The Norliss Tapes
- Year:
- 1973
- 72 min
- 101 Views
Good morning, mr. Evans.
Monday morning
is never good.
Anything important?
David norliss
on three.
Ah.
Hello, david.
Been a while.
How's the book coming?
Sanford, I've gotta
talk to you.
I know,
you're gonna tell me
it's only half-written,
And we're gonna
have to delay our-
Half-written, hell.
I don't have a word on paper.
It's been
almost a year.
I know how long
it's been, sanford.
But I, uh...
I can't write it.
You're not making sense.
We gave you
a sizeable advance
To write a book
debunking the supernatural,
Which was your idea,
not ours.
And now you tell me,
a year later,
You haven't
even started it.
I'm into the book.
Deep into it.
But, uh...
It's on...On tapes.
A series of tapes.
When you hear them,
you'll understand.
What will I understand?
How far I've gone.
How dangerous
this whole thing is.
Sanford, I have to
talk to you.
David, you sound
very strange.
Are you all right?
David, are you all right?
Yeah.
Okay. Okay, what about
the canellia room
for lunch tomorrow?
That's no good.
I have to see you now.
It's Monday, dave.
You know what
mondays are like.
Why not tomorrow?
Tomorrow might be too late.
Do you wish
to order now, sir?
No, just
bring me a phone.
That was a week ago.
And I haven't been able
to contact him since.
Sanford, you should
be used to eccentric
writers by now.
And, in my opinion,
david norliss
Is just a bit
more eccentric than most.
Man, I'll never
get over this view.
There is something wrong.
I wish you'd
check this thing out,
find out where he is.
Sanford, I'm his lawyer,
not his nursemaid.
Please.
All right,
I'll look into it.
I still say
you're making too much
Sanford! Sanford!
Oh, good.
I was hoping
I'd see you.
Yeah, glad I ran into you.
Have you got time
Where are you going?
I'm going
up to the club.
All right, fine.
We'll have a drink.
Good. Yeah.
I, uh, have been
terribly worried.
I tried to
phone you earlier.
Well, I was in
a publisher's meeting.
Tied up the whole
bloody afternoon.
Sanford, I'm sorry
I didn't take you
very seriously
In the meeting
the other day.
Well?
I just thought
you were making
much too much of it.
I hope you have
something.
What'd you find out?
Nobody's seen him.
He's just...Gone.
Are you sure?
We checked every
possible source,
Everything conceivable.
It seems
incredible to me.
David?
notes for introduction.
Today is Thursday,
September 25,
And I might as well
get started with this thing,
Get the book rolling
with what I've got so far.
God knows, it isn't
taking the direction
I assumed it would.
This whole thing began
when my natural
writer's curiosity
Was aroused
by an article I had read
in a weekly periodical.
The article was concerned
with the commercial aspects
Of spiritualism
and the occult.
My original idea
was to expose the phonies
Who are bilking
millions of dollars
each year
Out of their
gullible victims,
To go after
the fake mediums,
phony astrologers,
The self-proclaimed seers
and trick mystics.
I was successful
at this for some time.
The floating face,
which was a dummy's head
on a wire,
The ghost
of a woman's son
Who turned out to be
the medium's own kid
in a weird get-up.
The fortune teller
who's life images
in a crystal ball
Were supplied
by a hidden film projector.
But then I got into
this business with ellen cort.
I had better
try to get this down
exactly the way it happened.
Ellen sterns cort
was recently widowed.
Her late husband,
james raymond cort,
Was a successful sculptor
from a well-to-do family.
He worked from a studio
on the grounds of
his estate in carmel.
When he married,
he brought ellen
there to live.
The night before
she came to see me,
She'd undergone
a very bizarre
and frightening experience.
Shortly after midnight,
she was awakened
from a sound sleep
By the barking
of her dog, rollie.
What is it, rollie?
What's the matter, boy?
Is somebody out there?
Show me.
Okay, show me what you want.
Okay. Easy.
Easy, boy. Easy.
The following night,
mrs. Cort came to see me.
Actually, her sister,
marsha sterns,
An acquaintance of mine,
had set up the meeting.
Marsha knew about
my work in the supernatural.
When ellen called her
about the incident,
Marsha had ellen contact me.
And the police
found only the body
of my dog rollie,
His next snapped,
ribs broken.
They analyzed
the blood stains
on the floor,
And they were his.
All his.
Are you sure
you hit the man
When you
fired the shotgun?
I'm telling you,
I hit him.
You were upset,
you saw your dog killed.
You could've missed.
I've handled
guns before.
He was right
in front of me
In my direct
line of fire.
The charges hit him,
smashed him backwards,
And that's when I ran.
But when
the police arrived,
There wasn't
a trace of him.
No, he was gone.
And when I told them
who it was,
They wouldn't
believe me.
Now, that's why
I've come to you.
Mrs. Cort, why wouldn't
Because the man I shot
was already dead.
It was jim.
My dead husband,
james cort.
Ellen cort seemed convinced
that she had encountered
The risen form of her
recently entombed husband.
I asked her to
describe the circumstances
surrounding cort's death.
Jim had been
feeling very bad.
We didn't know why,
and our family doctor
Suggested that he undergo
a series of tests
at the frasier clinic.
That's when
we discovered
he was suffering
From a terminal
disease of the brain
called pick's disease.
I've heard of it.
There's no cure,
there's no treatment,
And he- I don't know,
Jim just seemed to
change almost overnight.
He was confined
to a wheelchair,
would no longer work.
He even had me
board up his studio.
He wouldn't even
talk about his work.
Was he at all involved
with the supernatural?
Yes, he was.
And it started
just before his death.
Tell me about that.
I'd arranged an exhibit
of jim's sculptures
At the langdon gallery,
And he met a woman there
named madame jeckiel.
She owns an antique shop
here in san francisco,
And part of her business
involves the occult.
In what way?
She deals with objects
That are supposed to
have occult power.
She even claims
to cure the sick,
and jim believed her.
a lot of money, too.
No. No, she didn't.
As far as I know,
jim never gave her a penny.
Not even for that ring.
What ring?
An egyptian scarab.
Something to do
with the god osiris.
Osiris is
an egyptian god
Involved with
the doctrine
of immortality.
Yes. The ring was
part of an agreement
he made with her.
You use the word agreement.
What kind of agreement
did they have?
I wish I could tell you.
I can't.
All I know is jim
accepted that ring
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