In this thrilling episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, host EG Marshall introduces us to a complex tale of love, ambition, and deception centered around a unique isosceles triangle. The story unfolds with identical twins, Joyce and Janice Adams, whose lives are intertwined with that of Adam Duncan, a stage manager and Joyce's husband. As Joyce's career in Hollywood takes off, Adam finds himself increasingly drawn to Janice, leading to a web of emotional turmoil and moral dilemmas. The narrative explores themes of identity, ambition, and the lengths one might go to for love and success.
As the plot thickens, Adam is faced with a haunting decision that could change the course of all their lives. The episode delves into the psychological complexities of the characters, particularly the twins, who, despite their identical appearances, possess starkly different personalities. The tension builds to a dramatic climax, leaving listeners questioning the nature of love and the consequences of our choices. With stellar performances by Marion Seldes and Paul Hecht, "The Tortured Twins" is a gripping tale that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats.
(00:00) Introduction to the Isosceles Triangle
(02:23) The Life of an Actor
(05:01) Meeting Joyce Adams
(07:55) The Rise to Stardom
(10:07) The Move to Hollywood
(14:55) The Twin Sister Revelation
(18:52) The Ballet and the Growing Tension
(24:50) Joyce's Dream and Adam's Dilemma
(30:11) The Plan to Eliminate Joyce
(36:01) The Aftermath and Janice's Role
(39:03) The Final Twist
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[00:00:00]
Unknown:
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. Of all the mathematical plane figures that exist, rhomboid, square, parallelogram, et al, the one that causes the most trouble in the human comedy is a triangle. This is a story of a very special triangle called the isosceles, the one that has two equal sides, the third unequal. Because this is a story of that phenomenon, we should consider some other actuarial figures. The chance of twin birth is about one and a quarter percent, but the varieties of twins, the least likely and the most potentially disturbing are monozygotic or so called identical twins, like Joyce and Janice Adams.
[00:01:24] Unknown:
This is what you go for Joyce, right? Your kind of music. Sure, I think. Yeah, you take it over Tchaikovsky. Does it matter all that much? Nothing with us can ever matter that much or anything. So here, here, take it all, baby. You'll never get rid of babies.
[00:01:59] Unknown:
Our mystery drama, The Tortured Twins, was written especially for the mystery theater by Ian Martin and stars Marion Seldes and Paul Hecht. I'll be back shortly with act one. We are of nature and necessity, hemmed in by our beliefs, our prejudices, our backgrounds, and the world we have specifically made for our own. But no one is more circumscribed in the life he lives than the actor, the performer, the one in the public eye. Like all Homo sapiens within the jungle of life, this particular breed has its own gathering and watering places and is subject to a rigid pecking order.
As, for example
[00:03:06] Unknown:
Come on, Adam, baby. Answer. You just gotta be home. You can't have left for the theater, not without
[00:03:16] Unknown:
come on. Adam Duncan speaking.
[00:03:19] Unknown:
This is your wife, Joyce. Joyce and rejoice. I made it. They bought me. I got it. Signed, sealed, and delivered. You're all Humpty Dumpty's men? Yeah. For the film,
[00:03:33] Unknown:
Oh, will it break you up? Hey. Hey. Hey. Hold on a minute. Honey, what about the play? You have a contract, run of the play. Oh, Lou Morris will get me out of that somehow. Oh, I mean, Sugar, this is a big one. Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's great. Only how soon? That isn't firmed up yet. Not firmed up yet. There's a great little showbiz phrase. Oh, why do you have to be so difficult? Who's being difficult? You have a contract. Run of the play. How are we gonna wiggle you out of your play contract? Oh, Lou says that's no problem.
[00:03:58] Unknown:
I hope he's right. This is my big chance. The movie. And it's a terrific part. Who knows from movies?
[00:04:06] Unknown:
Okay. Okay. Suppose it is. How do I get out of the show? Oh, gee, Adam. What's the big problem?
[00:04:12] Unknown:
I go to Hollywood for whatever time it takes. You stay here till it closes. Honey, let's not argue. We'll talk about it after the show tonight. What about dinner? I'll just bring in a sandwich or something because now I'm I'm going out to cocktails and like that with a producer and my agent. Hey. You shouldn't be drinking before the show. Oh, come on, Adam. I'm a big movie star now. And besides, you think I'm gonna miss being at the Algonquin?
[00:04:44] Unknown:
The moment I met Joyce Adams, I was lost. She had honey blonde hair, green blue cat's eyes, and a body. Wow. I mean, it isn't like talent is anything new to me. It's part of the theater, and theaters all of my life. I guess in the last fifteen years since I was like about 18, there hasn't been a legitimate production on Broadway off or hop off I haven't seen or maybe been part of. And a body is a body, I always figured until that evening in this little theater made out of an old shoe factory where they were doing Ibsen's Doll's House with Joyce playing Nora in the child one. And she was terrible, but like I said, the moment I saw her, I was gone.
So after the show, I talked her into going down to Phoebe's with me. Oh, that's the off Off Broadway Sardi's, so we could talk. You sure you don't want a real drink? No.
[00:05:44] Unknown:
I just love cherry cream soda. Oh. I know it isn't good for my figure, but I just love it. Yeah.
[00:05:52] Unknown:
Well, so far, it doesn't seem to have done any damage. You you want another?
[00:05:57] Unknown:
Well, gee. Could I? I mean, I don't even really know you. Yeah. You really better watch out for me. No. You wouldn't tempt me all that much with Cherry Creme Sodas. What was this about a part in a real Broadway play? Oh, it's a shot in the dark. Joyce,
[00:06:15] Unknown:
alright to call you that? It's my name.
[00:06:18] Unknown:
What'd you say was yours? Adam. Adam Duncan.
[00:06:22] Unknown:
You see, right now I'm a nobody. I'm an assistant stage manager and understudy on a production William Lloyd is putting on, The Duke and the Doll. They're looking for an unknown for the part of the doll. Gee.
[00:06:33] Unknown:
Isn't that the one where Judson Holm is gonna play the duke? That's right.
[00:06:37] Unknown:
And you would be just perfect for the part of the doll. Looking into those lovely sea green wide open eyes, some alarm bell should have sounded somewhere inside me telling me that this girl only existed from her eyes down. The attic was empty. But I was too zonked out to believe that, and events moved so fast, I didn't have time to think about it. Because she got the part. And she was a smash even if the show didn't get much in reviews. And anyway, who cared? Because the Sunday of the week we opened, Joyce and I were married and had a twenty four hour honeymoon at Atlantic City.
[00:07:21] Unknown:
Gosh. It's not as romantic as I always thought it would be. I just never thought it would be so cold at the beach. Well, honey, it is the last day of October. Yeah. But still, it's Atlantic City. Oh,
[00:07:35] Unknown:
my adorable wife. You are something else. Too much.
[00:07:40] Unknown:
Now I feel all warm and scroogie.
[00:07:45] Unknown:
Let's go back to the hotel. You know what's the funniest thing? That's just what I had in mind too. Joyce was like laughing gas, a whiff of her and you were in orbit. The twenty four hours passed on cloud eight, then we were back in New York and under the influence of another kind of excitement. Phones ringing, agents, offers, all the wild madness of overnight success. Oh, not the play. Joyce. And then suddenly, the plum of the year drops right in her lap. The chance to play the sex symbol in the year's hottest film property. Honey, they're waiting for a success. Let's go. Hey. They can wait. They can wait. We've gotta look a few things straight in the face. The agent has the director meeting me too, as well as mister Jenner, the producer. Now just stop a moment to talk to mister Adam Duncan, your stage manager and sometime husband. What do you mean sometime? It's just a manner of speaking. Honey, you can't go signing for a movie while you're still under a theater contract. Oh, they don't need me. Mister Holmes is a star.
[00:08:50] Unknown:
They can get anybody for me. Sure. That's why your phone is ringing, and you're getting all the offers while this cockamamie play has no advance. And the only thing that keeps the box off
[00:08:54] Unknown:
is
[00:09:00] Unknown:
word-of-mouth about you. Well, I don't like doing the same thing over and over again. And this is new. This is a movie.
[00:09:08] Unknown:
What I always wanted to do. Joyce, you just don't know. It's a it's a jungle out there. They eat up little girls like you and spit them down the drain. The theater's something else.
[00:09:19] Unknown:
You mean you don't want me to be a star? I don't want you to get the fever. Nothing comes easy in this business. Oh, I don't know. I've been pretty lucky so far. Anyway, it's what I wanna do.
[00:09:32] Unknown:
And what kind of money are they talking about? Oh, that's up to Lou, isn't it? Yes and no. I mean, I mean, what are you gonna live on out there? Can we swing it on our budget? Oh, I'll live with Janice, of course. My sister. Remember? That isn't exactly the best time to move in with her. I mean, she just lost her husband. Oh, he was a big mistake. Mistake or not, I thought your sister Janice was trying to sell the house. Well, she hasn't yet.
[00:09:54] Unknown:
By the time she gets a buyer, we're gonna be rich, and I'm gonna be famous. So now can I go to Sardi's? I've never been able to go there ever before and feel really
[00:10:07] Unknown:
important. So we went to Sardis, and I was a fifth wheel. But Joyce was in seventh heaven, and everything went off like a storybooks and a star was on the way to being born. She was signed, let out of a contract with the Duke and the Doll, and off she went to the Golden Capital. Within six weeks, the show she left died, and I caught the first plane for the coast. The moment I hit LA, I headed straight for Chelsea Drive right off Coldwater Canyon near the Beverly Canyon Hotel. That was where missus Restrew, Joyce's widowed sister, lived. I rang the bell, the door opened, and there was the woman I loved that I'd been aching for the last month and a half. And I gobbled her up in my arms.
Oh, baby, oh, darling, my beloved. Wait. You ask a man who has lived on less than bread and water to Listen. Crazy, man. I will listen to nothing but total surrender. That's a marvelous item except you got the wrong girl. Don't try to voice me off, babes. Don't tell me you're gone Hollywood. You're my girl and you better know it. But I'm not. Then why not? I'm not. Joyce. What? I'm Jasmine. I'm her sister. You you you what? Come on, Joyce. What's the rib? What what what are you what are you giving me? Hey. You you're being for real?
You were Joyce's sister, but I I I mean, I Didn't she tell you we were twins? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. I I guess she said twins. I I just thought, sister. This is just not possible. What? Well, I mean, people look like each other, but for sure it's been a few weeks since I saw Joyce. You think I know my own wife? Hey. You you you putting me on? Honestly, I'm not. Yeah. I should have known. Actually, you don't sound anything like each other. Oh, I'm the second fiddle. No. No. No. No. No. I didn't mean that. You have a lovely voice. Thank you. And obviously, you're the loveliest looking woman I've ever known since I can't tell you from my why.
[00:12:07] Unknown:
Well, I'm I'm sure you'll find enough differences between her so you won't be confused.
[00:12:14] Unknown:
Such a simple statement, and yet how prophetic it was to prove to be. Meeting Joyce later that day when she came back from the studio, it was weird. I mean, I was acutely aware of the differences,
[00:12:30] Unknown:
not just only in the sound of the voice. It's a drag, but it's exciting too. I mean, I just get so strung out. I mean, I am pooped. I just wanna lie down and sleep.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I'm glad my arrival's giving you such a lift. Oh, honey. You know, I'm glad to see you.
[00:12:50] Unknown:
It's just I'm
[00:12:52] Unknown:
I'm so tired. Okay. So you're tired? Now you're mad at me. I'm not mad. You just don't seem exactly spaced out that I'm back with you again. Oh, don't you worry about that, baby Kim.
[00:13:03] Unknown:
Your little Joyce loves you all too. Oh, let me just pop a pet pill, and I'll have a bath. And then I'll show you just how much. You're my number one man. You're my fella. You're my big daddy. And don't you ever think for one minute I'd ever let you go? Once to go, I just arrived. I'm never gonna let you go again. I'm never gonna be without you. I'm just gonna hang around you like a little old anchor around your neck. I love you, Adam. I need you. And the only way you'll ever be rid of your baby doll is for me to die. You never wanted to walk out on me.
You'd have to kill me first.
[00:13:47] Unknown:
I smothered that kind of crazy talk with a kiss. Only the terrible thing was that as I held Joyce, felt her move against me in all the old exciting ways. Behind my closed eyes, the face and the body was the same. But my ears were remembering that low musical voice of Janice's. Her even, steady, amused, and gentle sureness, and the impression I'd gotten of a strong and subtle intelligence. Joyce's twin. Identical in appearance, but so different in character. And even as I kissed my wife hungrily, I couldn't banish the earlier embrace I had held her sister in. And insistently, terribly, a phrase was ringing in my head in Joyce's tinkly, phony, jangling, baby doll voice.
If you ever wanted to walk out on me, you'd have to kill me first.
[00:14:55] Unknown:
What would it be like, do you suppose, to fall in love with a woman and then find that she wasn't the only one of her kind? And if you like the second image better, could you change partners, or would the desire to do that lead you to incredible lengths that you could never dream of? I shall return shortly with act two. It occurs to me that I didn't mean to be chauvinistic. Why dwell only on the one male unequal side of our isosceles triangle? There are the other equal sides, or at least by normal measurement, that now demand some study and exploration.
The females, Joyce and Janice, identical twins physically, but how diverse as individuals, how stressful or how violent will their contrasting personalities threaten the slender figure of the triangle? Three simple straight lines which presently join, but under opposing forces could be blown out of existence. For example
[00:16:17] Unknown:
Hello? Janice, it's Adam. You're beginning to recognize me. Oh, I can always tell you now.
[00:16:24] Unknown:
By my voice?
[00:16:26] Unknown:
By so many other things. Adam,
[00:16:29] Unknown:
if you want to talk to Joyce, I'm afraid you're out of luck. Isn't she home from the studio yet? Van Williams always stops shooting on the dot of five. And our baby doll always comes straight home. And on the stroke of 05:30
[00:16:41] Unknown:
is not wallowing in the bubble bath again.
[00:16:44] Unknown:
Every night. It's a ritual. With the radio blaring away, I'll bet. You know how that worries me? Oh, my husband said it's built in. There's no danger. Even with wet hands.
[00:16:55] Unknown:
Even acid rock.
[00:16:57] Unknown:
Not my favorite brand of music, but Well, then why don't you object? Because she's my favorite sister.
[00:17:03] Unknown:
Why'd you call Adam? Oh, yeah. I got a couple of tickets for the ballet. It's Romeo and Juliet with Champlain and Asturietta. We're gonna ask her if she'd like to meet me downtown. Oh, no. Look. Tell her tell her I have the tickets, and I'll drive home and and pick her up. Okay? Okay. Lucky bums. I'm sorry. I couldn't get three, Jen. Oh, I was just pulling your leg.
[00:17:22] Unknown:
I've got packing and general house cleaning to do anyway. Well, none of your business. Now you get back here and take your wife out so you can fall in love with her all over again. And don't mind me if I sound jealous. It's only because I am. Ciao, Bello.
[00:17:43] Unknown:
I hung up with one word ringing in my ear,
[00:17:46] Unknown:
churning in my stomach, shaking me up a good,
[00:17:50] Unknown:
jealous. I told myself it was accidental just kidding around, but I knew better. No matter how deep I tried to bury the truth, two weeks living in the same house with both Joyce and Janice had taught me that. Two weeks. I knew it within two minutes after I had met Janice. Remember the old ads? Which twin has the Tony? Well, I knew which twin should have the Adam, but I couldn't admit that to myself. I brushed it out of my mind and went home. Joyce? Joyce, you still in there? Joyce, Joyce, it's Adam. Turn that damn radio down. What did you say? I said turn the damn I I just wanted you to turn the radio off so you could hear me. I can hear you. Are you still in the bathtub?
[00:18:45] Unknown:
No, honey. I'm just coming out. Hello, Precious. You're late getting home. Yeah. I didn't have anyone to scrub my back. I was finding myself a job.
[00:18:57] Unknown:
A job? Yeah. Not much, but a good start with a classic rep. What's that? Almost like Off Broadway, New York. Maybe more like off off.
[00:19:05] Unknown:
No money. Yeah. That's where we started, but it's my kind of theater. Oh, lover. We're in the big time now. You are, not me. Well, I don't see why you have to waste your time with culture and all that jazz. I mean, what's in it for you? Oh, satisfaction,
[00:19:21] Unknown:
excitement, balm for my immortal soul, and something very special for tonight. The producer can't use them, and he gave them to me. Gave you what? Two tickets for Romeo and Juliet. Oh, Shakespeare?
[00:19:35] Unknown:
Come on, baby. I'm tired. Anyway, you made me sit through that play once. I thought it would never end. No. No. This isn't the play. It's the ballet with with the Tchaikovsky music. Oh, you've gotta be kidding. Ballet, that really bores me out of my gourd. It's with Champlain and Nastoria.
[00:19:52] Unknown:
Who? Joyce, they're the top dancers in the world. Okay. Okay, honey.
[00:19:58] Unknown:
If it's all that important to you, why don't you take Jan? I'll just watch some TV. Terry Sales has a special on tonight. I just don't wanna mess it. That schlock comedy? He fractures me. I mean, he really laid me out. Oh, I know you don't go for him. So take Jan to the ballet. Look, if it was any other woman, I wouldn't let you out of the door. But I know you're safe with Jan.
[00:20:25] Unknown:
But that was the whole trouble. I wasn't safe with Jan at all, nor was she very safe with me. And I guess that's the only reason she was with me that night. Because on the way home after turning off sunset under cold water, just as we came to Chelsea Drive, she said. Don't turn, Adam. Just keep going. Where? To the next right.
[00:20:48] Unknown:
Enter the Ellsworth's driveway. Hey. And cut your lights.
[00:20:56] Unknown:
Why here?
[00:20:57] Unknown:
They're away.
[00:20:59] Unknown:
Okay. Cut them out.
[00:21:05] Unknown:
We've got to talk about things, get some things straight,
[00:21:09] Unknown:
particularly after tonight. It was beautiful, wasn't it? Yes. Maybe that's the greatest thing about ballet. No words needed
[00:21:21] Unknown:
like us. Oh, don't.
[00:21:24] Unknown:
It's what we have to talk about. We don't need any words to tell each other that. Oh, no. Adam, I oh.
[00:21:33] Unknown:
Oh, darling.
[00:21:36] Unknown:
Darling, darling. Darling. I have been wanting to do this again on purpose ever since it happened by accident. No more than I.
[00:21:47] Unknown:
No. No. No. It's the last thing I meant to happen. Yeah. Or I expected to. It isn't why I brought you here. And and why? I'm going away. Please don't please don't touch me, please. Going going away? Where? Oh, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Around the world. But but but when? Sooner the better. Wouldn't you say? Well, that's no answer. Well, neither is this. Or how we feel about each other. So what is Alright. Alright. Look. We we sit down. We face facts like three rational people. Well, that's just the trouble. We can't. Why not?
Because Joyce and I are not only sisters. We're twins. Identical twins. Hurting her would be just as more difficult than trying to hurt myself. Alright. No. No. Hold it. She needs you, Adam. For what?
[00:22:41] Unknown:
To teach her how to act so she doesn't go to the studio and fall flat on her pretty face? That's all she needs me for. No. It isn't.
[00:22:48] Unknown:
But even if it were, it would be enough. It's what she's wanted all her life. It would kill her if she lost it just when it was in her hands. What? Being a star. Listen. She was the second of us to arrive. She's always been number two or or felt that way. And now she's number one, a career, a husband, and and probably a lot of money. Anyway, that doesn't matter. Why not? Because because so long as she lives, I've promised myself I'd never willingly do anything to hurt her, nor would I want to. We're two people by accident, you see. Actually, we're only one.
[00:23:32] Unknown:
I tried, but I knew it was hopeless. No amount of argument would change Janice's mind. So we drove home. She went up to her bed, and after a stiff drink, I went up to mine and Joyce. Fortunately, as I opened the door, I could hear that Joyce was asleep. I crossed to her bed and looked down on her. The shaft of moonlight lit her face, and I looked in wonder and amazement at the woman I married who could just as easily have been the woman I now loved. And suddenly, horribly, the memory of some accidental words of Jan sprang up in my mind as if written there in fire.
[00:24:22] Unknown:
As long as she lives, I've promised myself I'd never do anything willingly to hurt her.
[00:24:32] Unknown:
I undressed quickly and got into bed. But it was a long time before I could get to sleep. Usually, I have to wake and turn off the alarm in the morning. But this morning, Joyce actually got to it first. While she was in the bathroom getting ready for the studio car to pick her up,
[00:24:51] Unknown:
I lay in a half day. Where does your time go? I'm late. Oh, I thought you had the day off. Oh, I did. And then there was something the matter with one of the reels that filmed yesterday. We got a reshoot. Oh, you want me to get you some breakfast? No. I haven't time to get it on the step. Oh, how was last night?
[00:25:07] Unknown:
Oh, I was heaven. You should have been there. Not me. That ballet scene leaves me cold. So how did you and Jan get along? Oh, you know how I get along with your sister. I love her. My twin sister. Don't have to be told that. It's tough enough to tell you apart. Yeah.
[00:25:25] Unknown:
It's kinda like why I brought the subject up. See, we're strange, awful strange, Adam. People like me and Jen. There's special vibes, and no ordinary person could know just how special. That's bad. No. Most of the times, it's good. I wouldn't want them ever to be bad. But you see, sometimes I get screwy ideas. I know I'm not all that bright. I try to forget I had them, but I I had this dream last night, and I wanna tell you something. The the dream? No. Just about it. I mean, well, I know it was way out, but it made me think. What if you should like jam better than me?
[00:26:06] Unknown:
Joyce,
[00:26:07] Unknown:
I'm your husband. Alright. Put it another way. If anything happened to me, would you turn to jam? How can I answer a question like that? You don't have to. I will. I'm gonna tell, just do it your car. Just just let me put it this way. If I ever lost you anyway to anyone, you know something? What? You'd never get anything from it because you can't ever get rid of me. Alive or dead, I'm gonna haunt you the rest of my life. How's that for the crazies? Oh, I love you, Adam Duncan. Keep the home fires burning.
[00:26:50] Unknown:
The things that people think, it was all clear as glass. Joyce the clinging vine who would never leave me. Jan, the woman I loved who would never have anything to do with me as long as Joyce was alive. A simple enough equation. The only escape was for Joyce to die. But how? Would I have the nerve? And how could I get away with it?
[00:27:23] Unknown:
Who are any of us to criticize? Haven't we all in anger, despair, or frustration, utter threats, sometimes out loud or perhaps only in the mind that we're mad enough to kill someone, or you drive me so crazy I could murder you. But of course, none of us ever did anything about it. Will Adam Duncan return shortly with act three. Adam Duncan is now convinced that he can never have Janice unless Joyce is dead. And equally convinced that the same is true unless death seems incontrovertibly accidental. It's been an agonizing week for him as the day of Janice's departure draws closer and closer, and he has still not solved the how of Joyce's death.
Now at the last moment, he feels he has. And I'm only going to be omniscient enough to tell you that as far as the police are concerned,
[00:28:42] Unknown:
he could get away with it. Who is it? Adam, Jan. Hey. What's all this? I didn't expect you home in the middle of the day.
[00:28:51] Unknown:
Just stuff I'm getting ready to move out. Oh,
[00:28:54] Unknown:
when? End of the week. Does Joyce know about this? Of course. Oh, you might have told me. I guess we'll have to find somewhere else to live. Oh, no. The house is yours. I can't afford it. Joyce can.
[00:29:09] Unknown:
Who cares? I can. There wasn't much in my marriage with Jim, but he did leave me more money than I'll ever need, so the house is yours. It isn't the house I care about. It's who is in it. Well, we've solved that question. You and Joyce.
[00:29:22] Unknown:
And if there shouldn't be a Joyce?
[00:29:26] Unknown:
Things are as they are. What can we do, Adam, but leave it at that?
[00:29:35] Unknown:
That really should have settled it. But I wasn't willing to let it go at that. Suddenly, I knew how to get away with it. It was just a matter of timing. In all the hours I sat and thought about it, the best thing I had going was habit. A meticulous director who bent over backwards never to work into overtime. A wife who felt it necessary to soak herself in a bubble bath every night and to drown herself in cheap rock music. The factor of time. And a cocktail party where I was going to be highly visible at the hotel on Wiltshire Boulevard, and that involved Janice as well. When it came, as Shakespeare says, to the sticking point, it was really all so simple. One tube was all I had to take out of that sybaritic bathroom radio set.
[00:30:26] Unknown:
Who is that? Adam. Come on in, baby. No radio? Oh, it conked out. Something wasn't working. How come you're here so early? I sneaked out.
[00:30:41] Unknown:
Must have been clairvoyant. Look what I have for you.
[00:30:45] Unknown:
Oh, poor of a radio. Now how did you know I needed a lift? Oh, let's just call it ESP.
[00:30:52] Unknown:
Plug this in first. Is that your speed? Yeah.
[00:31:01] Unknown:
That's Hindenburg and the satellite. Man, that is war.
[00:31:06] Unknown:
You could shut it down. Forget it. What's worth doing is worth doing well. You go for this, don't you? My kind of music. You taking over Tchaikovsky? Yes. Does it matter all that much? No, Joyce. Nothing with us could ever matter that much or anything. Here, take it all, baby. Yeah. You did it. That's dangerous. We've been living dangerously, baby, and you give me no way out. You never get rid of me. I don't know what I really expected. Probably the last thing that it would be all so
[00:31:45] Unknown:
easy.
[00:31:46] Unknown:
The easy walk through the shrubbery to the Ellsworth driveway, picking my car up unseen, and driving to meet Janice as if nothing had happened right on the dot of six as was planned with plenty of people to see us at that specific hour. While back in the bathroom, portable clock radio lay in the bathtub as dead as the woman that shaved it, its hands recording the time of her death as As sixteen minutes after six, the moment the short circuit had stopped the radio, and Joyce.
[00:32:22] Unknown:
Where do you suppose Joyce is? Search me.
[00:32:25] Unknown:
I came straight over from my agent's office. Did you call before you left? Sure. Sure. I thought maybe I could pick her up. She said she just gotten home and would come over by herself, so I headed straight here. Mhmm. Maybe we ought to give her a ring. She might have fallen asleep. Yeah. Let's see. Quarter to seven, maybe we ought to. We went through the mockery of a call to a woman long dead, but who was to appear as having just died in the subsequent police investigation. The timing was perfect. The alibi unassailable.
The verdict, death through misadventure. And I was free, as was Janice. The only problem in the way of our future together was to bide our time. I should say my time since Janice was no part of what I'd done. I had bought our future. I simply had to wait a little while for delivery, I thought.
[00:33:25] Unknown:
Yes? Oh, I really don't think it's a very good time to speak to her husband. Oh, yes. Mister Duncan is here, but we've just returned from the funeral and hold on just a moment, please.
[00:33:44] Unknown:
Yes, mister Bonner. Yeah. I understand. Sure. I see your problem. Well, not right at the moment, but by Monday after the weekend, I might be able to make more sense. As I make your pardon? Oh, sure. Sure. That's very kind of you. Yes. Yes. It has been a sad loss.
[00:34:05] Unknown:
Thank you. That was Joyce's producer, wasn't it? Yes. Ghoul.
[00:34:11] Unknown:
What do you mean? Oh, just what I said. Another in the general school of barracuda. He's got a major film over three quarters completed. Without Joyce, he's got about $34,000,000 of film he might as well dump in the sea or burn up. Unless Unless what? Do I have to tell you? Oh, no.
[00:34:34] Unknown:
Not me, Adam. I'm not an actress. I've got nothing to offer them. You were the only person in the world nobody could tell apart from Joyce. But you yourself. I mean, you know I don't sound anything like her. Oh, thank God.
[00:34:47] Unknown:
That's a trick you could learn,
[00:34:49] Unknown:
and I could teach you. Know what for? I don't care about your mister Bonner or his old picture. Let him worry about it. Sure. Sure. Of course.
[00:34:56] Unknown:
But, well, it is a lousy break for him. I mean, what happened to Joyce and could mean a lot to our future. Our future? Well, I hope after this is all over we are going to have one. Oh, Adam. I'm scared. Why?
[00:35:18] Unknown:
How could I make anyone else understand who hasn't been, well,
[00:35:23] Unknown:
who hasn't been the other half of someone else? The other is dead. Don't make it sound so cruel. I didn't mean to. It's
[00:35:31] Unknown:
just the way things are, except for Bonner. Bonner? The film. Look, would would you be willing to complete it if I helped you? Alright, Adam. If it's what you want and it
[00:35:44] Unknown:
it's right for us, I'll do it.
[00:35:51] Unknown:
Oh, I was the mastermind. I held all the strings in my hand. I knew just what I was doing, and I was invincible. But what I offered a lost director and a frantic producer with a 3 to $4,000,000 bomb on his hands, I was set for life. If I could only teach Janice to sound as much like Joyce as she looked. You wanted me
[00:36:17] Unknown:
dead. How can you dare to resurrect me? Resurrect
[00:36:26] Unknown:
me. It was a dream. Joyce's voice in my ears. Sure, I had been recalling it, but in memory, not in actuality. Was I awake or asleep? Joyce? Joyce, is that you? Oh, no. You're dead.
[00:36:43] Unknown:
But everyone else sets you.
[00:36:55] Unknown:
Suddenly, I was awake bathed in sweat. Joyce was dead. I had gotten rid of her. How could she be alive?
[00:37:09] Unknown:
But golly, I don't wanna get shot at or anything. I'll look out for you, baby. And all the other things you promised me? It goes with the job too. A penthouse apartment? Mink? No. Sable? And one of them long cars with a chauffeur?
[00:37:28] Unknown:
Anything you want, sweetheart, so long as you pay the price. What's the price? You never know that till someone hands you the bill. Hey, Jan. This is great.
[00:37:38] Unknown:
That I can sound like my kid's sister? Oh.
[00:37:42] Unknown:
Like in the flesh. Oh, I wish you wouldn't put it that way.
[00:37:46] Unknown:
She is dead, you know. Yes. I guess I ought to.
[00:37:49] Unknown:
But sometimes I wonder if you do. Look, if it means so much yes. I'll fill in and finish the movie. But after that, I only want to be myself.
[00:38:04] Unknown:
Most people don't know the tedium, the endless amount of takes, the close ups, the medium shots, and of course, the master shots that cover everything. It will be hard to explain to the average person that a simple phrase like I love you might have to be repeated again and again, maybe twenty, thirty, 40 times. And not necessarily the way you might wanna say it yourself, but patterned and inflected just as the director, the producer, the power behind the camera might dictate. And so for six or seven endless weeks, Janice submitted herself to the forces which had shaped her twin sister. And finally, the picture was over, and she came home.
We're finished, Adam. Hey. Today was the wrap? Yep. Oh, that's great, Jen. What a relief. You're really all that happy, sweetie pie? Of course. Now you don't have to sound like Joyce anymore. You can be yourself. I can be what? Yourself, Janice, the woman I love. But I am the woman you love. Come on, Janice. Knock it off. You don't have to sound like that silly kid sister of yours. You mean the woman you married? I mean the woman I married the second time. Come on, honey. What are you doing to me? I married Joyce, which was a mistake. Then I married you, which was the best thing I ever did in my life. Are you so sure?
[00:39:26] Unknown:
I mean, baby, baby, sweetheart. You love me all that much? Okay. Okay, Janice. Cut it out. Janice? Are you alright? Well, that's the question you should be asking yourself, lover. Which of us did you really marry? And which of us did you kill? What? Oh, you know how it is with twins. There's There's an ESP that no one else could understand. Whatever happens to one strikes a mirror chord in the other.
[00:39:58] Unknown:
She she you you you know?
[00:40:01] Unknown:
Know what, darling? Why do you look so terrified?
[00:40:05] Unknown:
I I I I don't know. I I don't I don't know what to say. I I don't even know who you are. Your wife, darling. I could answer that. I
[00:40:15] Unknown:
I I know. I know. But but but which which one? Which But won't it be interesting for you to try to figure out? No. I mean, since I have the money, where can you run? No. Whatever you paid into this marriage, I promise you, you'll get exactly what you got. So think of me as I am, big lover, or as you made me, because I'm yours till death do us part.
[00:40:49] Unknown:
Quite recently, there was a disturbance on the Golden Gate Bridge. A man had climbed into the superstructure with the object of committing suicide. Despite heroic efforts by the police, the man, an unemployed member of several theatrical unions, plunged to his death. He was identified by his wife, a resident of Los Angeles, as Adam Duncan. I'll be back shortly. Not all stories are pleasant, as indeed not all people are. The happiest thing to dwell on is how few oh, now I must search for a careful word. What shall it be? Well, let's let's settle for an old fashioned word. Rotters, no gooders.
Anyway, human beings with nothing much to recommend them get away with murder, or do they? Certainly not in my stories. They always have to pay when it comes to the end. Our cast, Marion Seldes and Paul Hecht. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. This is EG Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasant dream.
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. Of all the mathematical plane figures that exist, rhomboid, square, parallelogram, et al, the one that causes the most trouble in the human comedy is a triangle. This is a story of a very special triangle called the isosceles, the one that has two equal sides, the third unequal. Because this is a story of that phenomenon, we should consider some other actuarial figures. The chance of twin birth is about one and a quarter percent, but the varieties of twins, the least likely and the most potentially disturbing are monozygotic or so called identical twins, like Joyce and Janice Adams.
[00:01:24] Unknown:
This is what you go for Joyce, right? Your kind of music. Sure, I think. Yeah, you take it over Tchaikovsky. Does it matter all that much? Nothing with us can ever matter that much or anything. So here, here, take it all, baby. You'll never get rid of babies.
[00:01:59] Unknown:
Our mystery drama, The Tortured Twins, was written especially for the mystery theater by Ian Martin and stars Marion Seldes and Paul Hecht. I'll be back shortly with act one. We are of nature and necessity, hemmed in by our beliefs, our prejudices, our backgrounds, and the world we have specifically made for our own. But no one is more circumscribed in the life he lives than the actor, the performer, the one in the public eye. Like all Homo sapiens within the jungle of life, this particular breed has its own gathering and watering places and is subject to a rigid pecking order.
As, for example
[00:03:06] Unknown:
Come on, Adam, baby. Answer. You just gotta be home. You can't have left for the theater, not without
[00:03:16] Unknown:
come on. Adam Duncan speaking.
[00:03:19] Unknown:
This is your wife, Joyce. Joyce and rejoice. I made it. They bought me. I got it. Signed, sealed, and delivered. You're all Humpty Dumpty's men? Yeah. For the film,
[00:03:33] Unknown:
Oh, will it break you up? Hey. Hey. Hey. Hold on a minute. Honey, what about the play? You have a contract, run of the play. Oh, Lou Morris will get me out of that somehow. Oh, I mean, Sugar, this is a big one. Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's great. Only how soon? That isn't firmed up yet. Not firmed up yet. There's a great little showbiz phrase. Oh, why do you have to be so difficult? Who's being difficult? You have a contract. Run of the play. How are we gonna wiggle you out of your play contract? Oh, Lou says that's no problem.
[00:03:58] Unknown:
I hope he's right. This is my big chance. The movie. And it's a terrific part. Who knows from movies?
[00:04:06] Unknown:
Okay. Okay. Suppose it is. How do I get out of the show? Oh, gee, Adam. What's the big problem?
[00:04:12] Unknown:
I go to Hollywood for whatever time it takes. You stay here till it closes. Honey, let's not argue. We'll talk about it after the show tonight. What about dinner? I'll just bring in a sandwich or something because now I'm I'm going out to cocktails and like that with a producer and my agent. Hey. You shouldn't be drinking before the show. Oh, come on, Adam. I'm a big movie star now. And besides, you think I'm gonna miss being at the Algonquin?
[00:04:44] Unknown:
The moment I met Joyce Adams, I was lost. She had honey blonde hair, green blue cat's eyes, and a body. Wow. I mean, it isn't like talent is anything new to me. It's part of the theater, and theaters all of my life. I guess in the last fifteen years since I was like about 18, there hasn't been a legitimate production on Broadway off or hop off I haven't seen or maybe been part of. And a body is a body, I always figured until that evening in this little theater made out of an old shoe factory where they were doing Ibsen's Doll's House with Joyce playing Nora in the child one. And she was terrible, but like I said, the moment I saw her, I was gone.
So after the show, I talked her into going down to Phoebe's with me. Oh, that's the off Off Broadway Sardi's, so we could talk. You sure you don't want a real drink? No.
[00:05:44] Unknown:
I just love cherry cream soda. Oh. I know it isn't good for my figure, but I just love it. Yeah.
[00:05:52] Unknown:
Well, so far, it doesn't seem to have done any damage. You you want another?
[00:05:57] Unknown:
Well, gee. Could I? I mean, I don't even really know you. Yeah. You really better watch out for me. No. You wouldn't tempt me all that much with Cherry Creme Sodas. What was this about a part in a real Broadway play? Oh, it's a shot in the dark. Joyce,
[00:06:15] Unknown:
alright to call you that? It's my name.
[00:06:18] Unknown:
What'd you say was yours? Adam. Adam Duncan.
[00:06:22] Unknown:
You see, right now I'm a nobody. I'm an assistant stage manager and understudy on a production William Lloyd is putting on, The Duke and the Doll. They're looking for an unknown for the part of the doll. Gee.
[00:06:33] Unknown:
Isn't that the one where Judson Holm is gonna play the duke? That's right.
[00:06:37] Unknown:
And you would be just perfect for the part of the doll. Looking into those lovely sea green wide open eyes, some alarm bell should have sounded somewhere inside me telling me that this girl only existed from her eyes down. The attic was empty. But I was too zonked out to believe that, and events moved so fast, I didn't have time to think about it. Because she got the part. And she was a smash even if the show didn't get much in reviews. And anyway, who cared? Because the Sunday of the week we opened, Joyce and I were married and had a twenty four hour honeymoon at Atlantic City.
[00:07:21] Unknown:
Gosh. It's not as romantic as I always thought it would be. I just never thought it would be so cold at the beach. Well, honey, it is the last day of October. Yeah. But still, it's Atlantic City. Oh,
[00:07:35] Unknown:
my adorable wife. You are something else. Too much.
[00:07:40] Unknown:
Now I feel all warm and scroogie.
[00:07:45] Unknown:
Let's go back to the hotel. You know what's the funniest thing? That's just what I had in mind too. Joyce was like laughing gas, a whiff of her and you were in orbit. The twenty four hours passed on cloud eight, then we were back in New York and under the influence of another kind of excitement. Phones ringing, agents, offers, all the wild madness of overnight success. Oh, not the play. Joyce. And then suddenly, the plum of the year drops right in her lap. The chance to play the sex symbol in the year's hottest film property. Honey, they're waiting for a success. Let's go. Hey. They can wait. They can wait. We've gotta look a few things straight in the face. The agent has the director meeting me too, as well as mister Jenner, the producer. Now just stop a moment to talk to mister Adam Duncan, your stage manager and sometime husband. What do you mean sometime? It's just a manner of speaking. Honey, you can't go signing for a movie while you're still under a theater contract. Oh, they don't need me. Mister Holmes is a star.
[00:08:50] Unknown:
They can get anybody for me. Sure. That's why your phone is ringing, and you're getting all the offers while this cockamamie play has no advance. And the only thing that keeps the box off
[00:08:54] Unknown:
is
[00:09:00] Unknown:
word-of-mouth about you. Well, I don't like doing the same thing over and over again. And this is new. This is a movie.
[00:09:08] Unknown:
What I always wanted to do. Joyce, you just don't know. It's a it's a jungle out there. They eat up little girls like you and spit them down the drain. The theater's something else.
[00:09:19] Unknown:
You mean you don't want me to be a star? I don't want you to get the fever. Nothing comes easy in this business. Oh, I don't know. I've been pretty lucky so far. Anyway, it's what I wanna do.
[00:09:32] Unknown:
And what kind of money are they talking about? Oh, that's up to Lou, isn't it? Yes and no. I mean, I mean, what are you gonna live on out there? Can we swing it on our budget? Oh, I'll live with Janice, of course. My sister. Remember? That isn't exactly the best time to move in with her. I mean, she just lost her husband. Oh, he was a big mistake. Mistake or not, I thought your sister Janice was trying to sell the house. Well, she hasn't yet.
[00:09:54] Unknown:
By the time she gets a buyer, we're gonna be rich, and I'm gonna be famous. So now can I go to Sardi's? I've never been able to go there ever before and feel really
[00:10:07] Unknown:
important. So we went to Sardis, and I was a fifth wheel. But Joyce was in seventh heaven, and everything went off like a storybooks and a star was on the way to being born. She was signed, let out of a contract with the Duke and the Doll, and off she went to the Golden Capital. Within six weeks, the show she left died, and I caught the first plane for the coast. The moment I hit LA, I headed straight for Chelsea Drive right off Coldwater Canyon near the Beverly Canyon Hotel. That was where missus Restrew, Joyce's widowed sister, lived. I rang the bell, the door opened, and there was the woman I loved that I'd been aching for the last month and a half. And I gobbled her up in my arms.
Oh, baby, oh, darling, my beloved. Wait. You ask a man who has lived on less than bread and water to Listen. Crazy, man. I will listen to nothing but total surrender. That's a marvelous item except you got the wrong girl. Don't try to voice me off, babes. Don't tell me you're gone Hollywood. You're my girl and you better know it. But I'm not. Then why not? I'm not. Joyce. What? I'm Jasmine. I'm her sister. You you you what? Come on, Joyce. What's the rib? What what what are you what are you giving me? Hey. You you're being for real?
You were Joyce's sister, but I I I mean, I Didn't she tell you we were twins? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. I I guess she said twins. I I just thought, sister. This is just not possible. What? Well, I mean, people look like each other, but for sure it's been a few weeks since I saw Joyce. You think I know my own wife? Hey. You you you putting me on? Honestly, I'm not. Yeah. I should have known. Actually, you don't sound anything like each other. Oh, I'm the second fiddle. No. No. No. No. No. I didn't mean that. You have a lovely voice. Thank you. And obviously, you're the loveliest looking woman I've ever known since I can't tell you from my why.
[00:12:07] Unknown:
Well, I'm I'm sure you'll find enough differences between her so you won't be confused.
[00:12:14] Unknown:
Such a simple statement, and yet how prophetic it was to prove to be. Meeting Joyce later that day when she came back from the studio, it was weird. I mean, I was acutely aware of the differences,
[00:12:30] Unknown:
not just only in the sound of the voice. It's a drag, but it's exciting too. I mean, I just get so strung out. I mean, I am pooped. I just wanna lie down and sleep.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I'm glad my arrival's giving you such a lift. Oh, honey. You know, I'm glad to see you.
[00:12:50] Unknown:
It's just I'm
[00:12:52] Unknown:
I'm so tired. Okay. So you're tired? Now you're mad at me. I'm not mad. You just don't seem exactly spaced out that I'm back with you again. Oh, don't you worry about that, baby Kim.
[00:13:03] Unknown:
Your little Joyce loves you all too. Oh, let me just pop a pet pill, and I'll have a bath. And then I'll show you just how much. You're my number one man. You're my fella. You're my big daddy. And don't you ever think for one minute I'd ever let you go? Once to go, I just arrived. I'm never gonna let you go again. I'm never gonna be without you. I'm just gonna hang around you like a little old anchor around your neck. I love you, Adam. I need you. And the only way you'll ever be rid of your baby doll is for me to die. You never wanted to walk out on me.
You'd have to kill me first.
[00:13:47] Unknown:
I smothered that kind of crazy talk with a kiss. Only the terrible thing was that as I held Joyce, felt her move against me in all the old exciting ways. Behind my closed eyes, the face and the body was the same. But my ears were remembering that low musical voice of Janice's. Her even, steady, amused, and gentle sureness, and the impression I'd gotten of a strong and subtle intelligence. Joyce's twin. Identical in appearance, but so different in character. And even as I kissed my wife hungrily, I couldn't banish the earlier embrace I had held her sister in. And insistently, terribly, a phrase was ringing in my head in Joyce's tinkly, phony, jangling, baby doll voice.
If you ever wanted to walk out on me, you'd have to kill me first.
[00:14:55] Unknown:
What would it be like, do you suppose, to fall in love with a woman and then find that she wasn't the only one of her kind? And if you like the second image better, could you change partners, or would the desire to do that lead you to incredible lengths that you could never dream of? I shall return shortly with act two. It occurs to me that I didn't mean to be chauvinistic. Why dwell only on the one male unequal side of our isosceles triangle? There are the other equal sides, or at least by normal measurement, that now demand some study and exploration.
The females, Joyce and Janice, identical twins physically, but how diverse as individuals, how stressful or how violent will their contrasting personalities threaten the slender figure of the triangle? Three simple straight lines which presently join, but under opposing forces could be blown out of existence. For example
[00:16:17] Unknown:
Hello? Janice, it's Adam. You're beginning to recognize me. Oh, I can always tell you now.
[00:16:24] Unknown:
By my voice?
[00:16:26] Unknown:
By so many other things. Adam,
[00:16:29] Unknown:
if you want to talk to Joyce, I'm afraid you're out of luck. Isn't she home from the studio yet? Van Williams always stops shooting on the dot of five. And our baby doll always comes straight home. And on the stroke of 05:30
[00:16:41] Unknown:
is not wallowing in the bubble bath again.
[00:16:44] Unknown:
Every night. It's a ritual. With the radio blaring away, I'll bet. You know how that worries me? Oh, my husband said it's built in. There's no danger. Even with wet hands.
[00:16:55] Unknown:
Even acid rock.
[00:16:57] Unknown:
Not my favorite brand of music, but Well, then why don't you object? Because she's my favorite sister.
[00:17:03] Unknown:
Why'd you call Adam? Oh, yeah. I got a couple of tickets for the ballet. It's Romeo and Juliet with Champlain and Asturietta. We're gonna ask her if she'd like to meet me downtown. Oh, no. Look. Tell her tell her I have the tickets, and I'll drive home and and pick her up. Okay? Okay. Lucky bums. I'm sorry. I couldn't get three, Jen. Oh, I was just pulling your leg.
[00:17:22] Unknown:
I've got packing and general house cleaning to do anyway. Well, none of your business. Now you get back here and take your wife out so you can fall in love with her all over again. And don't mind me if I sound jealous. It's only because I am. Ciao, Bello.
[00:17:43] Unknown:
I hung up with one word ringing in my ear,
[00:17:46] Unknown:
churning in my stomach, shaking me up a good,
[00:17:50] Unknown:
jealous. I told myself it was accidental just kidding around, but I knew better. No matter how deep I tried to bury the truth, two weeks living in the same house with both Joyce and Janice had taught me that. Two weeks. I knew it within two minutes after I had met Janice. Remember the old ads? Which twin has the Tony? Well, I knew which twin should have the Adam, but I couldn't admit that to myself. I brushed it out of my mind and went home. Joyce? Joyce, you still in there? Joyce, Joyce, it's Adam. Turn that damn radio down. What did you say? I said turn the damn I I just wanted you to turn the radio off so you could hear me. I can hear you. Are you still in the bathtub?
[00:18:45] Unknown:
No, honey. I'm just coming out. Hello, Precious. You're late getting home. Yeah. I didn't have anyone to scrub my back. I was finding myself a job.
[00:18:57] Unknown:
A job? Yeah. Not much, but a good start with a classic rep. What's that? Almost like Off Broadway, New York. Maybe more like off off.
[00:19:05] Unknown:
No money. Yeah. That's where we started, but it's my kind of theater. Oh, lover. We're in the big time now. You are, not me. Well, I don't see why you have to waste your time with culture and all that jazz. I mean, what's in it for you? Oh, satisfaction,
[00:19:21] Unknown:
excitement, balm for my immortal soul, and something very special for tonight. The producer can't use them, and he gave them to me. Gave you what? Two tickets for Romeo and Juliet. Oh, Shakespeare?
[00:19:35] Unknown:
Come on, baby. I'm tired. Anyway, you made me sit through that play once. I thought it would never end. No. No. This isn't the play. It's the ballet with with the Tchaikovsky music. Oh, you've gotta be kidding. Ballet, that really bores me out of my gourd. It's with Champlain and Nastoria.
[00:19:52] Unknown:
Who? Joyce, they're the top dancers in the world. Okay. Okay, honey.
[00:19:58] Unknown:
If it's all that important to you, why don't you take Jan? I'll just watch some TV. Terry Sales has a special on tonight. I just don't wanna mess it. That schlock comedy? He fractures me. I mean, he really laid me out. Oh, I know you don't go for him. So take Jan to the ballet. Look, if it was any other woman, I wouldn't let you out of the door. But I know you're safe with Jan.
[00:20:25] Unknown:
But that was the whole trouble. I wasn't safe with Jan at all, nor was she very safe with me. And I guess that's the only reason she was with me that night. Because on the way home after turning off sunset under cold water, just as we came to Chelsea Drive, she said. Don't turn, Adam. Just keep going. Where? To the next right.
[00:20:48] Unknown:
Enter the Ellsworth's driveway. Hey. And cut your lights.
[00:20:56] Unknown:
Why here?
[00:20:57] Unknown:
They're away.
[00:20:59] Unknown:
Okay. Cut them out.
[00:21:05] Unknown:
We've got to talk about things, get some things straight,
[00:21:09] Unknown:
particularly after tonight. It was beautiful, wasn't it? Yes. Maybe that's the greatest thing about ballet. No words needed
[00:21:21] Unknown:
like us. Oh, don't.
[00:21:24] Unknown:
It's what we have to talk about. We don't need any words to tell each other that. Oh, no. Adam, I oh.
[00:21:33] Unknown:
Oh, darling.
[00:21:36] Unknown:
Darling, darling. Darling. I have been wanting to do this again on purpose ever since it happened by accident. No more than I.
[00:21:47] Unknown:
No. No. No. It's the last thing I meant to happen. Yeah. Or I expected to. It isn't why I brought you here. And and why? I'm going away. Please don't please don't touch me, please. Going going away? Where? Oh, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Around the world. But but but when? Sooner the better. Wouldn't you say? Well, that's no answer. Well, neither is this. Or how we feel about each other. So what is Alright. Alright. Look. We we sit down. We face facts like three rational people. Well, that's just the trouble. We can't. Why not?
Because Joyce and I are not only sisters. We're twins. Identical twins. Hurting her would be just as more difficult than trying to hurt myself. Alright. No. No. Hold it. She needs you, Adam. For what?
[00:22:41] Unknown:
To teach her how to act so she doesn't go to the studio and fall flat on her pretty face? That's all she needs me for. No. It isn't.
[00:22:48] Unknown:
But even if it were, it would be enough. It's what she's wanted all her life. It would kill her if she lost it just when it was in her hands. What? Being a star. Listen. She was the second of us to arrive. She's always been number two or or felt that way. And now she's number one, a career, a husband, and and probably a lot of money. Anyway, that doesn't matter. Why not? Because because so long as she lives, I've promised myself I'd never willingly do anything to hurt her, nor would I want to. We're two people by accident, you see. Actually, we're only one.
[00:23:32] Unknown:
I tried, but I knew it was hopeless. No amount of argument would change Janice's mind. So we drove home. She went up to her bed, and after a stiff drink, I went up to mine and Joyce. Fortunately, as I opened the door, I could hear that Joyce was asleep. I crossed to her bed and looked down on her. The shaft of moonlight lit her face, and I looked in wonder and amazement at the woman I married who could just as easily have been the woman I now loved. And suddenly, horribly, the memory of some accidental words of Jan sprang up in my mind as if written there in fire.
[00:24:22] Unknown:
As long as she lives, I've promised myself I'd never do anything willingly to hurt her.
[00:24:32] Unknown:
I undressed quickly and got into bed. But it was a long time before I could get to sleep. Usually, I have to wake and turn off the alarm in the morning. But this morning, Joyce actually got to it first. While she was in the bathroom getting ready for the studio car to pick her up,
[00:24:51] Unknown:
I lay in a half day. Where does your time go? I'm late. Oh, I thought you had the day off. Oh, I did. And then there was something the matter with one of the reels that filmed yesterday. We got a reshoot. Oh, you want me to get you some breakfast? No. I haven't time to get it on the step. Oh, how was last night?
[00:25:07] Unknown:
Oh, I was heaven. You should have been there. Not me. That ballet scene leaves me cold. So how did you and Jan get along? Oh, you know how I get along with your sister. I love her. My twin sister. Don't have to be told that. It's tough enough to tell you apart. Yeah.
[00:25:25] Unknown:
It's kinda like why I brought the subject up. See, we're strange, awful strange, Adam. People like me and Jen. There's special vibes, and no ordinary person could know just how special. That's bad. No. Most of the times, it's good. I wouldn't want them ever to be bad. But you see, sometimes I get screwy ideas. I know I'm not all that bright. I try to forget I had them, but I I had this dream last night, and I wanna tell you something. The the dream? No. Just about it. I mean, well, I know it was way out, but it made me think. What if you should like jam better than me?
[00:26:06] Unknown:
Joyce,
[00:26:07] Unknown:
I'm your husband. Alright. Put it another way. If anything happened to me, would you turn to jam? How can I answer a question like that? You don't have to. I will. I'm gonna tell, just do it your car. Just just let me put it this way. If I ever lost you anyway to anyone, you know something? What? You'd never get anything from it because you can't ever get rid of me. Alive or dead, I'm gonna haunt you the rest of my life. How's that for the crazies? Oh, I love you, Adam Duncan. Keep the home fires burning.
[00:26:50] Unknown:
The things that people think, it was all clear as glass. Joyce the clinging vine who would never leave me. Jan, the woman I loved who would never have anything to do with me as long as Joyce was alive. A simple enough equation. The only escape was for Joyce to die. But how? Would I have the nerve? And how could I get away with it?
[00:27:23] Unknown:
Who are any of us to criticize? Haven't we all in anger, despair, or frustration, utter threats, sometimes out loud or perhaps only in the mind that we're mad enough to kill someone, or you drive me so crazy I could murder you. But of course, none of us ever did anything about it. Will Adam Duncan return shortly with act three. Adam Duncan is now convinced that he can never have Janice unless Joyce is dead. And equally convinced that the same is true unless death seems incontrovertibly accidental. It's been an agonizing week for him as the day of Janice's departure draws closer and closer, and he has still not solved the how of Joyce's death.
Now at the last moment, he feels he has. And I'm only going to be omniscient enough to tell you that as far as the police are concerned,
[00:28:42] Unknown:
he could get away with it. Who is it? Adam, Jan. Hey. What's all this? I didn't expect you home in the middle of the day.
[00:28:51] Unknown:
Just stuff I'm getting ready to move out. Oh,
[00:28:54] Unknown:
when? End of the week. Does Joyce know about this? Of course. Oh, you might have told me. I guess we'll have to find somewhere else to live. Oh, no. The house is yours. I can't afford it. Joyce can.
[00:29:09] Unknown:
Who cares? I can. There wasn't much in my marriage with Jim, but he did leave me more money than I'll ever need, so the house is yours. It isn't the house I care about. It's who is in it. Well, we've solved that question. You and Joyce.
[00:29:22] Unknown:
And if there shouldn't be a Joyce?
[00:29:26] Unknown:
Things are as they are. What can we do, Adam, but leave it at that?
[00:29:35] Unknown:
That really should have settled it. But I wasn't willing to let it go at that. Suddenly, I knew how to get away with it. It was just a matter of timing. In all the hours I sat and thought about it, the best thing I had going was habit. A meticulous director who bent over backwards never to work into overtime. A wife who felt it necessary to soak herself in a bubble bath every night and to drown herself in cheap rock music. The factor of time. And a cocktail party where I was going to be highly visible at the hotel on Wiltshire Boulevard, and that involved Janice as well. When it came, as Shakespeare says, to the sticking point, it was really all so simple. One tube was all I had to take out of that sybaritic bathroom radio set.
[00:30:26] Unknown:
Who is that? Adam. Come on in, baby. No radio? Oh, it conked out. Something wasn't working. How come you're here so early? I sneaked out.
[00:30:41] Unknown:
Must have been clairvoyant. Look what I have for you.
[00:30:45] Unknown:
Oh, poor of a radio. Now how did you know I needed a lift? Oh, let's just call it ESP.
[00:30:52] Unknown:
Plug this in first. Is that your speed? Yeah.
[00:31:01] Unknown:
That's Hindenburg and the satellite. Man, that is war.
[00:31:06] Unknown:
You could shut it down. Forget it. What's worth doing is worth doing well. You go for this, don't you? My kind of music. You taking over Tchaikovsky? Yes. Does it matter all that much? No, Joyce. Nothing with us could ever matter that much or anything. Here, take it all, baby. Yeah. You did it. That's dangerous. We've been living dangerously, baby, and you give me no way out. You never get rid of me. I don't know what I really expected. Probably the last thing that it would be all so
[00:31:45] Unknown:
easy.
[00:31:46] Unknown:
The easy walk through the shrubbery to the Ellsworth driveway, picking my car up unseen, and driving to meet Janice as if nothing had happened right on the dot of six as was planned with plenty of people to see us at that specific hour. While back in the bathroom, portable clock radio lay in the bathtub as dead as the woman that shaved it, its hands recording the time of her death as As sixteen minutes after six, the moment the short circuit had stopped the radio, and Joyce.
[00:32:22] Unknown:
Where do you suppose Joyce is? Search me.
[00:32:25] Unknown:
I came straight over from my agent's office. Did you call before you left? Sure. Sure. I thought maybe I could pick her up. She said she just gotten home and would come over by herself, so I headed straight here. Mhmm. Maybe we ought to give her a ring. She might have fallen asleep. Yeah. Let's see. Quarter to seven, maybe we ought to. We went through the mockery of a call to a woman long dead, but who was to appear as having just died in the subsequent police investigation. The timing was perfect. The alibi unassailable.
The verdict, death through misadventure. And I was free, as was Janice. The only problem in the way of our future together was to bide our time. I should say my time since Janice was no part of what I'd done. I had bought our future. I simply had to wait a little while for delivery, I thought.
[00:33:25] Unknown:
Yes? Oh, I really don't think it's a very good time to speak to her husband. Oh, yes. Mister Duncan is here, but we've just returned from the funeral and hold on just a moment, please.
[00:33:44] Unknown:
Yes, mister Bonner. Yeah. I understand. Sure. I see your problem. Well, not right at the moment, but by Monday after the weekend, I might be able to make more sense. As I make your pardon? Oh, sure. Sure. That's very kind of you. Yes. Yes. It has been a sad loss.
[00:34:05] Unknown:
Thank you. That was Joyce's producer, wasn't it? Yes. Ghoul.
[00:34:11] Unknown:
What do you mean? Oh, just what I said. Another in the general school of barracuda. He's got a major film over three quarters completed. Without Joyce, he's got about $34,000,000 of film he might as well dump in the sea or burn up. Unless Unless what? Do I have to tell you? Oh, no.
[00:34:34] Unknown:
Not me, Adam. I'm not an actress. I've got nothing to offer them. You were the only person in the world nobody could tell apart from Joyce. But you yourself. I mean, you know I don't sound anything like her. Oh, thank God.
[00:34:47] Unknown:
That's a trick you could learn,
[00:34:49] Unknown:
and I could teach you. Know what for? I don't care about your mister Bonner or his old picture. Let him worry about it. Sure. Sure. Of course.
[00:34:56] Unknown:
But, well, it is a lousy break for him. I mean, what happened to Joyce and could mean a lot to our future. Our future? Well, I hope after this is all over we are going to have one. Oh, Adam. I'm scared. Why?
[00:35:18] Unknown:
How could I make anyone else understand who hasn't been, well,
[00:35:23] Unknown:
who hasn't been the other half of someone else? The other is dead. Don't make it sound so cruel. I didn't mean to. It's
[00:35:31] Unknown:
just the way things are, except for Bonner. Bonner? The film. Look, would would you be willing to complete it if I helped you? Alright, Adam. If it's what you want and it
[00:35:44] Unknown:
it's right for us, I'll do it.
[00:35:51] Unknown:
Oh, I was the mastermind. I held all the strings in my hand. I knew just what I was doing, and I was invincible. But what I offered a lost director and a frantic producer with a 3 to $4,000,000 bomb on his hands, I was set for life. If I could only teach Janice to sound as much like Joyce as she looked. You wanted me
[00:36:17] Unknown:
dead. How can you dare to resurrect me? Resurrect
[00:36:26] Unknown:
me. It was a dream. Joyce's voice in my ears. Sure, I had been recalling it, but in memory, not in actuality. Was I awake or asleep? Joyce? Joyce, is that you? Oh, no. You're dead.
[00:36:43] Unknown:
But everyone else sets you.
[00:36:55] Unknown:
Suddenly, I was awake bathed in sweat. Joyce was dead. I had gotten rid of her. How could she be alive?
[00:37:09] Unknown:
But golly, I don't wanna get shot at or anything. I'll look out for you, baby. And all the other things you promised me? It goes with the job too. A penthouse apartment? Mink? No. Sable? And one of them long cars with a chauffeur?
[00:37:28] Unknown:
Anything you want, sweetheart, so long as you pay the price. What's the price? You never know that till someone hands you the bill. Hey, Jan. This is great.
[00:37:38] Unknown:
That I can sound like my kid's sister? Oh.
[00:37:42] Unknown:
Like in the flesh. Oh, I wish you wouldn't put it that way.
[00:37:46] Unknown:
She is dead, you know. Yes. I guess I ought to.
[00:37:49] Unknown:
But sometimes I wonder if you do. Look, if it means so much yes. I'll fill in and finish the movie. But after that, I only want to be myself.
[00:38:04] Unknown:
Most people don't know the tedium, the endless amount of takes, the close ups, the medium shots, and of course, the master shots that cover everything. It will be hard to explain to the average person that a simple phrase like I love you might have to be repeated again and again, maybe twenty, thirty, 40 times. And not necessarily the way you might wanna say it yourself, but patterned and inflected just as the director, the producer, the power behind the camera might dictate. And so for six or seven endless weeks, Janice submitted herself to the forces which had shaped her twin sister. And finally, the picture was over, and she came home.
We're finished, Adam. Hey. Today was the wrap? Yep. Oh, that's great, Jen. What a relief. You're really all that happy, sweetie pie? Of course. Now you don't have to sound like Joyce anymore. You can be yourself. I can be what? Yourself, Janice, the woman I love. But I am the woman you love. Come on, Janice. Knock it off. You don't have to sound like that silly kid sister of yours. You mean the woman you married? I mean the woman I married the second time. Come on, honey. What are you doing to me? I married Joyce, which was a mistake. Then I married you, which was the best thing I ever did in my life. Are you so sure?
[00:39:26] Unknown:
I mean, baby, baby, sweetheart. You love me all that much? Okay. Okay, Janice. Cut it out. Janice? Are you alright? Well, that's the question you should be asking yourself, lover. Which of us did you really marry? And which of us did you kill? What? Oh, you know how it is with twins. There's There's an ESP that no one else could understand. Whatever happens to one strikes a mirror chord in the other.
[00:39:58] Unknown:
She she you you you know?
[00:40:01] Unknown:
Know what, darling? Why do you look so terrified?
[00:40:05] Unknown:
I I I I don't know. I I don't I don't know what to say. I I don't even know who you are. Your wife, darling. I could answer that. I
[00:40:15] Unknown:
I I know. I know. But but but which which one? Which But won't it be interesting for you to try to figure out? No. I mean, since I have the money, where can you run? No. Whatever you paid into this marriage, I promise you, you'll get exactly what you got. So think of me as I am, big lover, or as you made me, because I'm yours till death do us part.
[00:40:49] Unknown:
Quite recently, there was a disturbance on the Golden Gate Bridge. A man had climbed into the superstructure with the object of committing suicide. Despite heroic efforts by the police, the man, an unemployed member of several theatrical unions, plunged to his death. He was identified by his wife, a resident of Los Angeles, as Adam Duncan. I'll be back shortly. Not all stories are pleasant, as indeed not all people are. The happiest thing to dwell on is how few oh, now I must search for a careful word. What shall it be? Well, let's let's settle for an old fashioned word. Rotters, no gooders.
Anyway, human beings with nothing much to recommend them get away with murder, or do they? Certainly not in my stories. They always have to pay when it comes to the end. Our cast, Marion Seldes and Paul Hecht. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. This is EG Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasant dream.
Introduction to the Isosceles Triangle
The Life of an Actor
Meeting Joyce Adams
The Rise to Stardom
The Move to Hollywood
The Twin Sister Revelation
The Ballet and the Growing Tension
Joyce's Dream and Adam's Dilemma
The Plan to Eliminate Joyce
The Aftermath and Janice's Role
The Final Twist
