Ronald Colman stars in a Silvia Richards adaptation of the famous H. P. Lovecraft short story. It was originally published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales. The story is quite different from the Suspense usual fare. The CBS publicity release that was picked up by many newspapers and is as good a summary of this very strange story as any:
The story is an eerie tale of a deformed albino, her insane father and her two sons, one of them invisible. The invisible son, who lives in an old barn and puts in most of his time trying to work out a formula that will make him visible is the focal point of the story.
The Wikipedia page about this famous Lovecraft work is very detailed and highly recommended https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dunwich_Horror
The original story is at https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/dh.aspx
William Spier is back in the studio after his time away to recover from his mild heart attack. Charles Vanda would be back to cover for him again for Elwood 1947-03-06.
Dunwich Horror is an odd story selection for Suspense and it may have led to a refinement of Spier’s general guidelines for script solicitation and submission. This show was broadcast in late 1945, and in Summer 1946, CBS issued a press release about the script guidelines for the series. The guidelines were developed months before. These excerpts are from the 1946-08-18 Tampa Bay FL Times:
Suspense is not a horror show or a detective story program.
Though there can be an element of horror in a Suspense drama, it must be believable. No sawing people in half mad scientists or ape-man stuff which depends on terror alone for dramatic effect.
Suspense is not a ghost story broadcast. The most successful shows have been those which were realistic and in which the listener could easily identify himself with the predicament of the main character.
There are many fans of this episode who really enjoy it and make it part of their Halloween listening playlist. But, it possible that Spier was not happy with the Dunwich Horror production and believed it strayed from the thematic strategy he set for the series. Perhaps he felt he needed to better define and promulgate the specific and standard guidelines for the series? The items mentioned in the news release were also printed as guidelines for writers submitting scripts to the series. It was likely sent to authors whose scripts were rejected so they could possibly make revisions for re-submission or write new scripts that fit the objectives in a better way.
There is only one surviving recording of this episode, and it is an Armed Forces Radio Service issue (#127). The disc seems to have been recorded only one time by a collector, decades ago, and never re-done. (Most Suspense discs of the 1940s shows were transferred multiple times over the years, usually by different collectors.) The recording is flawed by disc damage at the at the outer edge. Collectors have often tried to clean up the recording, but it remains flawed at the opening minutes. AFRS issued many copies of its programs, and it is hoped that one day a better disc will be found. Even better, it would be great if one of the network broadcasts would appear. It is not known if this AFRS recording is drawn from the east or west network broadcast.
Dunwich is a fictional Massachusetts town. Based on landmarks in the story it is believed that Sentinel Hill is Wilbraham Mountain near Wilbraham. The city is more famous to non-Lovecraft readers as the birthplace of the Friendly’s Ice Cream brand and its many shops throughout the Northeast US. A plateful of cherry vanilla would be so pleasant...
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP451101
THE CAST
RONALD COLMAN (Professor Henry Armitage), Bill Johnstone (Dr. Ken Houghton), Elliott Lewis (Wilbur Wately), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Wizard Wately), Wally Maher (Corey), unknown (Dr. Rice), unknown (Lem Brown), [Peggy Rea?, Cathy Lewis?]
Hearing Bill Johnstone in this kind of story sounds almost like he is playing Lamont Cranston on The Shadow once again as he did about five years earlier before he moved to Hollywood. The presentation also has the feel of Witch’s Tale episode because of the occult storyline.
###
