Herbert Marshall stars as a lawyer too smart for his own good and helps a friend to a fake a death. It seems his friend killed his blackmailing butler and needs to cover up the crime, disappear, and come back with a new identity. For the disappearance to work, they have to leave convincing evidence that he committed suicide. The whole thing goes awry as too many people know too much and making a faked death convincing requires getting close to doing the real thing. Perhaps too close. Or was that the plan all along?
The main character, played by Marshall, is “Richard Sampson.” The author of the original story is “Richard Hull.” That’s the pen name of British novelist Richard Henry Sampson who wrote the original story. Use of his real name as the central character was in the original 1940 novel and is continued here. The Hull novel was adapted for Suspense by Silvia Richards.
This story was originally planned for 1945-05-31 and is one of the rare times a broadcast was broadcast earlier than originally planned... at least that can be tracked in newspaper clippings.
Three recordings have survived, two network recordings with east or west designation unknown, and the Armed Forces Radio Service (#104) recording. The recordings can be identified by their time to network ID and are noted as “(6s)” and “(10s).” The AFRS recording is drawn from the “(10s)” broadcast. Times are approximate for a dialogue difference that marks the two broadcasts:
6 seconds to ID 1:43 “...just about right for..for a bachelor who never entertains”
10 seconds to ID 1:42 “.. just about right for a bachelor who never entertains”
AFRS 0:56 “...just about right for a bachelor who never entertains”
The AFRS opening is very scratchy from disc damage. The best sounding recording is the “(6s)” network recording.
This is the first announced appearance on Suspense for Norman Lloyd. The only time he is mentioned is just before the mid-show Roma pitch. He was a favorite of Hitchcock and a friend of William Spier. His career will be further detailed in the blogpost for Fury and Sound, the wild episode that is actually a roast of Spier by his mentors and friends. It was broadcast on 1945-07-26. Lloyd was unannounced in Love's Lovely Counterfeit and played "crazy hood" "Sol Casper." (hat tip: Keith Scott)
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450524
THE CAST
HERBERT MARSHALL (Richard Sampson), NORMAN LLOYD (Alan Raynick), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Policeman / Chatsworth), unknown (Margaret Farley), unknown (Ellen), unknown (Anita Kilner), unknown (Jeremiah Bloggins)
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