Suspense: The Case of Henri Vibard (#387)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 2024-04-01

Suspense: 06/08/50, episode 387
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Charles Boyer makes his first appearance on the series in a Bradbury Foote play about a man with no identity but has a bag packed with cash. To complicate matters it was believed that he was murdered two years ago. That little black bag has $200,000 ($2.6 million in US$2024) in cash and can't seem to remember where he got it. He wanders into a rest home with the bag and confesses that he doesn't remember who he is or anything of his past life. Years pass without a clue to his amnesia, without a single friend or relative coming forward to identify him. Then, one day he does get a visitor: a woman convict, accompanied by prison guards. She claims to be his wife, and is serving a life sentence for a murder that he committed!

He tells the story of how he came upon the money (stolen bonds from the USA), killed a man, and then disappeared to avoid detection. Part of his plan was to frame his wife for the crime, but since he looked a lot like the dead man, he would switch clothes, and make it seem that his wife killed him, her husband! The amnesia, of course, is a well-planned stunt and part of the cover-up. He can’t keep it up forever! The story concludes with an unexpected murderous confrontation over the stolen money.

This is definitely not one of the memorable fast-moving Suspense plotlines. It is worth listening to, but it is decidedly average and could almost be on any other mystery series, except for having a big star and the Suspense music.

This is another example of using exaggerated amounts of money to spark the attention of the listening audience. The $200,000 is a massive sum in comparison to the average household income of the time, more than 60x that amount.

Two recordings have survived, with the network broadcast the better of the two. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS #329) that is in very nice sound. The AFRS engineers did not include the traditional opening of the program. The drama begins after an announcement of the title. The network recording is preferred because of its completeness, but neither recording is that much different in quality.

The cast: CHARLES BOYER (Henri Vibard, alias LeClerq), Virginia Gregg (Mary Vibard), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Jack Randall), Bill Johnstone (Dr. Sampson), Dan O’Herlihy (Sergeant Freeman), Ted Osborne (Nate Blackburn)

COMMERCIAL: unknown (Dora), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/04/1950-06-08-case-of-henri-vibard.html