This amusing story about blackmail, a politician, and gangsters stars William Bendix. It is very entertaining. Newspapers had promos about how serious this part would be, but it’s not. It’s more serious than Life of Riley, it has serious moments, but there are many light moments in the dialogue as the story progresses.
The script author is John Eugene Hasty, sometimes credited as “J.E. Hasty” or “John E. Hasty” or “John Hasty.” He wrote short stories in his youth and then became an expert advertising copy writer. His involvement in radio began early in the medium, led into it by his ad agency work. He wrote scripts for programs the agency clients were sponsoring. He became the writer for the syndicated “Eb & Zeb” in the early 1930s and became a writer for comedian Al Pearce. Hasty worked for ad agencies often in his career and submitted short stories to detective magazines in the 1950s. The script was adapted by Robert L. Richards
Newspaper clippings have this show title as “Three Faces At...” and “For” and “To.” Newspaper editors probably figured “for” and “to” were typographical error, but it was actually part of a code or password (or more accurately “passphrase”) for identification in the scheme featured in the story. Even Suspense couldn’t be consistent about it. Kearns announces the title in the beginning with “at.” In the story, the passphrase has “for.”
The east and west broadcasts have an interesting difference that make it clear why they are important to the history of the series and to the acting craft. In this case, a problem at the sound effects tables show the versatility and emergency wisdom of Hans Conried. CBS issued a release about sound effects mishaps and specifically used this episode as an example (and, they used the “for” in the title, but that’s a different issue). Two different effect guns did not fire; this tells us that the effects artists had a backup and sometimes a backup of a backup! What should actors do when there are problems? Some might freeze up. But Conried saw what was happening. No one listening at home could suspect that there was panic at the studio and that Conried’s cool head was prevailing.
In the east coast version the gun misfires at about 16:45 when Wally Maher’s character shoots Conried’s character. The gun "click" without firing is not audible to us but it’s clear that Conried plays for time and draws out his begging and pleading. He starts to trail off a bit just before the gun finally fires. It’s only a few seconds, but now that we know what was happening it must have seemed a lot longer that that for those involved. In the west coast broadcast at about 16:50, the gun fires on cue. Conried's pleading builds to a quick crescendo, as scripted, and the shot is fired.
You can hear the difference in the two scenes without listening to the entire programs. A brief recording of the east and west two segments can be downloaded with the program files. It starts with the east excerpt, then Kearns “Suspense!” has been added to make the separation of the broadcasts clear, then when the west excerpt begins. It is easy to understand why Conried was a favorite among producers and directors and was held in very high regard by his peers.
Both east and west network recordings have survived. The east recording includes the tease to stay tuned for The FBI in Peace and War and the west does not. The west coast recording is the better of the two.
Inflation is in the news, and it’s mentioned very early in the Bendix dialogue. It was running at 20% for about a year at this point. Thankfully it did not last.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470227
THE CAST
WILLIAM BENDIX (Sylvester “Muscles” Walters), Sandra Gould (Helen), Wally Maher (Tim O’Mara, alias Whiting), Hans Conried (Pete the contact man), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Jerry the cop), Ken Christy (Mac the first detective), Jack Webb (Harry the second detective / Newsboy), Jerry Hausner (Landlord / Sam)
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