Suspense veteran Lucille Ball and her husband, bandleader and entertainer Desi Arnaz, co-star in this script about a woman who embezzles payroll money and meets up with a man trying to evade the law. It’s an entertaining story with implausible elements and a lighthearted ending. Arnaz is less convincing at the microphone than Ball is. This episode was broadcast almost two years before the broadcasts of I Love Lucy that would make Lucy and Desi major Hollywood stars and important television pioneers.
This episode was one of the more publicity-directed castings, is enjoyable, and leaves a warmer feeling among the listeners than a typical episode of Suspense. It might be compared to Back Seat Driver in which Jim and Marion Jordan are competent in their dramatic roles, though you can tell that Marion is a less comfortable than Jim her performance. That episode’s script was a bit better than this one. Arnaz is comfortable, but rough edges are from lack of radio drama experience. He is better than some other series guest stars. Suspense occasionally stresses the star power of its guest actor a little more than its story; this is one of those cases.
The plotline is fairly basic for Suspense: a person thinks they’ve outsmarted everyone but ends up creating trouble for themselves, and that trouble compounds in an unanticipated manner. Ball plays a stenographer whose world is shattered by a phone call from her fiancé who says he’s leaving her for someone else. Angry and disappointed, she decides to break with every part of her past and start a new life. When she leaves the office that night, she takes steals the $21,000 payroll (that’s almost $275,000 in US$2024). That payroll (in cash, since there was no direct deposit, and payroll checks were not common then) was conveniently prepped earlier than usual. She decides to head south for her new life. While driving to Texas with ideas about a life in Mexico swirling in her head and her newfound wealth in her handbag, she hears a newscast describing a daring holdup in a nearby city. The bandit and a red-haired woman were said reported to escape in a green panel truck. The story goes into “it just so happens” mode that sets up a happy conclusion of misunderstanding and coincidences that turn out well in the end. It’s a wholesome conclusion suitable for family viewing… er… listening.
The story was by veteran radio writer Nancy J. Cleveland. The script was originally intended for Dorothy McGuire and was replaced for her appearance a few weeks prior to this broadcast with Last Confession. It is possible that Cleveland’s script was changed to include Spanish surnames and/or border locations to leverage the celebrity and public familiarity of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Unfortunately, there are no early scripts of this episode or the submission copy of Cleveland that was reviewed by Spier and Macdonnell. Broadcast documents are not included in the papers at the Spier-Havoc archives at the University of Wisconsin. There seem to be no archived papers of Nancy J. Cleveland at any location; she may not have donated them.
It is easy to forget the time chronology of characters and performers in the current and past media saturated availability made possible in today’s technology. In judging this episode, it is hard to avoid recalling the effective on-TV-screen interactions of Lucy and Desi in I Love Lucy and compare it with this performance. But those lovable TV scenes had not occurred yet. As classic radio fans it is must be remembered that we see history all at once, but they were living their lives and managing their careers incrementally, day by day. That hit TV series would not begin its successful, influential, and memorable run until almost two years later. Those lovable on-air personas had not been revealed yet, but you can sense natural elements of their characterizations here.
Using air service must have been incredible at that time, because she is able to fly back and return the money before anyone is wise to its absence. But the story implies she drove it back. Really? It must have been a rocket car. There was no Interstate Highway System to the degree that was established even 10 or 15 years later. It’s one of those implausible story elements that you let roll by as you bask into the glow of hearing Lucy and Desi at a happy time for them.
The other implausible aspect of the performance that we have to let slip by is Arnaz as a ventriloquist. Sure, we don’t see his lips move (it’s radio and it’s silly to have a ventriloquist on the air, such a very silly ide… oh… oh… never mind). Most male ventriloquists avoided doing female voices unless they were lampooning a woman’s voice or a creating a high pitched child’s voice. Virginia Gregg provides the voice of “Carmen,” an adult woman, supposed to be one of Arnaz’ character’s voicings. It is not a believable voice coming from his character.
If you think that Lucille Ball’s boss is “Boris Badenov” from Bullwinkle, it is. Paul Frees provided the memorable voice for that animated character. You’re almost expecting his spy companion, Natasha Fatale, to be in the next scene. That character was voiced by June Foray. Those beloved characters and voices would not make their cartoon debuts until 1959.
Arnaz’ character mentions “The Good Neighbor Policy.” This was a reference to the FDR policy implemented in 1933 that the US would not intervene in the affairs of other Western Hemisphere nations.
The script title has “red” and “headed” as unhyphenated, though it is commonly presented that was as the name of the episode. Some newspapers, and perhaps CBS press releases, had the hyphen. When possible, the scripts are the guides for The Suspense Project file names and blogpost titles.
The order in which Ball and Arnaz are announced alternates each time to effect their names getting equal billing.
Desi Arnaz’ personal story is packed with triumph and tragedy, great joy and great sadness. An overview of his life and career is at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desi_Arnaz
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP491117
THE CAST
LUCILLE BALL (Linda), DESI ARNAZ (Jose Lopez), Will Wright (Cabin proprietor), Elliott Reid (Frank / Radio announcers), Virginia Gregg (Carmen / Girl 1), Vivi Janiss (Operator / Girl 2), Paul Frees (Jensen / Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Parley Baer (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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