AustLit

'A story vastly different from the nursery rhyme when a partner of a publishing business converts the other's private and commercial life.'

Source: '2UW NEWS SHEET', The St George Call, 30 Jun. 1950, p. 10.

Little is known of the details of this radio play.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

Described as a 'story of two people who try to find a short cut to security through murder.'

Source: 'Tonight's Radio Plays', Sun, 19 September 1950, p.23.

Described as the story of a man who plans a perfect murder.

Source: 'British Change Tipped', Sun, 10 October 1950, p.29.

'Set in Vienna, this is the confession of a psychiatrist, and the story of a man who had returned from the grave. Karl Darosch had to all medical accounts been actually dead for four minutes during an operation, and when he recovered was hounded by publicity men and religious organisations for statements of what he had experienced "beyond the border". However, Karl could remember nothing; but he found that he now had a new and extraordinary power which enabled him to see the future—a power that led him again to the grave, but this time he was never to return.'

Source: 'Commercial Radio Plays for Next Week', ABC Weekly, 14 October 1950, p.27.

'This is the story of Oliver Littlefield, a prim little suburban husband and keen gardener, who suddenly finds 17 years in the same subservient job and so many years of nagging routine marriage too much for him. Oliver begins taking drugs which provide temporary relief for his troubles, and at the same time develop a desire [sic] in this meek little man for a pretty girl in his office. This leads to the loss of his job, and an attempt to plan the perfect murder ... of his wife! Having given her poison he is overcome with remorse and the seconds tick by, and he attempts to resuscitate the corpse. Too late he realises she is dead, and he faces the charge of murder.'

Source: 'Commercial Radio Plays for This Week', ABC Weekly, 21 October 1950, p.27.

'This page from the life of a "drive-in" girl—a waitress in the American roadside cafes who serves the customers as they sit in their cars—reveals the twisted mind of an unnamed man. At midnight he came in his car for food, and there was blood on the window ledge; blood which the girl saw and which led to her being kidnapped and spending a night of terror with a maniac on the heights overlooking Los Angeles.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 28 October 1950, p.27.

'Doctor Broneau, of Paris, proposes an experiment—to prove that there are five major restraints to stop normal people from committing murder. His colleague, Doctor Mosher, although opposed to the idea of the experiment, receives information on each step during the experiment, when Doctor Broneau offers himself as the prospective victim to five people, all of whom have good reasons for killing him.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 4 November 1950, p.27.

'In a duplex house in a London suburb, two young couples live, and the front doors of their homes are identical. One of the couples is new to the district, and one night the husband of this couple arrives home to a darkened house. He has some doubts about which is his door, and enters to a macabre scene. Two ghouls had been paid to kill a wife. Their job done, the murderers hold the new tenant for blackmail with the threat of death. The final suspenseful scene is played out on the docks of the Liverpool waterfront.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 11 November 1950, p.27.

'DONOVAN was an elderly successful businessman from the north of England. He had a pretty young wife, and Charles Ross was his private secretary. A grim atmosphere brooded over the three as Charles plotted and schemed for wealth, power, even love—but the first taste of power destroyed love. There could be more wealth and power if two persons were removed. But for one thing—a letter—Charles Ross would have won all and destroyed all.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 18 November 1950, p.27.

'When Phillip Gentry made his daring escape from gaol and met up with the Reverend Howard Pierce, it seemed that luck was on his side. He had no thought of murder in his mind, but circumstances drove him to kill—and then step into another man's shoes. Living another man's life—preaching a gospel in which he had no faith—Gentry found time to plan another future for himself—but suddenly fate, in the person of the lovely Lucy, stepped in and brought Phillip Gentry's story to an unexpected and surprising end.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 25 November 1950, p.27/

'Charles Draper, private detective and gambler, is infuriated by the efforts of wealthy Laura Lee—who obviously carried a torch for him—to become a private detective herself. A bookmaker is murdered, and Draper is horrified to find the suspected murderer in Laura's office. Briskly moving through metropolitan New York, Draper, in a race against death, brings about a dramatic climax in his own office, putting Laura Lee in her place.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 2 December 1950, p.27.

'Henry Gilford was leading a quiet life until the day the beautiful blonde drove into the garage where he worked and bought some petrol. Next night she came back, and the night after that, until Henry asked her to go dancing. But to go dancing at a night-club proved bigger adventure than Henry had bargained for. It led the quiet and inoffensive man to the gallows and placed a rope around his neck for a murder he didn't commit. How he was saved from certain death is told in this'.

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 9 December 1950, p.27.

'George Perry was a brilliant lawyer, a popular man, and somehow George always seemed to get what his partner, Sam Boston, wanted. First there was Alice—who fell in love with George—Alice whom Sam loved. And then there was the job as District Attorney; Sam wanted that too, but it looked as though George would get it. And so Sam hated George and made a plan—a plan that would give him George's job and George's girl. His plan succeeded, but just as everything was going Sam's way fate stepped in and Sam met tragedy at the hands of a dead man.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 16 December 1950, p.27.

'Henry Wilson was quite an ordinary man—his replica could be found in any city office—but that was until he was driven mad by jealousy and frustration, and he murdered. It was late one night when there was no one else in the office, except Mr. Dodds, the man who had always supplanted him. The opportunity was perfect, and Henry Wilson took it. It appeared to be a flawless crime: everything went according to plan. But Henry Wilson had reckoned without his conscience. As the net relentlessly closes in on him, the excitement and suspense are guaranteed to satisfy the most ardent thrill-fan.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Everyone at some time or other has experienced the long arm of coincidence. This story treats of such. In mountainous Wales, Evelyn Harris is driving through torrential rain when she is hailed by a would-be hitch-hiker. The hitch-hiker is, in actual fact, an escapee from prison. Evelyn innocently picks up the escapee, who turns out to be a weird enigmatic little Welshman. He, like more other escaped convicts, is intent on revenge. He intends to murder the man who was responsible for his imprisonment. That man is Evelyn's husband. Playing up to him, Evelyn spins a web of intrigue, leading to a horrifying and unexpected climax.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 30 December 1950, p.27.

'For years it had stood—unfinished—that little cottage in the Montbleu Woods. Then the workmen had arrived, had made a curious find of a box containing some papers, hidden high up on a beam. Pierre, whose duty it was to rent the house, read the scrawling writing on the papers relating the curious story of Jean and Yvonne, who had rented the cottage and who had heard the mysterious cry in the night. They had come under a strange and unearthly spell, and found tragedy and death. Pierre was worried. He consulted his friend, Luek, of the French Surete.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 6 January 1951, p.27.

'For years George Mason had been waiting for a man to die—waiting for an inheritance. George knew that his Uncle Bert intended leaving him all his money, and, much as he disliked his Uncle Bert, George was content to play the dutiful nephew and to wait patiently for the fifty thousand dollars. But one thing worried George—according to Californian laws, all moneys accumulated or earned after marriage belong equally to man and wife, and George didn't want to share his fifty thousand dollars with anyone, least of all his wife, Lois. So he set about persuading Lois to divorce him. But things didn't turn out as George expected. He suddenly found that he had to act quickly, and he found himself contemplating murder!'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 13 January 1951, p.27.

'Paul Bentley was convinced that Agnes, the famous author, was mad and suffering from delusions, when he saw her give one of her sleeping tablets to her pet macaw. He knew then that he could not kill her—that she suspected everyone of trying to kill her, and for that reason no one could ever kill her without entangling with the law. This made Paul Bentley revise his scheme. Accordingly, when he read in the newspapers that she had died from poisoning, he was convinced that she had committed suicide. He was confident that the poisoned pills he had left for her had not been the cause of her death. At last Paul felt safe and happy, and then one day he had a mysterious visitor—a man who brought him a macaw, a big green bird that was to avenge the death of his mistress.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 20 January 1951, p.27.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

'MICHAEL DAWSON, a psychopath, failed to comprehend life. Marrying a beautiful woman, he discovered to his horror that she was steeped in an infamy even worse than his own. Circumstance piled upon circumstance until Nemesis threatened him with a fate he had to accept; a fate which led him out of the life he did not fit.'

Source: 'Radio Roundabout', ABC Weekly, 20 October 1951, p.18.

'WHEN Laura’s husband met his death through using a faulty electric razor, only two people knew it was murder. One was Laura— the other was Elmer Garner. Elmer was a young man who liked money, and Laura had plenty now that Robert was dead; but she refused to make a deal with Elmer, and when a jury found her not guilty of her husband’s murder she moved to another city. Elmer was forgotten. But Elmer did not forget her, and fate worked in a strange way to bring them together again. Then stark tragedy entered the lives of three people.'

Source: 'Radio Roundabout', ABC Weekly, 3 November 1951, p.18.

'WHEN Bert Gavin decided to murder his wife, Alice, he planned the perfect alibi. It all seemed so simple ... he could leave his machine so no one would know he had been absent from work. From experience he knew that the regular travellers on the train wouldn’t notice him. It was plain sailing until fate took a hand and Bert found himself desperately trying to break his own alibi or suffer for a murder he did not commit.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 27 October 1951, p.13.

'MARION was Rick’s dream girl. In the years he worked in the islands during the dreadful days after his plane crashed and he was thought to have died, he dreamed of Marion—of their life together when he got back to civilisation. But when he returned he found that his dream girl had married another man for his money. So Ricky planned revenge, and while he plotted with Marion to murder her husband he made other plans—plans to destroy Marion herself. Rick thought they were fool-proof, but things didn’t work out the way he expected, and the story of Marion and Rick had a strange ending.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 3 November 1951, p.13.

'FOR the first time in her life, Jean Marley was happy. Her marriage to Frank Nicholson had offered her a clean break from her past with all its tawdry associations. Then one day she received a phone call from an old acquaintance—part of the life she had wanted to forget. He offered a proposition whose dividends were murder.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 10 November 1951, p. 13.

'DON CLARKE had never thought of murder until he met the beautiful and selfish Burna. He married her only to find she was interested only in his money. Even then he might not have thought of murder, but Burna threatened to cause trouble to Ann, his secretary, and taunted him with the fact that Ann loved him. Then Don Clarke did think of murder. But his plan didn't work out ... because a woman loved him, and because he took a long shot.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 17 November 1951, p. 13.

'LYDIA and Ruth were sisters whose lives differed greatly. For Ruth was happy—in love with her husband, and well satisfied to play nurse to Lydia, crippled and bitter, who nursed in her heart a secret that not even Ruth could guess. For Lydia loved Jonathan, her sister’s husband—loved him and hated her sister. She set out to break up her sister’s marriage, but her attempts ended in tragedy for all of them.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 24 November 1951, p.13.

'WHEN the car crashed over the mountain side a new life opened for Ray Owen, and a new love—for he married the widow of the man who was in that car, took his money and set himself up in business. The business flourished and eventually Owen forgot the crash and the man who had died. He felt secure and peaceful and even happy until that Wednesday afternoon when Clifford Harding walked into his office—back from the dead. Or was it Clifford Harding? Perhaps it was his brother Jack. Fear drove Ray crazy.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 1 December 1951, p.13.

'IT is only a small argument between husband and wife when he wants to go fishing and she wants to go somewhere else. But suddenly Velva is sick of Jim, her husband, of his friends, and her whole married life. Blindly Velva strikes out—sees Jim stumble—sees him fall and then realises that she has killed him. Frightened, she sits down to plan—to think what she must do next —how she can escape the consequences of her action. But all her plans come to nothing. Velva doesn’t escape because of one little thing—and then, too late —she finds out just how foolish she has been.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 8 December 1951, p.13.

'ELLWOOD PARSONS worked in Obermyer’s garage. His mother couldn’t afford to send him to college or to let him do any of the things that most of the boys in the town did. So Elwood went to work with dreams of some day doing something that would make people talk about him. And then suddenly fear struck the little town where Elwood lived. A fiend walked the streets—dealing out death to an old man and a young girl, terrorising the community until every man walked the streets armed. The part Elwood Parsons played in this suspenseful drama of the town’s hunt for a killer is told in this play.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 15 December 1951, p.12.

'Captain Duncan Maclean, played by Edward Howell, is blind—a thing he is often thankful for—because, as he says, eyes are deceptive. Particularly was he thankful when he met beautiful Marcia Fillmore (Margaret Christensen). When the lovely Marcia appeals to him for help, she tells him she is being blackmailed by a former lover and that she fears her husband will murder the blackmailer—Captain Maclean promises to help her. When murder does occur, Captain Maclean is ready to solve the mystery, not only of Walter Crane’s death, but also of an unfortunate "accident" which had happened three years before.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 22 December 1951, p.13.

Little is known of the plot of this radio play.

'A MAN, badly hurt and suffering from loss of memory, stumbled into Scotland Yard one wintry night. He did not even remember his name, so Inspector Scroggs (Jack Raine) called him Terence Drury. For 20 years he lived and worked under that name and became a useful member of the staff. One time he was detailed to investigate the finding of a human skeleton, discovered in a shallow grave in a Devonshire garden. As Drury (Moray Powell) carried out the investigation the dreadful feeling grew upon him that he was in some way implicated in the disappearance of two people. As Terence Drury he continued to do his duty, although it became increasingly clear that he was finally to accuse himself. A surprise denouement merges his past and present life into one.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 5 January 1952.

'TWO orphans, Jimmy (Michael Plant) and Helen (Wendy Playfair), found themselves having to battle with the world when they were barely out of their 'teens. Circumstances separate them and Helen marries, only to find that her husband, Phil Armstrong, is a drug addict. She leaves him and goes to a sea side resort to spend a holiday with Jimmy, who had got himself a job at the shooting gallery on the pier. One evening as he returns home he hears the sound of quarrelling in the flat he and Helen have rented in a block conducted by a Mrs. Gordon (Connie Hobbs). When he enters there is a body lying on the floor. Tension heightens as and Helen try to get rid of the body by placing it on the beach as if it were a man sunbathing. How the situation is resolved and the role of Mrs. Gordon in the business brings this exciting play to a satisfying climax.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABc Weekly, 12 January 1952, p.13.

'HENRY (Edward Finn) called at the chemist’s on the way home and bought some rat poison. His mother in-law (Madge Ryan) mistakes it for sugar and sprinkles it on the bread and butter she has cut for a midnight snack. It so happens that this mother-in law, who lives in the house, has ruined any chance of happiness between Henry and his wife, Mabel (Diana Davidson), and to let her eat the rat poison would have been an easy way out. But Henry loses his nerve and he wrests the bread and butter from her hand. However, when the mother-in law hears the story and realises that she nearly ate poison, she collapses and later dies. Henry, the coward who could dream of murder but could not nerve himself to commit it, is arrested and charged ... with murder. He is on the point of admitting to crime, but last-minute developments clear him.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 19 January 1952, p.13.

'BERTRAM MATHEWS (Howard Craven) was a shoddy piece of theatrical material, unemployed and married to a virago. To keep things going in his San Francisco home he invites the handsome and brainless Longstreet (Malcolm Mealey) to become a boarder, and he himself takes a job as a floor-walker. Then he discovers Longstreet and his wife, Elizabeth (Madi Hedd), about to run away. He suggests that he should fake suicide so they could collect his life insurance money for him, while for their part of the bargain they could retain the house. But Elizabeth double-crosses him about the insurance money. In a quarrel he shoots Longstreet, and the circumstances are such that Elizabeth is arrested and charged with murder. From this point on, Bert, intent on regaining the limelight, attempts to prove that he was responsible for the murder and engineered the whole plot, but nobody believes him and he takes his "curtain call" anonymously.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 26 January 1952, p.13.

'CLARENCE DUNNE (John Tate) was an insignificant and eminently respectable clerk. But there came a day when the calculating of figures in a ledger became an unbearable drudgery. He rebelled, drew £l000 out of the bank, and, abandoning his family, disappeared under the name of Peter Lester. On a train he meets Milly Cobb (Betty Dickson) and her "brother," Eddie (Owen Ainley), a professional gambler, and they fleece the unsuspecting Clarence. Clarence takes odd jobs for a while, then he robs a bank, then decides to return home. When he arrives he finds his wife, Martha (Nancye Stewart), sprawled on the kitchen floor with a knife in her hand and her throat cut. He finds she is still alive and tries to help her. Then his son comes in and the circumstances are such that it looks as if Clarence will be charged with murder if his wife dies. To extricate himself he confesses to the crime he committed in the name of Peter Lester. However, Martha does not die and the confession would seem to have been made in error.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 2 February 1952, p.13.

'At a crowded New York intersection, Ernest Bowers (Ralph Barry) was knocked down. He appeared to be dead and his body was taken to the morgue. In his jacket pocket was a letter stating that he was cataleptic, but the jacket was stolen and sold by a dealer that same afternoon. His wife and doctor could not be reached by telephone, and no one at the morgue knew about his case, so an immediate post mortem was ordered. Had it not been for the persistence of a kindly woman it would have been carried out—and that would have been the end of Ernest Bowers.'

Source: 'For Next Week', ABC Weekly, 9 February 1952, p.13.