I'm cut a tie.

I've got something I want to show you.

Hey.

What did you do that for?

I just wanted to see if it worked.

I found it.

In a parked car.

Here's something else I found.

What do you want?

Nothing.

Unless you want to buy this picture I took.

Careful.

You might ruin it.

And it might be the only one there is.

This guy D.W. for instance.

He never had a picture taken.

According to the newspaper

clipping in the wallet.

If you want to buy this

one you just let me know.

That was the first half of

the Alfred Hitchcock hour.

Now a word from the provinces.

And now ladies and gentlemen.

We are about to begin the second half.

Or flip side of the Alfred Hitchcock hour.

The first number will be

a solo from our sponsor.

Followed by the second half of our story.

What are we hanging around for?

Did you think of something better to do?

You're a regular bundle

of joy aren't you? Sure.

We're all going to be rich.

Look you really think you're going

to get any money out of that guy?

You leave it to me.

Maybe there's a reward we can get.

No cops.

Hey.

Hey now that's nice.

You looking for us baby?

Care to go to a party tonight miss?

We're going to have seven violins and a

dancing band and flowers and everything.

Come on.

Wait a minute.

It's your house.

Yeah.

Who is she?

I'll let you know.

Wait here.

Who is it? Ruth.

Oh honey.

Well.

Excuse me.

I don't know how to begin.

But except for this afternoon.

I don't remember ever

seeing you before in my life.

My name.

My real name.

Is Philip Townsend.

Does that mean anything to you?

I don't know what you're

in with me or why so.

If you want to walk out go ahead.

But whoever you are I need you.

I'm trying to open a door that's

been closed for three years.

And you're the only key I've got.

Help me.

Yes sir.

Detective.

Private detective.

Have you ever seen this man?

It's an old photo.

Recognize him?

No.

You barely looked at it.

That's all I ever do mister.

Even with the regular police.

I have two professions.

Pharmacist and coward.

You don't remember anything at all?

No.

Not even me?

I told you.

I'm sorry.

That's all right.

I guess I always knew this would happen.

We used to talk about it

sometimes when you try to

remember who you were before

you came to work for my uncle.

I was afraid that when you did remember,

you might be in love with someone else.

Are you?

I don't know.

I was.

Married?

No.

Three years were too long for

her to wait to marry somebody else.

How long have I

known you?

Three years.

Well, then I must have gone to work

for your uncle, but that had happened.

How did I get there?

How did I get another name?

Carlin brought you.

He said your name was David Webber.

My fellow shorty thing?

Who is he?

He's a private investigator.

My uncle hires him sometimes

to get evidence in his cases.

Ah, private investigator.

She hired a private

investigator to find me.

Is Carlin married?

His wife had a baby a few months ago.

He found me.

He found me.

Don't you understand?

They didn't tell her.

Dave, please.

Don't call me that.

All right, now calm down.

If you get one of your headaches,

you don't know what you're liable to do.

What do you mean?

What I'm liable to do?

You know how you get.

I don't know anything!

Honey, honey, please.

I'm sorry.

Sit down and have a cigarette.

Here.

I'm all right now.

Go ahead.

Where do you want

me to start?

The m*rder.

When did it happen?

About a month ago.

The newspaper clipping said that

your uncle's place is in Westchester.

You live there with him?

Yes.

I also said I was a bodyguard.

Why does your uncle need a bodyguard?

He's a criminal lawyer.

He turned down a racketeer

in a tax evasion case.

There were some threats.

Maybe that's how she was k*lled.

The man was convicted.

He's been in jail for over two years.

No, no, no.

No coffee.

But then your uncle didn't need me anymore.

Why did he keep me on?

Because of me, I guess.

What was I to you?

Was.

Past tense.

I love you.

Not that it matters now.

Sorry?

It's a big house.

You had a separate

apartment over the garage.

That's where her body was found.

How could it happen?

It's like a black curtain.

I lived there.

Somebody died there.

I can't even remember.

The afternoon of the night it happened.

Uncle Bob gave you some errands to do.

He was in the study preparing

a case waiting for Carlin.

I could see that you were

getting one of your migraine

headaches the way that

you'd get before you'd pass out.

I mean, actually pass out?

Not always physically, but mentally.

Often?

Three, four times, I'll told.

Anything else?

You smashed up your room once.

You wouldn't remember the weekend

we went to San Francisco together.

No.

It was just shortly after

Uncle Bob married Janice.

I thought you were getting too friendly

with her and I was jealous and we quarreled.

Did I hurt you?

Tell me.

Yes.

I ran out.

In the morning.

You didn't remember anything about it.

And the night she was k*lled?

I had some things to do in town.

When I got back it was dark.

Your door was locked.

You didn't answer.

So I went up to the main house.

Uncle Bob and Carlin were in the study.

They hadn't seen you.

So I walked.

I walked all around the

grounds trying to find you.

Gone?

You were down by the fish pond.

Just sitting and staring.

You looked up at me and

you said, God help me.

I just k*lled her.

Well?

Who is she?

She's nothing.

But he's a gold mine.

Hey.

You guys want to make a buck?

Know him?

Eisenhower.

Is there a price?

20 bucks.

I don't know him.

You know him, Chuck?

I don't know him.

You guys live around here?

No, we're from Palm Beach.

Hey, Bernie, 20 bucks.

Don't blow your nose.

We've got a chicken to pick.

And when the cops stop snooping around,

we're going to pick him clean.

I'll fix you something to eat.

I'm not hungry.

Didn't anybody try to help me?

Don't you remember

I'm sorry.

I begged you to see a

psychiatrist, but you refused.

The doctor asked me to let him know

if you showed any signs of

Of what?

Destructive tendencies,

were the words he used.

Like smashing up the room?

Would you let him know?

No, I

I was afraid of what they might do to you.

Like sending me away some place?

Locking me up?

Some place where I might have been helped.

You didn't want help.

You really believe I k*lled that woman?

Do you?

You didn't do it intentionally.

But I did do it.

Is that what you mean?

I'd better go.

Where?

Home.

Look, I want help, Ruth.

You offered to give it to me.

Help me to understand why a m*rder*d woman

was found in my

apartment after I passed out.

Explain to me why I ran

when there were three other people

on the estate who might have k*lled her.

Did you tell me to run, Ruth?

You're dead, didn't you?

I didn't want the police to get you.

Neither did Carlin.

Nobody wants the police to get me.

Could it be that the trial

might bring out something?

I'm getting out of here.

If you can't go out

there, Carlin will k*ll you.

How do you know he's there?

He knows you live in the

neighborhood from this morning.

Thanks to your expert guidance.

Phil, I'm only trying to help you.

Are you really?

Of course I am.

Well, I can't go out there.

And you bring Carlin here.

What? He's the answer.

He'll be looking for you.

Find him, let him follow you back here.

It shouldn't be too difficult.

You said he's in the neighborhood.

He's got a g*n.

What's a g*n at this point?

Do I have any choice?

I've got to see him, talk to him,

try to make some sense out of this.

I can't go on hiding from

something I don't even understand.

Please, Phil.

If you want to

help me,

get Carlin.

There she is again.

Hey sweetie baby.

Love has come into my life once more.

I'm in love, I'm in love.

Hey baby, you want to

reconsider that party now?

You know you're breaking my

heart wandering around here.

I wonder where she's headed.

Hi baby, have a little

drink and it'll warm you up.

Come on.

Now listen Townsend.

Oh.

You know my name, don't you?

I knew it for three years.

And I didn't.

Why didn't you tell Virginia?

I fell in love with her.

You had amnesia.

You wouldn't have remembered her

anyhow, don't you understand?

I understand.

I understand I've been

living like a wild animal.

Hunted and shot at.

Who k*lled Mrs.

Burke? You did.

Why?

Why would I do it?

She was much younger than

Burke she was chasing after.

How do you know that?

Burke had me watching.

Oh, you weren't the only one.

Were you one of the others?

No.

Who k*lled her,

Colin? I told you.

She was found in your apartment.

Yeah, I know that in my apartment.

The time when I had one of those

headaches you all knew about.

The perfect Patsy, the guy

from nowhere with no memory.

But who k*lled her?

Look, you did know what you were doing.

Temporary and Saturday, I'll help you.

Will you?

For life in a cage?

Life you've taken from

me twice already?

Dave.

I told you not to call me that.

Oh, no, Colin.

If I lose this life it's going to be

for something I do remember.

For you.

No.

All right, Colin.

Burke k*lled her.

Not Uncle Bob. He couldn't have.

I can prove it.

I have the clothes he was wearing.

I have blood stains.

Go on.

Burke got the idea to frame

you when you blacked out.

He took a wrench from the garage.

He k*lled her.

Put her in your room.

When you came to and

ran, he told me about it.

Asked me to help.

You're trying to k*ll me

to cover up for Burke.

If a man named David Webber

could be found face down in the street,

my wife would never

know that I'd found you.

I wouldn't lose her.

Your wife.

I'd better call the police.

I'll have to go to the

station to make a statement.

You don't have to come back.

Will I see you again?

I'm going into a veterans

hospital for a while.

Find out how things

really are with me.

Some of the things that David

Webber did

must be in me.

I could have k*lled him.

We've really known each other

less than a day.

I know.

I hope I see you again.

I hope so, too.

I really do.

That is all for tonight.

I'm afraid I must

abandon the pet business.

They're eating me out of house and home.

Listen to the poor dears

and I'm completely out of food.

But soft, I see the

sponsor approaching.