Suspense - Easy Money (#217)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 29/08/2023

Suspense: 11/07/46, episode 217
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Jack Carson plays a down-on-his-luck pianist who spurns the marriage desires of his long-term girlfriend. He finally admits he’s married but separated from his wife for 14 years. He has not seen her during that time. He promises to ask his “ex” for a divorce when he learns that she is in town. When he visits her, he realizes his wife is not well and suffering from paranoia. It’s so bad that she feeds her pet macaw samples from her meals to be sure she is not being poisoned. To make a long story short, the wife dies from poisoning by his tampering with her medicine. Her doctor is blamed for the crime. For $50,000 ($700,000+ in US$2023), he will offer a different explanation for the crime that exonerates the doctor, and himself. The doctor’s lawyer quietly pays him, he offers his explanation to the police, and the pianist and his girlfriend head to California, confident of a happy new life together, finally free to marry. This is Suspense, so you just know that this can’t work. The law… and the macaw, follow him to California.

The script is by Sidney Renthal. He was a Chicago-based scripter who wrote for The Whistler, First Nighter, and other series.

East and west network broadcasts of the episode have survived. The recordings can be differentiated by the tease for The FBI in Peace and War at the end of the east broadcast. The west broadcast is the better of the two.

This is comedian Jack Carson’s first appearance on Suspense.

The cast: JACK CARSON (Paul Bentley), Cathy Lewis (Ellen), Wally Maher (Harrison / Paperboy), Paul Frees (Macaw / Martin / 2nd Paperboy / Cop), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / McNulty / 2nd Cop), Betty Lou Gerson (Martha), Ted Von Eltz? (Robert the butler)

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/08/1946-11-07-easy-money.html