Howard da Silva stars in a police drama by Cornell Woolrich and adapted by Robert L. Richards. The Woolrich story was published in 1938 and focuses on the dramatic tension between gut-feel detective work and new scientific methods. The ballistics report says one thing, but the lead detective thinks another. The story has a slight Dragnet feel, which makes it strange to hear Jack Webb as the criminal. Dragnet would not initiate its legendary run on radio until 1949.
Truman Bradley returns as Roma spokesman. It is so curious how Ken Niles and Bradley read essentially the same ad copy, but the style of pronunciation, emphasis, and pace can be so very different.
East and west network recordings have survived. The east recording is marked by the tease to continue listening for The FBI in Peace and War. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording is derived from the east broadcast. Times are approximate:
EC 2:03 and AFRS 1:18 “Uh... Got a match?... Huh? Match? Huh...here”
WC 2:03 “Hey, look, eh... You got a match?.. Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, here.”
The west coast recording is better than the east, but they are somewhat close in quality. The AFRS recording is in poor sound quality.
According to Darryl Shelton, Da Silva replaced Jimmy Stewart, originally scheduled for the lead. Stewart had been teased as an upcoming guest for a few weeks, but would not be on Suspense again until 1949. Stewart’s schedule may have been affected by the performance of It’s a Wonderful Life on Lux Radio Theater a few nights before. No documentation has been found at this time that Stewart was originally planned for this episode.
At the end of the program, the tease for next week’s episode is The Waxwork, featuring Claude Rains. This was the script originally intended for Alfred Hitchcock. That obviously did not work out. If logistics posed a problem or if it was realized that Hitchcock was not able to perform in the desired manner is not known. The network broadcasts with Rains and missing, and no AFRS recording has been found.
The episode after that is still missing, as well. That is Trial by Jury with Nancy Kelly. Both of the missing episodes were performed again in the 1950s.
In 1948, this You Take Ballistics script was altered to feature a Scotland Yard detective as an audition program for a proposed series “The Hunters.” It would become the CBS series Pursuit which ran at various times from 1949 to 1952.
This is Howard da Silva’s only Suspense appearance. Da Silva came to prominence as a Broadway actor and had a successful movie career. He was caught up in the Hollywood Blacklist and its weight resulted in little radio or television work in the 1950s. His career and his difficulties are summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_da_Silva
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470313
THE CAST
HOWARD DA SILVA (Lt. Ed Harvey), Jack Webb (Clarence Coleman), Will Wright (Captain Leffinger), Jerry Hausner (Detective Cass), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Truehoff), Jack Kruschen (Elevator operator)
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