Another silent film star who became Hollywood royalty appears on Suspense as Lillian Gish is featured in Marry for Murder, a three character play. This is her only Suspense appearance. This is almost like a Whistler script in that there’s a big deal about drawing up wills (only rich people had wills was the common perception). Once you have a will, only bad things can happen. The desire for inheritance becomes a plotline that can only lead to murder.
Philip Alden is an attorney who once had eyes for Lettie Hawthorne and finds himself preparing wills for Lettie and her new husband Mark. Lettie is a bit anxiety driven, and convenient to the plot, husband Mark buys some rat poison to take care of a problem around the boathouse. Lettie is worried that an accident might happen. So, of course, she comes down with a case of arsenic poisoning. Mark is suspected and Philip expresses his displeasure and concern. It turns out that Lettie is becoming a serial husband murderer who says “oh, what bad luck I’ve had with my husbands.” How strange they have yachting-related accidents that lead to their demise. She says she runs through money and her plan is to keep murdering them to get their money. Philip realizes what’s going on...
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP430909
THE CAST
LILLIAN GISH (Lettie Hawthorne), RAY COLLINS (Philip Alden), BRAMWELL FLETCHER (Mark Taylor), Jim Bannon (Man in Black)
The author of the script is Walker T. Field and might be one of the Suspense “one-hit wonders” who submitted only one script to radio and had it accepted by this high-level series… and was not heard from again.
The story was adapted for Suspense Magazine #2 and is available for download or reading at the Internet Archive link above.
###
