1945-03-29 The Taming of the Beast

A man poses as a psychologist and convinces a wealthy woman to leave her husband. He’s got his eye on her inheritance, and she has her eye on him. Her husband commits suicide after his “therapy”… and the “doctor” and the widow marry. Friction starts to develop between them. A key part of the story is around the 18 minute mark when x-ray pictures are mention. The fraudulent shrink convinces her that the x-rays show she has a brain tumor and has about ninety days to live. He practically starts counting the money he will get; she starts softening her attitude as she knows her days are numbered. But this is Suspense, so the ending will have some kind of turn or strange twist to it. She still has her husband’s gun, and she’d die before they could ever convict her of murder and execute her.

The story stars Nancy Kelly and Helmut Dantine. It was written by Charles Smith and adapted by Robert Richards.

It’s a good and entertaining plotline. Some of the plot factors and circumstances that made the story somewhat plausible then no longer apply. The story is implausible today. Let all that go; enjoy the story and its twist.

Psychology was not a regulated profession at the time of broadcast, but the desire to develop credential certification, licensing, and regulation was in the news and building. There was a time where one could claim to be a psychologist and be in practice. Those times were disappearing. In the twist ending of the story, it is claimed that medical x-rays were mislabeled and she did not have the disease she believed she had. The chances of that happening today are much, much lower with better record keeping and constant re-verification of patient identifiers and such information is a part of the actual digital image. Ignore it all. Enjoy the story.

There are two network recordings, east and west. The east network recording is the better of the two. The west coast recording is most likely from KNX; the call letters are cut off after “K” but it is the usual KNX announcer. The east recording includes a plea for nurses to help in the war effort. The west coast broadcast does not.

This was Helmut Dantine’s first appearance on Suspense and he would not return again until 1957. Dantine was a refugee from Austria. After playing ethnic characters in movies in the early 1940s, especially German officers and refugees, the studios began to cast him in other roles. At the time of this broadcast, his movie career was in an upswing. Details about his career as an actor and producer are at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Dantine

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450329

THE CAST

NANCY KELLY (Nora Van Nostrand), HELMUT DANTINE (Dr. Paul Ferrari), Ted Reid? (Mark), Cathy Lewis (Evelyn / Operator), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Harry / Mills Laboratory man)

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1945-03-22 Heart's Desire

Lloyd Nolan stars as a long-tenured bank messenger who is unhappy with his lowly career and envious of the success of others. He steals the money in his pouch ($50,000 which is more than $860,000 in US$2023) and hides it, and confesses to the crime. The money is being held at a store and all he has to do once he is out of prison is return to the store and claim it using the secret phrase it’s filed under. He protected the secret phrase and never wrote it down or said it for fear someone would find out and snatch it all away from him. Of course, a love interest becomes involved, and he’d like to share his wealth with her. But… does she love him for being him, or because of his imminent financial windfall? It’s a good and entertaining story; researcher Keith Scott reports that it was one of William Spier’s favorites.

The original title of the script was “The Man Who Forgot,” but that was likely just a placeholder name that scripter Robert Richards used until he came up with something else. They would have never used it because the placeholder title is a spoiler alert! “Heart’s Desire” is a much better title because “desire” and “envy” are a strong part of the storyline, and “heart” is a reflection of the character’s love interest.

There are two recordings of this episode, a network one (east or west is not known) and an Armed Forces Radio recording (#96). The network recording is the better sounding one. The AFRS is derived from the surviving network recording is very listenable. It includes a tease for the following episode, Taming of the Beast.

Richard Whorf was the planned guest but his schedule on a movie set prevented his appearance was his directing of The Hidden Eye. It was a story by George Harmon Coxe (creator of Casey, Crime Photographer) and is about a blind detective. https://youtu.be/yYOur2GK76Q Whorf’s acting career gave way to directing films and television programs through the 1960s. His previous Suspense appearances were for A Friend to Alexander and The Night Man, which was his final appearance on the series.

This is the first of Lloyd Nolan’s many appearances on Suspense. He was a highly successful actor in many leading and supporting roles in movies and television. His radio work included appearances on variety series but mainly Suspense and Lux, and a short-lived comedy-mystery series Results, Inc. with Claire Trevor (3 have survived). His long career is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Nolan

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450322

THE CAST

LLOYD NOLAN (Henry Doyle), Jeanette Nolan (Lucille Carmichael), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Pawnbroker), John McIntire (Frizzell / Warder), Norman Lloyd? (Judge), Howard McNear (Convict), unknown (Policeman), Jack Moyles (Pawnbroker’s Son), unknown (Girl at bank),

Jeanette Nolan was not related to Lloyd Nolan. She was married to John McIntire who doubles in this episode. The McIntires had long and excellent acting careers, and one of Hollywood’s longest marriages, often working together in radio and television productions, usually in supporting roles.

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1945-03-15 Cricket

Suspense casts one of Hollywood's oldest stars, Dame Mae Whitty (80), and one of its youngest, Margaret O’Brien (8), in a Mel Dinelli play that involves a dog… and perhaps the ghost of one. It is one of the inspired casting choices that attracted a listening audience and won the hearts of Hollywood studio publicity machines. Dinelli is not known for “cute” stories involving kids, and this is a clear exception. The script was written by Dinelli specifically for this casting event at the request of William Spier.

A little, innocent, English girl (played by O’Brien, in case you were wondering) goes to live with her grandmother (Whitty, of course) after her parents and beloved pet dog, Cricket, are killed in the London blitz. She keeps insisting that Cricket is still alive and continues to talk to him. When the house catches fire in another bombing raid, the child is saved by a dog. She believes it is her deceased pet. Then neighbors report that their dog, also named Cricket, disappeared at the time of the fire, and cannot be found. Efforts to clear up the mystery of the ghost dog provide a surprise climax. Is it the same dog she believed had died?

The publicity came about six weeks after the broadcast in a multi-page photo story in the 1945-05-06 Radio Life magazine. A PDF of the story is at the same Internet Archive page as the recordings (as well as at worldradiohistory.com) or click here. This is an interesting paragraph from the article:

Little Miss O'Brien, who memorizes her radio scripts, astonishes air veterans with her ability to remember her lines, speak them without hesitation and with such feeling that onlookers are moved to tears. She worked with Spier and Dame May Whitty the day before the Suspense airing, received the final revisions the night preceding the show, attended school the following morning, reported at the radio studio at noon with her lines learned.

and more, with an explanation of the storyline…

In the script, at the end of the drama. the little girl in the story finds that her neighbor has a dog named “Cricket” too. Writer Dinelli intended the listener to be left wondering whether or not this dog was the same animal who had supposedly died in the bombing raid. Margaret was sure it was, and between rehearsals, earnestly explained how she had it all figured out. "You see,” she said, “my dog (meaning ‘Cricket,’ the dog in the story) wasn't really burned up in the building, and this man found him and made him well again.” When everyone agreed that that must have been the way it happened, Margaret grinned happily, then resumed her role with heartrending pathos, serene in the knowledge that the ending was a happy one.

There are two surviving recordings, one network and the Armed Forces Radio Service recording. The AFRS recording is drawn from the surviving network one. It is not known if the network recording is east or west, and goes directly to the network ID and is designated as “(dirID).” The network recording is in much better sound than the AFRS one.

This was Margaret O’Brien’s first appearance on Suspense. It took tremendous confidence and reassurance to have O’Brien on live national radio… twice on the same evening… for east and west broadcasts. O’Brien’s successful movie roles prior to Suspense, and her known ability to take direction well, led to this successful casting and performance. It is not clear if there was any extra “dress rehearsal” because of her age and the newness of radio performance experience. Just ten years later, such assurance would come from recording technology. Pre-recording such appearances on tape was less risky as was done in episodes with child actors Isa Ashdown (1955-04-05 Zero Hour) and Evelyn Rudie (1957-12-22 Dog Star). Suspense was shifting to pre-recording dramas in the mid-1950s, anyway, for everyone, not just for the inclusion of child actors. She would appear in Suspense again in 1948. Her Wikipedia page summarizes her career and is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_O%27Brien It includes background about her stolen 1944 Oscar trophy and its successful return many years later.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450315

THE CAST

MARGARET O’BRIEN (Florence), DAME MAY WHITTY (Mrs. Edney), Esta Mason? (Anna), Raymond Lawrence (Charles / Hinchman), unknown (Peters), Earl Keen? (Cricket the dog), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice)

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1945-03-08 Love's Lovely Counterfeit

Love’s Lovely Counterfeit was a popular James M. Cain novel about political corruption in a Midwest town. Cain wrote the novel with a sale of movie rights in mind, but studios balked at its theme. They felt that wartime stories should have a more upbeat, patriotic sense of things and not this dark and gritty and sometimes brutal story. The novel was adapted by Robert L. Richards and is the only appearance of Humphrey Bogart on Suspense.

The episode was promoted as having “murder, politics, and racketeers,” and the “famed tough guy” and “sinister screen star” Bogart. The plotline has a reformed gangster who turns his racket over to the FBI. This starts a variety of encounters and killings that also involve the gangster’s girlfriend. The story seems strangely less engaging than other Suspense episodes, and Elliott Lewis is in a bit of overacting, but stick with it.

This episode is noted as the final appearance of “The Man in Black” voiced by Joe Kearns. His voice would still be heard as series narrator. Having a somewhat “spooky” narrator was common in radio, from The Witch’s Tale (“Nancy” the “old witch”) to Inner Sanctum (“Raymond, Your Host”), The Whistler (it is easy to forget that series pre-dates Suspense by a month), and Molle Mystery Theater (“Geoffrey Barnes”). The gimmick had outlived its usefulness for Suspense and eliminating the character around eventually led to greater flexibility and focus in the integration of commercial messages and general improvement for the overall format… kind of like when a person or two exits a crowded elevator.

The surviving recordings pose some questions in their composition. There are two network versions in circulation, but they are the same performance with one recording having a patched open. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording has more dialogue in scene that approximates the switch to the second network transcription disc (each disc held about 15 minutes). This may indicate a damaged disc, otherwise the recordings are the same. The AFRS recording origin is likely from the existing network recording, but that is not certain as other network recording is not in circulation; we just can’t tell. It is possible that the surviving recording is part one of the east and part two of the west, or vice versa. Is this an east or a west or a composite of the two? We just don’t know. Perhaps other disc sets will become available.

There are two network recording formats in circulation. The one that begins with “Now, Roma Wines present…” is the correct recording. There is another that begins with "Now, the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California..." but that open is patched on and is not a valid recording. The Suspense scripts we have seen have a standard opening of “Now, Roma Wines present…” at this time in the series, and we have not seen the “Fresno” on in print or scan at any time, even though we cannot detect that such an opening has been patched on those other episodes. The current network recording has a time to the network ID of 52 seconds and is marked “(52s).”

We can say for certain that the AFRS recording is from the network broadcast that has not survived. Wally Maher’s lines are always a good anchor point in noting differences as he let his dialogue flow naturally and would have slight changes to it in each episode. And, as mentioned earlier, the AFRS recording has more dialogue than the surviving network. It may be that the network recording had a damaged disc. If so, it is likely to be the second disc. Early circulating recordings among collectors had a notable gap between discs where this extra dialogue was. The more sophisticated collectors either spliced the gap out from their master recording or corrected it when they made copies for others. We know from the missing dialogue that either the second disc was damaged at its edge OR the dialogue was edited out for one of the performances for purposes of show timing. If such script editing occurred, it was likely between broadcasts. This could indicated that the AFRS recording is derived from the east broadcast and the surviving network is west. But there's no real way to tell.

Here are the differences, with times approximate:

• Network 4:29 A big guy with muscles and I'm just a little guy...

• AFRS at 3:57 A big guy with muscles and…and I’m…I’m just a little guy….

… and…

• Network 13:17 …thinking how much dough they got and what big—big shot public enemies they are.

• AFRS 10:17 …thinking how much dough they got and what big shot public enemies they are.

And here is the missing dialogue...

• Network 15:02

• Elliott Lewis: Yeah? And then what do we do, that’s even worse.

• Bogart: Oh, no. No, that’d be easy. We’ll be seeing you.

• AFRS at 11:42

• Elliott Lewis: Yeah? Well then what do we do, that’s even worse.

• Bogart: Oh no, that’d be easy. Then we just take him out of here at night and dump him some place.

• Lewis: Oh.

• Bogart: And if the kid was to die, that’d be one less guy that had to get a cut, wouldn’t it?

• Lewis: Huh? Yeah.

• Bogart: Well, c’mon, Lefty.

• Wally Maher: Yeah, okay.

• Bogart: We’ll be seeing you.

Because of the missing dialogue in the network version, the AFRS version is the preferred listening choice.

Many thanks to two collectors whom we affectionately know at the Cobalt Club forum as the “C3DS,” the “Cobalt Dialogue Difference Detection Squad.” They are Barbara Watkins and John Barker who have been major time and talent contributors to the effort to document Suspense. They have the patient attentiveness to identify quirks like these that make the study of Suspense and the era so absolutely fascinating. (Cobalt Club https://cobaltclubannex.forumotion.com/ is free and a great way to immerse oneself in the hobby’s research and general collecting. I have been a member almost 20 years, and their members around the globe have been outstanding in their support and collaboration. If you want to add a new dimension to your classic radio obsession, Cobalt is the place to do it.)

This is Humphrey Bogart’s sole appearance on Suspense. There’s no need to go into details of his career because there are too many! For an overview, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Bogart Bogart did not do much radio work beyond variety show appearances and adaptations of some of his movies for Lux and Screen Guild. Getting him to commit to a radio series did not happen until after radio was starting to pass its peak. Syndicator Frederick Ziv convinced them to do so and the highly successful syndicated series Bold Venture was the result. He and wife Lauren Bacall recorded 78 episodes of that series, most all of which have survived.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450308

THE CAST

HUMPHREY BOGART (Ben Grace), Lurene Tuttle (June Lyons), Wally Maher (Lefty Gaus), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / District Attorney / Archie), Elliott Lewis (Johnny / Doctor), John McIntire (Justice Department man), Norman Lloyd (Sol Casper)

This script was expanded to one hour for the (misguided) 60 minute version of Suspense on 1948-01-17 and starred Jimmy Cagney. Cain’s original story is complex, however, and probably deserved the hour-long treatment. That broadcast started with the Richards adaptation and was embellished by novelist (and radio scripter) Jo Eisinger. He used the nom de plume of “Jason James” for the episode. That production is unique because the author of the original novel, James M. Cain, is heard at the closing.

Cain’s book finally got to the silver screen and became a 1956 movie, Slightly Scarlet. https://youtu.be/RyDKqrntYo0 It did not get good reviews and critics complained about how badly the book’s adaptation to the screen was. It is an occasional feature at gatherings of film noir enthusiasts.

This is the first appearance on Suspense of actor Norman Lloyd, uncredited.

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1945-03-01 My Wife Geraldine

Edward G. Robinson stars in an odd story as a quiet little man who pretends to have a wife so he can fit in better with his office co-workers. People get suspicious when they never meet her or have any sense that she’s around. They jump to the most likely reason: he must have murdered her! Robinson played so many strong characters like gangsters in his classic Little Caesar that playing a milquetoast character was part of the Suspense strategy of casting against type. The entire premise is detailed in the first five minutes and the story is told in flashback.

The story is by Larry Marcus and was his first for Suspense. It was adapted by Robert Richards. Marcus was a prolific and esteemed radio writer, with scripts for Suspense, many episodes of The Whistler and the Whistler-like series Dark Venture. He wrote many scripts for the superb series Night Beat. His television and movie scripting career began in 1950. He was executive writer for the spooky TV series One Step Beyond as well as individual scripts for many other 1950s and 1960s series.

Two network recordings have survived and it is not known which recording is east or west. The best recording goes directly to the network ID and is marked as “(dirID).” The other recording has a 20 second delay to the ID and is marked as “(20s).”

This is the first appearance of Edward G. Robinson on Suspense. He was one of Hollywood’s most famous actors. His career began in the 1920s and continued for decades thereafter. An overview of his career is at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_G._Robinson He was a frequent guest on radio variety programs often lampooning his reputation for criminal roles. He performed in the popular movie-related series such as Lux and Screen Guild. He played the lead role in the 1930s and early 1940s on the newspaper series Big Town.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450301

THE CAST

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (George Graham), Jeanette Nolan (Agnes Barton), John McIntire (Potter), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Smith / Harry / Garage Man), Elliott Lewis (Holmes), Wally Maher (Fred Bell / Police Lieutenant), Howard McNear (Man on train), Harry Lang (Riley), unknown (Sales clerk)

This script was another Suspense script that William Spier used in his short 1948 stint for ABC’s The Clock.

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1945-02-22 John Barbey and Son

Mel Dinelli’s John Barbey and Son has what seems to be a widowed father going on the run as he attempts to prevent his developmentally challenged son from being institutionalized. The situation started to snowball when the son accidentally killed a neighbor’s cat. Social services workers are attempting to send the son to a special home. His father decides to sneak away and prevent the son’s removal from occurring. The father and son move from place to place and then the story comes to a strange and surprising ending.

This story is from almost 80 years ago, and the portrayal of the son with just grunts and groans condition may be considered strange or uncomfortable by today’s standards. We never really know what the son’s malady is or if there is something else going on. (Hint: it’s the something else.) Stick with the story… it will resolve itself in the end. The ending may not be what you expect, and once you hear the ending, you start to realize that the son’s removal may be to get him away from the father because it is the father who is dangerous and not the son. Many of Dinelli’s stories hinge on the understanding (or lack thereof) of mental illness at the time he was writing. It is a gruesome ending.

There is only one recording that survives. It is not known if it is east or west.

Thomas Mitchell is the star, one of two performers on Suspense who won an Oscar, Emmy, and a Tony. The other is Ellen Burstyn, who appeared on Suspense as Ellen McRae.

William Spier liked the script so much, he used it on the ABC series The Clock when he was on hissy-fit hiatus from CBS on 1948-04-08. That recording has not been found. You can always tell which scripts Spier felt were superior because he would find ways to repeat them on Suspense and when he was producer for Philip Morris Playhouse for one season, and his brief time for The Clock.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450222

THE CAST

THOMAS MITCHELL (John Barbey, alias Wilson), John McIntire (Detective Bowen), Jeanette Nolan (Miss White / “Carl”), Wally Maher (Hotel clerk / Elevator operator), Elliott Lewis (Frank the bellhop / Mr. Wilk), Verna Felton (Hotel guest), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Truckdriver), unknown (Man)

It is amusing that there was a recording of this episode being circulated among collectors in which someone patched the NBC chimes at the end of the recording!

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1945-02-15 Sell Me Your Life

The Suspense welcome mat was always ready for Cary Grant, but he was not always able to make a visit. Like he was just two weeks ago for The Most Dangerous Game, he was intended guest star for this week to make up for his lack of availability. He was announced in CBS publicity as this week’s guest but there was a change to Lee Bowman announced it the prior week’s show. Bowman was a good and versatile actor in radio and movies, and he was called on to fill in. Newspaper listings imply that this script had no name until a few days before broadcast. It is possible that there was a script switch in the week leading up to broadcast, but that seems less likely.

A suicidal man, fearful of being accused of a crime he did not commit, is saved from that fate by a wealthy woman. She hires him as her bodyguard. Of course, it becomes a plot to frame him for a murder. The script was written by Emil C. Tepperman and adapted by Harold Medford.

There is only one recording available for this broadcast, and it is a network recording in superb sound.

At the end of the program, Truman Bradley reads a PSA about V-Mail, or “Victory Mail.” Details about this wartime US Post Office program can be found at https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/mail-call-v-mail

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450215

THE CAST

LEE BOWMAN (Joe Bland), John McIntire (Lieutenant Vance), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Sergeant Tannen the cop), Lurene Tuttle (Lenore Bodine), Joe Forte (Police radio voice / Photographer), Wally Maher (Foraday)

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1945-02-08 A Tale of Two Sisters

A Tale of Two Sisters is another Mel Dinelli script about two sisters who formed a childhood pact to always be together. Later, one of them falls in love and marries. The spurned sister's jealousy takes a wicked turn and becomes very dangerous. The production has creative use of flashbacks and disturbing background sounds of a mental institution. Claire Trevor and Nancy Kelly star.

There are three different network recordings and it is not known why. We know that there are east and west recordings, but they cannot be discerned. The best sounding recording is labeled “(2s)” because of the two-second pause before network ID and begins with “Now, Roma Wines present...” There is another recording marked “(2s)” but begins with “Now, the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California”… There is another recording that begins with “Now, Roma Wines present…” but includes a public service announcement honoring the anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. That recording has the mark “(5s).”

This script would be presented again in 1949 as The Ten Years with Joan Crawford. That broadcast has backroom negotiations and meanderings that rival a Suspense drama itself. Crawford’s 1949 appearance on Suspense involved her insistence that Suspense alter its production methods, had her stage two publicity stunts, Auto-Lite rejecting a new Dinelli script (“The Hand,” which would never be broadcast), and other hiccups along the way. But other than that, it was just another humdrum week's work for radio's outstanding theater of thrills.

A Tale of Two Sisters was Claire Trevor's first appearance on Suspense. The Hollywood star was already a radio veteran with a regular co-star role in the Big Town series of the 1930s and frequent appearances on Lux Radio Theatre. She had a very busy movie career in the 1930s and it continued and spanned decades. She won a supporting actress Oscar for Key Largo, and also won an Emmy in 1956.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450208

THE CAST

NANCY KELLY (Adele Norris), CLAIRE TREVOR (Clara Foley), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), Wally Maher (Judge), Walter Tetley (Doug Foley, Jr.), Conrad Binyon? (Roy), unknown (Young Adele), unknown (Young Clara), unknown (Nurse Willard)

In the news at this time was Mel Dinelli being signed by Selznick International to adapt the Ethel Lina White novel Some Must Watch. It would be renamed The Spiral Staircase and would significantly raise Dinellis’s profile in Hollywood from radio scripter to a writer of screenplays. Dinelli was 33 at the time of this Suspense broadcast and his career was hitting a promising stride.

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1945-02-01 The Most Dangerous Game

This is a repeat performance of the Richard Connell short story as adapted by Jacques Anson Finke. The broadcast was originally intended to star Suspense favorite Cary Grant. Instead, the familiar and reliable Suspense guest Joseph Cotten became the headliner. This episode is the first appearance of J. Carrol Naish in the series.

The blogpost about the 1943-09-23 broadcast (which starred Orson Welles) has background about the original story and that can be accessed at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1943-09-23-most-dangerous-game.html Cotten plays the hunted Sanger Rainsford and delivers his usual fine performance. Knowing Cary Grant was planned for the role makes one wonder how different his interpretation might have been.

This episode was broadcast about four years before Naish became associated with his big radio role as an Italian immigrant in the comedy Life with Luigi. This episode, Most Dangerous Game, is an opportunity for classic radio enthusiasts to hear Naish in his natural voice and appreciate his wide range of acting skills… well, no, it’s not. Here, Naish is in the role that Welles overplayed so well, the Russian General Zaroff, with the required accent. But Naish stays within the nefarious confines of the role without testing the bounds of cartoonishness. In Naish’s three other Suspense appearances he is in a more natural voice in only one, Commuter’s Ticket. In both Footfalls and The Treasure Chest of Don Jose he plays in ethnic voices.

There are two network recordings, and it is not known which is east or west at this time. The recordings are similar and lack crisp sound that other Suspense recordings have. The better recording is 31 seconds to network ID “(31s).” The other is 35 seconds to ID “(35s)” and has some disc problems. Perhaps a better recording may be found, but these are listenable.

The Suspense episode had the cooperation of RKO Studios. Production of the movie adaptation “A Game of Death” with John Loder was underway. It can be viewed at YouTube https://youtu.be/GuXmQM5_G1M It was released in November 1945. (It is also at The Internet Archive… with Greek subtitles https://archive.org/details/a-game-of-death-1945 )

J. Carrol Naish was a superb radio actor, and also had about 200 supporting roles in movies. He was nominated for two Oscars for supporting roles, and his career extended into the television era. Though Irish, he was known for playing European ethnic roles and even portrayed Charlie Chan in the 1950s television series. He never seemed to play any Irish characters. His skills at imitation of accents got him his most popular radio role of Luigi Basco on Life with Luigi. Many of the roles he played might not be possible today and possibly create some concern or outrage. The ability to play ethnic voices in an authentic manner on radio was a great skill sought by producers and directors in that era. Ben Wright was a radio actor with similar skills who played “Hey Boy” in Have Gun Will Travel, but had a wide range of European and other world accents in his skills, including American accents, as he was British. The contemporary actor Tony Shaloub is similarly skilled and has been cast in many different ethnic roles in television and movies. You can often hear Joe Kearns portraying ethnic voices of various origins in Suspense, sometimes doubling as a different character in a natural voice in the very same play he voiced the signature “Man in Black.”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450201

THE CAST

JOSEPH COTTEN (Sanger Rainsford), J. CARROL NAISH (General Zaroff), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Ivan), Earl Keen? (Dog sounds), Purves Pullen? (Bird sounds)

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1945-01-25 Drury's Bones

Boris Karloff stars in a Harold Swanton story about amnesia and murder with a strange twist where the amnesiac might be the murderer and is assigned to solve the twenty-year old crime!

A confused man is found in a London office building. Injured, he is taken to a doctor, and he can’t remember his name. Eventually, “Terrence Drury” is the name he is assigned because he had tickets to the Drury Lane Theater. He is given a job in the London office of Scotland Yard. He excelled in that job and became an inspector… but never learned his true name as twenty years pass. He is assigned to a case involving a skeleton found in a backyard of a home in Devon. He begins to realize the skeleton and the circumstances of the person’s death may involve himself as the murderer of his own wife twenty years ago!

Harold Swanton was a prolific radio scripter with much of his work for The Whistler for both radio and television, as well as Philip Morris Playhouse, and Hopalong Cassidy. For television, he wrote for Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Little House on the Prairie, and others.

There are three surviving recordings. One is a network recording which is not yet identified as to its east or west broadcast. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#88) that is from the missing network recording; it has a teaser for the next episode Most Dangerous Game after Drury’s Bones concludes. There is also an Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) recording from the 1970s or thereabouts that matches the network recording!

• Surviving network at approximately 23:47 “Oh, that so? You’ve been on a case…murder, wasn’t it? Did you, uh, catch the fellow?”

• AFRS recording at about 19:34 “Oh, that so? You’ve been off on a case…uh, murder, wasn’t it? Did you catch the fellow?”;

• AFRTS recording matches the surviving network copy with same dialog at 19:41

The network recording goes straight from the final announcement to the network ID, and is therefore marked “(dirID).” The network recording is the best recording of the three. The AFRS and AFRTS recordings have flaws, with the latter having some harsh sounding segments.

The AFRTS reissues from the 1970s and 1980s have a strange amalgamation of clips for opens and closes from throughout Suspense history. How fitting its “Frankenstein’s Monster” assemblage of dissimilar audio is on this recording of a Boris Karloff appearance.

Karloff had an amazing career; a good overview is at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Karloff

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450125

THE CAST

BORIS KARLOFF (Roger Ashley-Norton, alias Terence Drury), Bill Johnstone? (John Stannup), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Doctor / Driver), Colin Campbell? (Blind Ben Sykes), Raymond Lawrence (Chief Inspector Terence Carruthers), Wally Maher (Peters), Janet Scott? (Sarah), Ann Morrison (Mrs. Tumbley)

The Drury Theatre is a real place https://lwtheatres.co.uk/theatres/theatre-royal-drury-lane/about-theatre-royal-drury-lane/

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1945-01-18 To Find Help

This episode is the only appearance of Frank Sinatra on Suspense. Blogger Christine Miller says that To Find Help is so plausible that it is genuinely scary. Not everyone agrees. I suspect they just don’t understand the story or the presentation, but she does. This is a really creepy story, and is one of the best presented on Suspense. It might be the case that the focus on the big guest star impaired the acceptance of the underlying story.

Variety was not a fan of Frank Sinatra’s performance. They were not exactly cordial in their January 23, 1945 review:

Academy award winners must have breathed easier last Thursday after Frank Sinatra completed his straight dramatic stint on CBS' Suspense, in which he co-starred with Agnes Moorehead. They did To Find Help, a thriller. Sinatra's portrayal of a depressed, screwball killer was delivered in a deadly monotone, effective in a way, but his contrib undoubtedly caused little excitement around the Theatre Guild offices.

That monotone was exactly the way it was supposed to be played! The emotionless character could explode at any moment, without any buildup. That’s the suspense of the story… would it happen? what would happen? how would it happen? what dangers would ensue?

Ben Gross, radio critic of the New York Daily News, was generally positive and opined in his 1945-01-19 column:

Judged as a bit of professional acting, we'd say his work was competent but uninspired. However, seeing Frankie as a crooner trying to become an incipient Boris Karloff, we'll report that he did far better than anyone had a right to expect. The real star of the show was that sterling actress Agnes Moorehead.

The plotline has a lonely middle-aged woman who needs some work done around the house. Because so many able-bodied men are in military service, such help is hard to find. That emotionless nature of Sinatra’s character seems like childhood innocence and conveys trustworthiness. The need for the work outweighs the scrutiny needed before such a hire is made. That’s the starting point and the fear and tension starts from there. It’s subtle and it grows. It’s not long before she worries she is about to be murdered.

The episode was written by Mel Dinelli. He was developing a stage play, “The Man,” with this storyline, and he turned it into a radio script. A few months later, it was published as a short story in the May-June edition of Story Magazine. It would be performed on Suspense again in 1949.

Only the Armed Forces Radio Service recording has survived. It is not known if it is drawn from the east or west broadcast. It is AFRS#87. The sound quality has some issues but this recording is better than most that have been available in past years. There is also an AFRS recording in lesser sound that has a tease for the next week's episode, Drury's Bones with Boris Karloff. It is quite possible that they have the same source but the better recording has been edited to exclude that excerpt.

Getting Frank Sinatra onto Suspense was challenging. All parties wanted the event to occur, but getting the Suspense schedule and Sinatra’s commitments to mesh was quite difficult.

In the Summer and Fall of 1944, Sinatra was in Hollywood for the filming of the MGM musical Anchors Away with Gene Kelly. It would become a box office success. Kelly and Sinatra were good friends. Sinatra, however, was on a rocky road of his own making in Hollywood.

A September 9, 1944 Salt Lake UT Telegram United Press wire report by columnist Nina Paredes started the troubles. It includes quotes by Sinatra being very unhappy about Hollywood and its people. The column mocks him as “The Voice” (his nickname at the time, but in this context it was definitely a sarcastic slight) and implies that his success was undeserved. This is a portion of the column:

“Pictures stink. Most of the people in them do, too,” Frankie, who now finishing his third movie, declared. In the second emancipation proclamation of his startling career.

The big-eared crooner, whose off-key groans have earned him a sizable fortune on radio and in the movies, asserted his independence the first time when he declared himself free from Maestro Tommy Dorsey, the genial gentleman of swing.

“I don't want any more movie acting," The Voice said in a strangely grumpy tone, so different from the dulcet sounds that send millions of young females into trances.

Ten days later, Sinatra was retracting the statements as a misunderstanding with the frantic but calming help of the MGM publicity department. He was still a hot entertainment property, despite the incident.

Suspense was ready to do whatever it could to get Sinatra and pursued him for many months while he was in Hollywood. Spier was interested in a Suspense appearance because of the ratings possibilities and reinforcement of the successful strategy of casting musical stars in unlikely and sometimes nefarious roles. His wife, Kay Thompson, was urging him to do so. She performed with Sinatra in her singing and dancing career in night clubs in prior years and came to know him well. She was working with him, but this time in her role as the musical and performing coach and design of choreography for MGM musicals.

According to a 1970s interview with sound effects artist Berne Surrey, Sinatra was paid $12,000 for his appearance. That caused some grumbling among the Suspense regulars. That is about $205,000 in today's US$2023. Sinatra and two “guys,” likely bodyguards to avoid or navigate crowds, and also to keep him busy and focused, would also show up with him.

Sinatra was scheduled multiple times for his Suspense appearance and circumstances forced postponements. These are the dates he was originally scheduled to appear and some background about each of them:

• September 14, 1944: CBS was originally planning a big splash with Sinatra for the opening of the Fall season. Instead, You’ll Never See Me Again with Joseph Cotten was selected. The bad publicity in the September 9 wire stories did not cause the cancellation as the change was made before that appeared. Cotten was already announced as the guest at the end of the prior week’s show. Sinatra’s availability was likely more affected by the move of his own radio program from Hollywood to New York for its September 24 broadcast.

• November 23, 1944: Sinatra was unavailable, and a repeat performance of The Fountain Plays was broadcast. Charles Laughton was announced as the guest at the end of the prior week’s show; it was not a sudden cancellation.

• November 30, 1944: Sinatra was unavailable, and a repeat performance of The Black Curtain was broadcast. The change was “covered up” by describing it as an anniversary re-performance for the first year of Roma sponsorship. Cary Grant was announced as star; again, it was not a sudden cancellation. Having Sinatra for such an anniversary would have been a great publicity opportunity, but it was not to be.

Finally, after all the fits and starts, To Find Help was presented on January 18, 1945. It was performed again on January 6, 1949. That 1949 broadcast was intended to include Sinatra once more. Yet again, he became unavailable and but friend and Anchors Aweigh partner Gene Kelly subbed.

After Suspense, Dinelli’s play went to Broadway in 1950 with Lillian Gish and Richard Boone. It closed after 92 performances. (The Playbill can be viewed at https://playbill.com/personlistpage/person-list?production=00000150-aea3-d936-a7fd-eef752760002&type=cp#cc ) The play had a successful life away from Broadway. It was very popular in regional and community theaters throughout the 1950s and was still making the rounds of those venues in the 1960s.

The story, radio play, and stage play coalesced into a screenplay. Dinelli’s work became the movie Beware, My Lovely featuring Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan. It was released in 1952. It can be viewed at https://youtu.be/e3_lFPYWd7Y and at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/bewaremylovely1952_202001

It also became a TV production in 1960 on Ford Startime with Audie Murphy and Thelma Ritter. The program can be viewed on YouTube https://youtu.be/PRQDCOm1Ttg In following years, there were British, French, and German TV productions. There was also a 1971 TV presentation in Argentina.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/450118

THE CAST

FRANK SINATRA (Howard Wilton), AGNES MOOREHEAD (Mrs. Gillis), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), Wally Maher (Stevens, the telephone repairman), John McIntire (Armstrong), Charles Seel (Milkman), Earl Keen? (Sarah the dog)

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1945-01-11 Drive-In

Nancy Kelly plays a “car-hop” who discovers she's in the company of killer after accepting a ride home from the restaurant where she's employed. He won’t let her out of his car. Blogger Christine Miller describes this as a “cautionary tale.” Suspense had many such warnings to be wary about nefarious persons or dangerous situations that seemed innocent at first.

Drive-in restaurants became popular in the 1920s. The term “car-hop” referred to waitstaff, often young women, who would take food orders and deliver them to the car occupants. Some car-hops would deliver while wearing roller skates, adding some good-natured fun to the drive-in experience. The popularity and necessity of these restaurants would wane in the 1960s. The current food franchises A&W and Sonic are the most similar to the drive-ins of the past era. The popularity of drive-ins likely peaked in the 1950s and were fondly featured in the movie American Graffiti.

The script was by Muriel Roy Bolton and adapted by Mel Dinelli. Bolton was early in her Hollywood writing career. She was the screenwriter for many of the Henry Aldrich movies and she played a key role in editing and writing the TV series The Millionaire. Dinelli’s big Suspense script is next week on Suspense with To Find Help.

The most popular version of Drive-In was broadcast on 1946-11-21 and starred Judy Garland. Kelly offers the more polished presentation of the story.

There are two recordings of this broadcast, one network and the Armed Forces Radio Service recording. The network recording is much superior; the AFRS recording is very low quality. It is not known whether the surviving network recording is east or west; its closing announcement to network ID is 2 seconds. The AFRS recording is from the missing network broadcast. At about 23:45 the AFRS recording includes a teaser clip from the next week’s To Find Help.

• Surviving network: Kelly misses a cue at about 3:37 where Wally Maher says “Never mind the menu, just some black coffee, a pot of it, and a ham sandwich, please hurry it.” Kelly responds “When I….” (interrupted by a music cue) and then continues “When I took his order over to the car…”

• AFRS: at approximately 2:33 Maher says “Never mind the menu, just some black coffee, a pot of it, and a ham sandwich, please hurry it.” (music cue as scripted) and then Kelly continues “When I took his order over to the car…”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450111

THE CAST

NANCY KELLY (Mildred), unknown (Ruth), Wally Maher (The Man, alias Doctor Morgan), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Rene / Highway Patrol cop), Peggy Rea (Rene’s assistant)

Peggy Rea was William Spier’s assistant and was an aspiring actor.

1945-01-04 I Had an Alibi

Keenan Wynn plays a newspaper reporter who marries an heiress with a severe heart condition to get her inheritance. When she fails to die as soon as he expected, he plans an elaborate murder which includes tricking her into writing her own suicide note and making sure his fingerprints are in places where he did not actually visit as a means of creating an alibi. In the end, he gets the blame for a murder he didn’t commit, and the real killer gets away! This episode is a good listen, but pay attention or you’ll miss some of the plot turns.

There are two different network recordings and their east or west broadcast cannot be determined. The better of the two begins with “Now, Roma Wines present…” The other recording begins with “Now, the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California…” It is not known why two different openings were used. There might be a clue in the original scripts, and early 1945 scripts are hard to come by. The early script, which is not a final production script, has "Now, Roma Wines present..."

Speculation, wild: Perhaps the east got the "Fresno" one, but the west got the "non-Fresno" since Roma had been an established California brand for a very long time before it became a national one. The west audience did not need to be reminded that Roma was a California wine.

The following revision noted in gray background was made on 6/20/2023; the files at archive.org have been revised

There are two surviving network recordings. The better network recording has 13 seconds to network ID. The other recording has a clipped open and goes directly to ID. The following dialogue difference is a marker for identifying east or west (if some documentation of such appears) or the source of an Armed Forces Radio Service recording should an AFRS recording be found. The dialogue difference is from Wally Maher; note the juxtaposition of two words and the change in emphasis on the word “alibi.” Times are approximate:

• direct to ID 26:15 “No, but it could be a pretty little spectacular alibi for just on the spur of the moment, couldn’t it?”

• 13s 26:40 “No, but it could be a pretty spectacular little allllibi for just on the spur of the moment, couldn’t it?”

Mindret Lord did some stage writing and was also a pulp author in the 1930s. He moved into radio scriptwriting and to screenplays and television writing. He had a successful writing career. His true last name was Loeb, and but he changed it to Lord for what was a good reason at the time. He did not want people to think that he was related to fellow Chicagoan “Dickey” Loeb, the thrill murderer, or his wealthy Chicago family. Loeb was the subject of the Leopold-Loeb trial and the stage and movie (Rope) plays about him (the 1942 Suspense script was based on the Broadway production). Unfortunately, Lord committed suicide in 1955. He was 52.

The original title of this script was “Murder is Simple.” It was twice adapted into movies. The first was the 1946 The Glass Alibi and the second was the 1955 The Big Bluff. The 1946 movie is not available online, but the 1955 one is at YouTube https://youtu.be/YUu6t-QRbOQ and at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/big_bluff

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450104

THE CAST

KEENAN WYNN (Joseph Eichner), unknown (Belle Schaffner), Lurene Tuttle (Linda Vale), John McIntire (Doctor / Warden), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Saunders the butler / Priest), Wally Maher (Lt. Vale / Gas station man), Cathy Lewis (Miss Lamson)

This is an interesting item about Mindret Lord from the Kenosha WI News, June 16, 1943

War Workers Fete Script Writer

Mindret Lord, who works at the Lockheed Aircraft plant in Burbank, Calif., learned this week that war workers form a huge portion of the audience listening regularly to “Ceiling Unlimited” on CBS each Monday.

Four weeks ago Lord, who formerly was a writer before going into war work. submitted a radio script to “Ceiling Unlimited.” It was accepted and Cary Grant was cast in the leading role. The following week he submitted another. It was accepted. The third week he submitted another. It was accepted.

This week, as Lord prepared to leave tor lunch hour on the war plant grounds, he was ushered by group of fellow workers to a specially prepared area where 200 men and women of the aviation company were gathered to tender him an informal banquet as a testimonial to his work. All 200 had box lunches and Lord, the guest of honor, brought his own lunch!

Lockheed was the sponsor of the series. The episode was Where from Here? and was broadcast on May 31, 1943. It seems that the episode has not survived.