This episode of "Suspense" suffers from all the worst failings of the show and the live-television format without having any of the positive qualities. The exigencies of live television made for some supercharged drama, but also left the gate open for mistakes, technical problems, and the occasional disaster. This one has a surfeit of all those, along with some pretty bad performances, some of them from people of actual talent. I'm a huge fan of George Reeves, but this may be the worst performance of his I've ever seen. He fumbles lines, over-dramatizes, does a "New Orleans" accent right out of a minstrel show, and perpetrates a completely phony stage drunk, surpassed in awfulness only by the drunk act of an unbilled fellow in a tuxedo. Most of the other actors are too big in their performances, but a few, Susan Douglas in particular, are well-modulated in their work. The script is an absolute mishmash, with emotional conflicts set up between the friends that are never resolved and a plot that takes half the episode just to make itself even vaguely understandable. Sound effects are off and dialog is sometimes unintelligible.
"Suspense" should not be judged by the standards of modern television, of course. It was an inexpensive and rapidly staged, under-rehearsed show, like much of live television, and errors and glitches were unavoidable. This episode, though, highlights many more of the problems of the era and none of the grandeur.
"Suspense" should not be judged by the standards of modern television, of course. It was an inexpensive and rapidly staged, under-rehearsed show, like much of live television, and errors and glitches were unavoidable. This episode, though, highlights many more of the problems of the era and none of the grandeur.