Peter Gunn (1958) s01e15 Episode Script

1
© transcript Emily Beynon.
Whatever it is, fella, it's going to be all right.
Come on in.
Nothing's worth this.
What time is it?
Time?
4.20.
Here you are, Mother.
Oh, thanks, Bernie.
Whisper cussing.
Any message, Mother?
Well, Lester was all she had in the world.
Gussie's not much for sympathy.
If she makes any cracks, you tell her I'm just paying her
back for all those passes she used to give me to the Orpheum.
See you later.
All right, Pete.
Yes?
Mrs. Lester Warnecke?
Yes.
I'm Peter Gunn.
I'm a friend of Mother's.
Come in.
Thank you.
It's sort of a mess here.
Mr. Gunn, last couple of days,
I just gave it a lick and a promise.
Maybe Mother let you know
that Yes, she did, Mrs. Warnecke.
Gussie.
Mother send that?
Oh, all but this.
I didn't think it would do any harm.
It's a little Sherry.
No.
No harm.
Would you like some?
Sure.
Grocery?
Mm-hmm.
I was over at Mother's, and
She asked me to drop these off.
I'm no charity case, Mr. Gunn.
I hope Mother didn't give you that impression.
Oh, not a bit.
She probably knew you just didn't feel like shopping.
It's just her way of starting to pay you back for all
those passes you used to give her for the Orpheum.
Orpheum.
Lester and Company.
That's me, Mr. Gunn.
And Company.
So I've heard.
And
Mother told you about Lester?
Well, I guess just about everybody in
town's heard about it one way or another.
Mother showed me the newspaper stories.
I'm not even going to put those in.
What kind of a thing is that for a finish?
Years and years of outstanding performances.
Appearances before the crowned heads of Europe, and then
Who wants that for a wind-up?
Seems impossible.
It is impossible.
Like I said to Mother last night.
All right, so I was feeling sorry for
myself, but Lester wouldn't.
He had no reason to, no call in the world
to take the big one off that building.
I just don't get it one little bit.
That, for instance.
Maybe Mother told you Lester was the
world's greatest human fly?
Oh.
Why, Lester Lester tied up the entire
Metropolis of Detroit when he scaled the heights of a
30-story skyscraper without assistance of
any kind, human or mechanical.
He was a genius, Mr. Gunn.
All right, so things were rough on us
lately, and a person does get despondent,
but he'd never go off and take the big one.
No, no, no nothing.
Especially with this job coming up.
What job?
Well, Thursday, I answered the phone,
and this man's voice asked for Lester,
and he talked to him and nodded sort of, uh-huh, you know.
But he wouldn't fill me in.
I thought it was a friend of ours named Sam, but Lester
said, no, it wasn't, and if it worked out, he'd tell me.
I thought maybe it was a civilian job, and
Lester had his pride and didn't want to give.
But actually, I got the idea it was a pro-engagement.
Who's Sam?
Samson the Great.
He was with us on the pan time.
Lifted weights, broke chains.
He was legit, built like an ox.
Now he's got this place down the river,
fishing, boat rentals.
We sort of kept in touch.
Well, does he have anything to do with
show business now, Gussie?
Not that I know of, but I thought maybe if
he heard about a job, he might
Maybe you just better skip it, Mr. Gunn.
I was just crying in my beer with Mother.
Maybe things weren't as feathery as I thought they were.
Skip what?
What are you talking about?
I know who you are, Mr. Gunn.
And I know Mother thought she was doing me
a favor when she asked you to look into
this for me, but after all, what's to look?
It's not in your line.
You said he had no reason to jump.
No.
And Lester the Great wouldn't slip.
He sure wouldn't.
Maybe it is in my line.
Take me months just to pay for the funeral.
Well, I thought I'd just put it on Mother's orphan account.
I don't know how to thank you.
Sure you do.
You just did.
Wished all my customers was bright as
early as you, my friend.
Well, you can have your pick of the best
craft on the river.
You're Sam.
Yeah, who else?
What can I do for you?
Inboard or out, day or overnight?
I need some help.
Uh, got another butt handy?
Yeah.
Well, if you, uh, don't see it on a sign, pal,
you'll have to, uh, look it up in the yellow pages.
It's about Lester.
Lester?
Lester who?
Gussie's husband.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I heard about that.
You never know, do you?
I heard they were having it kind of rough lately.
You, uh, taking up a collection for the
widow or something, pal?
Yeah, you might call it that.
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll drop something in the mail for you.
Anything else?
I'd like to get the pier shored up before noontime.
The customers start coming in in bunches.
Why would Lester do it, Sam?
Why?
When it's over, that's when it's time to
quit, isn't it, pal?
Boy, you can't say he didn't have some
audience for that last show.
But why?
You got any ideas?
I don't know.
I heard they had it pretty rough the last couple of years.
And, of course, I haven't seen them lately.
Well, not since way before last Christmas.
We haven't seen Lester and Gussie.
And, well, they never socked it away like I did.
And if you don't sock it away, well, after all,
how many human flies can you use in a season?
Sam, you got the keys out there on you?
Yeah, why wouldn't I?
So that's it, my friend.
Look, there's no sense in wasting your trip up.
Why don't you go out and try for a few bass?
Good morning.
Good morning.
I know you're gonna be just as lucky as can be.
I understand they're fighting like crazy
down at Miller's Dam, honey.
Hope there's plenty of gas in the car.
I'm late meeting Gloria now.
May I have the keys?
This is the wife, Pearl.
How do you do?
How do you do?
This is your first time, isn't it?
Well, my husband can give you all the dope you
need to have a perfectly relaxing and successful day.
Well, I'm sure he could, but
actually The gentleman's a friend.
A friend of Lester and Gussie's, honey.
Oh, I was heartbroken by the tragedy.
They were they were so close, you know.
And I said to Sam, I said, Honey, remember
all the fun we had at the carny last month?
Well, c'est la vie.
Isn't that right?
Oh, yeah, I guess it was last month, wasn't it?
The keys, honey bunch.
You got the brains of a two-year-old.
What, honey?
What are you wearing that ring for?
Because it's stunning and it's brand new.
Well, I don't like it.
Take it off.
I am eating at the swankiest restaurant in
the entire state, and Gloria's got a new stolen.
I don't see why I can't have a diamond.
When will you ever learn to get some taste?
Anyone looking at that rock would know it's a phony.
It's fake.
Take it off.
It's vulgar.
What?
Give me the keys.
Pearl, have you talked to Gussie?
Why, no.
I was too
Well, I mean, I wouldn't even know what to
begin to say either.
Well, bye-bye.
It takes her over an hour to get ready from the
inside out, but the results are well worth it, huh?
She's a very attractive woman, Sam.
Well, uh, see you up here next week,
and maybe you can hook into a few.
I'd like to think I could, Sam.
Thanks for your time.
It's all right.
Come back soon.
Spend the day.
Make it fast, Sam.
Say, guess who my first customer was this morning?
I think you will care, Chop.
Peter Gunn.
You don't say.
Purely coincidental?
You might say it was a kind of a fishing expedition, Chop.
Lester.
You got me.
Gussie must have.
I wonder if Gussie's psychic.
Now, listen, Sam.
Carefully.
I don't like to repeat myself.
Yeah?
Right.
Right.
Of course I can.
Well, it'll be a real pleasure.
How come you represent a nice old dame
like Gussie Warnecke?
Who said I did?
I tried to get her to sign a simple paper.
I get word back that any questions the
department wants to ask her has to go through you.
Loyally.
Complications.
What kind of a simple paper?
Permission to perform an autopsy on her husband.
Autopsy?
Why?
He was shot.
We got lucky.
We found this in a vent on the roof of a
building facing the Hathaway Hotel.
It would seem the only logical target
might have been Lester.
Any prints?
Sure.
A business card and a telephone number.
Will you please tell your client to let us go ahead?
All right.
Lieutenant Jacoby.
Yeah.
Who?
The jurors.
Put it on the wire.
You haven't run across Benny and Juki Juro
lately, have you?
The Ice Boys?
They back in town?
Charlie Coyle's wholesale jewelry store was robbed.
Coyle was going through the He picked
out the mugs and he picked out the jurors.
I didn't hear anything.
You still haven't.
We're keeping it under wraps.
Why?
$200,000 in unsaid diamonds.
We thought they might show up.
And Coyle got to the alarm before they winged him, too.
How did the department miss him?
The Coyle place is on the fifth floor.
You could block every exit in 30 seconds.
The streets choked to the gills.
Nobody could move.
Those jokers were lucky enough to pick the one
afternoon when your friend Lester was in the car.
He was out on that ledge tying up traffic.
Good timing.
So good it makes you wonder.
I see it does make you wonder.
Yeah.
Mind revealing any details?
See you're up.
What.
Do you know about a place down the river called Sam?
Boats for hire?
I advise you not to tangle with Sam.
He used to be a strong man in a circus.
Samson the Great.
I hear he spends every dime he makes on his wife.
Know anything about her?
I hear if she wants to look at pictures of
her friends, she just drops in the post office.
Thanks.
Let me know if you come up with anything else, huh?
Oh, sure.
Edie's taking 10.
She's in the dressing room.
No merit badges?
For what?
Eagerness, bird watching, early rising.
You must have been up at the crack of dawn.
Tailing me?
No, but it's not such a bad idea.
I was lonesome for you this morning, so I called you.
But you missed your chance.
I was out trying to do a favor for somebody.
Get it done?
Don't think so.
The favors I ask are easy.
Well, you're bucking for all kinds of
merit badges, aren't you?
I don't think you could have been in the
same Boy Scout troop I was.
Pete?
Hmm?
If you finish early, I have a great idea.
Yeah?
Like what?
Like you'll never know if you don't finish early.
Well, that's not fair.
And you'll never know what you missed.
Oh, nuts.
Yes?
Pete, Gussie Warnicke just phoned.
She wants to know if you'll stop by tonight.
She sounded worried.
Okay.
Thanks, Mother.
Gussie?
The favor.
Oh.
Not gonna tell me your idea?
You finish early.
While you're talking to Gussie, I'll put on higher heels.
Oh.
Gussie, I'm afraid I haven't got anything
to tell you that's new.
I didn't expect anything after all.
But I found something I thought maybe you
ought to know about.
What's that?
Well, maybe I'm
I'm reaching to put two and two together,
and it's adding up to five.
But I was going through Lester's things,
and Well, Lester only had two pair of shoes.
He's brown and he's black, and there they
both were in the closet.
I'm sorry, Gussie, but I'm afraid you just lost me.
Don't you see?
He wasn't wearing street shoes.
Never occurred to me before.
After all, I wouldn't go down there to
Well, don't you get it, Mr. Gunn?
He was wearing his special fly shoes.
The grippers.
Lester wasn't up in that building to do away with himself.
He was on a job.
Yeah.
And I don't think they told him how he was
going to get paid.
What?
Gussie, maybe my two and two add up to five.
But do you really want to find out about it?
Anything.
Certainly.
You'd do everything I tell you?
Lester always said there was one thing I
could do if nothing else.
Take direction.
What, though, Gussie?
I don't know what you're talking about.
Since I didn't hear from you, Sam, I thought maybe
I didn't get it straight from Lester about the payoff.
I didn't know whether you'd pay it or if
Benny and Juki Giroux would.
Benny and Juki Giroux?
I hear the whole caper went off smooth as silk.
I sure could use Lester's share, Sam.
Yeah, Gussie, yeah, I know what you mean,
but we ain't made nothing yet.
I mean, it hasn't been fenced.
I tell you what, Gussie, maybe I can't help
you if you really have a bad case of the shorts.
Can you meet me down here?
Sure I could, Sam, right away.
And thanks for your help.
I'll leave in ten minutes.
Oh, Gussie, listen, no reason to disturb Pearl.
Just drive down by the pier.
I'll meet you down there.
Okay.
Fine, Gussie.
I thought you said your friend Lester
could keep his mouth shut.
Well, I didn't guarantee it.
I laid it on the line, didn't I?
And it was a great gimmick.
We stood to make a couple of hundred grand.
And remember, I was the first to point out
that a human fly ain't like you and me, right?
Not like me, anyhow.
I prefer to work without an audience.
Turn it off, Sam.
My, Gussie, are you changed.
Let's get a look at you.
No, it's not Sam.
But if you can throw a curve, why can't he?
I came out here to talk to Sam.
Let's stop playing games.
No games, just business.
But Sam wants to talk to me and my client?
Fine.
You don't seem to get it, Mr. Gunn.
It's not what Sam wants.
It's not what you want.
It's what I want.
Now, get rid of your gun.
Now, the other hand.
Toss it away.
Benny and Juki bringing in outside talent now?
They used to handle it all themselves.
Well, you know how it is, Mr. Gunn.
Everybody's a specialist these days.
And everybody gets paid off in rocks.
You get about a hundred pounds around the neck.
Get down in your knees.
Drop it!
That's nice.
I'm glad you liked it.
I'd like it a lot better if you did it again.
We aim to please.
How's that?
Oh, I'm so glad you finished early.
You're in trouble.
I am, huh?
Uh-huh.
I fell right into my trap.
Don't be too sure.
Just one more.
How's that?
That does it.
Jim!
You sure come up with some great ideas.
How does that sound?
Yeah, it's like the whole thing!
That's what I want to say anyway.
There was great love there.