Victor Jory stars in a Richard Weil script about a romantic triangle on a South Pacific island. He plays a doctor (Carl) who relocated to this remote and quiet place were he can provide medical care to the inhabitants, and further his research on tropical diseases. His wife (Lisa) is upset with the isolation and misses the busy and active life they had in New York City. Their disagreements have been growing and she wants to leave. After what seems like a happy truce for a brief time, a schooner captain arrives and he captures her attention. She sees his arrival as an opportunity to leave. She becomes attracted to this visitor, Captain Burke. Their mutual attraction develops into a relationship they keep secret. She plans to leave with him, but Burke has a trip to make that will take two or three weeks. He promises to return. The weeks pass, and he returns to pick her up. Her husband comes to reluctantly believe that the best thing to do is to let her go. Then, there is a surprising turn in the plot that has all three of the triangle confront the real nature of their desires, interests, and commitment. The story feels like a soap opera, but the last third has tension that makes it a more gripping endeavor, and worth waiting for.
Richard Weil was a successful screenwriter, mostly in the 1930s and 1940s.
The title plays out several ways. The Biblical commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” is the easy one, with the listener filling in the last word because the first four words are so familiar. But those four words without the fifth refer to a marriage commitment. If one “shalt not commit,” then one is free to do as one chooses, because no vows are exchanged or the vows are just words without intent to fulfill, or those vows are rescinded in some way. It’s a good title because the plotline has elements of all of the possible meanings.
The program was recorded on Thursday, April 4, 1957. Rehearsal started at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:30pm. Recording began at 6:30pm and ended at 7:00pm.
There are two surviving recordings, and the better one is a home recorded aircheck from WGBI in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It has been edited to exclude commercials and some other announcements. Despite its narrow range and some background noise, it is quite listenable. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording that is in much lesser sound. The recording has tape squeal from a poorly stored or poorly transferred tape. It is here only to document that there is an AFRS recording somewhere, and perhaps a better copy of it will be found sometime in the future.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP570414
THE CAST
Victor Jory (Dr. Carl Blair), Ellen Morgan (Lisa), Ben Wright (Lueli), Joe de Santis (Captain Terry Burke), Andy Iona (Taiere), George Walsh (Narrator)
###
