Robson repeats another Escape script, with his adaptation of Hildegarde Tolman Teilhet’s novel of the same name. It stars Barbara Whiting and Ben Wright. Teilhet usually collaborated in writing with her husband, Darwin, but this work was one of the few she did on her own. It received excellent reviews. The novel was much longer than a half-hour radio treatment would allow, so Robson had to select what he thought would result in an engaging story and would deliver the best internal continuity. It’s a somewhat complex storyline, and worth a listen.
Keep in mind, however, that the Escape broadcast of 1950-05-12 is generally considered to be the better production of the two. It starred Nancy Kelly and Hans Conried. Whiting and Wright do not seem to be as good of a match as Kelly and Conried were.
The 25-year-old Barbara Whiting had appeared on Suspense in a supporting role once before; this is her only starring appearance. Older sister Margaret starred in the series three times.
Barbara plays the young Elizabeth Whitehill who is driving across country from Vermont to meet up with her fiancé for their wedding in Seattle. While driving through Nevada, she picks up a hitch-hiker. He seems safe enough, and is named Alex. When she realizes that the police are after him, she shoos him away as she comes up to a roadblock. They are looking for him, but she’s suspicious of the whole set-up, and floors the Mercedes and scoots away. She does meet up with Alex again as he found some short-cut, and she picks him up again. He wants her to take him to a police station. He was born in the USA, taken back to Eastern Europe by his parents and raised there, but always wanted to return to America. After some indoctrination to become a spy, he was sent back to the USA, but he really wants no part of it. This is why fake “policemen” are after him, and he figures the safest place for him is with the real police. There are a lot of twists and turns in the story, and it does get a bit complicated (and somewhat overwhelming), so listen carefully. Alex is hauled away (basically, kidnapped), there’s a shooting, and all kinds of action. In the end, the only predictable part of the story is that she and Alex, unexpectedly, fall in love in that very short time of knowing each other, and rather than driving to Seattle, she decides to ride off with Alex to San Francisco. That’s somewhat implied in the opening lines of the broadcast. It’s getting to that point that makes it somewhat interesting.
Keith Scott notes in his superb log of Escape that the dress rehearsal of that broadcast went over its allotted time, and Robson had to cut some characters out of the story before it was broadcast. That’s always “fun” when it’s a live broadcast looming just hours away, and that can create some unintentional clarity or continuity issues. Those changes were retained for this production. It does seem at times that plotline elements are being delivered via a wide open firehose. You can’t multitask or listen passively and catch it all.
This program was recorded on Monday, November 26, 1956. Rehearsal began at 1:00pm. The recording session began at 6:30pm and concluded at 7:00pm.
Trivia: In the Escape broadcast, her car is a Bentley Convertible. In this Suspense broadcast, it’s a Mercedes.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP561202
THE CAST
Barbara Whiting (Elizabeth Whitehill), Ben Wright (Alex Peck), Joe de Santis (Announcer / Mr. Smith), Byron Kane (Judge / B. Rain the Veterinarian), Junius Matthews (Sergeant Helding), Tony Barrett (State Trooper / Tatum), Bill James (Torkel the dog), George Walsh (Narrator)
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