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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