This episode was expected to be the final Suspense broadcast. The series was cancelled along with numerous other programs, including all soap operas. Suspense would return and replace Gunsmoke at the end of June 1961 and conclude on September 30, 1962.
Mandel Kramer plays “Tex,” a fast-talking Texan who meets a man, named “John,” on a train. Tex thinks John is an easy target to convince him to consider a shady proposition to make some big money. He wants him to meet his business partner, Oscar. The scheme starts with John agreeing to pay a fee to get in on the program. He has no cash, but they’ll take his IOU (how nice of them). He starts working in a theater they control and it is pretty clear that it is a cash-skimming operation. Things start to unravel as as John starts playing them all against each other. There’s no trust between them. Johnny walks in on them and he’s told that they’re going to frame him as an accomplice to the previous stooge, Joe, who took money out of the safe. Tex tells Oscar to take them away and make sure they’re killed. Before that can happen, Office O’Connor, who has been hiding, bursts in on the scene and ends it.
It’s a weak story that can get a bit confusing. It would have been sad for the tenure of Suspense to end on such a low note. The story was written by Edna Rae (Ellen McRae, and later known as Ellen Burstyn).
This program was recorded on Friday, November 25, 1960. It was originally scheduled for recording on Friday, November 18, 1960. Rehearsal began at 4:00pm and concluded at 7:30pm. Recording began at that time and was finished at 8:00pm.
A network aircheck recording has survived. It has narrow range but is very listenable. “And now” at the open is slightly clipped to “...now.” Some commercials may have been edited out.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP601127
THE CAST
Mandel Kramer (Tex), William Redfield (John), Larry Haines (Oscar), Rosemary Rice (Marge), Joe Boland (O’Connor), Bob Readick (Joe), Sam Raskyn (Conductor)
The position of “conductor” was not in the original draft of the script.
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