Joan Bennett makes her second appearance on Suspense in a script written by a media journalist, Shirley Gordon of TV-Radio Life.
Bennett’s character starts working in the private lab of a scientist who is focused on the development of a special chemical. He is so debonair and charming (which of course means he’s played by series regular Bill Johnstone) that she cannot think the man can do anything but good in her eyes. He seems to adore his wife, also working in the lab. She does not realize until it’s too late that he has great hatred for his wife, and is jealous that she may be more brilliant than he could ever be. One night, Bennett’s character is awakened by a tapping on her door. It’s the doctor who urges her to come downstairs and join him and his wife in a quiet little celebration of the completion of the project on which all three have been working. The wife is soon dead. No wonder he was so obsessed with getting the amber color of the poison just right… so it would match the color of her favorite liqueur! The doctor arranges the circumstances so he can frame his assistant for the crime. It works, and she goes to jail… but guilt eventually overcomes him… but how and when he confesses is the surprise ending of the story.
The script was by Shirley Gordon, writer and assistant editor at Radio-TV Life magazine. She also worked in CBS publicity for a time. Gordon also had scripts produced on The Whistler and On Stage. Gordon wrote for 1950s and 1960s television, including The Bob Cummings Show, Bewitched, My Three Sons, and others. In the 1970s she became a successful author of children’s books. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she wrote scripts for The Hollywood Radio Theater and Sears Radio Theater.
There are two surviving recordings, the network broadcast and an Armed Forces Radio Service one (AFRS#324). The network recording is the significantly better of the two. The AFRS recording is very low quality.
Bennett stumbles on the word “challenging” just after 8:45 of the network broadcast, but makes it sound natural.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500504
THE CAST
JOAN BENNETT (Mary Blake), Bill Johnstone (Signature voice / Dr. Gregory Martin), Junius Matthews (Professor Lee / Sentencing Judge), Ruth Perrot (Matron / Lorna Martin), William Conrad (Detective), John Dehner (Judge / Warden), Joe Kearns (Prosecuting Lawyer / Signature Voice), Tudor Owen (Witness / Clerk), Edgar Barrier (Medical Examiner / Foreman)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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