Van Heflin stars in a story inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s 1831 short story. E. Jack Neuman updated the story about honor to be based in the post-Civil War United States. In April 1954, this episode won an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America.
Two officers in the Confederate army hold a pistol duel in which the shots are not fired simultaneously. The first shot at Heflin’s character (Lt. Zachary Payton) passes through his hat. He doesn't afford himself the opportunity to take his turn to shoot, much to the confusion of the duel witnesses. Instead, he challenges his opponent to be ready for battle any day, at any place. Seven years later, he claims his shot… after his target is financially successful, and in a happy marriage, and has more to lose than he did seven years ago. Payton initiates the duel in his target’s home… with the wife nearby… after many of his former fellow soldiers did their best to talk him out of it.
Stick with the story as it may seem to drag. Almost two-thirds of the drama is set-up via conversational dialogue, not via a series of events, that leads to a surprising conclusion. Some of the dialogue is nuanced and gives some clues as to the ending. This is not one of those broadcasts that you can have playing in the background and then catch up on something you may have missed. It is a good episode, deserving of its Edgar award.
The conclusion of the broadcast of the prior week’s episode, Action, was blacked out by a network outage for many listeners. The problem was at WTOP in Washington, DC and affected the network from there. CBS publicity announced that it would send printed copies of the ending of the story to anyone who requested it. That announcement is in the broadcast of The Shot. In the final production script, that announcement was originally planned very early in the broadcast, just before the beginning of the opening commercial. It was moved to the end of the opening commercial. That decision was likely made during rehearsal on the day of broadcast.
The drama opens with music that similar to the opening music of the 1947-08-28 broadcast of Double Ugly.
The original story was by Russian poet and novelist Alexander Pushkin. He seemed to have a fascination with duels, and was 37 years old when he died in one.
biographical overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
original story details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shot_(Pushkin)
There are two surviving recordings, with the network recording as the better of the two. There is also an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#458) that is in slightly lesser quality sound. That recording has had the AFRS filler music edited out. That music was used at the end of the dramas to fill allotted broadcast time. There are other AFRS recordings available that have the filler music, but those recordings are not as good as the one without it. The drama is complete in this AFRS recording.
The drama portion of the broadcast was recorded on Thursday, October 8, 1953. Rehearsal began at 10:00am, with recording beginning at 1:30pm and ending at 2:00pm.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP531012
THE CAST
VAN HEFLIN (Lt. Zachary Payton), Harry Bartell (Jim Stockwell), Jack Edwards (Ben Rolls), Jane Webb (Marsha), Joseph Kearns (Willis), Barney Phillips (Referee / Pauk), James Eagles (Quincy), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland? (Joe College), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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