Nancy Kelly is back on Suspense and her character is having nightmares that her husband has plans to kill her. He’s not, but the dreams are so vivid and detailed that she is convinced he is. Eventually, she believes that the dreams are reliable premonitions. No matter how her husband behaves, there’s a sinister aspect to it and she knows his true motives. It does not turn out well.
The author is New York-based scriptwriter Winifred Wolfe who wrote for many series and also 1950s television. This story was later repeated on the syndicated Murder at Midnight, episode #48. No audio is available of that episode. Why mention New York? The radio era had two persons named "Winifred Wolfe" in its history: this writer (1923-1981), and Hollywood had an actress with the same name (1922-2022). She appeared on One Man's Family as "Teddy" with a married name of Winifred Beck.
Kelly’s performance is superb but for the first half of the program you realize how critical the Suspense music is to building the story and intensifying mood and background. The music of Suspense is often like a character in the story, and this episode is a good example of that. The underlying story is not among the strongest Suspense has offered, but the music raises it to be better than it is.
Three recordings have survived. An aircheck of KQW, a west coast station in San Jose, California, is an obvious marker for that coast’s broadcast. It has a 13 second time to network ID. The east coast broadcast is the best sounding recording; it has a 40 second delay to broadcast. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#131) is derived from the east coast broadcast. Times are approximate:
EC 26:02 “I know now what wrong I've done.”
WC 26:40 “I know now what I've....what I've done is wrong.”
AFRS 23:01 “I know now what wrong I've done.”
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP451129
THE CAST
NANCY KELLY (Maude Haskin), Gloria Gordon (Old Woman), Verna Felton (Woman in Apartment 3B), Bill Johnstone (Harry Haskin), Elliott Lewis (Signature Voice / Short order cook / Priest), Henry Blair? (Little Boy)
Elliott Lewis fills in as the “signature voice” for four weeks replacing Joe Kearns. Lewis does his best to sound serious and authoritative. It doesn’t always work because when you’re listening you say to yourself “that’s Elliott Lewis doing his best to sound serious and authoritative.”
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