Another sign that the Suspense crew was scrambling to get the 60-minute format rolling is the use of a two-part Sam Spade script from 14 months earlier. It’s a sequel to The Maltese Falcon. Robert Montgomery opens the show looking for the definition of the word “suspense.” Then he pals around with Howard Duff. It almost seems they’re filling time, but they might be trying to replicate the chatter that Cecil B. de Mille would have in the Lux Radio Theatre series. Montgomery also offers an explanation about the plans for the new format and the greater creative freedom and flexibility that it allows.
The Spade two-part story was written by Bob Tallman and Jason James (aka Jo Eisinger), and welded together for good for this broadcast. At the halfway point, Montgomery recaps the story to that point. That is likely a leftover from the original Spade script. It does highlight an issue with the longer format. Radio scripts always had “hidden recaps” written into the story that would be part of the dialogue of the characters. This would remind listeners of what was happening, and those who tuned in late to catch up.
The Falcon crew is back, but this time they’re looking for a valuable tooth that was smuggled into the US via some dental work in an unsuspecting patient. The underlying story is not the best, but it is entertaining with the usual Spade show banter.
That tooth is supposedly the tooth of the Buddha from Kandy, Sri Lanka, where a temple preserves it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_the_Tooth The story ends up being about a much different tooth, stolen from a corpse.
Kearns is superb as Casper Gutman, at times sounding exactly like Sidney Greenstreet.
Duff flubs some dialogue in the description of Gutman after 26:30 when he has trouble saying “grey-striped trousers.”
Montgomery has some trouble with the closing announcements.
Robert Montgomery has a cameo as Philip Marlowe. This broadcast is the only time that Spade and Marlowe ever “met.” Montgomery portrayed the Raymond Chandler character in The Lady in the Lake. He was the film’s director, and his use of “point of view” cinematography (events are presented through the eyes of Marlowe, not like a stage play). The film was released in January 1947. Montgomery would appear in the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of the story about four weeks after this broadcast.
Reference: Spade makes a comment about something as tall as the “Mark Hopkins.” It was a hotel built atop one of the city’s highest points. It is still in operation as an Intercontinental Hotel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hopkins_Hotel
Dental bridgework is a part of the story, but dentures and false teeth are far less common as the decades moved on. In many cases, bridgework is less necessary because of better preventative dental care, implants, “caps,” and other procedures.
The Greenstreet movie character is named Kasper Gutman in the film, and Casper Gutman in the original novel.
Reading of the definitions of “suspense” at the beginning of the program was last done on 1942-11-03 The Devil in the Summer House.
William Spier is heard at the end to keep promoting the new concept of the hour-long format. How strange it is that he would be gone from the series in just a few weeks.
Recordings of the original Sam Spade broadcasts of this story are still missing. Researcher John Scheinfeld believes that there were legal issues between Dashiell Hammett and CBS or William Spier or both and lawyers requested transcriptions of episodes... and they were never returned to the CBS archives.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP480110
THE CAST
HOWARD DUFF (Sam Spade), Lurene Tuttle (Effie Perrine), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Casper Gutman), Cathy Lewis (Hope Laverne), Wally Maher (Lawrence Laverne), Jay Novello (Joel Cairo), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Julius), Jack Edwards, Jr. (Herman Julius / Mortuary attendant), Sidney Miller (Documentary narrator), Hans Conried (Marvin / Don Constantino), Bill Johnstone (Lieutenant Dundy), Robert Montgomery (Series host / Philip Marlowe)
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