Suspense: Allan in Wonderland (

Suspense: 10/27/52, episode 483
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project
Cornel Wilde stars in a story by espionage expert Kurt Singer about a Southern lawyer on a brief holiday in New York. His world is turned upside down when he is mistaken for a hired assassin. The “true” story was adapted by Richard Chandlee.
Wilde’s character is on his way home, by train. A woman seems to recognize him at the station and walks up to him, uttering a line from Alice in Wonderland. He thinks it’s a game, and knowing the classic story responds. It’s a chance meeting with a chance outcome, the kind of double-unlikely combination that espionage secrecy relied on. It failed this time. He gets his “orders” to be at a specific location at 7:00 pm. She leaves, and moments later realizes he sees the operative that the woman was supposed to meet. Thinking it’s a game, again, he offers the man some bogus information that the operation has been abandoned and to get out of town. He goes to the police to report the encounter as he thinks he stumbled into a criminal plan and thwarted it, at least temporarily.
Thinking the police are not really interested, he decides to follow through with the appointment that the woman told him about. He is escorted through an underground maze, led by a blind man, who says “Don’t worry, I’ll be your eyes.” That is a metaphor for the entire plotline: he’s stuck and has to rely on others to navigate an unfamiliar situation with an uncertain fate. He can’t waste time worrying, he has to be alert because his life is in danger. He soon realizes that they believe he is the person they have hired to complete an assignment to assassinate the premier and foreign minister of a Balkan republic during their visit to the United Nations. He’s in too deep to back out. He is warned that if he fails in his mission, he will be killed on the spot.
Kurt Singer is credited with the story and Richard Chandlee is identified as adapting it. Singer was a prolific writer and prominent speaker. His experiences as an anti-Nazi activist in Germany and as a spy during WW2, and beyond, provided constant and fertile materials for his future endeavors. He was a writer of espionage fiction and non-fiction and later expanded his writings to include historical and celebrity biographies. This episode is cited as a “true story,” but no particular story was identified. It is likely that Singer had an incident or two in mind when the story was pitched for Suspense and Chandlee used elements of them, and perhaps others, creating a composite result for this very interesting story.
The plot against Balkan politicians was plausible in the contemporary news cycle. There was turmoil in the Peninsula that would not be resolved until 1953 when a new pact was signed.
This is the first story of the season that follows the more foundational Suspense style, a person caught in a worsening circumstance not fully of their own making. The season began with the classic Sorry, Wrong Number which stands alone in its own category, and was followed by three productions with members of “The First Drama Quartette” in historical plotlines. That was followed by the non-traditional but very good and suspenseful How Long is the Night. Then, The Death of Barbara Allen, the third “musical,” was broadcast in the prior week. This makes Allan the first of the more typical Suspense formula productions of the 1952-1953 season, and worth the listen.
The Hungarian-born Wilde fit this story well as he could use his natural speaking voice and pattern to sound like the type of foreign spy characterization the story needed. But… he is cast as a lawyer, with a drawl, from the US South! Yes, Suspense still casts against type.
Larry Thor plays a police lieutenant, a frequent inside-joke in Suspense as that is his role in Lewis’ series Broadway is My Beat as “Lt. Danny Clover.” Charles Calvert is also in this episode, playing an officer. In BIMB, Calvert plays “Sgt. Gino Tartaglia” and is “Officer Healey” in this broadcast. Jack Kruschen played “Sgt. Muggavan” in the series and is “Carlo.” in this episode. It’s clear that Lewis liked the sound of BIMB and wanted to make use of that police procedural sound in this production when the Wilde character was in police presence.
The cast: CORNEL WILDE (Alan), Joe Kearns (Man / Blind Man), Truda Marson (Girl / Nurse), Larry Thor (Lieutenant / Narrator), Charles Calvert (Officer Healey), Clayton Post (Nicholas / Foreman), Edgar Barrier (Boss), Jack Kruschen (Carlo)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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Yes. An interesting storyline with a twist. Thank you.