Richard Widmark returns to the series and plays Nat, one of the most despicable liars you could ever meet. He’s a Coney Island pitchman, and gives the profession of pitchman a very bad name. Whenever he does something wrong or in his selfish interest at your expense, he did it for your own good. You’ll see. He had your well-being in mind all of the time. He steals his friend Charlie’s girl (for his own good, of course) and rats him out to the police, then lies at the trial. That was for his friend’s own good, too. You’ll see. You’ll thank him later.
Now, Charlie has broken out of jail, and he’s had enough of Nat. The episode begins with Charlie holding a gun to Nat’s head. Nat is desperately pleading for his life (hence the title). We learn everything that led to this scene through flashbacks. We return to that opening scene at the end of the production.
The story is by actor and writer David Ellis. It’s a good story with good performances by Widmark and the rest of the cast. The ending is not really a surprise but offers some guilty and unnerving satisfaction. Suspense is not for kids.
Larry Thor appears once more as a police lieutenant.
The recording has the common defect of many of the 1951 disc transfers, wow and flutter from a problem reel deck. The issue is minor in the drama, though noticeable mainly in the closing credits.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510607
THE CAST
RICHARD WIDMARK (Nat Driscoll), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Bjornson the Defense Lawyer), Hy Averback (Charlie), Cathy Lewis (Barbara), Joy Terry (Eileen), Larry Thor (Police Lieutenant), Mary Shipp (Flora [Woman on phone])
COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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