Robert Young stars in a Richard-George Pedicini script about blackmail and murder. He’s tired of being tormented and blackmailed by a private investigator. He decides he’s had enough… barges into his office and kills him. But the detective’s phone was off the hook and the person on the interrupted call overheard the argument and the shooting. They’re a witness to the crime! He picks up the phone and hears music of a radio or phonograph playing Jalousie in the background. He picks up the phone, and says “hello,” hoping the person identified themselves. Instead, they hang up. He has to find them and make sure they don’t tell the police. There are three names written on the dead investigator’s desk pad. He makes a desperate hunch that the blackmailer was talking to one of them. He decides to pay a visit to each in the hope he can find the eavesdropper. In a somewhat strange series of encounters, it’s fairly clear that the other victims would never have reported him had they been on the call. They all despised the man, however, would never have pulled the trigger if they had the chance, and would be relieved if their bad situations ended. He finally learns the identity of the actual caller, and heads for that one meeting that will bring the incident to an end. It concludes, but not in the way he ever expects.
It’s a good story, fitting more of the classic Suspense style of adapted pulp mysteries.
Jalousie is a famous tango that was first recorded in the 1920s. Harry James recorded a version in 1946 and it can be heard at Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/78_jalousie-jealousy_harry-james-his-orch-gade_gbia0286328b
When Young’s character was visiting each of the potential eavesdroppers, who could have been fellow victims, he claimed his name was “Paul Drake.” That should bring a smirk to anyone listening. That’s the name of the detective who worked for fictional lawyer Perry Mason. The “Paul Drake” name became very well known to boomers in the Perry Mason television show, but that series did not begin until 1957. Listeners would have been familiar with the name because the successful Perry Mason franchise was already almost 20 years old. The novels first appeared in 1933, there were six Perry Mason movies in the 1930s, and the Perry Mason radio serial ran from 1943 to 1955.
There are a few possible reasons why Pedicini chose to use this name in the script, but is not clear if one of them is correct. One reason was to make it unmistakable that Young’s character was using a ruse to get the information he needed and preserve his own identity. All of his meetings were “off the record” to the other blackmail victims. Much of the listening audience would have realized he was “pulling the wool over the eyes” of the people he was meeting. Anyone tuning in late would have figured out such an obvious trick. The people he was meeting were already party to an unsavory blackmail scheme. Saying his name was “Paul Drake” was a way of reminding each of them that they were in no position to ask any questions and expect an honest answer. Those victims could also make the assumption that Young’s character was being blackmailed, too, and he was the corrupt detective’s messenger as a result of his own blackmail status. (We really don’t know if it was Pedicini who made this name decision or if it was Lewis).
There were two other titles for this productions that were promoted in CBS publicity. One was “Backfire” and the other was “Frame-up.” Both were fine titles and both conveyed the nature of the plotline. The final selected title, however, is a better description of the motive and justification for the behavior of Young’s character. The paradoxical nature of the title is even better. The climatic act of the story turns out to be an unnecessary act and a hasty miscalculation of Young’s character, so consumed by the selfishness of protecting his identity that he acts in deadly haste.
A similar “phone-off-the-hook” gimmick was used in a prior episode in the final season under William Spier, Four Hours to Kill. https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/03/1950-01-12-four-hours-to-kill.html
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP520324
THE CAST
ROBERT YOUNG (Mark), Joe Kearns (Herbie / Tex), Jo Gilbert (Mrs. Collins / Operator), Howard McNear (Collins), Charlotte Lawrence (Janice), Lou Merrill (Laffoon), Paula Winslowe (Gretchen), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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