The final episode of the 1950-1951 season has no “guest star.” The excellent weekly ensemble cast members is “the star” this week. There are more actors than usual in this production. The script cover makes light of it, noting that there is “a cast of thousands.” This size of the cast and the humorous cover sheet may imply a post-broadcast cast party to mark the end of the season and Auto-Lite’s renewal for the next season.
Nuclear physicist Dr. Singer is selected to help find out who killed a Russian scientist Dr. Elman. He may have been getting top secret information about their latest experiments from a traitor in Dr. Singer’s research team. Then there’s a conundrum: is the spy Dr. Singer? US counterintelligence spies monitoring the Russian program say they have not heard anything about the US program since the time Dr. Singer was appointed to find the traitor. This fact casts doubt on Singer’s loyalty. The case is broken after investigators realize there is a pattern of medical visits among the team for various maladies. They demand immediate medical exams for each team member to determine if their conditions were real. If not, the spy contact could be a physician or someone working in a medical office. They bug the medical offices the team members visit… and find the traitor.
The payment for the secret information was $3,000, which is more than $36,000 in US$2024.
The script is by Blake Edwards, known mainly at this time for Richard Diamond. He will become best known as the film producer for the “Pink Panther” movies and other works in the 1960s and 1970s. This story may have been inspired by the 1950 arrest of nuclear physicist and spy Klaus Fuchs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs
The original title of this story was “The Secret of Dr. Walther.” It also had another title. The episode was teased in the mid-show commercial on the prior night's Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (1951-06-27 The Hatchet House Matter) as The Secret of Dr. Walther’s Private Life.” An audio clip of that tease is included on the same page as the audio file of this Suspense episode.
Baby boomer nostalgia fans will get a special chuckle listening to this episode when they realize that Joe Kearns (the irascible next-door neighbor “Mr. Wilson” from Dennis the Menace) and Howard McNear (“Floyd the Barber” from The Andy Griffith Show) are in a top secret lab, wearing white coats with pocket protectors for pens and their slide rules, collaborating on nuclear weapons development. The exchange begins at about 16:35.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510628
THE CAST
Joseph Kearns (Dr. Singer / Doctor / Signature Voice), Larry Thor (Whiteside), Paul Frees (Mitchell / Announcer), Herb Butterfield (General Busher), Clayton Post (Voice / Charlie), Ken Christy (Evans), Howard McNear (Bromwell / Waiter), Ted Von Eltz (Professor Young), Larry Dobkin (Colonel Mishekoff / Collings), Edgar Barrier (Dentist / Elman), John Stephenson (Farnsworth), Truda Marson (Nurse)
COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
###
