Suspense - Love's Lovely Counterfeit (#132)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 28/05/2023

Suspense - 03/08/45, episode 132
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Love’s Lovely Counterfeit was a popular James M. Cain novel about political corruption in a Midwest town. Cain wrote the novel with a sale of movie rights in mind, but studios balked at its theme. They felt that wartime stories should have a more upbeat, patriotic sense of things and not this dark and gritty and sometimes brutal story. The novel was adapted by Robert L. Richards and is the only appearance of Humphrey Bogart on Suspense.

The episode, was promoted as having “murder, politics, and racketeers,” and the “famed tough guy” and “sinister screen star” Bogart. The plotline has a reformed gangster who turns his racket over to the FBI. This starts a variety of encounters and killings that also involve the gangster’s girlfriend. 

This episode is noted as the final appearance of “The Man in Black” voiced by Joe Kearns. His voice would still be heard as series narrator.

The surviving network recording has a time to network ID of 52 seconds and is marked "(52s)." It is not known if the network recording is from the east or west broadcast. The Armed Forces Radio Service is the better sounding recording and is from the missing coast network recording. The AFRS recording also has additional dialogue:

Here are the differences, with times approximate:

Network 4:29 A big guy with muscles and I'm just a little guy...

AFRS at 3:57 A big guy with muscles and…and I’m…I’m just a little guy….

… and…

Network 13:17 …thinking how much dough they got and what big—big shot public enemies they are.

AFRS 10:17 …thinking how much dough they got and what big shot public enemies they are.

And here is the missing dialogue...

Network 15:02

Elliott Lewis: Yeah? And then what do we do, that’s even worse.

Bogart: Oh, no. No, that’d be easy. We’ll be seeing you.

AFRS at 11:42

Elliott Lewis: Yeah? Well then what do we do, that’s even worse.

Bogart: Oh no, that’d be easy. Then we just take him out of here at night and dump him some place.

Lewis: Oh.

Bogart: And if the kid was to die, that’d be one less guy that had to get a cut, wouldn’t it?

Lewis: Huh? Yeah.

Bogart: Well, c’mon, Lefty.

Wally Maher: Yeah, okay.

Bogart: We’ll be seeing you.

The cast: HUMPHREY BOGART (Ben Grace), Lurene Tuttle (June Lyons), Wally Maher (Lefty Gaus), Joe Kearns (Man in Black / District Attorney / Archie), Elliott Lewis (Johnny / Doctor), John McIntire (Justice Department man), Norman Lloyd (Sol Casper)

For more information, visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/05/1945-03-08-loves-lovely-counterfeit.html