HAMILTON, Patrick

Gas Light

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Cameron : Your husband and Sergis Bauer are one and the same person. And this letter from Sergis Bauer to Alice Alquist was written two days before her murder.

Paula : But he said there wasn't any letter. He said I was going out of my mind.

Cameron : You're not going out of your mind. You're slowly and systematically being driven out of your mind.

Paula : But why? WHY?

Cameron : Perhaps because you found this letter and know too much. [ He looks up ] Or because then he would have control of your property, of this house, and could search in the open instead of the dark like this.

Paula: Why search? What is there to search for?

Cameron : For the things for which Alice Alquist was murdered. Her jewels.

Paula : But I have her jewels.

Cameron : Not the jewels you didn't know she had. Famous jewels, jewels for which he was searching that night. When he was frightened away by hearing someone come down the stairs. Someone he never saw. A little girl.

Paula: Me. Me. But he - if he was here that night, but he never - he never knew her. You're wrong...You're making a mistake. I know him. He's my husband. I've lived in the same house with him. You're talking about the man I'm married to.

Cameron : Mrs. Anton. There's not a detail of the Alquist case that I don't know and unless I'm more mistaken than I've ever been in my life, the man called Sergis Bauer has a wife living in Prague now. So you see, Mrs. Anton, he must have planned the whole thing step by step from that night.

Paula : Oh, if that were true, then from the beginning there would have been nothing. Nothing real from the beginning.

Cameron : I'm sorry to take everything away from you like this, but you must believe me. Your whole life depends on what you're going to do now, nothing less than your whole life. Don't you see the way everything fits in?

Gregory: I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to me.

Cameron : I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were dangerous to her.

Gregory : For the last time, what do you want of me?

Cameron : The jewels - and justice. How does it feel, Bauer, to have planned and killed and tortured for something and then to know it's been for nothing?

Gregory: For nothing?

Paula : This night will be a long night.

Cameron : But it will end. It's starting to clear. In the morning when the sun rises, sometimes it's hard to believe there ever was a night. You'll find that, too. Let me come here and see you and talk to you. Perhaps I can help somehow.

Paula: [ gratefully ] You're very kind.

…..


Rope

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[The scene is a flat in Mayfair. Rupert Cadell, a former schoolmate of the two main characters, Brandon and Granillo, has been invited to dinner by them. As they are eating, Rupert becomes suspicious of their behavior.]

Rupert: Do you know, it's funny, but as I came here tonight, I suddenly thought of something that happened years ago at school. We were discussing an article in the paper about a man who had committed murder for no apparent reason. And Brandon, you said that you thought such a thing was justifiable if it was done in the right spirit.

Brandon : Did I say that?

Rupert : Yes, you did. And I remember we all thought it was rather an odd thing to say. But I didn't realize until just now that you meant it seriously.

Brandon : Did I?

Rupert : You did, didn't you?

Brandon : I can't remember. It's possible.

Rupert : And Granillo, you agreed with him.

Granillo: I don't remember.

Rupert : You did. You both did. And now you're both looking very uncomfortable. Why is that?

[There is a long pause.]

Rupert: I see. Well, I suppose it's too late to back out now. The question is, what are you going to do about it?

Brandon : Do about what?

Rupert : The fact that you've killed someone, of course.

Granillo : What makes you think that?

Rupert : Don't be silly, Granillo.

…..