This was a long-awaited Suspense production, and it didn’t disappoint. Delayed for about six months, it was a ground-breaking endeavor that demonstrated a good story and sophisticated production could be spread over two broadcasts, and it established the fact that science fiction could attract and satisfy a general adult audience. Its success contributed to the radio production of other sci-fi stories and series. Of all Orson Welles’ appearances on Suspense, it may have been his best, and if not, it may be the most important. In so many of his appearances he could play the larger-than-life actor that overpowers those performing with him. This performance was quite different in its demands, and it is likely few other actors of the period could have done it as well or with such insight.
Donovan’s Brain was a best selling novel by Curt Siodmak and was adapted by Robert Richards. Republic Pictures had the movie rights, and released the story as The Lady and the Monster a few weeks earlier. The Suspense production was originally scheduled for Welles’ Fall 1943 appearances. The production schedule of the movie slipped, and the radio version had to be delayed.
With the Suspense broadcast finally arriving in May 1944, it is interesting how the studio aggressively promoted the movie and kept it in theaters. Near the time of the Suspense production, they employed heavy advertising and promotion. The book version of the original Siodmak story was being syndicated, chapter by chapter, to newspapers, too. The studio was doing everything they could to taking advantage of the concurrent exposures of the property to boost ticket sales.
The movie can be viewed on YouTube https://youtu.be/XfzDVjkT05A
Listeners accustomed to typical radio mysteries had to think that this was an odd story for Suspense. A doctor places a dead man’s brain in a jar and conducts experiments to keep it alive. The experiment goes awry when the brain’s significant telepathic powers take over the doctor’s will, thoughts, and actions. Telepathy and ESP were mysterious and intriguing ideas and audiences could believe most anything about them. But they were not the stuff of mystery programming. The Suspense production showed that it was the situations created around the experiments that make the story Suspense-worthy.
Welles likely had a great deal of influence in the adaptation and the production effects. He used the movie script as a springboard and created the gimmick of his muttering to indicate when it was Donovan, and not the doctor, in charge of decisions and behavior. That verbal effect was very effective for radio, and was used in the 1953 movie.
That 1953 movie is not freely available, but the trailer is on YouTube https://youtu.be/-xWMB6l_E0Q It had a surge in curiosity in the 1980s, despite it not being a very good production, because Nancy Davis, years before her marriage to Ronald Reagan, was a co-star of Lew Ayers in the movie. It is the opinion of many that the Suspense broadcasts were the best interpretation of the storyline and intent of Siodmak’s vision of his story, and the most engaging production of it.
There are multiple recordings available. These are the best recordings to listen to:
Suspense 1944-05-22 Donovan's Brain (Part 1) WC.flac
Suspense 1944-05-25 Donovan's Brain (Part 2) EC.flac
The east coast recording of part one was commercially released by Radio Reruns in the 1980s and was never widely circulated among collectors. It is in lesser sound quality than the west broadcast of part one.
Suspense 1944-05-18 Donovan's Brain (Part 1) EC.flac
The west broadcast of part two does not exist among collectors, and is not known to have survived. There is no record of the broadcasts being used by the Armed Forces Radio Service. This may be attributable to the two-part nature of the production.
These are two aircheck recordings that may have been privately recorded by or for one of the actors or their agents, or for Roma. These airchecks were the first recordings of Donovan’s Brain to be circulated among collectors. They fell out of circulation once the better studio recordings became available.
Suspense 1944-05-22 Donovan's Brain (Part 1) WC AIRCHECK (some signal drift).flac
Suspense 1944-05-25 Donovan's Brain (Part 2) EC AIRCHECK (some signal drift).flac
There is another interesting recording. Fresh off his performance on Suspense, just two days after the west coast broadcast of part two, Welles included a parody of Donovan's Brain on his Orson Welles Almanac program. It was a live performance at the Air Transport Command at Long Beach, California for military and support service personnel. The lampoon begins about 11:30 into the program, and is 10.5 minutes. It has many topical jokes and some inside jokes for the service personnel in the audience, and it does not resonate with a current listener. The sound of the brain thinking were created by an actor in full view of the audience, to get more on-air laughs and sounds of amusement from them. Suspense historian Keith Scott notes that Hans Conried and John McIntire, regulars on Suspense, were in the cast.
The guest on the Orson Welles Almanac of 1944-05-31 guest is actress and dancer Marjorie Reynolds (she would later become Peg Riley on the Life of Riley TV series). The parody excerpt is included on this page. The full program can be accessed at https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/items/show/2095#
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/44051825
THE CAST
ORSON WELLES (Dr. Patrick Corey / William Donovan), Jeanette Nolan (Janice), John McIntire (Dr. Schrott), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), Hans Conried (Dr. Zanger / Newsreader), Bill Martell? (David Corey), unknown (Nurse)
John McIntire would play Corey/Donovan four years later in the hour-long Suspense production in January 1948.
CBS publicity liked to occasionally tease fans with a behind-the-scenes view about sound effects used in the series. One of these appeared in the 1944-06-21 Louisville KY Courier Journal. They said that the sound of Donovan’s brain hitting the floor was a cloth bag filled with wet sand and dropped into a dishpan next to the microphone.
There was more important news that was kept out of the newspapers. After the east broadcast of part one 1944-05-18, producer William Spier was dining with Welles and others at the Players Restaurant. This was his second major heart attack in just ten months. There was no medical imaging of heart condition that is available today, nor were there heart medications, or intervention devices such as stents. The prescription for heart attack recovery was to avoid stress and rest as much as possible before attempting a normal schedule. This means that Spier was in the studio for only one of the Donovan’s Brain broadcasts, missing the west broadcast of part one, and both broadcasts of part two. Keith Scott notes that he was likely replaced by CBS executive Robert Shayon.
Welles was a regular at Players, a restaurant started by movie producer Preston Sturges. It has a colorful history. https://www.kcet.org/food-discovery/food/the-players-preston-sturges-screwball-times-on-the-sunset-strip
While this was Welles’ final time as star of Suspense, he would appear again. It would be a surprise cameo in 1947’s Lady in Distress as a gas station attendant, appearing with then-girlfriend Ava Gardner, star of that episode).
###
