Lawrence Goldman offers another script for the series, this one about a laboratory cat that was accidentally infected with black plague bacteria. The script was originally used on Hollywood Star Playhouse on 1950-10-30 with the same title. It starred Robert Cummings; a recording of that broadcast has not been found. The script is interesting, but has some implausibilities that make it less enjoyable because they are so obviously unlikely.
Edgar Barrier portrays the doctor at that lab, the Biological Institute, who must track down the cat, with police assistance, and prevent a plague outbreak. They know the possibility of infection is real, because a laboratory assistant was scratched by the cat, and died suddenly. One of the subplots is that his daughter became very attached to the cat, named Jerry, and wants to see and play with him again. The other question is how much about the incident will be revealed to the public.
The story gets going when a lab assistant calls Barrier’s character worried that he has caught the plague. He mistook the symptoms as something else and did not inoculate himself soon enough. He dies right in front of him after he says that he was scratched by Jerry, the cat. He goes to see the chief of police to help track down the cat but prevent a panic. He explains that the cat has to be found, and the chief explains the size and scope of the city, and how difficult it will be to find it. They worry about a panic, and that worry intensifies when a tabloid reporter who overheard some of the conversation might be the one who causes it. A plot twist occurs when there is a report that Jerry was spotted in a nearby park where the doctor’s daughter likes to play, and was playing that day. Police were going through the park shooting animals that might be infected. (Really? Was that plausible at that time? The many gunshots would cause panic in the area and clog the phone switchboards of the local precincts). A shot is fired near where the daughter was playing. The daughter finds the cat and will not let anyone near it. She was upset when the doctor tries to approach her because he was wearing a surgical mask (Really? We’re supposed to believe that? She probably saw him in a mask in the lab many times). He removes the mask, and chloroforms the cat to remove it from the scene. When he gets home with his daughter and she starts asking what will happen to Jerry he will have a lot of explaining to do. Jerry won’t be back.
It is a fair question to ask why a cat would be allowed to roam a laboratory. There is always a possibility of contaminating lab samples or a curious cat could get into something by accident. But then… there would not be a story…
This story is similar to the rabies story that Suspense broadcast, 1954-03-01 The Barking Death. That story was far more realistic in comparison.
This Suspense broadcast was promoted with the name “Black Magic,” obviously changed before the broadcast date. It could have been a typographic error in the publicity department. If it wasn’t, it was likely changed because the 1942 song Old Black Magic was still very popular at this time and was released as a single by Sammy Davis, Jr. and was still being performed by others and used in movies.
There is another Suspense episode with this title, but the plotline is very different. That 1962-07-01 broadcast was about a mad scientist working on a disintegrating ray.
Goldman was author of other Suspense scripts, notably A Case of Nerves, Chicken Feed, and Alibi. Those were each better than this one. He was a freelance writer who was working on the staff of the Los Angeles Times as his full time position.
The mid-show promo was for the CBS coverage of the Hambletonian trotter race. It was a very big story at the time. Details of the race are at https://www.hambletonian.com/hambletonianhistory/1955
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP550802
THE CAST
Edgar Barrier (Doctor Gebhardt), William Conrad (Police Chief Williams), Merry McGovern (Patty Gebhardt), Gil Frye (Dr. Mac / Police Radio voice), Jack Edwards (Ryan the reporter), James Nusser (Desk Sergeant), Joe Cranston (Intercom voice / Officer), Barney Phillips (Voice / Officer Blanchard at Washington Park), Larry Thor (Narrator)
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