Charles Laughton returns to the series in a story that does qualify as an “actual event.” Laughton is marvelous in his portrayal as the evil Dr. Cream. The true story is very gruesome and required an incredible amount of sanitizing to bring it to the air. Neill Cream was a vicious killer, convicted of murder on two continents, and numerous other horrible crimes. In some ways, poisoning was the least of his terrible acts. By limiting the script to the poisoning, the Cream story was easier to tell.
Laughton adds much to the Antony Ellis script. He stumbles over lines now and then in such a way that it can’t be an accident, making the killer’s dialogue so natural, so charming, so innocent, that you come to understand how he could gain the confidence of his victims. Of course, none of his crimes are ever his fault. They were things that needed to be done, in his mind.
His strange life of crime is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Neill_Cream
Blogger Christine Miller adds this observation https://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/05/suspense_neal_c.html
Suspense also chose not to mention that Neill Cream is considered by some to have been Jack-the-Ripper. The problem with that theory is that Dr. Cream was serving time for murder in Joliet Prison in Illinois when the Ripper crimes occurred. After his release from Joliet in 1891, Dr. Cream left America for England and quickly took up his old ways. He was finally caught and sentenced to execution in 1892. Just before he was hanged, Dr. Cream is said to have admitted, "I am Jack..." One theory as to how this could be possible proposes that he had a double who committed the Ripper murders.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510917
THE CAST
CHARLES LAUGHTON (Neill Cream), Charles Davis (Doctor / Edward Bridgman), Betty Harford (Daisy), Joe Kearns (Inspector Worring), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Minns the landlady), Georgia Ellis (Mildred Vickers), Alma Lawton (Joyce Hamilton), Herb Butterfield (Sergeant Diltz), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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