Peter Lorre plays a boxing manager called “Maestro” with a gambling problem. He keeps going deeper and deeper into debt with a loan shark who demands payment. He wants the contract of a talented and rising young boxer (played by Richard Conte) that Maestro is managing. Maestros’ debt is too big to overcome, and he reluctantly sells the contract… but soon learns the boxer wants to leave the dangerous sport and start a new life as a family man. That’s a problem for Maestro if the loan shark finds out that their deal is off…
This script is by Jo Eisinger, who would later become a scripter for The Adventures of Sam Spade. His novel The Walls Came Tumbling Down was broadcast a few weeks ago. Eisinger’s Maestro script was later adapted for Sam Spade 1947-02-16, Inside Story on Kid Slade, which is not in circulation.
Only the west broadcast of 1944-07-24 of this episode has survived.
The broadcast has some inside jokes after 25:00 delivered by the airport public address announcer:
a passenger is named “Mr. Gluskin,” a nod to the series music director Lud Gluskin
another passenger is “Miss Thompson,” referencing William Spier's wife, Kay Thompson
there is an announcement for “Colonel Joy” to go to the reservation desk, a reference to Dick Joy, then a tenured announcer at KNX who would become known as the announcer for Sam Spade and other programs, and later become a successful radio station owner
another name, “Jay Stevens,” is an obscure and uncertain reference at this time, but could possibly refer to CBS conductor Leith Stevens
This story was included in Suspense Magazine #3, and can be downloaded as a PDF from the same web page as the audio file.
This is the first of two Suspense appearances for Richard Conte. He was one of those highly dependable and very busy actors who never won awards but always gave solid and notable performances. He was in more than 100 films and numerous television programs. One of his final roles was as Don Barzini in The Godfather. He was not on radio often except for some of the movie-related series like Lux Radio Theatre and Screen Guild Theater.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/440720
THE CAST
PETER LORRE (The Maestro), RICHARD CONTE (Ricky Martin), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), Lou Merrill (Game Caller / Airline PA announcer), Hans Conried (Sam), John McIntire (John Cripp), unknown (Lynne Carter)
The 1944-07-25 Radio Daily reports this interesting item:
Producer William Spier, of the CBS Suspense thriller dramas, this week auditioned virtually every radio actor and actress in Hollywood to build a "talent bank" of unusual character portrayals for his mystery series.
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