["Alfred Hitchcock" theme music]
- Good evening.
Someone has at last found a
practical use for my talents.
He reasoned that since I
have been frightening people
for years, why not birds?
The job is somewhat restricting,
but I have a number of visitors.
One little girl and a tin
woodman are quite bothersome.
They seem to be under
the absurd impression
that I'm going to go dancing
up the road with them.
In keeping with this bucolic
mood,
tonight we are presenting
a pleasant little tale
of homicide, lust, deceit,
revenge, and greed.
I'm sure you'll love it.
It follows this short prologue.
[whimsical orchestral music]
- Guess they're selling off
everything they can move.
- They say lawyers fees took
must of it.
It's the way it goes when
you're fighting for your life.
- Times like this I wish I
were in some other business.
Looks like a long afternoon.
- Brass hand irons and screen,
that goes with the rest of the
hardware,
and it's number 165.
Sandwich Glass, milk glass, oh,
I tell ya,
we'll number these individually
and use series 300.
- All right, sir.
[knocking on door]
[glass crashing]
I'm sorry Mr. Huckaby.
I don't know what happened.
- What was it?
- That little milk glass vase.
- It's only a replica, forget
it.
[suspenseful music]
- [Bessie Voiceover] By
the time this is found,
it ought be all over.
Justice will have had its day.
The scales will be in balance
again.
It will be all over with me too.
I'm ill and tired,
and I've been dying so
long I'm bored with it.
I've lived in the county a long
time.
This is my home.
These are my people.
Now they've turned against me,
but still I owe them something.
I owe it to them to set history
straight.
To bring to the light of day
the two lies that together make
a truth.
[Bessie gasping]
- Aunt Bessie, Aunt Bessie!
You turn right around and go
home.
- Not on your life.
- You know what the doctor said.
- Who was it?
Who fell off the cliff last
night?
- There's nothing you can do
about it now.
Go on back to the house.
- Was it Ephraim?
Camilla, tell me.
- They think so.
They haven't found him yet.
[Bessie gasping]
Aunt Bessie, come back here!
- What time did you hear him
yell?
- It was a little past eight,
I'd say.
- Before eight.
- Samantha, I was in the barn by
eight.
- He yelled before that.
- I could've sworn that--
- About 10 to eight, Sheriff.
I was in the kitchen.
I heard it through the open
window.
- [Pate] Bessie!
- Did you find the body?
- Well, we found where he
hit his head down below.
And if he fell into that,
he probably won't be found
this side of tidewater,
what's left of him that is.
He had no business walking this
path,
dark coming on, with his eyes
as bad as they were, Bessie.
- He wasn't used to this path.
- He could've taken the road.
- A mile and a half out of his
way.
- Is this a piece of his
mackinaw.
- He was wearing it when he
left.
- Well, he probably got it
caught in the fence here,
and tried to get it loose,
and well, got careless with his
footing.
- He wasn't used to that fence.
None of us are.
- I'm sorry about that.
- It's a great comfort
to us all, Mrs. Wilkins.
A great comfort to us all.
Eph has a nephew in Rhode
Island.
He'll feel a sight better when I
tell him
that the woman who put up the
fence
that k*lled Eph Judge is sorry.
- If he was my hired man,
I would've driven him home.
- Well, if you were me,
you would've stayed in bed
like the doctor ordered.
- My fence belongs on my
property line.
That's where I put it and
that's where it'll stay.
If it fenced off a
shortcut, that's too bad.
It's legal and proper.
Make of it what you will,
but don't try to put
the death of Eph Judge
on my conscience.
- I don't have to put
it there, Mrs. Wilkins.
That pass has been a public
thoroughfare for over a century.
You had no right!
- Since when?
- Samantha.
- Now there's no point in
hashing this thing over now.
- [Samantha] I'm not gonna stand
here
and hear that old bitty blame
me.
- Bitty, huh?
- Yes, and a snooper and a
gossip, and a community
nuisance!
- You listen to me!
- No wonder I put up that fence!
It's the only protection I've
got with a neighbor like that!
- I've been a good neighbor all
my life.
I'm a respected member of this
community.
I was a friend of the McKelby's
long before you bought High
Hollow.
You and that saggy kneed
excuse of a husband!
- Shut your mouth.
- We got along before you!
There was this give and take
between us!
None of this building of fences!
We got along, but you'll get
your comeuppance, you'll see.
You'll get your come [gasping].
- Here, here.
- Aunt Bessie, Aunt Bessie!
- I'm all right.
- Just a minute, here.
- Put me down.
- No, no, no, I'll take you
home.
- I can get there on my
own two legs, thanks.
- If Doc Adamson knew what you
was up to,
he'd have your hide, Bessie.
- It's my hide, Pate.
Now, put me down.
- You've had enough
exercise for one morning.
- Yes, after you.
- No, no, no!
- I guess I'm to blame for that
too.
- Well, I wouldn't be at all
surprised.
[melancholy music]
- You didn't have to do that.
- Nah, it's nothing at all.
- Go on in.
- You sure she won't throw me
out?
- She didn't mean all that.
It's just her way.
[knocking on door]
- Well, a wonder you
didn't catch your death
with that cold morning chill.
- I've been catching my
death for three years.
Be a relief when it comes.
- [Henry] Now, now, don't talk
like that.
- The whole county knows I'm
gonna die.
- After all, isn't everybody?
Only thing is you paddle so much
about it
sounds as though you're
asking for sympathy.
- I don't need that, thank you,
and I didn't need you to tote me
home.
I got two good legs.
- I just did that to prove to
you
that my knees aren't
as saggy as you think.
- I wasn't talking about
flesh and blood knees.
I mean the backbone kind.
- There now, isn't that better?
- Expect so.
- No need to thank me.
- Sit down, rest yourself.
- You know, this is the first
time
I've ever been inside of this
house.
- It's no fault of mine.
- You can't be as bad as you
sound.
- I was very fond of Ephraim
Judge.
He worked for me for over 20
years.
- I'm awfully sorry about that.
I want you to know that
the fence on the property
was none of my doing.
Samantha put her mind to it
and I just couldn't change it.
If Samantha wants a fence
on the property line,
we put a fence on the property
line.
- That's what I meant by saggy
knees.
- [chuckles] I suppose you have
a point.
- Doc Adamson just pulled up.
- You know, I, I think
she's really feeling better.
- No fever at least.
- Guess I better be going.
- I just made some tea.
Would you like a cup.
- The man wants to go.
There's no point in holding him.
- There's no need to be rude.
- Comes easy though, doesn't it,
Bessie?
Go on, have your cup of tea.
- [Henry] Thanks.
- No point in saying something
nice
when it's twice as easy to chew
a man out, is there, Bessie?
- Who are to talk about
chewing folks out, Sam Adamson?
- Now, you shut up.
Can't hear a thing with all that
poison
boiling around inside.
- Am I still alive?
- Barely, just barely.
I don't know as it's my
responsibility as a medical man
to keep a woman like you alive
when you're so all fired
bent on k*lling yourself.
- None of this soul searching.
Just do your job.
- [Sam] You've been nipping
at that Applejack again,
haven't you, Bessie?
- [Bessie] I have not.
- [Sam] Don't you try to
hoodwink me, Bessie Carnby.
[door thuds]
- What was all that about
Applejack?
- She's very fond of it and
he won't let her have a drop.
- What a pity.
- Lemon?
- No thanks, just plain.
To Bessie.
- That's very generous of you.
I hope you won't be too hard on
her.
She's very old and very tired.
- Of course, I know just how you
feel.
You make a very good cup of tea.
- Thank you.
- The doings out at Bessie
Carnby's farm the other day
moved us to reread what we
always thought
was one of Robert Frost's best
poems.
Something there is that doesn't
love a wall, he said, huh.
And we guess poor, old Ephraim
Judge,
if he was still around, would
agree.
- [Nora] Mrs. Wilkins.
- Yes, Nora?
- I finished the ironing,
and I'll do the windows
first thing in the morning.
My ride's waiting.
- Go ahead.
- Night, ma'am.
- Goodnight.
- Mr. Wilkins.
- Henry and Samantha Wilkins
up at High Hollow Farm,
like the neighbor in the poem,
want every stone in place.
Good fences make good neighbors
they said.
But old Ephraim, along
with the poet would ask,
who are they walling in or
walling out?
The fence we claim will never
make good neighbors of the
Wilkins.
Eph Judge who fell off the
cliff into white water rapids
because of the fence will
probably never be found.
And all we can do is hope
that if ever a monument is
raised to him
somebody has the good taste to
include Frost's opening line,
something there is that
doesn't love a wall.
Ah, seems we're not only
taking on East Huntsville
and the rest of the county,
we have to contend with
Robert Frost as well.
Henry, I want you to
go into town tomorrow,
and see this editor.
This is a vicious, personal
attack,
and he has got to be made to
understand.
Henry, I'm talking to you.
You know something, Henry
Wilkins?
Sometimes I wish it were you
who had fallen off that cliff.
If I'd been there, I
might've given a push!
[whimsical orchestral music]
- Mr. Wilkins.
- Yes?
- Thank you.
- Oh, it's nothing at all.
If I had more time, I
could've done a better job.
I hope it'll do for now.
- It will do very well, thank
you.
- I'll be dropping in from
time to time to check up on you
until you get a new hired hand.
Before I go I think I'll
get you some kindling.
- Mr. Wilkins, I'm not
very good at apologies,
so I won't try.
I'll just say that I'd be
awfully glad
if you'd have supper with us.
- Well, I don't know as
how Samantha would except.
- Who wears the pants in your
family?
- You wouldn't be putting my
sagging knees
to the test now, would you?
- I might.
- [chuckles] I better get that
kindling.
- Mr. Wilkins, that was a
formal invitation, you coming?
- Well, I'll talk it over with
Samantha,
and if I'm still alive at
suppertime, I'll be here.
- Supper's been ready for half
an hour.
- Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to tell
you
the Carnby's invited us over.
- Why?
- Just being hospitable I
suppose.
- Well, we aren't going.
- Why not?
- Because I said so.
- Well, I'm going, and you'd
better go back into the house.
- You are not going.
Is that clear?
[dramatic music]
- Camilla, Camilla, come here!
There she goes again!
She's been out to the barn
three times carrying a lantern.
What do you suppose she's up to?
- We are about to find out.
Aunt Bessie, you did an
inexcusable thing
in daring him to come along.
- Don't fret about it, I don't.
- No matter what the
provocation.
No matter what happened
out there at the fence,
you had no right to insult her.
- I don't care if I did.
- You are old enough to know
better.
- Oh.
- And you're bid enough
to bury your feelings for one
evening.
Come on now.
We are going up there to
invite Samantha in person.
- Oh, I will not.
- Aunt Bessie, please.
Now don't make me go up there
alone.
- Oh, the man has no gumption.
He oughta stand up to her
- He has.
- No.
- The day we had tea he must've
felt
like getting it off his mind.
Poor man's in a trap.
She owns everything, the farm,
the furnishings, the car,
and never lets him forget it.
- Well, he could leave her.
- He did once.
She tried to k*ll him.
- What?
- With a p*stol.
She missed and then turned it on
herself.
He still has nightmares about
it.
He is deathly afraid of her.
- That she'll k*ll him?
- That's why I don't want
him to antagonize her.
I would feel responsible
if anything happened.
- [Bessie] Good heavens.
[whimsical orchestral music]
Shh!
[suspenseful music]
- [Camilla] Mrs. Wilkins!
- What do you want?
- Aunt Bessie thought she
made it clear to your husband
that she wanted you
both to come to dinner,
and then when we began comparing
notes,
we got the feeling that you
might think it was only Henry.
I hope you'll forgive us.
- I'd like to speak to Mr.
Wilkins.
Where is he?
- [Samantha] He's gone.
- Where?
- He didn't say.
He left very suddenly.
- When will he be back?
- I haven't the slightest idea,
goodnight.
[suspenseful music]
- What do you suppose she
was doing in the barn?
[suspenseful music]
[dramatic music]
- 21, 22, 23, 24.
Is the pain getting worse?
- Considerable.
- How bad is that?
- Well, I'd like to cry
for awhile if I could.
- Well, I'll up these one a day,
but don't take them if you
can do without, understand?
- Sam.
- Yeah?
- Sit down a minute.
- Oh, I've got other
calls to make, Bessie.
- But they can wait five
minutes.
That's better.
- I know it's getting worse,
Bessie.
I wish there was something I
could do.
But all we can do from here
on out is to fight the pain.
- That's not what I wanted to
talk about.
Sam, tell me, am I a nosy,
suspicious, old bitty,
like that Mrs. Wilkins said?
- Why do you let that woman rile
you so?
That's one reason the
pain's getting worse.
You sit here chewing
that over all the time.
- Answer me.
[Sam sighs]
Took up birdwatching.
Got a pair of bobolinks
building a nest out yonder.
- How long has he been gone?
- 10 days.
- Well, he won't be the first
man
to take off after a fight with
his wife.
- I think she did away with him.
Does that make me a busybody?
- It sure does.
Now, why in the world you
wanna meddle with that
when you got maybe six
months left on this planet?
- Well, I can't die here in
peace
with a murderess next door to
Camilla.
Chew on me throughout all
eternity.
- Who said she's a murderess?
- I do, he told Camilla
she threatened to k*ll him.
- Well, that's Pate
Turnbull's business, not mine.
And your business is to tend to
your own,
and not your neighbors.
Now, you mind what I
said about those pills.
[whimsical orchestral music]
[Bessie scoffs]
[suspenseful music]
- Do you take sugar, Nora?
- Yes, thank you.
- You might explain to her
that we only want you half day a
week.
- Well, I don't know how Mrs.
Wilkins would feel about that.
- There can't be very
much for you to do now
since Mr. Wilkins left.
- He'll been gone a long time
they say.
- Who says?
- I just happen to hear it
uptown.
- A long time?
- Well, after all, you should
know, Nora.
You do the upstairs rooms, don't
you?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Well, you'd know if he packed
for a long trip or a short one.
- Well, that's just the point.
He didn't pack at all,
no suits, no clothes,
not even so much as a
toothbrush.
- Well.
- Well, indeed.
- It's the Lord's truth.
Not even so much as his
toothbrush.
- Doesn't that seem strange to
you
that he'd go off in the dead of
night
without packing a stitch?
- Well, it's a strange house.
- I mean suspicious.
- Of what?
- That she k*lled him.
- k*lled him?
Good heavens, no.
Why, she may jump on him now and
then,
but she wouldn't do a thing
like that, that's ill*gal.
- There's no law says
a man can't leave town
as if and when he wants to,
with or without a toothbrush.
Bessie.
- Thanks.
- Camilla?
- No, thank you.
- Well, how is it, Bessie?
- Very good.
- If I wasn't on duty, I'd join
you.
You know I think old Doc Adamson
is making a big mistake denying
you that.
Good belt of Applejack
two or three times a day
you wouldn't be so darn mean.
- She hasn't had a phone
call from him since he left,
or a letter, or a postal card.
He didn't pack a stitch of
clothing,
not even his reading glasses.
And he didn't leave town by
train or a bus, we've checked.
- Oh, you have, have you?
Well, that still doesn't
mean there's any foul play.
- [Man] Can I see you a moment,
Sheriff?
- Bessie, I'm sorry.
- Are you waiting for his body
to turn up on the village green?
- Well, now if it does, just
don't you hesitate to call me.
- Well.
- I don't think his body's
gonna turn up on the village
green.
Closer to home maybe.
- [Bessie] Huh?
- I still wonder what Samantha
was doing in the barn.
[suspenseful music]
- [Bessie] Peace offering.
- I don't know as I should.
- Oh, please, take it.
Whatever else I am, Mrs.
Wilkins, I'm not sneaky.
I don't like doing things
behind a person's back.
I was upset when your husband
didn't come for supper two weeks
ago.
I was puzzled when he
didn't come by to explain,
but now a fortnight later
and no word from him,
I must say, I am concerned.
- I'm sure he'd appreciate that,
I don't.
- Oh, I'm sorry.
Have you had word from him?
- It's none of your business.
- A phone call, a telegram, a
letter?
- Mrs. Carnby, I'm afraid
you'll have to excuse me.
- Wait a minute, I'm not
through.
He must've flown out of here,
Mr. Wilkins.
There's no record of his
taking either train or bus.
- So, all right, he flew,
and I suggest you fly off my
property
before I call the sheriff.
- Let's save her the trouble.
[suspenseful music]
[Penny barking]
Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
[bucket rattles]
[Penny barking]
- [smacks lips] Penny, be still!
[suspenseful music]
[chicken cackles]
[suspenseful music]
[bucket rattles]
[suspenseful music]
[townsfolk chattering]
- There you go.
- I knew it when I saw her going
back and forth to the barn.
How long has he been dead?
- Can't tell, quicklime.
- It's not Henry, it can't be.
- You did buy quicklime in
town just before he took off,
didn't you, Mrs. Wilkins?
- A colt died.
He send me for it.
We buried it out there in the
pasture.
We had three of them sick at
once.
I was doctoring the other two.
That's why I was going into the
barn.
That's what she saw.
- You still say your husband
just went off on a trip
somewhere?
- I do.
- [Sheriff] You have no idea
where?
- No.
- Maybe you better take a closer
look.
- I don't care to.
It isn't my husband.
- Do you recognize this, Mrs.
Wilkins?
- Where'd you get it?
- Whose is it?
- It's Henry's ring!
Where'd you get it?
[suspenseful music]
No.
- I'm afraid so, third finger,
left hand.
- And this button was in the
other hand.
[suspenseful music]
- We have arrived at the
intermission.
Time for rest, relaxation,
for stretching ones legs,
and identifying ones station.
[suspenseful music]
- I can't say whether that's it.
I wanna be sure.
- Is it the same brand, Ed?
- Yeah.
- And the quantity?
- 25 pounds, that's what she
bought.
Said Henry had a disposal job to
do.
- How much would it
take to do the job, Doc?
- Five pounds, even less.
She must've used 20 here.
- I talked to Henry afterwards.
Asked him what he wanted
with all that quicklime.
He give me a funny look and
then he said, "What quicklime?"
- Thanks Ed, if I need
ya, I'll get in touch.
- [Ed] Right.
- Look again, Mrs. Wilkins.
Sure you don't recognize these
things?
- Well, Mrs. Wilkins, looks
like your just about whipped.
- She has no idea how
this got in the stove.
- They're Henry's, I tried to
burn them.
I was in a panic.
I was scared to death.
I knew what they were all
thinking.
I had no idea where Henry went.
When I found these things, I
knew what it would look like,
so I tried to get rid of them.
I know it sounds crazy,
but it's the truth.
- You still say Henry took
off that night on his own?
- We had a quarrel about Mrs.
Carnby's dinner invitation.
- Nothing unusual about that, is
there?
- That's just it.
We've been quarreling
all during our marriage.
For the first time,
Henry wanted to sit
down and talk about it.
Wanted to try and get to the
bottom
of all the quarreling and the
bitterness and the misery.
Thought about it for a long
time.
And then he said he better
go off on his own for awhile.
- Why?
- Well, it weren't normal for a
woman
to be the head of the house.
He said he wanted to
try and prove himself.
Well, prove he could make it on
his own
without any help from me.
Said he wouldn't write, no
phone,
wouldn't come home until he'd
done it.
Was something so real about it
this time.
As though he really meant it.
Well, I let him go upstairs and
pack.
I heard him leave.
Didn't say goodbye.
Couldn't face it somehow.
Wasn't until the next day that
I,
I found that he'd left
everything
behind, except some money.
- Mrs. Wilkins, how do you
recon he ended up here?
- I don't know.
- With this in his right hand?
- I don't know.
I don't know.
Well, I know it sounds
like I'm making it up,
but it's the truth!
[suspenseful music]
[whimsical orchestral music]
- [Radio Announcer] We have a
bulletin
from the state capitol.
The governor denied a last
appeal
from attorneys representing
Samantha Wilkins,
convicted of murdering her
husband
in the Body in the Barn case.
The Easter season not
withstanding,
Mrs. Wilkins was ex*cuted at
seven o'clock this evening.
The first woman to
suffer the death penalty
in this state in 17 years.
She maintained her innocence to
the last.
This completes another day of
programming.
And now may we extend our
cordial best wishes to you all
at this Easter season
as we bid you goodnight.
[suspenseful music]
[cork pops]
- Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to startle you.
- [gasps] What, what are you?
- Well, I came back to apologize
for backing out of that dinner
invitation.
- Where've you been?
- Everywhere, South Pacific,
Australia,
East Coast of African.
Able seaman no less,
and here's a fine bottle
of brandy from France.
- We thought you were dead.
- [chuckles] You don't mean
that.
- What happened?
- Samantha knows all about it.
We discussed it the night I
left.
Here, try it.
Well, don't tell me you
don't like brandy anymore.
- She said, she said you--
- Oh, she probably
didn't wanna go into it.
It's kind of personal between
the two of us, but it worked.
I've made it.
I've got a trade.
I can stand on my own two feet.
I'm respected and for the first
time,
I'm coming home to her with some
pride.
Oh, I brought her this.
It's awfully pretty and
I'd like your opinion.
Now, do you think she'll like
it?
- I, I don't know what to.
- Of course not.
How could you?
Every woman's taste is
different.
Where's Camilla?
- Working late at the library.
- Don't tell her I'm back.
I wanna surprise her.
I expect Samantha's gone to bed.
Has she said anything
about my coming back?
- Not for a long time.
- Good, Mrs. Carnby,
I can't tell you how much I've
missed her.
Well, goodnight now.
[suspenseful music]
[Henry whistling]
[suspenseful music]
- Henry!
[whimsical orchestral music]
[suspenseful music]
- 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.
- It's all my fault.
- [Sam] Let's not start that.
You've got troubles enough.
- It's true, I should go
out to the village green
and shout it to the world.
I did it, me and my busybody
mouth.
- Why don't you hit me in the
head?
- Why, Sam.
- Well, what your doing is
worse.
Well, you had a right to get
curious,
but it was me that k*lled her.
If only I hadn't been so
ready to identify the body.
- The coroner said it was the
most
natural mistake in the world.
What, with all that quicklime.
- Only I'm not supposed to make
mistakes.
They'll forgive you, but they
won't forgive a professional.
Eph Judge was 20 years older
than Henry.
There were differences
in height and build.
The trouble is, I was ready to
believe
it was Henry the minute they
called me.
Don't matter now if they never
find
who picked that body out of the
river
and buried it in the barn.
The fact is the people of this
county
m*rder*d an innocent woman,
and if any one of us is
responsible, it's me.
Raise up, raise up.
- Huh?
- Come on.
- Oh.
Oh.
[suspenseful music]
- [Henry Voiceover] And if
I'm still alive at suppertime,
I'll be here.
- [Camilla Voiceover] The man's
in a trap.
She owns everything.
- [Henry Voiceover] My knees
aren't as saggy as you think.
- [Camilla Voiceover]
She tried to k*ll him.
- [Henry Voiceover] They
aren't as saggy as you think.
- [Camilla Voiceover] She owns
everything.
- They aren't as saggy as you
think.
[suspenseful music]
Morning, Bessie, Camilla!
And the wall comes tumbling
down.
Well, you're looking rather
chipper this morning, Bessie.
- You're doing this to please
me?
- Naturally.
- Well, my innards may
not be what they ought be,
but there's nothing wrong
with my head, not yet anyway.
- What do you mean, Aunt Bessie?
I thought you'd be pleased Mr.
Wilkins
is taking down the fence.
- The only thing Mr. Wilkins
could do to please me
would be to march down
to Pate Turnbull's office
and tell him how Eph Judge's
body
come to be buried in his barn.
Not only how, but why.
- I had a little talk with Mr.
Turnbull
about that very thing.
We decided for the sake of the
town,
and his own political future,
and for several other reasons,
that old Eph is best off in the
cemetery
right where they put him.
- You're a confidence man, Henry
Wilkins.
You fooled me, your wife, Sam
Adamson,
the sheriff, all of us.
You made a m*rder weapon of this
county.
- No have no right to
talk to Henry that way.
- Oh, it's Henry now, is it?
- Camilla, I don't mind.
Look, Bessie, you're
blaming your neighbors
for a lot more than you
ought to, don't you think?
After all, it was your doing.
Old Eph would be there
still if it wasn't for you.
- That's what you say.
- That's what they're all saying
uptown.
You may no know it.
You stay home all the time.
You wouldn't have the chance to
hear it.
Bessie, you k*lled poor
Samantha.
You and your prying little mind
made a grieving widower out of
me.
- They know better than that.
- Camilla, drive Bessie up town,
and let her hear it for herself.
I'll see you tonight.
- That's what you think.
[suspenseful music]
[door thuds]
Camilla!
Show the gentleman out.
- Aunt Bessie.
- Show the gentleman out.
- Dear, Aunt Bessie.
- Don't you call me that.
- But I'm perfectly
willing to forget the past.
You took my wife from me.
A woman who was my strength and
sustenance
for almost 15 years.
They're all saying that
I'll never forgive you,
but I'm willing to turn the
other cheek.
- Camilla.
- No, Aunt Bessie, this is
going to be Henry's house too.
- What?
- We're going to be married.
That's why the fence came down.
- Brandy, Aunt Bessie?
[suspenseful music]
- There's no proof, there's
nothing.
Now, the only thing we would
be able to offer in court
is that Henry Wilkins
must've buried that body
because we found it in his barn.
Now, nobody saw anything.
Nobody knows where he
found the body if he did.
Nobody knows anything.
Bessie, Henry Wilkins has made
fools out of us once before.
Now, you can call it politics.
You can call it discretion.
You can call it anything you
want,
but from the supervisors on down
there isn't a man that wants
to take on Henry Wilkins again.
- You're cowards, all of you.
- Oh sure, that's easy for you
to say,
but I've got to live with these
people.
Ah, Bessie, I'm sorry,
I talked to the doctor,
and he told about you,
and I'm honestly sorry, and you
know that,
but I've got to live with these
people.
- What if I told you he
was planning to k*ll me?
- [Sheriff] Now, what do you
mean by that?
- I told him I was going
to disinherit Camilla.
He's got his eye on
this farm, not Camilla.
He wants to join it to High
Hollow.
- [Sheriff] Are you sure of
this?
- He's been giving me my
medicine, morphine pills.
I've been missing them a few at
a time.
I think he's saving them up
somewhere.
Wanted you to know that just in
case.
- Yeah, Bessie, yeah, sure.
- You sure she isn't snitching
these pills on the side?
- She dropped a half a
bottle down the drain.
- You sure?
- That's what she said.
- Now, I want her to have no
more
one of these every four hours.
You see to that, will you?
- Right.
- She's a sick old lady.
When it comes, I want it
to be in the right way.
You understand what I mean?
- Of course I understand.
Don't you worry.
I'll take care of the pills.
[door thuds]
- Sorry.
- Sure, Bessie's prescription.
[suspenseful music]
[bell ringing]
- Henry.
Henry!
Henry.
- What is it now?
- Is that any way to begin?
- What's got into you?
- When you feel the hand on you,
you can't dislike anyone
anymore, Henry.
I'm just finding that out.
- You don't mean?
- I'm afraid so.
I can't hate anymore.
I want you to forgive me,
really.
- Bessie.
- Please, Henry, forgive a dying
woman
who's made a lot of mistakes.
- Very well, what else do you
want?
- I wanna go to sleep.
- And you'd like to have another
pill?
- Yes.
- No, Bessie, not until
midnight.
One every four hours.
That's what the doctor said.
- Must you always do what the
doctor says?
- But, Bessie, I'm concerned
about you.
After all, you're my
responsibility.
I wouldn't wanna get careless
at this point, would I now?
- Some brandy then.
- [Henry] Well.
- Please, Henry.
- Oh, all right.
[suspenseful music]
There you are.
- Thank you, Henry.
[suspenseful music]
Bless you.
Yes, by the time this is found,
it ought be all over with Henry.
Justice took a wild ride,
but I hope it ends up at the
right place.
All the lies and the
stupidity and the bungling
somehow must add up to truth.
I hope Henry Wilkins thinks of
that
when they lead him off to
the execution for k*lling me.
[suspenseful music]
[Camilla whimpering]
- Steady now, I know how
much he meant to you.
- I don't think I can go
through with it, Mr. Gregg.
- A funeral is always a trial.
You'll do fine, come along.
[suspenseful music]
[Camilla whimpering]
- He didn't k*ll her, he didn't.
They hanged an innocent man.
- Steady, steady.
[Camilla crying]
- That is the end of tonight's
story.
We would like to show you more,
but we seem to be running
out of characters.
I decided to come down from my
pedestal.
The ah, the birds lacked
the proper respect.
I also took on one person's
observation
that the whole scene looked like
a coat of arms for television.
A large hand ramped on a field
of corn.
Until next week, goodnight.
["Funeral March of a
Marionette"]
[dramatic orchestral music]
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