I know, you probably find it hard to believe even Michael Douglas was once young, yet I swear, it's true.
In the February 9, 1950 episode of Suspense - "The Butcher's Wife" - Douglas played a young supermarket clerk who fools around with another man's wife. The butcher's wife, as the title indicates. This proves fatal for more than one person! You may download the episode from archive.org here.
The highlight of the episode comes in the carefully constructed climax, the explosion of the slow-burn relationship dynamics. Douglas is ultimately caught in the supermarket after hours with the knife-wielding butcher pursuing him. This is radio at it's best - the simple sound effects do an excellent job of cranking up the terror so that when the grisly moments arrive it all seems inevitable. Perhaps we're all a little wiser about fooling around with butcher's wives now.
The script reappeared as "Never Steal a Butcher's Wife" on August 19, 1954 & December 29, 1957, but I prefer the Douglas performance.
Tomorrow: "Remember, I pick them old enough to have families, dignified jobs. Would they want to admit to chasing bobbysoxers?"
On some level, this is a pretty simplistic show, and at first I was rolling my eyes thinking we were getting one of those "perfect murder" type episodes. But the use of audio is great (the butcher's whistling, for one) and the ending is wonderfully ghoulish and suspenseful. Douglas is also great--he's kind of a jerk but he's not a complete sociopath and he doesn't think he's a jerk.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteYeah, the climax of this episode is quite something - one of the most violent Suspense plays ever told. The sound effect of the knife is also very memorable.