The Love Birds is a story about a husband and wife, and the contradiction of what seems to be a happy life to those who see it from the outside but is vastly different in their private life. They don’t just dislike each other, they want to kill each other. Each waits for just the right opportunity when they won’t be suspected of the heinous act.
Groundwork for the husband’s medical issues is established quickly. It’s mentioned that he has asthma and has vision issues and takes sleeping pills. Yes, sleeping pills… and he can’t read the bottle… it’s easy to anticipate where this is going. He can’t stand her because of her badgering and her gradual loss of attractiveness. She buys rat poison, and he knows it, and tells her that the plan to use it is already thwarted by a positive exterminator’s report just days before. Be attentive when listening because you never know which nasty spouse will deliver on their threats to the other. The ending is surprising, because their acrimony doesn’t end in a particular event.
The story was written by Shirl Hendryx and adapted by Harold Swanton. Hendryx is listed in some sources as “Shirl Hendricks” or “Cheryl Hendricks.” He started writing for radio in the 1940s and is cited in RadioGoldindex for Suspense, Radio City Playhouse, and Under Arrest. There were likely many others. He wrote on a freelance basis for television in the 1950s through the 1970s, as well many as theatrical plays. The 90-year-old Hendryx had one of his new plays premiere in 2014, and even wrote a short play for Smartphone Theatre in 2020! He passed away in December 2023, a few months before his hundredth birthday.
Harold Swanton was a busy radio pro who did a lot of work for The Whistler for both radio and television, as well as many other series.
It’s a different kind of episode, but not different enough to stand out and be in a top ten list. It’s not one that is likely to drive classic radio fans to listen to again and again. It is a worthwhile listen just to think about its final dialogue and whether or not all their anger was really worth the energy they put into it.
The title of the episode is “The Love Birds” which is how it appears on the script cover. Most of the show’s publicity matches that. There are some instances of “The Lovebirds” in some newspaper listings, likely the result of that paper’s editing preference. Dictionaries seem to accept both the separate words or the compound word as correct.
Two recordings have survived. The network recording is the better of the two. An aircheck originally recorded on 78s lacks the show opening and parts of the close. It is a low quality recording which may have been recorded for one of the performers, an ad agency, or for a station to check its signal coverage, or some other reason.
This episode is Joan Fontaine’s only appearance on Suspense. She had a very long film and television career. She and her sister, Olivia de Havilland, were the only siblings to win Oscars for lead roles. They did not get along for much of their lives. In thinking about this episode and the family history, the undercurrent of hostility of the characters seems somewhat parallel to real life. Background about her career and life can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Fontaine
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP490303
THE CAST
JOAN FONTAINE (Martha), Lester Sharpe (Sam), Ed Begley (Doc Roberts), unknown (Woman), unknown (Jim), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Jerry Hausner, Harlow Wilcox (Announcer)
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