William Bendix returns to Suspense in a story about gangsters and police corruption. He plays an ex-cop who takes a job with a local gangleader. He’s ordered to murder a policeman who was his friend while he was on the force. The story involves drug-running in town and how the gang members themselves were corrupt even among themselves. The ending is a surprise as you find out that no one in the police force knew what the real mission of Bendix’ character was, and what he was willing to sacrifice for the good of the community. It’s a good story and Bendix carries it all quite well.
The author of the original story was Thomas Walsh, a former police and reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He left that position to become a full-time writer in the 1930s, with one of his favorite topics as big city police officers who worked alone. His novel Nightmare in Manhattan became the hit 1950 movie Union Station with William Holden. This particular story, Break-Up, appeared in the March 1934 issue of Black Mask. He was a prolific mystery short story writer.
The title of the story, as originally published was “Break-Up” with a hyphen. Some of the newspaper listings were “Breakup,” without the hyphen. The radio script cover may have been without the hyphen as well. With the inconsistent information about the title, it was decided to retain the format as used in its first print publication since that seems to be the author’s intent.
The story was adapted by Joseph Ruscoll & Walter Brown Newman. Ruscoll was one of the writers for Murder at Midnight, the syndicated series that was directed by Anton M. Leader just a few years earlier. Ruscoll also wrote for Molle Mystery Theater, Murder by Experts, Cavalcade of America, and many other series. He wrote for early television, and passed away in 1956. His script The Creeper was a favorite for Molle and was produced on the Suspense television series, for Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1956 and posthumously for the 1986 series revival.
Walter Brown Newman was nominated for Oscars for best screenplay three different times in three different decades. He adapted one of the greatest Suspense broadcasts, Three O’Clock, a Cornell Woolrich story, which starred Van Heflin in March 1949.
This story was originally planned for Burt Lancaster, but he starred in The Big Shot a few weeks prior to this broadcast. The change in lead roles worked out well for Lancaster and Bendix as the scripts seemed to fit their voice and skills quite well.
Jack Benny makes a cameo in the final announcements of the show to promote his move to CBS from NBC. The CBS “talent raid” over 1948 and 1949 was a long-term strategic marketing move by CBS to position lock up talented big stars and their programming as they prepared for the growing television viewership.
The beginning of the recording has a low “thump” in the first minute, an indication that there was disc damage of some sort. The dialogue and music are not affected.
This episode marks the return of the Suspense bells and theme at the beginning of the show. Prior Auto-Lite weeks had Frank Martin and Harlow Wilcox announcing the program without any background music.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP481230
THE CAST
WILLIAM BENDIX (Marty Connors), Frances Chaney (Rita), Nestor Paiva (Max Shale), Wally Maher (Kivilan), Ed Begley (Captain Brandt), Herb Vigran (Chick), Tim Graham (Doctor / Gambler), Herbert Rawlinson (Doc Williamson), Sidney Miller (Elevator Operator / Proctor), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer)
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