1946-06-20 Your Devoted Wife

Who’s kidding whom here? It doesn’t take long to realize that the phrase “your devoted wife” is a cynical and sarcastic description of the couple in this story. He is a young man of (supposed) failing health and his (supposedly devoted) wife is taking him for medical evaluation in Chicago by train (assumed from New York City). She makes it clear to the train personnel that her husband is ill… and insane. He was sedated when we was brought onboard and into their compartment quietly. When she leaves for dinner, the porter returns to their compartment and the husband is gone! He seems to be trying to jump off the train! He is safely brought back to the compartment. His wife has the train conductor and porter well trained to not believe anything the husband says.

It turns out that when he hits 30 years old he receives a $50,000 inheritance ($850,000 in US$2023). Is she laying the foundation of illness so after his birthday in about two weeks he has a sudden but explainable demise that avoids suspicion and investigation?

They finally get to Chicago and he undergoes evaluation… but we learn his part in all of this was a ruse to test her honesty and the depth of her affections. Is she a devoted wife? It’s Suspense, so the ending is not what might be expected.

The author is David R. Gillespie, who scripted this episode and the upcoming Feast of the Furies. He also wrote for The Whistler. This script and Feast could have easily been done on that series. It was common that each series would review rejected scripts of the other.

The train travel sound effects throughout the performance are excellent. They are actually a highlight of the broadcast.

An aspect of the story is related to medical tests. The way they are handled in the story may seem odd compared to today’s modern testing and imaging. This episode is almost 80 years old, and testing did not have to be specified in the script then, but they would be expected among today’s listening audience. Gillespie gets away with being non-specific, but partly because there was little to be specific about, and it adds a little to the mystery of the story. It is a bit unsatisfying to a modern listener who knows that bad test results results in more tests and imaging and possible hospitalization. Gillespie does not explain why the wife went through the same medical testing. Despite this explanatory flaw, stick with the story, as it is still a worthwhile listen.

Horace Willard plays the porter on the train to Chicago. He has rarely had as many lines in as many scenes as he does in this episode. He is never heard on Suspense after the Roma Wines sponsorship ends. In fact, he just seems to disappear from radio. He was profiled in the blogpost for Cross-Eyed Bear https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1943-09-16-cross-eyed-bear.html

There are two surviving network recordings but their region is not known, and there is a surviving Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#160). Of the network recordings, one is direct to network ID at the end (“dirID”) and the other is 20 seconds to ID (“20s”). The AFRS recording is derived from the “dirID” broadcast. Times are approximate.

• dirID 26:33 “Huh? Oh, uh… some woman… she jumped”

• 20s 26:27 “Huh? Oh… some… some woman… she jumped”

• AFRS 23:40 “Huh? Oh, uh… some woman… she jumped”

The “dirID” recording is in the best sound of the three.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460620

THE CAST

JUNE DUPREZ (Melissa Thornton), Bill Johnstone (Martin Thornton), Wally Maher (Doctor), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Train conductor), Horace Willard (Train porter), Jerry Hausner (Interne), Peggy Rea? (Nurse)

###

1946-06-13 Too Many Smiths

A toothpaste company needed a new slogan for its product and ran a contest with a prize of $25,000 to get it. That’s worth more than $400,000 in US$2003 dollars! A janitor at the office building, played by Hume Cronyn, stumbles into the winner’s name at the ad agency for the toothpaste company. The winner is “Pat Smith” from Boston. This means he has the name of the winner before the public announcement and develops a scheme to claim the money. He needs to find the “winning Smith” and will make a crooked deal with them (claiming to fix the contest so they will win) or possibly murder them to claim the money. There are so many Smiths in the phone book… it takes a while to find the right one, and the wrong ones pose problems to his plan along the way.

Writers cited large sums of money in the scripts to make it plausible that an evil act could be considered worth doing by an immoral or desperate person. The average cost of a home in 1946 was about $5,500. The prize in the contest was more than four times that, so it would have captured the attention of listeners.

The attributed author of the script is Arthur L. Gray. He may be one of the Suspense “one-hit-wonder” authors who never had a broadcast radio script ever again. No information is available in any of the data bases where one finds background on writers in any medium. There is always a possibility that the name is a pseudonym, but those are usually exposed eventually to be people involved with the program or an established author. The name is a common one, and no obituary of a person with that name mentions any writing interest. The search continues.

There are two surviving network recordings. The east broadcast is three seconds to network ID (“3s”) and the west is direct to ID (“dirID”). The west has Cronyn teasing the next broadcast while the east does not. It was likely eliminated because time was running out on that broadcast. There is a difference in dialogue that can be used to identify the source of an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (likely #159) should one be found. Times are approximate:

• EC 3s 4:37 “...and the guy doesn't even know he won it yet”

• WC dirID 4:44 “...and this dumb guy doesn't even know he won it yet”

Both recordings are in good sound quality; the west broadcast is preferred because it includes Cronyn teasing the upcoming episode.

The address of the Boston hotel in the story is 500 Commonwealth Avenue. There is a hotel there today, Hotel Commonwealth, that is a luxury hotel built in 2001. It was likely the site of smaller hotels in the past. It is near Fenway Park in Kenmore Square.

Yes, there is a “little town of Boston, Georgia” in the USA. In 2020, it had just over 1,200 residents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Georgia It is in southern Georgia near the Florida border.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460613

THE CAST

HUME CRONYN (Charles Wallingford), Bill Johnstone (Doctor), Elliott Lewis (Pat Smith), Wally Maher (Pat Smith # 2), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Policeman), Cathy Lewis (Betty, the girl), Jerry Hausner (The clerk), Harry Lang (Police sergeant / Man at train station)

###

1946-06-06 The High Wall

Bradbury Foote’s psychological thriller is adapted for radio by William Spier. Foote was a successful playwright and it is likely that the Suspense production was to get some attention for a possible movie production. (It worked).

Robert Young plays a man who realizes he is in an asylum for the criminally insane. He has no sense of why he is there or even the time of year. He cannot recall events of the last six months that brought him to the institution. His memory gradually returns in pieces and he believes that he is innocent of the crime that brought him to his circumstance. It at this point that the storyline takes a turn. One might expect that his sneaking out of the asylum, with the help of two nurses, would lead him on a path to find the real killer of his wife. The fact that it does not, and takes a dire turn, instead, is what separates this episode from standard radio mystery fare. Yet again, Suspense proves it is intended for adult listening.

Classic radio researcher and enthusiast (and actor!) Patte Rosebank reminded us for the blogpost of A Friend to Alexander that Young suffered from depression and became a spokesperson for mental health in the 1960s and 1970s. Four of his Suspense appearances deal with mental illness as a key part of the plotlines: A Friend to Alexander, Night Reveals, Celebration, and this broadcast.

One network recording and one Armed Forces Radio Service (#158) have survived. The network recording goes directly to the network ID after the last announcement. The University of Georgia Media Archives has the same direct-to-ID recording and it is noted as the west broadcast. There are differences compared to the AFRS recording; times are approximate:

• dirID 3:43 “This wasn't a hospital..”

• AFRS 3:04 “It wasn't a hospital…”

• dirID 4:36 “...I was taken to the office...”

• AFRS 3:55 has “...I was taken down to the office...”

This means the AFRS recording is from the east broadcast. The west coast (dirID) recording is the better of the two.

MGM bought the rights to the Foote play in 1946 and produced a movie in 1947, as “High Wall,” starring Robert Taylor. The movie is not available for streaming but the trailer can be found on YouTube. The movie was adapted for Lux Radio Theatre in 1949 and starred Van Heflin and Janet Leigh https://ia601608.us.archive.org/35/items/Lux_Fills_and_Upgrades/Lux-491107-54m11s-676-HighWall-VHeflinJLeigh.mp3

The trailer for the movie, and information about other movies that have ties to Suspense are at https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-collectors-companion/click-for-home-arrow-for-more/suspense-at-the-movies The movie can be viewed (with Portuguese subtitles) at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/1947-high-wall-muro-de-tinieblas-curtis-bernhardt-vose  

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460606

THE CAST

ROBERT YOUNG (Bob Lewis), GEORGE ZUCCO (Professor Byrd), Cathy Lewis (Nurse Amy Adams), Wally Maher (Dr. Dunlap), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Giggling inmate)

###

1946-05-30 The Leading Citizen of Pratt County

Alan Hale stars in a Robert L. Richards story about flim-flam man who accidentally becomes a prominent and respected citizen in a small town. Hale is marvelous portraying “Alonzo P. Witherspoon,” a claimed professor of geology. We’re not even certain if that’s his true name! The double-talking dialogue that Richards wrote and Hale delivers is very entertaining. This is not a story you would find on any other mystery program. The “suspense” to the story is whether or not he will get caught with all of his amusing lies about influence in government committees and agencies and all the politician name-dropping he does. He makes it seem he is a well-connected insider who can make great things happen for the people of the town. All he really wants is to get money out of the town coffers or some government project or any other source that he can come up with, or even bilk some of the wealthier citizens. You really do expect him to get caught at some point and for the house of cards he creates to fall over with the slightest breeze. In the end… he comes to love the town and its people, and is mostly reformed by the end of the story. But you still wonder if the townspeople may learn the truth one day… but they’d probably never believe it.

There are two network recordings, broadcast coasts unidentified, and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#157) that have survived. One network recording is eleven seconds to the network ID (“11s”) and the other is twenty-one seconds (“21s”). The AFRS version is derived from the network recording that has eleven seconds to the network ID. Times are approximate:

• 11s 25:01 Sonny: “...boats could go all the way down”
  Hale: "That's what I was saying before…” (Sonny keeps talking and Hale can’t any words in edgewise because Sonny is so enthusiastic)

• AFRS 22:06 Sonny: “...boats could go all the way down”
  Hale: "That's what I was saying before…”

• 21s 24:42 Sonny: “...boats could go down all the way” then Hale “Sure…” (Hale can’t get any additional words in because of Sonny’s enthusiasm)

The “21s” recording has the best sound of the three.

There is another marker of the difference in the network recordings as Truman Bradley reads a PSA about hunger in Europe. It occurs when he says the word “millions”; times are approximate:

• 21s 28:25 Truman clears his throat as he says the word “millions”

• 11s 28:40 Bradley’s PSA announcement is read cleanly

This was Alan Hale’s only appearance on Suspense. He was rarely on radio, with most of his appearances on movie-related programs such as Lux and Screen Guild. Hale was one of the most successful film actors of the era. His first role was in 1911 and his movie work continued until his death at age 57 in 1950. He is more famous among baby boomers as the father of Alan Hale, Jr., who played “The Skipper” on the 1960s CBS comedy series Gilligan’s Island. While that may help people know Hale’s name, the depth and breadth of his film work through the decades is left unappreciated. Wikipedia has an overview of his notable career.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460530

THE CAST

ALAN HALE (“Professor Alonzo P. Witherspoon”), Sam Edwards? (Sonny Neff), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Woodrow Neff), Verna Felton (Mrs. Neff), Jerry Hausner (Harry), Wally Maher (Henry Wink / Highway Officer), unknown (Mrs. Osterman)

###

1946-05-23 Spoils for Victor

Dane Clark stars in a “one-hit-wonder” script authored by a California high school chemistry teacher. Joseph Edward Hudock’s story outline and narrative was edited by Robert L. Richards. It was Hudock’s only broadcast radio script.

A gangster falls in love with a rich heiress and his friends concoct a scheme where he will marry her, and she will soon (if all goes according to plan) lose her life so he can inherit her wealth and split it with his supposed pals. Problems arise when he realizes he really does love her. He wants to stop the plan from being completed but has to create a scheme of his own to save her life. It won’t be easy.

Spier must have liked the script because he also used it on Philip Morris Playhouse on 1949-05-22. That also starred Dane Clark. No recording of that broadcast is available. Suspense used Hudock’s script again in 1959. CBS lost track of Hudock by that time and ended up placing an ad in Variety asking for his whereabouts so they could mail him his check!

The only available recording is an Armed Forces Radio Service one (#156). It is not possible to identify from which broadcast coast it was derived.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460523

THE CAST

DANE CLARK (Victor Rudecker), Cathy Lewis (Madeleine Rawlins), Elliott Lewis (Harry / The tailor), Wally Maher (Priest), Jerry Hausner (Pinky Roberts), Ken Christy (Barney Bernard), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Doctor / Speech tutor), Nanette Vallon? (Marie), Betty Lou Gerson? (Helen)

###

1946-05-16 The Plan

Claire Trevor plays a socially prominent heiress who tells the local police chief that she shot her husband's twin brother in self-defense. He had escaped from the state hospital for the criminally insane four years earlier and just showed up at their doorstep. This is Suspense, so it’s never quite that simple. Her husband had never mentioned over their years of marriage that he had a twin brother. The stigma of mental illness in the family stopped him from doing so. Think about it… twin brother… Suspense… that can only mean one thing… which brother is the one with the challenge of mental illness? Whom did she really shoot?

The script was by Cyril Endfield, who also authored The Argyle Album. His personal background is quite interesting and was summarized at that blogpost https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/07/1945-12-13-argyle-album.html 

There are two surviving recordings, one network with an unspecified coast, and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#155). The network recording is the better of the two, and has three seconds to the network ID. It is marked as “(3s).”

The AFRS recording is drawn from the missing the network recording; times are approximate:

• 3s 25:41 “But...but I didn't do it to avoid a scandal”

• AFRS 22:53 is “But I didn't do it to avoid a scandal”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460516

THE CAST

CLAIRE TREVOR (Helen Anderson), Bill Johnstone (Al Anderson), Elliott Lewis (Harvey Anderson / Officer), Jerry Hausner (Door to door salesman), Wally Maher (Detective Lieutenant), Horace Willard (Rutherford), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Doctor / Ralph), unknown (Matilda / Pearl)

###

1946-05-09 The Clock and the Rope

Jackie Cooper plays a wrongfully convicted man on death row… and when the governor decides to commute his death sentence, he has a heart attack before he complete the call to stop the hanging. Luckily, a reluctant witness comes forward, after the hanging, but before Cooper’s character is killed. It is a strange story because you can’t tell if this is some dead man’s narration used for dramatic effect, or if it really is the character, somehow still alive. You get the sense it’s the latter because of his dislike of clocks (from waiting for the final walk from death row and the time to the actual hanging) and his discomfort of the idea of anything around his neck. Oh, sorry, forgot to mention the spoiler alert. It is often more interesting to hear how the writer managed the twists and turns of the storytelling, even if you are aware of the conclusion.

Louis Pollock wrote the story. He was an active writer in Hollywood for radio, movies, and television. He was caught in the Hollywood Blacklist because a different "Louis Pollock" refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee. That other “Louis Pollock” was in the clothing business. One of the names writer Louis Pollock used in the Blacklist period was “Joe Madison” so as to not be confused with the other. One of his screenplays was for the 1950 The Jackie Robinson Story. He wrote for many of the most popular 1960s television dramas.

The original title of the story was “The Rope and the Clock.” Only one recording of the episode has survived. It is Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#154) and is in low quality sound. It is not known from which network coast broadcast was the source. It is still listenable. The script was repeated about 18 months after this broadcast, in the weeks after the Roma Wines sponsorship ended. The network recording of that broadcast is much better than this premiere presentation.

Execution by hanging was still legal in many states at the time of this broadcast, and in some states it is remains an alternative for capital punishment. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hanging_in_the_United_States&oldid=1159581373

This was Jackie Cooper’s first appearance on Suspense. His movie career began in the late 1920s, and in 1931 was the youngest actor ever nominated for the best actor Oscar. His career spanned decades, some of it as a studio executive as well as a performer. He did not do much radio except for some of the movie series like Lux, and variety programs where he usually was a guest performer as himself. His vast career has an overview at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Cooper

He appeared on the Suspense television series three times, performing live.

• Go Home, Dead Man https://youtu.be/z-kHOuf1ZQM

• Murderers’ Meeting https://youtu.be/Aw84td-79ac and https://archive.org/details/Murderers_Meeting--Suspense

• Invisible Killer https://youtu.be/WF55zGR1-lY

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460509

THE CAST

JACKIE COOPER (Henry Gilford), unknown (Judy), Bill Johnstone (D. A.), Elliott Lewis (Joe / Executioner), Howard Duff (Detective), Wally Maher (Trolley car man / Warden Barnes), Junius Matthews (Bailey Hall / Priest), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / McGill), Lou Merrill (Jury foreman), Paul McVey? (Governor / Judge)

###

1946-05-02 Crime Without Passion

This episode is an adaptation of a famous Ben Hecht story that was a popular movie in 1934. The co-author was Charles MacArthur who collaborated on the famous play and movie The Front Page. They met as Chicago newspaper reporters and went onto great success as Hollywood and stage playwrights. The story was adapted by Bob Tallman.

Joseph Cotten plays a lawyer who believes his knowledge of crime and courtroom procedure will allow him to get away with the murder of his mistress. She is a night club dancer. He has tired of her and believes she is still carrying on with her ex-boyfriend. He kills her with a candlestick (which makes the murder sound to modern ears like a solution to a game of Clue; that game would not be published for another three years). The production is well done because of its technique that plays out possible courtroom interrogations in the head of Cotten’s character as he chooses the various alternative actions he can take to escape detection and scrutiny. Bill Johnstone is marvelous as the prosecuting district attorney in these imagined scenes.

Suspense had a serious interest in top-notch productions, but inside jokes between Spier, guest stars, and the ensemble cast show up at the most interesting times. At about 21:45, Cotten is going to the night club to help secure an alibi. He’s there frequently and says hello to many of the regulars, notably “Lenore, Kay, Bill, and Lud.” “Lenore” Kipp was the first wife of Cotten until she passed away in 1960. They were married almost 30 years. She was a pianist and a fashion editor. “Kay” and “Bill” were Kay Thompson and William Spier, still married at this time. “Lud” is Lud Gluskin who composed much of the Suspense music for all of the bridges, intros, and outros, for the series after its move to Hollywood. That music made Suspense unique, and in some cases could be considered as a cast member each week.

Near the end, Cotten’s character hurls an insult by calling someone a “dropkicker.” It’s an obscure slang term for an idiot or a worthless person. It has fallen out of use in American English.

Molle Mystery Theater had produced its own version of Crime Without Passion on 1944-08-29. That broadcast is not available. Molle Mystery Theater announced that they were re-staging the story for their 1946-05-03 broadcast! That was to be just a day after Joseph Cotten starred in the Suspense version. Magee Adams, superb radio critic of the Cincinnati Enquirer, noted that both series were doing the same play in his column of 1946-05-02. He said that listeners should compare how Cotten did against Berry Kroeger, the announced star of the Molle production! They didn't get the chance. It is unlikely that anyone from CBS would call Mutual to tell them to back off and change their scheduled production. It is more likely that Ben Hecht, who had much gravitas in Hollywood and in radio, would have intervened directly or through his agent to resolve the issue. The Molle producers changed to a different play, “Murder Without Crime” in the days before broadcast. Very few newspapers picked up the change. It was a script they had used in 1944. Kroeger starred in this 1946-05-03 production, and no mention is made in the broadcast about the change in script. Molle never re-staged Crime Without Passion.

The collaboration of Hecht and MacArthur was very successful. Hecht gets much of the recognition. These links provide more background about his long career:

• https://spartacus-educational.com/Acharles_Macarthur.htm

• https://www.jamesmacarthur.com/CharlesMacArthur/CharlesMacArthur.shtml

Crime Without Passion was a very popular movie in 1934. It starred Claude Rains. It came to the screen quickly, as the original short story was published in 1933. The opening sequences of the movie are highly artistic and may have been considered disturbing and perhaps very suggestive in its time. MacArthur’s wife, “the first lady of the theater” Helen Hayes, has an uncredited role in the picture. For more details about the movie, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_Without_Passion

The movie can be viewed online:

• https://archive.org/details/crimewithoutpassion1934

• https://youtu.be/Wo4iqIrzAbQ

There are two surviving recordings. One is a network recording, coast broadcast undetermined, that has two seconds to network ID. The network recording is the one in the best sound. The recording has some flaws, and it might be an edited aircheck. An Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#153) has survived. It is drawn from the surviving network recording.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460502

THE CAST

JOSEPH COTTEN (Lew Hendricks), Cathy Lewis (Carmen), Elliott Lewis (Henry the Sardi’s waiter / Eddie White), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / District Attorney / Foreman), Wally Maher (Defense Attorney), Jerry Hausner (Usher), Peggy Rea (Secretary / ? Apartment Clerk / ? Miss Moore), Hal March ? (Tom Healey)

###

1946-04-25 Dark Journey

A spurned woman believes she can “will” a relationship with her boyfriend to begin again. The plotline is along the lines of “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.” She is obsessed with him and is in denial for whatever bad act he might be responsible for, such as killing his mother. They do end up together, which makes it all seem so very fine. Fifteen years after they were re-joined, however, is not so pretty.

This is a Lucille Fletcher script, and it’s often a forgotten one. Part of that may have been that most recordings circulated in sub-par sound for many years. It is a good story and well done though it may seem a bit soap-opera-ish at the beginning.

Nancy Kelly stars with Cathy Lewis. Rita Johnson was the originally announced co-star and her name was in most newspaper listings for the episode. The cast change was made before the prior week’s performance of The Night Reveals when only Kelly is teased as the upcoming guest and Johnson is not mentioned. Johnson was at a high point in her career at this time. When her film career started in the late 1930s, she was considered “the next Jean Harlow.” No reason is given for her absence. Just two years later, her life took a terrible turn and left her career in shambles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Johnson She did not do much radio, appearing mainly in movie-based programs like Lux. In her comeback years, she is listed in some casts of Broadway Is My Beat and some other early 1950s programs. She never appeared on Suspense.

The best recording is the surviving network broadcast. It is not known which coast it was for. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#152) which is drawn from the missing network broadcast. The network recording goes directly to the network ID and is identified as “dirID.” Times are approximate.

• dirID 3:35 “...yet you really...”

• AFRS 2:35 “... yet you you really...”

At the middle commercial Truman Bradley says “...between the acts...” and not the usual “between the acts of Suspense…” as there still seems to be some experimentation in the mid-show messaging.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460425

THE CAST

NANCY KELLY (Ann Brodie), Cathy Lewis (Alice), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Hodges, the station master)

###

1946-04-18 The Night Reveals

This is the third broadcast of the Cornell Woolrich story about a fire inspector who believes his wife is a pyromaniac. The adaptation was by Sigmund Miller. This performance stars Keenan Wynn.

This script was first used on 1943-03-02. That broadcast is still missing.

The second broadcast was on 1943-12-09. Details about that broadcast can be found at

• Blogpost: https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1943-12-09-night-reveals.html

• Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/TSP431209

The originally announced script for this date was Return Trip. It is not known why that script was replaced for this date. It was delayed for almost three months and starred Elliott Reid. It seems to be a last minute decision as far as publicity schedules go. No newspaper picked up the change.

The sole surviving network recording is the best of the three versions of this episode. It is not known for which coast it was broadcast; the final announcement goes directly to the network ID and is designated as “dirID.” The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#151) is sourced from the missing network broadcast; times are approximate:

• AFRS 22:18 “She even tried to give me sleeping pills....”

• dirID 26:34 “She even tried to g-give me sleeping pills…”

There is a home recording, likely made on office dictation equipment, that matches the surviving network broadcast. The recording is of low quality that has been “cleaned up” and is missing commercial and closing announcements. The amount of time dictation equipment of that era could record on its media was limited (and expensive) and were often recorded in this manner. This meant that certain portions of the drama might be missing in flipping media to the other side or starting new media. The recording sounds like it was recorded with a microphone positioned in front of a radio speaker. The drama portions that have survived match the “dirID” network recording.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460418

THE CAST

KEENAN WYNN (Harry Jordan), Howard Duff (Investigating Officer), Cathy Lewis (Marie Jordan), Wally Maher (Steve), Henry Blair? (Johnny Jordan), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Fireman), Raymond Lawrence (Parmenter), unknown (Commissioner)

###

1946-04-11 The Name of the Beast

Vincent Price plays an artist (Dorrance) who is obsessed with completing a picture of a murderer, even if it means he has to help cover up the crime to do so. He started the painting, and his model (Elmer) agreed to return for another sitting. The next day, that man fails to return and the artist goes looking for him. He finds him in a cheap motel, but he’s covered with blood. It doesn’t matter that he may have killed someone. It’s more important to put first things first, and finish the painting! Oh, and there’s some stolen jewels in the story, too. Some parts of the story are a bit overdone with some stretching of plausibility, but Price is very good and the story is creepily entertaining. The author is Robert Tallman.

The title of the story is based on the phrase found in Revelation 13:17 and some lines that follow. In a broad sense without more scholarly context, it refers to a situation or person of pure evil. Price always played sophisticated evil quite well. But who is the beast in the story? Price acts as if it his character’s model, Elmer. The way the story goes, we know the beast is actually the artist played by Price, Dorrance.

Three recordings have survived, two network and one Armed Forces Radio Service (#150). The intended coast of the broadcasts is not known. One recording is six seconds to network ID (“6s”) and the other is direct to ID (“dirID”). The “dirID” is the best sounding of the three recordings.

The AFRS version is derived from the “dirID” version. There is some overlapping dialogue in that network version at approximately 4:30 and at 3:40 in the AFRS version. The “6s” version’s dialogue is cleanly read.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460411

THE CAST

VINCENT PRICE (James Dorrance), Cathy Lewis (Jeannie Baker), Elliott Lewis (Elmer Krebs), Wally Maher (Radio show host), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Police Inspector), Jerry Hausner (Desk sergeant)

The next week’s program is as Return Trip with Keenan Wynn, but it was changed to the third of four performances of The Night Reveals. It was clearly a favorite for the series. Return Trip was not broadcast until almost three months later and starred Elliott Reid.

###

1946-04-04 Post Mortem

In this Cornell Woolrich story, a woman is surprised to learn from news reporters outside her home that she won $150,000 ($2.5 million in US$2023) in a sweepstakes. She said she never entered the contest… but remembered that her deceased husband did… and realizes that the winning ticket might still be in the suit pocket of the recently-buried man. She has married again to the insurance agent who sold her a life policy on her first husband. The obvious thing to do is to retrieve the ticket. But, her new husband is stridently against having the body exhumed. We have our suspicions why as we listen to the story. It is a very amusing one and provides some relief of the darker tales of the past few episodes.

Amusing? Is this a Woolrich story that’s a comedic mystery? Yes it is. And… Agnes Moorehead is part of the fun.

Blogger Christine Miller says that Woolrich biographer Francis M. Nevins was not very pleased with this at all, calling it the “worst of all of Suspense’s Woolrich based plays.” He explained:

“As Woolrich wrote it, the story was an uncomfortable mix of serious and grotesquely comic elements, but it wasn't improved by the Suspense adapter’s decision to play the whole show for laughs.” https://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/11/supense---post-.html

The Robert Tallman adaptation, to Miller and to this blogger, is very entertaining and engaging. You develop a sense of what’s really going to happen and it is enjoyable to listen to find out if it ends up the way we expect.

The original story was in the April 1940 issue of Black Mask. The script was also used on the Suspense TV series, is not as compelling as the radio version, but can be viewed at https://youtu.be/XClP_bi7LkM and at https://archive.org/details/Suspense--Post_Mortem It was also adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents in a more serious manner (season 3, episode 33). In the end, the Suspense radio version is much more enjoyable adaptation of the story.

You know something is going to happen with electricity because the wife says she uses a sun lamp in the bathroom. The second husband’s plot to kill the wife by electrocution would not work in modern homes because of the requirement for GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlets. (Is it too late to say “spoiler alert”?) It’s certain many listeners would have started to suspect a plot turn in that direction. Note how calm the new husband is when he goes down to answer the door “knowing” that his wife has been electrocuted, at least so he thinks. Then he becomes really animated when he realizes it’s the police and explains how he tried to save her.

A name reference to "Sheldon Lewis" may be an inside joke about actor Sheldon Leonard and Elliott Lewis.

East and west network recordings have survived, and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#149) has, too. The west coast network recording is the best of the three.

The east recording is the source of the AFRS version; times are approximate:

• EC 25:15 “You ran all the way downstairs to pull out the hou… house current…”

• AFRS 21:25 “You ran all the way downstairs to pull out the hou… house current…”

• WC 24:40 “You ran all the way downstairs to pull out the house current…”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460404

THE CAST

AGNES MOOREHEAD (Josephine Archer), Howard Duff (Third reporter / Suspense signature voice in middle spot), Jerry Hausner (Second reporter / Workman), Harry Lang (Jack, the second workman), Elliott Lewis (Paul Westcott), Wally Maher (Madison), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Stephen Archer)

Keith Scott notes that the middle commercial has actor Howard Duff as the Suspense signature voice, but with Joe Kearns still intoning his customary “Suspense!!” The ad agency and Spier are clearly experimenting with different formats of the commercials at this time.

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1946-03-28 Out of Control

Baynard Kendrick is the author of the original story featuring his best-known character, a blind detective named Duncan Maclain. The Suspense production stars Brian Donlevy and was adapted from the novel of the same name by Robert Tallman. Many of the listeners would have been familiar with the character and the series of novels, as well as two movies with Edward Arnold as Maclain, and therefore looked forward to this radio production.

Out of Control was the sixth novel in the Maclain series. In it, he helps a woman at a posh resort. She is being blackmailed, but she’s not really a helpless innocent in the scheme; a murder follows. Maclain has two German Shepherds. He travels with one for company and for assistance, and the other is his trained police dog which (at about 9:20) he says he reserves for his “dangerous assignments.” That line is an amusing foreshadowing of the adventure radio series for which Brian Donlevy became best known, Dangerous Assignment. The police dog’s name is “Dreist,” which means “bold” in German. He sends for the dog and asks that he be sent by air from a kennel in New Jersey… which would have been very expensive at the time.

Kendrick’s creation of the character was from his continuing personal experiences with World War I veterans who were blinded in their service. Three of the Maclain novels made it to the screen, two of them with Edward Arnold. More details about the character can be found at https://thrillingdetective.com/2018/12/21/duncan-maclain/ Kendrick was one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America and was the organization’s first president. Details about Kendrick’s career can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baynard_Kendrick

Two of the three Maclain films are available for viewing at The Internet Archive. The first was Eyes in the Night (1942) https://archive.org/details/EyesInTheNight720p1942 and The Hidden Eye (1945) https://archive.org/details/hidden-eye-1945

There is a mystery regarding the surviving network recordings. There are two network recordings, one that goes directly to network ID (“dirID”) and another that has a five second pause to the network ID (“5s).” The two recordings are otherwise exactly the same. The recording identifies as “5s” has the best sound. How can there be two exact recordings with different times to network ID?

One of the indicators that the network recordings are the same is a slight reading stumble by Donlevy. After 7:22, Donlevy has a slight problem saying “spark plugs” and it is in both the 5s and dirID recordings. There is no such stumble in the Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#148). At 6:40 in the AFRS recording, he pronounces the phrase perfectly. Therefore, the AFRS recording is from a missing network recording. The only way to get to the bottom of this network audio mystery is to retrieve the original network transcriptions and play them. That is highly unlikely to occur as those discs are not available at this time.

The mid-show commercial concludes with using the bells of the Suspense theme for spelling R-O-M-A. It probably sounded like a good idea at the ad agency but it sounds very awkward in its implementation. They kept it up for a couple of weeks more, and then returned to a more typical conclusion of the break.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460328

THE CAST

BRIAN DONLEVY (Captain Duncan Maclain), Bill Johnstone (Dennis Filmore), Cathy Lewis (Marcia Fillmore), Elliott Lewis (Waiter), Wally Maher (Walter Crane), Earl Keen? (Snooky & Dreist, the dogs), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Sheriff Blackmer)

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Author and researcher Martin Grams reported that this episode was an audition for a possible Duncan Maclain radio series. That led to some further research.

Some Kendrick documents at the University of South Florida indicate that the novel was being shopped as a radio series and also an A-movie. There were two letters there.

The first is a letter from Leslie Charteris (!!) to Kendrick's agent proposing a radio series with the Duncan Maclain character. Charteris notes what they had done with The Saint and how he could do the same. He outlines the costs of an audition recording and a financial arrangement.

The second item is a letter from another agent whining about not being able to get Out of Control to be considered as an A-movie. The two Edward Arnold B-movies seem to get in the way of them considering it being any greater than that. The pitch for a higher-level production was rejected multiple times, including by Hitchcock. This was disappointing because Out of Control was considered to be the best of the Maclain novels to date.

It's easy to understand how the Suspense situation was considered an audition for a radio series even if it was not explicitly so (unlike Lone Wolf - Murder Goes for a Swim which was explicitly identified as an audition on Suspense in the trade papers). Kendrick, his agent, and Spier would have used it as such. And we know that some Suspense plays did end up as screenplays (To Find Help and The High Wall did so).

While there is no citation anywhere as the Suspense appearance being an official audition. It didn't have to be labeled as such for it to get the de facto consideration once Kendrick's agent got involved. And even better: there was no up-front money to produce an audition. Because of the stature of the series, they were able to get a big star, a fine supporting cast, and great orchestral production support and get paid for it. No audition could have pulled together all of those resources.

One of the questions that remains open is how close Spier was to closing the deal on Sam Spade. All of the Kendrick letters were from 1945, so the offering of Out of Control for a big movie and a radio series was in the works for a while. The Spade audition was recorded on May 1 with an adapted script from the Suspense episode The Walls Came Tumbling Down. That recording seems to be lost. So there may have been a time that Spier was weighing the potential of new projects and that a Duncan Maclain series may have been one of them. Then some traction and momentum started happening with the Spade series and Maclain fell by the wayside.

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1946-03-21 The Lonely Road

Gregory Peck plays a man married to an older woman, a successful concert pianist. He falls in love with their maid (that never happens) and plots to have her kill his wife while he is away, waiting. He has a change of heart and hurries home to save her. Well, so he thought… It’s a good story and Peck performs quite well.

When an opening scene has him working on a bear trap, that’s a massive clue that it will play a role in the story. Yes, a bear trap.

This script and date was originally intended for Cary Grant, but his appearance was moved a few weeks earlier. That evening they presented The Black Path of Fear.

This was Marion Orth’s only Suspense script. She started in Hollywood as a screenwriter for silent movies. Her movie writing credits ended in 1944. Part of her successful career also included some novels. (Note: she is in RadioGoldindex as “Mary North” and some other radio references may have the same error).

The original title of this episode was “A Lonely Road”

There are two surviving recordings, a network one that has a three second pause to network ID and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#147) that is from the missing network broadcast. Times are approximate:

• Network 1:48 there is a sound effect of hedge clipping under the dialogue “I was trimming the hedge and I got as far as the rear gate”

• AFRS there is no hedge clipping sound effect

The surviving network recording is the one in the best sound quality.

This was the first appearance of many for Gregory Peck on Suspense. His marvelous career has an overview at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Peck

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460321

THE CAST

GREGORY PECK (Steven Gair), Maria Palmer (Jenny), Cathy Lewis (Helen Gair), Wally Maher (Police Lieutenant), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Real estate agent / Doctor)

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