Dame May Whitty and Maureen O’Sullivan star in a story about a young Irish girl who takes a job as a companion to an old woman. The way the job is described is just to be a live-in companion, with no real household duties. She discovers after she starts work that the elderly woman has an insane son living there, too… and realizes she’s trapped in the house… and that the son’s presence threatens the her life.
The story is written by Richard R. Lewis (in publicity he was noted as “Dick Lewis”). The story also appeared in Suspense Magazine #3, and a PDF is available on the same page as the audio recordings.
This was the first of four appearances on Suspense for Dame May Whitty, and the first and only for Maureen O'Sullivan.
Only the east broadcast has survived.
Whitty started in theater (1890) and continued in films (1912) in England. Her title was in recognition of her charity work. Her first Hollywood movie appearance was age 72. Whitty was 78 at the time of this appearance; she passed away at age 82.
Maureen O’Sullivan had a long career in movies and television. She is remembered by many for playing “Jane” in Tarzan movies opposite Johnny Weismuller. Had she not had a successful film career in the 1930s, the “Jane” role could have limited her future opportunities. She worked in movies and television through the 1980s, with her final TV role in an episode of Hart to Hart in 1994.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/440727
THE CAST
MAUREEN O’SULLIVAN (Susan), DAME MAY WHITTY (Mrs. Masters), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / George / John / Adams), Pat McGeehan (Robert), Fred Shields? (commercial announcer)
A news item in the 1944-08-29 Waterbury CT Democrat reports that a professional whistler was hired for this episode.
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