Elliott and Cathy Lewis star in a tense and bizarre (and disturbing) story by Morton Fine and David Friedkin. Joker Wild is not about a card game, but a comedian, played by Elliott, who goes berserk over his inability to make anyone take him seriously about anything, or acknowledge that he is capable of performing a serious act. He is so unbalanced that he selects the most serious act of tragedy for the attention of others: murder. Lillian Buyeff plays is the young woman, possibly implied as a prostitute, who refused to regard him as anything but a barrel of laughs. (An earlier version of the script has dialogue that makes it clear that she is not, as she talks about an argument with her boyfriend as the reason she was on the street alone. The dialogue was likely removed to ensure that the broadcast would not run over on time, but that removed some contextas well). The woman, Rosalie, discusses how Harry does silly things for laughs, one of which is to dress up like a woman with an exaggerated walk.
The comedian’s aberration becomes quite apparent in the opening scene. He picks Rosalie up, drives her to a romantic spot overlooking the ocean, where they have this conversation. He gets frustrated with her. He pushes her over a cliff just to prove to himself that he can create tragedy as well as comedy. Only trouble is, no one knows of his deed, so he has no satisfaction about being known beyond comedy. Even his best girl laughs in his face when he tells her he committed a murder.
At about the 5:00 mark, he asks Buyeff’s character to whistle. To mock his imitative dressing and walking as a woman, she whistles the chorus of Irving Berlin’s Lady of the Evening. The song was published in 1922 but was still popular with bands and singers through the 1940s and 1950s, and would have been recognizable to many in the audience. The whistling, which she starts, mocks not just his funny routine, but that he prostitutes himself by his insincere comedy. After he kills her, he whistles it again, as to affirm that she was right (Hat tip to Patte Rosebank for identifying the song, and its importance to the scene).
Cathy Lewis plays “Liz” and appears at approximately 7:30. He claims to go to her whenever he needs someone to talk to. At the end of the scene, she utters the words she does not want to hear: “When you’re not funny, Harry… you’re dead.”
It is a very disturbing story that can be squeamish listening. But it’s no more than a 1950s Suspense version of a modern-day episode of the CBS television series Criminal Minds. Still, it is not one of the better entries in the series.
The phrase “Joker Wild” originated with card games, and then entered the idiomatic usage in English to mean any situation where ordinary rules do not apply. In the card game of poker, there are 52 cards, but usually two joker cards can be added the deck. If the players agree, a joker card can be “wild,” meaning it can take on the value or identity of any other card in the deck, and make the game more unpredictable. It also tends to shorten the duration of the came.
The show’s title, however, plays on the familiar phrase, but it takes on a different meaning. “Joker” obviously refers to a comedian. “Wild” means that he has no morality to constrain evil desires, such as murder.
A working title of the episode was “Wild Joker.”
CBS publicity mentioned that Elliott and Cathy rarely had time to work together:
“Once My Friend Irma began its TV version,” said Elliott, “Cathy had no more time to play anything except her ‘Jane Stacey’ role. Meanwhile, I was producing as many as four shows a week on radio, in addition to playing ‘Frankie Remley’ on the Phil Harris show and things got so hectic we were leaving little notes here and there for each other.” Both are still very busy, but when Cathy turned up with an open date for December 8, Elliott lost no time in booking her for the feminine lead opposite him for this broadcast. “This way we get to spend a whole day together,” says Elliott.
Classic radio researcher and international voice actor Keith Scott notes that
It is interesting that this Cathy and Elliott “two-hander” was done two weeks after they recorded the On Stage audition. It would be amazing if this script turned out to be a potential one originally slated for On Stage (which was very quickly approved and on the air by 1953-01-01) but was possibly considered too dark for that series by Lewis and moved to Suspense instead.
Months later, a column by critic Walter Ames in the 1954-03-15 Los Angeles Times Ames, this episode is mentioned and how Elliott Lewis wanted to be a “baggy pants” comic:
Elliott Lewis, while he had a chance to emote in his Cathy and Elliott Lewis On Stage show, admits he’d be playing a broad comic with shabby coat and baggy pants if he had his way. To satisfy this longing he occasionally take a role on the Jack Benny show. Even on his dramatic Suspense show Elliott was enticed into only one acting appearance last season. That was the role of a comic who killed somebody to prove he could do something that wasn't just for laughs! “Every comic who comes on Suspense want a chance to turn serious for a change,” Elliott recalled. “Me, I look for the opportunity to be a comic bum—or a bum comic. I don't care which I guess that's life.
The address 595 East Channel Drive is mentioned in the broadcast. It is a real address in Santa Monica, California. The house at the address in 1952 is no longer there, replaced in 2017 by a 9400 square foot home with 8 bedrooms and 10 baths, and valued at more than $16 million (2024). Inclusion of real addresses of cast members or friends in radio scripts was common as an inside joke.
In the dialogue of the show, the phrase “high boy” is used. It refers to a tall chest of drawers.
[Many thanks to classic radio enthusiast and researcher, and modern day performer Patte Rosebank who caught some errors in the original blogpost and added additional perspective to the story].
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP521208
THE CAST
Cathy Lewis (Liz), Elliott Lewis (Harry), Joe Kearns (Freddy), Lillian Buyeff (Rosalie), Jeane Wood (Woman / Operator), Hy Averback (Johnny), Larry Thor (Thor / Narrator), Byron Kane (Voice), Charlotte Lawrence (Babs)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Oscar Auto), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
###
