Dana Andrews stars as a police lieutenant in a compelling episode about a person who appears in the crowd that surrounds accidents and misfortunes of others. He taunts the police into finding him. It is an exceptional Suspense production with fine performances by Andrews and Joe Kearns as the killer.
This murderer enjoys his taunting telephone conversations with the lieutenant. They eventually figure out exactly where he is but it’s always on a busy street. All he has to do is wander a few steps away from a phone booth to become an anonymous part of the crowd. The police suspect that he likes to hang around as to watch each morbidly curious group of spectators gather to stare at the body of his victim, and he hides among them, in plain sight of everyone.
Morton Fine and David Friedkin adapted the original Ray Bradbury story that appeared in the May 1943 edition of Weird Tales. They made major changes to it. It is believed that Bradbury was not pleased with adaptation. He may not have known how much they changed it until he heard the broadcast. To oversimplify it, Suspense changed the intent of the story as commentary about the interest in that pain and suffering of others that draw crowds around scenes of tragedy and transformed it into a story about a serial killer. Bradbury did his own adaptation for cable television in the 1980s Ray Bradbury Theater using his original premise. The idea for the story came from an experience Bradbury had as a boy. He saw the aftermath of a car accident and the crowd of people assembling to surround it. In terms of the entertainment business and control of his work, Bradbury had not yet achieved the stature to demand approval of adaptations of his work. That would obviously change as his career moved on.
Because of the difference in the original story and the adaptation, there is justification to consider them as distinct works. Classic radio enthusiast Elizabeth Tankersley noted at the Old Time Radio Researchers Facebook group page that the adaptation sounded "astonishingly like an episode of Broadway Is My Beat with its cynical, moody New York police lieutenant, the detective work, the pacing, and some of the narration and transitions." This is not really surprising, though it was likely unintended. Lewis was producer and director of that series starting in Fall 1949 and Fine and Friedkin were its main writers.
The drama was recorded on Friday, September 8, 1950. It appears to be an early morning rehearsal starting at 8:00am to 12:30pm, with recording from 12:30pm to 1:00pm.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP50921
THE CAST
DANA ANDREWS (Lt. Johnny Stillano), Howard McNear (Doc Gilbert), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Charles Turner), Jerry Hausner (Marty / Smart aleck in subway), Jack Kruschen (Sgt. Riorden), Lou Merrill (Elliott Becker / Voice 1), Bob Bruce (Jones / Burke), Truda Marson (Angry Woman / Voice 2), Lou Krugman (Voice 4 [Man yelling in subway] / Man who confesses), Irene Tedrow (Mrs. Shirley), Byron Kane (Voice 3 / Joe the diner proprietor)
COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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