This is a rare chance for J. Carroll Naish to play a radio character on Suspense without an accent or affectation but in his normal voice. His character is tired of his wife’s cheating on him while he is at work, often for late hours. His job is to service newswire teletype machines, which would require evening and overnight service as that was the time that morning newspapers were being written, prepared, and produced. He decides to do away with her as the sound of a passing train on the railroad tracks behind their house passes by. (Remember: Sorry Wrong Number also uses the noise of a passing train to conceal that murderous act). But there’s another murder… a watchman at the building where he works. The erratic hours that led him to create an alibi for his wife’s murder on his commuter train all seem to go wrong, when they would prove his innocence for the watchman’s murder. He is such a forgettable persona, his alibi seems to be impossible to create as no one remembers him.
Roy Grandey wrote the script, and it was adapted by Robert Tallman. The story takes place in the San Francisco area, of which Grandey was familiar and where he would eventually reside. “Laurel Creek” is mentioned as a train stop, but there is no train station there. It is a section of the Santa Cruz area, and there is a real creek with that name. There is more background about Grandey in the post about the episode Post Mortem https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/08/1946-07-18-photo-finish.html
There are two recordings, one network with a three second pause before network ID (“3s”) and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording. The network recording is the better of the two. It is not known which coast the network broadcast was for. The AFRS copy originates from the surviving broadcast. Wally Maher as a naturally sounding stumble in his performance that marks them as the same, and can help identify a network recording for the other coast if it should be found.
Network 25:38 and AFRS 23:02 “You see, you wife just made a new statement telling us what ex...actually happened when you came home.”
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460801
THE CAST
J. CARROL NAISH (Bert Gavin), Wally Maher (Inspector Daniels), Jeanette Nolan (Alva), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Indignant train passenger), Howard Duff (First bridge player), Jim Backus (Elmer Russell / Passenger/ Whitney the 3rd bridge player), Jerry Hausner (Jack, the 2nd bridge player), Lou Merrill (Conductor), Leora Thatcher? (Alva Gavin)
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