Richard Widmark returns to the in The Spencer Brothers as Jim Spencer, one of three Confederate brothers who returned home from the war. They found their home burned and their family dead. Their father had left them $25,000 but they can’t collect it because the bank’s records have been destroyed. Embittered, they decide to rob the bank of precisely $25,000, the amount due them. During the robbery, the youngest brother, a real hothead, panics and shoots a man whom he fears may identify them later. The killing touches off a seemingly inevitable series of murders, all of them in self-defense. Such are compounding of unintended consequences of one bad judgment. The killings combine to make the Spencer brothers the object of one of the most intensive manhunts of the time.
The broadcast is introduced as “a true story with only names and places changed.” But there were actual Spencer Brothers in the Civil War who were on the Union side. When they went back home, they were solid citizens, anxious to rebuild their communities. So why choose the name “Spencer Brothers” for this story and make them Confederates who go on a revengeful killing spree? Perhaps it was just chance naming because such research was not available about the actual Spence family that would make them select a different name? It is doubtful that the names were used with ill intent and that the military service alliance and subsequent misdeeds were made to besmirch the reputations of the real people. It seems like a chance literary accident.
In the final scene, William Conrad plays a rifleman who sounds suspiciously like Matt Dillon. Keith Scott, classic radio researcher and international entertainer notes:
I take the casting of Conrad to be an interesting choice. He is an expert marksman but is also like a “hit man” who at the end says “we showed ‘em how Kansas takes care of the likes of him.” The character is basically what Matt Dillon might have been like as a “gun for hire,” rather than a US Marshal.
Perhaps this is similar to Lewis’ use of Larry Thor to often play usually-unnamed police or detective role in Suspense? Lewis is piggybacking on the familiarity of the established sound of the actor from another series and then have the listener add to the characterization of the Suspense broadcast they are listening to.
The author of the script is Gil Doud, noted mainly for his scripts for pre-Bob Bailey Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Sam Spade. He worked with Elliott Lewis on the highly regarded Voyage of the Scarlet Queen.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP530126
THE CAST
RICHARD WIDMARK (Jim Spencer), Parley Baer (Whitney), Joe Kearns (John Spencer), William Conrad (Man / Rifleman), John Dehner (Simpson / 1st Rider), Sam Edwards (Carl Spencer), Sammie Hill (Girl), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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