Here you are, a young woman of 23, about to inherit a large family fortune, but you’re terrified of developing the same mental illness that your mother suffered at the same age. The inheritance is contingent upon reaching 23 while living in her father’s old San Francisco home. She is under the supervision of two guardians who live in the same house. If she doesn’t remain in the house, the guardians get the fortune. What could possibly go wrong? Everyone’s motives are certainly for the best with the utmost integrity. This certainly sounds like an Inner Sanctum plotline more than a Suspense one. It should. One of the Inner Sanctum scripters wrote the play.
The star of the episode is Nancy Coleman who had a long acting career, mainly in supporting roles. She was active in theater, radio, movies, and television. For many years she had the lead role in the 1950s TV version of Valiant Lady, a soap opera that started on radio. She performed in many different 1950s television series and continued acting through the 1960s.
The author of the script was Sigmund Miller, a regular writer for Inner Sanctum. Miller’s career had its bumps along the way, getting caught in the snare of Red Channels. He decided to ride it out in the UK where he wrote theatrical and screenplays. He did return to the US. Later in life, he developed a curiosity about science writing and had a best-selling book to help patients discern their symptoms to aid in accurate diagnoses of medical conditions.
This episode did not get much pre-broadcast publicity. Suspense had just moved to Hollywood, and perhaps there was not time to plan out the publicity strategy and schedule.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430413
THE CAST
NANCY COLEMAN (Julia Powell), Fred MacKaye (Dr. Barrow, alias Ralph Powell), Edwin Maxwell (Harvey Lyons), Beatrice Benaderet (Laura Lyons), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Lawyer)
This script would be repeated in 1945 with Lana Turner as the star.
###
