Victor Mature stars in the story about one of the nation’s most notorious frontier outlaws, Joaquin Murrieta. He portrays the Mexican adventurer who tried to avenge the murder of his wife by killing every American he could lay hands on. The play opens with the brutal murder of Murrieta's young Mexican wife by a band of American criminals who wanted to steal his gold mining claim. Murrieta, himself badly beaten by the gang, arrives just in time to hear her last words—and to vow vengeance. He knows his wife was killed by a man named O’Brien. In a case of mistaken identity, Murrieta kills the wrong man. While he regrets that murder, his pursuit of O’Brien intensifies. He gathers a group of Mexican men who had suffered similar tragedies at the hands of the Americans. Revenge murders ensue, but Murrieta realizes that only finding O’Brien will give him the justice he desires.
The script is by Gil Doud and is an outstanding production. The story is brutal, and be warned that the gunshots in the story are surprisingly loud and startling. This episode could have fallen into caricatured Spanish accents, but does not. Some of the acting does sound “too English” or “too American” in terms of accent and rhythm of speaking. Set that aside and enjoy the performances once you’re prepared for the brutality of some of the scenes.
Virginia Gregg plays Murrieta’s wife, Carmen. Her suffering in death haunts him, and he hears her throughout the story. The way that is done is one of the most compelling parts of the production, and it makes clear why he is so driven to find O’Brien.
The music for the episode is excellent. The guitarist was Jose Barroso, noted flamenco and classical guitarist and composer who did much work in Hollywood. He sometimes appeared on screen, uncredited.
A working title was “Joaquin Murrieta, California Outlaw.”
The spelling of “Murrieta” with two “r” and one “t” is the correct spelling. The Suspense script has the correct spelling on its cover, but has “Murietta” elsewhere in the script. Newspaper publicity had multiple spellings, rarely correct.
Murrieta’s life and exploits could not be covered in the limited time of a Suspense episode. The production, while violent, is somewhat romanticized. The Wikipedia entry has far more details about his life and times at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Murrieta Much of Murrieta’s life is hard to verify and many of the events in his life may be legend. Murrieta may have been an inspiration for the famous fictional character Zorro.
The drama was rehearsed beginning at 7:00pm on Tuesday, February 10, and was recorded from 11:30pm to Midnight.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
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https://archive.org/details/TSP530216
THE CAST
VICTOR MATURE (Joaquin Murrieta), William Conrad (Stranger / Closing narration), Virginia Gregg (Carmen), Harry Bartell (Luis), Joe Kearns (O’Brien / Pedro), Parley Baer (Juan), Hy Averback (Joe), Jack Kruschen (Manuel / Sam), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Senator), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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