Edward G. Robinson appears once more on the series. His character has a plan to murder his wife, and it involves getting enough morphine to carry out the crime. He takes a train to another city, arrives, and hops a trolley, not caring which way it is going, and rides it until it comes to a neighborhood where there are many rooming houses. He rents a room under an assumed name, then suddenly gasps out to the landlady that he is in great pain and wants a doctor immediately. When the doctor arrives, Robinson describes his symptoms as those of Trigeminal neuralgia, a painful nerve disease. The doctor scribbles out a prescription for morphine tablets to ease the pain. Once he gets the morphine, Robinson quietly leaves, and goes back to his home town. The drug that pill supply will be his murder weapon, who is suffering, incurably, from that actual disease whose symptoms he faked. None of this would be possible today without verification of identity, proof of insurance, and a battery of tests; there are also more controls over the dispensing of morphine and other painkillers. Just go along with the story as it is of its time. The ending is such that it could easily have been adjusted for The Whistler as Robinson’s character became too impatient for what would have happened anyway. Other Suspense episodes have had similar conclusions.
Lawrence Goldman wrote the script. It was his third for the series, with more to come. He became a very successful teleplay writer in the 1950s and 1960s.
Trigeminal neuralgia is an actual neurological condition. Pain killers are now considered to be ineffective and seizure medications are often used instead. In some cases, surgery can relieve the pain if a nerve is being compressed by a blood vessel or other cause. These aspects of the condition were not understood in 1950.
There are three recordings, and of them, the network recording is the best. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#327) which is very close to the network one. There is no Suspense opening on that one, which is the way the program was edited by AFRS production staff. There is a 1980s Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) recording that has many sound problems. As others in those releases, it has a potpourri of snips of Suspense openings and closings from all of the years the series was on the air.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500601
THE CAST
EDWARD G. ROBINSON (Albert Baker), Jeanette Nolan (Nellie / Woman), Larry Dobkin (Dr. Martin), Joan Banks (Pauline White), Virginia Gregg (Louise Baker), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Dr. Vantoor)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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