Lloyd Nolan stars in an episode where his character is having an affair and he is recruited to murder the husband of that unhappy wife. After a while you get the feeling that she doesn’t really care for Nolan’s character the way he does for her. He ends up being so smitten he’ll do anything for her. She coaches him as to her husband’s schedule and habits and how to navigate their home to accomplish the task. The weapon of choice is a hammer… the husband may be a nasty man, but he’s not as clueless as they need him to be.
The presentation of the story seems clumsy at times, with Nolan often in monologue detailing what he is doing and thinking almost ad nauseum. You can wonder if it’s worth listening to, but it is. It has to be done. When Nolan’ character is hiding in the house and begins to emerge from the closet of the master bedroom he starts to whisper into the microphone and it becomes more like you’re hearing his thoughts. It's much more compelling than it was when he detailed every move he was considering and making as he executed the plan. It takes almost two-thirds of the story for the technique to feel appropriate and is well done in that scene. It’s in these final scenes that you get a sense of how good Nolan is as a radio actor.
Overall, the monologue recitation of tasks is clumsy. It shows a weakness in audio drama when there is no dialogue that describes what the characters are doing. Stick with it. It ends up working… and has a surprising conclusion. It may not work as well on other series without the Suspense music and effects to help it limp along.
This is two weeks in a row that Joe Kearns gets to play a seriously awful narcissistic and despicable heel. He’s very good at it… and it is so unintentionally appropriate to the strategy of Suspense casting against type!
Unnecessary spoiler alert… despite so many classic radio fans having heard these episodes again and again. The title is part of the surprise ending. It starts as agreeing to commit murder on behalf of Myra. It concludes with the murder being the punishment for Myra. Double-meaning titles can be so interesting, especially in this story.
Earlier on this day of broadcast, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Japan on Nagasaki. At about 11:27 of the episode, the script refers to the post-war plans of one of the characters. There was a sense that with the European war completed weeks earlier that the Pacific war would conclude very soon. That belief likely escalated in the afternoon’s dress rehearsal.
The surviving network recording cannot be identified as east or west; it is also the source for the Armed Forces Radio Service (#115) recording. The network recording is the superior of the two; the AFRS disc was damaged and is very noisy.
Paul Bernard and Lee Horton created the script and were writers for radio, film, and television. The collaborated on this episode and The Hunting Trip, which also starred Lloyd Nolan.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450809
THE CAST
LLOYD NOLAN (Ernie Cobb), Cathy Lewis (Myra Blair), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mr. Blair), Rhoda Elaine Williams? (daughter)
“Nobody Loves Him” was likely scheduled for this date. The title was changed to “Nobody Loves Me” and was broadcast on 1945-08-30 with Peter Lorre.
###
