A poet lives in a home on the Thames, which makes it a convenient place to try to dispose of the body of the maid. She resists his advances, and there’s an accident in his attempt to kiss her and she dies! This incident opens the story, which moves quickly from the accident to the wrapping, weighting, and dumping of her body. The story slows considerably after he learns that the body has floated to the surface and will inevitably be discovered as it floats in the changing tides. The story drags so much that it’s almost difficult to care about his attempt to frame someone else, to hear the proceedings of the trial, and all of that dialogue. This episode of the hour-long format demonstrates that a key element of the past success of Suspense was the first-person narrative style. This story would have been prime for it. Robert Richards made that adjustment often, and wasn’t afraid to do it. A prime example is the Suspense adaptation of The Beast Must Die. Instead, we have Montgomery narrating the story. Suspense might as well be stage plays for radio rather than the innovative method it employed that made it so successful.
The episode is adapted from the 1921 novel of the same name by A. P. Herbert. He was an English humorist, playwright, and writer, but was also a member of Parliament for Oxford University from 1935 to 1950. He served in both WW1 and WW2. He was also a writer for the famous humor magazine Punch in the early 1900s. The story was adapted by Irving Ravetch.
The story also became a 1950 movie directed by Fritz Lang, and is considered a neglected classic of film noir. The adapter for the film was Suspense regular contributor Mel Dinelli. It can be viewed at https://archive.org/details/housebytheriver1950_202002 and https://youtu.be/QTH-QHsMlDw?si=807v3FH79RFc_K7N The website oldtimeradioreview.com, which has some excellent episode reviews and musings of Suspense, X Minus One, and other series, suggests just skipping the episode and watching the movie instead.
So far, the first two fresh scripts of the hour experiment have been seriously lacking.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP480228
THE CAST
John McIntire (Steven Burns), Dan O’Herlihy (John Burns), Eric Snowdon (Police Inspector), Raymond Lawrence (Henry Dimple / Police phone operator), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Club member), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Ambrose), Berry Kroeger (Coroner), unknown actors as Marjorie / Emily Gaunt / Muriel / Mrs. Beech / Jury foreman)
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