Joseph Cotten stars in a Lucille Fletcher story that takes place during the post-WW2 housing shortage. His character has his eye on one particular apartment and (spoiler alert) devises a scheme to convince everyone that the current resident is involved in nefarious activities. If you tell a lie often enough, and big enough, in a convincing manner, you might very well get what you want. This is one of the series’ best episodes.
Fletcher lived in Manhattan where apartment buildings were close together, just like in other big cities, and you could often see into other apartments. The 1954 Hitchcock movie, Rear Window, was based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story It Had to Be Murder. Many listeners may think of Rear Window when hearing this story, even though that was released eight years after this broadcast.
Whether that Woolrich short story had some influence in Fletcher’s planning her story is not known. It’s wasn’t new to use line-of-sight of another apartment as plot element. What’s innovative is using it as a springboard to snatch someone’s apartment out from under a tenant, diminish the rental value of it new tenants would have little to rent an apartment where someone was recently murdered, and get the apartment at a cheaper price. In the process, it is clear that Cotten’s character is selfish and ruthless and just plain evil. He’s superb in its portrayal. Others believe him because of his persistence, concern for others, and sincerity. That is feigned sincerity. Like the old saying goes, once you can fake sincerity, the rest is easy.
Magee Adams, radio critic of the Cincinnati Enquirer was disturbed by the plotline. Ten days after broadcast, this comment appeared in his column:
Suspense made a bad slip with its much-publicized The Thing In The Window. The show ended without the faintest hint that the murderer was going to be caught. Especially when kids account for a thick slice of the audience, this is a highly questionable policy.
He’s right, Suspense is not for kids. Three years had passed after the shock of the ending of Sorry, Wrong Number that brought the series notoriety and accolades. Many episodes had endings that stretched or violated the commonly understood guideline that “good must win in the end.” Yet, critics were still surprised or concerned about Suspense for basically not playing by “the rules.” This is why it was so funny when classic radio fans who were kids when Suspense were on the air actually recalled their “suspenseful” feelings they had while listening quite fondly and is why they held the show in such high regard.
Three recordings of the episode have survived. The east coast network broadcast is marked by the announcement of The FBI in Peace and War coming up, and the west coast does not have that announcement. Of the three recordings, the east broadcast (“EC”) is the best. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#187) is derived from the east broadcast. The AFRS recording is derived from the east coast broadcast. Times are approximate:
EC 25:32 “I, the insignificant, outmoded ham who wouldn't---wasn't fit to appear in your precious plays”
AFRS 23:22 the same “wouldn't---wasn't” error is heard
WC the line is read correctly
Upcoming guests are announced as Dan Duryea, Alfred Hitchcock, and Mark Stevens. (Yes, there were plans to have Alfred Hitchcock act!)
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461219
THE CAST
JOSEPH COTTEN (Martin Ames), Hans Conried (Ronald), Cathy Lewis (Vivian Landis), Jeanette Nolan (Elaine Landis), Jerry Hausner (Anson, the building super), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Police Sergeant), unknown (Mary)
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