Howard Duff returns to CBS Radio and Suspense in a William N. Robson story. It’s about a reporter who wants to go inside a prison and find out what’s really going on behind its walls. It just so happens that he’s there when rioting inmates, displeased by their treatment and conditions, four guards as hostages in retribution for their treatment. They start making demands for their release, and if they don’t get any satisfaction, the guards will be treated the way the prisoners are… or worse. Once the prisoners realize who Duff’s character is, he becomes a hostage, too! The inmates want to be taken seriously, and they start by beating one of the hostage guards, Feeney, He was notorious in his beating of inmates with a chain strap. They take their turn with him, beat him into unconsciousness and throw his body into the yard. Eventually, as their demands are denied, they run out of guards to beat up. The reporter is told that he is next in line.
There is dialogue by Duff’s character as he embarks upon his prison tenure “I doubt that any friends of mine are in there.” In radio scripts, this is always a set-up for one of the plot twists. There certainly is someone who knows his employer but not him. Joe Kearns is the leader of the prisoner revolt. It turns out he was a reporter for the very same newspaper as Duff’s character, and with the same boss, many years ago. Kearns is marvelously calculating and nefarious in this role. John Dehner plays the warden who tries to break the resolve of the prisoners by cutting off their food, followed in succession by lights, and then water.
This is the first time Duff appeared on Suspense since 1948-01-10 The Kandy Tooth. There was an attempt to have him appear in Murderous Revision (and any of the various names that had) in 1951, but that was not allowed because of his listing in Red Channels. Details about that situation can be downloaded or viewed as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file at The Internet Archive. https://archive.org/download/TSP511203/The%20Suspense%20Project%201951-12-03%20Murderous%20Revision%20EXPANDED%20COMMENTARY.pdf Duff lost his role on Sam Spade when Wildroot pulled their sponsorship and wanted a change in the lead actor. Duff could have made a big deal about it, but he rolled with the punches, on the advice of his agent, and always found some work. He was usually in supporting movie roles, but was not on radio. His marriage to Ida Lupino, who was “big box office” to Hollywood studios, and a producer on her own, helped his situation. When CBS tired of the Blacklist, Robson was able to return to CBS Radio, and Duff returned, too. This time, however, it was in a television situation comedy series, Mr. Adams and Eve, with Lupino as the co-star. It was a simple formula: they played married Hollywood movie stars. They signed a big contract and the series began on January 4, 1957 and ran for two years. Lupino was nominated for two Emmys for the series. A small number of episodes can be found on YouTube.
Duff was not returning to Suspense and CBS Radio with his tail between his legs or any groveling gratitude for whatever they offered. He was returning with a big CBS payday in hand.
The title is presented as two words on the script cover (“Eye Witness”), and not as one (“Eyewitness”).
There are two recordings of this broadcast, and the network recording is the much better one. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#611) is in good sound, but the first five minutes have occasional disc skips that affect the dialogue.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP561216
THE CAST
Howard Duff (Kelly), Joe Kearns (J. Conrad Alan), John Dehner (Warden), Lou Merrill (Captain Wolfe), Jack Kruschen (Big Joe), Kort Falkenberg (Limpy), Barney Phillips (Wes), Tony Barrett (Tony Feeney), Dick LeGrand (Pop), G. Stanley Jones (Brooks), George Walsh (Narrator)
###
