NOTE: This is the sixth 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.
The original broadcast of this script on Who Knows? was on November 18, 1940. The script was then used twice. It was first used for the Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar five-part serial of 1956-09-03 to 1956-09-07. The script became a foundation for an excellent and intricate YTJD production. Until the revelations about the Who Knows? series became known, it was once believed that the YTJD script was adapted for this Suspense broadcast. It was not. Johnstone went back to the 1940 Who Knows? script and created this Suspense script from that. Unfortunately, this may be the lowest or near the lowest quality production of the Zirato era. The YTJD serial version is highly recommended listening.
A wealthy patriarch is tired of his nephew’s archaeological pursuits and considers them as frivolous. The nephew defies his uncle to go on an Egyptian expedition and find a lost pharaoh’s tomb. Three months later, a package arrives containing a bone fragment and a letter announcing the nephew’s death. The rich man tries to to discard the bone but is confronted by the museum curator he knows claims the bone carries a deadly curse. The patriarch thinks it’s silly, challenges the curse, so he has a swift and unexplainable death. Of course he does. “Curse” is in the title, isn’t it? Nothing much else matters in the plot. Think of the story as a bad Haunting Hour or Murder at Midnight. Better yet, don’t think of the story at all.
This is not a good episode. Why couldn’t this be one of the missing Suspense episodes so we could think more highly of it?
The program was recorded on Thursday, April 12, 1962. The session began at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:00pm.
The surviving network aircheck recording has slightly clipped opening and closing, and slightly narrow range.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620422
THE CAST
Ian Martin (Turnbull), Mercer MacLeod (Walden), Guy Repp (Doctor), Raymond Edward Johnson (Brackton), John Thomas (Donald)
The original planned cast was for Bernard Lenrow as “Turnbull,” Bob Dryden as “Walden,” and Joe Boland as “Doctor.”
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