Suspense - Three Times Murder (#212)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 24/08/2023

Suspense: 10/03/46, episode 212
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Rita Hayworth stars in her only Suspense appearance. She plays a conniving murderess whose life becomes intertwined with a corrupt money-grubbing lawyer.

It all starts when Hayworth’s character is found not guilty of her husband’s murder. The assistant district attorney did his best to convict her of the bathtub electrocution but failed to do so. He tried to get her to admit she did it by agreeing to throw the trial if she gave him half of the $100,000 inheritance (almost $1.5 million in US$2023!). At this point in the story, the listener is likely on the side of Hayworth’s character as a victim of an accident and a corrupt prosecutor. That sympathy won’t last for long. After being found not guilty, she admits to the attorney that she killed him.

The young murderess widow moves to another town and remarries an older man. Time passes, and “it just so happens” that his half-brother shows up one day… and he’s the lawyer who failed to convict her… and knows the truth. If you smell the aroma of blackmail in the air, you’re right. The story gets more twisted than that. 

Hans Conried is back from the service and is superb as the corrupt attorney. 

The script was by Robert L. Richards and John DeWitt. DeWitt was the scriptwriter for the soap opera David Harum before entering the service.

There are two surviving recordings, a network one that goes directly to network ID (“dirID”) with no indication of broadcast coast, and a low quality Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#175) that is drawn from the missing network broadcast. A marker is as follows, times approximate.

dirID 2:14 “Yes, Robert?” “Laura, where's my electric razor?”

AFRS 1:28 “Yes, Robert?” “Ah, where's my electric razor?”

The network recording is the preferred one for listening.

This is Rita Hayworth’s only appearance on Suspense.

The cast: RITA HAYWORTH (Laura Williams, nee Starling-Morton), Hans Conried (Elmer Garner), Bill Johnstone (Charles Morton), Wally Maher (Robert Williams), Lou Merrill (Radio voice / Jury Foreman), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Judge)

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/08/1946-10-03-three-times-murder.html