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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