Van Johnson stars in a new performance of the Roland Brown story adapted by Robert L. Richards. Johnson plays a young ex-con who is rehabilitated by a criminal attorney who hired him to be a clerk in his firm. A lawyer in the same firm is the former DA who convicted him. When that ex-DA is murdered, everyone knows who the likely suspect is! Johnson’s character works to clear his name and find the real killer.
Details about the original March 1944 production with Alan Ladd and further background about Brown are at
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1944-03-09-defense-rests.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP440309 provides access to the recordings
The production includes two actors who would star in Gunsmoke under Norman Macdonnell: Georgia Ellis as Kitty and Howard McNear as Doc. Larry Dobkin, also in this episode, would appear as many different supporting characters in that series.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP491006
THE CAST
VAN JOHNSON (Robert Tasker), Bill Johnstone (Craiger), Georgia Ellis (Peggy), Ted Osborne (Hines / Lieutenant), Dave Ellis (Harry / Clerk), Larry Dobkin (Prison Warden / Attendant), Howard McNear (Captain / Judge), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Parley Baer (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
###
