HyperNatural - Show Sponsor
The Best Men’s Polo Shirts-Men’s Journal
HYPER NATURAL “The Best Men’s Polo Shirts of 2024” – Men’s Journal. HyperNatural offers polos, tees, and button-ups that deliver unmatched comfort and style, featuring Hyper-Cool Jade® technology for natural cooling. Enjoy an exclusive discount with my promo code! 20% Off HYPER NATURAL
In this captivating episode of Mystery Theater, host EG Marshall invites listeners to explore the beguiling tale of "Berenice," adapted from the Edgar Allan Poe classic. The story unfolds around Ernest Montresor, who is haunted by the memory of his deceased wife, Berenice, particularly her enchanting yet sinister smile. As Ernest grapples with his emotions and the haunting presence of Berenice, he finds solace in the love of her sister, Constance. However, the specter of Berenice looms large, leading to a series of eerie and unsettling events that blur the lines between reality and nightmare.
Listeners are drawn into a world where the human mind's fixations and the supernatural intertwine, creating a chilling atmosphere of suspense and psychological horror. As the narrative progresses, the tension escalates, culminating in a shocking revelation that challenges the boundaries of sanity and the supernatural. With stellar performances by Michael Tolan and Norman Rose, this episode promises a thrilling experience for fans of mystery and the macabre.
(00:25) Introduction to the Mystery
(03:32) The Fixation of Love
(07:48) Berenice's Dark Mood
(15:08) The Horrible Thing That Happened
(29:20) Ernest's Descent into Madness
(38:13) The Final Revelation
Listen to our radio station Old Time Radio https://link.radioking.com/otradio
Listen to other Shows at My Classic Radio https://www.myclassicradio.net/
Entertainment Radio | Broadcasting Classic Radio Shows | Patreon
Remember that times have changed, and some shows might not reflect the standards of today’s politically correct society. The shows do not necessarily reflect the views, standards, or beliefs of Entertainment Radio
[00:00:03]
Unknown:
Stay tuned for mystery theater.
[00:00:21] Unknown:
Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. Like to ask you something. What do you consider your most attractive feature? Your hair? Your eyes? Complexion? Your figure? Whatever, each of us is abundantly aware, though there are some who would deny it, of his or her most captivating attribute and make the most of it, though there are some who deny that too. Be all this as it may. We're about to hear of a woman whose most beguiling characteristic was her smile. And because of it, the horrible thing that happened. Our mystery drama, Berenice, was adapted from the Edgar Allan Poe classic, especially for the mystery theater by George Lowther and stars Michael Tolan and Norman Rose.
It is sponsored in part by Contact, the twelve hour cold capsule, and Anheuser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser. I'll be back shortly with act one.
[00:01:39] Unknown:
Six of a three or one. That's the question when you catch the common cold. Sneezing, drips, congestion. Then take twelve hour contact. You need six cold tablets, two every four hours, or three ounces of colds liquid, one every four hours, or just one contact for up to twelve hours continuous relief of those symptoms. The tiny time pills do it. Both the others contain things for aches and fever. The liquid, something for coughs, not found at contact. Your gold, your choice. 60301. Take contact. Only as directed.
[00:02:23] Unknown:
This is Tommy Macom. I'm sitting in the John Barleycorn located at 209 East 40 Fifth Street, just off Third Avenue. John Barleycorn is New York's first and most famous Irish singing pub. If you want a sample of what Irish hospitality is really like, you should come in and soak up the atmosphere. The hospitality is warm, the people are cheerful, and the service is just fantastic. They have an old saying at the Barleycorn, there are no strangers here, only friends you haven't met, and you can prove that to yourself by dropping in anytime. You can have lunch, dinner, or supper seven days a week and a good time all the time. The food is split for royalty. And as a matter of fact, some of the recipes have been handed down from the courts of Irish kings. The John Barleycorn, the Irish oasis in Midtown Manhattan.
[00:03:17] Unknown:
For lunch, dinner, or special party information, call 61088.
[00:03:33] Unknown:
What we call a fixation, an is one of the most extraordinary and mystifying aspects of the human mind. For example, love. Young love, at least, is a fixation, for the lover cannot get the loved one out of his thoughts. He thinks of her night and day or she of him. And there is, I need scarcely say, no more wondrous person in all the world. What cure can be found for a fixation? Well, when it comes to love, and I don't mean to sound cynical, I suppose marriage. But when it came to Ernest Montessori and his wife, Berenice,
[00:04:14] Unknown:
well, that's our story. Do not tell me, Anthony, what I must do or must not do. Ernest, please. You are my friend. You are my attorney. You have come here to Mangrove Manor to straighten out whatever legal matters attend Berenice's death, and that is all. Ernest, I didn't mean to offend you. I am not offended. I am irritated. You can sit there and say, Ernest, your wife is dying. Try not to hate her as you do. Let me tell you something, my good friend. Had you lived one month, one week, one day in this house with Berenice, that shrew, that spitfire, You two would know what hate is. But I don't understand.
[00:04:49] Unknown:
I was at your wedding a little over a year ago here at Mangrove, and you were deliriously in love with her.
[00:04:55] Unknown:
Not her. Her smile. What? I know you'll find it hard to believe but that is the truth. Oh, there were other qualities that attracted me, her charm, her gentle manner, her warmth, but these vanished quickly once we were married. I soon learned that her charm was a veneer, her gentle manner, a mask that concealed a vicious temper. I am sorry. I didn't want to hate her. For months, I put all feelings of hate from me. But while asking myself how and why I still went on loving her, that's when I realized was her smile. I still fail to understand. Look at Berenice closely and you will see that she's really very plain, almost ugly. But one doesn't look closely at first. I didn't, surely, because of her smile, of what her smile was then.
She had teeth so even, so white, so perfect. They are as matched pearls. As for her lips, nowhere will you find lips so beautifully modeled, so sensuously inviting, so absolutely enthralling. I remember. Yes. But, Anthony, soon after our marriage, her smile changed too. The lovely contour of her lips became an ugly sneer. She no longer smiled. She bared her teeth like a vicious animal. But there must have been a reason, something that impelled her to I'll give you a reason if you must have it. Constance.
[00:06:14] Unknown:
Berenice's younger sister? Yes. You know she came to live here at Mangrove when her husband died. I I settled the estate. Yes. Not I'm afraid that there was much to settle. He left her penniless. Precisely why she lived here. Berenice began to think Go no further, Ernest. I am well acquainted with what is termed the eternal triangle. In this case, there was no triangle. Not then. But there is now.
[00:06:38] Unknown:
Constance is what Berenice pretended to be. Gentle, innocent, loving. Yes. I have fallen in love with her and she with me. But you may believe me as Berenice never has when I tell you that our love is and has ever been platonic. Neither of us has betrayed Berenice in any way. Yes, come? Oh, Constance, my dear. We were just speaking of you.
[00:07:04] Unknown:
You remember Anthony Lamb? With pleasure. You were such a help and comfort to me when my husband died, mister Lamb. I did what I could. You
[00:07:12] Unknown:
you look upset, Constance.
[00:07:13] Unknown:
Berenice wants to see you. And she's in one of her blackest moods, I'm afraid. Is she ever in any other? Try not to be harsh on her, Ernest. She's dying, you know.
[00:07:24] Unknown:
I shall try.
[00:07:26] Unknown:
If you'll excuse us, Anthony. Perhaps I should come along. I have to discuss certain legal matters with Berenice, and it will be best if she knows I'm here. Come then.
[00:07:36] Unknown:
But I warn you, my friend. You'll regret every moment spent with her.
[00:07:49] Unknown:
It's you.
[00:07:50] Unknown:
You wanted to see me, Veronese?
[00:07:52] Unknown:
You. Not this army you've brought with you. Get out of here, Constance.
[00:07:59] Unknown:
Of course.
[00:08:02] Unknown:
And who are you? I've seen you somewhere.
[00:08:06] Unknown:
I remember you. I'm Anthony Lamb Bernice. I don't blame you for not recognizing me. It's been over a year.
[00:08:13] Unknown:
Oh, yes. Yes. I remember you now, Ernest's friend, the pettifogging lawyer, the shyster. Why are you here? Well, now I, Yes. Yes.
[00:08:24] Unknown:
Ernest asked me to come because well, Bernice, I'm I'm told you're quite ill. And at such times, it's, well, it's best to
[00:08:33] Unknown:
to To make sure that all will be legally neat and tidy when I'm cold in my coffin. Well, you put it much The only way it can be put. I'm dying, and I know I'm dying, and so do you. If you don't, you must be blind. And if you want proof of it, look. Once my smile was the most ravishing smile on Earth. Look at it now. Yes. Yes. The color leaves your face, mister lawyer. You all but shrink away because it's no longer the beautiful smile of the living Berenice, but the ghastly grin of the Berenice who will soon be cold in death. Stop it. Stop smiling. Dear husband, what is it? You used to tell me my smile captivated you, enslaved you.
Can't be that it now repels you. Oh, don't turn away. I won't look at you, not when you smile. Don't look then for all the good it'll do you. You'll remember. Soon, I shall be dead, but my smile will never die. It will live on in your brain, Ernest. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it will be with you. No. This smile, this ghoulish grimace, because it was what you married, what you loved, and then came the hate. And you will hate it till the day you die, Ernest. For till that day, awake or asleep, it will haunt you.
[00:10:23] Unknown:
Would you care for more of the shrimp, mister Lamb? Well, thank you. No, Constance.
[00:10:27] Unknown:
Oh, and do call me Anthony, won't you? It'll make me feel so much younger. If you wish.
[00:10:32] Unknown:
Ernest, won't you eat? You haven't touched a morsel. Not hungry. But you must keep up your strength. If you're not careful, you'll be having nightmares again. Nightmares, Ernest? The most horrible you can imagine.
[00:10:45] Unknown:
Berenice has all but ruined my health. Ruined it. Hush now. We mustn't talk that way. What other way is there? No more wine, Ernest. Another glass can do no harm. No more, dear.
[00:10:57] Unknown:
For my sake.
[00:10:58] Unknown:
For your sake, anything. Anything except a lie about my true feelings. You, Constance, you have lived in this house for nearly a year. You know the hell she has made of my life. You know that I could not mourn her passing. And what is more, you know that I love only you. Ernest, it is not the proper time. I know. I know. But I Now you are overwrought.
[00:11:20] Unknown:
It is not you speaking but your nerves. Listen to me. Constance. My sister lies upstairs dying. Whatever you think of her, in these last days of her life, though we cannot, in truth, love her, we can, in all dignity and honor, try at least not to hate her. You must try, Ernest. You must.
[00:11:42] Unknown:
Yes. And with your help, I shall.
[00:11:45] Unknown:
But you will not succeed.
[00:11:47] Unknown:
Darnese. How did you get here out of bed?
[00:11:50] Unknown:
I rang my bell, but no one came. I called, but you did not answer. We didn't hear. And so I found the strength. What strength remains? To come down and tell you I am about to die. No. No. When death is near, you know it. Full well, you know it. I have little time left now. Perhaps only minutes. A glass of wine.
[00:12:17] Unknown:
Of course. Of course.
[00:12:21] Unknown:
He hurries to assist me, to comfort me, when in his heart, he would kill me. No. No, Berenice. I would not. Well, I, you hate me. Say it. You hate me. Say it.
[00:12:38] Unknown:
Here. The glass of wine you asked for.
[00:12:42] Unknown:
That's your glass of wine. Sniveling, nightmare ridden fool. I had hoped I'd at last found a man when I married you. You were like all the others. Melanie, let me help you back to your But as for you, did you think I wasn't on to you and your little tricks? Did you think me blind that I couldn't see what went on between you and my husband? Nothing before heaven. I swear that Liar. I saw. I know. Little Constance. Innocent, saintly little sister, sinking her claws deeper and deeper into the man who was mine. Madam.
[00:13:30] Unknown:
You address me. Madam, you are ill. Yet there is in you a kind of strength I have recognized before. In, I say to you, the worst kind of criminal. Gone. I don't know that I can. I have never understood what made these people what they were, but this I know. There are angels on this earth and there are devils. And you, madam, I say it to you, even in your dying moments, you are a devil. I don't blame you for looking at me like that. I I spoke on impulse. I'm ashamed.
[00:13:59] Unknown:
Ashamed? You are the first man who is ever dare to
[00:14:05] Unknown:
There is Stay away.
[00:14:07] Unknown:
Stand back. Don't don't touch me. Only listen. You will be haunted by the magnet that drew you to me, the weapon with which I ruined your life and will destroy you. My smile, Ernest. My smile. No. Look at me. Sensuous lips bearing milk white perfectly matched teeth. Look.
[00:14:36] Unknown:
Oh, who can't hear? Let me She's falling across the table?
[00:14:42] Unknown:
I think, yes, she's gone. Berenice is dead.
[00:14:49] Unknown:
No. Ernest, don't. Her mouth.
[00:14:53] Unknown:
She is staring at me with her teeth. Anthony, in heaven's name, close her mouth.
[00:15:01] Unknown:
Close her mouth.
[00:15:08] Unknown:
I said at the outset, you'll recall, that because of Berenice's smile, a horrible thing happened. What has just happened in the dining room in Mangrove Manor is indeed horrible, but nowhere near as horrible as that which is about to take place. I will return shortly with act two.
[00:15:30] Unknown:
Inside your free. Inside your free, after all. Yeah.
[00:15:50] Unknown:
You're driving a car you knew you were gonna buy the minute you saw it. Skyhawk. Buick Skyhawk. You just knew a car this streamline would be easy on gas, and you were right. In published EPA mileage test results, Skyhawk got 25 miles per gallon on the open road and 16 in the city. Buick Skyhawk,
[00:16:09] Unknown:
dynamite.
[00:16:31] Unknown:
We're all starting the New Year with a close watch on our budgets. Your ShopRite supermarket is helping with economy dishes that are high in nutrition, low in cost. First cut beef chuck steaks, just 57¢ a pound. Semi boneless chuck steak or roast, 97¢ a pound. Beef liver, just 57¢ a pound. Pork loin, a seven rib cut, 77¢ a pound. Dress up your beef dishes with fresh mushrooms, just 79¢ a pound. Throughout the store, you'll find a lot more for a little less at ShopRite.
[00:17:28] Unknown:
I think it was sir Winston Churchill who said that when the human brain grabs hold of a thing, a worry, a concern of some sort, an anxiety, it grips that thing as in an iron fist and will not let it go. Clearly then, this is what has happened to Ernest Montresor, who, even while she was alive, could not get his wife's sneering smile out of his head. And now that she has been placed in the family vault on the estate near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, well, listen.
[00:18:01] Unknown:
Ernest. Ernest.
[00:18:04] Unknown:
Yes, Anthony. What? It's more than half an hour since everyone left. Constance and I are getting chilled to the bone here in the vault. Let's go back to the house. Not till I'm sure the lid of Berenice's casket is nailed tight. But you are sure. It's
[00:18:18] Unknown:
it's madness, I know, Anthony. But I have the fear that somehow, in some way, she'll get out of her coffin and haunt me. You're letting your imagination
[00:18:25] Unknown:
run away with you, Ernest. You're tired, overwrought. My sister is dead. She'll not get out of her coffin. Come now.
[00:18:34] Unknown:
Ernest. Yes. Let us return to the house.
[00:18:44] Unknown:
I'll close and lock the gate. No, I will.
[00:18:48] Unknown:
There. She's well nailed down in her coffin. Well locked in two pairs. Now let's no. No. Delete. Good lord, man. What now? I must make sure the lock is strong. Sound and strong. Now, Ernest, dear, that's enough. Don't tell me what is enough.
[00:19:08] Unknown:
Ernest. Dearest, what is it? Why are you looking at me with such fear?
[00:19:13] Unknown:
Never, Constance. Never so long as you live smile at me like that again. You you look like Berenice. But earnest, I My my nerves are shaking. I I need a drink. Excuse me.
[00:19:28] Unknown:
He's in trouble, Constance. We'd we'd best catch up with him. But Anthony Nothing to worry about, really. You you just upset him a little when you smile. But that's the point. What?
[00:19:37] Unknown:
I didn't smile.
[00:19:45] Unknown:
Will you take another brandy, Anthony? Thank you. No cuss. As they say, one is as good as more. I wish Ernest thought so. He is drinking a bit too much, though he doesn't show it. His nerves burn up the spirits quickly.
[00:19:59] Unknown:
I have never seen him in such a nervous condition, never so exhausted. Let's hope he's having a good deep, restful sleep. Speaking of what is good for Ernest, I hope you'll be able to stay with us a while, Anthony. I should like to, but I have pressing business in Baton Rouge. A few days? It would be such a comfort to Ernest. I'm sure, but the comfort he really needs is
[00:20:20] Unknown:
is what you can give him. Constance, may I speak frankly? Of course. In ordinary circumstances, by which I mean had Ernest and Berenice still loved each other, I'd not suggest anything of this sort. But for all things considered, Constance, I should like to see you marry Ernest as soon as possible. Berenice not yet cold in her grave, and you? I do. Yes. Constance, you alone can give him the love and the warmth he so desperately needs. I I know. But,
[00:20:48] Unknown:
oh, Anthony, whatever she was, Berenice was my sister. How can I, in all conscience, marry her husband within so short a time? It would be an act of indecency.
[00:21:01] Unknown:
No. An act of charity and of love. My dear, no immediate decision is needed. Think about it and show No. What? In the name of heaven It's earnest. No. Come. Queen.
[00:21:17] Unknown:
No. Earnest, merciful No. Ernest, merciful lord, what is it? Oh, oh, it's you. You, good friend, and and Constance. Then it was a dream. What was, my dearest? I I dreamed that I was awake, that I'd awaken from a sound sleep. It was all so real. I I heard the storm outside and saw lightning brighten the room and thought, oh, good. I I did manage to sleep and get some rest and now I've awakened and Yes. And? And then then I saw it hanging in the darkness of the room, burning bright in the black pitch of night. Saw it. Gently, my darling.
[00:21:54] Unknown:
Gently now.
[00:21:56] Unknown:
So what? Her smile. Berenice's smile. Her disembodied smile. Nothing else. It hung suspended in the dark before my eyes. The lips drawn back. The teeth shining in the blackness. Oh, Ernest. Ernest. And then and then her teeth, those terrifying white even teeth parted as she began to laugh. The most hideous laugh I have heard in all my life. Her mouth, her bodiless mouth as it laughed, it started coming closer to me. Closer, closer, and I I screamed. I screamed.
[00:22:33] Unknown:
Anthony, what's to be done? We must fetch the doctor and at once.
[00:22:45] Unknown:
Ernest? Ernest, stop for a bit.
[00:22:49] Unknown:
Oh, let's rest. Of course, my dear. Of course. Here, let me help you down. Oh,
[00:22:58] Unknown:
thank you, Ernest. There's a log over there.
[00:23:02] Unknown:
Shall we sit? I would rather stand and hold you.
[00:23:07] Unknown:
Oh, you are feeling better. Come.
[00:23:10] Unknown:
Let's sit down. No. No. Wait. Ernest? Please listen, Constance. Anthony returns to Baton Rouge tomorrow. I had a talk with him this morning. He knows I'm devoted to you and you to me. He urged, not that I needed urging, that I ask you to marry me. Ernest Do say yes, Constance. I beg you. Say you'll marry me.
[00:23:30] Unknown:
That's exactly what I was going to say once you gave me the chance. You
[00:23:35] Unknown:
you will? You'll marry me? Oh, I will.
[00:23:39] Unknown:
Oh, I will. Constance. Oh, Constance.
[00:23:46] Unknown:
Let's hurry back and tell Anthony.
[00:23:48] Unknown:
Yes. That dear good friend of yours will be relieved to know, I'm sure. Here. I'll give you a hand up.
[00:23:55] Unknown:
There. Oh, Ernest, my horse. Oh. Ernest, he's running away with me.
[00:24:11] Unknown:
Anthony, I must go up. Patience, good friend. The doctor should be down any moment. But he's been with her for more than an hour. I knew she was seriously injured. I knew at the instant I picked her up. The way you described it, it was a bad fall. The horse running away, for what reason God alone knows, tried to leap a high fence, failed to make it and came down rolling on Constance as she lay beneath it. Oh, terrible, terrible.
[00:24:32] Unknown:
But no sense anticipating the worst. Constance may not be seriously hurt at all.
[00:24:36] Unknown:
Constance is dying. What?
[00:24:39] Unknown:
She is dying. Oh, come now, Ernest. You carry even your nerves too far. There's something I
[00:24:45] Unknown:
I didn't tell you. When I got to Constance, she was unconscious. I knelt beside her, got my arms under her, raised her, and stood up. I began to carry her to the house a long distance. I'm not very strong. I tire easily. And so after a short time, I stopped for breath and looked at her. Looked into her face, Anthony. Yes? Her eyes were open and she was smiling. The lips pulled back, the teeth showing. For for an instant, she looked like Berenice. For that instant, she was Berenice. Doctor? Doctor, is she don't bother him now, Ernest. But I can bear no more of this waiting, this interminable waiting. Look at her.
So deathly white, scarcely breathing, if at all. Ernest? She called my name. Oh, Constance. Oh, my own dear Constance. Hush now.
[00:25:50] Unknown:
When
[00:25:51] Unknown:
when I am gone No. You must not go. You cannot leave me. You cannot When I am gone, I say
[00:25:59] Unknown:
no longer with you. Remember that it will be only on this earth I am not with you.
[00:26:06] Unknown:
In spirit, I shall be beside you always. You are not going to die. You will be at my side alive and beautiful in my own dear adored wife. No.
[00:26:15] Unknown:
That is not to be. Berenice has seen to that.
[00:26:21] Unknown:
Berenice?
[00:26:22] Unknown:
She was there. Just before my horse leaped the fence, I did not fancy it. She was there. She stood on the other side of the fence
[00:26:33] Unknown:
smiling. Oh, god. In heaven. And I knew
[00:26:38] Unknown:
in the second that I saw her, the second before the horse crashed, I knew that she is a tormented soul, a soul that cannot rest until she has forgiven the sins she committed on earth.
[00:26:53] Unknown:
The sin she committed against you. There is no forgiveness for what she did. There is.
[00:26:58] Unknown:
It is in your heart, my darling, if you will only search for it and find it. You
[00:27:03] Unknown:
you are asking me to forgive her? Yes. Never. I could never. You must.
[00:27:09] Unknown:
You must for my sake. Will you try? That is all I ask before I leave you, my dearest. Will you try?
[00:27:21] Unknown:
I I will try.
[00:27:23] Unknown:
And I, in another world, will love you for it more than I have ever loved you in this.
[00:27:31] Unknown:
Kiss me. Oh, no. No. Not if by saying that you tell me the time is near. Not if you tell me that. Really?
[00:27:37] Unknown:
Yes. Oh, yes.
[00:27:43] Unknown:
Constance? Constance? I'm sorry, Ernest. She's gone. Oh, no.
[00:27:53] Unknown:
Leave it to me, doctor. You have other matters to handle. Come, Ernest. Sit down here in this chair. Sit and I'll pour you a brandy.
[00:28:05] Unknown:
Dad. Dad. Dad.
[00:28:10] Unknown:
I know how you feel, but you mustn't go to pieces. Think of what she said, that she will be with you at your side always.
[00:28:17] Unknown:
What good is that if I cannot see her, touch her? What is he doing, the doctor? What must be done?
[00:28:26] Unknown:
Closing her eyes, straightening her limbs, placing her hands in repose.
[00:28:30] Unknown:
When he is finished, I shall sit with her, Anthony. Of course. And not leave her sight. He'll be take her to the vault. What's that? What? Listen. Someone
[00:28:42] Unknown:
laughing. No one is laughing, miss. Berenice.
[00:28:45] Unknown:
It is Berenice. What? She is laughing from the vault. From the vault. You doubt me? Here.
[00:28:51] Unknown:
I throw wide the window. You hear? You hear? I hear nothing. Laughing in triumph. Vicious triumph because once again she shattered my heart. Laugh, damn you laugh. But I shall have done with you yet. I shall. I shall. I
[00:29:09] Unknown:
Doctor, quickly. He's fainted dead away.
[00:29:20] Unknown:
So in fevered imagination, in the sickened mental state brought on by unbearable grief, Ernest fancies he hears the hideous laughter of Berenice pursuing him, haunting him, driving him mad in death as she did in life. Or is it fancy? We'll know more about that when I return for act three.
[00:29:49] Unknown:
Some beer drinkers have funny ideas about beer. They think beer improves with age, like wine. We'll find a brew master though. You'll find a beer drinker who knows better. The Budweiser brew master says it all depends on how beer is aged. Just letting beer sit in lagering tanks makes it older, not necessarily better. That even goes for keeping a case around the house for a couple of months. But there is one kind of aging that's good for beer. The Budweiser kind, beechwood aging. In this kind of aging, something happens. It lets all the flavor of the choices, hops, and best barley malt that go into Budweiser get through to you.
Sure. It takes more time and trouble to brew Budweiser that way, but brewing beer right does make a difference. Anheuser Busch, Saint Louis.
[00:30:51] Unknown:
Scarcely has the breath of life fled the body of his beloved Constance then Ernest Montresor hears or thinks he hears the triumphant laughter of his dead wife, Berenice. Even though Ernest's friend and attorney Anthony Lamb did not hear the laughter, can we say the laughter echoed only in Ernest's imagination? If it comes to that, who can say that imagination is not reality? Be that as it may, let us now join Ernest and Anthony in that family vault.
[00:31:25] Unknown:
It would seem that you're right, Anthony. Berenice must still be in her coffin. The lid is tightly nailed. Of course. But her laughter,
[00:31:34] Unknown:
so horribly clear. Ernest, there was no laughter. You imagined it. No. No. I heard it.
[00:31:40] Unknown:
She murdered Constance. She made the horse run away, fall, and kill her. Oh, Anthony, how can I rid myself of Berenice? Can I get rid of her? She was vile, vicious, clever.
[00:31:53] Unknown:
Clever. What? Clever.
[00:31:56] Unknown:
That's it. Clever. We look at this coffin lid. We see it tightly nailed, and so we think she's still there. Of course she is. No. Don't you see? She was clever enough to nail it shut again after she left it. Here, give me that pry iron. You're not going to I must be sure. I must make absolutely certain she is still in her coffin. Otherwise, I dare not bring Constance here. Ernest. Can't you understand? Constance will lie here in the same vault with Berenice. If Berenice has the power to leave her coffin, what might she not do to the sister she hated as she hated me? You see?
You see, you understand? Yes, yes, sir. So then
[00:32:32] Unknown:
Mayor. Well, are you satisfied?
[00:32:38] Unknown:
The body seems not to have moved. She is dead. No doubt about it, Berenice. Is dead.
[00:32:47] Unknown:
No question, my friend. You can set your mind at rest.
[00:32:51] Unknown:
Anthony, would you nail the lid back on? I want to go to Constance. Be with her until, until we bring her body here.
[00:33:08] Unknown:
Ernest.
[00:33:09] Unknown:
Yes, Anthony?
[00:33:11] Unknown:
Ernest, it's 02:00 in the morning.
[00:33:13] Unknown:
Not for her. Not for Constance. For Constance, there is no time now. Ernest, please go to bed. To bed? To dream? Once again to ride a nightmare? I asked the doctor to give me a sedative for you. Now if you'll take It will do no good. More harm than good. I've taken them before and I I cannot leave Constance alone. Not to the awful loneliness of death. I will stay with her. No. I will. I
[00:33:42] Unknown:
must. Ernest, hear me now. You will drive yourself mad if you go on like this. As your friend, I
[00:33:49] Unknown:
What? You heard it? I am not hearing things.
[00:33:54] Unknown:
That sigh, it was Constance. And look, Ernest, look.
[00:33:58] Unknown:
Color. Her cheeks. Color coming into her cheeks. Pulse. How how do you feel for a pulse? Now let me
[00:34:06] Unknown:
yes. Yes. There is no pulse. And yet a faint warmth. Her wrist beneath my hand feels Ernest, I tell you that it's warm. Alive.
[00:34:18] Unknown:
She is alive. Oh, god. God, in your merciful goodness, I thank you. Thank you. And while you're thanking god, I'll fetch the doctor.
[00:34:30] Unknown:
Doctor. Thank you, doctor. I'm sorry to have put you through all this trouble. Thank you and good night. I'm I'm sorry, Ernest. Strange.
[00:34:40] Unknown:
Strange. Very. There was color in her cheeks, warmth in her body. Yet by the time the doctor arrived, the warmth had fled. The color vanished. She was once again a corpse. Anthony, what do you make of it? I cannot say.
[00:34:55] Unknown:
I don't know. It's one of the the most baffling things I've ever seen. But then Mangrove Manor seems alive with strange things. Not so strange if you had lived a year with Berenice,
[00:35:08] Unknown:
if you had come to know her as the devil she was. I begin to believe you.
[00:35:12] Unknown:
It's four in the morning and I've been up we both have been since early yesterday. There'll be much to do tomorrow and both of us must get some rest. No. Not I. I will stay with Constance. Alright, Ernest. But be sensible. Take that large armchair in the corner and see if you can at least doze for a time. Very well. I'll go to my room for an hour or two of sleep. Alright.
[00:35:32] Unknown:
And, Anthony, thank you for all you've done. That's nothing. Nothing. Constance, my lovely Constance, I'll not leave you. I shall be there in that chair across the room. In this chair, Constance, still very near you, still watching you, waiting with you through the long silence of death. Again? It was you again? You you were sitting up. You are leaving the bed and coming toward me. You are not dead. You live. Oh, let me see your face. I cannot see it. The shadows and burial shroud hiding it from me. Take the burial shroud from your face. Let me see you. Constance, beloved, let me see you. Why do you laugh, my darling? Why?
Is it happiness at finding yourself alive? Is it joy in knowing you're not dead after all? Here. Let me take away the shroud.
[00:36:38] Unknown:
There.
[00:36:41] Unknown:
What? The teeth.
[00:36:43] Unknown:
The teeth. Berenice.
[00:36:46] Unknown:
You are Berenice and Constance's body.
[00:36:54] Unknown:
No, Ernest. No. It was not a nightmare. I thought it was.
[00:36:58] Unknown:
I thought I'd had another horrible dream that I'd gone to sleep in the chair and dreamed it all. I might have thought so too if I'd only found you lying on the floor unconscious.
[00:37:06] Unknown:
But my dear friend, I I cannot describe my shock. Constance's body was sprawled across yours. Constance's body?
[00:37:15] Unknown:
But Berenice's spirit? Don't think about it. Put it out of your head. Impossible. It is etched in acid in my memory. I shall see it in every moment of my life, waking or sleeping. The lips curled back in that fearful sneer. The teeth, the teeth, the terrifying teeth. If only I could blot them from my mind, but I can't.
[00:37:38] Unknown:
Perhaps you can. Perhaps there is a way. What? If, as you think, Berenice is using Constance's body to haunt you, torment She is. She is. Then all we need do is what we must do in any case. Bury Constance in the vault.
[00:37:54] Unknown:
But, of course, I sicken at the thought of placing my own dear lovely Constance in that cold, moldy chamber. And yet it must be done. And with her body locked within the vault, Berenice will be unable to haunt me.
[00:38:13] Unknown:
But I'm I must leave, Ernest. I have stayed as long as I can, far longer than I anticipated. And I I do have other business, pressing business in Baton Rouge. The thought of being alone in this huge and empty house, is there no way to persuade you? I'm sorry, Ernest, but there isn't.
[00:38:28] Unknown:
I've done all I can for you. You know I have. Of course, I know it. There is no better friend in all the world than you, and I have no right to urge you to stay. None at all. But I am afraid. Afraid to be alone. Afraid. Of all things, it is a madness. Afraid of Berenice's teeth.
[00:38:49] Unknown:
I suppose it is a form of madness. Berenice is dead and buried. Constance is dead and buried. And so Berenice cannot inhabit her corpse to torture you. She'll find a way. She will not. She will.
[00:39:02] Unknown:
She lies in that vault out there. And in time, her body will rot. But teeth, teeth do not. And so long as a tooth remains in her skull Ernest, it's 10:00.
[00:39:13] Unknown:
I have a long, hard ride ahead of me tomorrow. I must get to bed, and so must you. We are both very much in need of rest.
[00:39:21] Unknown:
Rest? So long as I live, there will never again be any rest for me. What? What? Baroness, that laugh. Did I hear it or only dream? Open the window and listen. Nothing. Nothing. A dream, another nightmare. Too bad at this too. But what is this? I'm wet to the skin. My my night clothes are drenched. My my feet caked with mud. Oh, wait. Wait, it comes back to me now. The dream. The nightmare. Was it a dream or did I? Anthony. Anthony. Anthony. I'm coming. I'm coming. Good good lord, man. What is it now? Come in. Come into my room. Yes. But what is it? What's happened? Another of your awful nightmares?
[00:40:27] Unknown:
Well,
[00:40:29] Unknown:
I don't know. You don't know if you had a nightmare or you didn't? If it was a dream, then then that's what it was. But if it wasn't, if I really did the thing I thought I dreamed then then, Anthony, I am mad. What do you mean? I mean that if I really did it, I've done something so horrible it could only be the work of a madman. Ernest, what did you do? I dreamed. Oh, make it a dream. But look at me. My my clothes soaked through. My my feet muddied. I I must have done it. Done what? What? I I left my bed and went outside to the tool shed. The tool shed? And found what I was looking for. And then I went to the vault. In this storm, you went Yes. To the vault. I unbolted the gate and went in.
And then I pried open Berenice's coffin. Oh, no. Yes. Yes. There she lay, moldering in death. But the lips drawn back and the teeth, those white, even perfect, gruesome teeth exposed. I I stared at them, stared in a horror of fascination. And then taking the instrument I brought with me, I I did what had to be done to save my sanity. What? What did you do? I dare not speak of it. Put words to it. Nor can I bear to look? Look? To see, was it dream or reality? Look at what? When I when I had done it, I returned here to my room. I I placed the instrument on the mantle.
In my dream, I placed it there. And though it must be a dream. Please, go to the mantle. See if the instrument is there. Very well, Ernest.
[00:42:21] Unknown:
I I see nothing here but a pair of pliers. This this is the instrument you used in your dream? No dream.
[00:42:32] Unknown:
No dream. Can't you understand that now? No dream. The pliers are there. I did it. May a merciful god forgive him, madman. I did it. The the table. My bedside table. Look there now. Look. They
[00:42:59] Unknown:
are there? They are here on your bedside table. All of them. All of Berenice's teeth.
[00:43:24] Unknown:
Well, a toothsome tail, was it not? Something to let your imagination chew on? Sorry. Couldn't resist that. Seriously, though, this story, as many another, reflects that certain mystery which has puzzled mankind since the first tick of time. Which is the reality of our lives? Which the dream? You got me. I'll be back shortly.
[00:43:51] Unknown:
Murder on the Orient Express is movie magic. The most entertaining evening of the year. Cheers Liz Smith of Cosmopolitan. Judith Criss, New York Magazine claims Agatha Christie's marvelously intricate who've done it becomes a joyous experience, a feast in any season. And Playboy calls it sheer old fashioned escapism. See Murder on the Orient Express from Paramount Pictures rated PG parental guidance suggestion.
[00:44:18] Unknown:
Murder on the Orient Express is now playing at a theater near you.
[00:44:24] Unknown:
Our cast included Norman Rose, Michael Tolan, Joan Lovejoy, and Roberta Maxwell. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. Radio mystery theater was sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division. This is EG Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time. Pleasant dreams.
[00:45:02] Unknown:
The preceding program was furnished by the Columbia Broadcasting System. Your dial is set for fifteen minutes of late news with John Scott reporting. This is WOR New York, an RKO general station.
[00:45:17] Unknown:
11,000 more workers, mostly in the auto industry, are losing their jobs. The National Cancer Institute studying a virus that may cause human cancer. New York City cops must wear name tags beginning Monday morning. The man's is partly cloudy tonight and cooler, the low in the thirties. Sunny and unseasonably mild tomorrow, the high in the low fifties. This is John Scott with the 08:00 edition of the news featuring the financial review. More layoffs are in the news. Today, more than 11,000 workers, mostly in the auto industry, learned that they would be laid off their jobs indefinitely.
General Motors says it will put almost 3,000 employees at its Lordstown, Ohio plant on indefinite layoff beginning January 20. Three GM divisions in Indiana also announced layoffs affecting a total of 1,335 employees. In all, GM's indefinite layoffs this month have affected one fourth of its 370,000 hourly workers in The United States. Chrysler says over 1,000 of the 3,000 workers at its casting division plant in Newcastle, Indiana will be laid off Monday. Three major tire companies, Goodyear, Firestone, and Cyberling, announced over 2,000 layoffs.
Other companies announcing layoffs include United Airlines. United saying it's furloughing 599 employees in reducing the number economic slump and energy problems. The labor department says the government is confident of having 300,000 jobless workers employed in public service jobs by the March. A labor department official says the government will have to spend five times as much as it's now spending to provide jobs for one seventh of those now out of work. The official estimates that all levels of government will spend about $17,000,000,000 to ease the pains of unemployment.
Meanwhile, president Ford reportedly is considering as congress to approve a $15,000,000,000 rebate on 1974 income taxes. This would reportedly amount to about 10% of the total taxes. The Booth newspapers say mister Ford will make the request in a state of the union message to congress, coupling it with a proposed tax cut for 1975. The new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee wants a tax cut for middle and lower income people. Representative Al Ullman thinks a cut will help the recession by pumping billions of dollars back into the economy. The Oregon Democrat wants the measure acted on quickly.
[00:47:30] Unknown:
I'm going to recommend to the committee that we go into immediate consideration of an emergency tax measure. It's my hope that, it will involve, immediate relief to individuals in the low and middle income brackets that will give some corporate relief where it's needed, and, might very well include part of the energy package and an end of the depletion allowance that we had recommended last year. That's the kind of package I think we can act quickly on. It's my hope we can get it to the floor of congress by the March 1 and get it passed by the house, and, then over to the other body where they can move on it hopefully very expeditiously and hopefully, limiting it to the emergency measures, nonstructural measures that will feed, revenues back into the economy, which is the whole purpose of the bill.
[00:48:17] Unknown:
Major Northeastern sugar refiners cut the price of their industrial sugars by more than 3 and a half dollars a 100 weight today. The price cuts by CPC International, Amstar, Secrest, and the National Sugar Refining Company are the first since December 13. The Food and Drug Administration has extended its restrictions on the use of saccharin. This came after the FDA received a new scientific report which failed to establish the safety of the artificial sweetener. Since February 1972, the FDA has restricted the average adult's intake of saccharin to one gram a day. The FDA says it will take several months to complete more exhaustive tests.
The National Cancer Institute is trying to determine whether a virus isolated at the institute is a human cancer virus. The virus was discovered in blood cells originally taken from a victim of a rare but lethal form of leukemia. The institute is studying the virus to determine whether the virus is of human origin and not a contaminant from an animal. A White House spokesman says president Ford is giving intensive consideration to South Vietnam's request for additional US funds. Presidential spokesman Ron Nesson says mister Ford feels the amount of aid voted by Congress to both South Vietnam and Cambodia is inadequate. Nesson said the president's concern relates to what he feels is necessary to allow the South Vietnamese adequately to defend themselves.
Nesson wouldn't say how much extra aid the president might seek. Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield said he's opposed to any additional aid for South Vietnam or Cambodia, and the Montana Democrat adds that such a proposal would probably meet vigorous resistance in Congress. Former president Nixon celebrated his 60 birthday today at the San Clemente, California state. Mister Nixon, recuperating from surgery for a blood clot in his left leg, spent the day quietly with his wife, Pat. The WOR news time, it's five minutes past eight. Food shoppers, by this time, one of your New Year resolutions should be to save on your weekly food bill, and the place to do that is at any nearby Bohac or Village supermarket.
Here are some examples of real savings for you. USDA choice beef, top or bottom round roast for a low low dollar 29 a pound. You'll also find a pork loin sale. The rib end is just a low 79¢ a pound. And here's a special price reduction, USDA grade a large white eggs, only 79¢ a dozen. And with any additional $5 purchase and coupons, you can save on all of the following. Wesson Oil, the gallon jug, only $4.79. Scott Towels, the jumbo roll, just 29¢. Hunt's tomato sauce, the eight ounce can, just 5¢. And Pillsbury Ballard biscuits, the eight ounce size, just 7¢. So remember, in 1975, the place to save is at any nearby Bohac or Village supermarket, where you'll find an abundance of quality foods at old fashioned prices.
The federal government has found appalling conditions in some local nursing homes. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare says it will no longer support nursing homes that don't meet federal requirements. HEW says it will cut off federal Medicaid funds to five homes in the city and nine in New York state. It's part of a new federal policy. Assistant HEW administrator Peter Franklin explains. Where
[00:51:21] Unknown:
the nursing home has a provider agreement and is providing services under the Medicaid program, and we go in as the federal government and find that this home does not meet the conditions of participation established by federal regulation under Medicaid, we will notify the state, be it New York or any other state in the union, these are national regulations, that we are terminating the federal financial participation, the 50¢ on the dollar, to this nursing home through the state. And this is very major. This will assure that the taxpayers' funds will not be used to support unfit care.
[00:52:02] Unknown:
Governor Kerry will name a special prosecutor to investigate alleged Medicaid fraud in the nursing home industry in a day or two. Informed sources said that those being given strongest consideration for the post were special state prosecutor Maurice Najari and Joseph Hines, first assistant to Brooklyn District Attorney Eugene Gold. Also reported to be under consideration was Morris Abram, former president of Brandeis University. This just in, former Brooklyn congressman Bertram l Podell, a state and federal lawmaker for twenty years, was sentenced tonight to six months in jail and fined $5,000 for using his influence as a Democratic congressman in an effort to obtain a Bahamas route for a Florida air taxi service.
The Long Island Lighting Company, LILCO, now has the authorization to boost electric rates for the second time in a year. The State Public Service Commission has approved the latest rate increase, which would yield $35,600,000 a year for Lilco. Together with the interim rates in effect since last June, the utility would receive $64,300,000. The director of meat purchases for the Waldbaum supermarket chain has pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving kickbacks from wholesale suppliers. Without opposition from The US Attorney's Office, 51 year old Barnett Friedman was allowed to plead guilty to one count of receiving over $4,500 in kickbacks during 1972.
Now we'll have the weather and the top of the news in brief right after this.
[00:53:29] Unknown:
General
[00:53:39] Unknown:
Tire doesn't claim its tire experts have all the answers, but they can tell you just about everything you want to know about tires. And that's important with so many new kinds of tires coming out and so many different claims about those tires. The general tire specialist is trained to analyze what tire fits your driving habits, your car, your budget. And the general tire specialist can handle your automotive service needs too. He's one of the reasons, one of the best reasons why sooner or later, you alone generals. Check your yellow pages for the general tire headquarters nearest you. Here's the weather watch update for New York City and the vicinity. Mostly cloudy and partly cloudy tonight I'm cooler with a low in the middle thirties. Sunny and unseasonably mild tomorrow with a high in the low fifties. Increasing cloudiness tomorrow night, the low near 40.
Cloudy on Saturday with a chance of rain developing in the day, the high in the low fifties. Right now in clear Mid Manhattan, it's 42 degrees. The humidity 79%. The wind northeast at five miles an hour, and the barometer is rising from 30 o nine inches. And the top story is more than 11,000 workers, mostly in the auto industry, are being laid off their jobs indefinitely. The labor department says the government expects to have about 300,000 unemployed workers on public service job payrolls by March. The White House spokesman says president Ford is giving intensive consideration to more aid for both South Vietnam and Cambodia.
The National Cancer Institute is studying a virus isolated in its laboratories to see if it's a human cancer virus. New York City cops must wear name tags beginning Monday morning. And that, friends, is the 08:00 edition of the news. This is John Scott reporting bidding you good night. Next news as it happens, next scheduled news at nine over WOR Radio seven ten, the talk of New York with Lester Smith. Now be sure to stay tuned for Barry Farber coming up next over WOR New York and RKO General Station.
Stay tuned for mystery theater.
[00:00:21] Unknown:
Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. Like to ask you something. What do you consider your most attractive feature? Your hair? Your eyes? Complexion? Your figure? Whatever, each of us is abundantly aware, though there are some who would deny it, of his or her most captivating attribute and make the most of it, though there are some who deny that too. Be all this as it may. We're about to hear of a woman whose most beguiling characteristic was her smile. And because of it, the horrible thing that happened. Our mystery drama, Berenice, was adapted from the Edgar Allan Poe classic, especially for the mystery theater by George Lowther and stars Michael Tolan and Norman Rose.
It is sponsored in part by Contact, the twelve hour cold capsule, and Anheuser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser. I'll be back shortly with act one.
[00:01:39] Unknown:
Six of a three or one. That's the question when you catch the common cold. Sneezing, drips, congestion. Then take twelve hour contact. You need six cold tablets, two every four hours, or three ounces of colds liquid, one every four hours, or just one contact for up to twelve hours continuous relief of those symptoms. The tiny time pills do it. Both the others contain things for aches and fever. The liquid, something for coughs, not found at contact. Your gold, your choice. 60301. Take contact. Only as directed.
[00:02:23] Unknown:
This is Tommy Macom. I'm sitting in the John Barleycorn located at 209 East 40 Fifth Street, just off Third Avenue. John Barleycorn is New York's first and most famous Irish singing pub. If you want a sample of what Irish hospitality is really like, you should come in and soak up the atmosphere. The hospitality is warm, the people are cheerful, and the service is just fantastic. They have an old saying at the Barleycorn, there are no strangers here, only friends you haven't met, and you can prove that to yourself by dropping in anytime. You can have lunch, dinner, or supper seven days a week and a good time all the time. The food is split for royalty. And as a matter of fact, some of the recipes have been handed down from the courts of Irish kings. The John Barleycorn, the Irish oasis in Midtown Manhattan.
[00:03:17] Unknown:
For lunch, dinner, or special party information, call 61088.
[00:03:33] Unknown:
What we call a fixation, an is one of the most extraordinary and mystifying aspects of the human mind. For example, love. Young love, at least, is a fixation, for the lover cannot get the loved one out of his thoughts. He thinks of her night and day or she of him. And there is, I need scarcely say, no more wondrous person in all the world. What cure can be found for a fixation? Well, when it comes to love, and I don't mean to sound cynical, I suppose marriage. But when it came to Ernest Montessori and his wife, Berenice,
[00:04:14] Unknown:
well, that's our story. Do not tell me, Anthony, what I must do or must not do. Ernest, please. You are my friend. You are my attorney. You have come here to Mangrove Manor to straighten out whatever legal matters attend Berenice's death, and that is all. Ernest, I didn't mean to offend you. I am not offended. I am irritated. You can sit there and say, Ernest, your wife is dying. Try not to hate her as you do. Let me tell you something, my good friend. Had you lived one month, one week, one day in this house with Berenice, that shrew, that spitfire, You two would know what hate is. But I don't understand.
[00:04:49] Unknown:
I was at your wedding a little over a year ago here at Mangrove, and you were deliriously in love with her.
[00:04:55] Unknown:
Not her. Her smile. What? I know you'll find it hard to believe but that is the truth. Oh, there were other qualities that attracted me, her charm, her gentle manner, her warmth, but these vanished quickly once we were married. I soon learned that her charm was a veneer, her gentle manner, a mask that concealed a vicious temper. I am sorry. I didn't want to hate her. For months, I put all feelings of hate from me. But while asking myself how and why I still went on loving her, that's when I realized was her smile. I still fail to understand. Look at Berenice closely and you will see that she's really very plain, almost ugly. But one doesn't look closely at first. I didn't, surely, because of her smile, of what her smile was then.
She had teeth so even, so white, so perfect. They are as matched pearls. As for her lips, nowhere will you find lips so beautifully modeled, so sensuously inviting, so absolutely enthralling. I remember. Yes. But, Anthony, soon after our marriage, her smile changed too. The lovely contour of her lips became an ugly sneer. She no longer smiled. She bared her teeth like a vicious animal. But there must have been a reason, something that impelled her to I'll give you a reason if you must have it. Constance.
[00:06:14] Unknown:
Berenice's younger sister? Yes. You know she came to live here at Mangrove when her husband died. I I settled the estate. Yes. Not I'm afraid that there was much to settle. He left her penniless. Precisely why she lived here. Berenice began to think Go no further, Ernest. I am well acquainted with what is termed the eternal triangle. In this case, there was no triangle. Not then. But there is now.
[00:06:38] Unknown:
Constance is what Berenice pretended to be. Gentle, innocent, loving. Yes. I have fallen in love with her and she with me. But you may believe me as Berenice never has when I tell you that our love is and has ever been platonic. Neither of us has betrayed Berenice in any way. Yes, come? Oh, Constance, my dear. We were just speaking of you.
[00:07:04] Unknown:
You remember Anthony Lamb? With pleasure. You were such a help and comfort to me when my husband died, mister Lamb. I did what I could. You
[00:07:12] Unknown:
you look upset, Constance.
[00:07:13] Unknown:
Berenice wants to see you. And she's in one of her blackest moods, I'm afraid. Is she ever in any other? Try not to be harsh on her, Ernest. She's dying, you know.
[00:07:24] Unknown:
I shall try.
[00:07:26] Unknown:
If you'll excuse us, Anthony. Perhaps I should come along. I have to discuss certain legal matters with Berenice, and it will be best if she knows I'm here. Come then.
[00:07:36] Unknown:
But I warn you, my friend. You'll regret every moment spent with her.
[00:07:49] Unknown:
It's you.
[00:07:50] Unknown:
You wanted to see me, Veronese?
[00:07:52] Unknown:
You. Not this army you've brought with you. Get out of here, Constance.
[00:07:59] Unknown:
Of course.
[00:08:02] Unknown:
And who are you? I've seen you somewhere.
[00:08:06] Unknown:
I remember you. I'm Anthony Lamb Bernice. I don't blame you for not recognizing me. It's been over a year.
[00:08:13] Unknown:
Oh, yes. Yes. I remember you now, Ernest's friend, the pettifogging lawyer, the shyster. Why are you here? Well, now I, Yes. Yes.
[00:08:24] Unknown:
Ernest asked me to come because well, Bernice, I'm I'm told you're quite ill. And at such times, it's, well, it's best to
[00:08:33] Unknown:
to To make sure that all will be legally neat and tidy when I'm cold in my coffin. Well, you put it much The only way it can be put. I'm dying, and I know I'm dying, and so do you. If you don't, you must be blind. And if you want proof of it, look. Once my smile was the most ravishing smile on Earth. Look at it now. Yes. Yes. The color leaves your face, mister lawyer. You all but shrink away because it's no longer the beautiful smile of the living Berenice, but the ghastly grin of the Berenice who will soon be cold in death. Stop it. Stop smiling. Dear husband, what is it? You used to tell me my smile captivated you, enslaved you.
Can't be that it now repels you. Oh, don't turn away. I won't look at you, not when you smile. Don't look then for all the good it'll do you. You'll remember. Soon, I shall be dead, but my smile will never die. It will live on in your brain, Ernest. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it will be with you. No. This smile, this ghoulish grimace, because it was what you married, what you loved, and then came the hate. And you will hate it till the day you die, Ernest. For till that day, awake or asleep, it will haunt you.
[00:10:23] Unknown:
Would you care for more of the shrimp, mister Lamb? Well, thank you. No, Constance.
[00:10:27] Unknown:
Oh, and do call me Anthony, won't you? It'll make me feel so much younger. If you wish.
[00:10:32] Unknown:
Ernest, won't you eat? You haven't touched a morsel. Not hungry. But you must keep up your strength. If you're not careful, you'll be having nightmares again. Nightmares, Ernest? The most horrible you can imagine.
[00:10:45] Unknown:
Berenice has all but ruined my health. Ruined it. Hush now. We mustn't talk that way. What other way is there? No more wine, Ernest. Another glass can do no harm. No more, dear.
[00:10:57] Unknown:
For my sake.
[00:10:58] Unknown:
For your sake, anything. Anything except a lie about my true feelings. You, Constance, you have lived in this house for nearly a year. You know the hell she has made of my life. You know that I could not mourn her passing. And what is more, you know that I love only you. Ernest, it is not the proper time. I know. I know. But I Now you are overwrought.
[00:11:20] Unknown:
It is not you speaking but your nerves. Listen to me. Constance. My sister lies upstairs dying. Whatever you think of her, in these last days of her life, though we cannot, in truth, love her, we can, in all dignity and honor, try at least not to hate her. You must try, Ernest. You must.
[00:11:42] Unknown:
Yes. And with your help, I shall.
[00:11:45] Unknown:
But you will not succeed.
[00:11:47] Unknown:
Darnese. How did you get here out of bed?
[00:11:50] Unknown:
I rang my bell, but no one came. I called, but you did not answer. We didn't hear. And so I found the strength. What strength remains? To come down and tell you I am about to die. No. No. When death is near, you know it. Full well, you know it. I have little time left now. Perhaps only minutes. A glass of wine.
[00:12:17] Unknown:
Of course. Of course.
[00:12:21] Unknown:
He hurries to assist me, to comfort me, when in his heart, he would kill me. No. No, Berenice. I would not. Well, I, you hate me. Say it. You hate me. Say it.
[00:12:38] Unknown:
Here. The glass of wine you asked for.
[00:12:42] Unknown:
That's your glass of wine. Sniveling, nightmare ridden fool. I had hoped I'd at last found a man when I married you. You were like all the others. Melanie, let me help you back to your But as for you, did you think I wasn't on to you and your little tricks? Did you think me blind that I couldn't see what went on between you and my husband? Nothing before heaven. I swear that Liar. I saw. I know. Little Constance. Innocent, saintly little sister, sinking her claws deeper and deeper into the man who was mine. Madam.
[00:13:30] Unknown:
You address me. Madam, you are ill. Yet there is in you a kind of strength I have recognized before. In, I say to you, the worst kind of criminal. Gone. I don't know that I can. I have never understood what made these people what they were, but this I know. There are angels on this earth and there are devils. And you, madam, I say it to you, even in your dying moments, you are a devil. I don't blame you for looking at me like that. I I spoke on impulse. I'm ashamed.
[00:13:59] Unknown:
Ashamed? You are the first man who is ever dare to
[00:14:05] Unknown:
There is Stay away.
[00:14:07] Unknown:
Stand back. Don't don't touch me. Only listen. You will be haunted by the magnet that drew you to me, the weapon with which I ruined your life and will destroy you. My smile, Ernest. My smile. No. Look at me. Sensuous lips bearing milk white perfectly matched teeth. Look.
[00:14:36] Unknown:
Oh, who can't hear? Let me She's falling across the table?
[00:14:42] Unknown:
I think, yes, she's gone. Berenice is dead.
[00:14:49] Unknown:
No. Ernest, don't. Her mouth.
[00:14:53] Unknown:
She is staring at me with her teeth. Anthony, in heaven's name, close her mouth.
[00:15:01] Unknown:
Close her mouth.
[00:15:08] Unknown:
I said at the outset, you'll recall, that because of Berenice's smile, a horrible thing happened. What has just happened in the dining room in Mangrove Manor is indeed horrible, but nowhere near as horrible as that which is about to take place. I will return shortly with act two.
[00:15:30] Unknown:
Inside your free. Inside your free, after all. Yeah.
[00:15:50] Unknown:
You're driving a car you knew you were gonna buy the minute you saw it. Skyhawk. Buick Skyhawk. You just knew a car this streamline would be easy on gas, and you were right. In published EPA mileage test results, Skyhawk got 25 miles per gallon on the open road and 16 in the city. Buick Skyhawk,
[00:16:09] Unknown:
dynamite.
[00:16:31] Unknown:
We're all starting the New Year with a close watch on our budgets. Your ShopRite supermarket is helping with economy dishes that are high in nutrition, low in cost. First cut beef chuck steaks, just 57¢ a pound. Semi boneless chuck steak or roast, 97¢ a pound. Beef liver, just 57¢ a pound. Pork loin, a seven rib cut, 77¢ a pound. Dress up your beef dishes with fresh mushrooms, just 79¢ a pound. Throughout the store, you'll find a lot more for a little less at ShopRite.
[00:17:28] Unknown:
I think it was sir Winston Churchill who said that when the human brain grabs hold of a thing, a worry, a concern of some sort, an anxiety, it grips that thing as in an iron fist and will not let it go. Clearly then, this is what has happened to Ernest Montresor, who, even while she was alive, could not get his wife's sneering smile out of his head. And now that she has been placed in the family vault on the estate near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, well, listen.
[00:18:01] Unknown:
Ernest. Ernest.
[00:18:04] Unknown:
Yes, Anthony. What? It's more than half an hour since everyone left. Constance and I are getting chilled to the bone here in the vault. Let's go back to the house. Not till I'm sure the lid of Berenice's casket is nailed tight. But you are sure. It's
[00:18:18] Unknown:
it's madness, I know, Anthony. But I have the fear that somehow, in some way, she'll get out of her coffin and haunt me. You're letting your imagination
[00:18:25] Unknown:
run away with you, Ernest. You're tired, overwrought. My sister is dead. She'll not get out of her coffin. Come now.
[00:18:34] Unknown:
Ernest. Yes. Let us return to the house.
[00:18:44] Unknown:
I'll close and lock the gate. No, I will.
[00:18:48] Unknown:
There. She's well nailed down in her coffin. Well locked in two pairs. Now let's no. No. Delete. Good lord, man. What now? I must make sure the lock is strong. Sound and strong. Now, Ernest, dear, that's enough. Don't tell me what is enough.
[00:19:08] Unknown:
Ernest. Dearest, what is it? Why are you looking at me with such fear?
[00:19:13] Unknown:
Never, Constance. Never so long as you live smile at me like that again. You you look like Berenice. But earnest, I My my nerves are shaking. I I need a drink. Excuse me.
[00:19:28] Unknown:
He's in trouble, Constance. We'd we'd best catch up with him. But Anthony Nothing to worry about, really. You you just upset him a little when you smile. But that's the point. What?
[00:19:37] Unknown:
I didn't smile.
[00:19:45] Unknown:
Will you take another brandy, Anthony? Thank you. No cuss. As they say, one is as good as more. I wish Ernest thought so. He is drinking a bit too much, though he doesn't show it. His nerves burn up the spirits quickly.
[00:19:59] Unknown:
I have never seen him in such a nervous condition, never so exhausted. Let's hope he's having a good deep, restful sleep. Speaking of what is good for Ernest, I hope you'll be able to stay with us a while, Anthony. I should like to, but I have pressing business in Baton Rouge. A few days? It would be such a comfort to Ernest. I'm sure, but the comfort he really needs is
[00:20:20] Unknown:
is what you can give him. Constance, may I speak frankly? Of course. In ordinary circumstances, by which I mean had Ernest and Berenice still loved each other, I'd not suggest anything of this sort. But for all things considered, Constance, I should like to see you marry Ernest as soon as possible. Berenice not yet cold in her grave, and you? I do. Yes. Constance, you alone can give him the love and the warmth he so desperately needs. I I know. But,
[00:20:48] Unknown:
oh, Anthony, whatever she was, Berenice was my sister. How can I, in all conscience, marry her husband within so short a time? It would be an act of indecency.
[00:21:01] Unknown:
No. An act of charity and of love. My dear, no immediate decision is needed. Think about it and show No. What? In the name of heaven It's earnest. No. Come. Queen.
[00:21:17] Unknown:
No. Earnest, merciful No. Ernest, merciful lord, what is it? Oh, oh, it's you. You, good friend, and and Constance. Then it was a dream. What was, my dearest? I I dreamed that I was awake, that I'd awaken from a sound sleep. It was all so real. I I heard the storm outside and saw lightning brighten the room and thought, oh, good. I I did manage to sleep and get some rest and now I've awakened and Yes. And? And then then I saw it hanging in the darkness of the room, burning bright in the black pitch of night. Saw it. Gently, my darling.
[00:21:54] Unknown:
Gently now.
[00:21:56] Unknown:
So what? Her smile. Berenice's smile. Her disembodied smile. Nothing else. It hung suspended in the dark before my eyes. The lips drawn back. The teeth shining in the blackness. Oh, Ernest. Ernest. And then and then her teeth, those terrifying white even teeth parted as she began to laugh. The most hideous laugh I have heard in all my life. Her mouth, her bodiless mouth as it laughed, it started coming closer to me. Closer, closer, and I I screamed. I screamed.
[00:22:33] Unknown:
Anthony, what's to be done? We must fetch the doctor and at once.
[00:22:45] Unknown:
Ernest? Ernest, stop for a bit.
[00:22:49] Unknown:
Oh, let's rest. Of course, my dear. Of course. Here, let me help you down. Oh,
[00:22:58] Unknown:
thank you, Ernest. There's a log over there.
[00:23:02] Unknown:
Shall we sit? I would rather stand and hold you.
[00:23:07] Unknown:
Oh, you are feeling better. Come.
[00:23:10] Unknown:
Let's sit down. No. No. Wait. Ernest? Please listen, Constance. Anthony returns to Baton Rouge tomorrow. I had a talk with him this morning. He knows I'm devoted to you and you to me. He urged, not that I needed urging, that I ask you to marry me. Ernest Do say yes, Constance. I beg you. Say you'll marry me.
[00:23:30] Unknown:
That's exactly what I was going to say once you gave me the chance. You
[00:23:35] Unknown:
you will? You'll marry me? Oh, I will.
[00:23:39] Unknown:
Oh, I will. Constance. Oh, Constance.
[00:23:46] Unknown:
Let's hurry back and tell Anthony.
[00:23:48] Unknown:
Yes. That dear good friend of yours will be relieved to know, I'm sure. Here. I'll give you a hand up.
[00:23:55] Unknown:
There. Oh, Ernest, my horse. Oh. Ernest, he's running away with me.
[00:24:11] Unknown:
Anthony, I must go up. Patience, good friend. The doctor should be down any moment. But he's been with her for more than an hour. I knew she was seriously injured. I knew at the instant I picked her up. The way you described it, it was a bad fall. The horse running away, for what reason God alone knows, tried to leap a high fence, failed to make it and came down rolling on Constance as she lay beneath it. Oh, terrible, terrible.
[00:24:32] Unknown:
But no sense anticipating the worst. Constance may not be seriously hurt at all.
[00:24:36] Unknown:
Constance is dying. What?
[00:24:39] Unknown:
She is dying. Oh, come now, Ernest. You carry even your nerves too far. There's something I
[00:24:45] Unknown:
I didn't tell you. When I got to Constance, she was unconscious. I knelt beside her, got my arms under her, raised her, and stood up. I began to carry her to the house a long distance. I'm not very strong. I tire easily. And so after a short time, I stopped for breath and looked at her. Looked into her face, Anthony. Yes? Her eyes were open and she was smiling. The lips pulled back, the teeth showing. For for an instant, she looked like Berenice. For that instant, she was Berenice. Doctor? Doctor, is she don't bother him now, Ernest. But I can bear no more of this waiting, this interminable waiting. Look at her.
So deathly white, scarcely breathing, if at all. Ernest? She called my name. Oh, Constance. Oh, my own dear Constance. Hush now.
[00:25:50] Unknown:
When
[00:25:51] Unknown:
when I am gone No. You must not go. You cannot leave me. You cannot When I am gone, I say
[00:25:59] Unknown:
no longer with you. Remember that it will be only on this earth I am not with you.
[00:26:06] Unknown:
In spirit, I shall be beside you always. You are not going to die. You will be at my side alive and beautiful in my own dear adored wife. No.
[00:26:15] Unknown:
That is not to be. Berenice has seen to that.
[00:26:21] Unknown:
Berenice?
[00:26:22] Unknown:
She was there. Just before my horse leaped the fence, I did not fancy it. She was there. She stood on the other side of the fence
[00:26:33] Unknown:
smiling. Oh, god. In heaven. And I knew
[00:26:38] Unknown:
in the second that I saw her, the second before the horse crashed, I knew that she is a tormented soul, a soul that cannot rest until she has forgiven the sins she committed on earth.
[00:26:53] Unknown:
The sin she committed against you. There is no forgiveness for what she did. There is.
[00:26:58] Unknown:
It is in your heart, my darling, if you will only search for it and find it. You
[00:27:03] Unknown:
you are asking me to forgive her? Yes. Never. I could never. You must.
[00:27:09] Unknown:
You must for my sake. Will you try? That is all I ask before I leave you, my dearest. Will you try?
[00:27:21] Unknown:
I I will try.
[00:27:23] Unknown:
And I, in another world, will love you for it more than I have ever loved you in this.
[00:27:31] Unknown:
Kiss me. Oh, no. No. Not if by saying that you tell me the time is near. Not if you tell me that. Really?
[00:27:37] Unknown:
Yes. Oh, yes.
[00:27:43] Unknown:
Constance? Constance? I'm sorry, Ernest. She's gone. Oh, no.
[00:27:53] Unknown:
Leave it to me, doctor. You have other matters to handle. Come, Ernest. Sit down here in this chair. Sit and I'll pour you a brandy.
[00:28:05] Unknown:
Dad. Dad. Dad.
[00:28:10] Unknown:
I know how you feel, but you mustn't go to pieces. Think of what she said, that she will be with you at your side always.
[00:28:17] Unknown:
What good is that if I cannot see her, touch her? What is he doing, the doctor? What must be done?
[00:28:26] Unknown:
Closing her eyes, straightening her limbs, placing her hands in repose.
[00:28:30] Unknown:
When he is finished, I shall sit with her, Anthony. Of course. And not leave her sight. He'll be take her to the vault. What's that? What? Listen. Someone
[00:28:42] Unknown:
laughing. No one is laughing, miss. Berenice.
[00:28:45] Unknown:
It is Berenice. What? She is laughing from the vault. From the vault. You doubt me? Here.
[00:28:51] Unknown:
I throw wide the window. You hear? You hear? I hear nothing. Laughing in triumph. Vicious triumph because once again she shattered my heart. Laugh, damn you laugh. But I shall have done with you yet. I shall. I shall. I
[00:29:09] Unknown:
Doctor, quickly. He's fainted dead away.
[00:29:20] Unknown:
So in fevered imagination, in the sickened mental state brought on by unbearable grief, Ernest fancies he hears the hideous laughter of Berenice pursuing him, haunting him, driving him mad in death as she did in life. Or is it fancy? We'll know more about that when I return for act three.
[00:29:49] Unknown:
Some beer drinkers have funny ideas about beer. They think beer improves with age, like wine. We'll find a brew master though. You'll find a beer drinker who knows better. The Budweiser brew master says it all depends on how beer is aged. Just letting beer sit in lagering tanks makes it older, not necessarily better. That even goes for keeping a case around the house for a couple of months. But there is one kind of aging that's good for beer. The Budweiser kind, beechwood aging. In this kind of aging, something happens. It lets all the flavor of the choices, hops, and best barley malt that go into Budweiser get through to you.
Sure. It takes more time and trouble to brew Budweiser that way, but brewing beer right does make a difference. Anheuser Busch, Saint Louis.
[00:30:51] Unknown:
Scarcely has the breath of life fled the body of his beloved Constance then Ernest Montresor hears or thinks he hears the triumphant laughter of his dead wife, Berenice. Even though Ernest's friend and attorney Anthony Lamb did not hear the laughter, can we say the laughter echoed only in Ernest's imagination? If it comes to that, who can say that imagination is not reality? Be that as it may, let us now join Ernest and Anthony in that family vault.
[00:31:25] Unknown:
It would seem that you're right, Anthony. Berenice must still be in her coffin. The lid is tightly nailed. Of course. But her laughter,
[00:31:34] Unknown:
so horribly clear. Ernest, there was no laughter. You imagined it. No. No. I heard it.
[00:31:40] Unknown:
She murdered Constance. She made the horse run away, fall, and kill her. Oh, Anthony, how can I rid myself of Berenice? Can I get rid of her? She was vile, vicious, clever.
[00:31:53] Unknown:
Clever. What? Clever.
[00:31:56] Unknown:
That's it. Clever. We look at this coffin lid. We see it tightly nailed, and so we think she's still there. Of course she is. No. Don't you see? She was clever enough to nail it shut again after she left it. Here, give me that pry iron. You're not going to I must be sure. I must make absolutely certain she is still in her coffin. Otherwise, I dare not bring Constance here. Ernest. Can't you understand? Constance will lie here in the same vault with Berenice. If Berenice has the power to leave her coffin, what might she not do to the sister she hated as she hated me? You see?
You see, you understand? Yes, yes, sir. So then
[00:32:32] Unknown:
Mayor. Well, are you satisfied?
[00:32:38] Unknown:
The body seems not to have moved. She is dead. No doubt about it, Berenice. Is dead.
[00:32:47] Unknown:
No question, my friend. You can set your mind at rest.
[00:32:51] Unknown:
Anthony, would you nail the lid back on? I want to go to Constance. Be with her until, until we bring her body here.
[00:33:08] Unknown:
Ernest.
[00:33:09] Unknown:
Yes, Anthony?
[00:33:11] Unknown:
Ernest, it's 02:00 in the morning.
[00:33:13] Unknown:
Not for her. Not for Constance. For Constance, there is no time now. Ernest, please go to bed. To bed? To dream? Once again to ride a nightmare? I asked the doctor to give me a sedative for you. Now if you'll take It will do no good. More harm than good. I've taken them before and I I cannot leave Constance alone. Not to the awful loneliness of death. I will stay with her. No. I will. I
[00:33:42] Unknown:
must. Ernest, hear me now. You will drive yourself mad if you go on like this. As your friend, I
[00:33:49] Unknown:
What? You heard it? I am not hearing things.
[00:33:54] Unknown:
That sigh, it was Constance. And look, Ernest, look.
[00:33:58] Unknown:
Color. Her cheeks. Color coming into her cheeks. Pulse. How how do you feel for a pulse? Now let me
[00:34:06] Unknown:
yes. Yes. There is no pulse. And yet a faint warmth. Her wrist beneath my hand feels Ernest, I tell you that it's warm. Alive.
[00:34:18] Unknown:
She is alive. Oh, god. God, in your merciful goodness, I thank you. Thank you. And while you're thanking god, I'll fetch the doctor.
[00:34:30] Unknown:
Doctor. Thank you, doctor. I'm sorry to have put you through all this trouble. Thank you and good night. I'm I'm sorry, Ernest. Strange.
[00:34:40] Unknown:
Strange. Very. There was color in her cheeks, warmth in her body. Yet by the time the doctor arrived, the warmth had fled. The color vanished. She was once again a corpse. Anthony, what do you make of it? I cannot say.
[00:34:55] Unknown:
I don't know. It's one of the the most baffling things I've ever seen. But then Mangrove Manor seems alive with strange things. Not so strange if you had lived a year with Berenice,
[00:35:08] Unknown:
if you had come to know her as the devil she was. I begin to believe you.
[00:35:12] Unknown:
It's four in the morning and I've been up we both have been since early yesterday. There'll be much to do tomorrow and both of us must get some rest. No. Not I. I will stay with Constance. Alright, Ernest. But be sensible. Take that large armchair in the corner and see if you can at least doze for a time. Very well. I'll go to my room for an hour or two of sleep. Alright.
[00:35:32] Unknown:
And, Anthony, thank you for all you've done. That's nothing. Nothing. Constance, my lovely Constance, I'll not leave you. I shall be there in that chair across the room. In this chair, Constance, still very near you, still watching you, waiting with you through the long silence of death. Again? It was you again? You you were sitting up. You are leaving the bed and coming toward me. You are not dead. You live. Oh, let me see your face. I cannot see it. The shadows and burial shroud hiding it from me. Take the burial shroud from your face. Let me see you. Constance, beloved, let me see you. Why do you laugh, my darling? Why?
Is it happiness at finding yourself alive? Is it joy in knowing you're not dead after all? Here. Let me take away the shroud.
[00:36:38] Unknown:
There.
[00:36:41] Unknown:
What? The teeth.
[00:36:43] Unknown:
The teeth. Berenice.
[00:36:46] Unknown:
You are Berenice and Constance's body.
[00:36:54] Unknown:
No, Ernest. No. It was not a nightmare. I thought it was.
[00:36:58] Unknown:
I thought I'd had another horrible dream that I'd gone to sleep in the chair and dreamed it all. I might have thought so too if I'd only found you lying on the floor unconscious.
[00:37:06] Unknown:
But my dear friend, I I cannot describe my shock. Constance's body was sprawled across yours. Constance's body?
[00:37:15] Unknown:
But Berenice's spirit? Don't think about it. Put it out of your head. Impossible. It is etched in acid in my memory. I shall see it in every moment of my life, waking or sleeping. The lips curled back in that fearful sneer. The teeth, the teeth, the terrifying teeth. If only I could blot them from my mind, but I can't.
[00:37:38] Unknown:
Perhaps you can. Perhaps there is a way. What? If, as you think, Berenice is using Constance's body to haunt you, torment She is. She is. Then all we need do is what we must do in any case. Bury Constance in the vault.
[00:37:54] Unknown:
But, of course, I sicken at the thought of placing my own dear lovely Constance in that cold, moldy chamber. And yet it must be done. And with her body locked within the vault, Berenice will be unable to haunt me.
[00:38:13] Unknown:
But I'm I must leave, Ernest. I have stayed as long as I can, far longer than I anticipated. And I I do have other business, pressing business in Baton Rouge. The thought of being alone in this huge and empty house, is there no way to persuade you? I'm sorry, Ernest, but there isn't.
[00:38:28] Unknown:
I've done all I can for you. You know I have. Of course, I know it. There is no better friend in all the world than you, and I have no right to urge you to stay. None at all. But I am afraid. Afraid to be alone. Afraid. Of all things, it is a madness. Afraid of Berenice's teeth.
[00:38:49] Unknown:
I suppose it is a form of madness. Berenice is dead and buried. Constance is dead and buried. And so Berenice cannot inhabit her corpse to torture you. She'll find a way. She will not. She will.
[00:39:02] Unknown:
She lies in that vault out there. And in time, her body will rot. But teeth, teeth do not. And so long as a tooth remains in her skull Ernest, it's 10:00.
[00:39:13] Unknown:
I have a long, hard ride ahead of me tomorrow. I must get to bed, and so must you. We are both very much in need of rest.
[00:39:21] Unknown:
Rest? So long as I live, there will never again be any rest for me. What? What? Baroness, that laugh. Did I hear it or only dream? Open the window and listen. Nothing. Nothing. A dream, another nightmare. Too bad at this too. But what is this? I'm wet to the skin. My my night clothes are drenched. My my feet caked with mud. Oh, wait. Wait, it comes back to me now. The dream. The nightmare. Was it a dream or did I? Anthony. Anthony. Anthony. I'm coming. I'm coming. Good good lord, man. What is it now? Come in. Come into my room. Yes. But what is it? What's happened? Another of your awful nightmares?
[00:40:27] Unknown:
Well,
[00:40:29] Unknown:
I don't know. You don't know if you had a nightmare or you didn't? If it was a dream, then then that's what it was. But if it wasn't, if I really did the thing I thought I dreamed then then, Anthony, I am mad. What do you mean? I mean that if I really did it, I've done something so horrible it could only be the work of a madman. Ernest, what did you do? I dreamed. Oh, make it a dream. But look at me. My my clothes soaked through. My my feet muddied. I I must have done it. Done what? What? I I left my bed and went outside to the tool shed. The tool shed? And found what I was looking for. And then I went to the vault. In this storm, you went Yes. To the vault. I unbolted the gate and went in.
And then I pried open Berenice's coffin. Oh, no. Yes. Yes. There she lay, moldering in death. But the lips drawn back and the teeth, those white, even perfect, gruesome teeth exposed. I I stared at them, stared in a horror of fascination. And then taking the instrument I brought with me, I I did what had to be done to save my sanity. What? What did you do? I dare not speak of it. Put words to it. Nor can I bear to look? Look? To see, was it dream or reality? Look at what? When I when I had done it, I returned here to my room. I I placed the instrument on the mantle.
In my dream, I placed it there. And though it must be a dream. Please, go to the mantle. See if the instrument is there. Very well, Ernest.
[00:42:21] Unknown:
I I see nothing here but a pair of pliers. This this is the instrument you used in your dream? No dream.
[00:42:32] Unknown:
No dream. Can't you understand that now? No dream. The pliers are there. I did it. May a merciful god forgive him, madman. I did it. The the table. My bedside table. Look there now. Look. They
[00:42:59] Unknown:
are there? They are here on your bedside table. All of them. All of Berenice's teeth.
[00:43:24] Unknown:
Well, a toothsome tail, was it not? Something to let your imagination chew on? Sorry. Couldn't resist that. Seriously, though, this story, as many another, reflects that certain mystery which has puzzled mankind since the first tick of time. Which is the reality of our lives? Which the dream? You got me. I'll be back shortly.
[00:43:51] Unknown:
Murder on the Orient Express is movie magic. The most entertaining evening of the year. Cheers Liz Smith of Cosmopolitan. Judith Criss, New York Magazine claims Agatha Christie's marvelously intricate who've done it becomes a joyous experience, a feast in any season. And Playboy calls it sheer old fashioned escapism. See Murder on the Orient Express from Paramount Pictures rated PG parental guidance suggestion.
[00:44:18] Unknown:
Murder on the Orient Express is now playing at a theater near you.
[00:44:24] Unknown:
Our cast included Norman Rose, Michael Tolan, Joan Lovejoy, and Roberta Maxwell. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. Radio mystery theater was sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division. This is EG Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time. Pleasant dreams.
[00:45:02] Unknown:
The preceding program was furnished by the Columbia Broadcasting System. Your dial is set for fifteen minutes of late news with John Scott reporting. This is WOR New York, an RKO general station.
[00:45:17] Unknown:
11,000 more workers, mostly in the auto industry, are losing their jobs. The National Cancer Institute studying a virus that may cause human cancer. New York City cops must wear name tags beginning Monday morning. The man's is partly cloudy tonight and cooler, the low in the thirties. Sunny and unseasonably mild tomorrow, the high in the low fifties. This is John Scott with the 08:00 edition of the news featuring the financial review. More layoffs are in the news. Today, more than 11,000 workers, mostly in the auto industry, learned that they would be laid off their jobs indefinitely.
General Motors says it will put almost 3,000 employees at its Lordstown, Ohio plant on indefinite layoff beginning January 20. Three GM divisions in Indiana also announced layoffs affecting a total of 1,335 employees. In all, GM's indefinite layoffs this month have affected one fourth of its 370,000 hourly workers in The United States. Chrysler says over 1,000 of the 3,000 workers at its casting division plant in Newcastle, Indiana will be laid off Monday. Three major tire companies, Goodyear, Firestone, and Cyberling, announced over 2,000 layoffs.
Other companies announcing layoffs include United Airlines. United saying it's furloughing 599 employees in reducing the number economic slump and energy problems. The labor department says the government is confident of having 300,000 jobless workers employed in public service jobs by the March. A labor department official says the government will have to spend five times as much as it's now spending to provide jobs for one seventh of those now out of work. The official estimates that all levels of government will spend about $17,000,000,000 to ease the pains of unemployment.
Meanwhile, president Ford reportedly is considering as congress to approve a $15,000,000,000 rebate on 1974 income taxes. This would reportedly amount to about 10% of the total taxes. The Booth newspapers say mister Ford will make the request in a state of the union message to congress, coupling it with a proposed tax cut for 1975. The new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee wants a tax cut for middle and lower income people. Representative Al Ullman thinks a cut will help the recession by pumping billions of dollars back into the economy. The Oregon Democrat wants the measure acted on quickly.
[00:47:30] Unknown:
I'm going to recommend to the committee that we go into immediate consideration of an emergency tax measure. It's my hope that, it will involve, immediate relief to individuals in the low and middle income brackets that will give some corporate relief where it's needed, and, might very well include part of the energy package and an end of the depletion allowance that we had recommended last year. That's the kind of package I think we can act quickly on. It's my hope we can get it to the floor of congress by the March 1 and get it passed by the house, and, then over to the other body where they can move on it hopefully very expeditiously and hopefully, limiting it to the emergency measures, nonstructural measures that will feed, revenues back into the economy, which is the whole purpose of the bill.
[00:48:17] Unknown:
Major Northeastern sugar refiners cut the price of their industrial sugars by more than 3 and a half dollars a 100 weight today. The price cuts by CPC International, Amstar, Secrest, and the National Sugar Refining Company are the first since December 13. The Food and Drug Administration has extended its restrictions on the use of saccharin. This came after the FDA received a new scientific report which failed to establish the safety of the artificial sweetener. Since February 1972, the FDA has restricted the average adult's intake of saccharin to one gram a day. The FDA says it will take several months to complete more exhaustive tests.
The National Cancer Institute is trying to determine whether a virus isolated at the institute is a human cancer virus. The virus was discovered in blood cells originally taken from a victim of a rare but lethal form of leukemia. The institute is studying the virus to determine whether the virus is of human origin and not a contaminant from an animal. A White House spokesman says president Ford is giving intensive consideration to South Vietnam's request for additional US funds. Presidential spokesman Ron Nesson says mister Ford feels the amount of aid voted by Congress to both South Vietnam and Cambodia is inadequate. Nesson said the president's concern relates to what he feels is necessary to allow the South Vietnamese adequately to defend themselves.
Nesson wouldn't say how much extra aid the president might seek. Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield said he's opposed to any additional aid for South Vietnam or Cambodia, and the Montana Democrat adds that such a proposal would probably meet vigorous resistance in Congress. Former president Nixon celebrated his 60 birthday today at the San Clemente, California state. Mister Nixon, recuperating from surgery for a blood clot in his left leg, spent the day quietly with his wife, Pat. The WOR news time, it's five minutes past eight. Food shoppers, by this time, one of your New Year resolutions should be to save on your weekly food bill, and the place to do that is at any nearby Bohac or Village supermarket.
Here are some examples of real savings for you. USDA choice beef, top or bottom round roast for a low low dollar 29 a pound. You'll also find a pork loin sale. The rib end is just a low 79¢ a pound. And here's a special price reduction, USDA grade a large white eggs, only 79¢ a dozen. And with any additional $5 purchase and coupons, you can save on all of the following. Wesson Oil, the gallon jug, only $4.79. Scott Towels, the jumbo roll, just 29¢. Hunt's tomato sauce, the eight ounce can, just 5¢. And Pillsbury Ballard biscuits, the eight ounce size, just 7¢. So remember, in 1975, the place to save is at any nearby Bohac or Village supermarket, where you'll find an abundance of quality foods at old fashioned prices.
The federal government has found appalling conditions in some local nursing homes. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare says it will no longer support nursing homes that don't meet federal requirements. HEW says it will cut off federal Medicaid funds to five homes in the city and nine in New York state. It's part of a new federal policy. Assistant HEW administrator Peter Franklin explains. Where
[00:51:21] Unknown:
the nursing home has a provider agreement and is providing services under the Medicaid program, and we go in as the federal government and find that this home does not meet the conditions of participation established by federal regulation under Medicaid, we will notify the state, be it New York or any other state in the union, these are national regulations, that we are terminating the federal financial participation, the 50¢ on the dollar, to this nursing home through the state. And this is very major. This will assure that the taxpayers' funds will not be used to support unfit care.
[00:52:02] Unknown:
Governor Kerry will name a special prosecutor to investigate alleged Medicaid fraud in the nursing home industry in a day or two. Informed sources said that those being given strongest consideration for the post were special state prosecutor Maurice Najari and Joseph Hines, first assistant to Brooklyn District Attorney Eugene Gold. Also reported to be under consideration was Morris Abram, former president of Brandeis University. This just in, former Brooklyn congressman Bertram l Podell, a state and federal lawmaker for twenty years, was sentenced tonight to six months in jail and fined $5,000 for using his influence as a Democratic congressman in an effort to obtain a Bahamas route for a Florida air taxi service.
The Long Island Lighting Company, LILCO, now has the authorization to boost electric rates for the second time in a year. The State Public Service Commission has approved the latest rate increase, which would yield $35,600,000 a year for Lilco. Together with the interim rates in effect since last June, the utility would receive $64,300,000. The director of meat purchases for the Waldbaum supermarket chain has pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving kickbacks from wholesale suppliers. Without opposition from The US Attorney's Office, 51 year old Barnett Friedman was allowed to plead guilty to one count of receiving over $4,500 in kickbacks during 1972.
Now we'll have the weather and the top of the news in brief right after this.
[00:53:29] Unknown:
General
[00:53:39] Unknown:
Tire doesn't claim its tire experts have all the answers, but they can tell you just about everything you want to know about tires. And that's important with so many new kinds of tires coming out and so many different claims about those tires. The general tire specialist is trained to analyze what tire fits your driving habits, your car, your budget. And the general tire specialist can handle your automotive service needs too. He's one of the reasons, one of the best reasons why sooner or later, you alone generals. Check your yellow pages for the general tire headquarters nearest you. Here's the weather watch update for New York City and the vicinity. Mostly cloudy and partly cloudy tonight I'm cooler with a low in the middle thirties. Sunny and unseasonably mild tomorrow with a high in the low fifties. Increasing cloudiness tomorrow night, the low near 40.
Cloudy on Saturday with a chance of rain developing in the day, the high in the low fifties. Right now in clear Mid Manhattan, it's 42 degrees. The humidity 79%. The wind northeast at five miles an hour, and the barometer is rising from 30 o nine inches. And the top story is more than 11,000 workers, mostly in the auto industry, are being laid off their jobs indefinitely. The labor department says the government expects to have about 300,000 unemployed workers on public service job payrolls by March. The White House spokesman says president Ford is giving intensive consideration to more aid for both South Vietnam and Cambodia.
The National Cancer Institute is studying a virus isolated in its laboratories to see if it's a human cancer virus. New York City cops must wear name tags beginning Monday morning. And that, friends, is the 08:00 edition of the news. This is John Scott reporting bidding you good night. Next news as it happens, next scheduled news at nine over WOR Radio seven ten, the talk of New York with Lester Smith. Now be sure to stay tuned for Barry Farber coming up next over WOR New York and RKO General Station.
