A henpecked husband, who is a college professor, decides he’s had enough of his wife’s belittling and antagonism and has a plan to do away with her. He starts a ditch in their basement for a “devil’s garden,” so he claims, but he’s actually preparing her grave. She’s sometimes watching. There’s very little Christmas spirit here, except as a target date on the calendar… he plans to be away in the US for the holiday. The wife’s gift to the husband, somewhat of a reconciliation offering, is revealed only after the murder, too late for him to change what he did and conceal his crime. The joy of the holiday seems to include a bit of panic and karma! Peter Lorre offers a compelling performance as the husband.
This is another John Collier story, and it’s a good one. It first appeared in The New Yorker of September 29, 1939. The story was adapted by Robert Tallman.
This was the first Suspense presentation of the story. It was broadcast multiple times on the series and once on Escape in December 1947. There were television adaptations on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and also the later Tales of the Unexpected. It is likely that this story, and perhaps this particular adaptation, was used earlier on Radio Reader’s Digest on 1942-09-20 as “The Almost Perfect Crime” starring Charles Laughton. He would star in some of the Suspense repeat performances of the script. (The story was in the August 1942 edition of Reader's Digest.)
This is the east coast broadcast. No west coast recording has survived, and no Armed Forces Radio Service recording is available.
Ben Gross of the New York Daily News offered a favorable and concise review in the 1943-12-24 edition:
Peter Lorre and company gave the listeners a nice gruesome monster for Christmas last night during the Suspense period. It was a blood-curdling thriller about a monstrous professor of botany who murders his wife. Lorre really scared the wits out of us. Here's a show that lives up to its name and it has some of the best background music on the air.
The superior custom-written music of Suspense and its role in the dramas in was noticed almost immediately by reviewers and listeners. It was almost like the musical scores were another character, or a non-verbal narrator of the presentations. William Spier had a strong musical background, which allowed him to communicate with the musical director and the orchestra what he needed and in a manner of musical collegiality.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP431223
THE CAST
PETER LORRE (Professor Hubert Schumacher), John McIntire (Mexican man in middle commercial / Professor), Jeanette Nolan (Hermione), unknown (Marian Markham), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Steward), unknown (Freddie Sinclair / Professor Goodnough)
The Indianapolis News of 1943-12-23 had an interesting bit of information (likely part of CBS general publicity, but this is where we found it):
Because of the intricate production problems, Suspense is not being broadcast before a studio audience. CBS in Hollywood has constructed a special stage, sectioned off so orchestra and dramatic artists don't interfere with another while the complicated radio dramas are being performed.
###
