["Alfred Hitchcock" theme music]
- Good evening.
[door creaking]
Welcome to tonight's program.
As you see, I have joined
those of you who enjoy
the most popular indoor hobby.
Coin collecting.
Perhaps some of you think that
the rise of the credit card
and credit buying was
spontaneous.
Actually, the reason for
these devices is quite simple.
Coin collectors have taken so
much money out of circulation,
there isn't enough to spend.
If this trend should
continue, and I see no reason
why it should not, we will
have to reintroduce barter.
With that possibility in
mind, I have already begun
collecting beaver pelts.
I'm sure it will come as
no great surprise to you
to learn that in tonight's
program,
a crime will be committed.
And I do not refer to the one
our sponsor
is about perpetrate.
[dramatic music]
[mysterious music]
- Five cents, Jimmy.
[roaring]
Jimmy, stop it.
Jimmy, don't.
[growling]
Leave her alone.
I'll tell your mother.
[light music]
- Terry, grab the wrench
for the engine mounts,
I'll rig the hoist.
Well come on, kid [snaps
fingers].
[soft mysterious music]
[engine starting]
[dramatic music]
[engine idling]
- Fred?
Fred, Fred?
[soft mysterious music]
I can't do it, Fred.
- What's that all about?
- Well, what do you think?
He's only been out about a
month.
- He's too nervous for my money.
- Well, I once knew a guy used
to walk up
eight flights of stairs
to see his parole officer,
because he couldn't stand
being cooped up in an elevator.
[hard breathing]
[children shouting]
[traffic passing]
- Hi.
- Hi.
No business school today?
- Only twice a week.
- Oh.
It's warm.
[sighing]
- Indian summer.
I haven't seen you for a couple
of days.
- I was in yesterday for
cigarettes.
Your dad said you were out.
- School.
Father said I could have
some time off this afternoon
after I finish at the store.
I think I'll go to the park.
- Fred owes me some time,
maybe I could go with you.
It's a free park.
[gentle music]
You don't talk much, do you?
- I guess not.
- Is the rest of your family
like that, quiet, I mean?
- I don't know.
I don't even know who they were.
I was raised in a county home.
- You mean like an orphanage?
- Now what else could it mean?
- I'm sorry.
- Maybe we oughta start back.
It's a long way.
- We can take the subway.
- I wanna walk.
You wanna take the subway, go
ahead.
- If that's the way you feel
about it,
why did you come with me?
[birds chirping]
- I, I didn't mean it like that.
It's just that it's
the rush hour now, and,
look, I got a thing about being
closed up
in places, that's all.
[birds chirping]
- Claustrophobia?
- Yeah.
- So does Mr. Calucci.
He was a prisoner of w*r.
[birds chirping]
- I was a prisoner once.
No w*r, though.
- You mean the home?
- Home, reformatory, state
prison, take your pick.
Anything else you'd like to
know?
Some date, huh?
Bet you don't have any
boyfriends like me.
No, huh?
- I don't have any boyfriends.
- [Terry] Come on.
- I haven't dated since high
school.
- Girl like you?
- Why not, what do you know
about me?
- I can learn.
You like popcorn?
It's the only time we
ever got outside the home.
I loved that school bus.
Not the school, just the bus
[sighs].
I thought that driver had it
made,
free, in control of things.
[birds chirping]
I watched him till I could
shift gears in my sleep.
- Is that what you stole?
- I just wanted to take it
for a drive, that's all.
- And they sent you to
a reformatory for that?
They must have known you
weren't really stealing it.
- They didn't wanna know.
All they know is locks, walls
and bars.
When I got out, I was
gonna be a racing driver,
work someplace, build my own
car.
Ever apply for a job?
- Not yet.
- Did you ever work
around cars before, kid?
Oh, where'd you learn?
Where you from, who are you?
And if you lie,
there's your probation officer.
Big brother, just dropping by to
ask
the boss how you're doing.
- What did you go to prison for?
- What they expected me to go
for.
Stealing more cars.
- Does Mr. Kruger know?
- Oh no, of course not.
- Now you have a chance
to do what you want to do.
- You bet I have.
- That's why I'm taking a
business course.
Once I get a job, maybe I can
get Papa to give up the store.
- You don't think he'll let you,
do you?
Huh?
Look, once somebody gets
you under their thumb,
they keep you there.
Why do you stay with him?
- I'm all he has.
Everybody needs someone.
[gentle music]
[traffic passing]
[door creaking]
[bell ringing]
- I'm sorry I made you walk.
- I liked it.
Don't, Terry, please.
- I didn't mean anything wrong.
- I know.
I just don't want to.
Goodnight, Terry.
- It's okay.
Goodnight.
[gentle music]
[soft dramatic music]
- 32 minutes later, we're
back here with $112,000.
Huh, what do you think of that?
- I think you're outta your
mind.
- Why?
- I don't know, it's crazy.
I mean, chasing freight trains,
with the police to help.
I mean, that's a real beauty.
And that safe's gotta weigh 400
pounds.
Now what are you gonna do,
carry it out on your back?
- Don't you ever listen?
We roll it across the
floor on this creeper.
[creeper sliding and hitting
wall]
Lift it into the truck,
it'll take 30 seconds.
- If you're wrong, it could take
- Now you fake your
breakdown right about here.
And one of the patrol cars
coming off duty
comes down this street at about
give or take a minute.
You're sitting here at
the side of the road
with the flares out, all right.
He stops, you flag him down.
Ask him to get on the
radio, call the precinct.
Have the precinct telephone
here, send out a tow truck.
Terry, you should get
the call about 11:45.
You're ready to roll with
the tow truck, you take off.
You meet us here, 11:50.
We leave the tow truck.
Take off in the Packard.
All right, now from here, to the
plant,
it's four minutes, right?
- Less.
- Good.
- Okay, at 11:59, a hotshot
freight leaves the yards here,
makes the crossing at 12:04.
This is about the same
time the other patrol cars
are coming back on duty for the
midnight
to eight AM shift, you
understand?
- This is the part I don't get
at all.
- All right, will you just
listen?
So that means we got exactly
to the plant, take care of the
guards,
get the safe in the track and
get back
across the railroad before this
freight makes the crossing.
None of these other patrol cars
can
possibly get here in time to
follow us.
When they do get across, we'll
be coming back from the other
side with a breakdown that
they already know about.
Huh, any questions?
- Yeah, one big one.
Suppose we don't make
the crossing in time.
[soft mysterious music]
[g*n clicking]
[mysterious music]
- They're coming.
- Right on the button, we're in
business.
[dramatic music]
[soft mysterious music]
[phone ringing]
- Kruger's Tow Service.
Where?
Boy, he really picked a spot
to break down, didn't he?
Yeah, thanks.
[phone hanging up]
[upbeat dramatic music]
[engine revving]
[upbeat dramatic music]
[engine starting]
[upbeat dramatic music]
[crickets chirping]
[soft dramatic music]
[engine idling]
[soft dramatic music]
[dramatic music]
[engine revving and tires
squealing]
- [Fred] You followed?
- [Al] No.
- [Fred] Good.
- [Al] We're a minute late.
come on, let's go.
- [Terry] I thought you said
this thing weighed 400 pounds.
- [Al] Something's wrong, it
feels like it weighs a ton.
- [Fred] It moved, didn't it,
come on.
Come on, all right, all together
now.
[safe crashing]
Come on.
Won't budge, the casters are
smashed.
- [Al] Look at that
clock, we gotta leave it.
- [Fred] No, you don't leave it.
[hard breathing]
Wait here.
[footsteps]
[engine starting]
[engine revving]
[crashing]
Terry, get that truck over here.
Al, stand by and give
me a hand with the safe.
[engine idling]
[engine starting]
[tires squealing]
[engine revving]
[brakes squealing]
Wait.
[engine revving]
[tires squealing]
[engine revving]
[safe banging]
- What's the matter with this
crate?
- Feels like we broke a
spring when the safe hit it.
- Oh great.
[siren blaring]
- We're tagged.
- No police cars, huh?
- Well he musta been
delayed answering a call.
[siren blaring]
[train horn blowing]
- They're gaining.
[crossing bells ringing]
[train horn blowing]
- We can't make it.
- We better make it or
it's back to the pen.
Go for broke, kid.
[train horn blowing]
I hope it ain't a tie.
[horn blowing]
[crossing bells ringing]
- That broken spring almost
cooked us.
- Well just don't cook the
money.
[laughing]
- 700 little paydays.
how much that is a minute?
Oh boy.
Listen, get the suitcase outta
my office.
- [Al] Hey, Fred.
- Yeah?
- [Al] What's this thing in
here?
- I don't know.
- [Al] What is this?
- Must be something valuable,
come on, out with it.
- [Al] I can't budge it.
- Come on, if you try it, you
can.
Oop, geez that's heavy.
You got it?
What is this, another safe or
something?
Hey you know, sometimes
these plants, they use
industrial diamonds for cutting
metal.
- This thing opens up over here.
- Good.
- Let's see.
- It's a lock.
- A lock.
- Huh?
Here.
- Watch your hand.
[hammer banging]
What is this?
- Some kinda safe, huh?
- There's another opening over
here.
Feels like just a hole.
- Let me see.
- No, Fred.
There's some kinda shield here.
- Where?
Warning, dangerous.
This shell contains cobalt 60.
Improper exposure can
lead to illness or death
from ra-, radiation?
[dramatic piano music]
Let's get outta here.
- I touched it.
Hey, Fred.
- What?
- I touched it.
I touched it!
- Come on.
[dramatic piano music]
- We have now come to what
is known as a station break,
a rent in the fabric of
television entertainment.
If you press an eye to the
opening,
one generally sees another
giant eyeball staring back,
as an announcer intones the call
letters
of the local station, after
which,
the second half of our story.
[soft dramatic music]
- Hello, Colonel, Frank Ludden.
You hear any newscasts
on that Long Island City
job this morning?
No, I'm afraid it was more than
a payroll.
That safe had a container of
cobalt 60
used to X-ray steel beams.
Very potent.
Multi-Curie source on government
license.
Yeah.
Colonel, how many choppers you
got
with antennae and detection
equipment?
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh, well get them up as soon
as you possibly can, will you?
If that container is
breached, we should be able
to pick it up, oh, I'd
say, about 1,500 feet.
Yes.
Yes, I want the entire city
checkerboard.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm here with Durrell and
Polson
from the Federal Bureau, they're
with me.
Same to you, Colonel,
we'll need it [sighs].
- [Newscaster] Seemed to have
vanished without a trace,
taking with them the firm's safe
containing a $112,000 payroll.
The company announced it will
hereafter
pay employees by check, a little
late.
Now to the national and
international.
- There, you see?
- See what?
- They didn't even mention that
cobalt.
All they're worried about's the
money.
- Well then why'd they put
the sign on that thing?
- They give you the same
baloney about too many X-rays.
You've had X-rays, haven't you?
Are you dead yet?
Anything?
- No.
- Look, don't you think they'd
say so
if that stuff could hurt you?
- But they don't know I opened
it.
I wanna go see a doctor, Fred.
- All right, Al, see a doctor
tonight.
In Mexico City.
- How do I get there?
- I called up the travel
agency, make reservations.
They're gonna call me back.
- What do we do till then?
- I don't know, I don't
know, let me think.
Listen, Al, you better
go back to your shop.
You wait there till you hear
from me.
- Where you gonna be?
- Well, I can't go back to
the garage with that thing.
- I thought you said it wasn't
dangerous.
- Well I mean, being
near it all day, come on.
- Look at my fingers.
Look at them.
- You were using the torch
without your gloves on,
so you got a little burned.
- I wore gloves, it's not a
burn.
They feel numb.
It feels like my fingers
are dying on my hand.
I'm gonna see a doc.
- Well then we better make sure
that
you need one, right, Al?
- Fred, no.
- For 30 years, I've been
living high off the hog!
Twice, twice I fell off.
Both times because some jerk
like him chickened out on me!
And that's not gonna happen
again!
[phone ringing]
[sighing]
Hello.
Yes, Mr. Miller.
Why not?
Monday, that's no good, I gotta
get out.
Well haven't you got anything?
Huh?
All right, all right.
Call me back if you get any
cancellations, will you please?
Right, thank you.
[phone hanging up]
Friday, weekend.
Everything's booked solid until
Monday.
Al, I--
I'm sorry, forgive me, huh?
Look, you go back to your shop,
pretend like nothing happened
till we get outta here.
Because if you don't, Al,
you know it's gonna be
back to the pen for you.
It'll be back to the pen for all
of us,
and we'll never get out again.
You know that, don't you?
- Yeah.
- Sure, come on.
He needs watching.
- Fred?
- Mm.
- What about that thing in the
garage?
- What thing?
Oh.
Yeah, we gotta do something
about that, don't we?
Listen, tell you what to
do, get a sign made up.
Closed for repairs, tack
it on the front door.
Well can you think of something
better?
- I meant about the neighbors.
- What about them?
- Well they're near it.
Al's hand didn't look very good.
- Oh come on, he's an old maid.
You're not thinking about?
You're thinking about that
girl, that Carol, aren't you?
Huh?
She gave you the brush
last night, didn't she?
- Yeah.
- Yes, sure, so there's nobody
there
we care about, is there?
- No.
- Of course not.
[chuckling]
[soft dramatic music]
[bells ringing]
[soft dramatic music]
- Can I borrow a hammer and some
tacks?
- Don't you have any at the
garage?
- I forgot my keys.
[tacks rattling]
Fred's putting in some new
equipment.
- Then you won't be around for a
while.
- I was thinking about going
away.
- Oh.
Have you got a new job?
- Yeah.
In Mexico.
- Then you won't be coming back.
- No.
- I came over last night.
About 12, you weren't there.
- I was out on a call.
- I wanted to see you.
- Didn't act like it the last
time.
You let me kiss you, and then
all--
[bells ringing]
- Hey, Carol, you get any calls
for me?
- [Carol] No, Mrs. Calucci.
- My sister in the Bronx,
she got an operation.
Could her husband find a phone,
no.
But tell him a tip on a horse,
and he's got a phone in his
pocket.
Give me some change, I call her.
[register ringing]
[footsteps]
[phone dialing]
- I'll bring these back.
[bell ringing]
[dramatic piano music]
[hammer pounding]
[speaking foreign language]
[soft dramatic music]
- They got nobody to go and
call.
[soft dramatic music]
[bell ringing and door closing]
[soft dramatic music]
- I love you.
I've never used that word
before.
I wanted to tell you last night.
[wings flapping cage rattling]
- He's dead.
Last night, when I covered
him, he was singing.
- [Otto] What's the matter?
- It's Caruso, he's dead.
- Carol? You gotta come away
with me right now, today.
- Away, where?
- Mexico City, we'll get
married.
- Be sure this time, Carol.
- [Terry] Be sure about what?
Carol?
Carol?
- There's something you better
know.
- What is it?
I met a boy.
In high school, when I was 15.
- Go on.
- We ran away and got married.
We were underage, it didn't work
out.
I got a divorce three months
later.
- That's not all, is it?
- I had a baby.
A little boy.
- Where is he?
- I don't know.
I never saw him.
I gave him away for adoption.
- You mean, you dumped him?
- No.
- You just gave him away, to
be brought up by somebody else?
How could you do it?
- [Carol] How could you steal
cars?
- Because maybe I had a mother
like you.
- I needed somebody to love me.
- What do you think your kid
needed?
[soft dramatic music]
[bells ringing]
[jazz music]
[dramatic piano music]
[g*n firing and glass breaking]
[g*n firing]
[dramatic music]
[soft dramatic music]
- Baker Nine, go ahead.
Yes, he's right here.
It's for you, sir.
- Ludden speaking.
Yes, Larry.
- I'm at LIC emergency.
They had a homicide here
about two hours ago,
unidentified man coming in off
the street.
Body's been posted.
Cause of death was a
b*llet, but the man's hand
showed positive symptoms
of primary radiation burns.
Direct contact with a
multi-Curie agent.
- Then the container has been
breached?
- I'm afraid so, sir.
Public Health is standing
by for instructions.
- Okay.
Okay, let them hit the panic
button.
Give it to PI for immediate
release.
- We've still got 12 hours.
- Not anymore we haven't.
I want all units to converge
on the Long Island City sector.
- Yes, sir.
- And pass it on to the
choppers.
- Yes, sir.
- If the man was still around,
the cobalt must be too.
How long before it could k*ll
somebody?
- Not long enough.
[upbeat music on TV]
- Hi, Terry.
[upbeat music on TV]
Any good?
- I haven't been watching.
- Wanna beer?
- No.
Tomorrow's Saturday, Fred.
- Yeah, yeah I know, Terry.
Seems like a long time till
Monday, huh?
Listen, I'm buying a car in the
morning.
We'll drive to Miami, take
off from there for Mexico.
- I've been thinking, all
those kids with no school
tomorrow playing outside the
garage.
- Terry, you and I were within
a few feet of that thing.
Al even touched it, he's okay.
- Is he, Fred?
- Sure.
Come on, don't let your
imagination run away with you.
Think of Number One, kid.
Mexico, huh, racing cars?
You got the dough to
buy yourself the best.
And listen, those Mexican
senoritas,
they'll make that candy store
kid of yours look like a boy.
- [Newscaster] We interrupt the
late show
for an urgent news bulletin.
A spokesman for the
Atomic Energy Commission
has just revealed--
- We got a long drive tomorrow,
kid.
- [Newscaster] Lethal cobalt
The AEC warned that the
container has been breached.
The AEC personnel and agents
of the FBI have been hoping
to recover the container intact,
but that hope has faded
with the disclosure
that an unidentified man
shot to death in the entrance
of an emergency hospital
earlier this evening
was suffering from severe
radiation burns.
The man is believed to have
been one of the masked bandits.
The manhunt for his two
companions has been speeded up.
The AEC warns that the breached
container
is highly dangerous.
Continuous exposure can lead to
blood cell
deterioration and death.
- You k*lled him!
- What was I supposed
to do, let him k*ll me?
- Oh no, not you, not Number
One.
- Use your head, kid.
- I'm beginning to, Fred.
I bought a payroll heist, not
this.
[phone dialing]
- You think so, huh?
Well I'll tell you what I
bought.
I bought you, buddy boy.
I bought you with two months in
solitary,
taking the raps for you.
For the six months' good
behavior time
I lost because of you.
For the year I spent with
my nose in sweat and grease,
setting up a front for
us with that garage,
waiting for you to get out.
- Not me, a wheelman,
that's what you wanted.
- All right then, a wheelman.
That's what I paid for, and
that's what I'm gonna get.
- [Terry] Oh no, you're
gonna have to k*ll me
the same way you k*lled Al.
- No.
No, kid.
Because I know what button
to push with you, you see.
- No.
- Yes.
- Fred!
[dramatic music]
Fred, Fred, please.
- Get used to it, kid.
That's what solitary's
like, only in solitary
you won't be alone, you'll have
rats
and other things to keep you
company.
[soft dramatic music]
- Let me out, Fred.
I'll do it, I'll do whatever you
say.
- What about that girl of yours?
- I don't care about
her, I don't care, Fred!
[door banging]
Fred!
[dramatic music]
[hard breathing]
I don't care if she dies.
[engine revving]
- [Pilot] All ground units,
brief positive
multi-Curie reading on Map Area
J4.
- That's it.
Map Area J4, driver, and hit it.
All units to close in for a
fixed pattern.
Decontamination teams
and a recovery squad.
[engine revving]
- Baker Nine to all units.
- Terry?
Terry, wait till you see the car
I bought.
Terry?
- Must have been the food last
night.
- I'll go call the doctor.
- No.
Just let me rest.
[door opening and bells ringing]
Go ahead, answer it.
- [Terry] Carol?
Carol?
- What do you want?
- [Terry] You gotta get outta
here.
You gotta come with me right
now.
- Let me go.
- Will you listen to me?
- I listened to you yesterday.
- I didn't mean what I said.
- I don't care anymore.
- We'll get married.
- So you can throw it up
to me the rest of my life?
Don't do me any favors, Terry.
Let me go, leave me alone.
I've gotta call the doctor for
my father.
- What's the matter with him?
- We've both been sick all
night.
- You gotta get outta here right
now.
- Terry, leave me alone!
- Terry.
Leave her alone.
Get out, or I'll call the
police.
[dramatic piano music]
- Get outta here.
All of you, get outta here, go
play some,
go play someplace else.
Go on!
[children shouting]
[dramatic music]
- Happy now, kid?
There's a car outside
waiting for a driver.
- It'll wait one more minute.
The people in there are sick.
I'm gonna call the police.
- Get out to the car, kid.
- After I call.
[body thumping]
[dramatic music]
[engine starting]
[dramatic music]
[brakes squealing]
[dramatic music]
- Fred, Fred?
Let me out.
I won't call anybody till you're
gone.
- I know you won't, kid.
- Fred?
Honest, Fred, honest.
I'll do anything you say.
[traffic passing]
[siren blaring]
- Hold everybody on the street.
Get around in the back.
- Just a minute, sir.
I said stop.
[g*ns firing]
[footsteps]
- Okay, come on, get these
people off the street.
- That's Fred Kruger.
- Do you know this guy?
- From the garage.
- You okay?
- Yeah.
- You're sure now?
- Yes.
- Okay, come on, let's go.
Stand back, everyone.
Get that house on the other
side of the candy store.
- Terry?
Terry?
- Carol?
Carol, go away.
Go back, the cobalt's here.
Call the police.
[door closing]
- How long they been in there?
- A few minutes, I guess.
- Over this way.
- Hurry it up.
Put him down on that curb over
there.
Officer, would you keep
an eye on him please?
- [Soldier] Make way, please.
- [Durrell] How many more in
there?
- [Ludden] I don't know, couple,
I guess.
- Come on, this way.
- Sir?
You heard him ask me to
call you, didn't you?
Doesn't that mean anything?
- Not for me to say.
Might mean a lot.
[soft dramatic music]
- [Soldier] This side
of the street cleared.
[soft dramatic music]
- I'm sorry.
I tried to tell you.
- It's all right.
[soft dramatic music]
- That concludes our story for
tonight.
My coin collecting has also
ended.
I had forgotten about that
greatest of all
coin collectors, the government.
It all went for taxes and is
back in circulation again.
I am too, until next week,
when I shall return with another
story.
["The Alfred Hitchcock Hour"
instrumental theme music]
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