ANNCR:

Another...Five Minute Mystery!

(MUSIC IN AND OUT)

 

ANNCR:

On the sound stage of a large Hollywood motion picture studio, a director is giving last minute instructions to his cast.

(FADE IN CROWD MURMUR)

 

BILL:

(CALLING OVER NOISE) Alright, let's have it quiet. (NOISE SUBSIDES) This is the take and it has to be good. Now, Marcia, when you walk into the room, you're very angry... you go to the table and take a drink from the cocktail shaker.

MARCIA:

Alright, Bill, I'll be quite angry and drink very much!

BILL:

And Mike, when you walk into the living room, act like a detective and not a brush salesman.

MIKE:

Okay, and as the most famous detective in motion pictures I assure you I'll solve the crime by the sixth reel.

BILL:

Good, let's go!

MARCIA:

Wait a minute, my stand-in is still on the set. That nitwit. (CALLING) Jennings, come here!

JENNINGS:

(COMING IN) Yes, Miss White?

MARCIA:

Take off that fur coat. You know I need it for this scene. Sometimes, Jennings, you act more like the star of this show than just a cheap stand-in.

JENNINGS:

I...I'm sorry, Miss White, I didn't realize..

BILL:

(CALLING FROM OFF) Please Marcia.

MARCIA:

Coming.

BILL:

Okay! On the set. Quiet...lights....roll 'em.

(SOUND OF DOOR SLAMMING...WOMAN WALKING RAPIDLY INTO MIKE....LIQUID POURING INTO GLASS.....SLIGHT PAUSE....THEN BREAKING OF GLASS ON FLOOR AND A FEW CHOKING SCREAMS)

 

MIKE:

Hey, stop those cameras.....something's happened to Marcia.

(AD LIB OF EXCITED VOICES)

 

BILL:

Good heavens, what is it?

MIKE:

Here let me look at her....(PAUSE) You can throw your movie murder out the window, Bill....This is the McCoy!

BILL:

You mean.

MIKE:

And how. Dead.

JENNINGS:

Somebody call the police...!

MIKE:

Wait a minute. I've solved twenty movie murders....This ought to be easy.

BILL:

Come on Mike, this is real murder...not double feature stuff.

MIKE:

(IGNORING HIM) First we look for the motive. Several people hated her, including myself.

BILL:

Then you're a suspect.

MIKE:

Maybe...but so are you! Everybody knows Marcia's been giving you the runaround......

BILL:

Why you.....

MIKE:

Easy now, don't do away with the detective. Second point, how was she killed? Not by a knife, not by a gun, not by strangulation....but, it remains ...by poison. Poison in that drink she was just taking when she dropped.

BILL:

Then all we have to do is find out who put the poison in the shaker.....

JENNINGS:

And we have the murderer.

MIKE:

Wait'll I search the pockets of her clothes...Hmm......Nothing here...now the others....

BILL:

Humph, nothing but a piece of wax paper.....

MIKE:

Yeah, looks like....say!.....wait a minute...What's this! There's something like powder smeared across it. Bill, hold this for laboratory tests.

JENNINGS:

Like in your last picture.

BILL:

Look mastermind, your time's up....We'd better call the police.

MIKE:

Better save the taxpayers money, Bill. It won't be necessary.

JENNINGS:

You mean.. you know who the murderer is?

MIKE:

Right. And I did it in the first reel.

BILL:

Well, come on, man. Who did it?

MIKE:

You tell them, Jennings.

JENNINGS:

(NERVOUSLY) What....what do you mean?

MIKE:

Just that you've got a little story to tell, Jennings, on how you murdered Marcia White.

ANNCR:

How does Mike know that Jennings is the murderess of the actress, Marcia White.. In just a moment we'll hear, but first....(COMMERCIAL)

ANNCR:

And now, back to our story.

JENNINGS:

What do you mean...."I" poisoned her?

MIKE:

You don't look like the Lucretia Borgia type, my dear, but you pulled off this party alright.

JENNINGS:

Prove it.

MIKE:

Alright I will. I don't need any professional detective to tell that's poison on the wax paper we found in Marcia's coat pocket. And who had on the coat just before she did.... standing in this very same spot on the set? Her stand-in, of course, and that I believe is you! You slipped the powder into this shaker before the scene and mixed up a permanent mickey. Next time, sweetheart, you'll pay attention to the scrap paper drive.. That's the best place for waste paper!

JENNINGS:

I'm not sorry....I wanted to be a star too, and better than she ever dreamed of.

MIKE:

Well, Jennings...old girl.... you're a star now, but you'll face a tough audience in that jury box.