Bonita Granville makes her only appearance on Suspense in an original story by series editor Robert L. Richards. Two thugs kidnap a girl employee from a bank where her fiance is manager. They take her to their hideout as a hostage. There is some rough action and dialogue for its time as Elliott Lewis’ character strikes Granville’s. Their plan is to hold her hostage and then cross the border into Mexico with the money. As the story works to its conclusion, she brokers a deal to be let go and to reclaim the money if the robbers can flee. It’s ignored when police start shooting and hurling tear gas canisters at the hideout. The favorite line in the script is “It’s tear gas, quite harmless, actually.”
Some of the sound effects of gunshots seem too amateurish for Suspense, similar to what might be heard in a juvenile western.
Elliott Lewis is better in this episode as a gangster than he was in Love’s Lovely Counterfeit. The scene where he strikes Granville’s character is a reminder that there were radio critics who recommended that children not listen to Suspense.
This script was also used in The Clock on 1948-05-02 when Spier was producing that series for a brief time. A repeated script is an indicator that Spier believed it was a better script than most.
There are two network recordings but coasts cannot be discerned. An Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#112) has survived. The network recordings can be identified by their different times to network ID: one is one minute and four seconds “(1m4s)” and the other is 16 seconds “(16s).” The AFRS recording is from the “(1m4s)” network broadcast; times are approximate:
(1m4s) 21:01 and AFRS 18:40 robber says “He came with the cops”
(16s) 21:50 robber says “He came along with the cops”
The episode marked “(1m4s)” is the best sounding recording of the three. Near the end of that recording, you can hear Truman Bradley covering up a cough.
Bonita Granville started as a child actor on stage at age 3 and in movies when she was about 10 years old. As a teenager, she was cast in the very popular Nancy Drew series of B movies. In the 1940s she was mainly a supporting actor for RKO and was loaned out to other studios for many movies. In 1947, she married producer Jack Wrather and shifted her Hollywood interests to production and management. Her interesting career is summarized at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonita_Granville
LISTEN
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https://archive.org/details/TSP450719
THE CAST
BONITA GRANVILLE (Jane Evans), Elliott Lewis (Frank), Jack Edwards, Jr. (Harold), Frank Graham (Sonny), Jerry Hausner (Patrol cop), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Johnson / Police Radio)
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