Bob Readick stars in a Murray Burnett story about an embezzler, Alec Thompson, who takes his money to a cruise ship, but has to race back to cover up his crime. There’s a problem: when he tries to return, he meets a thief who wants the money. Alec is a not-too-clever bank teller who removes $200,000 in cash from a huge estate (about $2.2 million in US$2025). His plan is to abandon his wife and child, and sail for Europe and a new, exciting life in France with his girl friend, Celia. Just before sailing time he remembers a scrap of paper that he left behind that could be used as evidence against him. It was the calculation of the cost of the cruise tickets. After frantically returning home, having an uncomfortable interaction with his wife, he finally locates the paper. He says goodbye, and heads back to the ship… well, he thinks he has time for a drink at the bar around the corner. Dumb move: a man with a gun tries to hold him up! Now what?
Ira Ashley substituted as director for Paul Roberts for this episode. Ashley was a longtime director of Grand Central Station.
This episode was teased at the end of the prior week’s episode with a different title: “End of the Line.”
Getting on and off a cruise ship was much easier at that time, with very little screening. Today, the identity checks and verification required take a significant amount of time. The speed of Alec’s nefarious logistics, even with the ship’s announced delay, might have been plausible then, but definitely not in modern times.
The program was recorded on Tuesday, June 28, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.
There are two surviving recordings. The network aircheck from WROW has narrow range and some static. There may have been some active storms in the Albany, New York area during recording. The preferred recording is Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS#792) which has less noise, but also has narrow range.
Burnett and Joan Alison wrote the play Everybody Comes to Rick’s that eventually became the classic movie Casablanca. Burnett wrote seven scripts for ABC Radio’s Theatre 5 series (1964-1965).
In the cast is "Mary Moore." She is actress Mary Alice Moore who appeared in many New York television productions in the 1950s. In 1973, she married Broderick Crawford.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP600703
THE CAST
Robert Readick (Alec), Joseph Julian (Hank), Rita Lloyd (Celia), Mary Moore (Helen), Dan Ocko (Man), Alan Manson (Voice 1)
The cast was changed before the recording session. Joe Julian replaced Alan Mason as “Hank,” the bank guard, and Alan Manson replaced Bill Mason as “Voice 1.”
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