Herbert Marshall portrays a smuggler who is so unhappy with his situation that he rats on his fellow criminals. As the story opens, the character is running for his life across the English countryside from Carlyon, one of the men about whom he had informed. Carlyon and his crew are out to get him. He ends up in a cottage with a woman who allows him to hide for the night, and even to pretend to be her brother at an upcoming wake for her father. The coffin for the father is already in the house, and while talking with her, he is smitten. She lies to his pursuers to throw them off the track. When Carlyon learns that the girl has tricked him, he vows to kill her, too. It just happens much too fast to be credible. Eventually it ends up in trial, threats against his life, and that of the woman whom he adores. In the end, it doesn’t work out well.
Herbert Marshall’s performance and that of some of the supporting actors is somewhat stilted, and it’s not all their fault that much of the dialogue just doesn’t flow. The title comes from Marshall’s character being a coward throughout. He has to inwardly search and find “the man” within him that will allow him to finally be courageous and upright against those who want revenge. The turmoil in the story is the tension of whether his being an informer showed courage against evil or cowardice against eventual punishment. That torment is really the core of the story, but the support around the core is not particularly good.
This was popular mystery novelist Graham Greene’s first novel and was adapted by Morton Fine and David Friedkin. Published in 1929, its success allowed him to become a full-time novelist. Many of his books were adapted for film, including this one, and he wrote the screenplay for Orson Welles’ The Third Man. A film of The Man Within was released in Britain in 1947 and was edited and retitled as The Smugglers for release in the US. Greene did not like the film and later called it “terrible.”
The name of the gangleader is “Carlyon” and there are times in the script that “Carlisle” is on the verge of slipping out between their lips. At about 21:25 Marshall almost slips “...Carlisle will catch me...”
There is a brief gap in the recording at about 14:30 at the end of the mid-show commercial and the introduction to the second half of the drama. This may be a private recording and not a studio recording. The only part of the introduction that is missing is repeating that Herbert Marshall is the star. The drama is not affected.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP530427
THE CAST
HERBERT MARSHALL (Andrews), Joe Kearns (Henry), Betty Harford (Elizabeth), Ben Wright (Carlyon), Raymond Lawrence (Priest / Voice), Richard Peel (Judge), Bill Bissell (Harry), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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