Uncle Clarence has just returned from India and decides to mess with his family’s heads using the black magic powers of hypnotism. Back in the 1940s, hypnotism was a big deal and something to be feared, especially when used by someone with evil intentions. The story seems very dated because of the modern understanding of hypnotism. But that’s okay. As classic radio fans, we’ve always bought into the idea of someone being able to “cloud men’s minds so they cannot see him” and have been entertained by it. Enjoy the story, nonetheless.
Only the west coast recording has survived. It has the date of 1944-03-20.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP440316
THE CAST
LAIRD CREGAR (Clarence Crossman), Hans Conried (Bill Gilchrist), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), John McIntire (Doctor), Mary Lou Harrington? (Jeanie), unknown (Lillian), Robert Harris? (Dr. Miller)
The original title of the script was “A Death in the Family.”
This was Cregar’s second and final appearance on Suspense. An immense talent, he died nine months later of complications from dieting in an effort to get more leading movie roles.
The writers of the script were Dwight Hauser and Bob Tallman. Hauser was an actor, writer, and producer who had a long association with Disney working on television and movie projects starting in the 1950s. It was Tallman who probably adapted an outlined idea by Hauser.
There has been some speculation that The Whistler script 1943-05-23 Man from India was adapted or re-used for this broadcast. Unfortunately, that Whistler broadcast does not exist in circulation, and nor does its script. There is reason to believe that the Whistler broadcast was a script by Joe Kearns adapted from a 1936 short story by Emil Tepperman, Man from the East. A profile of Kearns in Radio Life 1945-06-03 mentions he wrote a script "The Man From Out of the East" for The Whistler which may refer have been re-named Man from India. Newspapers did not carry much background on any of the Whistler broadcasts, so that resource is not helpful. There is no information about Man from India, so the possibility remains thoughtful speculation that requires some lucky breaks in the research process.
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