Suspense - Win, Place and Murder (#241)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 2023-09-30

Suspense: 04/24/47, episode 241
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Richard Conte makes his second and final appearance on Suspense. He plays a detective with a gambling problem. His character has his office across the hall from a woman detective in her own practice. There’s a bit of flirty interplay between them throughout. He calls his bookie and finds out that he’s dead. The bookie’s collection man comes to his office and wants to find the shooter of his boss, another gangster in town. It just so happens that man is across the hall in the her office! The script is a lot of fun with funny gangster and gambler dialogue, and the talking is at a more rapid pace than most episodes. 

The program has similarities in timing and style as The Walls Came Tumbling Down and the recent Three Faces at Midnight. 

The story is by Emile Tepperman, whose radio career is better known for Inner Sanctum. There’s more to his story. He was a prolific writer for the pulps in the 1930s for titles such as The Spider, Operator #5, Secret Agent “X”, and others. He also wrote under some pulp publisher “house names,” including short stories as “Kenneth Robeson.”

What’s a little more interesting is that the story was adapted by 29-year-old Richard Breen. This is the first of two adaptations by him. He received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for the 1948 film A Foreign Affair and won a screenplay Oscar for the 1953 Titanic. 

Both east and west recordings have survived. The east recording includes the tease to stay tuned for The FBI in Peace and War. The west recording is the better of the two.

The cast:
RICHARD CONTE (Chris Draper), Cathy Lewis (Laura Lee), Wally Maher (Mike Farrago), Hans Conried (Pilsen), Sidney Miller (Lieutenant Herbie Knapp), Dick Ryan (Policeman), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice), unknown (Receptionist), unknown (Pilsen’s secretary)

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/09/1947-04-24-win-place-and-murder.html