Rita Lloyd stars in the second Suspense broadcast of an E. Jack Neuman script that was first used for On Stage in 1953. A beautiful woman is accused of murdering her husband and a (supposedly) bright, young assistant district attorney forces his way into the case. He thinks her conviction will assure his election as district attorney. He is smitten by her, and his professional sense erodes as she knows how to get what she wants from him. He offers a strange concoction of a plea deal that may actually be a ploy for a confession. Who is manipulating whom?
Cathy Lewis starred in the 1958 production with John Dehner. Resources about the story and its production can be found at
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2025/06/1958-11-30-statement-of-fact.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP581130 is where recordings can be downloaded and streamed.
Rita Lloyd and Mason Adams work well together, and some consider this to be a better overall production that the 1958 one. The same introduction that William N. Robson used in that broadcast is read by Stuart Metz for this 1960 one. It is interesting that the same words read by Robson, an unpolished but knowledgeable narrator reading his own words, compares with the very polished Metz. Same words, different listening experience. Robson’s is personal, Metz’ is arms-length, and both are well-done.
The program was recorded on Thursday, September 15, 1960. Rehearsal began at 4:30pm and ended at 8:00pm. Recording was from 8:00pm to 8:30pm. Ira Ashley directed, substituting for Paul Roberts.
The only surviving recording of this episode is a heavily edited network aircheck, but it is in low quality sound with encoding defects. It is possible this is from an Armed Forces Radio Service aircheck or from a disc transfer from years ago that was heavily edited.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600918
THE CAST
Rita Lloyd (Ellen Dudley), Mason Adams (Christian), Hal Burdick (Coroner / Thayler), Lawson Zerbe (John), Jack Arthur (Morrow)
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