Gregory Peck stars in the adaptation of Michael Venning’s 1943 novel. Well, not Michael Venning, but Craig Rice. And not Craig Rice, either. The writer is Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, who used the Venning and Rice pseudonyms through her very prolific career. The novel was adapted for Suspense by pulp author Ken Crossen.
Peck plays a man who wakes up on an evening train to Philadelphia and is confused as to why he is there. He’s been having spells of forgetfulness. For some reason, he remembers the song Red River Valley and starts singing it on the train, but he doesn’t know why. He knows for certain that he’s Jeffrey Bruno, a mystery writer. Papers in the coat he’s wearing and in the wallet indicate he’s John Blake. The business cards he finds says that Blake sells insurance. When he gets off the train, he spots a newspaper headline and sees his picture on the front page. It turns out that John Blake is wanted for the murder of a very wealthy man! Now what? Why can 't he remember such an incredible event?
He heads back to New York to figure out what happened. He learns from Rosalie, an acquaintance and love interest, that he’s been blacking out and disappearing for days at a time. She thinks that he might have schizophrenia, or “split personality.” From the newspaper, he learns that Blake worked for the murdered Rufus Carrington and his family’s business. He visits a doctor who is skeptical about the situation, and recommends he goes to the police. The police? He then goes to the Carrington home, but the butler does not recognize him... that’s strange. What’s even stranger is that he lets Bruno borrow Carrington 's gun... and sees the “doctor” in the house. He was an imposter, the nephew of the deceased. Bruno is being framed... and Rosalie 's in on it!
It’s a good story, but you can sense where the plot is likely headed. Enjoy it for Gregory Peck who gets to play a befuddled amnesiac. He may have been an expert at it. He was also an amnesiac in Hitchcock’s 1945 movie, Spellbound. It could have been a playful reason for his being cast in this role for the broadcast.
The opening is has some similarity to Woolrich’s The Black Curtain, but this novel was published 17 years before that. Amnesia was a common plot device for mysteries of the time, and was more fantasy in it portrayals than accurate. The idea of “split personality” was more not particularly correct as a description of schizophrenia, either. There was great fascination with psychology in the middle of the century. It was a new field and much of the good research in the field was yet to be done. Writers could get away with practically anything related to psychology in their stories and make it seem plausible.
“Craig Rice” was a very popular writer of mystery short stories, novels, and screenplays. She was the first mystery writer to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (January 28, 1946). She may be best known in the golden age of radio for a character in her writings, John J. Malone, who came to radio in two series, Murder and Mr. Malone and The Amazing Mr. Malone. Background about her life, much of it tragic, can be found at these websites:
https://crimereads.com/rediscovering-the-gin-soaked-screwball-mysteries-of-craig-rice/
Time magazine https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,855365,00.html
LISTEN
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https://archive.org/details/TSP490317
THE CAST
GREGORY PECK (John Blake, aka Jeffrey Bruno), unknown (Rosalie), Sidney Miller (Newsboy 1 and Newsboy 2), Joe Kearns (Roger Gunn, alias Doctor), Charles Seel (Clark the butler), Paul Frees (Signature Voice), Carleton Young (Train conductor), Ralph Moody (Train passenger)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer)
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