Joseph Cotten stars in the adaptation of a Dorothy L. Sayers story that was first published in London’s The Daily Mail on a serialized basis in April 1936. It was included in many later collections of Sayers’ works. The story was adapted for Suspense by Malcolm Meacham. Cotten plays an actor named “Johnny Scales.” His sudden circumstance has him choose a strange murder weapon of opportunity – a blood transfusion – against someone he has grown to despise. Cotten is always so calm and matter-of-fact when his characters are filled with evil, making the portrayal even more diabolical.
Scales is an ambitious young playwright with mounting hatred for the big narcissistic star who butchered Scales’ play to fit his glamour-boy personality. Scales neglected to protect the content of his play in his contract, so the actor could make whatever revisions he wanted without consultation or permission. The hated actor, Garrick Drury, was good at “good cop, bad cop” double-dealing masquerade for his own personal benefit and acclaim, and crushing the hopes and desires of the person he’s doing it to. While he took credit for the success of the play and made annoying unilateral changes to it, he did help negotiate the deal that sold Scales’ play to a movie studio for a very large sum, $200,000 (almost $2.7 million in US$2024). The story opens with their celebration of that deal.
When leaving the theater, the two are involved in an auto accident, and the actor suffers a severed artery. By the time a doctor arrives on the scene, it is clear that an immediate transfusion will be necessary to save Drury’s life. Once back in the theater to get Drury as stabilized as possible, the doctor checks the blood of Scales, hurt in the accident but not in dire condition, and Drury’s valet. He hopes that one of them will have the O “universal donor” blood type. After an emergency test, it is believed that the actor’s blood that is a match, and the life-saving transfusion begins. But… is it really?
At 9:40 there is a key part of the story where the doctor marks a conveniently available dinner plate for a blood test. The plate had the image of a rose on it meant that it could be set in a position that could be noted, unlike a solid color plate. Grabbing any kind of surface would not be done today for fear of some contamination that could affect the test. But it was an emergency situation and whatever was handy was what was used. It is important to recognize that the knowledge of blood types and the intricacies of blood for use in medical situations was still being learned. At the time that Sayers wrote the original story, knowledge was even less than the incredible amount of knowledge was learned to 1950, the year of this broadcast.
The doctor had a sample of blood from each, with one side of the plate for Scales’ blood and the other for the valet’s. Based on what is learned moments later, it was the latter’s O-type “universal donor” blood that should be used for the transfusion. Scales realized that if the plate was turned, the doctor would assume that it was his blood, not the valet’s, that would be determined to be safe. Scales’ incompatible blood would be given to Drury… and Drury’s life would be put in danger because of it.
Scales is in unknown danger through the story, as he has internal bleeding and damage to his spleen. This leads to the justice that Suspense prefers to deliver, where an evil act is rewarded with devastating impact against the perpetrator.
The story bounces from the present to flashbacks, and the time jumping is not always well-defined. The accident and the care of the wounded Drury are always in the present. Everything else explains how it got there.
After 22:00 the doctor says they got almost a full quart of blood! That’s about four times what is current guidelines to be drawn from a 150 lb. person in a 24 hour period for use in blood research. If Sayers was writing this story today, she would need to make many changes to the details to include the numerous discoveries since that time.
The basic understandings about human blood and its ability to be stored and delivered was still comparatively new at the time of this broadcast. The three major blood types were not discovered until 1900, with type AB added in 1902. The first hospital blood bank was not founded until 1937, a year after the story was first published. The blood bank concept spread rapidly. The documentation of the Rh Factor in blood, which explained why there could be complications in transfusions despite donors and recipients having the same blood type was not established until 1939, three years after Sayers wrote her story. Plastic bags for blood did not become available until 1950, which replaced glass bottles. There was much experimentation about refrigeration and freezing of blood which would extend the shelf life of inventories, especially for rare blood types that might have erratic availability. Without blood banks and ability to store and transport blood, transfusions were more common and would sometimes have to be arranged under great time stress, such as depicted in this story. Today, the person would be rushed to a hospital and the proper blood would be waiting for them based on their identification and other details they might carry on their person.
Keep in mind how listeners would have understood the danger of loss of blood and the well-established risks of transfusions. Today, those issues are well-understood by medical personnel and procedures that patients rarely have to consider their lives in danger. To an audience who grew up in the first half of the century that did not have the benefit of what would be learned and institutionalized in the second half of the century, this story would have had an undercurrent of terror (and suspense) that it would not have for listeners today.
Malcolm Meacham was a playwright and actor. This was his only Suspense submission. In 1949, he was arrested for forgery in the passing of bad checks in New York City. It seems very strange, because other information indicates that Meacham was financially secure otherwise. He may have gone to the west coast to leave personal problems behind and get a fresh start. He taught writing for radio and movies in Los Angeles and at times lived in Utah and the Pacific Northwest. He served on faculties and in many regional theater events and plays and dramatic readings, as well as teaching, for many years. Many of his newspaper citations include information about his television writing in the 1950s, yet he does not turn up in IMDb searches.
Angel Face starring Ginger Rogers was originally scheduled for this date.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500330
THE CAST
JOSEPH COTTEN (Johnny Scales), Whitfield Connor (Garrick Drury / Voice 1), Hans Conried (Walter / Critic #4), Tudor Owen (Scotty / Critic #2), John Dehner (The Bobby / Mike the Reporter), Joe Kearns (Doctor / George / Signature Voice), Larry Dobkin (Sheridan / Interne), Jeanette Nolan (Florrie / Critic #3), Vivi Janiss (Mollie)
COMMERCIAL: Joe DuVal (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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Classic radio researcher and performer Patte Rosebank commented at the Old Time Radio Researchers Facebook page on 2024-03-22 as follows:
Garrick Drury is named for two theatres in London, England.
The Garrick Theatre is at 2 Charing Cross Road, and is named for the Victorian actor, David Garrick. It opened in 1889. https://thegarricktheatre.co.uk/about-garrick-theatre/
Theatre Royal Drury Lane is on Catherine Street. It was built in 1812, and is the 4th incarnation there since 1663. I remember it well, because I worked there, in the summer of 1991. https://lwtheatres.co.uk/theatres/theatre-royal-drury-lane/about-theatre-royal-drury-lane/
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