NOTE: This is the fourth of eight Suspense episodes that Jack Johnstone submitted to the series under the name “Jack Bundy” or “Jonathan Bundy.” All eight were derived from scripts Johnstone wrote for his 1940-1941 Mutual series, Who Knows? Details about that series can be found at the summary of the episode 1961-08-06 Bells.
Lawson Zerbe stars in a Jack Johnstone episode originally scripted for the Who Knows? broadcast of January 13, 1940. It’s a light story that has a similar plotline and surprise ending gimmick as Banquo’s Chair. A gangster named Feathers Grogan is very upset with one of his “bag men,” Peter Weldon who has stopped collecting money for his loan-sharking operation. Grogan is very superstitious, and makes decisions based on his luck charms such as a lucky horse shoe that hangs on a wall and a rabbits foot that he keeps in his pocket. Since Peter stopped collecting, those charms are failing. Peter wants to return home to Kansas and get out of the racket, which upsets Grogan to the point of killing him. At the opening tease of the broadcast, Weldon is heard telling Grogan that he will regret killing him, and he will haunt him if he does. That sets up an element of the “surprise” ending.
Feathers ends up in custody of the police, but all they have him on is the loansharking charge. They know he killed Weldon, but they can’t prove it. They have to find a way to get him to confess. Peter Weldon’s brother Richard comes to the station, and is a dead ringer for his younger brother, and sounds just like him. The police get the idea of isolating Grogan in a cell and then having Richard say ghostly things over a microphone to work on Grogan’s superstitious mind and drive him into confessing. Of course it works, but police are confused when the ghostly voice cites an incident that only Peter would have known about. They get a call from Richard apologizing for being late and not being able to help them. We knew there’d be a case of the heebie-jeebies! It’s not that big of a surprise that it was Peter’s ghost that returned as he said he would.
No script cover is available. The recording date and time is not known.
The plotline may have much in common Banquo's Chair, but that original short story was written in the late 1920s. The Who Knows? script that was reworked for this episode was broadcast three years prior to the Suspense broadcast.
In Feathers, the title is also the name of a criminal in the story. The name “Feathers” was also used in a prior Suspense episode, 1956-03-20 Gallardo. In that story, it is the name of a love interest of two jealously competitive men.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP620114
THE CAST
Lawson Zerbe (Peter Weldon / Richard Weldon), Bill Mason (Sgt. Brady), Bob Readick (Feathers Grogan), Ian Martin (Captain Nichols), John Thomas (Lt. Gilroy)
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