George Murphy makes his first Suspense appearance in a story written by Larry Marcus and Robert Light. Murphy was known for his appearances in Hollywood musicals and was president of the Screen Actors Guild at the time of this broadcast. Marcus was known especially for The Whistler and was a prolific radio writer. Light wrote other Suspense scripts as well as scripts for Box 13 and Dark Venture.
The story begins with Murphy’s character writing from jail to a girl in high school that he loved… but he really had a crush on her… and she never really noticed him. Why he thinks of writing to her we never really know, but this is a story theme that begins with his cowardice of never confronting that girl and comes full circle in the story’s surprise ending. Murphy’s character says he knew the girl seven years ago, making him about 25 years old. After the target of his unexpressed affection marries, he marries someone else and ends up in a very unhappy relationship. That sets the stage for a car accident caused by their arguing about a divorce and not paying attention to the road. They think the man they hit is dead… and hide his body in bushes along the road. Guilt and a cover-up are key elements of the story, leading to the murder of the wife because she is the only witness and threatens to use that fact against him, and his cascading fear he will be caught and punished. That leads to the surprise ending.
The original title of the script was “Death on Highway No. 99” or “Death on Highway Number 99.” Someone decided “number” wasn’t necessary, and is more in line with common expression.
There are three surviving recordings. The surviving network recording is in the best sound of the three. It cannot be identified as east or west. There are two Armed Forces Radio Service recordings. The first (#123) is contemporary to the original broadcast. The second is from the late 1970s or early 1980s with very rough editing of the open and close. Both recordings are from the missing network recording. Times are approximate:
AFRS 0:31 “The clock here in my room has just struck 7:00”
Surviving network 1:17 “The clock here in my room just struck 7:00”
There are other differences between the surviving network and the Armed Forces recordings. The later AFRTS has the file name Suspense 1945-10-04 Death on Highway 99 AFRTS RU-9-0-1046. It has the compiled opening of various Suspense eras that sounds so unnerving in its editing.
This is the first of three appearances on Suspense by George Murphy. His entertainment career began in the 1920s as a dancer and then in Broadway musicals. When he moved to Hollywood, his work in musicals continued. He retired from acting in 1952 and became active in politics. He was US senator for California from 1965 to 1971. His page at Wikipedia has more information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Murphy
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP451004
THE CAST
GEORGE MURPHY (Morton Blake), Cathy Lewis (Pauline Blake), Bill Johnstone (Officer), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Haggerty), Joe Granby (Captain Shannon), Dick Nelson? (Sergeant Graham), Jack Edwards, Jr. (Doctor)
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