Lloyd Nolan is back on Suspense. It’s another murderous marriage episode. He’s cheating on his wife. His wife’s body is found in the trunk of his stolen and now-wrecked car. She was stabbed, in a pattern following recent “Jack the Ripper” murders in the area. The villain who still eludes the police. He waits for some time to pass and now he can freely marry his girlfriend. She thinks it might be him... and he admits it! She actually acts that his committing murder to marry her all the more enticing. One of the reasons he gets away with the murder was that he had no insurance on her. But now, he has insurance on the second wife. She starts disappearing visiting “girlfriends” and her absence and possible motives drives him crazy. Is she having an affair? He decides to hide in her car’s trunk to find out where she’s been going. Uh-oh… she’s the “Ripper”! Now what? Two murderers are married to each other!
The story was by Elliott Lewis and Robert L. Richards. Nolan performs better here than he did in Murder for Myra.
Two network recordings have survived. The west coast (“WC”) recording has a one second pause to network ID. The east coast recording (“EC”) has a three second pause. The WC recording is the better of the two. Both broadcasts end as they are running short of time and rushing the closing announcements. If there was a planned tease for The FBI in Peace and War in the east broadcast script, it was scratched because of time.
At about the 1:00 minute mark of the east broadcast, Nolan slurs the word “sleep” in the very first words of the performance. That marker may be helpful in identifying the source of an Armed Forces Radio Service recording should one be found.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470417
THE CAST
LLOYD NOLAN (Michael Dawson), Cathy Lewis (Judy Dawson), Wally Maher (Tommy Castle), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Sergeant O’Connor), unknown (Ethel)
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