Monday, September 24, 2007

Multiple Personalities - David & Ann Smith

You've all watched Hitchcock's Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and listened to the radio presentation I posted here a bit back. I recently found three more presentations of the story:

Gulf Screen Guild Theater - February 8, 1942 (10 MB - MP3)
Errol Flynn and Lana Turner

The Lady Astor Screen Guild Theater - December 14, 1942 (14 MB - MP3)

Robert Young, Joan Bennett, and Ralph Bellamy

The Lady Astor Screen Guild Theater - January 2, 1945 (13.5 MB - MP3)
Preston Foster and Louise Allbritton


All three offer the same version of the Screen Guild Theater script, just with different players. Two of the three presentations offer a celebrity voice, which I will not mention here, but is fall-off-the-chair funny when you hear him.

I'm partial to the Robert Young version, for obvious reasons, plus Ralph Bellamy as Jeff Custer is a perfect match. Errol Flynn as David...nope, doesn't cut it.

You may not want to listen to all three in one sitting - you'll end up with odd dreams of David (or Ann).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I'm going to get a kick out of these - thanks so much these!

Errol as David? I find it highly amusing, heh

VP81955 said...

Given the Feb. 8, 1942 date, one wonders if this first airing wasn't designed as sort of a tribute to Carole Lombard, who had died in a plane crash on Jan. 16 returning from a war bond rally in Indianapolis. The irony is that it stars Lana Turner, and some allege Lombard wanted to return home quickly after the rally because she was fearful Clark Gable was having an affair with Turner at the time (they were filming "Somewhere I'll Find You").

In January 1943, Screen Guild did a version of "To Be Or Not To Be" with William Powell and wife Diana Lewis, presumably as a tribute to Lombard on the first anniversary of her death. (Perhaps because of its darkly comic aspects, "To Be Or Not To Be" was never adapted for Lux Radio Theater.)