Vincent Price stars in a Philip MacDonald story about a charlatan mystic, billed as “Doctor Alcazar.” The character first appeared in the October 1948 issue of The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. It is the very story that Silvia Richards adapted for this episode. Alcazar is by nature a swindler, and encounters people in need to make his scheme work. Along the way, the reader, and in this case, the listener, learn some of the tricks of the trade of fake fortune-tellers such as he is. There are times, however, that the eventual conclusion of the interaction between him and his client is that he solves a crime or a problem for them by using his cunning methods. It is a very creative approach to the typical crime story, and it works in this production.
In this case, he uses his slyly-gained information about a murdered woman to prove the guilt of the murderer. Price seems to take great delight in the role, which makes the story even better.
The program was recorded on Sunday, June 9, 1957. Rehearsal began at 1:00pm and concluded at 4:30pm. Recording began at that time and concluded at 6:00pm, likely to allow for editing time.
The story can be found in the anthology Favorite Sleuths, which can be borrowed for viewing at The Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/favoritesleuthse00erns/page/14/mode/2up The book was edited by John Ernst.
This was the only story by MacDonald to be adapted for Suspense. He had a very long and successful writing career. He served in WW1 and began writing mystery novels in the 1920s. He moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s and in addition to novels and short stories started writing screenplays. He won two Edgar Awards for short stories, and wrote scripts for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Perry Mason.
There are two surviving recordings, and the network recording is the better of the two. (from a tape that was given to Vincent Price after the broadcast). The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording has narrow range and background noise; it was also edited to remove announcements and missing the Robson monologue).
The story was used on the television series Danger on 1950-10-17. A kinescope is not known to have survived.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP570609
THE CAST
Vincent Price (Dr. Alcazar), Jeanette Nolan (Gloria), Irene Tedrow (Lily Morton), Lou Krugman (Avvie), Byron Kane (Edward the butler), Ben Wright (Clinton DeVriess), George Walsh (Narrator)
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