William Conrad and Stacy Harris star in a Ross Murray script where a man hires a hitman to kill his business partner. Conrad is marvelous as the gun for hire who is always asking questions, trying to get a clue as to the motive of the man who hires him and the habits of his target. As they work together to figure out the best time and place for the evil opportunity, something always seems to go wrong, frustrating the contract assassin. The title fits the changes in the expected events, and it’s the unexpected twists that create the biggest problems. The hitman wants specifics to ensure he completes his task and returns to his home at a time that fits the alibi he created. The right timing never happens. It is a very good episode with surprises to keep it so from beginning to end. Both Harris and Conrad are superb in their parts.
Some of the dialogue given to Conrad is marvelous, dripping with the unfeeling and calculating nature of his “job.” It almost makes you suspect that Murray somehow knows a little too much about assassin psychology:
“I get paid to do a job, that’s all. It’s a living.”
“I only do my work for money, not pleasure.”
“I don’t worry, Mister. Either things happen or they don’t happen. That’s the way I live.”
“I never kill anybody I know, in all my life.” “I can’t feel anything for a stranger. I haven’t got time for thinking about his life.”
Is Parley Baer’s character name of “Mark Callender” an inside joke? The title is “A Matter of Timing.” Is that name drawn from the phrase “mark your calendar”?
There is an interesting side item to this production. A CBS mailroom employee was “discovered” by Ellis and added to the cast. The 1956-06-12 Los Angeles Times described what happened:
There’s a saying that neither snow nor sleet stop the mailman—but with Robert Miller, a chance at acting turned the trick. He was making his routine rounds of the CBS-radio offices when he went by Producer-Director Tony Ellis’ desk. “Aren't you the fellow who acted on the last employees’ show?” inquired Ellis, who produces Suspense, Romance and CBS Radio Workshop. Miller admitted he had played the role of Death in “The Ballad of Mender McClure.” Ellis asked if he thought he could do the part of a lawyer. Miller jumped at the chance and that’s when the mail didn’t go through. Miller spent the next two hours getting his AFTRA acting card. He'll be doing his first professional part tonight in the Suspense show, KNX, 8:30pm.
It appears that this was Miller’s only documented radio role. RadioGoldindex has broadcast listings for a “Robert Miller” but upon examination it seems that multiple performers with the same “Robert Miller” are in that list. The time of this performance by this “Robert Miller” does not match up with the others. The play mentioned in the Times item, The Ballad of Mender McClure, was used on television’s General Electric Theater earlier in 1956 and starred Vincent Price. It was obviously turned into a stage play for the employee event.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP560612
THE CAST
William Conrad (Buck, the Killer), Stacy Harris (Carl Longman), Parley Baer (Mark Callender), Virginia Gregg (Frances), Victor Rodman (Joshua Parker), Meliza Milo (Miss Bunner), Sam Edwards (First car thief), Ralph Reed (Second car thief), Robert Miller (Lawyer), George Walsh (Narrator)
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