Monday, October 27, 2014

31 Days of Suspense: "Fugue in C Minor"

We're now into my top 5 favourite episodes of Suspense and it's high time to revisit one of the series' top scribes, Lucille Fletcher!

Before the mustache, he was... a man. I bring you Vincent Price in the June 1, 1944 broadcast of "Fugue in C Minor," a script by Suspense's top playwright Lucille Fletcher. Here, Price actually plays second-fiddle to Ida Lupino. Price plays a widower and pipe organ enthusiast who romances Lupino. Lupino likes him quite a bit, but his children are a couple of creeps off the ol' block, believing their deceased mother to be communicating with them. It ain't just another Bluebeard story, lemme tell ya! Listen and download from archive.org here.

It's those children who make this more than your typical Bluebeardy outing. Those of us who know Price as a horror film star will be suspicious from the start - but this before he'd been typecast. It's those kids you've gotta keep an eye on!

Tomorrow: "And now he's at the first step coming up to your room, and now he's at the second step, and now he's at the third, fourth and fifth step..."

1 comment:

Mike Cheyne said...

Like a number of William Spier episodes, this one falls into a category that I'll describe as "ridiculous on paper, but somehow becomes effective." Like to read a summary of the episode and even as the show begins, it seems pretty silly and unbelievable...yet in the right mood, the episode becomes unbelievably creepy.