This is the second broadcast featuring a member of the touring “The First Drama Quartette” who were taking their performance of Don Juan in Hell around the country after a successful Broadway run. The phonograph album was also in stores. Agnes Moorehead was the first broadcast, with Sorry, Wrong Number to open the new season (the broadcast is still missing). Now it’s the turn of Charles Laughton, director of Don Juan as well as performing in it. Laughton had delivered good Suspense performances before, but this time was not his best.
He plays Jack Ketch, a famous and grossly incompetent executioner in the 1670s. It would often take five or six blows with an axe to carry out a beheading. Wealthy families, or wealthy convicted prisoners, would slip him money to do the job quickly if a family member was being executed. Ketch was eventually convicted of theft and hanged in the same gallows he used. The real facts of history story are more cruel and gruesome than this production portrays.
The production is not particularly good. It has a poor set-up and Laughton’s portrayal occasionally seems rushed and garbled. Perhaps this is because of Ketch’s panicky situation where he is hated by everyone and he knows he’ll eventually be heading to the gallows himself. The story is not that good and the only suspense is how it got on Suspense.
A good summary of the awful history of Jack Ketch is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ketch
The story is by Antony Ellis and was drawn from The Old Bailey and Its Trials by Bernard O'Donnell and published in 1950. “Old Bailey” refers to The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, and the nickname comes from the name of the street and other structures where it can be found. The original documents of the case are online at https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/search/keyword?text=jack%20ketch#results
This episode was recorded the Monday after Agnes Moorehead recorded Sorry, Wrong Number. It was rehearsed and recorded on September 8, 1952. Rehearsal started at 1:00pm and the tapes started rolling at 5:30pm.
Three recordings have survived. The best is the network recording. An Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording (#417) is very good, and is close to the network recording quality. There is an aircheck with narrow range and wow and flutter. It is from WMT of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The concluding station ID includes a promo for Don Juan in Hell which would be going to Cedar Rapids in October.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP520922
THE CAST
CHARLES LAUGHTON (John Price, aka Jack Ketch), Joe Kearns (Hartley), Joan Banks (Elizabeth), Doris Lloyd (Betty), Ben Wright (Lovelace), Raymond Lawrence (Jailkeeper / Harry), Ramsay Hill (Barkeeper), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Sheriff), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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