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)
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