Reed Hadley stars in a Robson adaptation of a short story by William Eastlake. That story appeared in the August 3, 1956 issue of Collier’s, just three months before this broadcast. The Eastlake story “Where the Warriors Crossed” was changed, as explained in Robson’s introduction, with a new title and additional dialogue. It is a fascinating story as the characters navigate their different cultures and history, but their shared experiences of wartime and modern times. It must have made quite an impression on Robson for him to make it one of his first efforts in his new role as producer of Suspense.
Hadley plays Bowman, owner of a store on a Navajo reservation. He was a captain in WW2, and native to this area of New Mexico. One of the men in his charge during the war, an Indian with the name of “Four Thumbs” had a traumatic wartime experience and never recovered. He was placed in a veterans psychiatric hospital after the war. Frustrated by his treatment, he escaped, killing a guard, and returned to the reservation, and sought out Captain Bowman. They still have a bond of commander and soldier, despite his illness. For reasons explained in the story, Bowman starts referring to Four Thumbs as “One of Us” in an effort to hide his identity. A state trooper, Arturo, comes to Bowman knowing that he might know where Four Thumbs would be. It is clear from the story that the trooper does not really have interest in finding the escapee, just in fulfilling his bureaucratic duties. Bowman is a fascinating character who knows everyone’s motives and all of their notions, as he subtly and cunningly navigates the various conflicting objectives and weaknesses of all of the people involved. He hides Four Thumbs in plain sight by having him, as “One of Us,” guide Arturo around the reservation. In the end, Four Thumbs is a dangerous and impetuous man. If not for Bowman’s intervention, the entire situation could play out very badly for everyone. Four Thumbs kills again, but Bowman finds a way for the danger to others to be prevented and for Four Thumbs to find peace in his tortured mind. It is a sad story, where making a very bad situation “less worse” was the best Bowman could create out of the situation.
Author William Eastlake grew up in Brooklyn, moved to California, and joined the war effort. He led a battalion at the Battle of the Bulge and received the Bronze Star. He stayed in Europe and pursued his writing career, and returned to California in 1950. It was his move to New Mexico in 1955 that helped set the stage for his future writing endeavors. He had a ranch of 400 acres that helped inspire his novels about the Southwest. He had some political and news pieces (covering the Vietnam War for The Nation), and extensively about WW2. His WW2 novel Castle Keep became a successful movie in 1969. He was a highly respected author among his contemporaries who might have been better known.
This episode was pre-recorded the same day it was broadcast.
The surviving recording of this episode is Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) broadcast. It is in poor sound, but it is listenable. The script was presented again on 1959-08-02 with Joseph Cotten. That recording also has flaws, but is better. It is edited, however, as commercials and other elements were removed. It is hoped that, one day, AFRS transcriptions of both productions can be found that can improve the sound and are also complete. It is likely that the network tapes of both productions were reused or destroyed.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP561030
THE CAST
Reed Hadley (Captain Bowman the Trader), Jay Novello (Four Thumbs), Daws Butler (Rabbit Stockings), Tony Barrett (Arturo), Dick LeGrande (Yellowstone [Y’Salt]), George Walsh (Narrator)
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