This is the fourth production of the Cornell Woolrich story with script adapted by Sigmund Miller. A fire inspector begins to suspect his wife is an arsonist. At the time of this broadcast and before, fire was a great fear, especially in cities. Fire prevention technologies, fire-resistant building materials, and fire containment methods were in their infancy. The audience of this broadcast would have reacted quite differently than today when house and apartment fires are rare and usually contained with minimal damage and loss of life compared to their time when whole blocks of buildings would be in peril.
This production stars Fredric March. He starred in the initial production of the script on 1943-03-02. No recording of that performance has been found. This was obviously a favorite script of the Suspense producers.
The details about the story and the prior surviving productions can be found at
1943-12-09 with Robert Young (includes story background)
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1943-12-09-night-reveals.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP431209 has the recording
1946-04-18 with Keenan Wynn
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/07/1946-04-18-night-reveals.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP460418 has the recording
At the end of the recording you can hear some chatter in the studio as the Suspense theme fades.
One reason this episode was broadcast was to fill-in for a cancellation. The originally planned episode announced at the end of April and beginning of May was for this day was a Mel Dinelli script, The Hand. It was to be the debut of Joan Crawford on Suspense, but the script was rejected by Auto-Lite for its gruesome auto accident and inclusion of drug addiction and mental illness in the storyline. How Crawford eventually came to Suspense the following week is a fascinating story. It is related in the blogpost for the next broadcast.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP490526
THE CAST
FREDRIC MARCH (Harry Jordan), Jeanette Nolan (Marie), John Dehner (Morell the Investigator), Hugh Thomas (Steve / Fireman), Paul McVey (Parmenter / Cop), Jerry Farber (Johnny), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer)
###
