Angela Lansbury stars in a new performance of A Thing of Beauty about a recluse actress involved in a years-ago murder. The story was originally presented in December 1944. Details are at
Many classic radio fans have preference for this performance rather than the 1944 one that starred June Duprez. It could be that the current era affection for Lansbury from her years on Murder, She Wrote creates a bigger gap between that show’s warm and kind character and the one she plays in this performance. That makes this Suspense role more disturbing than it would otherwise be.
The curious aspect of this script is that it is by Elizabeth Hiestand. Under the name of Elisabeth A. Heisch, she was writer of The Cinnamon Bear with her husband Glanville Taft Heisch. That was an innocent and endearing Christmas project for children and family. This episode is certainly not!
The east and west broadcasts have survived but it is not known which or the two recordings is to which coast. There is no tease for eastern listeners for The FBI in Peace and War. Each recording has a different time to network ID. On is direct to ID (“dirID”) and the other is two seconds to ID (“2s”). There are two other differences, times approximate:
2s 1:52 “And I want you to meet her without prejudice.” (a thunder effect is over the words “without prejudice”
dirID 1:55 “And I want you to meet her without prejudice.” (the thunder effect is after the word “prejudice”
Elliott Lewis slightly muffs Lansbury’s salutation after the mid-show commercial:
2s 15:07 “Mitch Angela Lansbury”
dirID 15:17 “Miss Angela Lansbury”
Joe Kearns did not have his usual announcing assignment since he had a larger-than-usual role in the drama. Lewis was assigned a portion of Kearns’ usual announcing duties.
The 2s recording has better sound and is preferred for listening.
(NOTE: there are recordings of this episode that do not have consistent time to ID. It is not known if there have been collectors who “tightened” the time to the network ID when they processed their tape recordings from disc or other tape copies. The difference in the Lewis enunciation of “Miss” are different. Also, in editing the disc joins, it was also clear that the two sets of discs were different in their break between parts and two. It is possible that an east disc part was matched with a west part for some reason related to disc condition. Unless the discs become available for examination or a fresh recording to be made, we cannot know the differences between the two with certainty).
This is the sole appearance of Lansbury on Suspense. She had a very long theatrical, movie, and television career that won her many awards. One of the odder movie roles she had was in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) which won her great acclaim. And, of course, she is known most in these recent decades for her lead role in the long-running and still-popular TV series Murder, She Wrote. Her very notable career is detailed at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Lansbury
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470529
THE CAST
ANGELA LANSBURY (Madeleine Tremaine), Cathy Lewis (Nell Garrett), Hans Conried (Alec Duncan), Elliott Reid (Reverend Sedley), Raymond Lawrence (Scotland Yard Inspector), Herbert Rawlinson (Reverend Benton), Nanette Vallon (Suzette), Elliott Lewis (Stage Doorman / Middle signature voice), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / John Gaylord)
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