Suspense: 03/22/59, episode 793 Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Marie Windsor stars in a curiously constructed script by Celeste Bollas and William N. Robson. She plays the wife, Mary, part of a love and jealousy triangle. Vic Perrin plays Mark Brady, a writer who believes Mary is being unfaithful. He decides to kill her and her lover by first writing about it in a screenplay. Jason, played by Ben Wright, is the man in the middle of the strange situation.

What makes the story so interesting in its construction is that the first act is told by Mark Brady. The second act is told from the perspective of Mary. The third act is from the perspective of Jason. As the acts pass, we learn more and more about the people, the relationships, and the murder plot. This is one of those productions that are worth making sure listening will not be interrupted or distracted to make sure all of the details are understood as they are revealed.

Act One, as told by Mark, ends with a gunshot, but we don’t know what happened. Act Two, as told by Mary, ends with us learning something about the gun. Act Three, told by Jason, has us understand more about the murder plot, and how the story ends as the script by Mark Brady is finally completed.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, March 11, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:00 pm with recording beginning at 4:30 pm and included in-studio edits. The session ended at 6:00 pm after which production edits continued to 8:00 pm. Music was added at a later time.

It is not clear who Celeste Bollas, co-author of this script, was. It is certain that she was not a scripter by profession because she does not appear in any of the databases where one would find such a practitioner. Nor does she appear in any of the trade publications. Where she does appear, however, is in local theater in the Los Angeles area, notably in productions of the Laguna Beach Playhouse. Her co-authorship with Robson may be from the submission of a story idea and outline that Robson shaped into script format. If all of this is true, she would be another of the series’ “one-hit-wonder” authors whose only radio work was this very production.

This was Marie Windsor’s only Suspense appearance. She was best known for her roles in B-movies and film noir, but she had a very long, varied, and successful career, and even wrote some gags for Jack Benny early in her career.

The cast: MARIE WINDSOR (Mary), Vic Perrin (Mark), Ben Wright (Jason), Sam Pierce (Police Sergeant), George Walsh (Narrator)

Berry Kroeger was originally cast as “Jason,” but was replaced by Ben Wright.

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2025/07/1959-03-22-script-by-mark-brady.html