Phil Harris and Alice Faye appear on the series in the strange juxtaposition of having ne'er do well character Frankie Remley direct them. We all know it’s Elliott Lewis, but just the thought of this being a Remley enterprise makes one chuckle. Some newspapers, and CBS publicity, used this as a theme to promote the episode.
This is a very serious story by E. Jack Neuman and John Michael Hayes would likely not be produced today without having Harris’ character being prosecuted for a criminal charge or a wrongful death lawsuit for not properly storing or securing a firearm. The laws at the time of this story were quite different than today, but the circumstances of the accidental discharge of a gun that kills a young woman, a minor, might be quite disturbing to a modern listener. Even though the death is eventually ruled accidental, there might be serious consequences, mainly in a civil lawsuit in the long term. At the end this story, he goes on his way to the next town. Today's gun owners have many more methods and devices (and many training resources) to ensure proper gun safety and prevent accidental discharge. The gun discharge here seems rather dubious that reaching for a sheet photographic paper could disturb the gun enough to make it fire.
Harris plays a touring bandleader whose musical group goes from small town to small town for obscure events as they try to scrape out a living. It’s pretty clear that they had better times in the past. A young girl comes to the dressing room door to say what a big fan she. She asks for an autographed picture. The bandleader has just packed up to go to the next town, and says he will mail her one. She sees an open suitcase with some pictures and she steps over to the case to take one. That suitcase had his gun in it because he insisted on being paid cash for his gigs. He had bad experiences with checks and non-payments in past gigs. Electronic funds transfer of today would eliminate this element in the story line.
The gun discharges and she falls to the floor, bleeding. The bandleader is shocked by this incident, picks her up, and starts running through the street with her in an effort to save her life by getting her to a hospital or doctor’s office. Police are not around to help, as the town is small, and all of their officers are away assisting police in a nearby town. Local people are dismayed by this and start gathering outside his hotel, demanding he come down to meet them, with the implicit threat of imposing their own kind of justice. The hotel keeper tells him that he can’t keep the mob out of the hotel for long, and that he’d better find a way to leave.
Faye plays a singer and showgirl who happens to be in town. She knows the bandleader from times past. It’s clear that there was something romantic between them some time ago. She is desperate to help him, but there seems no way out.
The story has a pair of surprise twists that are not all that satisfying in terms of the hotel keeper and Faye’s character. You start to suspect what they might be.
The Harris character’s name is “Dixie,” a nod to his southern roots.
The pairing of husband and wife guest stars on the series does not always work well as it is hard to write drama for two stars whose skills and persona might be so different. It is much easier to write comedy for them as their differences can be the source of funny asides or situations because they seem so natural. Excluding Elliott and Cathy Lewis from this as they were immersed in this series, the couple whose joint appearance worked out for the best on Suspense was the Jordans! The Ball-Arnaz appearances were not the best, but seemed more appropriate for them. Listeners were forgiving in any shortcomings in their script or performance because of the great publicity interest in their relationship. The Lupino-Duff appearance for On a Country Road was rather pedestrian (bad pun intended).
Harris and Faye’s performance is fine but at times seems uninspired in this episode. The script is not the best, and may not have been the right fit for them. It is hard to think that an accidental shooting in this story would not result in some period of debilitating remorse in Harris’ character. It is hard not to consider his character as reckless given what is known about gun safety today and what is common practice among responsible owners. Neuman and Hayes would make many changes to the details about what could have been a better constructed story built around its tragic core. Legal processes would not allow the events to unfold as quickly as they do in the story, too.
A few weeks prior to this broadcast, the Phil Harris and Alice Faye show offered a lampoon of Suspense. Phil wanted to write a compelling drama and he went really overboard with sound effects in the process. It is near the end of their 1951-04-22 broadcast. The Harris-Faye show was one of the consistently best written comedies on the air. At this time in his career, Elliott Lewis had tired of acting and enjoyed producing and directing much more. He never tired of his Harris-Faye appearances. You can tell he relished the role of Remley, the left-handed guitarist who always “knew a guy” and had wild ideas that drove plotlines into hysterical scenes. It was a refreshing time away from his constant work of staff meetings and planning for his other series. It is clear that the Harris-Faye cast enjoyed their time together in working on that show.
An overview of the Harris-Faye show and their careers is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phil_Harris-Alice_Faye_Show
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510510
THE CAST
PHIL HARRIS (Dixie), ALICE FAYE (Julie), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Abdow), Herbert Butterfield (Officer Edson), Barbara Whiting (Emily), Byron Kane (Doctor / Announcer), Franklin “Pinky” Parker (Voice), Gil Stratton, Jr. (Teddy)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy, Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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