[NOTE: The correct spelling of “Alphonse Bertillon” appears to be “-on” and not “-ion.” The Suspense script uses “-ion.” Newspapers of his time in the early 1900s used both spellings. The “-ion” spelling is more phonetic, to capture the French pronunciation for English readers and speakers. Though technically incorrect, the “-ion” spelling has been retained for the file names and the commentary because it is used in the original script.]
Charles Boyer returns to the series in a Morton Fine and David Friedkin script. The story is based on the career of one of the world's great real-life detectives, and the innovator behind many of the biometric methods used in forensics today. Boyer portrays Alphonse Bertillion of the French Surete who solves the case of a murdered man whose body was wrapped in tar paper and bound tightly with rope. There is no identification on his person (his wallet is later found and is turned into the police station… no master sleuthing needed for that), but there are no apparent clues to the identity of the killer and the relationship to the man. But Bertillion is relentless in his examination, going over the body and clothing of the man. They learn his identity and profession, Bertillion reconstructs the crime, and slowly comes to the realization of who the killer is… despite the initial skepticism of his superiors.
Wikipedia has a profile of Bertillion that is worthwhile reviewing before listening just to understand the character better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon
The story feels like a regular and simplistic mystery story. Perhaps a way to describe it is as a cross between Hercule Perot and Sherlock Holmes. It’s enjoyable and relatively light listening.
The real person was curious about so many things, particularly the measurement of bones as a means of identification. He was probably the developer of the mathematics of height and weight estimation that we see on today’s forensic television programs, where they find a bone and then extrapolate something about the victim.
His work was the impetus behind front and side mugshots, but he was actually skeptical of fingerprinting. He did not believe they could be as unique as we now know them to be. Since he had a scientific curiosity of trial and error and proof, he probably would had accepted them with the confidence we have now, had he lived longer.
His techniques were new and therefore relatively untested. He had many hypotheses about proof and identification. His hubris unfortunately contributed to the conviction of Alfred Dreyfus (historically known as the “Dreyfus Affair” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair ). In the trial, he proposed a theory of “autoforgery” and accused Dreyfus of imitating his own handwriting. He was convincing, despite having no data, because of his reputation. The judges were impressed in the trial, but the explanation was not true. That was not known until after Dreyfus was convicted. It is easy to speculate that other innocent persons were convicted because of his authoritative standing in the use of science methods that he created that had not been tested.
The rehearsal and recording of the dramatic portion was on Friday, April 16. 1954. The session began at 2:00pm, with recording beginning at 6:30pm, and ending at 7:00pm.
There are two recordings of the episode, and the network recording is superior. The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording is noisy with limited range, and is therefore considered as low quality.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP540426
The alternative download page while the Internet Archive is recovering from its DDoS attack is at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/4lvooirrevrdp/Suspense_-_Bertillion_Method
The recording can be streamed at YouTube
https://youtu.be/6C9BjaXHTHY
THE CAST
CHARLES BOYER (Alphonse Bertillon), Herb Butterfield (Chief Camascasse), John Dehner (Narrator / Jacque the Hotelier), Vic Perrin (Girard / Dumier), Jane Webb (Marceline / Mrs. Cabassou), Edgar Barrier (Marcel Cabassou), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Bob Emerick (on-the-spot interviewer)
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