Victor Mature makes his Suspense debut in a Cornell Woolrich story about a man whose financial troubles cascade into three murders in three hours. It’s an unbelievable story that can test your patience, and proves again that Suspense is not family listening. The story appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly’s 1940-12-14 edition as Murder Always Gathers Momentum. It was adapted by E. Jack Neuman. A key device in many of Woolrich’s stories is that some nearly-innocent act has unplanned bad consequences that then spin out of control. They do here. That spinning out of control is referred to as “momentum” in this story. If you’ve seen the more modern television series Criminal Minds on CBS, you can imagine this plot fitting that program well.
The story begins with the information that Mature’s character has missed rent payments for the apartment. His wife is understandably upset by that and that he’s not out job-hunting. He says his boss owes him money for an invention he made and that his contribution was never acknowledged or rewarded. She works in the same office, worth remembering for a little surprise at the end. When he confronts his boss, things go out of control, he strikes him, and inadvertently kills him. Things go downhill from there, and that’s the commitment that Woolrich makes in the title. He promises his wife they’ll meet at the train station with the money he got for the invention (which he stole from the office after he killed the boss) so they can get out of town and happily start a new life. We later learn that the boss wasn’t that bad a guy after all. Whoops.
Just a few episodes ago, another disgruntled employee decided to make up for being underpaid. That was part of the plotline in Account Payable. As someone once explained, a manager’s job is to keep employees “gruntled.” But that would not create stories suitable for Suspense.
This is the first appearance of Victor Mature on the series. His career included theater, movies, and television. He was not on radio often. He started in the movies in the late 1930s and decided to try theater in New York to broaden the kind of roles he was offered. The change worked, and when he returned to Hollywood the kinds of roles he was offered improved. His most famous film was Kiss of Death. His interesting career has an overview at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Mature
The Wikipedia entries for Mature and Cathy Lewis appear to triangulate in a manner that implies Mature stayed at the house of Cathy’s mother while being trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse in the late 1930s.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP491027
THE CAST
VICTOR MATURE (Richard Paine), Lurene Tuttle (Pauline), Jay Novello (Italian Neighbor / Platform Janitor), Larry Dobkin (Burrough), Jeff Corey (Ed the Bartender / Train announcement voice), Jack Kruschen (Bailiff / Conductor), Vivi Janiss (Neighbor / Mother), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Harlow Wilcox (Announcer). Parley Baer (Hap), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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