The Adventures Of Sam Spade_...._The One Hour Caper

0:00 THE END.

0:14 Oh, I get so angry sometimes. You go dancing on the pier like a schoolboy on the slightest obligation.

0:26 And one hour later, just one hour, you come back with a broken head and a black eye and clothes.

0:31 Torn all over you. They find a way to do it to him. Hold still.

0:36 Then I'll show you, Sam.

0:39 How is it?

0:40 Is it too tight? What did you say?

0:43 Then how do you expect me to dictate a report with a mouth full of gauze?

0:47 I wonder what happened to the gauze.

0:50 It's down.

0:50 Shut up.

0:51 I didn't mean it.

0:52 I just meant it for your own good.

0:54 Pick up your pencil, Effie. Oh, not the scissors. Oh, I'm sorry, Sam. I'm sorry.

0:59 Two patrolmen out of, uh, Aloysius, FX Clancy, 3rd Precinct Station.

1:04 Sam, the officer Clancy?

1:05 That's right.

1:06 The nice-ass policeman that walked up and down our street?

1:09 Oh, good night.

1:09 He brings me candy once in a while.

1:11 Down, Effie.

1:11 From Samuel Spade, license number 137596, subject to one-hour capers, dear Clancy. In case you were aware of it, and I think you were, Clancy, this afternoon in San Francisco was warm, quiet, And so, I was sitting in my underwear in front of the open window of my office, reading the news of the blizzards back east.

1:32 I was not employed by the Chamber of Commerce to do this. My secretary had merely taken.

1:37 My suit downstairs to get it fresh.

1:40 It began as the clock on the church of Dismas to.

1:42 Leave around the corner was hammering out the.

1:44 Hour of four.

1:49 Hello?

1:50 Yeah? Uh, Mr.

1:51 Page.

1:51 This is Hank Page.

1:52 Page's printer right across the street. We printed some cards for you, remember? Oh, yes, Hank. I was about to call you. My secretary's just making out the check.

1:59 Oh, forget that, Bill. Sam, I need your help.

2:02 Well, drop in tomorrow. I'll be glad to talk to you. Tomorrow may be too late. I'd rather not be seen coming to your office. How about the saloon downstairs in your building, say, five minutes... Well, if it's important, Hank. Well, I don't know. I got something here. I want you to look at it.

2:16 If it's what I think it is, it's important.

2:18 They're going to hang up and I'll take it in five minutes.

2:23 What do you.

2:24 Think you're doing in that? Same old hat, Abby.

2:27 What's the matter with it?

2:29 It's not referring to your hat, Sam. Well, that's what you're looking at.

2:33 Well, I'm trying to avert my eyes, Sam.

2:35 Here, just two.

2:36 Oh.

2:36 Oh.

2:37 Oh, I forgot. Well, uh, look out the window, Effie, huh?

2:41 Uh-huh.

2:42 I had a phone call. Maybe a job. I gotta meet a man.

2:47 Sam, you can't go out on a job now.

2:49 Why not?

2:49 Why do you think I got your suit, Sam? The man's coming to take your picture.

2:53 What man?

2:54 From babbling Detective Magdalene.

2:56 Oh. Well, I'll try and make it for you.

2:59 Sam, I'm tired of making excuses to people. I set up this apartment for 530, and I want you back in plenty of time.

3:06 I wish you wouldn't go.

3:07 Oh, all right, go on.

3:09 But if you want, back in this office by 5 o'clock. That's T.S., Sam. You can find someone else to make your excuse.

3:16 Okay, okay. Shall we synchronize our rockets?

3:19 I skipped the elevator.

3:22 And walked downstairs to save time.

3:25 It was 11 minutes after 4, last beer time, when I reached the entrance.

3:31 To the happy hour oyster and beverage box. I started looking across the street. Hank Tate was just stepping off the curb. He was jaywalking, but that didn't explain what happened.

3:44 He caught it.

3:45 20 a time and jumped back out of the way. It saw him, too. The wheels cut sharply towards him, and the front bumper caught him to fucking me.

3:52 All right, all right.

3:57 Keep moving, Dan.

3:58 Keep moving. Come on, come on. Back on the sidewalk. Come on, now.

4:02 We'll take care of him.

4:04 We'll take care of him.

4:06 Damn, John.

4:07 Come on, get these people back. This man's hurt bad. Give him some air. Why don't I try to talk, Hank? Here.

4:16 This is it. Cigarette case.

4:21 Hey, wait a minute. What was that? What's what, Clancy?

4:24 He gave you something there.

4:24 A gold cigarette case. I've seen him.

4:26 You must be mistaken, Clancy. Hank, can you talk anymore? Cigarette case.

4:32 Find out.

4:34 Got to find out. My wife. Yeah, what about your wife? I... I can't.

4:41 What do you got here? What do you got here?

4:50 Ah, hit and run. Looks kind of dead. Like I'd say, you're dead, wouldn't you?

4:58 Yeah.

4:59 This is more true, Clancy. Be away.

5:01 Okay, boy.

5:01 Okay, take him away.

5:03 Now, come on.

5:03 Please, everybody, stand back. Any of you people identify this man? Yeah, I know. You better come along.

5:12 Oh, hello, Clancy.

5:27 Hello, Maxie. Hank Page.

5:29 Oh, yeah, just came in. Two seconds.

5:33 Maxie. Yeah. No, no, she better not look at him now. He's in no condition. Oh, sure. Sure, you can give her money if any effect.

5:43 Yeah.

5:44 Hey, that's Mrs.

5:45 Page.

5:45 She didn't lose any time. Like to meet her then? Yeah, Maxie, I would. You know, Miltie says she's going to look nice in black.

5:52 That so?

5:53 Yeah.

5:56 Mr. Page?

5:57 What? I knew your husband slightly. My name is Sam Page. Oh.

6:03 Oh, yes, yes.

6:04 Your detective said he was going to see you. Did he? Not quite. You happen to know what he wanted to see me about?

6:13 Yes, he found something, a cigarette case. He couldn't tell me what it meant, but he seemed very worried about it. He told me that if anything happened to him, I should claim his belongings right away.

6:23 See, here they are.

6:25 His watch and.

6:26 Swallowed elk's tits.

6:29 School ring.

6:30 Cigar cutter.

6:32 No cigarette case.

6:34 Oh, now, please, Mrs. Page. I've got the cigarette case here. You've got it. How did you.

6:40 He gave it to me just after the accident. I think he was trying to tell me to give it to you.

6:45 Here, you take it. Oh, no, no. The initials.

6:49 Some woman gave it to him. I don't want it.

6:52 I don't want it.

6:53 Just put it away.

6:54 Out of my sight. Out of my sight forever.

6:55 Okay, okay. There. Open your eyes now. It's back in my pocket.

6:58 Thank you.

6:59 Thank you. Now, uh, let's talk, Mrs.

7:02 Bates.

7:02 What was on your husband's mind? Well, I don't know.

7:06 He wasn't very well.

7:07 Heart trouble.

7:08 Nothing terribly serious.

7:09 But he'd get these little spells, and he'd have to stay on from work.

7:12 Sometimes a week or ten days.

7:15 But Mr.

7:15 Soule, the foreman at the print shop, would look after things, you know.

7:18 I even thought.

7:19 He was getting better.

7:20 Did your husband have any fights lately? Oh, my, no.

7:23 He wouldn't dare with his heart.

7:25 He had a black eye. Oh.

7:27 Oh, that happened at home.

7:28 He fell down. Yeah. Well, I'll be in touch.

7:36 With you.

7:38 Outside, the fog was rolling in. I stopped under a streetlight and.

7:42 Spent an estimated 45 seconds trying to figure out what time it was, but a calendar watch.

7:46 My secretary gave me for Christmas. The barometer was falling.

7:50 It said the temperature was 63, and I was facing northwest.

7:54 I looked in a jewelry store to find out it was 423.

7:58 My hour was nearly half gone, and the only clues I had were a cigarette.

8:02 Case and a black eye. I took the case out of my pocket and opened it. There was cigarettes in it. I took one out and lit it. It was nasty. Then I saw something green behind the cigarette. It looked better. It looked like money. When I examined it more closely, I wasn't so sure. The printing on it was Dutch, and the amount was 100 florins.

8:25 The banks were closed, but it only cost me two nickels and a pay telephone to find out where to take it.

8:30 It was a.

8:31 Small but solid-looking establishment on Montgomery.

8:34 The gold lettering on the plate glass window showed Van Pelt and Meisler, commercial agents, Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco, Macassar, and Curacao.

8:47 Come and help. I want to see Mr. Meisner. There is no Mr. Meisner. That's only Van Pelt. And I'm Hendrik Van Pelt.

8:54 I'm so sorry.

8:55 Oh, don't say it like that. Maybe you can help me. What can I do with you? Well, somebody paid me off for a job in Dutch money. I want to know how much it's worth. Oh, this better than Meisner. I know the value of money. Show me, please. Maybe you'd like a cigarette, too. That's Dutch. Please. My brand.

9:15 Sumatra Queen. Thank you. Oh, good.

9:22 You like it?

9:24 No, the money. One hundred florist. High under the light, look. Here are all numbers. Here is M. Quadrate, clear is. Seal should color is.

9:40 Paper.

9:42 Paper, excellent. You wish to see it? What's it worth?

9:46 Well, look, the latest quotation, the flooring against the dollar.

9:52 $ 53.

9:52 34. That's what the exchange fee taken out is.

9:56 You like $ 10? No? I love them. You mean that money's real money? Who knows better than I should. My brother was engraver to the Royal Dutch Treasury.

10:08 I myself in the manufacturing was until the occupation coming was.

10:12 Pardon me. Would you mind saying that again, please?

10:15 In the manufactory from all kinds of money, including already currencies from the Indies.

10:21 East and West, Java, Tel Aviv, Borneo, and homeland, Netherlands.

10:26 Also, six months in Bully Long, Bali, where I'm English learning.

10:30 Oh, you learned English. Several foreign languages. Well, I'll take it in ten. Ten.

10:33 20, 30, 40, 50, 1, 2, 3, and 9 cents and 20 cents, 3 cents.

10:54 Danke. Oh, eventually... I spoke a little such. Yes, eventually you have lived in San Francisco for how long? Oh, eventually quite some time. Oh, I'm Hendrik van Zelt.

11:06 How are you?

11:06 How do you do? I know this on the cigarette case. You have the same initial, H-P. Who your name is, please? Paul House, Herman Paul House. Oh, Paul House. You know, I like that cigarette case. With the coincidence... You tell me your Dutch money.

11:25 Maybe also sell me the cigarette case with the Dutch cigarette.

11:28 You like those cigarettes? Oh, I love the Smarter Queen. You can have them for nothing.

11:33 No, no, such a pity to remove them from the beautiful case.

11:37 They go together, cigarettes and the case.

11:39 How much?

11:39 What would you say it's worth? Well, that could go $ 500. What do you pay? Nothing. I take it out of a dead body.

11:48 Good.

11:50 Get out. Get out of the graveyard. Help! Please! Stop these! Okay, okay, Mr. Van Pelt, I'm going!

12:01 Help!

12:01 Please!

12:01 Help!

12:01 Iran did not walk. The only exit was a squad of bank.

12:06 Cops going to pass me, followed by half a dozen city dicks and some burnsmen who confused Van Pelt's.

12:10 Burglar alarm with that of the bank next door.

12:13 Nobody paid me any mind until I reached Third Street. I was just crossing when I saw it the second time.

12:21 The same car that had run down Hank's page. I strained my eyes against the headlights. I couldn't make out the man behind the wheel, but I got the license plate before it happened. I told it before I heard it.

12:32 It hit my chest like a sledgehammer. The last thing I heard was the footsteps of a heavy man pounding toward me. The clock on the church of business of faith was shining the half hour.

12:47 And now, back to the one-hour caper, tonight's.

12:54 Adventure with Sam Spade. I started the caper with two.

12:59 Clues, a cigarette case and a black eye and a dead man.

13:12 When I woke up in the alley, I didn't have the cigarette case. I said I had two black eyes. One of them was on me. Strangely enough, I was alive. I reached inside my shirt to examine the bullet hole over my heart. There was nothing there but a bruise. I wondered what had been in that gold cigarette case that sized gold and touched cigarettes. The plug had come at me hot enough to knock me down and out, but the case in my inside pocket had stopped it.

13:36 I limped to the nearest phone booth and phone puddle in the driving division. The plates on the hit-and-run car were registered to one Hendrick Van Pelt.

13:43 Oh, Mr.

13:44 Bates.

13:44 I'm so glad you're here.

13:48 I was beginning to worry.

13:52 Where's Mr. Van Pelt?

13:52 That's just him. He went in the other room to make a drink. He hasn't come back.

13:56 You don't know how glad I.

14:00 Am you're here.

14:01 Do you know why he invited me to have this drink with him?

14:04 I can take it one way.

14:06 Listen, he wants to buy Hank's cigarette case.

14:10 And, of course, much as I paid an Indian giver, Mr.

14:13 Spade... Yeah?

14:14 Well, you know, Hank doesn't need much, only a little insurance, and the filling shop is a partnership, you know, Hank and Mr.

14:19 Soleil. The cigarette case.

14:21 Is just a windfall.

14:22 I told him you wouldn't stand in the way of a widow. I wouldn't think of it.

14:26 I knew you'd do the decent thing, Mr.

14:27 Spade.

14:28 Give me that. Uh, please, please, Mr. Spade, my booze. Besides, I haven't got it. You haven't done it.

14:35 No.

14:35 Now, look, look, look, Mrs. Tate. Blanche. Okay, now, Blanche, try and think. Did you ever hear your husband mention Van Pelt? No.

14:42 No, they.

14:43 No, they never even met Mr.

14:45 Van Pelt, said so. How'd Van Pelt find out about the cigarette case?

14:48 They said you showed it to him.

14:49 Uh-huh.

14:51 How well do you know your husband's partner, Mrs. Delay? Oh, we're total strangers now.

14:56 I told my husband everything.

14:57 He forgave me.

14:59 Uh-huh.

15:00 And what did Mr. Soleil tell you? Nothing much, nothing.

15:03 He's led a very dull life. Almost as soon as he got out of reform school, he took a forgery lab.

15:08 Oh, very dull.

15:08 That's where he became a master fritter.

15:10 A stirrer, as they say.

15:12 Oh, yes, they do.

15:13 They're not much help.

15:14 Au contraire, Blanche. Au contraire. I strutted her outside and pushed her into a taxi. Then I walked back to Kirk Street. As I rounded the corner, I could see light under his face and frittering. The chimes were hammering out a quarter of five when I entered Hank Page's shop.

15:37 In fact, the guy was sitting at a desk in his shirt sleeve, checking off figures in a ledger.

15:41 I introduced myself, and he told me his name was Ben Sillay. shook hands, and then he waved me to a chair across the set. Oh, this is awful, Sage. What was one thing and another where he goes overhead and work and got a pull with these books, and I don't know a thing about it, and I... Oh, pardon me.

15:57 Yes.

15:58 Oh.

15:59 Oh, all right.

16:01 Oh, things are a little confused there just now. Could you tell me a little more about it? All right. Oh, yes, I understand the problem. Well, we're handling it at this end, but we'll be very busy for a while. Now, there's definitely no point in you dropping by tonight.

16:14 I think you'd think the news of the boss's death would make some difference to those customers, but no.

16:18 Hey, take that fellow that just... Yeah, I know you're very busy, Mr.

16:20 Soule.

16:20 I don't want to take up too much of your time, so... Hey, what makes you think that car deliberately ran down the board? Did I say something? Well, you're an insurance dick, aren't you? You got me tagged. Anybody have anything against him, far as you know? No, he fired two printers last night. Why? Well, they couldn't sell in English. You see Mr. Page this afternoon? Yeah, he came in for about ten minutes. Said he'd be back on the job tomorrow morning. He was killed just after he left. How'd he look? Oh, the same as usual.

16:49 You wouldn't say he'd been in a fight? Oh, good Lord, no. He was a sick man. He had a piece of porn in his hand when he was hit. Know anything about that? Oh, sure. He got it here. One of our customers, a man named Van Pelt, paid for some work with him. Boss wanted it for a souvenir, so he took it with him.

17:03 Does Van Pelt know about Page's heart?

17:05 Oh, that's a stupid question, lad. You didn't know Page was killed with Mansell's car. That's a long shot, sir. Thanks. Here's another one. You're lying straight down the line.

17:14 Huh?

17:15 You didn't see Page today.

17:17 If he had you to mention that he had a black eye, he didn't take that Dutch money for a souvenir.

17:20 If he had you to mention the cigarette case, you'd set him up.

17:24 What are you doing?

17:29 Shutting down for the night? You'll find out. Put your hands on top of the deck.

17:36 I slipped the muzzle of my gun. I'd been holding it in my lap for three minutes, far enough over the edge of the desk for Finn to lay to see it. He did what I told him to. The press room door was directly behind him, and I knew his body would screen my guns in the view of anybody that might come through it in response to the.

17:51 Signal he sent.

17:51 I didn't have long to wait.

17:54 Three men, black with ink, came to the door and threw it into the little office.

17:57 I strolled in, careless and casual.

18:01 What's up, Ben?

18:02 You got ice in your head?

18:03 Huh?

18:04 What's this?

18:06 Stop right there.

18:08 Stop.

18:10 They'd all been mounted on the same pair of legs, but I didn't like my position at all.

18:13 If these men decided they're jumping, I could sound just one of them before the other three were on me. I knew it and they knew it. Then I felt some fresh air on the back of my neck as the street door opened behind me. Mr.

18:25 Ray, what is it? Is it a holdup?

18:28 It's me, Blanche Spade. Get out of here quick. Find a cop and bring him back here. Will you do that?

18:32 Sure I will. You can count on me.

18:35 Mr.

18:36 Ray's mouth opened in a broad grin. I didn't need any more warning than that. I threw myself sideways, but I wasn't quick enough. The blow I got from behind was Blanche's lady's handbag type persuader that hit me full on, but I got enough of it.

18:48 To fold up my legs as if the knees were hints of paper and I slammed into a heap on the floor. Nothing dark, but I thought, I thought it was both hands. I had a foot sticking in my face. I wrung it.

18:58 The way it went out of knock.

19:01 I was thinly aware that my feet were under me again.

19:04 Some squirming thing was on my back, and a hot dance object like a hand.

19:07 Was across my face. I put my teeth in it, and it hit back as far as it could go. Maybe it smashed into the face it was meant for. I don't know.

19:15 Anyway, the squirming thing was no longer on my back, and suddenly I could see again.

19:18 I saw a brass cuspidor six inches or so in front of my eyes. That's how I knew I was down on the floor again. I grabbed the cuspidor and tugged at it. I sagged on my feet with it and used it to cause a clear space in front of me. I swung it high and let go.

19:30 Then I was back on the floor again with six or eight hundred pounds of flesh hammering my face into the floor.

19:38 You can't throw a brass cuspidor through a plate.

19:40 Glass window into a rush hour crowd in downtown San Francisco without attracting attention.

19:47 The hour of rescue is at hand. at hand.

19:50 It was exactly 5 p.m.

19:53 All right, boys, let's go to work. And that, Clancy, is the most of the crop.

20:02 You guessed it.

20:08 It was a counterfeiting taper with variations. The returns are not all in yet, but I think when the feds pick up Van Telt, they'll find he was selling the proof.

20:15 He said he was working in a Dutch government printing office in Amsterdam at the time of the Nazi occupation. He probably bought his way out of the country with the same kind of money he and Soleil were printing here.

20:25 Genuine Dutch flans printed from the original plates.

20:28 Being a skilled metal worker, he designed a gold cigarette case in which those plates.

20:33 Would fit with uncanny accuracy.

20:35 The crowning touch was the way in which he concealed and confused. He filled the case with an odious brand of jet cigarettes, which only fools or criminals could possibly smoke. It was the safest hiding place in the world. So clever was it, now get this fancy boy, that even I, Sam's great detective, never suspected the presence of face metal until it stopped that slug Van Pelt threw at me in the alley.

20:58 Period. End of report.

20:59 Oh, Sam, to think you went through all that just to keep your promise to me.

21:03 Yes, Abby, but what hurts me even more than these wolves is the thought that you've doubted my words.

21:07 Oh, I didn't say that, Sam. I only inferred that you had no.

21:09 Sense of time. Yeah?

21:11 Well, I guess you've changed your mind about that, eh? No, I haven't, Sam. May I ask why?

21:15 Well, I'd rather not discuss it during working hours, Sam, but as soon as I've typed up this report, I'll tell you exactly what I need.

21:21 So here it is, Sam. Do you want me to mail it or.

21:40 Shall I just hand it to him on the way to the streetcar?

21:42 I'll tell you the stamp at what else. Oh, hi.

21:45 You won't be meeting me anymore, I'll know.

21:47 Sit down.

21:48 It's 25.30, Sam. I told the photographer not to come.

21:51 That's a fine thing. After all I've been through, you still say I have no sense of time, and you told the photographer not to come. Why?

21:56 Because I knew you.

21:57 Wouldn't be back in time, and if you were, you'd look so terrible, the picture.

21:59 Wouldn't be any good anyway. Thanks a lot. Oh, Sam.

22:03 That's why I must have been so cranky.

22:05 I must have had a premonition.

22:07 I don't know.

22:08 What's the matter with me.

22:10 I'm so ill-tempered.

22:10 Oh, no, you're not.

22:12 I think I'm turning into an old maid or something.

22:15 Oh, calm down.

22:16 I love you.

22:17 Oh, by the way, honey, remind me to write to Feige at Washington. I have to send me that cigarette case for a souvenir if I take it off Van Pelt. After all, you know, it saved my life.

22:25 Your life?

22:26 Mm-hmm.

22:26 I think I've been nagging and saying all these terrible things.

22:30 Oh, Sammy.

22:31 Sammy. Oh, no, Sam.

22:34 No, you're bandaged.

22:35 You're wounded.

22:35 No.

22:37 I'll see you.

22:40 Like I live?

22:42 Good night.

22:44 Good night, sweetheart.