Alan Ladd stars in a story by Gil Doud and Antony Ellis. It is a western that has a “Gunsmoke feel” though that series is months away from its debut. Ladd plays a lone horseman tracking down his brother's murderer. His goal is to bring the killer before a court. He wants to avoid a revengeful, and deadly, confrontation. After two years of searching, he arrives at strange town where he has heard the killer is hiding. The town may be called “Pleasant Valley,” but its name surely does not fit. The citizens are used to handling such matters of retribution among themselves, are suspicious of the interference or assistance of outsiders, and even the law. In the end, all learn that the killer was not who was believed, and justice is delivered in an unanticipated manner. It’s a good story, and Ladd is good in it.
The drama portion of this broadcast was recorded Saturday afternoon, December 9, 1950. Rehearsal began at 11:30am and the recording commenced at 5:30pm.
Working titles of the script prior to broadcast were “The Killer in Abilene” (using “the” instead of “a”) and “Innocent in Abilene.”
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE SHOW TITLE: In the script of the 1950 broadcast, the name of the town is “Abiline” throughout. The publicity for the broadcast uses the spelling “Abilene.” The script was co-written by Antony Ellis. When Ellis was producer of Suspense in 1955, he used the script again. That script spells the name as “Abilene.” This means that Ellis, now in control of the series and the script production, intended the name to be spelled in that way. For that reason, the title used for this 1950 broadcast blogpost uses the “Abilene” spelling and not the spelling found in the script.
Suspense and classic radio researcher and stage performer Keith Scott adds these observations about this 1950 broadcast:
This story is very close to the dark and noir feel of the Gunsmoke series to come.
The musical underscore, a variation of Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie, was composed by Lucien Morawek. It was later recorded and used periodically on Gunsmoke in the 1957-61 era of library music cues.
Three days after this broadcast, Escape presented Wild Jack Rhett, acknowledged as one of the earliest in the adult western style. Three cast members from this Suspense episode were also in Wild Jack Rhett. They were Parley Baer, Russell Simpson and John Dehner.
This episode was broadcast on the Suspense television series on 1951-06-19. No kinescope recording is available.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP501214
THE CAST
ALAN LADD (Jack Mander), Parley Baer (Sheriff Jake Garvey), Barton Yarborough (Ben), Jack Kruschen (Needle), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Sarah Costen), Joe Duval (Jim / Eakin), James Eagles (Bob), Russell Simpson (Old-timer), John Dehner (Lee Burrage), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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