BOLD VENTURE Adventure, intrigue, mystery, romance starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall Together in the sultry setting of tropical Havana and the mysterious islands of the Caribbean, BOLD VENTURE BOLD VENTURE Once again the magic names of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall bring you BOLD VENTURE and a tale of mystery and intrigue. BOLD VENTURE We've had our share of characters at Shannon's place, Senor Ruggio. I remember one visiting school teacher from South Carolina. You're just bitter because you've flunked sand pile on the beach with us late. I am sure this holds not the slightest interest for Senor Ruggio. Please, to show us to our room. In a while, Senorita Magan. What I'm trying to say is a lot of people have passed through here for sleep, for fun, for whatever reasons they had to make Shannon's place a stop on the road. As far as I know, never a reason like Senor Ruggio's. I am honest enough to admit I wish to use your accommodations to hide. What'd you do, kid? Heist? You a hood? A gunsel? You tool a hot heap down the alley and wind up at Shannon's? Listen, sir, brother, listen. In Jomento Key in the Bahamas, I am feared, hated. I walk in the streets and children make the mark of death on me, on my shadow. Oh, just a stinker, huh? I thought you tooled hot heaps. Where are you running away from, Senor Ruggio? From my conscience. I'm getting old. I wish a place to hide from my sins and grieve for them. Senor, you are weary. I will take you to your room. All you want to do is hide from your sins, huh? Can you give me a guarantee one of your hometown citizens won't suddenly show and, well, you know, kill you? Beat you to death? A fair question, if I ever heard one. Yeah, I gotta know these things, Senor. Senor Ruggio is a man of great wealth. He will pay well for accommodations. Please, Senor Shannon, as the nurse of him I ask you, please. All right. As you said, with such a medicinal pucker. Right this way, kiddies. Johnny! Johnny! Hey! Hi, oldie! We're a baby! How are you? Happy to see me, Johnny? Happy? Listen to that carousel, honey. Background music for the way I feel. Walk with me. Away from this place. I wish to talk to you. I can't, baby. Give the customers a long ride, Johnny. Walk with me. Look. Johnny. What you tell me to do is what I do. Did Ruggio come again? Listen to me, Johnny. Huh? Kill him. Don't start that again, baby. For me, Johnny. Kill him. But... but kill a man. I don't know how to kill a man. I will show you how. The man must die. He is evil. All right. Johnny. Johnny. Okay, okay. I said I'd do it. Now let's go back. It's time for the end of the long, long ride. Guess who, Snake? Take your hands off my eyes, Benson. I'd know you anyplace. You're a never-ending source of delight, Slate. A girl gets girlish, does a frothy thing like putting her hands over a fella's eyes, and says, guess who? She gets called a Benson. Worried about something? What are you worried about, baby? That girl? That senorita McGahn? Oh, I don't like the way you've been looking at her, Slate. Forget it. She is beautiful. Sometimes when I'm not watching you, do you look at me like that? I said forget it. All right. Slate, why don't we do that sometime? You what sometime? Take a horseback ride in the moonlight. Now, whatever made you think of that? Because it's moonlight and because I hear hoofbeats. Someone's riding, probably around that curve of the beach. Why don't we do that sometime? Yeah, why don't we, sailor? Come on. Maybe you'd better not look at this. What happened? Well, it's like he said, violent, brutal, ugly. Senor Rufio, he's dead, sailor. Kicked to death. Sit down, Senor Shannon. Why do you not sit down? Give me four walls and a small room and I've got to pace it off. It's a quirk with me. When are the taxpayers going to come up with a king-size office for you, LaSalle? The requirements of an inspector of the police are modest, senor. Needs only a desk, a shaded light bulb, a phone. What more convenience is to receive the shadows of the violent dead? And we're just the kids to bring them to you, huh, LaSalle? You see, you have brought me many, more than is in the priority code for the allotment of the discoverers of the newly dead. Now, what do we do about it, LaSalle? Sit here and philosophize on the aesthetic aspects of finding a man who's been killed by a horse? That's the new police method? Come off it, Slate. You want to play super sleuth, I'll send in a box top. You'll get a badge and a compass ring, but you'll have to get your own mission. Yeah, that's right, sailor. Laugh it up. Make a murder funny with a yak. Come on, sailor. You're just the girl who can do it. Please, please you two. Your domestic sprat's sprat in another place. Here there's another matter to consider. Yeah, the murder of Senor Rufio. I'm glad it finally dawned on you, LaSalle. The death I will concede by the trampling of a horse. But murder? Because Senor Rufio told us it would come to him like that. Maybe not exactly this way, but brutal, violent, like it did. It is known here in Havana, Senorita, how Rufio deserves such dying. Because he made a fomento qui, a feudal tyranny. He owned the land, the homes, the water, the power, the very people themselves. A tyranny of copper mines, of private loos, and in some the men were the animals. Well, maybe he was all that. But he was murdered. That fits its square into your little niche, doesn't it, LaSalle? The hoof prints of the horse were washed away by the surf, Senor Shannon. They could have led us to someone, perhaps to a murderer. Perhaps only to a frightened horse who threw his rider, who maddened with fear, trampled, kicked until, until... Oh, come on, sailor. A man wants to call it an accident. Let him. A man's tired, so let him. Si, Senor. What the Senorita said. You want to play sleuth? Send in a box top. We'll all live longer this way. Adios. And no thank you for what you have brought me. I'll be with you in a minute, sir. Let's get with it, sister. I'm in a hurry. Maybe you've come to the wrong hotel. Shannon's place is dedicated to leisurely living, for people slow with a buck. I got the right place. Where's Slate Shannon? What do you want him for? You're the type that answers questions with questions, sis. Try the civil tongue. It's important. Where's Slate Shannon? He's got a bug in his carburetor. He's fixing his boat. Uh-huh. And who are you? Some call me Benson. Look, sis, I don't have a lot of time for quirky people. I want to tell Slate Shannon a little tale about a horse. A horse, huh? One that tramples people to death? Just about a horse. I run a riding stable. It's about one of my horses, one that doesn't do anything but ride people up and down the seashore. Kind of stupid horse. Who only knows one thing, how to find his way home in the dark. Wait a minute. Be with you in a... Hey, what's the matter with you? You got a thing against phones? I don't want you to call anybody, especially police types. You were calling a cop, huh? Why shouldn't I? The man was murdered last night. You walk in here and tell me it was done by your horse. That nag didn't have anything to do with it. That's why I came here. Deal. I don't want the cops coming down to my stables and asking questions. You want to listen? The deal means I just listen and no cops, is that it? That's it, sis. All right. The man I know named Johnny Brackett runs the carousel out of the amusement park. Got a shack there, too. He likes to go horseback riding. He rented a horse from me last night. How do you know he went riding on the beach? The nag comes home alone. Also, there's wet sand between his hoof and his shoe. I give you all this because he had welts on his hide, been whipped. Tell Shannon, sis, you want to know. Nothing like a closed-down carnival to bring on the lonely, is there, Slate? Yeah, step up real close, lady, and I'll give you a rundown on all the good times we had here together. Yeah. Remember when I had to break it up between you and the tattooed lady? Well, maybe you shouldn't have done that, Slate. You promised me the good life, all the tattooing I could handle. And I said if it was a question of having needlework done on you, you didn't have to have any. What's the matter, Slate? You taking a moment to regret? Go home, Slate. What's with you? The sight of a deserted carousel brings back such tender memories that... that man lying there on the carousel, he looks... Yeah, doesn't he? I told you to go home. He's dead, isn't he? Yeah, trampled like the other one. This time with a twist, under the hoof of a merry-go-round horse. Slate, it can't be like that. It can't. Go argue with the dead. Go ask them why they die the way they die. It's the end of the ride, Saylor. Go home. His life is hammered out by a stallion. So, Shannon, go to Amusement Park. Find another man with stallion's mark. Cause of death, the truth I tell, was a wooden beast on a carousel. Those unhappy times... Please tell him to stop. Yes, Mrs. Slate. However, you must tell her I do not make my songs from earth. Rather, it is my way of grieving. Miss McGann understands, King. How have they discovered who this man was, Saylor Shannon? He of the Amusement Park? Yeah, it was pretty easy. He was the boy who ran the carousel, named Johnny Brackett. Drifter. Did odd jobs keep himself out of hock. But, Saylor, you have told me that this Johnny Brackett has a mark of hooves on his body. Even as did Saylor Ruffio. What madness is happening, Senor? Like you have been thrust upon a vicious dream. Like you be... I've got a shoulder for this sort of thing, Lita. Here, use it. Better? Please. Thank you. With both of you. I will be all right. And Saylor Shannon? Just name it. Take me back to home and to peace. You have a boat. Take me to home and the key. You will understand I cannot stay here. The boat adventure's got a carburetor that's been acting up, but it'll get us there. All of us. You, you, and me. I'll take care of you, Lita. Don't worry about a thing. This Armando Key's a dismal place, huh, Saylor? You too, baby. You're a dismal boy. I don't like what that girl's done to you. What's she done to me? She's a girl with a big hurt and a big scare. Leave her alone. She's a good kid. So am I. Got a shoulder for me? Oh, you jealous, baby? What do you want me to do? Lie to you? I'm jealous. And if you want to know something else... Hola, senor. Senor. You mean me, Saylor? Senor. Senor, por favor. Wait. Gracias. You are the man with the beautiful body of a venture, see? See? Let me shake your hand. Sure. What's on your mind? What is on my mind is nothing but gracias. But thankfulness for what you have accomplished. Which is what? The death of Senor Rufio. Rufio the tyrant. Rufio, the reason those of us in Jumento Key live as dogs of the street. We hate to disillusion you, senor, but we had nothing to do with Rufio's death. As you wish it. But we know. We of Jumento Key know for a certain reason. That you have assisted the Senorita Margani in the death of him. For what he has done to us. This chico's flipped, Saylor. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Let's listen to him a little longer, shall we? Not me, baby. I'm going to Havana. You coming? What's the hurry, big man? What are you running away from? You like a Mendoza, Saylor? Stay in it. Buy it. Curl up in it. Wear it for a sarong. They haven't passed the law yet that says I got to take you back to Havana with me. So off the arm, huh? You're leaving something out, kiddo. You want to tell me on the boat? Or you want to throw it to me as a farewell kiss from the shore? I'll kiss you with it on the boat. After you, lover. There's a slight fee for passengers, Buster. If you want to moon-ride cruise to Havana, you got to work. Get on that... I know what you're running away from, Slate. That girl, that leaker. She stabs, she goes helpless all in a heap. She kills the man they say wronged her father. And another man, for who knows what reason. That's the technique, huh, kiddo? How to win a lover in two easy killings. Honest, lady, the visiting period is over. A couple of days later, you'll be back. You're going to slug me, big man, throw me overboard? Because you can't live with it, your new girl's a killer. You coming with me, sailor, or you going to stand there and give a performance? Me, I want to check that carburetor again. I didn't like the way she acted coming over. Hey, sailor. You want me to watch, Captain, or I'll kill you? I'll kill you. Hey, look, this thing rigged to the carburetor, a bomb, sailor. If I'd have given her the choke to start the motor, we'd have been killed. So it's back to who meant her key, our lover. Me, not you. You wait here with the bomb. I'm going to find the fuse. You... you have come back to me? For what reason, your Shannon? It'll be easier to tell you if you put that gun away later. This gun? I am frightened of things that have happened. You have come back alone? For what troubles me, I don't need help. You and I can settle it here like this. This is the method, the farewell repeated, the goodbye sung again. Because now there is a gun at your heart. It doesn't have to be like that, Lita. Not between you and me. Your lips are much sweetness. And they are also of things I do not understand. Goodbye could be one word. We never spoke to each other. And the other girl, you will let her go away from you? You will stay with me here? Sure, I'll stay if you want. Because you changed all that. You killed Ruthie Owen. You changed all that. You think of me? I killed Ruthie Owen. You think of me? I killed Ruthie Owen? Doesn't everybody? I am the type that strings along with the crowd, baby. And if I said to you, I am no murderer, I do not kill. If I said to you, I am a woman who breathes when death lays its cloak in her palm, who exiles others' weeks. What then, Shannon? Then I'd say I hit every light on the pinball machine. But still you must rid yourself of the other one, who wipe her tears that you did not mind. But rid yourself. Like I said, leader, whatever you want. Because you want it. When I get back, we won't need the gun anymore, will we, leader? Taylor! I'm here on the boat, Blake, where you left me. Come on, stay there. Come here, sailor. When I say come here, I mean right up close. That's right. What was that for? Because you're sailor de Val, and that's what I do when you get up close. This is your day to be the great lover, huh, lover? What did you do when leader got up close? I looked in her eyes. He made passes like this in front of her face. She floated on air and gave up misty vapors, I bet you. She's a killer. I think I've known that all along. And she planted that bomb because she wanted you dead, too. Could be. What are you going to do? I'm going to make sure. Where's my gun, Taylor? What do you want it for? Stay close, baby, and I'll tell you. Just stay close. Me cornice, come in. Have you done it? Gun root, sailor? Yeah, I have. Hold me. Later, baby, I've got to ask you something. What is it? I've got to know, leader. Did you kill Ruccio? No. Johnny Bracket? No. Okay. How would I kill them? As I have heard, a horse struck them down. Yeah, that's got me puzzled, too. And that settles it. And what more do you need to know of me? Nothing. Mother, I'll get it. No, not me. I will send whoever it is away. Any old boyfriend's lady I'm coming around to collect. You lied to me, Corazon. It is she of the hotel and boat. Yeah, it sure is she of all that stuff. High slaves. Get out of here, sailor. I've been thinking it over, kiddo. It's not going to be that easy. That's for your hope chest, baby. You want me to torch you through that door? In a little while, but first it's going to be my pleasure. Like this. Wildcat, huh? Okay, Wildcat, out of my life, once and for all. Well, she's dead, Lita. You... you killed her so easily, Corazon. You wanted me to get rid of her, Lita. She's a riddle. You killed... killed... and so easily. I like that. It is pleasing to me. Hold me. Hold me. No. You did this for me. And now you do not want me? Why? All of a sudden, I'm a fugitive. What kind of life is that for you? For me, it is pleasure, because... because I am of you. Like you. A killer, too. Now, don't lie to me, Lita. The killer Rufio. Me, because I swore it. For what he had done to all of us here in Humento. The killer of Johnny Bracket. Me, because he became a weakling and would not kill for me. Because weaklings must die. It's a killer's world. Yours and mine. You planted that bomb, huh? Yes. I was almost the killer of you. Because I feared you suspected what I had done. Those men were trampled to death. How could you have killed them? With the shoe of a stallion mailed to a club. Who was not that clever, me all? On your feet, sailor. Hmm. Hi, Lita. Look what came back from the dead. Slate! Slate! What have you done? I had a blanket, sailor, so she'd be quiet and lie down... and listen to what you had to confess. You made love to me! Tricked me! I'll be a fool! Tricked me! Save the tears for the jury, honey. Slate, get her a cup. I'm tired and I want to go home. There they are, sailor. The lights of Havana. Beautiful, huh? Who's looking at lights? Is that something else to look at? What? You. Yeah, I've been told. I wouldn't call you handsome. I wouldn't say you are romantic looking. You never send me flowers. You always give me grief. Why do I hang around you? Come here. I'll show you why. That's why. Do it again. All right. Slate, the lights just went out all over Havana. Yeah, I know. Come here. It's okay, baby. They just went on again. And so our two stars, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall... have brought to a close our latest Bold Venture story. Special music was composed and conducted by David Rose. May we invite you to listen again next week at this time... for another exciting adventure starring Humphrey Bogart... and Lauren Bacall together in Bold Venture.
