TEX PANTHOLLOW, in Charade (1963), was a renegate US Army officer assigned to the wartime OSS. He and four mates (Charles Voss, Leopold W. Gideon, Herman Scobie, and Carson Dyle) were ordered to deliver $250,000 in gold to the French underground. But the five agreed instead to steal the gold, by burying it and then claiming the Germans had captured it.But on the way back, a German war patrol ambushed them. A machine gun separated Herman from his right hand, and caught Carson Dyle in the leg and stomach.Tex made the decision. Herman could still travel, but Carson could not. So they left Carson where he was. All was fair in love and war.The four men made it back to base and waited for the war to end. But good old Charlie couldn't wait quite as long as the rest of them. The fink beat them back to the gold, took it all for himself, made like a banana and split!Tex laid it on the line with Herman and Leo: they would track Charlie down, kill him, and get the money.Tex spotted Charlie in Paris on a Tuesday. But Tex got careless, and Charlie made him. The next thing he knew, Charlie sold all his stuff at auction but didn't stay in one place long enough for Tex or the other boys to pick him up.And then a fourth man joined the group: Alexander Dyle, Carson Dyle's brother! He said he inherited Carson's share and would help them get it from Charlie.Tex again had to decide. He would trust Alexander Dyle.The next thing they knew, Charlie was dead and the money was gone. But Alexander had gone after another lead. It seemed that Charlie had changed his name to Charles Lampert, and had married an American expat named Regina. So Tex and the others waited for Alex to get back to them.But they didn't sit too idle. Tex showed up at the funeral. Gideon was already there; so were Miz Lampert, a lady friend of hers, and a guy who had cop written all over him. Tex walked up to Charlie, laid out in a casket. He pulled out a pocket mirror, held it to Charlie's nose, and looked at it. No fogging. So he took out a daisy and left it in Charlie's hands: Arrivederci, Charlie. Then he spoke to Miz Lampert: Charlie had no call 'a' doin' it that way. No sir-ree. Then he quietly took a vacant seat--lots of the available.Then in came old Herman, mad at the world as he'd been since losing his hand. His test was a sight more brutal: he stuck a pin into Charlie. Then he walked out, without saying a word to anybody.Tex shadowed Mrs. Lampert, and caught up with her as Les Black Sheep Club. He cornered her in a phone booth, and laid it on the line: It belonged to him, and she would either get it for him, or her life wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on. To make his point, he struck a bunch of matches and dropped them, one by one, still burning, into her lap. Then he beat it.But when he got back to the hotel, he found that Herman had gone into her room all by himself, and now he was complaining that he had run into Alex and had a fight with him.Aw, man! What a dumb move! Leo said so, and Tex chimed in. If only Herman had told them what he planned to do, he and Leo could have done something to keep Alex busy! Going up to her room by himself--what did he expect? That Alex would shake him by that metal hand of his? That was a dumb move, Herman! said Leo. Yes, that was a dumb move, Herman, said another voice. What is the matter with you? Alex. You want some more? said Herman. Leo stopped him and asked after the money. Alex told them he couldn't possibly get it with The Three Marx Brothers breathing down [his] neck. Alex had a point. Herman didn't see it that way. He stalked out, after saying Alex would get his cut out of their shares, not his.Alex asked who had the room next to Mrs. Lampert's. Tex did, so Alex asked for his key. Tex agreed to get himself another room. But he also warned Alex not to double cross his buddies, saying that he, Tex, wasn't worried, but Leo was. And he's even meaner 'n' I am. The next day, Herman went off again. The story he got from Herman, late at night, was this: Herman cornered Alex at the American Express, forced him up to the roof, and tried to screw the money out of him there. Of course the two had gotten in a fight, which ended with Herman hanging by his metal hook on the gutter of the building's mansard roof.Now Tex had to act. No more fooling around. So he arranged to put the pinch on a little boy, the son of Mrs. Lampert's lady friend. It was easy. Tex gave out he was a cowboy, and it was enough to gain the boy's trust. The boy kept asking for Aunt Reggie, and that's when Tex called Mrs. Lampert and asked her to pop on over to his new room and shoot the breeze.The little boy asked Tex, Are you a real cowboy? Sure am, kid. So where's your gun? Tex hauled it out and twirled it. That scared Leo, who shouted at him to put it away.That's when Mrs. Lampert and Alex showed up. And then Alex put out a really strange theory: that one of the three of them had been the one to run down Charlie, corner him on the train, kill him, and without telling the other two, take the money for himself. Herman pointed out that whoever did that wouldn't hang around--but Alex said he'd have to, or he'd have the others chasing him down. So Herman proposed searching their rooms--and Alex said, Fine with us, and while we're waiting, we'll search yours. That sounded reasonable to Tex, who bade them You just make yourselves to home. He and Leo searched Mrs. Lampert's room. (Herman searched Alex' room.) Leo found Charlie's stuff in an airline bag. The police had even provided them with a list. But there sure wasn't anything there worth any quarter of a million dollars.Tex than asked Leo whether they were maybe fishing up the wrong stream. Suppose one of them had it, like the man said? Now that would be mighty distasteful, they being veterans of the same war and all. But any one of them would naturally tell the others if he had it. Wouldn't they?Then the kid came running along the hallway, shouting, We won! We won! We won! We won! He led them to Herman's room, where the kid pointed to the top of the wardrobe. Tex climbed up to it, and found a leather case. Could this be it? He thew it open. Jumping Three Holies, it was only a Herman spare.But where was Herman? He was in Alex' room. And he hadn't come running. Now why?Alex made the sorry discovery: Herman was in his bathtub, drowned, and under water. Now who would have done a mean thing like that? None of them could be sure. Leo got the idea of carrying Herman to his own room and drying him off. Tex helped him do this, thinking that Herman and good luck always had been strangers, and now maybe Herman would meet up with his right hand someplace.But before Tex left, he managed to get back into Mrs. Lampert's room long enough to tear up that policeman's list and make off with the one item that would give him a clue: Charlie's appointment book.The next morning he, Alex, Mrs. Lampert, and Leo were summoned to that cop's office. The cop told him none of them would be permitted to leave until this matter is cleared up, and we use the guillotine in this country. Leo let out a big sneeze.But that night, Leo got himself killed! This was getting way out of control. That Alex had some kind of nerve. Tex made himself scarce. But as soon as he found a phone booth, he called Alex. He knew who had that money, and he, Tex, wanted his share. It had been growing and growing every day, and Tex wasn't disappearing until he got it. And if Alex wanted to find him, he had only to look over his shoulder.The next day was Thursday. And at 5:00, just like that appointment book said, he went to the Garden of Elysian Fields Avenue. All he could see was the stamp market. He walked around, looked around--and then suddenly knew this was the clue! The envelope in the airlines bag! It had three weird-looking stamps on it, and they must be the missing money! He bugged out, bumping into Alex as he did so, practically hijacked the first cab that came along, and high-tailed it back to the hotel. There he searched Mrs. Lampert's room again, and found the envelope--with the stamps torn off.Well, that was just perfect. She had batted her pretty little eyes at Alex, and he'd fallen for it, like an egg from a tall chicken! And now she had the money! Alex came back, drew his gun, and demanded the envelope. Tex, laughing uproariously at this greenhorn, this blockheaded jackass, this nincompoop, handed him the envelope, for what little joy it would give him.Then he made his fatal mistake: he hung around. He thought he could catch Mrs. Lampert and waylay her. But someone waylaid him. It was none other than Carson Dyle, who hadn't died in that ambush after all! Tex felt a knock on the head. Then he woke up, tied between two radiators, with a plastic bag over his head! He was finished; he knew it. But he could still reach out from the grave, like the Agatha Christie novels said. So he wrote on the carpet, with his finger, the name of the man who had killed him: DYLE. That done, his stale breath put him to sleep, and he slipped out of this world forever. Show less «