John Lund returns to Suspense and stars in a five-year old script first used on The Whistler. The script is “new” because it is the first time this Larry Marcus script, Death Carries a Lunch Kit, was performed for a national audience (The Whistler was only on the CBS Pacific Network in 1944). Since that initial broadcast, there were significant changes in the composition of the radio listening audience compared its wartime broadcast.
Marcus was one of radio’s best writers. In this story, a political fanatic father forces his son to bring a bomb into the factory where he works. The son is a bit nervous about this. The bomb is in his lunch box (called a “kit” at the time because it had a thermal insulated container and room for a sandwich and a piece of fruit). He hides the lunch box in his locker. It is timed to go off a half hour after his shift ends. He is so nervous about the bomb in his locker that he has trouble working. A supervisor suspects he is ill and insists that he take a rest for a while. He starts to fall asleep and realizes that his boss gave him a sedative, and he may sleep through the end of his shift and be in the factory when the bomb explodes!
Some of the sound effects at the conclusion are not all that convincing. It is a good and entertaining story, but not up to the higher level of production that Suspense typically has. It almost seems like a fill-in. This is the fourth week a previous script (3 Suspense, 1 Whistler) has been broadcast.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP490609
THE CAST
JOHN LUND (Jonathan), Norman Field (Dad / Voice), Joe Du Val (Mike / Timekeeper), Jeff Corey (Gus / Man 3), Murray Wagner (Guard / Graham), Ted de Corsia (Davis / Man 1), Bill Johnstone (Doctor / Voice 2), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Bill Johnstone (Hap), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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