The basic setup: A wanted gangster, traveling on an ocean liner under an assumed name, blackmails a doctor into aiding with an unusual escape plan.
1949-08-21 "Confession"
Produced by George W. Allen, directed by Sterling Tracy
Story by Joel Malone and Adrian Gendot
Whistler: Bill Forman
Announcer: Marvin Miller
Cast (credited): Ira Grossel [aka Jeff Chandler], Herb Butterfield
Cast (ear): Larry Dobkin (as Saliti and James Rourke), Wilms Herbert (as McHale and the second steward)
story reused as 1954-10-17 "Last Request"
Produced by Joel Malone, directed by Sterling Tracy
Story by Brian Thorne
Whistler: Bill Forman
Cast: Lawrence Dobkin, Herb Butterfield, Jean Tatum, Jack Moyles, Paul Dubov
The story: Old Dr. Rourke, lying on his deathbed, wants to be alone with his son, young Dr. James Rourke. There's something he has to clear up. It isn't really his own story, but that of one Tony Delgano, former Public Enemy Number One.
Tony Delgano embarks from San Francisco with a new passport under a new name. He's ready to enjoy a new life free of the police as David Delmas, especially after he hits it off with fellow passenger Sharon Phillips at a cocktail party on board. Sharon introduces "Mr. Delmas" to a friend of hers, Dr. Rourke.
Rourke recognizes Tony, but Tony reminds Rourke that he can mess up Rourke's life too. Rourke once fixed up Tony's shoulder after a "hunting accident," and didn't find out until later that it had been a bank job. Rourke's son is also a doctor. How would young Dr. Rourke's associates feel if it came out that his father had helped a criminal and never said anything? Tony is sure Rourke will keep his secret and do whatever he says.
Some days later, a ship's steward interrupts a romantic moment between Tony and Sharon. The steward tells Tony he recognizes him, and hands him a radiogram addressed to David Delmas, warning that he's been betrayed and can expect a police reception in Australia. But the steward has a plan. He's seen Tony talking to Rourke, and he knows that Rourke is escorting a friend to his final resting place—said friend's body being in a casket in the hold. Well, what's to stop Tony from taking the place of Rourke's quiet friend, and getting ashore that way? And in exchange for the steward's help, Tony can smuggle some diamonds into the country for him. After thinking it over, Tony agrees to the plan, and the steward brings him the package of diamonds.
Tony opens the package and finds a handful of dime-store glass. The steward planned to hide Tony from the police only to lead them to him and collect the reward. Tony throws the steward overboard. He kind of hated to do it, he tells Rourke the next morning, especially after he gave him that bright idea. Rourke is horrified at the plan, but Tony reminds him that he can make things difficult for Rourke's son.
The day before the ship is to dock, there's been a radiogram from the San Francisco police, and a ship's officer comes to arrest Tony. Tony knocks the officer down, flees, and hides out in Dr. Rourke's room. They've got to do it now, he tells Rourke. Rourke tries to protest, but Tony insists, and Rourke gives in.
The twist: As old Dr. Rourke's story draws to a close, young Dr. Rourke is shocked that his father let Tony Delgano get away. But Tony Delgano didn't get away. He took the place of Rourke's friend in the casket, but what he didn't know was that Rourke's friend had requested a burial at sea.
Personnel notes: "Confession" is attributed to Joel Malone and Adrian Gendot, and "Last Request" is attributed to Brian Thorne. The story was used again on the Whistler TV program in 1955 as "Favor for a Friend," which IMDb attributes to Joel Malone. I don't find any mention in historical periodicals of a radio writer named Brian Thorne, and I assume it's a pseudonym—I'm not sure why Malone and his collaborators would use a pseudonym, or why only sometimes. The Whistler story "A Woman's Privilege" was attributed to Brian Thorne on the 1947-02-17 Signal and 1947-03-12 HFC broadcasts, but to Joel Malone and Harold Swanton on the 1949-10-02 and 1955-06-09 broadcasts. Brian Thorne is also given as the writer of the Whistler episodes 1947-02-10 "Safety in Numbers" and 1947-04-14 "Maid of Honor" (neither of which has any striking similarities to other surviving episodes); there are no other known radio credits associated with the name.
 |
The name "Brian Thorne," as spelled in the "Safety in Numbers" script |
Larry Dobkin, who plays Tony in "Last Request," can be heard as Saliti and young Dr. Rourke in "Confession"—his first of over 40 Whistler episodes. His calling Herb Butterfield "Dad" in the last scene sounds just like old times: Dobkin played the title role in Ellery Queen from February 1947 to April 1948, and Butterfield took over the role of Inspector Richard Queen when the show moved from New York to Hollywood in late November of '47.
Comparison: There are only minor changes to the script between the two productions of this story. Personally, I'm biased towards "Last Request" because I'm a huge Larry Dobkin fan—but I do think the Tony Delgano character is legitimately more interesting in the later episode!
For instance, the last scene of the second act has exactly the same narration and essentially the same dialogue in both episodes. In "Confession," we know Tony's had a few—but in "Last Request" he actually sounds tipsy, and then he gets a little unhinged on his last line. There's a sense of his anxiety at the prospect of being shut up in a casket in the hold, which doesn't seem to be there in "Confession."
Another improvement: the script for "Last Request" adds some additional casual remarks to Tony's dialogue during the scene where he tells Rourke the plan over breakfast ("How do they keep the toast warm all the way to the cabin?"), really playing up the contrast between Rourke's agitation and Tony's cool assurance.
Other differences include:
- In "Confession," two of Tony's henchmen see him off at the dock. McHale has fixed up the passport, and it's McHale who sends the radiogram warning about Saliti's singing. In "Last Request," only Saliti sees him off, and McHale's lines explaining Tony's new name are given to Tony instead; we don't know who sends the warning.
- "Confession" ends with the line: "... That my friend had chosen as his final resting place a burial at sea, somewhere near Australia." In "Last Request," the line ends with the words at sea. It's more dramatic, although maybe less informative.
Narration and point of view: The narration of "Confession"/"Last Request" is a little unusual, in an inconspicuous way. By about 1946–47, the narration on the Signal Whistler program has found a fairly consistent pattern. The Whistler opens a typical episode with narration in the third person past tense, the default for storytelling in English. Before long he shifts into second person present tense and addresses his narration to one character throughout the episode; he may switch back to third person for the last act, if the main character has died.
In "Confession"/"Last Request", the Whistler opens the narrative in third person past tense as usual, and does not address any character in the first scene. As Dr. Rourke begins his story, the Whistler sets the scene of the flashback in third person past tense, and then shifts to addressing Tony in the present tense. If you think too hard about it, it's a little odd that, while Rourke is telling his story in the frame story, the Whistler narrates the same story from a different point of view, including information that Rourke had no way of knowing.
While I can't think of any other surviving Whistler episode with one character telling another character's story like in "Confession"/"Last Request", there are other flashback episodes where the Whistler's narration speaks in present tense to a character who is already dead at the time of the first scene. 1947-03-10/1951-06-24 "The Murder of Byron Blake" (Gene Fromherz) and 1948-10-24/1955-04-07 "Search for an Unknown" (Gendot) both have opening scenes with major supporting characters remembering how the main character met his doom. 1947-02-17/1949-10-02/1955-06-09 "A Woman's Privilege" (Malone/Swanton), 1950-03-12 "Strange Meeting" (Malone), and 1949-05-22/1954-01-10 "Fatal Fraud" (Gendot) all open in police stations, without any important characters heard, and flash back to the circumstances leading up to the crime.
(In the early years of The Whistler, the narration is much more varied, and occasionally downright strange—but that's a whole other discussion.)
Caveat: 1943-01-31 "The Confession" is a story by J. Donald Wilson about a lawyer's daughter getting involved with a bad guy;
1946-07-08 "Confession" is a story by Fred Hegelund and Harold Swanton about a terminally ill man falsely confessing to a murder;
and 1949-08-21 "Confession," also announced without the article, is this story by Malone and Gendot about a doctor and a gangster on a ship.
