Karl Swenson plays twins in a Harold Swanton story where one brother, Tommy Jardine, is a criminal about to be executed in the electric chair. The scandal of his brother’s crime forced him to change his name to Mark “Heston.” Swanton was known for his work on The Whistler radio and television series. This story has all the elements to fit the format of that "surprise ending" series well. Mark decides to visit his brother and to see his girlfriend, Jackie, first. They spent time together at a restaurant. She comments that Mark is starting to look more like Tommy. In fact, Tommy’s picture was on the front page of newspapers, and Mark could easily be mistaken for him. What is the “five buck tip”? It is $55 in US$2025 value. He accidentally left that at the restaurant when he intended to leave only $1. In the end, listeners are told, it was a wise investment.
He visits his brother, and in the presence of a priest (about whom it is later learned is not the prison chaplain), and a guard, Tommy starts screaming that he is actually Mark and that he is innocent. The chaplain calms things down, and it seems Tommy had done this before. Tommy has some last words for Mark and needs to tie up some loose ends, explaining what to do with the possessions he will leave behind. Mark looks for something to write on, and finds a card. He picks it up, sees the blank side, but flips it over to see what’s there. It’s a copy of Tommy’s prison record. Key point in the story: the space for Tommy’s fingerprints on his prison record are blank.
Suddenly, there is a scuffle that includes the chaplain and the guard and they subdue Mark, with Tommy cheering them on. It is clear that he planned this and had their help. They give Mark an injection to knock him out. They swap Mark and Tommy’s clothes, and begin to prep Mark for the execution! Mark starts to panic and asks to see the warden. The scene shifts to the warden’s office where Tommy (as Mark) is with a crying Jackie. The drama plays out with everyone still in the prison because the prison is in lockdown, as is the procedure for days when there is an execution. The story continues to a surprising and satisfying end.
Swenson starred in the Hummert series Mr. Chameleon where his character played multiple characters in each episode. In this Suspense episode, playing twins must have been a lot less confusing.
The script was first used on LaRosa Hollywood Theater on 1951-10-30 and starred Barry Sullivan. One of the popular Suspense reference books of quite a few years ago cites that this broadcast used the Inner Sanctum script of 1949-05-02, which is incorrect. That episode, The Deadly Double, was written by Ed Adamson and Robert Sloane. Their plotline is quite different, about a woman who claims to be under a hex. Neither the LaRosa show or the Inner Sanctum are in circulation.
Recorded Friday, February 14, 1958. Rehearsal began at 12:30pm and ended at 3:00pm. At that time, the recording session began, including in-studio edits until 5:00pm. Further edits were done in the production studio from 5:30 to 7:30pm.
No network recording has survived. Ads on this broadcast are noted on the script. They were for Kent, Grove Laboratories, and Ex-Lax. Another slot was allocated closer to broadcast time.
The surviving recording is from the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS#969). It replaces AFRS airchecks that were in circulation that were heavily edited and in poor sound.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or access FLAC or
mp3 recordings
https://archive.org/details/TSP580223
THE CAST
Karl Swenson (Mark Heston & Tommy Jardine), Cathy Lewis (Jackie Cavanagh), Henry Blair (Willie the Hatcheck clerk), Jack Kruschen (Louis the Guard), Jerome Thor (Mike the “Padre”), Ken Christy (Warden), George Walsh (Narrator)
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