The broadcast of Three O’Clock with Van Heflin may be one of the finest performances and productions of radio’s golden age. It is a marvelous convergence of a great Cornell Woolrich story, a superb actor, excellent effects, a terrific supporting cast, superior use of music to heighten the mood and many changes of scenes, innovative direction that demarcates the present and a flashback so well, and much more.
The Woolrich story is adapted by Walter Brown Newman, a noted writer whose career would include three Oscar nominations for best screenplay spread over three different decades.
If a reader of this analysis would prefer to listen to the program first, now is the time to do it. Go to this link for the network broadcast recording https://archive.org/details/TSP490310/Suspense+1949-03-10+Three+O'Clock+NETWORK.flac
If you have heard the program before, it is hoped that these observations and background will create a richer experience when listening again.
The story begins with husband Paul, played by Heflin, recounting the circumstances that lead to his decision to enact a plan to destroy his home to murder his cheating wife while escaping detection with an unshakable alibi. After setting up the timed explosion, his exit from the home is thwarted by burglars. They tie him to a chair in the basement and gag him, placing him right next to the device he set for his selfish revenge.
It is later revealed that the premise for that marital retaliation is flawed; she has not been cheating on him. She has been keeping her activities secret as she assisted her troubled brother. She was concerned that Paul might not like her getting involved with her convict sibling. Paul’s lack of trust for her leads to his misinterpreting her actions. Once he learns the truth, the fear, panic, and regret he has drives the Heflin performance. Paul’s remorse grows deeper in his helplessness. The emotional whirlwind brings him to sudden death as the clock alarm rings at the end of the story. Paul only has himself to blame for his dilemma. He suffers alone, pleading for help and forgiveness that no one can hear, and pondering the misfortune his actions will create. He will never know how lucky he was that his plan failed, and that he will become the sole victim of his plan.
That is the general background of the story… there are many more details and subtleties about Heflin’s performance.
The drama begins with Paul justifying his actions against his cheating wife. He is methodical in his process. He describes what he is doing, how his bomb is being created and connected, and how it’s timed to trigger in 75 minutes. That will give him plenty of time to get back to his watch and clock repair shop. His career is the repair and admiration of timekeeping devices. How fitting is it that he will soon be trapped in a situation where a clock’s every secondhand movement and click dominates his focus, making him acutely aware that his very life ticks away with each one? His repair shop is loaded with clocks, but this one becomes the singular timepiece that matters to his precious life.
His plan goes wrong all at once, a common plot device of Woolrich. Burglars break into the house just as he’s ready to depart. They are very surprised to find him there. They force him down to the basement, tie him to a chair, and gag him. He sits in full view of the bomb he created, hearing the loudly-ticking alarm clock, and knowing it will trigger a murderous explosion at three o’clock. It is at that point that the story’s foundation has been set, and there is an Auto-Lite commercial.
Suspense did not follow an in-show schedule for its first commercial. In its early years, a “mid-show” commercial was at the mid-point of the program. That changed over time as the series developed. This is one of the values of a sponsored program: the show content could be presented in its own time and manner that enhanced the story’s development. In the 1950s, when shows did not have sponsors and there was a more rigid schedule with affiliate stations, breaks in stories had to be at specific times that local advertisers and the stations agreed to by contract. The flexibility of story development had to change, and radio scripters had to plan accordingly. At this time in Suspense history, however, the sponsor knew that great storytelling held their audience. They would set the stage for the story in whatever time it took, get their message out of the way, and then let the drama play out on its own within the overall broadcast time allotment. Three O’Clock is not a long story, in that regard, but it is compact and concentrated. It’s hard to believe so much can happen in a short time, and such a wide range of emotions can be expressed and include changes in time periods and scenes.
In this case, only seven minutes of broadcast time has passed, with half of that used for the show opening and the two commercials. Just about three and a half minutes has been used to set up the drama that will unfold after the mid-show commercial. What do we know so far? We know a man believes his wife is cheating, he is so distraught and angry that he will resort to blowing up his own house with her alone in it. He is confronted by burglars who subdue him quickly, and he fights and squirms valiantly to get away from them but also to warn them about what he is done, and they are in danger, too. Heflin’s performance goes way beyond yelling or grunting. There’s a sincerity and subtlety in everything and every moment he’s immersed in the role. You can sense the fear that would be part of the event if it was real. Please! Let the commercial end! The audience is hooked and wants more!
Note how the loud ticking clock is a key element of the story. Woolrich did not have the benefit of audio when he wrote the story. He did it in text such as this:
It
went tick-tick, tick-tock; tick-tick, tick-tock,
so
rhythmically, so remorselessly, so fast.
Paul’s life is clocks. He’s around the sound of ticking clocks all day. It’s background noise that he may actually enjoy as he works. But that changes today. There is only one clock that matters now. Each tick is suddenly precious. It’s not background noise any more. The sound develops the tension and urgency of the situation. The CBS publicity for the show says that the listener “sweats it out with Heflin,” and we certainly do.
As a listener, you don’t realize the significance of the sound effect in the production until the story plays out. The ticking of the clock is a subtle marker that a dramatic scene occurs in the present. The story has many flashbacks, and the effect is not used in those scenes. When that flashback is over, and the scene shifts to the present, the ticking is obvious upon its return. The story keeps going back and forth with flashbacks that fill in the story, and listeners realize the ticking is the signal that we’re back to the present and each tick is Paul’s life slipping away.
In his first minutes of restraint, Paul goes through the justification of his actions. His wife has been cheating, and he knows it for a fact. She’s out of the house at times outside of her established routine. When he asks her about it, she covers up her whereabouts in an evasive manner. He pokes holes in her stories, making him certain that she is unfaithful and undeserving of his affections. Later in the story we learn that she’s actually helping a family member overcome legal troubles. Paul, tied up in the basement, overhears the truth. It’s much too late; he can’t undo what he’s already done.
His lecturing to himself about justifying his actions and setting up the explosive lasts 1:30 (one minute, thirty seconds). He’s cool and calm and confident as he prepares to leave. The sequence of the home invasion, getting tied up and gagged lasts 2:25. The burglars comment about the intensity of his resistance. Note how convincing Heflin is. This is not your basic radio fight or scuffle. As they restrain him he works hard to fight back, but he can’t. He’s panicking and can barely contain his breath. He tries to yell at the burglars and can’t. You can hear him squirm from his voicing of his attempt to speak! Only he knows why it’s so important to get out; the burglars just want to “grab and go” and he’s preventing them from doing so until he is fully restrained. It’s two opposing forces, but Paul is just outnumbered and unable to resist. Everyone in the basement is intent on completing their own selfish evil act. The burglars leave, complaining as they exit that there was really nothing worth taking. Paul is stranded. That all happened in three and a half minutes. We learned so very much.
The main drama begins after the seven minute mark. It’s hard to believe that such rich storytelling with so many swaps between the past and the present, the expression of raw emotion will take less than 20 minutes. Heflin's performance is incredible. He realizes what he’s done and starts pleading with his wife, who is not there, to come home and get him out of the situation. What if she did? What would she say? How would he explain it? He expresses his sorrow for his plan, even though she deserved it. He has some sorrow, but no remorse. That will come later.
The first flashback is about 8:30. The ticking effect ends. Heflin has to switch from his portrayal of growing panic and frustration to the ordinariness of just another day coming home from work. There is happiness in seeing his wife and they are playful with each other. He is calm as he sits down in the living room to read the paper as she talks about her day. Then he realizes someone was in the house earlier in the day, when he sees a cigar butt, still warm, in the ash try. He asks if there were any visitors, and she says no. He knows she is lying.
The ticking begins again at about 9:40 and the drama switches back to the interior dialogue. His voice is less panicky but as he talks to himself that the clock seems to be going faster, you can sense the frustration starting to build. At about 10:15 he hears the doorbell ring. It’s the gas service meter reader whom he wants so desperately to come in and rescue him. There’s hope that there’s an excuse for the gas reader to go into the house. But the two workers will not enter the house unless someone is home. Frustration is in his voicing, even though it’s an internal dialogue. He realizes his time for escape with their help is gone. Heflin’s breathing pattern makes that clear.
At 12:10 it’s another flashback, and the ticking stops. He thinks he’s caught his wife in a lie about where she’s been. Her excuse was seeing an evening movie. He picks apart her alibi by asking questions about it. You can hear his disbelief becoming more intense as she talks. The conversation starts as casual and becomes more pointed.
The drama returns to the present at 13:10 with the return of the ticking. He calmly explains how that conversation, combined with the cigar butt, sealed his wife’s fate. Then he looks at the clock and the panic starts setting in again. He is getting lost in his jealous thoughts so much that he forgets about the time! The listener is still clued into it because the clock has been ticking all along.
He hears his wife upstairs in the kitchen as she returns from food shopping. He wants so desperately for her attention, to have her come downstairs. Notice how Heflin’s voicing has moved from calm to panicked to conciliatory is a very short time. The phone rings, and she answers. She tells the caller that she thinks the house was robbed. He overhears the conversation and that she tried to reach Paul at the shop, and that he will be mad if the small amount of money that was in the house is gone.
He keeps stating how much time is left; it’s passing so quickly. He has to reassure himself that she deserves the trap he’s set. At 16:00 the ticking stops for a flashback about his returning from work on another day. She seems very happy to see him, but his demeanor is still cautious and unsmiling. She starts tickling him and they start laughing together. How can this couple not be getting along? It’s a happy, playful moment where their cares are set aside until she discovers he has a package. He tells her it’s fertilizer so they can start a garden. It’s his turn to lie. That laughter ended so quickly.
16:55 The ticking begins again. He explains how he’s been bringing home everything needed to make the bomb. His thoughts move to talking to her, hoping she will come downstairs and find him. The ticking continues.
At 17:40 her brother comes over and they sit down to talk. He realizes it’s only 28 minutes left on the clock. He wonders: is this person her love interest? The man seems to know about Paul and mentions him by name. He realizes that she’s been helping her brother, and not having an affair. The brother has been in trouble, and is an escaped convict. He wants to set things right, and get back into society again. He’s concerned that if she goes to the police station to turn himself in, she will get into trouble. He suggests that they call Paul and ask him to come. She says no, that she will do it. Paul finds a way to make noise in the cellar. It’s dismissed. They leave the house to go to the police station. It’s clear there is a decency about Paul’s wife that he did not appreciate. Rather than trusting her, offering a benefit of the doubt, or having a relationship where family matters could be discussed, his mind and jealous instincts fled to the worst possibility.
Heflin is out of breath; he starts calling her to come back, all in his mind, in great panic. He is so distraught starts calling for his mother to help him. How fitting that is, as a child enters the story.
At 20:15, the clock still ticking, a neighborhood boy starts bouncing a ball against the house. His mother tries to get him to stop. He peers in the basement window. He asks his mother to look at the “funny man.” She implores him to stop. He leaves, saying to his mother “bye, bye, funny man, tied up,” and goes away. Knowing they are gone, Paul starts crying. All seems lost. He has ten minutes left. He starts thinking of his mother and apologizing for some past childhood offense. He claims he was a good boy, and such claims make one wonder if his thinking pattern of mistrust is something he’s suffered with since childhood that has affected other relationships.
At 22:10 the phone starts ringing, likely the wife trying to reach Paul. She was probably checking if he came home from work while she was at the police station. He tears up and says bye to her.
He starts talking to the clock, as the minutes pass, he keeps repeating how much time is left. The ticking stops as he hopes time will stand still, but it keeps going. He starts crying, catches himself. He says “Paulie says ‘bye bye five’” as a child as the five minute mark passes. The ticking starts and the furthest flashback, back to childhood, begins.
At 23:45 he’s talking to his mother, in a soft voice that implies childhood trust and innocence. She asks him if he knows what time it is. He says “one minute to three.” The ticking begins again at 24:10, and he’s convinced he was dreaming. He may have briefly passed out from exhaustion. Many of these flashbacks could have been in a sleeplike state as his mind drifted off.
Each tick of the clock is more important now. He counts down the clock as he pleads for his life, for his mother, for his wife, crying throughout. He counts it down, crying with each number. Listeners may have been ready for someone to burst in and save him. But as each second passes, it becomes obvious that won’t happen.
At 25:10 the alarm rings, suddenly, loudly, startling to anyone who was listening, and then retreats. The music comes up to change the scene. A police officer is questioning the wife about the scene in the basement. We hear the coroner pronouncing Paul as dead of heart failure. The officer asks if she knows anything about the box and the wires and the clock. She explains how she had used the powder that Paul was bringing home to plant flowers, because he loved flowers so much! After all, he said he wanted a garden, a lie he told her, when he was gathering what was needed for his horrible plan. This also means that she trusted exactly what he said to her, and he did not trust her in the least. The innocent person was saved in this story, the wayward brother may be on a road to reform through her efforts, and the person whose jealousy and selfishness led to this horrible incident met justice of his own making. The story is a strange twist of good over evil.
The concluding music comes up and completes the drama.
Available recordings: the network recording is preferred
There are two recordings of this broadcast. The better recording is of the network broadcast. The other recording is an Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) highly edited version that is in low quality. The Heflin performance can be fully enjoyed and understood only in the best possible sound, which makes the network recording the best choice.
Heflin’s challenge and an actor’s perspective
Craig Wichman, classic radio historian and enthusiast, and professional actor, says that he “...always found Heflin to be a very solid actor, in both film and radio… ‘One-hander’ solo roles are a unique challenge. And that challenge is doubled, when it's a very emotional piece -- where the risk of overacting is a pitfall for some. Van, here, is about as good as Cagney in Johnny Got His Gun - which is to say, about as good as such things get.”
That Cagney performance is exceptional and is from Arch Oboler’s Plays of 1940-03-09. It is an adaptation of Dalton Trumbo’s book of the same name. It is about a multiple amputee who cannot speak after his war injuries, and has a similar acting challenge that Heflin had in this script. It can be heard at https://otrr.org/OTRRLibrary/jukebox/Arch%20Obolers%20Plays%2040-03-09%20(51)%20Johnny%20Got%20His%20Gun.mp3 Background about the original novel is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun
Craig is also steadfast in his enthusiasm about Heflin’s lead role in the short-lived Philip Marlowe series on ABC. That series was truer to Raymond Chandler’s gritty detective than the later CBS version with Gerald Mohr that offered a lighter and sarcastic characterization. Unfortunately, few of the Heflin episodes have survived, but there are enough to know that the vision of the ABC series was quite different and Heflin was superb in it.
Other notes about this broadcast
Why does the mid-show commercial mention tax returns? The deadline for US Federal tax filings was still March 15. It was changed to April 15 in 1954.
Near the end of this broadcast, at 27:45, Heflin calls director Tony Leader from the production studio to the microphone. He is presented with a special scroll for their selection as best mystery drama by Ann Daggett of Radio Mirror. Heflin sounds happy and enthused. He’s probably pleased that there is no second performance on the same night as there was in the Roma era. He must have been exhausted.
A television presentation of the Woolrich story
Alfred Hitchcock had a TV series that was separate from the better-known Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It was a series on NBC that ran from 1957 to 1958. Suspicion had 42 productions, and like the legendary Playhouse 90, had half of its productions as filmed and the other half as live. Hitchcock produced this story himself as Four O’Clock. It starred EG Marshall and the ending was truer to the original story. Paul is driven to the point of insanity, and does not die, but is carried off in a straitjacket. The hour-long production can be viewed at https://youtu.be/fv7b10Vd8hc or at https://archive.org/details/Suspicion_1_01_Four_O_clock Details about the casting and original broadcast can be found at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0714191/
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP490310
THE CAST
VAN HEFLIN (Paul), Georgia Ellis (Francie / Bobby), Ted de Corsia (Duke / Cop), Walter Craig (Lou / Gas Man), Walter Burke (Earl / Gas Man 2), George Baxter (Dave / Doc), Ann Morrison (Bobby’s Mother), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Sylvia Simms (Operator), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer)
###
