A pyromaniac is creating havoc in a city. An insurance fire investigator suspects his wife is the perpetrator... but his wife suspects him!
Blogger Christine Miller notes that this script...
...was based on the 1936 short story by Cornell Woolrich (William Irish), but it doesn't capture the intensity. Suspense changed the ending and gave the married couple at the center of the story a chance for future happiness. In Woolrich's version, the husband and wife do not live happily ever after.
This is the second time the story is presented on Suspense and the earliest surviving broadcast of it. The first broadcast was on 1943-03-02 and was also the first time a Woolrich story was presented on the series. The earliest Woolrich Suspense broadcast recording that has survived is 1943-06-15 Last Night, which was posted earlier at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/02/1943-06-15-last-night.html
The only surviving recording of this The Night Reveals is the Thursday east broadcast. The west broadcast is missing, and there is no AFRS recording available at this time. Note at about 29:10 in the recording that Joe Kearns says “join us next Thursday,” which is the marker for whether it is an east or west broadcast.
Ms. Miller considers the 1949 version with Frederic March and Jeanette Nolan to be the best Suspense production of the story. https://www.escape-suspense.com/2008/08/suspense---th-1.html
Fire was a great and legitimate fear at the time of the story, especially in apartment houses and tenements. Sprinkler systems were not common, many of today’s firefighting techniques had not been developed, and methods to detect arson were primitive compared to today’s methods. Fires could go undetected and gain strength without smoke detectors and alarms. The communications infrastructure of emergency services such as 911 call centers were not possible at the time. Electric and other appliances were not designed according to insurance guidelines such as Underwriters Laboratories and building fire regulations that prevent such tragic events and are taken for granted. There were many challenges to rescue workers to their arriving in time to save lives and property. The idea that a pyromaniac was loose in a city could draw significant news attention. This storyline was more frightening and riveting in the 1940s than it would be among today’s audience.
Woolrich was a New Yorker and some of the street names and locations can be real or “fictional but authentic.” One of the addresses is 340 E 98 Street which exists in Brooklyn and Queens, but not Manhattan.
A chemical is mentioned in the story, sodium amytal. It is a barbiturate prescription medicine used to treat the symptoms of insomnia. It is a hypnotic and sedative. The fact that Woolrich uses it means that many in the audience would have some familiarity with it, and mentioning it would not impede the storyline but give it more credibility. Many radio scriptwriters would “invent” medicine or poison names so as to not give anyone any nefarious inspirations.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP431209
THE CAST
ROBERT YOUNG (Harry Jordan), MARGO (Marie Jordan), Byron Kane (Steve), Hans Conried (Mr. Palmenter / Policeman), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), Joel Davis? (Johnny Jordan), unknown (Commissioner), unknown (Investigator)
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