Edmund Gwenn stars in a story written by Anne Wormser and Jess Oppenheimer (yes, that Jess Oppenheimer), adapted by Eli David. Gwenn plays a businessman who murders his partner to prevent him from conducting an audit that would lead to the discovery of his misuse of company funds. This way Gwenn can cover up his malfeasance without the intervention of the honest partner. The murder is committed in the first 30 seconds of the broadcast. He leaves town and is sure to establish his alibi. The rest of the story is about his confusion that no one is acknowledging that his partner has been killed. Instead, and that everyone is acting like he is still very much alive!
Gwenn’s character is so obsessive about his actions he plans everything to the smallest detail in a notebook. Every nuance of every action is carefully noted, including comments about what he must do the when he is confronted with the situation in the future. These notes include possible dialogue and his responses to questions. The murder was planned with the utmost care, all written down, including his plans to travel to another town and how he should act surprised for the best effect, and what comments would work best to indicate his shock and dismay.
He stays at the hotel and scours newspapers looking for some mention of his prominent partner’s demise. He expects a telegram requesting his return to the office to take care of this tragic situation. The fact that there is no news or contact frustrates him terribly. He finally decides to go back to the business office, but everyone is still acting as if the partner is in the building and having meetings and running things. That is, until he gets the surprise ending of the story. In many ways, it’s more of a surprise to the character than the listener. But the listeners are bound to be amused and entertained by Gwenn’s performance even if they suspect what the ending will be. His obsessive note-taking becomes his undoing.
In Three O’Clock, the internal dialogue clearly takes place in Van Heflin’s character’s thoughts. In this episode, it’s easy to believe that Gwenn’s character is so psychologically quirky that he is talking out loud to himself, alone. This way he hears how his voice will sound in all of the possible conversations he plays out to make sure he is convincing. He’s muttering to himself and there’s no one to hear him, but he seems to have every reason to believe it is perfectly normal to do so. Everyone, it seems to him, should be as careful about things as he is. This is a very strange and almost emotionless man, and Gwenn is superb at it.
The original story appeared in The American Magazine July 1947 issue and was authored by Anne Wormser and Jess Oppenheimer. Wormser was a novelist and freelance writer for many magazines in the 1930s through the 1950s. Jess Oppenheimer worked in radio for many years, became a writer for My Favorite Husband and then played a key role in the design, development, and production of the legendary I Love Lucy franchise. An overview of his long, varied, and successful career is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Oppenheimer
We appreciate the assistance of Gregg Oppenheimer (his bio is at https://greggoppenheimer.wordpress.com/about-gregg-oppenheimer/) who responded to our questions about whether or not this story had appeared in print before (it did, as noted above). He also added this note: “Interestingly, the maiden name of Dad's grandmother on his mother's side was Wormser . I have no idea whether Anne Wormser was a distant relative, or how they came to collaborate.”
It may be the case that somehow they made contact because Anne Wormser was the sister of Francis Cockrell. He was a very active writer and screen writer who is familiar to many because of his adaptations and stories found on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series. It seems that generation of Cockrells, including Anne’s husband, were professional writers in some way. Anne had also worked on screenplays. Whatever the reason, by chance or circumstance, Anne and Jess collaborated on this short story that evolved into this broadcast. Some background on the Cockrells can be found at https://barebonesez.blogspot.com/2017/10/an-interview-with-amanda-cockrell.html
The story was adapted by Elye Dovid. No information can be found about him. It is not known if it is a pseudonym. Researcher Keith Scott wonders if it is a nom de plume of David Ellis. We may never know.
Variety magazine had a small news item that teased this particular week as the Suspense production of an Arch Oboler script, Him or Me. It was never produced during the golden age of radio, as best as can be determined, but was presented 15 years later as part of the 1964 Arch Oboler’s Plays syndicated series.
This is the second and final appearance of Edmund Gwenn on Suspense. He was also in the cast of the pilot episode on CBS Forecast.
This title was also used on the series Casey, Crime Photographer and is a different story.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP490414
THE CAST
EDMUND GWENN (Rice Archer), Carleton Young (Room Service Voice / Clarke Henley), Herbert Rawlinson (Man / Widdicombe), Terry Kilburn (Bellhop / Desk Clerk), Irene Booth (Operator / Thomasina), Paul Dubov (Waiter / Man 3), Shep Menken (Man 2 / Man 4), Joe DuVal (Police Officer), Eleanor Audley (Miss Gordon / Ethel), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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