William Conrad and John Dehner star in this Edgar-award winning story by E. Jack Neuman. He adapted it from Alexander Pushkin’s 1831 short story and changed the venue to the post-Civil War United States. Six months before this broadcast, the Mystery Writers of America gave it the award. Their determination was based on the October, 1953 broadcast that starred Van Heflin.
Details about the script and the initial broadcast can be found at:
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/09/1953-10-12-shot.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP531012 is where the 1953 broadcast recording can be downloaded or streamed.
This broadcast is an example of the work of two or radio’s finest actors and what they brought to the medium and the art of radio. Heflin was an exceptional radio actor, unlike many of his movie counterparts, and his 1953 broadcast was very well done, as usual for him. But for many of the scripts that are presented again in the unsponsored, sustaining network broadcasts, without the glitz of Hollywood publicitymongers, the CBS radio ensemble delivers consistently fine and compelling performances. They are often better than the original sponsored presentations.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP541202
THE CAST
William Conrad (Lt. Zachary Payton), John Dehner (Ben Rolls), Vic Perrin (The Second), Edgar Barrier (Temple), Parley Baer (Jim Stockwell), Frank Gerstle (Pauk), Marvin Bryan (Quincy), Lynn Allen (Marsha), Larry Thor (Narrator)
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