The strange Dr. Weird. Good evening. Come in, won't you? What's the matter? You seem a bit nervous. Perhaps if I told you a story, it might help calm your nerves. A story, say, about a man who found a new and amazing way of hiding from the police. I call the story, The Man Who Played Dead. My story, The Man Who Played Dead, begins in the dimly lighted interior of a strange room in a big amusement park. The room is a waxworks museum known as the Chamber of Horrors, and wax figures of history's most diabolical murderers stand motionless all about it. The only living figure is the proprietor, Pop Malloy, who moves slowly from dummy to dummy, dusting them in preparation for the big spring opening. As Pop approaches a figure in a dark corner, the figure unexpectedly speaks to him. All right, Pop. Put up your hands. Morgan. Burke Morgan. Yes, Morgan, and not a dummy either. But I don't understand. You were in prison. You're supposed to go to the electric chair tonight. I was supposed to, but I broke out, see, after they had me all prepared for the hot seat. Well, what do you want here? Just to hide for a while. The cops are right behind me, so since this is the only place in the park open, I slipped in 10 minutes ago when your back was turned. There's no place to hide here. There's just this one big room. No arguments. You go ahead of me while I look around. All right, look around. I'm saying there's no place to hide at all. I'll find one. Hey, these three dummies here, they look like my old partners, Joe Norton, Marty Phillips, Tony Benson. Yes, Burke, that's who they're supposed to be. The ones you shot in the back last year. What do you got them standing around this funny electric chair for? Well, you see, tomorrow I was gonna make up a dummy of you, Burke, and sit in that electric chair. Then I was gonna put up a sign saying, Execution of Burke Morgan on the night of May 1st, 1944, as his murdered partners look out. Why, you... Don't you like it? You're a little previous, Pop. I'm not sitting in any hot seat tonight. No, I guess not. It was a cute idea, though. Too cute. Hey, their faces seem to shine in the dark. What causes that? Well, you see, I painted them with phosphorus paint. The idea was the lights would be turned down low, and the customers would see the faces shining in the darkness the way they do now. See, they were ghosts. Give the Yokels a big cake. Somebody at the door. It's an officer. He's coming in. Hey, Pop! Pop Marui! Listen, Pop, I'm gonna stand right here, absolutely still in the shadows here like a dummy. You get rid of him. If he spots me, I'll plug in and get it. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Hey, Pop, are you there? Hey, come in. Oh, it's you, Flanagan. Yeah, say, Pop, did you know that Berk Morgan's on the loose? Who is he? Yeah, and he's someplace in this park. Somebody smuggled him a big shot of cocaine and a gun at the prison, and he blasted his way out an hour ago. Oh, that's bad. I'll say it's bad, but we'll get him. Or it's hard to shoot on sight. And I'm... Hey, Pop. What is it? That dummy back there. Huh? It moved just now. No, no, it couldn't have. I saw it move. I'm gonna have a look at that dummy. Flanagan, wait, don't, don't! All right, Copper, you're in for it. You killed him. Yeah. If you want to stay alive, you better listen fast. There'll be more cops here in a second, but they won't find me because I'm gonna hide right out in plain sight. They're pretending to be myself. What do you mean? I'm hiding right here in this little imitation electric chair of yours. See, I'm gonna play the part of a dummy again. I'm gonna pretend to be myself in the great electrocution of Burt Morgan. Oh, oh, I see. This time I won't move either, because I'll be sitting down. There they are at the door. Yell to them to come in. And don't forget, I've got a loaded gun right here beside me. Stay close to me or I'll let you have it. And make it good, Pop. Make it awful good. Dr. Weird, I'm breathless. You mean the beginning of my story has you excited? Well, yes, but it isn't only your story that leaves me breathless, Doctor. It's those Adam hats so many men are wearing this season. Gentlemen, I honestly doubt whether you'll see hats with more distinctive styles, fine quality material, and bright jaunty shades. They're like a new breath of life and such variety. Gentlemen, you'll find most every shape and model in the new hats now on display at the thousands of Adam hat stores and authorized dealers from coast to coast. So get into the swing of things. Buy your new Adam tomorrow. Now, back to Dr. Weird. And now I'll continue my story, The Man Who Played Dead. With Burke Morgan hiding in plain sight by pretending to be a wax dummy, the three policemen who had come running at the sound of the shots were completely deceived. And Pop told them that the dead officer on the floor was just another wax dummy, and they believed him. After warning him to be on the alert, they left, and Burke Morgan chuckled as the door closed behind them. Good work, Pop, but you're not through yet. What do you mean? Look at that squad car they parked right outside the door. If I even get out of this chair, the driver can look right in and see me. Yeah, I guess that's right. He can. Well, since this is the only place I have to hide, I'm gonna sit right here until the search is over. You're the boss, Morgan. You bet I am. And you sit down right there. Okay. Now, I'm gonna sit here, and you're gonna sit there until they give up hunting for me. If they come in again, stall me. If you try to move without permission, I'll blast you. I won't move. I don't want to die. That's being smart. Pop, you haven't got a shot of dope on you, have you? No, Morgan. What's the matter? Nerves getting jumpy? None of your business. Now settle down. We got some waiting to do. The two men settled themselves to wait. Burke Morgan sat in rigid silence, ever alert for the return of the police. Half an hour passed, then an hour. His taut nerves cried aloud for the drug they craved. His muscles twitched. Two hours passed, and Burke Morgan's tortured nerves were screaming. The three waxen faces which Pop Malloy had covered with phosphorus paint glowed in a ghostly fashion before his eyes. And then Burke Morgan... Burke Morgan thought he heard an eerie voice speak to him. Pop, Pop Malloy, did you say something? No, Pop's asleep. It's just my nerves. I need... Burke, Burke Morgan. Who's that? Who said my name then? I did, Burke. Your old pal, Joe Norton. Norton? Norton's dead. I killed him. It's my nerves. This spooky room and those faces. I've got to get a grip on myself. Tony Phillips is here too, Burke. No, Tony's dead too. I'm not hearing anything. I'm not. Well, you know, Norton, he doesn't know us. He doesn't recognize his old pals. He killed us and now he won't even speak to us. Look at us, Burke, standing here in front of you. Don't you recognize us now? No, you're dead. You're just wax dummies. You're not real. But how can we be talking here if you weren't real? You're not talking to me. Just my nerves. Just my nerves, that's all. Go away. But we're never going away, Burke. We're waiting for you to die. Then you'll be with us again. No, I don't believe it. This is Pop Milloy's Wax Works Museum and you're... You're all just three wax dummies. Maybe, Burke, but did you ever hear a wax dummy talk before? Haven't you seen us and heard us, Burke? You'll always see and hear us no matter where you go. You'll always know we're with you, waiting for you to die. No, no. You've thought of us a lot lately, haven't you? No. You've had nightmares about us. No. You've been worrying about what would happen after you die. And now you know that we'll be waiting for you. No, get away from me. You killed us once to be rid of us, but now you can never be rid of us again. No. Never. Never. I can. I'll show you. I'll show you. Take that back, man. Now go away, because I've killed you. I've killed you. Do you hear? I've... So, you see, Lieutenant, Burke Morgan was covering me with a gun the whole time. I knew he'd shoot if I made a move, so I pretended to be asleep and then waited. I could see his nerves were jumping because he wanted more cocaine, and I figured that maybe with the dummies of the pals he murdered standing there and looking like ghosts, he might crack. I see. I'd just about given up hope, though, when he started talking out loud, as if he could hear those dummies talking to him. And all at once he lost control of himself and emptied his gun at him. Then I ran for the door. Yeah, Lieutenant. As soon as I heard the shots and pop, yeah, like I'm busting in. And you know, Burke Morgan had fainted. Yeah, fainted dead away there in that fake electric chair. So I handcuffed him, and there he is. Not even come to yet. I see. Well, I'd hate to have to sit here myself looking at those three green faces glowing in front of me. Not surprised Morgan cracked. Yeah, me neither. The green faces on them three dummies give me the creeps. And my conscience ain't bothering me either. Well, anyway, I'm glad we caught him. Now I can go ahead with my plans for my exhibit. Huh? You know, execution of Burke Morgan as his murdered partners look on. I wouldn't want to waste all that fuss for us and paint he used. That's one way of looking at it. Well, we'll take him away now. Hey, Pop. Pop, come here. Yes, Lieutenant? Well, it looks like you're going to have even a bigger thing in this exhibit of yours than you ever figured on. I don't understand, Lieutenant. What do you mean? I mean that Burke Morgan's fright when he thought those dummies were talking to him was too much for a drug-weakened heart. Look at him. He hasn't fainted. He's dead. What? He's dead in the electric chair. And right on schedule. So Burke Morgan died in the electric chair, just as the law said he would. Apparently fate had decreed that he was to die that way and nothing he could do could change it. But then waxworks museums are rather frightening places even when you haven't got a lot of murders on your conscience. I remember a perfectly innocent young man who got locked in one and in the morning he... Oh, you have to go now. Perhaps you'll drop in again soon. Just look for the house on the other side of the cemetery. The house of Dr. Weir.
