- 2 months ago
First broadcast 15th/22nd February 1973.
Ian Carmichael - Lord Peter Wimsey
Mark Eden - Det. Insp. Parker
Terence Alexander - Robert Fentiman
Anna Cropper - Ann Dorland
Phyllida Law - Marjorie Phelps
Donald Pickering - Dr. Penberthy
Vivien Heilbron - Sheila Fentiman
John Quentin - George Fentiman
John Welsh - Mr. Murbles
Clifford Rose - Mr. Pritchard
Sheila Keith - Mrs. Mitcham
Celestine Randall - Nellie Mason
Peter Myers - Gerald
David Morrell - Salcombe Hardy
Peggy Marshall - Lady Customer
Joan Geary - Rich Woman
Derek Newark - Bunter
Sheila Fay - Mrs. Munns
Jimmy Gardner - Mr. Munns
Noel Coleman - Col. Marchbanks
Jeffry Wickham - 'Tin-Tummy' Challoner
Amanda Walker - Nurse Armstrong
Ron Hackett - Village Sergeant (as Ronald Hackett)
Peter Ducrow - Older Detective
Gordon Pitt - Younger Detective
Aubrey Danvers-Walker - Tramp
Steve Peters - Village PC
Ian Carmichael - Lord Peter Wimsey
Mark Eden - Det. Insp. Parker
Terence Alexander - Robert Fentiman
Anna Cropper - Ann Dorland
Phyllida Law - Marjorie Phelps
Donald Pickering - Dr. Penberthy
Vivien Heilbron - Sheila Fentiman
John Quentin - George Fentiman
John Welsh - Mr. Murbles
Clifford Rose - Mr. Pritchard
Sheila Keith - Mrs. Mitcham
Celestine Randall - Nellie Mason
Peter Myers - Gerald
David Morrell - Salcombe Hardy
Peggy Marshall - Lady Customer
Joan Geary - Rich Woman
Derek Newark - Bunter
Sheila Fay - Mrs. Munns
Jimmy Gardner - Mr. Munns
Noel Coleman - Col. Marchbanks
Jeffry Wickham - 'Tin-Tummy' Challoner
Amanda Walker - Nurse Armstrong
Ron Hackett - Village Sergeant (as Ronald Hackett)
Peter Ducrow - Older Detective
Gordon Pitt - Younger Detective
Aubrey Danvers-Walker - Tramp
Steve Peters - Village PC
Category
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TVTranscript
00:00:00Oliver Twist. that's right. the guilt lettering caught the light. he looked up from his grandfather's
00:00:10body and saw it. he had to invent a name. someone for the old man to spend the night with. he thought
00:00:15of Oliver. I may not be an intellectual chap at all ago to sneer at the regular army these days.
00:00:21I always said you can learn a lot from books. but mr. Oliver must exist. he's had you chasing all
00:00:26over Europe. yes that's right. Paris to Rome, Rome to Vienna, on to Berlin. there's a hell of a place.
00:00:31and Oliver and the detective always just in front of me. I didn't know what was going on. no that was
00:00:35my mr. Oliver. eh? he don't exist either. well I thought it was time that someone else would let
00:00:41up the garden. I was paying the detective after all. but why? I wanted you out of the country in case you
00:00:47changed your mind about the exhumation. oh joke on me. damn good whimsy. you don't deny that you
00:00:53invented this mr. Oliver in the first place. I don't deny anything. oh I would deny something.
00:01:00I saw the old man that night in here sitting in this chair. he told me then about the money. he said
00:01:05he was worried about poor old George. I tried to persuade him but George was a good sort of fellow
00:01:09really. but he more or less threw me out. said he wanted to work on some figures. wanted peace and
00:01:16quiet. when I came back an hour later he was dead. good god I thought what rotten luck for a fellow.
00:01:22I didn't see why that damn Dorland woman should get the lot. so I popped him in the telephone
00:01:26cabinet. telephone cabinet? yeah. this one. right here.
00:01:36I brought him out again in the morning and nobody noticed a thing. it was a damn good
00:01:39stunt while it lasted. fraud is a penal offence. you could go to prison man and you should.
00:01:44don't be silly merbles. you're my solicitor. it's your job to keep me out. anyway there are more
00:01:48serious penal offences than fraud. what? such as murder for instance. i've had an advanced copy of
00:01:55the post-mortem report. your grandfather was poisoned. he was poisoned. but Pemberty gave a
00:02:02certificate. heart failure. general Fentiman's heart was weak notoriously. yes one can't blame
00:02:06Pemberty. the poison used was digitalis. it slows down the heart's actions. the symptoms of a heart
00:02:12attack would have been there. however it alters Fentiman's position. yes. how? you ain't a suspect.
00:02:20what? well it was in your interest to keep the old man alive. not to kill him. so we must ask ourselves
00:02:25in whose interest it was that the general should die before his sister. i knew there was something
00:02:32rotten about that damn dawned woman. damned? well one can't be sure about that. it's a possibility.
00:02:39the sheik of arabes. i give my heart to thee. at night when you're asleep.
00:02:59what do you know? yes. about anne dawnd?
00:03:04she's unhappy. yes. and i don't think she cares for you. i didn't know she knew you. well she knows
00:03:11of me and she don't care very much for that i imagine. what do you know of her? she's lonely.
00:03:17upset. probably in love. not with you obviously. she only knows all. certainly not with me. in love.
00:03:24well she's been in love once before. sort of in love. it turned out rather badly. being in love usually
00:03:30does. does it? consequently i am rather careful to avoid it. you sound it for a moment as if you
00:03:39hadn't always avoided it peter. tell me some more about anne dawnd. perhaps you should meet her. well
00:03:47i want to but she won't meet me. well she'll probably be at the rushworths on friday i'll take you.
00:03:51they're giving some sort of do. sounds rather odd i must say. more like a private view than just a party
00:03:56except that it's glans. has somebody been sculpting glans? oh peter. all right painting them then. no my
00:04:01dear they're really glans. in bottles. i say i shall certainly come. sounds just my sort of thing.
00:04:05someone talking about glans. i beg your pardon. but it's new. it's the latest thing.
00:04:12the rushworths are frightfully keen on the latest thing. so there'll be lots to eat and almost certainly
00:04:18champagne. and consequently all the crowd. there's another one of those in the cupboard for your
00:04:28mother by the way. i thought she might like it. she will. how kind you are to me marjorie.
00:04:35i should come here much more often. instead of just when you want some information do you mean?
00:04:41yes you should. so anne dorland has been in love before. about a year ago. it's long over. one of
00:04:48the crowd who particularly enjoyed what he called awakening people. she took him seriously. whoever
00:04:54it is she's pining for now has nothing to do with that. men have died from time to time and the worms
00:05:00have eaten them. but not for love. what? shakespeare. you may be right she's pining. you may be wrong.
00:05:11it's not for love. what then? remorse. who is this glammed man anyway? oh peter you know damn with names.
00:05:20there's a card over there somewhere. what sort of remorse? i wasn't particularly fond of her aunt if
00:05:25that's what you mean. you don't have to feel fond of someone to feel remorse when they die. i say how
00:05:30very odd. you do jump about. well the glam man dr pemberthy. i know him. yes. i thought it was hearts
00:05:36he was interested in not glands. peter that's obvious. it's the same thing. if you keep people
00:05:43young with monkey glands they're not going to die of heart failure. sometimes i think you're not half
00:05:47as clever as you make out. not half as clever. what shall we do next? there's no doubt it's murder.
00:06:03what's that to do with me? i am your solicitor miss dawland. i thought you should know.
00:06:07i imagine the police may wish to uh yes question you. to ask you questions. what sort of questions?
00:06:19general fentiman seems to have been my... poisoned. to have died at some time during the evening of
00:06:27november the 10th. yes. he was here that afternoon. well not here of course but in the house.
00:06:33he came to the house. they think i killed him. you're trying to tell me that. they have to
00:06:38investigate the circumstances. what circumstances? he came here to see my aunt. his sister. he saw her.
00:06:43they talked. he left. what circumstances? did he for instance have anything to eat or drink while he
00:06:50was here? they would want to know. they do think i killed him. they must think you have a motive.
00:06:55because the general died before his sister. yet when he saw her here she was already dying and he though
00:07:03old wasn't even ill miss dawland. and you? inherit 600 000 pounds because he died before her. yes.
00:07:12the police are a mercenary class of person. money is a strong motive in their eyes. and in yours i think
00:07:18mr pritchard. yes it was convenient for me he died. and then? oh there's more. you are so very certain you see. so very
00:07:25determined not to come to a settlement. your instructions to me were so very precise.
00:07:31as if you knew already when the general died and that you were bound to inherit
00:07:37inside information. and the police you see will wonder why you were so certain.
00:07:43i almost live in this place now. i hardly ever go into the rest of the house. one is bound to wonder
00:08:02why she was so certain. and i am bound to wonder why you were so certain. now that i'm on this case
00:08:09officially peter you will be my first suspect. you've acted all the way along as if you knew it was
00:08:14matter. why? it was too neat charles. aristotle says. oh no. why do i ask these questions? aristotle
00:08:22says we should always prefer the probable impossible to the improbable possible. now it was possible that
00:08:28the general should have died off in that neat way at the most confusing moment but it wasn't very
00:08:31probable. so that although we were told that his death was due to natural causes it just seemed to me
00:08:37that it might have been staged managed a bit. a bit? well quite a lot as it happens. there was all
00:08:42that oliver business and then the hiding of the body and so on. but when we cleared that out of the
00:08:46way we were left with a curiously convenient death. and i don't believe death is convenient charles. not
00:08:52usually. and there was the dorland woman and her solicitor who was so dead against agreeing to a
00:08:58settlement they must have known something. well they weren't against the settlement when they heard
00:09:01they were going to take the body. exactly. all right then. let's make a list. now robert fentiman found
00:09:12the old man dead at approximately 9 pm. but at 3 30 that afternoon when he went round to see his sister
00:09:18he seemed as right as rain. so poison administered therefore sometime between 3 30 and 9 pm. now two
00:09:29quick charles. the poison would have been taken between those times but it could have been given
00:09:34to him earlier. i mean suppose someone dropped a poison pill into his bottless soda mints or whatever
00:09:38he used to take. peter there are a lot of soda mints in a bottle. he might have died weeks later. it's
00:09:43not very precise. however by all means let us not be too quick. now if he did take something like
00:09:49that at all regularly who would have had the opportunity to drop the pill in? whether it was his doctor or his
00:09:55manservant. motive? well he's doctors penberthy. i can't think of a motive for him. his manservant stands
00:10:01to inherit something small. he seemed rather a pleasant old johnny to me. however you must certainly
00:10:06write him down as a suspect. sinister manservants are all the go. if you read detective stories it's always
00:10:11the butler who's the butler who did it. dr penberthy. opportunity yes. motive no. motive and opportunity
00:10:28sinister manservant.
00:10:30now let's get on to someone more likely. am dorland. motive yes. enormous. opportunity yes. the old man was
00:10:47round in that house that afternoon. are you russian charles russian? but it's we professionals you know.
00:10:52we like to get on with it. and we amateurs you know we like to take our time. how did am dorland get hold
00:10:57of digitalis? well some proprietary medicines contain it. usually in combination with nux vomica which
00:11:03is supposed to be an antidote. peter if the two things cancelled each other out entirely there
00:11:07wouldn't be much point in taking the medicine at all. but i think we can ask dr penberthy about the
00:11:12effects and availability of digitalis. second point why should anne dorland have provided herself with
00:11:17digitalis if she had no reason to know in advance that the general was going around there that afternoon.
00:11:22or any afternoon for that matter seeing he and his sister haven't been on speaking terms for years.
00:11:27point taken. but lady dormer was dying. what medicines were already in the house into hand?
00:11:35so anne dorland had motive and opportunity. i'm going to put down means query.
00:11:44i suppose lady dormer's servants had opportunity. i mean if they were in collusion.
00:11:48there might have been a particularly good looking footman or something. so. and who else have we got?
00:11:57robert. who is the one person we can definitely cross off. all right? peter we've already decided
00:12:04he had everything to lose by his grandfather dying first. look at the pains he took to cover up the debt.
00:12:08exactly. he's the most unlikely person. sherlock holmes would have suspected him at once. write him down.
00:12:12means query motive unlikely opportunity excellent. what? well by his own admission he was the last
00:12:19person to see the old man alive. supposing he'd had a row with him killed him and then discovered
00:12:23afterwards about the legacy. peter you are absolutely scintillating with good plots today. thank you charles.
00:12:29what about george? yes. you've got a weakness about george haven't you? yes i like old george. he's an awful
00:12:42pig in some ways but one understands the ways. one even shares them. yes well i don't know george so i'm
00:12:54gonna firmly put him down. opportunity? yes. that ride around regent's park in a taxi. means? query.
00:13:06yes query. motive? weak. no strong. who? well he may not have stood to benefit from lady dormer's will but he
00:13:17did know that his grandfather was leaving him two thousand pounds and he needed the money badly. damn!
00:13:24too soft-hearted you are matthews? yes it's a fault.
00:13:33well i gave him digitalis. will that satisfy you? if that's a confession it's surprisingly blunt.
00:13:41i take it you're not confessing to murder dr penmerthy? the word murder hasn't been mentioned so far.
00:13:46people can be poisoned without being murdered and frequently are. very good pemberthy. very true.
00:13:52two grains were found in the body. did you give him as much as that? no i gave him a small quantity.
00:14:00my nurse has the book. your people can examine it. and then of course there are the chemist's receipts.
00:14:05records of what supplies of poisonous drugs i owe. all that can be checked and should be. do you hold a
00:14:12supply of digitalis? a high proportion of my patients are old men. heart conditions are common.
00:14:20i keep her preparation containing digitalis by me ready made up in case of need. and general fentiman
00:14:25was a case of need? he came to see me on the afternoon of november the 10th. he'd been to see
00:14:30his sister and the interview had upset him. he was feeling dizzy and had difficulty with his breathing.
00:14:35i gave him a small quantity of digitalis to relieve his condition. would you explain the effect of
00:14:42digitalis to me doctor? it strengthens the heart's action by retarding the beat so that the cavities
00:14:48can be completely emptied and the pressure is relieved. you mean that to begin with in small doses
00:14:56it stimulates the heart by relieving the pressure. but if continued with or in larger doses say two
00:15:03grains it would slow it down so much that it would stop altogether. so death from an overdose would look
00:15:10very much like death from heart failure. it would be heart failure inspector parker.
00:15:15excuse me. patient? it shouldn't be. surgery is over. not that that makes much difference. they treat you
00:15:24like a gp these people. dr penberthy? yes. no i'm afraid i can't talk at the moment. i have some people with me.
00:15:33yes it is. the surgery is over but i have some people with me and i can't talk.
00:15:38no. now i'm afraid i can't do friday. do help yourself to a drink whimsy. the sherry's in the
00:15:46cupboard. yes i will. thank you so much for ringing. i'm sorry i should have offered you a drink earlier.
00:15:54the sun is down. unfortunately charles ain't allowed to drink on duty but i should like some sherry very
00:15:59much. how kind of you to think of it in the middle of your telephone conversation. one never knows how long
00:16:04these people are going to be. charles had an idea that there were some patent medicines that contain
00:16:10digitalis. not many i think. oh thank you. is it prescribed for anything else apart from heart
00:16:16conditions? not often. dropsy in certain circumstances. aconite poisoning. i can't say that i've ever come
00:16:24across a case of aconite poisoning. i can't say i have either. epilepsy in its various forms. epileptic rages.
00:16:30and digitalis is used in these cases is it? epilepsy? maybe as i say it's not really my subject. yes but
00:16:38somebody suffering from a form of epilepsy might be expected to have digitalis in his possession.
00:16:44made up in some way yes but he mightn't know what it was. i'm sorry i don't follow. the tablets charles
00:16:52our old friend the tablets or the mixture. chemists never put on the outside of the bottle what is
00:16:56actually inside. so as you say he just simply mightn't have known.
00:17:26the trouble is you see he um pops off. pops off. he always had it. you make an appointment for him
00:17:40with a client to demonstrate a car. what happened yesterday? some damned midlands millionaire. the war
00:17:46profiteer fella wanted to buy himself a bit of class. said he was a diamond in the rough and we mustn't
00:17:51mind his ways. that's just the fella for fentiman i thought. poor old chap. wouldn't notice rough ways
00:17:56if he was a bit loopy. peter he is loopy. no one doesn't like to speak ill of a fella but well there
00:18:03it is. look you know he was shell-shocked. i didn't know it'd lead to popping off. off he goes yesterday in
00:18:09the barker silver ghost. angry phone calls all day from rough diamond fella in the hideous provincial accent.
00:18:15fentiman comes back at six. where have you been i say. driving he says. he popped off. how often
00:18:23has he popped off? twice this week. all right i'll have a word with him. well he's not popping off. he's
00:18:31uh talking to himself. great long speeches with nobody there. it's worse than shakespeare. look he
00:18:36needed a job gerald. when he mentioned seeing your advert i thought bank ho demonstrating cars sounds just
00:18:42his ticket. he wasn't talking to himself or popping off when i recommended him to you. no i'm not blaming
00:18:47you peter. he was right as rain at first. it's just lately he's been a bit odd. and it won't do you know.
00:18:57i'll tell you what though. i think something's bothering him. yes mrs mitchum but as lady dormer's
00:19:03housekeeper you must have a pretty fair knowledge of what goes on. goes on? well i meant uh goes on
00:19:10generally. i didn't mean goings-on of course. if you would state your requirements exactly. i'm sorry
00:19:15i seem to have got off on the wrong foot. it is of no consequence. oh oh good. well exactly i'd like
00:19:24to know the details of general fentiman's visit on the day he died. now do you remember what time he
00:19:28arrived? it was at a quarter to four. he was shown into the drawing room. i came down to him and took him
00:19:33upstairs to her ladyship's bedroom. and this is the drawing room is it? this is the morning room.
00:19:42so it is. did the general seem in good health when he joined? so far as i could say. always remembering
00:19:50that he was a very old gentleman and only that afternoon had been told that her ladyship was
00:19:55dying yes passing away. he didn't seem bluish about the lips or having difficulty with his breathing.
00:20:00anything of that kind? nothing of that kind. going up the stairs tired him and i asked him whether he
00:20:05would like to take something by way of refreshment but he declined. did you witness the meeting between
00:20:11himself and uh lady dorman? i did not. miss dorman was in the bedroom with her ladyship and rose to
00:20:17greet him. then i left the room as was my place to do. ah yes miss dorman. now i shall need to speak to
00:20:23miss dorman with her permission. she's the new mistress here i understand. did she miss dorman that
00:20:30is remained you know with the general and her ladyship? no she left them to themselves. with the
00:20:35nurse in attendance of course. oh yes yes the nurse. now when... mason will you please let miss
00:20:44dorland know that inspector uh... parker is in the morning room in connection with general
00:20:49fentiman's death and would be grateful if she would allow him a little of her time? very good mom.
00:20:56i couldn't have expressed it better myself. you are not required to express it. no.
00:21:03uh miss dorland do you say left the general and her ladyship? after about five minutes. she then came
00:21:07down to the housekeeper's room to see me and we had a chat. as her ladyship's companion miss dorland
00:21:12considered it suitable to be on friendly terms with the senior staff. she spoke of her aunt and
00:21:18the general. poor old dears she said. well no doubt she is a young lady of feeling as few are nowadays.
00:21:29poor old dears. and you considered that to be uh... unsuitable. yes. and then she went away
00:21:37and presently perhaps half an hour later mason came in. the girl you saw just now. yes. to ask for
00:21:44some brandy for the general as he was feeling badly. these spirits are kept in the housekeeper's
00:21:49room you see. i have the key. did you see the general when you took the brandy upstairs? i did
00:21:56not take it up mr parker. no of course not. i sent mason with it. yes?
00:22:02miss dorland presents her compliments to inspector parker and will be prepared to see him in the studio
00:22:12when he has finished cross-examining her staff. well no doubt that will be a cordial encounter.
00:22:18however i would like to ask mason some questions mrs misham with your permission. by all means mason remain.
00:22:25that woman frightens the life out of me. she's one of the old-fashioned sort. yes.
00:22:36do people really call you mason? well they do in this house. do you have another name?
00:22:42nelly. well i'll call you that if i may. you're welcome. now sit down nelly please.
00:22:47now on the day the general died. yes? and you took a glass of brandy upstairs i believe. that's
00:22:59right. will you tell me what happened? well on the way up i passed the studio door where miss
00:23:04dorland was. well that's where she does her painting and messing about with bottles. she spends
00:23:10most of her time there. it's her room you see. messing about with them bottles. oh chemistry. you know.
00:23:20ladies have to have their hobbies. not have anything better to do. it makes a lot to clear up. yes i'm
00:23:26sure it does. go on nelly. i told miss dorland the general was feeling poorly. he'd had this bit of a
00:23:34turn you see. it was the nurse had run for me. a bit of a turn mason she says. poor rob dear she says.
00:23:42you better get dr pemberthy on the phone. i'll take the brandy up. and? well she did. i gave her the
00:23:51brandy. she took it up to him. straight up? did she take it up immediately? yes. he'd had this turn. i'm
00:24:00sorry nelly. i'm not making it very clear. what i meant was. did you see miss dorland actually take
00:24:06the brandy upstairs? i couldn't could i? i was going downstairs to the telephone. oh i had ever
00:24:13such a job to get through. then an answer you see on the exchange. not when they're having their tea.
00:24:17yes. yeah you obviously you couldn't have seen her if you'd been going downstairs. stupid of me. well
00:24:22she did take it. he did have it. and then he went off to the doctor. that's right. of course he did.
00:24:27you think she put something in it? from her chemistry? i don't think anything of the sort.
00:24:36now nelly will you please show me to the studio. i'd like to talk to miss dorland. oh yes it's just
00:24:40upstairs. they will be interested in the servants or when i tell them that you think she put something
00:24:47in the brandy. i'm sorry. it's not enough. what? it's not enough.
00:25:02she's made it out wrong. that girl has made it out wrong. see for yourself seven pence. that is not
00:25:11right. we do ask customers to check. poached egg on toast with a pot of tea. five pence half penny.
00:25:18that's what it says on the menu and that's what you should charge. you had one egg? i had poached egg on
00:25:25toast. two eggs. that would make it right. i am not concerned with making it right. i had poached egg on
00:25:32toast. three pence with a pot of tea. two pence half penny. i am a very busy woman. i can't send here.
00:25:38perhaps you would allow me to buy you an egg. hello sheila. one perched egg. you will do nothing of the
00:25:46kind. the imperturbance. i'm not accustomed to being bought eggs by strange men. i don't think lord
00:25:53peter often does it. rarely. if i wasn't such a very busy woman i should complain to them.
00:25:58did you say lord? lord peter whimsy. oh lord. oh lord. oh my lord. oh my lord. i feel quite faint.
00:26:16you shouldn't have done it. she tries that every week. you're all tired. seemed the easiest way of
00:26:22getting rid of her. i am rather tired. shall we lunch? you want to talk to me? what about? george.
00:26:34i've only got half an hour. we can lunch here. we're rather short-starved. i shall have an egg.
00:26:42one poached egg on toast. what sort of chemicals? just a hobby. do you make chemical experiments?
00:26:52for fun. i mess about with chemicals for fun. schoolboys do it. did you make chemical experiments
00:26:57for fun while your aunt was dying? just to occupy my mind. she took rather a long time dying. like
00:27:03king charles ii at least a week from the beginning to the end of her illness. it's difficult to keep
00:27:08up a pitch of grief. what sort of experiments? i don't remember. you don't remember at all? no. do
00:27:13you have the residue of these experiments? they were cleared up. mason clears them up. how very
00:27:17convenient? yes. would you like to see my chemicals inspector? they're very ordinary. first steps in
00:27:24chemistry. rather simple compounds. growing a crystal. testing for acid with litmus paper.
00:27:34you won't find digitalis among them. how did you know general fentiman was poisoned with digitalis?
00:27:40that was not in the newspapers. my solicitor told me. what? mr pritchard my solicitor was present at the
00:27:46exhumation and received a copy of the analyst report. i see. i'm sorry you're disappointed.
00:27:52tell me what happened when you took the brandy upstairs.
00:27:58i met nurse armstrong at the door. she said he's better now. so i went in and i i saw general fentiman
00:28:06looking very odd and gray. the nurse said i've given him his drops. a little brandy will put him
00:28:12right again. what drops? his own drops i suppose. he was old. he carried medicine around with him.
00:28:19you can ask the nurse. i have her address. please go on. anyway we gave him the brandy and after a while
00:28:25he got less deathly looking. i told him that mason was ringing for the doctor but he said that he'd
00:28:29rather go around to harley street. i thought it rash but nurse armstrong said it was better not to cross
00:28:34him. so the footman found him a taxi and off he went. thank you. a very clear account.
00:28:41are these your paintings? yes. do you mind if i have a look?
00:28:53i don't think you're really interested in my painting are you?
00:28:56no i i think they're very good.
00:29:04ah now that's um um interesting
00:29:08and medicine too. what? you're interested in medicine as well as uh chemistry and painting.
00:29:28quain's dictionary of medicine. you've left it open at a page.
00:29:32the action of certain poisons. you're very persistent. will you put the book back please?
00:29:40may i ask you what first gave you your interest in chemistry miss dormant?
00:29:45in chemistry and medicine?
00:29:47no i'm sorry you may not. there is just one more question.
00:29:53before lady dormer died before general fentiman came to visit her
00:29:57did you know what provisions she had made for you in her will?
00:30:03well? no. of course not. how could i? oh will you go away? you make me sick.
00:30:10you'd better give up the job i suppose. we can manage on my wages. we've done it before. look it's
00:30:17not a question of money sheila. you'll get the money. bound to i think some. it's more a question
00:30:24of self-respect. if he gets money i don't think he's going to be too bothered about self-respect.
00:30:30george doesn't mind being idle. he thinks a gentleman should be. it's just my keeping him he doesn't like.
00:30:35he's not as selfish as he seems you know. he can be generous. loving. and brave.
00:30:44i know that peter. i'm his wife.
00:30:50look tell me tell me about this muttering. well i wouldn't worry so much. i mean people do talk to
00:30:58themselves. it's just that whenever it's happened before it's always ended in some kind of
00:31:03i don't know some kind of brainstorm. he wanders off. he can be gone for days. there was the time
00:31:11he was found dancing naked amid a flock of sheep singing to them.
00:31:18well it sounds comic doesn't it? especially since george is tone deaf.
00:31:24you see he can never remember afterwards exactly what he's done.
00:31:28what about his pills? doesn't like taking them. get him to take them. do you have the prescription by the way?
00:31:41why do you ask? just one of opposite them. oh you don't expect us to know. the chemist makes them up.
00:31:47people don't know what are in their pills. now of course.
00:31:59i thought you never fetched and carried. mason carried the tray to the door and i have brought it in as you see.
00:32:06thank you.
00:32:22chops. a chop and a grilled tomato as you requested. water? thank you.
00:32:30i have very little appetite i'm afraid. it's dispiriting for cook. yes yes it must be.
00:32:41please don't stand over me mrs mitchum. i'm quite capable of cutting up my own meat.
00:32:46if cook is dissatisfied with my appetite she may leave. anyone who is dissatisfied may leave.
00:32:51cook has already given notice. i thought it my duty to inform you myself.
00:32:55because of my poor appetite. because of what is being said. said? in the servants hall and elsewhere.
00:33:05what is being said? i think you know. i can guess.
00:33:12do you believe it? it's not my place. or cook's either so she's leaving.
00:33:18you've never approved of me i think. artistic notions not suitable in someone of my situation.
00:33:25but your situation has changed. yes in every way. i think you should go out more.
00:33:31what? show your face miss dorland. you are the mistress here now. you should behave with courage.
00:33:36people may say what they will. we cannot prevent that but we may give it the lie.
00:33:40i i i hope you enjoy your dinner.
00:33:48mrs mitchum i asked you.
00:33:52do you believe what's being said? it is not important what i believe.
00:33:56what is important is that you should fill your place as the new mistress here.
00:34:00thank you. thank you. i didn't know it was monkey glans.
00:34:15she's not here. are you sure? i'm not as interested in glans as you are. i had a good look at the audience
00:34:29during the lecture. was she invited? i'm bound to have been. she and Naomi Rochworth were quite chummy at one time.
00:34:35thank you very much. would you excuse me? would you excuse me Naomi? claret cup? but i'm a journalist. where's the whiskey?
00:34:44as i could see it across the room. a great bowl filled with fruit. a heart sack.
00:34:50good claret cups better than poor champagne. i have never known good claret cups. however since we're both thirsty.
00:34:56oh hello sally. what are you doing here? i might ask you the same question.
00:35:09it's very kind of you and thank you so much for coming. will you excuse me?
00:35:15i have just moved. ah uh marjorie this is salcombe hardy a journalist. miss marjorie philmes. are you
00:35:21writing about the lecture? up to a point. up to what point sally? what is your interest in glans?
00:35:28oh i'm just a guess. miss philps brought me here. she's a friend of the russians. i don't understand.
00:35:34murder. explain sally. it's quite simple. an old man dies. dr pemberthry certifies natural causes.
00:35:45tis natural causes. it's murder. therefore my newspaper is interested in the doctor.
00:35:50no matter what he says or does. that's ridiculous. of course it is. any doctor would have said natural
00:35:57causes. any doctor didn't. this one did. you're back in the wrong horse sally. you think the niece did it?
00:36:06i didn't say so. i didn't say you're right. my paper's interested in the niece too. we tip all
00:36:12horses. that way you can't lose. oh you can you know. you can.
00:36:20it was you in the cemetery i take it. on the night of the exhumation.
00:36:25salcombe hardy recording age. i thought i heard a sneeze. well i was cold.
00:36:31but the way we see it. if you touch murder you become interesting.
00:36:37well you look at tonight. minor doctor talks of monkey clowns. now it's not a wasted evening.
00:36:47oh nasty. i'd better have another back in the sack.
00:36:58uh whimsy. i saw you across the room. i wonder if i might have a quiet word with you.
00:37:02yes of course. would you excuse me marjorie? certainly.
00:37:08i'll take care of your friends. i'm sorry about that. back in the jiffy.
00:37:13should we go in here? you haven't got a drink. i should think not. it's claret coming.
00:37:20i'm surprised to see you here. well i actually came hoping that... oh no dash it. that sounds rude.
00:37:28no do go on. well i've actually came hoping to meet anne dawland of fentiman fame. but she doesn't
00:37:36appear to be here. miss dawland? no i don't think she's here. you know her? slightly. she's a friend
00:37:41of naomi's. naomi russia? my fiance. didn't you know? it was announced in the times in the morning post.
00:37:49really? oh well congratulations. now i'm afraid i'm usually more interested in the deaths and the births
00:37:56marriages. i enjoyed your lecture. oh did you? thank you. straw in the wind i think one might say.
00:38:05if that's the right expression. a kite. flying a kite. i wanted to see how the whole scheme would be
00:38:12regarded by intelligent people. i think we have a sample of intelligent forward-thinking people here
00:38:18tonight. a fairly representative sample. well i'm sure we have. if anyone can get the idea across that most
00:38:25crime is the result of glandular malfunction then i don't think it could be too difficult to raise the
00:38:29money. divine. it really was divine. what a clever little thing near me is. took court such a clever
00:38:36man. thank you. thank you. oh am i interrupting something? divine. raise the money. for research. oh you
00:38:46mean you'll find a lot of people with disordered glands and then watch them to see if they start
00:38:50breaking into houses. or the other way around. i suppose you start off with people who've already
00:38:54broken into houses and then... please don't be flippant whimsy at any other time. i'd find it amusing.
00:38:58but at the moment... i'm sorry. i am about to be married. i am about to launch an appeal for funds to
00:39:05start a clinic for research into the effect of glandular malfunction on social maladjustment. it is
00:39:11important. it is worthwhile. i should give up my practice and become a public figure. it's not an
00:39:18unworthy ambition. no. but if i am pilloried in the newspapers it will never happen. so that is why
00:39:26you wanted to talk to me. you seem to be friendly with reporters. you've been expecting the old boy to
00:39:33pop off of a heart attack for ages. nobody could possibly blame you. he was poisoned. i couldn't know it.
00:39:40you couldn't know it. nobody could know it. but it happened and now everybody knows it. and i signed
00:39:44the death certificate. i don't know anything about newspaper practice whimsy. but suddenly i become
00:39:49interesting and it's not my fault. i mean i would plan to have a quiet wedding. imagine it. reporters,
00:39:57photographers. but most important of all is the clinic. and if it is once suggested in the newspapers
00:40:01that i have been incompetent or ignorant. well damn it whimsy it isn't fair. what do you want me to do?
00:40:10tell them. but they already know. unfortunately the press ain't interested in what's fair. that don't
00:40:17sell copies. yes but they would believe you. it's nothing to do with belief. i mean look at him.
00:40:24that's the press. now what do you think he's got to do with the truth or what's worthwhile? or anything
00:40:30else except give him a story and keep him on just the right side of the libel laws. newspapers are only
00:40:34something in which to wrap fish and chips. you can't honestly believe that they'd affect the outlook
00:40:40of well intelligent forward-looking people. oh damn.
00:40:46poor man. i've been teaching him the facts of life. i thought as a doctor he ought to know.
00:41:00what a nasty girl his fiancee is. i can't bear those pudding-faced people. why nasty? hinting.
00:41:08i've just left her. hinting at what? oh it's too beastly.
00:41:13apparently anne dorland was asked for tonight. but she hasn't come.
00:41:22the sum of the hints was that she hasn't come because she poisoned the old general to get her
00:41:26aunt's money and everybody knows it. your logic escapes me. well since everybody knows it and she
00:41:32knows everybody knows it she's embarrassed to appear in public. does everybody know it?
00:41:37naomi rushworth seems to know it.
00:41:44and you know it don't you? i don't know it. i think it may be likely. that's the same as knowing it.
00:41:49it's disgusting. i think we might as well go.
00:41:58i feel rather as if i've been used peter. by me? yes. what do you know of and all and will you take me
00:42:05to meet her? i don't care if she poisoned 50 old generals. so you know it too? what? the town door.
00:42:11i don't know anything in the store.
00:42:20only if she didn't. who did? precisely who did? because i don't know it margie.
00:42:29i think perhaps she may have done it but if she did where did she get hold of the digitalis?
00:42:33the poison. and if you don't want to believe her guilty just keep asking yourself that.
00:42:55where is she? she's gone off with a friend uh cottage in steeple aston.
00:42:58i've got a local man keep an eye on her down there.
00:43:04first steps in chemistry. yes she used to keep her chemicals and things in here
00:43:10but uh we've taken most of them away for analysis. how thorough the police are. i can't imagine you'll
00:43:15find anything remotely incriminating. no it's our books and pictures that i want to look at. books
00:43:21charles are like lobster shells. we carry them around with us and we grow out of them and leave them
00:43:27behind as evidence of our earlier stages of development. queen's dictionary of medicine.
00:43:35open it up. the actions of certain poisons. yes it's rather suggestive isn't it? it may have told her
00:43:43how to use digitalis charles. it don't tell her how to get hold of it. i think a general view of this
00:43:49end of the studio please bunter. yes my lord. doesn't it? doesn't what? foxgloves. what about
00:43:56foxgloves? digitalis purpurea. the purple foxgloves. the drug digitalis can be extracted from the dried
00:44:02leaves of foxgloves using fairly elementary chemical equipment. you've been reading up on it charles.
00:44:07well. your reading don't suggest where she would get hold of digitalis or foxgloves leaves in the
00:44:12middle of november. i said dried leaves peter. and why should anne dorland go around drying foxgloves
00:44:18leaves a good two months before she had any reason to know she might need to use them? no charles
00:44:23whoever poisoned the old man got the idea and did it all on the one day. have you looked at the
00:44:29gramophone records matter? the savoy orpheans my lord. i wish i could shimmy like my sister kate.
00:44:35false yourself bunter. your lordship has noticed that the machine itself is new. yes indeed and
00:44:40detective stories are the most recent acquisition to our bookshows. this one for instance is all
00:44:46about a bloke who murders a johnny and then keeps him in cold storage until he's ready to dispose of
00:44:50him. it would suit robert ventiman. let's have a look at their paintings. oh lord. yes well it gives me
00:45:00a pain too but i thought that was my lack of artistic education. it was your natural good taste charles.
00:45:05let's have a look at some others.
00:45:13you know these are the paintings of a completely untalented person
00:45:18who is moreover trying to copy the mannerisms of a very advanced school.
00:45:22and you'll notice she's left everything higgledy-piggledy. look paint all over the place.
00:45:27brushes ruining themselves in turps. hello what's this?
00:45:36it's a portrait i presume. yes but of whom do you suppose?
00:45:43what do you make of it charles?
00:45:45well it's a man. 10 out of 10. come to think of it it's the only portrait of a man in the studio.
00:45:52really? all the others are women. how very interesting. it's very bad
00:45:58and it's been worked on a lot. so we may assume that it is meant to be somebody.
00:46:06do you know the limerick about the old man of khartoum?
00:46:10no. what did he do? he kept two black sheep in a room.
00:46:14they remind me he said two friends who are dead. but i cannot remember of whom.
00:46:20well if that reminds you of anyone you know i don't care for your friends very much.
00:46:25no he ain't beautiful but i think these sinister squints is chiefly due to bad drawing.
00:46:30cover up one eye charles.
00:46:33no not yours. look the portraits.
00:46:35no. does your lordship wish me to uh... yes i think we should have a record of this one munter.
00:46:46i may want to brood about it during the night.
00:46:49don't this room tell you anything charles? anything about it sonar?
00:46:53well it suggests to me that ann dorland has been taking more interest in crimes and chemistry than
00:46:58is altogether healthy in the circumstances. what do you think?
00:47:01well i came here hoping that it would tell me the same thing that it told you.
00:47:05but it hasn't. it's told me what i knew all along. i haven't got that one.
00:47:11peter i hope you're not going to tell me she didn't do it.
00:47:17you'll be late for work george.
00:47:22i suppose it doesn't matter. of course it matters.
00:47:26it'll be all right. i feel better today.
00:47:28hello. there are two men coming up the path.
00:47:35look at their boots. do you think they're policemen? george?
00:47:40well why don't you arrest her if you're so sure she killed him?
00:47:44we can't arrest her peter. all we can do is watch her.
00:47:50you see we haven't got a case. yet.
00:47:52let's say i hope that nurse isn't going to keep us waiting.
00:48:07mrs fentyman? yes.
00:48:26Mrs. Fentiman?
00:48:34Yes?
00:48:35I have to tell you that we're policemen, Mrs. Fentiman.
00:48:39Wondering if we could have a word with your husband?
00:48:42I'm sorry.
00:48:43You're too late.
00:48:45He's gone to work.
00:48:56Never, Nurse Armstrong?
00:49:05Miss Dorland was never alone with the old gentleman at any time during that day.
00:49:10She left shortly after he came in to see his sister out of natural feeling,
00:49:13wishing to leave the old people together.
00:49:15And when she returned with the brandy, I was, of course, present,
00:49:18the old gentleman being poorly and needing my help.
00:49:21With the brandy?
00:49:22I beg your pardon?
00:49:23Miss Anne Dorland brought the brandy.
00:49:24They're never suggesting she put something in it.
00:49:28I just want you to confirm that this...
00:49:30Lord, how ignorant people can be.
00:49:32No wonder the poor girls had to go away if that's what people are saying.
00:49:36You liked her?
00:49:38A well-spoken, intelligent girl with more feelings than she cared to show.
00:49:42Not strictly speaking pretty, but a face of character.
00:49:45You could go further and fear worse.
00:49:48Ignorant, I believe you said.
00:49:50Yes, Constable, I did.
00:49:51But if you think Miss Dorland put digitalis into the general's brandy,
00:49:55you can dismiss it from your mind entirely.
00:49:58And how can you be so sure?
00:50:00If he'd had as big a dose as that in solution at half past four in the afternoon,
00:50:04he'd have been taken ill ever so much earlier than he was.
00:50:07A pill, you see, takes longer.
00:50:09In solution, the action is very quick.
00:50:11I see.
00:50:12Are these her paintings?
00:50:17She said she did painting.
00:50:21They're very modern, aren't they?
00:50:22She said she did painting.
00:50:53Sergeant.
00:50:56Bottle cap.
00:50:57Pill bottled by the look of it.
00:50:59Yeah.
00:51:00Where's the rest of it?
00:51:01I don't know.
00:51:04Better go through the dustbin.
00:51:06Well, it could be in there, but we don't know when it was dropped.
00:51:09It might be just lying about.
00:51:10Hawkins.
00:51:12Dustbin.
00:51:12They can't do that to our bin, or that warrant.
00:51:24They can't go searching people's dustbins without a search warrant.
00:51:26I know my rights.
00:51:27Who's to stop them?
00:51:28You are, Joe Manz, you are.
00:51:30You're a free citizen, and if you've not done nothing,
00:51:32you're going to go out there and assert your rights.
00:51:34What, me?
00:51:35Where's your search warrant?
00:51:36That's all you've got to say to them.
00:51:38Show me your search warrant, you say.
00:51:39You know what, I'm going to come back here.
00:51:45Let them have the goodness of it first.
00:51:48They'll clear it all up after.
00:51:50Tell them I ain't at home, Walter.
00:52:07Mrs. George Fentiman, my lord.
00:52:08She appears to be in great distress.
00:52:10But they ain't on the telephone.
00:52:12If your lordship wasn't in, I was to beg you to communicate with them
00:52:15as soon as you arrived.
00:52:16Well, she must be in a box.
00:52:17She began by asking if Mr. George Fentiman was here, my lord.
00:52:23Oh, Hades.
00:52:24Hello, Sheila?
00:52:25No, he ain't here.
00:52:27Well, he hasn't been home all day.
00:52:31Well, I knew they were making inquiries,
00:52:33but they're bound to do that, you know.
00:52:34It's only routine.
00:52:36I'm sorry, did you say dustbin?
00:52:39I'm sorry, old thing, but I'm not very bright at one in the morning.
00:52:43Did he?
00:52:45Well, I shouldn't worry too much, Sheila.
00:52:47He's probably just popped off for a bit.
00:52:49Look, you go on home, get warm, and I'll come round straight away.
00:52:53Taxi, Bunter.
00:52:55Now, wait a moment.
00:52:57Get Major Robert Fentiman on the telephone.
00:52:59Ask him to meet me at his brother's lodgings as soon as he can.
00:53:06Please don't make a noise.
00:53:07They complain, you know.
00:53:08Well, let them.
00:53:09If we whisper, they'll think you'll know better than you should be.
00:53:12Entertaining strange men at this time of the night.
00:53:14Now then, my child, what is all this?
00:53:17Good heavens!
00:53:19You are as cold as a Peshmelba.
00:53:21Look, the fire's half out.
00:53:22Where's the whiskey?
00:53:23Oh, I'm all right, really.
00:53:24Well, you're not all right, and neither am I.
00:53:26You haven't had any grub.
00:53:28Well, no wonder you're feeling awful.
00:53:30Where's the kitchen?
00:53:31Along the hall?
00:53:31Oh, Peter, please.
00:53:32I don't need anything.
00:53:41Ooh, revolting.
00:53:44Your landlady cooks for you, I take it, since you're both out all day.
00:53:48Matches?
00:53:49Well, we can start by warming this up.
00:53:51Let's have a look.
00:53:52That's the tap.
00:53:55I say you are in a stew.
00:53:58No, I'm sorry.
00:53:59No pun intended.
00:54:01There we are.
00:54:04Now then, a little something to give it body.
00:54:07Let's have a look.
00:54:09Um, what can we find?
00:54:13Yes, well, not marmalade.
00:54:15Corned beef, I think, if we have any.
00:54:17Hello, what's this?
00:54:20An extract of yeast, possibly.
00:54:22Oh, this might do the trick.
00:54:23What's going on in here?
00:54:28Would you say that again?
00:54:29I said, what's going on in here?
00:54:32It's Mr. Munns, the landlord.
00:54:36It's only Lord Peter Whimsey, Mrs. Munns.
00:54:38He's a family friend.
00:54:40Family friend?
00:54:41At two in the morning?
00:54:43Oh, family friend.
00:54:44You're sneaking up here in a taxi while you're behind the door waiting to let him in, hoping that we won't hear.
00:54:48This is a respectable ass, and I won't have goings-on.
00:54:52And if you...
00:54:53What do you think you're doing with that stew?
00:54:57Warming it up and attempting to make it edible.
00:54:59In the second object, I may fail.
00:55:01Have you got any whiskey in the house by any chance?
00:55:03Whiskey?
00:55:04Did you hear that, Joe?
00:55:05Yes, I did hear that.
00:55:06Whiskey, the gentleman said.
00:55:07I had it very clear.
00:55:08Now, pop a little bit of this in the chila, my dear.
00:55:10There's a good girl.
00:55:11And give it a stir.
00:55:12We wouldn't want it to burn on top of everything else.
00:55:15You see, if we had some whiskey, we might be able to chat this over in a rather more friendly way, don't you know?
00:55:19I'm sure that would reassure your wife.
00:55:21I'm not sitting down for no chance.
00:55:23You explain yourself, and then I turned your fancy woman here out.
00:55:26That's my intention.
00:55:27The problem being, sir, there's no actual drink kept in the house.
00:55:30Not in the way of spirit.
00:55:31Do you call yourself a man?
00:55:32Right, then I will tell you what to do.
00:55:34Sir, you'll shut up.
00:55:35Oh, shut up, you old bag.
00:55:36Now, I would like you...
00:55:38Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.
00:55:40There, there, there, there.
00:55:42There is a public telephone nearby, I take it?
00:55:45Yes, yes, there is.
00:55:46Just round the corner.
00:55:47Right, well, now you hop along and telephone that number.
00:55:51My man will answer.
00:55:53He may be a little cross at being called out of bed at this time of night,
00:55:56but don't let that bother you,
00:55:57and tell him to come along straight away with a bottle of whiskey.
00:55:59That way we can be certain of getting a good malt.
00:56:02And tell him to come in the Luganda,
00:56:03then I can be sure of getting back.
00:56:05I don't suppose taxes are all that frequent in Finsbury Park
00:56:08at this hour of the morning, what?
00:56:09Yes, me lord, right, me lord.
00:56:10Yes, and hold on a tick.
00:56:12You will require some money for the telephone.
00:56:17Oh, thank you, me lord.
00:56:19Now, let's see how that stew's coming along.
00:56:26Oh, well, that's very good, Mrs. Munges.
00:56:30Very good indeed.
00:56:32Absolutely top hole.
00:56:38And the dawn comes up like thunder
00:56:42out of China across the bay.
00:56:47Very interesting.
00:56:53Very, very interesting.
00:57:04Lord Peter Whimsley's residence.
00:57:08I beg your pardon.
00:57:09Did you say whiskey?
00:57:11Box comes up, you lordship.
00:57:12No, chin chin.
00:57:14You better have a whiskey, too, Munther.
00:57:16Yes, as well, you brought two bottles.
00:57:20Now, Mrs. Munns,
00:57:22what did the police find in the dustbin?
00:57:24I would like to see them finding things in my dustbin.
00:57:27Oh, you won't find anything in the wife's dustbin.
00:57:29I mean, you can look, but you won't find.
00:57:31Where's your search warrant, I said?
00:57:34No, no, I said that.
00:57:35If you've come here about a search warrant,
00:57:37you can go straight back from west where you came, I said,
00:57:39because that is the law.
00:57:41They couldn't deny it.
00:57:41Quite right.
00:57:42They either comes to me in a fitting,
00:57:44an illegal manner with a search warrant,
00:57:46or they can go and whistle for their bottle.
00:57:49What bottle?
00:57:50The bottle they was looking for in my dustbin.
00:57:53Your hubby, my dear, smashed it up with a poker before he scarpered.
00:57:58What sort of a bottle was it, Mrs. Munns?
00:58:01Oh, one of them little tablet bottles, you know.
00:58:04Same as what you have standing on your washstand, Mrs. Fentiman.
00:58:08And they took it away with them, I suppose, did they?
00:58:11Did they?
00:58:13Weren't never there, you see, never in the dustbin.
00:58:15I swept it up.
00:58:17And where is it now?
00:58:18Oh, rather, the bits of the bottle.
00:58:21In an envelope.
00:58:22And where is the envelope?
00:58:23Oh, well, that's for me to know and for you to find out.
00:58:26Oh, no, no.
00:58:27No, that's not for me.
00:58:28It's for the police to find out.
00:58:29Well, quite right.
00:58:31Quite right, my lord.
00:58:32Because if they was to return with a search warrant,
00:58:35where should I be if I hadn't kept that bottle safe?
00:58:37Oh, where, indeed.
00:58:38You'd have to produce it.
00:58:39Well, of course.
00:58:40The idea had come to me, my lord, that you...
00:58:43That I might want it?
00:58:44Well, being a free-spending sort of gentleman.
00:58:46Well, I should only have to hand it over to the police myself, you know.
00:58:50I don't think you ought to get any wrong ideas, Mrs. Munns.
00:58:53Captain Fentiman smashed up that bottle, but purely on impulse,
00:58:56and that's all there is to it.
00:58:58He's liable to do odd things, you know.
00:59:00I was with him during the war.
00:59:02He was very badly shell-shocked.
00:59:04Ah, poor gentleman.
00:59:05I've got a feeling, my dear, I know the pain.
00:59:08So if he breaks things up occasionally,
00:59:10or loses his memory, or goes running off,
00:59:13well, naturally, Mrs. Fentiman is anxious.
00:59:16Oh, don't you worry, my lord.
00:59:17We know.
00:59:18There was a fella just round the corner.
00:59:20I knew him well.
00:59:22We was as close as speaking.
00:59:24Smashed up his whole family with a beetle.
00:59:27With a what?
00:59:27A beetle.
00:59:29We was a paving of my profession.
00:59:31That's how he come to have a beetle in the house.
00:59:33Oh, I see.
00:59:33Pounded him to a jelly.
00:59:35His wife, his five little angels,
00:59:38and then went off and drowned in himself in the Regent's Canal.
00:59:42What's more, when they fished him out,
00:59:43he didn't remember a word about it, not one word.
00:59:46Shut up, you fool.
00:59:47Look, hang on, no thing.
00:59:48Haven't you got no feelings, Munns?
00:59:50Where's your feeling, Arch?
00:59:51Look, you are faggot.
00:59:53Have you got a hot water bottle, or anything of the sort?
00:59:56I really think Mrs. Fentiman ought to lie down and try and sleep.
00:59:59Good idea, my lord.
01:00:01You can borrow mine, my dear.
01:00:02Mrs. Munns, I borrow mine.
01:00:05Um, Mr. Munns and I will retire to the kitchen, my lord.
01:00:12May I suggest, um...
01:00:14Why not?
01:00:16And take the whiskey with you, Bunter.
01:00:18Oh, that's very good of you, my lord.
01:00:21Come along.
01:00:25Very kind, I'm sure.
01:00:29Look, Sheila.
01:00:29You must get hold of that bottle.
01:00:31Make her give it to you.
01:00:32Make her.
01:00:32You can.
01:00:33You can do anything.
01:00:34Sheila, what was that bottle?
01:00:35It's mine.
01:00:37My heart, Mids, and I...
01:00:38I missed it.
01:00:39It's...
01:00:40It's...
01:00:41It's something to do with Digitalis.
01:00:47That'll be Robert.
01:00:49I'll simply come.
01:00:50Get it!
01:00:52Please!
01:00:52You must get hold of that bottle!
01:00:59No offense.
01:01:00See, no.
01:01:01None taken.
01:01:05Hmm.
01:01:06Well, if that's the case, we'll have to buy the woman off.
01:01:08Get the stuff from her.
01:01:09Otherwise, we'll have her on our backs for the rest of our lives.
01:01:11How much would you think?
01:01:11A thousand?
01:01:12I hope I don't follow you.
01:01:14Blackmail.
01:01:14Don't want that.
01:01:15She can't have it.
01:01:16She don't hand over the envelope.
01:01:17She don't get the money.
01:01:18I'm sorry, old man, but the police have got to know about this.
01:01:21God, you...
01:01:22I am not going to hush anything up.
01:01:24I ain't here for that.
01:01:25Then what are you here for?
01:01:26Sheila telephoned.
01:01:27I came to help.
01:01:29Then help, dammit.
01:01:29You came to help, so help.
01:01:30You're supposed to be George's friend.
01:01:32This woman's got some damned evidence against him hidden in an envelope.
01:01:35We buy it.
01:01:35That's the end of it.
01:01:36I haven't asked you to pay.
01:01:37No, you haven't.
01:01:38Oh, then, just keep your mouth shut, that's all.
01:01:39Fentiman, you have got to see that it will not help to suppress anything.
01:01:43The police have got to...
01:01:44Police!
01:01:45Don't talk to me about the police, you damn police spy.
01:01:48And you'd sell your best friend for the sake of making a sensational appearance at the witness box.
01:01:51Chuck that, Fentiman.
01:01:52I will not chuck it.
01:01:53I have tried to keep out of it.
01:01:54You've tried?
01:01:56You're such a blasted hypocrite.
01:01:58Just get out of it now and stay out.
01:01:59I can't do that.
01:02:00Why not?
01:02:00Because I'm already in.
01:02:02Because I know the truth.
01:02:04Well, not the whole truth, but the fact that George had digitales have the opportunity to administer it.
01:02:08And that must not be hushed up.
01:02:11Look, I'm sorry.
01:02:12I know how you feel.
01:02:14But it will not help George.
01:02:15Don't stand there being righteous and forbearing, you sickening prig.
01:02:19Are you going to hold your tongue to stand for yes or no?
01:02:21No.
01:02:22Are you dirty little...
01:02:23Now, look here, Fentiman.
01:02:24You're afraid that your brother murdered your grandfather.
01:02:26Look, I don't care what you say.
01:02:28That is how you're behaving.
01:02:29Now, I don't know whether he did or whether he didn't.
01:02:31But the worst thing you could do for him is to try and suppress evidence and make his wife a party to it.
01:02:36So, just you think about that.
01:02:37No, just you listen to me, Whimsy.
01:02:42Don't bother to apologise, old lad.
01:02:44There's a good fellow.
01:02:44I let myself out.
01:02:46Night-night.
01:02:48Bunter!
01:02:49I wasn't going to apologise.
01:02:51I thought your lordship might wish to see it before retiring.
01:02:55Ah, well, at this hour of the morning, Bunter, his lordship ain't capable of...
01:03:02Oh, I see.
01:03:04Do you know who it is?
01:03:09I think so, my lord.
01:03:11How very smart of you, Bunter.
01:03:14How very observant.
01:03:16Thank you, my lord.
01:03:18Yes, I do see.
01:03:21I see a great deal that wasn't clear before.
01:03:23Oh.
01:03:26I see how it was done, Bunter.
01:03:34I see.
01:04:26Cold.
01:04:40So cold.
01:04:42I'm not surprised.
01:04:44Better have a sausage.
01:04:50Morning, Charles.
01:04:52Morning, Peter.
01:04:53Any news?
01:04:54Well, you can't get far.
01:04:56It's too cold for sleeping out.
01:04:59You are eating my breakfast.
01:05:01Well, I was hungry.
01:05:02See, I usually have a little something about this time in the morning.
01:05:05Yes, I found it at the yard.
01:05:06I usually eat about it in heaven.
01:05:08Used to get up early.
01:05:10Anyway, you needn't bother about George.
01:05:12I told you I'm not bothered.
01:05:13We'll find him.
01:05:15George did not kill the old man.
01:05:16At least I don't think he did.
01:05:21Means, motive, opportunity, and doing away with important evidence.
01:05:26Don't worry.
01:05:27We'll get him.
01:05:30Bunter, Inspector Parker has finished all the toast.
01:05:33He has also eaten my bacon and egg.
01:05:35Might I please have some more toast and some more bacon and eggs?
01:05:39Pleasure, my lord.
01:05:39Oh, and some more coffee, please, Bunter.
01:05:43Why don't you think George Fentiman did it?
01:05:46Well, you remember that portrait we found in Alndor and Studio?
01:05:49It reminded me of somebody.
01:05:50Yes.
01:05:51You've remembered whom?
01:05:52Dr. Pemberthy.
01:05:53Reminded you of, or was of?
01:05:59Was of.
01:06:06I see.
01:06:08Suggests a connection.
01:06:09There is a connection.
01:06:11Yes, I suppose there is.
01:06:12Up to now, Anne Dornan has always had the most obvious motive.
01:06:15But no means, and so the nurse tells us, no opportunity.
01:06:18Whereas Dr. Pemberthy had both.
01:06:20Who better?
01:06:21Look, he ain't a rich man.
01:06:23He's a retired army surgeon.
01:06:25Shares a house in Harley Street with two other hard-up brass platers.
01:06:28Suddenly he gets an idea
01:06:29that if only he can start one of those clinics for rejuvenating people,
01:06:33he could be a millionaire.
01:06:35Then along comes a girl.
01:06:37Rich old woman's heiress.
01:06:39He goes after her.
01:06:41He is to accommodate her by removing the obstacle to the fortune,
01:06:44and she will obligingly respond,
01:06:46back putting money into his clinic.
01:06:49Good lord.
01:06:49Thank you, Inspector.
01:06:51Bunter spotted the likeness of the portraits before I did.
01:06:53And once we had that connection...
01:06:54Well done, Bunter.
01:06:55Thank you, Inspector.
01:06:56Only the trouble is, old lad,
01:06:58there is something wrong with it.
01:07:02Just a little something.
01:07:04But it all fits.
01:07:05They don't fit with the girl, Charles.
01:07:07But you've never met the girl.
01:07:08No, but her studio tells me something.
01:07:10And Bunter has made some inquiries amongst the servants.
01:07:12Huh?
01:07:13They like her, sir, in spite of herself.
01:07:16Well, likable people have committed murder before now.
01:07:19Yes, but they like her in spite of herself.
01:07:22Do you see?
01:07:23No, I don't see it.
01:07:25Explain, Bunter.
01:07:26She's not likable, sir.
01:07:29But they like her.
01:07:31I may go mad, but Peter, it all fits.
01:07:35And much of it can be checked.
01:07:36And I'm sure that when we check it, it will still fit.
01:07:40Yes, I'm sure it will.
01:07:41See, George Fentiman's irrelevant now.
01:07:43All that smashing up the bottle and running off,
01:07:45I mean, doesn't matter.
01:07:46It's still our duty to find him, of course,
01:07:48but it's not important.
01:07:50No, George is safe.
01:07:51It's just a routine job now.
01:07:54I want to meet the girl, Charles.
01:07:56Well, who's stopping him?
01:07:57Well, you said she was away with a friend.
01:07:59You know, Cottage and Steve Leston.
01:08:00Oh, she's back.
01:08:01Still with the same friend, living on a houseboat in Chelsea.
01:08:04Not Marjorie Phelps.
01:08:06That's right.
01:08:08Well, you might have told me she was staying with a friend of mine.
01:08:11I know the houseboat well.
01:08:21I'm afraid Marjorie's not in.
01:08:23No, I know.
01:08:24I waited for her to go out.
01:08:27You're Anne Dorland.
01:08:29I'm Peter Whimsey.
01:08:31I know a lot about you, but I don't know you.
01:08:34And I would rather like to.
01:08:35Why?
01:08:35I'm a murderess.
01:08:36Not at all respectable.
01:08:37I wasn't sure about that.
01:08:39Everyone seems to think so, so it must be true.
01:08:41Everyone?
01:08:42The people I know.
01:08:44The servants think so at home.
01:08:45Something the police suggested about poison in the brandy.
01:08:48And the newspapers are hinting, aren't they?
01:08:50My solicitor told me I should go away.
01:08:52I shouldn't talk to the reporters.
01:08:53So Marjorie and I went away to the country.
01:08:56But the police put a man on to follow us.
01:08:57And that's rather noticeable in a small village.
01:08:59So we came back here.
01:09:01It's rather noticeable here too.
01:09:03To the trained eye.
01:09:06Most eyes aren't trained in London.
01:09:17She's very good, isn't she?
01:09:18I was a terrible painter.
01:09:22You didn't put digitalis in the brandy, of course.
01:09:25No.
01:09:27You know that?
01:09:28We spoke to Nurse Armstrong.
01:09:30It was clearly impossible.
01:09:31Then why am I still being followed?
01:09:34When I first asked Marjorie about you,
01:09:38she said she thought that you were getting over a rather unhappy love affair.
01:09:44I'm sorry, I didn't want to talk about that.
01:09:50It's true, you're not a very good painter.
01:09:53You won't mind my say and say, since you said so yourself.
01:09:57It's a very bad likeness.
01:10:00It took me a long time to spot who it was.
01:10:02Look here, I'm going to give you a bit of a shock,
01:10:08but it'll have to come sooner or later.
01:10:11Had it ever occurred to you
01:10:12that it might be he who murdered General Fentiman?
01:10:16How could he?
01:10:17Oh, very easily.
01:10:18Much more easily than anyone else.
01:10:21The police think they can prove it.
01:10:23You really didn't know?
01:10:27It wasn't that making you unhappy?
01:10:30I didn't know.
01:10:32The police think you did.
01:10:34That's why they're still following you.
01:10:36Partners in crime?
01:10:39Something like that.
01:10:41Look, sit down, Anne.
01:10:45Napoleon or someone said
01:10:46you could always turn tragedy into comedy by sitting down.
01:10:49It's true, I am.
01:11:03I was in love with him.
01:11:05I still am, I suppose,
01:11:07except that it doesn't hurt so much now,
01:11:08so maybe I'm not.
01:11:11Do you know he's going to marry Naomi Rushworth?
01:11:13Yes, I do.
01:11:16Why did you refuse to agree to a settlement over the will?
01:11:19He told me not to.
01:11:20He said there was something odd about the body.
01:11:22Monkey business, he said.
01:11:23He was sure that the General had been dead much longer than they said
01:11:26and somebody had been mucking around with the body
01:11:28to cheat me out of the money.
01:11:29Yes, Robert.
01:11:30It's despicable I wouldn't have taken it all.
01:11:32What do you survive for half a million pounds?
01:11:34To start a clinic?
01:11:38Yes, one forgets.
01:11:40We're going to start a clinic.
01:11:42And that's when you took up books on medicine and chemistry.
01:11:46Yes.
01:11:46You knew that you would inherit.
01:11:51I didn't know how much.
01:11:54She was very rich.
01:11:55I'd have given Robert and George something.
01:11:57Well, you would.
01:11:57Pemberthy might have been less generous.
01:12:00It takes a lot of money to start a clinic.
01:12:03You didn't know that she was going to leave so much to her brother.
01:12:07He was 12 years older.
01:12:09He was 90.
01:12:10I didn't think she'd leave him anything.
01:12:11And later, when you decided to settle after all?
01:12:14We'd quarrelled, you see.
01:12:22Quarrelled?
01:12:24He said...
01:12:26He said I was trying to buy him.
01:12:31It was degrading being bought.
01:12:32He said I had a mania about sex.
01:12:37I couldn't think of anything else.
01:12:38And that now I was an heiress, I...
01:12:41We were going to be married.
01:12:45He'd asked you?
01:12:46I thought he had.
01:12:47He said he hadn't.
01:12:48I thought it was understood.
01:12:49Do you feel that he was right about you?
01:12:56I don't know.
01:12:58I'm rather innocent in a lot of ways.
01:13:02You know how it is when you're in with an artistic crowd.
01:13:04They're freer than other people.
01:13:07At least they talk about it more.
01:13:09I suppose I did envy them being able to be free and not get hurt.
01:13:15And with Walter, you see...
01:13:17Well, he said that he had to be very discreet.
01:13:24I've ached for him sometimes.
01:13:27Well, that's being in love.
01:13:29That's quite different.
01:13:30He made it sound so sordid.
01:13:34I suppose he'd call it Freudian.
01:13:36I didn't understand it.
01:13:39And he'd been difficult to reach.
01:13:40I'd kept telephoning and...
01:13:43And then suddenly, out of a clear blue sky, such...
01:13:47Rotten things.
01:13:50I wanted to help him.
01:13:52I wasn't trying to buy him.
01:13:57Anyway, after that, I didn't care about the money anymore.
01:13:59And I told my solicitors to come to a settlement.
01:14:01He wouldn't, you know, have been so brutal to you if he hadn't been in fear of his life.
01:14:07I told him there was going to be an autopsy.
01:14:09He knew that the poison would be discovered.
01:14:12And if it was known that he was engaged to you, he was bound to be suspected.
01:14:16So he broke off the connection and got engaged to somebody else.
01:14:22Why do it in that brutal way?
01:14:25Because, my dear, he knew that that particular accusation was the very last thing that a girl of your sort would want to tell people about.
01:14:33There's no proof, he said those things.
01:14:41There's no proof I wasn't involved.
01:14:45Nothing.
01:14:47Nothing to show that I wasn't party to a murder.
01:14:49What do you think you're doing, old?
01:15:10I'm glad you've come.
01:15:13He deserves to be punished.
01:15:15He?
01:15:16I mustn't say the name.
01:15:18No, I see that.
01:15:24I killed my grandfather by giving him my pills.
01:15:29I did not remember it until I saw the name on the bottle.
01:15:33But...
01:15:34Yes.
01:15:36But what, sir?
01:15:38But they've been looking for me, you see.
01:15:41So I know he must have done it.
01:15:44Ah, Charles, we've been expecting.
01:15:46This is Anne Dorland, Inspector Parker.
01:15:50You come to arrest me?
01:15:51Just to ask you to come down to Scotland Yard with me.
01:15:53Right, well, she has a lot to tell you, Charles, so you'd better have some tea first.
01:15:57Ah, well, yes, all right, thanks.
01:15:59We can recommend the honey, it's high-blown.
01:16:01Shall we find any other friends at the yard?
01:16:04Just possibly.
01:16:05Mm-hmm.
01:16:06Oh, really.
01:16:08I'll go.
01:16:13Yes?
01:16:13I'm sorry, sir.
01:16:16All right, excuse me.
01:16:20What am I to do?
01:16:23Tell the truth.
01:16:25Sounds so silly.
01:16:26They will have heard sillier.
01:16:31I won't...
01:16:32I don't want to be the one to...
01:16:36To get him hanged?
01:16:39I can't.
01:16:41Look, it may turn out to be him or you.
01:16:43If it comes to that, he can take what's coming to him.
01:16:52Good girl.
01:16:54I thought you were going to be noble, self-sacrificing and tiresome.
01:17:00Developments?
01:17:00Yes.
01:17:02It's a bit awkward.
01:17:05They've got George Fentiman in a country police station.
01:17:08He's busy confessing to the murder.
01:17:09I told them all about it.
01:17:12They burnt it down.
01:17:15George.
01:17:15Don't wake him.
01:17:16He's asleep.
01:17:22Who's asleep, dear?
01:17:23I mustn't say the name.
01:17:25He'd hear me even in his sleep, even if you whispered it.
01:17:29He's very tired, you see, and he nodded off.
01:17:33And so I came in here and told them all about it.
01:17:37I'm getting sleepy myself.
01:17:39I've been watching him for such a long time.
01:17:46It's time to go to bed.
01:17:52Is there anywhere my husband can lie down?
01:17:55Sardin?
01:17:55Yes, sir.
01:17:56I shouldn't take him from the house just for the moment.
01:17:59I think he'll be more settled after sleep.
01:18:02Mrs. Fentiman, if you'd like to go home, it's all right.
01:18:04No, I should stay with him.
01:18:05George.
01:18:08If you'll go with the officer, madam.
01:18:14He's very cunning.
01:18:15But if you creep up on him quickly, now that he's asleep,
01:18:19you'll be able to bind him in chains and cast him into the pit.
01:18:23And then I shall be able to sleep.
01:18:24We'll have a shot at it, sir.
01:18:32Sergeant.
01:18:37Nervous shock with well-marked delusions.
01:18:40He's been this way before, as I think you probably know.
01:18:42The question is...
01:18:45Yes?
01:18:46Was he under a delusion that he killed his grandfather?
01:18:50Or did he actually do it, believe in himself to be possessed?
01:18:53How can one possibly say?
01:18:55You can't give an opinion.
01:18:58He certainly thinks he killed his grandfather.
01:19:01It's very hard to say what a man might or might not do
01:19:03when he's under the influence of delusions.
01:19:06He'd be technically insane, you understand.
01:19:09There'd be no question of hanging.
01:19:11Well, it seems to me, if you'll excuse me
01:19:14pushing my opinions forward and all that,
01:19:16that there was only one occasion
01:19:17when he could have administered digitalis to his grandfather.
01:19:20And that was in a taxi driving around Regent's Park.
01:19:24Now, how many of his own and or his wife's pills
01:19:27would he have had to persuade the old man to swallow
01:19:30in order to account for the amount of digitalis found in the stomach?
01:19:35Well, yes.
01:19:37It's impossible, of course.
01:19:41I thought you and I might drive back together, Pemberthay.
01:19:45I'd rather like to have a word with you.
01:19:49We might drop in at the club.
01:19:50What do you want me to do?
01:20:06You've been a soldier.
01:20:08I think you're a decent fellow.
01:20:09If you're arrested, as things are,
01:20:13nothing can prevent Anne Dorland from being arrested, too.
01:20:17She might even be found guilty.
01:20:19You haven't treated her any too well as it is.
01:20:23You don't want the girl to hang Pemberthay, do you?
01:20:28Write a confession, is that it?
01:20:31Tell him the truth.
01:20:32A clean account.
01:20:33Make it clear that Miss Dorland had nothing to do with it.
01:20:39And then?
01:20:41Then,
01:20:42do as you like.
01:20:45In your place, I...
01:20:47well, I know what I would do.
01:20:49It's funny, isn't it?
01:21:01If Robert Fenterman hadn't been a rogue,
01:21:04if he'd been an honest man,
01:21:05I'd have got my half million.
01:21:07Anne Dorland would have had a perfectly good husband,
01:21:10and the world would have gained a fine clinic.
01:21:12But Robert Fenterman was a rogue.
01:21:16So here we are.
01:21:17I didn't mean to be such a sweep to the Dorland girl.
01:21:44It was all so hideously easy, that was the devil of it.
01:21:48The old man came to see me and put himself right into my hands.
01:21:53In one breath, he said that I hadn't got a dog's chance of getting the money,
01:21:56and in the next, he asked me for a prescription.
01:22:01All I had to do was put the stuff in two capsules,
01:22:05and tell him to take them at seven o'clock.
01:22:10He put them in his spectacle case so he wouldn't forget them.
01:22:14It's probably Colonel Marshbanks.
01:22:16I asked him to come.
01:22:20Yeah.
01:22:22Pemberthin?
01:22:23Pemberthin?
01:22:24Got your note.
01:22:26I'm sure you don't mind, Pemberthin.
01:22:28He tells me you'll have some writing to do.
01:22:30I happen to have brought this with me from a private locker.
01:22:39I'm placing it in this drawer.
01:22:42Prepare it for taking it down to the country tomorrow.
01:22:44And if I fight it, make you prove your case?
01:22:52Then you'll drag Miss Dolan down with you.
01:22:55I'll wait for you outside.
01:22:57I'll be in the bar.
01:23:00Yeah, all right, Colonel.
01:23:02I'll come in here.
01:23:05Wait.
01:23:09Do you know what you're really saying?
01:23:12That because an old man was killed,
01:23:14an old man over 90, worn out,
01:23:16he could have died at any moment,
01:23:17that because of that,
01:23:18you were generously giving me the opportunity
01:23:20of blowing my brains out in a gentlemanly fashion
01:23:24or having my neck broken by the public hangman.
01:23:30And I could do good work.
01:23:34I'm a doctor.
01:23:36Yes, I know what we're really saying.
01:23:50Thank you, sir.
01:24:03Unpleasant business.
01:24:06Not gentlemanly, really.
01:24:09Oh, hello, Tim Tommy.
01:24:10I don't often see you around the place.
01:24:13Whiskey, Peter?
01:24:14Please.
01:24:14I've been south for a month or two.
01:24:16My wife's people have a place in Rappello.
01:24:18I'm fed up with this climate.
01:24:19And this country.
01:24:21Two whiskies, please, Fred.
01:24:22What about you, Tim Tommy?
01:24:23Oh, not allowed, boy.
01:24:25Absolutely forbidden.
01:24:26Anything stronger than milk
01:24:27eats away at the fixtures and fittings.
01:24:29I can't say I like the taste of malvern water.
01:24:31At least it gives one a glass to hold.
01:24:36Life's hardly worth living, really,
01:24:37if you think about it.
01:24:40Christmas coming makes it even worse.
01:24:42Deadly season Christmas.
01:24:43Can't think why they invented it.
01:24:45It's all right if you've got kids.
01:24:46The little beggars enjoy it.
01:24:49Hello, what was that?
01:24:52Motorbike backfired?
01:24:54Sounded a bit close.
01:24:56Came from the library, I think.
01:25:02Somebody better find out what happened.
01:25:03Peter?
01:25:15You'll find a piece of paper
01:25:19on the desk in the library.
01:25:22I say, here's another unpleasant.
01:25:34Miss Penbeth has shot himself in the library.
01:25:38He really ought to show more consideration to the members.
01:25:41Where's the secretary?
01:25:42think OK.
01:25:49He's got a letter to all ì°©.
01:25:58Oh,verb?
01:25:59He's got a guitar.
01:26:00I've just got the hand.
01:26:00I've seen, I do have an ear when I'm here.
01:26:02See you then.
01:26:04We'll be at the tip.
01:26:05See you then.
01:26:06We'll be at the tip again Jen.
01:26:07Did we hear you then?
01:26:08Martin?
01:26:08But also when we talk,
01:26:08we're here to let me in
01:26:09the middle of the alley.
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