Eddie Bracken stars in an adaptation of a best-selling novel about a man, presumed dead by drowning three years earlier, returns to identify his killer. But… is he an imposter?
The authors of the original novel, released in 1944 by Dell, were husband and wife Carl Randau & Leane Zugsmith. It was adapted for Suspense by Robert Richards. Randau was a newspaper reporter and playwright. Zugsmith was a long-time author and political activist. The Visitor became a Broadway play in the Fall of 1944, lasting only 23 performances. Considered a flop, the movie rights were sold for $150,000, a surprising sum. That is more than $2 million in US$2023 terms. A movie was never made.
The east and west recordings have survived, with the east being the better of the two. The west recording sound like there was some disc damage that is difficult to compensate for without negatively affecting listenability.
Radio critic Ben Gross liked Bracken’s performance, writing in the 1944-05-12 NY Daily News:
Eddie Bracken, better known as a comedian, demonstrated his ability to play a straight dramatic role in a chiller-diller, The Visitor, during the Suspense period last night. He scared the daylights out of us.
That is precisely what performers and their agents were looking for by appearing on Suspense in atypical roles. Bracken was a rising star on Broadway in the 1930s and left for Hollywood. At the time of this Suspense broadcast, he was in two very popular films, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. Bracken parlayed his popularity into a radio comedy program that ran on NBC and CBS from 1945 to 1947. He left Hollywood for Broadway and television through the 1950s through the 1970s. He eventually appeared in 1980s and 1990s movies such as National Lampoon Vacation and Home Alone 2, and guest starred in other movie and television parts. Bracken also did some animation voice acting into his 80s.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/440511
THE CAST
CAST: EDDIE BRACKEN (Bud Owen), Ken Christy (Mac Berle), Hans Conried (Joe / Al), John McIntire (David Cunningham), Jeanette Nolan? (Judith Cunningham / Mrs. Callahan), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Dr. Sterling), unknown (Ellen)
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