Ronald Colman returns to the series once more and delivers the usual high quality performance he was known for. It’s a superb script with a surprising plot turn and a surprising ending. It also features an excellent performance by Cathy Lewis.
This time Colman’s character is half of a stage mentalist act with his wife. It seems that their well-rehearsed act with cues and signals is not working the way it was… because their mind-reading is actually real and not and carefully scripted act! The wife is not pleased with the way their act is doing financially, and she is really upset with their manager. She is getting “messages” that the manager is planning to kill her and is becoming gripped by fear. The couple plan for ways to keep her safe, but also to boost their act’s value by taking advantage of her newfound sensory capabilities. It’s all coming together, but then the husband overhears the wife and their agent talking about their nefarious plans to run away together.
The story was written by actor Jerry Hausner, a regular on Suspense and numerous other radio programs. It was adapted by Walter Brown Newman, who did many adaptations for Suspense and would become a three-time Oscar screenplay nominee.
For some reason, mentalist acts seem to have rocky marriages. A previous episode, The Great Horrell, suffered marital pains, too. That program can be found at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/08/1946-08-22-great-horrell.html and https://archive.org/details/TSP460822 Jerry Hausner, author of A Vision of Death, had a supporting role in that one.
Colman over hears the conversation because he was taking a nap in the back seat of their car, and they could not see him. Yes, cars were once that big, and the back seat seemed more like a sofa and had much more legroom than cars do today. In modern cars, he would have been easily seen, making this plot detail implausible. Back in 1951, no listener would have questioned it.
Part of plan of Colman’s character to thwart his wife’s plan was to call down to the hotel lobby and ask for a pack of Player’s cigarettes to be brought up to the room. That was a well-established British brand, and likely was Colman’s preferred tobacco.
During this episode and the next, there are instances of bridge music between scenes that may seem very familiar. Some can be heard in the 5-part Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar series. But they were written for Suspense and played by a live orchestra here. They would be recorded, years later, as part of the musical library used in YTJD and other CBS dramas when recorded music became the norm.
There are two surviving recordings. The network recording is the slightly better of the two. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording is quite good.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510308
THE CAST
RONALD COLMAN (Jud Stone), Cathy Lewis (Aurora Stone), Larry Dobkin (Harry Arnold), Florida Edwards (Phone operator), Joe Kearns (Narrator / Stanford the manager), Charles Calvert (Telegram man / Bartender)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Swami Sabu), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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