This episode stars Eddie Bracken in a Cornell Woolrich story about a man who keeps dreaming of a murder that might be real. Bracken’s character wakes after a dream that had him trapped in a strange mirrored room and attacked with a knife. He is able to grab the knife and kill one of the attackers. When he wakes he realizes he has a wound from the struggle on his arm and marks on his neck, exactly like the ones he had in the dream! He finds a key and a button that in the dream, too. He talks to others about the experience and they dismiss what he says. But he’s convinced that a murder has or will occur, and keeps having unnerving premonitions; he has to do something about it. Is his confusion of dream and reality caused by an outside influence? Is he responsible for any violent acts he might have done?
Bracken is good in his role and so is William Conrad in his second Suspense appearance. He was not in any prior to the hour-long series.
If you have the stamina to stick with the story, it is a good production. It may be difficult to keep all of the details in order. The challenge of Suspense in this format is to maintain listener engagement without exhausting their interest.
The Woolrich story, And So to Death, was adapted by Alfred Palca, producer Anton M. Leader’s brother-in law. Palca was a scriptwriter as well as a comedy writer for entertainers. He was blacklisted in the early 1950s. His film, Go, Man, Go! about the origins and life of the basketball team Harlem Globetrotters, was released without screen credit for his work. Had his name appeared, the distributor refused to release the film. He shifted production credit to Leader, and writing credit to his cousin, a pediatrician. It was not until 1997 that he received formal recognition for his work, along with 20 other Blacklisted film writers who wrote under pseudonyms or gave credit to others. He claimed that one of the FBI’s proofs of his being a Communist was that he hired a black man, Sidney Poitier, to be in his film! (Sidney wasn’t big yet… years later those same agents would likely be asking for his autograph and taking selfies). Those were different times, but even when sentiments changed years later, Palca never immersed himself in the film business again, and focused on other writing income. A summary of his career is at https://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/palca.html
Go, Man, Go! can be viewed at https://youtu.be/l2O5xLpgYfQ?si=OK5ckq_OXe4wCfUY and the Anton M. Leader credit can be seen at about 1:21 into the video.
The Woolrich story’s original attribution was to his pseudonym, “William Irish.” He was so prolific that publishers believed using a second name would have a synergistic effect on sales rather than the possible undermining the market by shortening their shelf life with so many new titles under a single name. This particular work was published first as And So to Death by Irish and not long after with the name “Nightmare” as Woolrich. It’s confusing to be so successful.
The story was released as a movie in 1947 as Fear in the Night and starred DeForest Kelley https://archive.org/details/Fear_in_the_Night (IMDb rating is 6.4/10) It was released again in 1956 as Nightmare with Edward G. Robinson and Kevin McCarthy https://archive.org/details/nightmare-1956_202308 (IMDb rating is also 6.4/10). Thought the IMDb ratings are the same, online review sentiment is that the 1956 movie is better.
The recording of this episode is very good until the last moments of the closing announcement and network ID.
This title “Nightmare” would be used again on Suspense for a very different plotline about hit-and-run driving in September 1949.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP480313
THE CAST
EDDIE BRACKEN (Vince Hardy), William Conrad (Cliff Dodge), Ruth Perrott (Lil Dodge / Niece), Berry Kroeger (Fleming), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Waiter / Police Chief Wagner), Eleanor Audley (Female voice in dream / Telegram clerk), Herb Vigran (Deputy), Bert Holland (stand-in for Bracken), Will Wright
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