George Murphy returns to the series as a veteran, named Harry, with employment problems. He decides to seek a new job away from the pressures of city life. His problems stem from what would be called post-traumatic stress disorder today, but was referred to as “shellshock” in past. He believes that fresh air and hard outdoor work will help him get a better grip on his situation and give him a better sense of accomplishment. He takes a job at a logging camp. He insists his wife join him and move to the town because it is so far away from where they live. Otherwise he’d never see her, and the loneliness would make his situation worse. They make the choice, and it is not long before she catches the eye of his boss, and the feeling is mutual. It’s so mutual that the boss decides to have him killed in a staged tree-cutting “accident.” The tree falls on a co-worker, instead, but he knew it was for him. There are several incidents that lead up to a confrontation with the boss and his wife, with the boss ready to kill him with his bare hands if he had to. That scuffle is interrupted. The boss’ business partner, and his past lover, stops it, and confronts him, and in a rage, shoots him. In the end, he realizes he cannot rebuild a good relationship with his wife after her betrayal, and leaves her behind.
The author of the script was Richard Chandlee, the son of Harry Chandlee, a notable MGM screenwriter. He may have named Murphy’s character after his father. This was his first script for Suspense. He would write or adapt a few more in the upcoming 1952-1953 season.
There is poor continuity in the build-up to the climactic scene starting at about 22:45. It is not clear how the boss’ business partner, Myra, would come onto the scene so quickly. She participating in a ruse in the logging camp’s makeshift casino. She was running the dice table and kept Harry occupied with some loaded dice while the boss spent time with Harry’s wife. It just doesn’t coalesce that well. We just have to assume she couldn’t stand the idea of him being with someone else, or the idead that she facilitated that, so once Harry left, she followed him. Ignore the issue as the story is fairly good despite the issue.
Murphy’s performance is somewhat pedestrian and not particularly inspired. Cornel Wilde was the originally planned guest star for this episode.
Joe Kearns is in yet another doubling situation under Lewis that does not work well. Listeners may not have noticed. (Remember, the sound quality of the recordings we hear as collectors are better than the AM radios that were contemporary to these programs. We can hear more audio subtleties than listeners could then.). Key to making doubling work is to have one of the parts be small compared to the other, to have a significantly different voicing such as an accent or pattern of speaking, and to have a gap in time between the first role in the production and the second one. That’s not always possible. What’s funny about this one is that Kearns plays the worker killed in the logging accident and then the coroner who investigates it!
There are two surviving recordings. The network recording is somewhat preferred because it is in very pleasing sound and is the way it was first broadcast. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#413) is in equivalent sound.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP520526
THE CAST
GEORGE MURPHY (Harry Sawyer), William Conrad (Sam), Joe Kearns (Ludy / Coroner), Charlotte Lawrence (Sal), Irene Tedrow (Girl / Myra), Herb Butterfield (Floyd), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Oscar Auto), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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