ANNOUNCER:

The hair-raising adventures of Sam Spade, detective, brought to you by the makers of Wildroot Cream-Oil for the hair.

MUSIC:

PUNCTUATION...UP INTO TRILL...INTO PHONE BELL

SOUND:

PHONE BELL. TELEPHONE ON FILTER MIKE. LIFT RECEIVER.

EFFIE:

Sam Spade detective agency.

SPADE:

(FILTER) This is Convict Number 137596.

EFFIE:

Sam! I was just packing a lunch to bring you.

SPADE:

Forget it, Sweetheart.

EFFIE:

Sam, you must eat and keep up your strength. I know that prison food can't be very wholesome. Mother fixed some chicken especially -- you know, it's the kind she calls chicken a la Sam Spade, because it has capers in the dressing.

SPADE:

Save some for me. The governor just gave me a last minute reprieve; I'll be right down to dictate my report.

MUSIC:

THEME AND TO B.G.

ANNOUNCER:

Dashiell Hammett, America's leading detective fiction writer and creator of Sam Spade, the hard-boiled private eye, and William Spier, Radio's outstanding producer-director of mystery and crime drama, join their talents to make your hair stand on end with the Adventures of Sam Spade...(MUSIC: ACCENT)...presented each week by Wild-root Cream-Oil, the non-alcoholic hair tonic that will put your hair back in place again, grooming it neatly, naturally, the way you want it. Right now the youngsters are going back to school. And folks, you'll want that boy of yours to make a neat, handsome impression. So why not have him spruce up with dad's bottle of Wildroot Cream-Oil? Just like the man of the house, he'll find that Wildroot Cream-Oil grooms his hair neatly and naturally. There's not a drop of alcohol in Wildroot Cream-Oil. Remember, though, that Wildroot Cream-Oil contains LANOLIN, the soothing oil that's so much like the natural oil of the skin. So to make sure that boy of yours gets a head start in his class be sure he uses Wildroot Cream-Oil.

MUSIC:

SNEAK UNDER

ANNOUNCER:

And now, Wildroot brings to the air the greatest private detective of 'em all... [in the] Adventures of Sam Spade!

MUSIC:

UP TO OVERTURE

SOUND:

OPEN SLAM SHUT DOOR. RAPID STEPS IN.

EFFIE:

Oh, Sam! You're so pale. Did they have you in solitary?

SPADE:

(FADING ON) Get your book! Quick! Come into my office!

EFFIE:

Y-yes...Sam...

SPADE:

(CALLING) Shake it, Effie! The underworld is seething...crime is rife...people are being...

SOUND:

OPEN DESK DRAWER. BOTTLES. FOOTSTEPS IN.

EFFIE:

(FADING ON) Here I am. R-ready, Sam...

SPADE:

Did that letter come from the commissioner's office?

EFFIE:

Yes, Sam.

SPADE:

Okay. Then we'll give him his. Subject: The Corporation Murders...(SNEAK MUSIC B.G.)...Dear Mr. Commissioner: The aforementioned caper started when I was retained by Mrs. Anita Desmond to keep a plant on her restless husband, Harold Desmond, president of the stock-brokerage firm of Desmond, Sterling, Pine and Phelps. It was a dull, routine gumshoe job, of a type I don't ordinarily handle, but it came at a time when my landlord, too, was beginning to show signs of restlessness. After a week of tailing said Desmond, I had Mrs. Desmond come to my office and I told her I was through.

MUSIC:

PUNCTUATE

ANITA:

I don't understand, Mr. Spade.

SPADE:

I can't make it any plainer. There's nothing more I can do. I've given you my dope: quote: on dates you find specified in report, your husband visited woman named Lela Cornell at her home in Oakland. Unquote. You probably knew all that before you hired me.

ANITA:

No...no, Mr. Spade. This is a great shock to me. I didn't know where to turn. I have confidence in you. I'm begging you, Mr. Spade, to see me through this thing.

SPADE:

If by that you mean you want me to testify to this in court, Mrs. Desmond -- no dice. I don't do that kind of work. Besides, when a husband makes up his mind to be friendly with another woman, what the wife needs is not a private eye but a mother to go home to!

ANITA:

(VENOMOUSLY) I don't deserve this kind of treatment from him! He should be killed for it!

SPADE:

That's always a possibility. Plenty of gunsels around who'd do the job for ceiling price. Want the address of one?

ANITA:

Mr. Spade! You -- you can't be serious!

SPADE:

I wasn't. But were you?

ANITA:

Sam, well, I'd like to tell you that confidentially you --

SPADE:

Yeah, I know. Bye, bye, Mrs. Desmond.

EFFIE:

(COMING ON) Sam -- no, no, please, Mrs. Desmond -- don't go out that way. Use the private door, please.

SPADE:

Why should she? What's the matter with -- ?

EFFIE:

Mr. Spade...You have apparently forgotten that the King of Bohemia is here incognito.

SPADE:

Yeah, apparently I did.

SOUND:

DOOR SLAMS OFF

EFFIE:

Oh, Sam...it's her husband...he's...

SPADE:

What--the guy I've been tailing?

SOUND:

CLOSE DOOR. FOOTSTEPS

DESMOND:

Ah, Mr. Spade. I'm Harold Desmond.

SPADE:

Yeah, my secretary told me. What's your problem, Mr. Desmond?

DESMOND:

Well, perhaps you'll think it's all in my imagination, Mr. Spade, but I have a feeling, I've had a feeling for the past two weeks that I'm being followed.

SPADE:

(CHOKING A BIT) Do you ah...have any idea...uh...who it could be?

DESMOND:

I haven't the slightest idea who it could be.

SPADE:

(SIGHS IN RELIEF) Oh, well that's goo...I mean...

DESMOND:

I am willing to pay a most generous fee, Mr. Spade. If you can find out who this man is that has been dogging my footsteps.

SPADE:

Uh hummm. That might be difficult, he's apparently a very clever man, you really haven't any idea who it might be?...

DESMOND:

No, I haven't. Something happened to me about three months ago, you may have read about it in the papers. I was held up and robbed by a pair of hoodlums. Although I made no move to resist them they assaulted me brutally, fractured my skull.

SPADE:

And you figured they had something else on their minds besides robbery?

DESMOND:

Yes. The conviction has grown upon me that someone wants to take my life. (AGITATED) I've no enemies that I know of, no reason why anyone should want to take my life, why anyone should --

SPADE:

Now, wait a minute, Mr. Desmond. Don't go jumping to conclusions. The fact is, the guy that's been following you is me.

DESMOND:

You? You must be joking, Mr. Spade.

SPADE:

How'd you happen to come to me?

DESMOND:

Why I...I happened to run across a card of yours. I found it in my car, as a matter of fact.

SPADE:

Uh huh. Your wife probably dropped it there.

DESMOND:

My wife?

SPADE:

Yeah. She hired me to keep a plant on you. Oh, but you can stop worrying. I quit the job this morning. I don't think you'll be bothered anymore by people following you.

DESMOND:

I must say it's very decent of you to tell me this.

SPADE:

Not at all. Anytime you have a job where I can make a dollar honestly, I'd be glad to help you, Mr. Desmond.

DESMOND:

Well, you've taken a great load off my mind. Goodbye, Mr. Spade.

SPADE:

Goodbye.

SOUND:

STEPS TO DOOR. DOOR OPENS. GUN SHOTS. DESMOND SCREAMS, FALLS

MUSIC:

PUNCTUATE

SOUND:

DOOR BURSTS OPEN. WOMAN'S FOOTSTEPS RUNNING ON.

EFFIE:

Sam! Sam! Oh, thank...I thought he'd-- (SHE SEES THE BODY) Oh!

SPADE:

Close that door. Call a doctor.

SOUND:

DOOR CLOSE. STEPS. TELEPHONE DIALED.

EFFIE:

What happened, Sam?

SPADE:

He was on the way out. He opened the door. There were two mugs standing there. They let him have it, threw the gun on top of him and scrammed.

MUSIC:

BRIDGE AND TO B.G.

SPADE:

While we were waiting I frisked Desmond. There was nothing on him that I could use for a lead. There was a thousand bucks in his wallet. I put it in my pocket. I had a hunch I might be needing it. One hour later, Mr. Commissioner, I was in your private office with Lieutenant Dundy and Anita Desmond. You were hot, and Mrs. Desmond acted like I was Hitler.

SOUND:

OPEN CLOSE DOOR

ANITA:

(HYSTERICALLY) That's him, that's the man!

THOMPSON:

Now, now, Mrs. Desmond, You must calm yourself.

ANITA:

He'd been following my husband, knew he carried large amounts of cash...

THOMPSON:

One thing at a time, Mrs. Desmond.

ANITA:

He offered to hire a man to kill my husband only this morning! But he did it himself, himself! (SCREAMING LAST)

THOMPSON:

Dundy! Take her outside. Get a matron to help her.

DUNDY:

Please come with me, Mrs. Desmond, (FADE) everything will be all right...

SOUND:

FOOTSTEPS. SHE WEEPS. OPEN CLOSE DOOR.

THOMPSON:

Mr. Spade, you know that story of two assassins is untenable!

SPADE:

Your boys found the gun in my office. It isn't mine.

SOUND:

DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES

THOMPSON:

Or anybody else's! Numbers filed off! Why couldn't it be yours!

DUNDY:

(COMING ON) Commissioner, I have a suggestion.

THOMPSON:

You keep out of this, Dundy! Now, Spade...this is what happened, and I'll make it stick: You called Desmond to your office, told him you had some information to sell, that his wife was having him followed by you -- he at once reached for the phone to call the police, you were trying a reverse blackmail on him, you scuffled to stop him, and shot him! What do you think of that?

SPADE:

I can't tell you. My mother taught me respect to my elders!

DUNDY:

(CONCILIATORY) Mr. Commissioner -- may I make a suggestion?

THOMPSON:

(TESTILY) What is it, Dundy?

DUNDY:

I suggest that Mr. Desmond learned that Spade was tailing him, came to his office for a showdown, one word led to another, and Desmond pulled the gun. It's unregistered. It could be his. Spade tussled with him, the gun went off. That, Mr. Commissioner, is an open and shut self-defense.

THOMPSON:

Ummm...I see what you mean...

DUNDY:

What do you have to say, Sam?

SPADE:

I've said all I care to say. Now book me or let me go!

THOMPSON:

(FURIOUS) All right! You asked for it! First, Mr. Spade, your license as a private detective is revoked as of this minute! And make up your mind that you'll never get it back! I'll see to that personally! And second -- Lieutenant Dundy, you will take this man downstairs! Book him! First degree murder!

MUSIC:

BRIDGE AND TO B.G.

SPADE:

I ought to tell you about here, Mr. Commissioner, that if you think you can use such high handed methods as that on Sam Spade...you are perfectly right. But I didn't love you for it. I like my license and I like my reputation. Well, I called my mouthpiece, Sid Weiss. Fifteen minutes later my bail was set at a grand. The dough in the late Harold Desmond's wallet sprung me. A little after one o'clock I jumped on a ferry boat and went across to Oakland, to see Lela Cornell the dame Desmond's wife had hired me to find out about -- the "other woman" as they say.

LELA:

Harold...killed? I can't believe it. Who -- ?

SPADE:

That's what I'm trying to find out. The police are trying to hang it on me. I'm out on bail now.

LELA:

Did you -- see it happen?

SPADE:

Yeah. The job was done by a couple of cheap gunsels named Jack Corbett and Probey Larson. That's not the point. They'd knock over anybody for the price of a couple of weeds.

LELA:

Somebody else hired them to kill Harold?

SPADE:

Yeah. Tell me, Miss Cornell, how long has Desmond been visiting you here?

LELA:

Why, ever since we were divorced.

SPADE:

Ever since...? Let's get this straight. You and Desmond were married?

LELA:

Why yes, of course. Harold Junior will be six years old next month.

SPADE:

I see. Why didn't she tell me that?

LELA:

Anita? Oh, she never knew about it. Her religion wouldn't allow her to marry a divorced man.

SPADE:

And you kept quiet for the money that was in it?

LELA:

That's a crude way of putting it. Harold and I haven't lived together for some time. He was dead broke when he met her. She had a good deal of money, and set him up in this brokerage firm. Harold and I never quarreled...

SPADE:

How did you and Anita get along?

LELA:

I've never met her. All I knew is what Harold told me about her. That she was a very suspicious kind of woman...violent-tempered at times. But that doesn't prove anything. Who isn't? Are you going to try to prove she did it?

SPADE:

Sweetheart, it's this way. As long as I don't take the rap. I don't care whose nose I lay it on.

MUSIC:

BRIDGE AND TO B.G.

SPADE:

Back in the city I phoned the Desmond residence. Anita Desmond wasn't at home, but the maid told me I could find her at the offices of her husband's business firm -- the brokerage house of Desmond, Sterling, Pine and Phelps on Sansome Street where she was attending a board of directors meeting. The outfit occupied the entire tenth floor.

SOUND:

BABBLE OF VOICES, TICKERS, TELETYPES. TELEPHONES RING INTERMITTENTLY. VOICES SHOUT AND AD LIB

VOICES:

(AD LIB) Well, how long does it take to get through to New York? I told you I wanted to drop those airlines and put it in A. T. & T.! Where's Mr. Sterling? He always covers me! He can't be disturbed. He's in a board of director's meeting. (OFF) Five hundred allied Chemical offered at a hundred and twelve and a half. I'll give a hundred and ten! (HUB BUB FADES UNDER)

MUSIC:

UNDER

SPADE:

Telephones rang without stopping. Men were buying and selling wheat and steel and copper they couldn't possibly use. I elbowed through the crowd to a door that was marked "Board of Directors, private." (DOOR OPEN) I opened it and went in.

SOUND:

CLOSE DOOR. HUB BUB OUT.

ANITA:

I don't care what my husband told you about those insurance policies! That money was mine. He had no right...

STERLING:

Mrs. Desmond. As Harold's widow you will participate in the profits of the corporation to the same extent he did. Since your husband chose to withdraw his securities and convert them into life insurance, we are only making a reasonable request that you allow them to remain as collateral against the loan.

ANITA:

I don't understand anything about financial matters. All I know is that that money was my money in the first place, and now that Harold is dead I have a right to have it.

PINE:

Perhaps Mrs. Desmond would listen to a proposition such as this -- (STOP ABRUPTLY) I say, Sterling, who's that chap over by the door eavesdropping?

STERLING:

What?

ANITA:

That's the man who shot Harold!

STERLING:

(COMING ON) What are you doing here? Get out!

SPADE:

Now cool off, Mr. Sterling. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop. I came here to see Mrs. Desmond.

STERLING:

You want to talk to him, Mrs. Desmond?

ANITA:

I never want to see him again.

STERLING:

All right, you. Outside.

SPADE:

I'm on my way, shoulders. Tell Mrs. Desmond I'll wait for her downstairs in the bar. If she's smart, she'll meet me there.

MUSIC:

BRIDGE AND B.G.

SPADE:

I was trying ginger ale and gin, which I'd always wanted to try, when she came over to me.

ANITA:

Mr. Spade, I'll give you one minute to talk and then I'm going to call the first policeman I see.

SPADE:

If you want to collect your late husband's insurance we'd better take a little longer than that.

ANITA:

I -- what do you know about the insurance?

SPADE:

I figure it this way. A few months back you found out that your husband had been turning all his assets into life insurance. Maybe you knew that before, but what you found out recently was that he was planning to cash them in and leave the country. Probably settle in Brazil or some nice warm place with cheap money. Anyway he didn't plan to take you with him.

ANITA:

Did Harold tell you that?

SPADE:

He might have. The important thing is this: That money was mostly yours, that is, he came into it when he married you. There was only one way you could get that money back.

ANITA:

Look here, Mr. Spade, you and I are both after the same thing. Money. If you'll keep quiet until I can collect I'll make it worth your while.

SPADE:

After you collect isn't good enough. A widow can get too far too fast these days on one of those clippers.

ANITA:

Give me until the bank opens tomorrow. I think I can raise some money on one of those policies. Ah -- would a thousand dollars on account make you happy for a while?

SPADE:

Well, it'll keep me in Benzedrine.

ANITA:

Then it's settled. (GETTING UP) Order a drink, will you, Sam? I have to make a phone call.

SPADE:

(MUSIC SIMULTANEOUS) There were phone booths at both entrances. The street entrance was farther away, and that was the way she headed. I waited until she disappeared around the corner of the bar before I started after her. She edged into one of the phone booths without looking back, and I edged into the booth next to it, glued my ear to the partition and listened.

SOUND:

PHONE DIALING

ANITA:

(OFF MUFFLED) Police Headquarters? Homicide, please. I'd like to speak to Lieutenant Dundy, my name is Mrs. Harold Desmond. Hello? Hello? Lieutenant? Yes, this is Mrs. Desmond. I want you to listen closely to what I have to tell you. I may not have time to finish, so I'm going to talk fast. Samuel Spade, the man who is under indictment for the murder of my husband, broke into a business meeting at my husband's firm this afternoon, behaved in a violent manner and was ejected from the room by Mr. Lloyd Sterling. There were five witnesses to this besides myself. He met me when I came out of there, forced me to come here with him, to the place I'm calling you from now, and made me promise him a thousand dollars before he would let me go. I want that man arrested immediately, do you understand? I feel that my life is endangered by --

SOUND:

BURST OF REVOLVER SHOTS FIRE. BODY SLUMPS IN BOOTH. THUD.

MUSIC:

PUNCTUATE AND HOLD AGITATO UNDER FOLLOWING:

SOUND:

DOOR OF PHONE BOOTH OPENED. EXCITED AD LIBS FROM CROWD: "I don't know, she was drinking with a man at a table by the lobby door, and she" "It was two men -- one of them had a tommy gun, they didn't get out of the car." "He must have been one of them, he followed her from the table." (FADING)..."Well, don't stand there staring at it...go and get a cop...call a doctor. (MUSIC: FAST SWELL AND UNDER)

SPADE:

I walked past, nobody looked at me, they were all looking at Anita Desmond's body where it had fallen head first out of the booth. Her eyes were wide open and she was still looking at me in the same accusing way.

MUSIC:

FIRST ACT CURTAIN

ANNOUNCER:

The makers of Wildroot Cream-Oil are presenting the ninth in a new series of programs bringing to the air for the first time, the adventures of Dashiell Hammett's famous private detective....Sam Spade!

MUSIC:

UP AND RESOLVES OUT

MIDDLE COMMERCIAL

ANNOUNCER:

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MUSIC:

ACCENT AND HOLD

ANNOUNCER:

And now back to "Sam and the Corporation Murders" tonight's adventure with...Sam Spade.

SPADE:

About here I thought I better have legal advice. I called my lawyer, Sid Weiss, and asked him if a man is divorced from one woman and marries another, and the second wife is beneficiary of an insurance policy, would the child of the first wife be in line for the dough in case anything happened to the second wife? He said, if there were no children, by the second marriage, the kid would probably get it. I hung up and went for another ferry ride back to Oakland.

SOUND:

DOOR BELL. DOOR OPENS

LELA:

Oh...Mr. Spade. Come in.

SOUND:

STEPS INSIDE. DOOR CLOSE

SPADE:

Thanks.

LELA:

I was just listening to the news on the radio. About poor Anita.

SPADE:

You're a pretty good gal, Lela.

LELA:

What do you mean by that?

SPADE:

Well, you must know the cops are after me for a murder rap. Maybe two of 'em.

LELA:

That's ridiculous. What possible motive could you have had?

SPADE:

Yeah, that's the puzzler of this whole caper. Motive. By the way, I found out a couple of things today about insurance. It's all yours now that Anita is out of the way, isn't it?

LELA:

You mean you have an idea I might have wanted Anita dead? Because of Harold's money?

SPADE:

It spells motive, and it doesn't spell it backwards.

LELA:

Mr. Spade. Neither Anita, nor I, nor my son stands to gain one penny through Harold Desmond's death. I didn't know that when I talked to you before. I did Anita a great injustice. I only found it out this morning from Harold's lawyers.

SPADE:

Found out what?

LELA:

That Harold had been forced three months ago to gut up all of his insurance policies as collateral to keep the firm of Desmond, Sterling, Pine and Phelps from going on the rocks.

SPADE:

Oh.

LELA:

Every penny reverts to the business. So you see, Mr. Spade you'd better start looking for another motive. You can't very well indict a corporation for murder.

SPADE:

No, you ca -- (STOPS) You're a good gal, Lela. Thanks. Well, I'll
be going.

SOUND:

DOOR OPEN. DISTANT TRAFFIC

LELA:

Oh, a car just drove up. Somebody calling for you?

SPADE:

Yeah. Kinda looks like it. Bye, Sweetheart.

SOUND:

DOOR PULLED SHUT. STEPS.

POBEY:

Hello. We was in the neighborhood, so we thought we'd give you a lift home, Spade.

SPADE:

That was mighty considerate of you.

POBEY:

Go on, get in the car. Don't try any moves.

SPADE:

Take that clumsy rod out of my ribs.

POBEY:

You're cute, Sammy. We're gonna get along fine.

SPADE:

That's better. Come on.

SOUND:

REGISTER STEP. CAR DOOR OPEN

POBEY:

You ride in the middle, Sammy.

SPADE:

Thanks.

SOUND:

CAR DOOR CLOSES. CAR STARTS UP

SPADE:

Well, this is cozy. I never did like riding the ferry boats on a foggy night.

JACK:

Let's talk, Sammy.

SPADE:

Sure. what about?

JACK:

Desmond's wife hired you to keep a plant on her husband, didn't she?

SPADE:

Yeah.

JACK:

Okay, let's talk about that. Who had it in for him?

SPADE:

The treatment you guys gave him wasn't exactly chummy.

POBEY:

We didn't have nothing against him. It was a job.

SPADE:

Who hired you?

JACK:

That's what we want to know.

POBEY:

Yeah. We ain't collected yet.

SPADE:

(LAUGHS) That's good. That's very good. You want me to tell you who hired you to bump off Desmond!

JACK:

Explain to him, Pobey.

POBEY:

Yeah. You see we took the job like on a sub-contract. This friend of ours was to get five grand, keep two and pay us three.

SPADE:

Why don't you ask him who hired you?

JACK:

He's dead.

POBEY:

Yeah. Now he is. We figured he was holding out on us, kept stalling, telling us he hadn't been paid yet.

SPADE:

So you knocked him off too?

JACK:

Yeah. And can you imagine, he was tellin' the truth alla time? Just a shame.

POBEY:

Wasn't nothing on him but a couple of five-dollar bills.

SPADE:

Boys, I think I know who owes you that money, but I've got a little something personal to settle there first. After I've finished, it's all yours.

POBEY:

You see, Jack. I told you he was the right guy.

JACK:

I don't like it. If we give him the first shake, there may be nothing left for us.

SPADE:

You guys work too cheap. There was seven hundred and fifty grand in the caper. That ought to be plenty for the three of us.

POBEY:

Seven hundred and fifty --

SPADE:

Here's what we'll do. When we get across the bay, drop me off at the Marguerite Hotel on Kearny Street. I'm picking up a guy there and taking him across town. You can keep a close plant on me if you don't trust me. Follow us where we go, but don't come on in until I'm finished with my business. If you'll play it like that, I'll let you in on the seven fifty G's. If you don't play like that, I won't play. And if I don't play, you'll never collect a penny.

JACK:

Okay, Sammy, we'll play it like that.

MUSIC:

BRIDGE AND TO B.G.

SPADE:

From the Marguerite house dick I learned that Sterling occupied a seven-room duplex and lived there with just one servant. It was Thursday night, so he was really alone. I had to move fast to get inside before he could slam the door in my face.

SOUND:

DOOR KICKED SHUT

STERLING:

It was very foolish of you to come here, Spade.

SPADE:

It wouldn't be the first foolish thing I've done.

STERLING:

I can't make you out. A man who keeps asking for trouble.

SPADE:

Trouble? What kind of trouble?

STERLING:

All I have to do is pick up that phone and the police would be here before you could get out of the building.

SPADE:

You're going to pick up the phone all right, Sterling. But you're not going to call the police.

STERLING:

Holding a gun on me doesn't give you such an advantage as you imagine it does. Any intelligent man knows that the man with the gun leaves himself no alternative but to shoot his adversary in which case...

SPADE:

All right, let's try another way. Any intelligent man knows, that if a desperate character lets him have it across the muzzle like this... (SOUND: WHAM)

STERLING:

(WINCES)

SPADE:

...And the adversary still doesn't do what he's told to, he's going to get it again, like this...(WHAM)

STERLING:

You're crazy, what do you want?

SOUND:

SOCKS INTERSPERSED WITH THE FOLLOWING

SPADE:

I told you (SOCK) pick up the phone!...(SOCK)...Call your secretary...(SOCK)

STERLING:

Stop it! Stop it! I'll do as you say!

SPADE:

That's more like it.

SOUND:

PHONE PICKS UP

STERLING:

(BREATHING HARD) Douglas five one seven oh four. (TO SPADE) What...what do you want me to say to her?

SPADE:

Tell her to call every member of the board of directors of Desmond, Sterling, Pine and Phelps. An emergency meeting -- tonight. Lay it on heavy, they gotta be there. Matter of life and death.

STERLING:

No...no...please. (INTO PHONE) Miss Driscoll? This is Mr. Sterling. I'm sorry to disturb you at home, but a serious crisis has arisen. I want you to reach all the directors of the company by telephone immediately for a special emergency Board meeting. The time of the meeting is eleven o'clock tonight.

MUSIC:

BRIDGE AND TO B.G.

SPADE:

For the next couple of hours I made myself comfortable with a bottle of Sterling's scotch. Sterling didn't talk much. Just sat with an ice pack on his jaw and looked grim. At ten minutes of eleven I helped him into his hat and coat. At the offices of Desmond, Sterling, Pine and Phelps, the lights were on and the Board members were at their places around the long table in the Board room when Sterling and I walked in.

STERLING:

Good evening, gentlemen.

AD LIBS:

BOARD MEMBERS MURMUR "GOOD EVENING L.B."

PINE:

I say, Sterling, what's up??

STERLING:

Gentlemen...er...I owe you an apology. You have been brought here under false pretenses.

AD LIBS:

SURPRISE FROM MEMBERS: "What a deuce" "But I thought probably"...

SPADE:

I'll take over now, Sterling.

STERLING:

Er...very well, Mr. Spade.

SPADE:

I didn't have time to explain to Mr. Sterling why I wanted to have this talk with you guys. You all know who I am, and you all know I'm mixed up in this caper where your partner Desmond got knocked off. I just found out who did it. And I thought you gents might want to know about it.

PHELPS:

Mr. Spade, that is indeed gratifying news!

STERLING:

Who? Who did it?

SPADE:

You did.

AD LIBS:

CONSTERNATION "Sterling? Ridiculous" etc.

SPADE:

And you, Mr. Pine, and you, Mr. Phelps, and you and you and you. The whole bunch of you.

PINE:

What an extraordinary idea! Why on earth did it take ten men to commit one murder?

SPADE:

Not one murder. Two! Desmond and his wife. Desmond because he was worth more to the corporation dead than alive.

PHELPS:

Now, look here, Spade...

SPADE:

A few months back you discovered that Desmond had been quietly taking his money out of the firm and turning it into life insurance. Am I right?

PHELPS:

Yes, but --

SPADE:

(CUTTING IN) Okay. So to avoid an embezzlement rap he put those insurance policies against a loan for the corporation. The loan came due at the same time the market took its recent plunge. Am I right?

STERLING:

You haven't said one thing that every broker on Sansome Street doesn't already know.

SPADE:

Yeah, Mr. Sterling. But here's something they don't know. About a week ago, you called a Board meeting in Desmond's absence and told the boys that only Desmond's death could save the corporation. They voted to save the corporation. When Anita Desmond threatened to contest the award of the insurance...the corporation decided to kill her too. I don't know which one of you did the actual hiring of the gunsels. Whoever did will probably have to take the rap for all of you.

STERLING:

Very neat, Mr. Spade. But the man who was originally employed to eliminate poor Desmond is now dead. And even if he were not, you would have only the testimony of the self-confessed killer. And furthermore, there was never an exchange of money.

SPADE:

A reliable firm like this ought to pay its bills.

STERLING:

You're wasting our time and your own, Mr. Spade. Even if you were to prove all of your charges, there is absolutely nothing in corporation law that could be used against us. In fact, the law specifically provides that no individual may be held responsible for the acts of a corporation.

SPADE:

Can I quote you on that when I give the story to the papers!?

STERLING:

I don't think a paper in town would print it. No editor would believe a story like that.

SPADE:

Maybe not, but you're taking quite a risk. Let's get off the dime, gentlemen. I don't care who takes the rap for killing Desmond and his wife as long as it's not me. I think Mr. Sterling might be a good candidate. Supposing we take a vote on it.

PINE:

(PAUSE) There's certainly something in what he says.

PHELPS:

As I recall, it was Sterling's idea in the first place, wasn't it?

AD LIBS:

(EXCITED) "Why not, I think it's an excellent idea"..."We certainly can't risk a scandal of that sort"..."We'd be barred from the exchange."

STERLING:

No, wait. I have another suggestion. Spade here is already under indictment for one of the murders, and the police are hunting him for another one. No -- don't bother reaching for your gun, Spade. I have one now.

SOUND:

DOOR THROWN OPEN

JACK:

Drop the gun, mister.

SOUND:

GUN DROPPED

STERLING:

Who...who are you?

JACK:

Sammy's right, mister...a reliable firm like this, reckon should pay off its debts.

STERLING:

How much do you want?

JACK:

Five hundred grand. We'll take twenty thousand on account. You ought to be able to lay your hands on that much right away. A bunch of tycoons like you guys.

POBEY:

Watch it, Jack! He's reaching for that gun!

SOUND:

MACHINE GUN BURST...STERLING (GROANS) AND FALLS

POBEY:

Now come across with the dough, you guys, or the rest of you'll
get it just like he did.

PINE:

My dear man, you don't seem to understand. This is not a bank, it's a brokerage firm. We don't handle cash here!

POBEY:

Don't handle cash. Seven fifty grand for bumping off one guy and he says they don't handle cash.

JACK:

Stop stalling.

PINE:

But I tell you --

SPADE:

Don't look now, boys, but a police car just parked down the street.

POBEY:

We better lam up out of here, Jack.

JACK:

Yeah, but before we go we better clean up the rest of 'em ...

PINE:

No...no!

SOUND:

A LONG MACHINE GUN BURST. ALL SCREAM

MUSIC:

CLIMATIC BRIDGE AND TO B.G.

SPADE:

And that, Commissioner, is how the firm of Desmond, Sterling, Pine and Phelps was finally liquidated. When the cops walked in, there was nothing left but a very dead Board of directors. The gunsels got it somewhere between the fourth and fifth floors of the building as they were scamming down the back fire escape. If the boys you sent around hadn't been so anxious to arrest me, you might have got them both alive. It was just luck that one of them lived long enough to talk and clear me. So take this and press it in your memory book, Commissioner. That's the last time I'll ever let a dame talk me into tailing her husband, unless your wife should happen to drop around, in which case it'll give me great pleasure to find out the address of that little blonde you've been seeing over in Milpitas. Period. End of Report.

SOUND:

OPEN DRAWER

EFFIE:

Is that all, Sam?

SPADE:

Yeah, let's see that letter from the commissioner.

EFFIE:

I didn't open it, I though you'd probably want to open this yourself.

SOUND:

OPENING ENVELOPE

SPADE:

Why, that pot-bellied walking exhibit of Bright's disease. He's got a nerve.

EFFIE:

How can you tell by shaking the envelope?

SPADE:

My license...it ain't here!

EFFIE:

Let me read that letter.

SPADE:

(AFTER A BRIEF PAUSE) Well, what does it say?

EFFIE:

Dear Mr. Spade: Your license Number 137596, suspended three days ago had been re-approved by the department. However, your license fees appear to be in arrears. Upon payment of the amounts specified below we will be glad to make restoration of same. Very truly yours, Hilda Podge, Secretary to the Commissioner.

SPADE:

Why do I stay in this business, supporting every crackpot on the city payroll?

EFFIE:

Goodnight, Sam.

SPADE:

Goodnight, Sweetheart.

MUSIC:

CURTAIN