Leonard Stone stars in a Jay Bennett story about a man with distorted ideas of justice. A close friend of long standing, a publicly respected stock broker, invites himself to the home of the District Attorney for dinner. The DA’s wife cook’s the man’s favorite meal, even though it is on short notice, showing how close the relationship of these men is. After an evening of congeniality, he announces that he is the perpetrator of a vengeful homicide the DA is investigating. He demands that a suspect now being held be prosecuted by the DA. He kills the family cat… and explains that is what can happen to them if he does not get what he wants. He seizes the wife and son as hostages until the innocent man has been framed and sentenced to death. The mother of the framed man has something to say about it in the surprising conclusion.
This story is adapted and revised from a script for Alfred Hitchcock Presents by Bennett and Sarett Tobias, My Brother, Richard that was broadcast on 1957-01-20. Bennett was the writer of Grand Central Station’s famous holiday story Miracle for Christmas. He also wrote for Bulldog Drummond, The Falcon, The Kate Smith Show, and others. He was wrote many television plays for many series in the 1950s. In his later career, Bennett wrote juvenile mystery novels and won two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America in the 1970s.
The program was recorded on Tuesday, January 19, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.
Two recordings have survived. The network recording is a WROW aircheck and is very listenable. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#770) has cleaner sound and is the preferred one of the two.
The title on the script is “Turn About,” in two words. It was in newspapers as “Turnabout,” indicating that CBS publicity had the incorrect title.
Leonard Stone was appearing on Broadway and doing television work at the time of this broadcast. Through the 1960s and 1970s he was one of those very busy actors who was in numerous productions but no one in the public really knew who he was. He was one of those actors who is in the category of “It’s that guy… who was in that thing…” This episode was his only documented radio performance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Stone
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https://archive.org/details/TSP600124
THE CAST
Leonard Stone (Walter Carlton), Neil Fitzgerald (Robert), Raymond Edward Johnson (Judge), Larry Haines (Cobb), Katharine Emmet (Mother Swenson), Ginger Jones (Emily Ross), Peter Lazer (Billy Ross), Melville Ruick (Martin Ross), Frank Milano (cat)
Roles of Robert Donley (Swenson), Arthur Hughes (Clerk) were cut from the script or deleted from the recording in editing in preparation for broadcast.
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