Suspense - The Visitor (#90)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 2023-04-07

Suspense - 05/11/44, episode 90
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Eddie Bracken stars in an adaptation of a best-selling novel about a man, presumed dead by drowning three years earlier, returns to identify his killer. But… is he an imposter?

The authors of the original novel, released in 1944 by Dell, were husband and wife Carl Randau & Leane Zugsmith. It was adapted for Suspense by Robert Richards. Randau was a newspaper reporter and playwright. Zugsmith was a long-time author and political activist. The Visitor became a Broadway play in the Fall of 1944, lasting only 23 performances. Considered a flop, the movie rights were sold for $150,000, a surprising sum. That is more than $2 million in US$2023 terms. A movie was never made.

The east and west recordings have survived, with the east being the better of the two. The west recording sound like there was some disc damage that is difficult to compensate for without negatively affecting listenability.

The cast: EDDIE BRACKEN (Bud Owen), Ken Christy (Mac Berle), Hans Conried (Joe / Al), John McIntire (David Cunningham), Jeanette Nolan? (Judith Cunningham / Mrs. Callahan), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / Dr. Sterling), unknown (Ellen)

For more information, visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/04/1944-05-11-visitor.html