Joan Lorring plays a troubled wife on an ocean liner trip. Her husband is acting in a manner to have her declared insane, commit suicide, or to create a circumstance where he can kill her, have it appear to be an accidental. The superb and complex story is by Frances Rickett. There are many details that require close listening to get the full context of the story. The script could easily fit into the glory years of the series.
Lorring’s character is Louise Meredith, who boards an ocean liner bound from Southampton to New York with her husband, Larry. It’s clear that something is just not right. Just three months before she was on that very same ship, staffed with the very same crew members, that transported her to to England. It is implied that the first journey was for rest or treatment for psychological challenges. She had a nervous breakdown on that crossing and she remains greatly embarrassed by it. That feeling is intensified by her husband selecting the very same ship for the return home. He claims it was the only available itinerary, but as we learn more about Larry, it was part of a plan to help push her over the edge into a mania once more. He seems desperate to rid himself of her.
One of her quirky behaviors is that she speaks French when others are not expecting it, and then denying that she did it. This befuddles others as it can happen in mid-conversation. “Code-switching” is common and harmless among multilingual speakers, but her denial of it in the story indicates something deeper is going on. (Joan Lorring may have been selected for this role because it seems she has great fluency in French). Louise begins to suspect that Larry is purposely stressing her to spark this odd behavior, even by having an attendant speak French to her, believing it would force her into French again. He reiterates to others that she is still ill but getting better. She realizes, however, that he would not be able to take her on the trip if doctors had not sent a letter that she was well again and approved her release. She frantically searches for that letter, but Larry interrupts her before she can find it.
At about 15:45 there is an important scene. Louise brought a beach bag on the trip that she seemed to misplace. Larry asks her about it. When she sees it on deck, she rushes toward it. Larry shouts “stay away from that rail” for her to get back from an unsecured railing. Louise realizes that he set up that public incident on purpose. Larry must have placed the bag there, making it appear she was attempting to jump overboard, confirmed by some of the background passenger chatter at the time. Larry saved her, in the eyes of the passengers, which was exactly what he wanted.
The next evening, she brings Larry to a quiet part of the ship, and she reveals that she knows what he did and why he was doing it. Larry tries to throw her overboard, shouting for all to hear “Don’t jump, Louise!” The both go overboard. It is clear that the ship’s crew rescued her, and Larry was never found. It is in her closing monologue that we learn surprising facts that put that incident in different perspective. We learn who the “witness to murder” really is.
Frances Rickett was a TV soap opera writer, but also a mystery novelist. At this time, she may have been in the early stages of writing her first novel, The Prowler. It became a finalist in the 1964 Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Awards for “Best First Novel.” She would later have two scripts presented on ABC Radio’s Theatre 5 series. Though she did not write many novels, her work was highly regarded. One of her novels was based on events that occurred in her home town in Indiana. There were events planned around book signing and a reading, but they were cancelled because certain people realized a main character was based on an elected official who was still in office. The portrayal, though fictionalized, was not flattering, to put it mildly. One of her earliest scripts was for a 1948 episode of Family Theater.
No script cover for this episode is available. The recording date and time are not known.
There are two surviving recordings. The network aircheck is in very listenable sound and is better than most of the recordings that have circulated for decades. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#853) is the better of the two.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611022
THE CAST
Joan Lorring (Louise Meredith), Leon Janney (Larry Meredith), Bryna Raeburn (Mrs. Blake), Mercer McLeod (Ship’s Doctor), Guy Repp (The Man), Bob Dryden (Captain Woodbridge), Ronald Dawson (Ship’s Steward)
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