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I don't have access to my copy of "Fade In To Murder" where I'm at right now, but here is what Ward Fowler does in setting up and ruining his alibi:
7:30pm - Ward welcomes his friend into his home.
7:35pm - Ward hands his friend a drugged drink.
7:40pm - Friend passes out. Ward starts the tape recorder.
7:42pm - Ward leaves his home.
8:00pm - Ward enters the deli. Knocks out the deli owner and then kills Claire.
8:25pm - Ward returns home. Ward stops the tape recorder, rewinds it to the start. Ward alters his friend's watch so that it reads approximately 7:40pm. Ward plays the recorded baseball game. Ward wakes up his friend. Ward's friend appologizes for passing out. Ward says, "Hey, why not sleep it off?" Ward's friend looks at his watch, it's only 7:42pm (or so.) Ward's friend goes to have a nice sleep - passes out in bed. Ward corrects the time on friend's watch (but gets it wrong by 5 minutes.)
The following should then rightly follow but doesn't, because the script doesn't recognize the mistake:
6:00am - Friend wakes up. Remembers that Ward put him to bed around 7:42pm. Friend finds out later that Claire was murdered around 8:00pm the night before. Friend realizes that Ward could have left the house after he passed out - BECAUSE as far as Friend knows, Ward put him to bed at 7:42pm, not around 8:25 as it really was.
Several days later: Ward realizes that he should have awakened his Friend at 8:25pm - allowing the friend to BELIEVE that it was 7:42pm - and then CONTINUED watching the taped baseball game for a couple of hours - THROUGH THE 8 O'CLOCK HOUR - so as to arrange a REAL ALIBI.
Travel times to and from the deli don't enter into it. As far as Ward's friend is concerned, he was asleep by 7:42pm and Ward could have done anything to anybody after that point. Which is exactly what Ward did - only an hour (or so) earlier at the TRUE 7:42pm to 8:00pm.
Now then... is EVERYBODY TOTALLY CONFUSED by all this, or what?!
um.......................yes...
(no, you did a good job of explaining it.
)
one little tid-bit here. When Ward wakes his friend Mark, and Mark looks at his watch and it says 7:42, in Mark's head he would have thought it was only 7:37 since he always set his watch 5 minutes fast.
what this means??............I do not know!!