The star of this episode is Katina Paxinou, a Greek actress, who started her career in theater in 1928 and fled to Britain at the start of WW2, and then moved to Hollywood. She won a supporting actress Oscar for her first film performance in For Whom the Bell Tolls. She returned to Greece in the early 1950s, but this time as a US citizen. This is her only Suspense appearance. She did not appear on many radio broadcasts.
The story concerns the alarm of a young girl who has clearly made a wrong choice in finding a job. She has taken a position as companion to a strange woman, owner of a really big red wig. She soon realizes she is actually a prisoner, and the occupants of the household are trying to convince her she is insane. They call her “Sheila,” even though that’s not her name. What’s going on? It turns out she is replacing a murdered woman in the job she had! This doesn’t seem like it can end well.
The original story was by Anthony Gilbert, a pseudonym for Lucy Beatrice Malleson. She used that name for 60+ crime novels. Her main mystery series character was Arthur Crook, an unscrupulous lawyer who used his deceitful behavior to solve crimes and prove his falsely accused client as innocent (Almost sounds like a British Perry Mason, but more similar to the Mason novels than the TV series). This was the only Gilbert story performed on Suspense, but many of the stories were performed on various BBC radio drama series. This novel also became a favorite of film noir fans, released by Columbia Pictures in 1945 as My Name is Julia Ross. The film can be viewed on YouTube https://youtu.be/MdAXZwPcPrk
Harold Medford adapted the Gilbert story. Only the east network broadcast has survived.
Katina Paxinou began her stage career in Greece in 1928 and was one of the founding members of the National Theatre of Greece in 1932. The outbreak of World War II found her in the United Kingdom and she later moved to the United States, where her 1943 debut in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) won her some notoriety. She did a few more films, and returned to Greece where she did more theatrical work and appeared in some European film productions.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP440406
THE CAST
KATINA PAXINOU (Rita Krebo), Ian Wolfe (Dr. Turner), Hans Conried (Carl), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), unknown (Julia Ross) [same unidentified actress who was in 1944-03-09], unknown (Mrs. James)
###
