Frances Farmer makes her only appearance in the series and shares the spotlight with Cathy Lewis in the strange and disturbing George Wells story. It is the third production of the script. It starts out almost as an Inner Sanctum plotline when a woman buys a coffin for someone who’s not dead yet and not ill enough to assume their death is imminent. Then there is a curious interplay of two strange sisters whose needs and desires compete and intertwine. Cathy Lewis portrays the delusional sister who lives in the attic. Frances Farmer plays the nefarious one.
Details about the two previous broadcasts and the script can be found through these resources:
1944 with Agnes Moorehead and Ida Lupino
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1944-02-03-sisters.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP440203 and is where the recordings may be accessed and streamed
1948 with Rosalind Russell and Lurene Tuttle
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/12/1948-12-09-sisters.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP481209 and is where the recordings may be accessed and streamed
The program was recorded on Wednesday, March 19, 1958. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm, and ended at 5:00pm. Recording started at that time and with in-studio edits concluded at 7:00pm. Additional production work was done in a different studio and finished at 9:00pm.
The surviving 1958 recording is a drama-only aircheck and has narrow range. Its origin is not known but is likely from an Armed Forces Network radio station from a 1960s replay of the program. The recording that lacks its proper opening and closing segments. Robson’s opening monologue, however, is available from the original script:
Murder stories have fascinated man ever since Cain slew Abel. Perhaps because we can sublimate our own homicidal tendencies by reveling in how it was done and who done it. All too rarely do we find a murder story that concerns itself with why the deed was done. Such a one you are about to hear. And you are also about to hear the return from retirement of a great actress in her first radio role in many years, as Miss Frances Farmer stars as Lydia with Miss Cathy Lewis as Ellie in “The Sisters” which begins in exactly one minute.
International entertainer and impressionist, and expert on classic radio history, Keith Scott has added his talent to The Suspense Project. For the Suspense episodes that are missing the introductory monologue by William N. Robson, Keith is supplying readings of those openings from the original scripts in the “voice of William N. Robson.” He has been approved by Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera, Walt Disney Company, and Universal Studios, for authorized voicings of many of their most famous cartoon characters. Mr. Scott resides in Australia.
Frances Farmer was a very talented performer who had many hardships in her personal life. She was on stage in the 1930s and had a somewhat successful film career. Problems with mental health issues, and gossip and rumors about them, haunted her career and personal life. By the time she appeared on Suspense, her film career was over, but she was working on television and stage and would continue to do so until her passing away in 1970 at age 56. Details about her life and career and many of the fact or fiction controversies about them are summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Farmer
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP580330
THE CAST
FRANCES FARMER (Lydia), CATHY LEWIS (Ellie), Bill Quinn (Jones), Joe Kearns (Mortician), George Walsh (Narrator)
###
