Raymond Chandler’s satirical send-up of detective mysteries has Ray Milland starring in the second production of this script. The past production, five years earlier, starred William Bendix as the chaser of the stolen jewels. Milland’s is likely the slightly better performance, but both are good in their own ways.
Classic radio fans strongly associate Bendix as the star of Life of Riley. It is hard to think differently, even though he did not get that role until later. The same can be said of Lucille Ball. Many new classic radio fans are surprised to know of her Suspense performances when I Love Lucy is so deeply ingrained in media history. This is one of the challenges of OTRdom as we have access to all the performances today, all at once. The sequential nature of shows and careers is not always plain and obvious.
Details about the story, script, and the 1945 Bendix performance are at
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/06/1945-04-19-pearls-are-nuisance.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP450419 is where the recordings can be streamed or downloaded
Bill Johnstone subs for Joe Kearns as the Suspense signature voice.
The original plan for this date was to have Arthur Godfrey star in a new production of Two Sharp Knives. The change was made soon enough that this episode with Milland made it to the tease at the end of the prior week’s program. Godfrey would never appear on Suspense. Louis Jourdan was another pre-announced guest who never appeared on the series.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500420
THE CAST
RAY MILLAND (Walter Gage), Mary Jane Croft (Ellen McIntosh), Jack Kruschen (Manager / Lew Scandesi), Hal March (Henry Eichelberger), John Dehner (Contact Man / Filter), Howard McNear (Roger Gallemore), Bill Johnstone (Sig. voice / Teller)
COMMERCIAL: unknown (Dora), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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